California Policy & Politics This Morning   

Jerry Brown says California’s groundwater management ‘not aggressive enough’ -- Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview aired Sunday that California is not aggressive enough policing use of the state’s groundwater, promising stepped-up oversight in future years. David Siders in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Jerry Brown says Joe Biden should give ‘serious consideration’ to presidential run -- Gov. Jerry Brown said in an interview aired Sunday that Joe Biden should give “very serious consideration” to running for president, while expressing less certainty that Hillary Clinton will become the party’s nominee. David Siders in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Decker: Democratic women seek to regain lost ground in Sacramento -- Women have long enjoyed a key advantage in California's strong Democratic political ecosystem: Sheer numbers. Polling taken before last November's election underscored the obvious: 56% of Democrats were women, clocking men by 12 percentage points. Cathleen Decker in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Democrats’ nightmare scenario: Who’s Plan B if Clinton tanks? -- The Clinton candidacy for the White House, once considered inevitable, is struggling. Her poll numbers have been slipping — and a new CNN/ORC poll showed last week that, for the first time, a majority of Democrats think Vice President Joe Biden should enter the ring. Carla Marinucci in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/23/15

Donald Trump attended big-donor fundraiser last month -- Despite his prior pledge to self-fund his campaign, the billionaire businessman now appears to be embracing big donors. Katy O'Donnell Politico -- 8/23/15

Willie Brown: Fashion tip for Hillary Clinton, and it’s not classified -- Memo to Hillary: The next time you face reporters to talk about your e-mail server, don’t wear a bright-orange outfit. It looked like a jail jumpsuit. The only things missing were handcuffs. Willie L. Brown, Jr. in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/23/15

Americans who took down terrorist were childhood pals -- They were childhood pals on a European jaunt, three young Americans who began the day as tourists and ended it as heroes praised by the presidents of two countries. Christopher Megerian and Zahira Torres in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Pride, relief after childhood friends from Sacramento thwart European train attack -- Sitting in his sunlit living room in Rancho Cordova, exhausted from being up since 2:30 a.m. with reporters from across the globe, Tony Sadler spoke with subdued pride Saturday about his son’s heroics on a train bound from Amsterdam to Paris the previous day. Hudson Sangree, Ed Fletcher and Sammy Caiola in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Brother of U.S. serviceman who helped thwart gunman on train says passengers 'lucky' -- Solon Skarlatos almost didn’t answer the phone when it rang Friday morning. It was from an unknown number in Europe. When he picked up, it was his brother Alek Skarlatos, who said he and his childhood friends had stopped a terrorist on a train headed to Paris. Zahira Torres in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Fact check: Ad misleads on gas reduction law -- The California Drivers Alliance, a group funded by the Western States Petroleum Association, is running a radio ad opposing Senate Bill 350, which would require the state to reduce petroleum use in motor vehicles by 50 percent by 2030, among other measures. David Siders in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Walters: California’s high fuel taxes and bad roads -- A cogent – and perhaps unanswerable – question punctuates the political machinations over raising billions of new dollars to repair California’s deteriorating highways. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Morain: An oil fight unlike any other -- In California, Chevron, Tesoro and other oil giants are acting as if the end is near. The grim reaper, as they see it, comes in the person of Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmentalist, and his buddy, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León. Dan Morain in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Compton officials deny improperly inflating pay; D.A. investigation ongoing -- Compton city officials could face criminal charges for paying themselves thousands of dollars a month to sit on commissions that often met for only a few minutes, a top prosecutor in the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. Marisa Gerber and Angel Jennings in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Immigrants become activists during Dream Summer -- Growing up in wealthy Marin County, Yaqueline Rodas didn't know many people like herself: a young immigrant from Guatemala in the country without legal status. She knew even fewer political activists. Kate Linthicum in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

How Edison uses water to store excess power -- Nestled high in the Sierra mountains among the pine and fir trees, a little-known man-made wonder may help resolve a pressing energy concern: how to store wind and sun power that the grid increasingly can't handle. Ivan Penn in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Proposition 47 Gives Former Felons a New Chance -- On a recent morning, Sholanda Jackson dropped off her 8-year-old son at drum lessons before heading into work at an Oakland nonprofit. It sounds like a routine day for a mom — and it is. But for Jackson, it’s also a remarkable turnaround: She spent her 20s addicted to crack and in and out of prison 13 times. Marisa Lagos KQED -- 8/23/15

Rough fire grows to over 47,000 acres; still 3 percent contained -- The owner of the Kings Canyon Lodge, which was reduced to rubble Friday morning by the Rough fire, said Saturday that firefighters did nothing to battle the blaze as it bore down on the 78-year-old lodge. Rory Appleton in the Fresno Bee -- 8/23/15

Shifting explanation of fatal shooting by San Jose police draws criticism -- Richard Jacquez was already suspected of killing one man, had another potential victim beside him in the passenger seat of his car and was presumed to be heavily armed when he noticed he was being tailed by San Jose police. Joseph Serna in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

LAPD denies increase in homeless sweeps; skid row advocates say otherwise -- Ken Gabel said Los Angeles police threatened to arrest him last month if he didn't clear out his skid row camp. So he agreed to walk with an officer to a nearby warehouse where homeless people can store their belongings to sign up for a storage bin. Gale Holland in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Bay Area police releasing details on killings by cops -- In the age of Black Lives Matter, where activists on Twitter quickly can turn quiet streets into organized protests and every person seemingly has a cellphone camera, the pressure on Bay Area police to deliver timely, accurate information after an officer-involved death has never been higher. Mike Blasky, David DeBolt and Robert Salonga in the Oakland Tribune -- 8/23/15

Lopez: At DWP, cracks in more than just the windows -- It used to be that if you worked downtown and wanted to go for a stroll on your lunch break, a good destination was the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, where a concrete apron runs around the headquarters building. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

This L.A. County supervisor had 2 take-home cars, but denied it -- On the Los Angeles County government’s official list of employee take-home vehicles, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas looks very frugal. His assigned car, a 9-year-old Chrysler 300 Limited sedan, cost the county about half as much as the next supervisor’s. But newly released vehicle maintenance records show that Ridley-Thomas, for most of last year, actually had two cars at his disposal. Mike Reicher in the Inland Daily Bulletin -- 8/23/15

Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions    

Airlines upscaling amenities for high-paying fliers -- First-class fliers can secure their furry friends in a special pet cabin on American Airlines. Delta Air Lines' highest-paying passengers are chauffeured in Porsches and dropped curbside at a private entrance at LAX. Hugo Martin in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Drought   

California drought may exacerbate wildlife-human encounters -- The scarcity of food in the wild has been blamed for unusual animal activity during California's drought including a recent bear attack, mountain lion sightings and an uptick in orphaned animals. Fenit Nirappil Associated Press -- 8/23/15

Education 

Kids have their say in design of new SoMa middle school -- In the South of Market, a neighborhood known for innovation and reinvention of industries, a group of educators is aiming to disrupt that most-maligned stage of learning: the dreaded middle school. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 8/23/15

UC Merced expansion delayed by budget cuts, online classes -- A decade has passed since America's newest research university opened amid farmland in central California. And surprisingly little on the landscape has changed. Matt Krupnick in the Sacramento Bee -- 8/23/15

Environment 

Feinstein asks Obama to bypass Congress to create three desert monuments -- U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she has asked President Obama to bypass Congress and create three new national monuments in California, giving federal protection to more than 1 million acres of mountain ranges, sandy expanses and forests lying roughly between Palm Springs and the Nevada border. Louis Sahagun in the Los Angeles Times -- 8/23/15

Beltway 

Biden, Warren huddle amid 2016 speculation -- Vice President Biden huddled Saturday with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the rising liberal star who has declined to endorse a candidate for the 2016 presidential race, an impromptu meeting that came as speculation mounted over Biden's own potential candidacy, according to a report. Paul Kane in the Washington Post -- 8/23/15

Democrat Sanders courts black voters in South Carolina -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders brought his progressive populism to deeply Republican South Carolina, and made a pitch to connect with the black voters that provide most of the Democratic support in the early primary state. Harriet McLeod Reuters -- 8/23/15

At Koch group summit, a restrained enthusiasm for Trump -- While thousands streamed into a football stadium Friday evening in Mobile, Alabama to see Donald Trump, a much smaller crowd of committed conservatives unwound at a bar and mused over the good, the bad and the unknown of the unlikely Republican presidential front-runner. Emily Flitter Reuters -- 8/23/15