Updating . .
California moves its presidential primary to March in push for electoral relevance -- Brown's decision, announced without fanfare on Wednesday, means the state will hold its presidential primary on March 3, 2020. It's a reversal from a decision he made in 2011 to push the state's primary elections back until June, after years of trying — and failing — to entice major candidates to bring their campaigns to California instead of smaller, more rural states. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Santa Clara pays $6.7 million to woman injured resisting warrantless police entry -- A San Jose woman will receive a $6.7 million settlement from city of Santa Clara after her leg was broken trying to prevent police officers from entering her home without a warrant while looking to arrest her teenage daughter last year, her attorney said Wednesday. Robert Salonga in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
States’ rebellion against Trump climate change policies gaining momentum -- Four months ago, on the day President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Gov. Jerry Brown of California, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington announced their states would team up to meet the target anyway. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
Defendants in deadly Ghost Ship fire plead not guilty in Oakland court -- Two men charged in a deadly blaze that broke out during an underground music event at Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter, paving the way for a preliminary hearing of the evidence in the case. Evan Sernoffsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
California releases annual test scores — stagnant results after earlier gains -- After a one-month delay to verify data, California education officials released the annual barrage of standardized test scores Wednesday and the results could be summed up in one word: stagnant. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
California is trying to educate people about marijuana before recreational sales start -- Months before California allows the sale of marijuana for recreational use, the state has launched an education campaign about the drug, including highlighting the potential harms of cannabis for minors and pregnant women. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Latino state lawmakers back Antonio Villaraigosa for California governor -- While expected, the nod from the politically influential caucus is a boon for Villaraigosa, a former Democratic Assembly speaker and the only major Latino candidate running for governor. Villaraigosa has lagged behind Lt. Gov. Gavin Newson in early polls and fundraising. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Trump, GOP tax plan has a lot for businesses to like, but Californians could take a big hit -- The plan calls for eliminating the current deduction for payment of state and local taxes, which would hit hard at taxpayers in those states who itemize their deductions. In 2014, Californians received $101 billion from the state and local tax deduction — nearly a third of the total value of the deduction nationwide, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Jim Puzzanghera and Lisa Mascaro in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
How sky-high housing costs make California the poorest state -- California leads the nation once again in a statistic no state wants to boast about. When the cost of living is factored in, the Golden State has the highest poverty rate in the country. More than 20 percent of its residents struggle to make ends meet, according to recently released Census figures. That’s nearly 8 million people. Matt Levin Calmatters.org -- 9/27/17
Middle class gets richer, but the wealthy do even better, making inequality worse, Fed says -- Most American families grew richer between 2013 and 2016, but the wealthiest households pulled even further ahead, worsening the nation's massive disparities in wealth and income. Christopher Rugaber Associated Press -- 9/27/17
Fox: A Tax By Any Other Name -- A Sacramento judge’s re-writing of the gas tax initiative title and summary will have implications on a title and summary for a second initiative on the same subject–and then the battle begins whether one or both measures make the ballot. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 9/27/17
Death toll from San Diego hepatitis outbreak rises to 17, with no signs of slowing -- The death toll in San Diego’s hepatitis A outbreak increased by one Tuesday, and the region’s top public health official said she has not seen any signs yet of a slowdown in the public health emergency that has now killed 17 people. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/27/17
Gay rights groups protest ‘erasure’ of LGBT history in California textbooks -- Amid a wave of gay youth suicides that generated national concern, California in 2011 became the first state to require lessons on the historical contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in its K-12 curriculum. Alexei Koseff in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/27/17
Poll: Majority of voters say Trump isn't fit to be president -- The majority of American voters say that President Donald Trump is not "fit to serve as president," according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, with 51 percent of respondents saying they are embarrassed to have Trump serve as president. Emily Goldberg Politico -- 9/27/17
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Here’s why California’s historic housing legislation won’t bring down costs anytime soon -- California lawmakers this year took historic action to address what one housing economist says is the state’s most serious problem: unaffordability. Angela Hart in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/27/17
California’s current home-building pace won’t tame skyrocketing prices soon, forecast says -- California appears unlikely to be able to build enough homes in the coming years to put a meaningful dent in skyrocketing housing prices triggered by a shortage of affordable dwellings, according to economists who prepared a new UCLA Anderson Forecast. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
U.S. Climate Change Policy: Made in California -- A peculiar confluence of history, legal precedent and defiance has set the stage for a regulatory mutiny in California that would reverberate throughout the country. Hiroko Tabuchi in the New York Times$ -- 9/27/17
Could California ban gasoline cars? -- California Gov. Jerry Brown has expressed interest in banning cars that burn fossil fuels, the state’s top climate change regulator said in an interview published Tuesday. David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
Delta tunnels dead? Southern California ready to plow ahead -- Southern California’s mammoth water agency appeared ready to plow ahead with the Delta tunnels project Tuesday, despite a “no” vote by a giant bloc of San Joaquin Valley farmers that could doom the $17 billion proposal. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/27/17
Lawmakers missed a ‘green’ opportunity; could consumers pay the price? -- Environmentalists are accustomed to notching wins in the California Legislature, where their projects often receive a friendly hearing from a supermajority of Democrats and a governor with a laser focus on climate change. But there was an unexpected setback near the frantic end of the recent legislative session, when two energy-related proposals stalled. Julie Cart Calmatters.org -- 9/27/17
Earthquake ‘thermometer’ shows LA region is boiling to Northridge level -- The Los Angeles region’s “earthquake potential score,” a gauge for assessing the likelihood of a destructive temblor, has surpassed the level assigned to the 6.7 magnitude Northridge Earthquake of 1994, according to a University of California Davis professor. Jason Henry in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
Construction begins on Trump's border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa -- The first steps in what President Donald Trump hopes will be a new era in border security began Tuesday when construction crews broke ground on prototype designs for a border wall, starting a 30-day sprint to construct eight examples in a fenced-off area on Otay Mesa. Kristina Davis and Greg Moran in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/27/17
Twitter tests 280-character tweets -- Twitter’s defining feature has always been brevity: 140 characters was all you got. But under a new test announced Tuesday, the San Francisco tech company said it will begin giving users twice as much room to tweet. Samantha Masunaga and David Pierson in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Walters: Capitol politicians try to fix a bad law on school reserves -- When California’s voters approved a 2010 ballot measure to reduce the legislative vote requirement for the state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority, they believed that they were merely ending an annual political logjam that sometimes stretched out for months. Unwittingly, however, they were granting the Legislature’s majority Democrats a license to make mischief. Dan Walters Calmatters.org -- 9/27/17
Politifact CA: Claims mislead about California forcing jail time for using wrong transgender pronoun -- A bill to prevent discrimination of LGBT seniors in California’s long-term care homes is one step from becoming law. It passed the Legislature this month and now sits on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. Chris Nichols Politifact CA -- 9/27/17
Lawyers seek dismissal of lawsuit challenging rainbow flags flown by House members -- Lawyers representing Rep. Susan Davis and three other House members who were sued for flying rainbow flags outside of their congressional offices have argued that the case is frivolous and the plaintiff is not actually harmed by seeing the colorful pennant in a government building. Joshua Stewart in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/27/17
Police body camera footage depicting rape victims won't be released in California under new law -- Gov. Jerry Brown signed a measure Tuesday that would prohibit the public release of police body camera footage or other videos that depict victims of rape, incest, sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse. Liam Dillon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
LA cops and public at odds over when video of police shootings should be released, survey finds -- Los Angeles-area law enforcement personnel and members of the public generally agree that video footage of officer-involved shootings and other critical incidents should be released to the public, but sharp disagreement exists as to when that should be, according to a new report. Brenda Gazzar in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 9/27/17
Energy, Environment House Subcommittee Hears San Onofre Safety Concerns -- San Onofre’s 3.5 million pounds of spent fuel is just a fraction of the radioactive nuclear waste at 17 reactor sites being decommissioned around the country. Alison St John KPBS -- 9/27/17
Taxes, Fees, Rates, Tolls, Bonds
CPUC postpones final vote on SDG&E request to bill customers $379M for 2007 wildfires -- The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is holding a rare meeting in the San Diego area on Thursday but commissioners have postponed voting on whether to reject a request from San Diego Gas & Electric to charge customers $379 million to recover costs from a series of deadly wildfires in 2007. Rob Nikolewski in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/27/17
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
L.A. pension officials deliver another financial blow to the city budget -- A Los Angeles pension board voted Tuesday to scale back its long-range investment projections, creating yet another budget problem for the city’s elected officials. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
The FBI is reportedly looking into practices of largest lender of PACE home-improvement loans -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly inquiring about the operations of San Diego-based Renovate America, which is the largest lender of PACE loans, a type of financing that funds energy-efficient home improvements. Andrew Khouri in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Anaheim Convention Center grows to exceed 1 million square feet of exhibit space -- Anaheim has just joined the million-square-foot club. Hugo Martin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
New Republican tax outline gives huge cuts to businesses, but details of individual relief are less certain -- Businesses would receive huge tax cuts and many middle-class Americans would see relief under a tax overhaul outline agreed to by President Trump and top congressional Republicans, according to people familiar with the plan. But many of the specifics, such as whether the individual tax cuts would favor the wealthy, are still to be worked out. Jim Puzzanghera and Lisa Mascaro in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Homeless
Death Toll Reaches 17 In San Diego’s Ongoing Hepatitis A Outbreak -- A total of 461 cases have been confirmed in the region, in what has been described as the largest outbreak of the virus in decades. The outbreak began last November but was not identified until March. The youngest person to be infected was a 5-year-old who had not been previously vaccinated, Wooten said. KPBS -- 9/27/17
San Diego’s Overnight Parking Laws Hit Homeless Hard -- Dog Beach in Ocean Beach used to be Michael Bloom's favorite spot. He used to park his camper there overnight, but now it is illegal. Matt Hoffman KPBS -- 9/27/17
Police Clear Homeless Encampments From San Diego’s East Village -- Seventeenth street in the East Village, and the surrounding blocks along the outskirts of downtown are known as San Diego’s skid row. Hundreds of homeless encampments overflowing with trash have lined the streets for years. Until now. Susan Murphy KPBS -- 9/27/17
Oakland homeless plan: ‘outdoor Navigation Centers’ in Tuff Sheds -- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is looking at three potential sites to set up camps accommodating up to 40 homeless people each — except that instead of living in tents, they’ll be living in Tuff Sheds. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
Housing
Soaring rents, evictions, tenants rally in Oakland to close landlord loopholes in Just Cause protections -- Josephine Hardy has lived in the same triplex in West Oakland for 45 years. Her two adult children and two grandchildren occupy the second and third units. When the building sold in June, the new owner informed the 69-year-old woman that her rent would go up to $2500 — nearly triple the $900 she currently pays. Tammerlin Drummond in the East Bay Times -- 9/27/17
L.A.-area home prices climb again, slightly faster than the nationwide rise -- Prices in Los Angeles and Orange counties were up 6.1% compared with a year earlier, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices. That’s a steeper increase than nationwide prices, which climbed 5.9%, led by growth in the Pacific Northwest. San Diego County home prices, meanwhile, jumped 7.1%, and San Francisco climbed 6.7%. Phillip Molnar in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
UCLA Anderson Forecast offers solution to un-affordable housing in Southern California -- The latest UCLA Anderson Forecast predicts modest employment growth for California through 2019, but it also proposes an interesting idea. Kevin Smith in the Orange County Register -- 9/27/17
Wildfire
Huge Southern California wildfire is 15% contained as anxious residents wait for word -- John DeYoe spotted the residents in their open garage, gathering belongings they didn’t have time to pack the night before when the fast-moving Canyon fire forced them to flee. Joseph Serna, Anh Do and Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Oakland hills grass fire threatened homes, led to evacuations -- A fast-moving fire raged though dry brush and grass in the Oakland hills on Tuesday afternoon, forcing dozens of residents to flee as firefighters scrambled to protect homes while battling the fierce wall of flames, officials said. Steve Rubenstein and Evan Sernoffsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Erin Baldassari, Rick Hurd and Harry Harris in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
Education
Report shows Silicon Valley ‘crisis’ of homeless students -- Using a broad definition for counting, the main aid group for street youth in Santa Clara County said more than a third of community college students in the county, as well as 17 percent of high school students, are so unstably housed they should be considered homeless. Kevin Fagan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
In speech, Jeff Sessions slams universities for stifling free speech -- Today’s typical American university clamps down on free speech, pushes political correctness, and shelters the “fragile egos” of its students, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared Tuesday in a talk singling out UC Berkeley for the purported ills. Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
USC assistant basketball coach charged with taking bribes in nationwide FBI sting -- Four college basketball assistant coaches, including USC’s Tony Bland, were among 10 people indicted by federal authorities Tuesday on fraud and corruption charges that allege hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes were offered to student athletes. Scott Wolf in the Long Beach Press Telegram$ -- 9/27/17
Federal charges ‘jaw dropping’ but don’t shock Stanford men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase -- After a morning workout and a 2½-hour staff meeting, Stanford men’s basketball coach Jerod Haase walked into Kissick Auditorium to provide a state-of-the-team address. Vytas Mazeika in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/27/17
Facebook, Google, Salesforce, others commit $300 million to tech education -- The White House on Monday announced plans to spend $200 million a year on grants meant to boost science, tech, engineering and math education in an effort to close a widening skills gap that, some say, has left Americans out of the running for scientific and technical jobs. Bay Area powerhouses Facebook, Google and Salesforce have committed $50 million apiece to support these efforts — making up about half the $300 million commitment from the private sector. Marissa Lang and Trisha Thadani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
L.A. Board of Education chooses Monica Garcia as new president to replace Rodriguez -- A week after Ref Rodriguez resigned as president of the Los Angeles Board of Education, he helped vote in his successor, an ally and familiar name in city politics who happens to be familiar with the job. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ Kyle Stokes KPCC -- 9/27/17
Cal State Dominguez Hills president announces retirement -- Cal State Dominguez Hills President Willie Hagan, who has been recognized for improving graduation rates and support services at one of the state’s most diverse campuses, announced Tuesday that he will retire at the end of the academic year. Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Addressing early childhood trauma requires shift in policy, more training for teachers -- For the first time, more than 100 California-based agencies and advocacy groups that have teamed up to raise awareness about the impact of early childhood trauma on families and communities took that effort to state policymakers. Ashley Hopkinson EdSource -- 9/27/17
Cannabis
Siskiyou County’s wild weed woes -- Illegal marijuana grows in rural Siskiyou County are out of control and state officials should help stop them, local authorities say. Earlier this month, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors took the unusual step of declaring a state of emergency because of the problem. Lisa Renner Capitol Weekly -- 9/27/17
Recreational marijuana sales won’t start in January in San Francisco after all -- The city won’t issue permits to sell recreational marijuana until it passes new laws to regulate the industry and creates an equity program to help low-income entrepreneurs, people of color, and former drug offenders break into the market. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/27/17
Immigration / Border
She’s a Berkeley grad teaching 7th grade math. The end of DACA puts her future in jeopardy -- Diana Montelongo came to the United States as a 6-year-old from Mexico, brought by her parents in search of a better education. Now a graduate of UC Berkeley, Montelongo teaches math in Natomas to middle school students. Diana Lambert in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/27/17
Water
The wet winter brought lots of water to California. But fighting over fish continues -- The wettest winter on record for Northern California filled most of the state’s reservoirs and had the massive Delta water pumps roaring at full tilt for the first half of the year. Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/27/17
U.S. and Mexico Update Pact on Sharing Colorado River Water -- The United States and Mexico have agreed to renew and expand a far-reaching conservation agreement that governs how they manage the overused Colorado River, which supplies water to millions of people and to farms in both nations, U.S. water district officials said. Dan Elliott Associated Press -- 9/27/17
Health
Hepatitis A outbreak sparks call for L.A. to give homeless people more street toilets -- A Los Angeles councilman called on the city Tuesday to fund emergency portable toilets to stem the public health threat posed by the hepatitis A outbreak among homeless people. Gale Holland in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
STD rates hit another record high, with California near the top -- The number of Americans diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis reached a record high in 2016 for the second year in a row, with more than 2 million cases reported and particularly high rates in California, according to federal data released Tuesday. Soumya Karlamangla in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
Environment
Fuel-efficient cars often paired with gas guzzlers, study finds -- Human nature, as defined by those of us who use our morning runs to justify pigging out on jelly doughnuts, has a tendency to torpedo even high-minded goals — including, it turns out, fuel efficiency. Peter Fimrite and Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Randol White Capital Public Radio -- 9/27/17
Also . . .
Inmate at Men's Central Jail dies after assaulting cellmate, being pepper sprayed by deputies, authorities say -- Officials said the man, whose name has not been released, attacked his cellmate and refused orders to stop fighting. Deputies then used pepper spray on the man, removed him from the cell and put him in handcuffs, said Deputy Trina Shrader, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/27/17
POTUS 45
Trump, GOP to unveil massive tax-cut plan -- President Trump and top Republicans on Wednesday will unveil a proposal to cut personal and corporate taxes by at least $5 trillion over 10 years, people familiar with the matter said, promising to recoup more than half of the lost revenue by eliminating numerous unspecified tax breaks and deductions. Damian Paletta, Mike DeBonis and Carolyn Y. Johnson in the Washington Post$ -- 9/27/17
Trump backs off vow that private sector should help pay for infrastructure package -- President Trump told lawmakers Tuesday that he was abandoning a key element of his planned $1 trillion infrastructure package, complaining that certain partnerships between the private sector and federal government simply don’t work. Tory Newmyer and Damian Paletta in the Washington Post$ -- 9/27/17
Trump Thinks Twice About His Tweets, and Hits Delete -- After enthusiastically endorsing an Alabama senator’s campaign for re-election, President Trump distanced himself on Tuesday night from the candidate’s loss in the most Trumpian way possible: He deleted his supportive tweets. Russell Goldman in the New York Times -- 9/27/17
Ivanka Trump’s supply chains in China cloaked in secrecy -- It is no secret that the bulk of Ivanka Trump’s merchandise comes from China. But just which Chinese companies manufacture and export her handbags, shoes and clothes is more secret than ever, an Associated Press investigation has found. Erika Kinetz Associated Press -- 9/27/17
Beltway
Tuesday started as a bad day for Mitch McConnell. It only got worse -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lost just about every way possible on Tuesday. Paul Kane in the Washington Post$ -- 9/27/17
-- Tuesday Updates
Fights break out between right, left as dozens march through UC Berkeley -- UC Berkeley police detained two people after several fist fights broke out between liberal and conservative groups when dozens of people gathered at Sproul Plaza Tuesday afternoon. Members of a conservative group called Patriot Prayer arrived near Sproul Plaza around 2 p.m. and were met by protesters, including representatives of the leftist activist group By Any Means Necessary. Neither of the groups are student groups. Kimberly Veklerov and Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/26/17
After meeting with Trump, California Democrats say they want a seat at the tax reform table -- Ahead of Republicans' plans to unveil a more detailed overview of their tax reform plan Wednesday, President Trump sat down with a bipartisan group of members that included California Democratic Reps. Linda Sanchez and Mike Thompson. Sarah D. Wire in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/17
San Francisco first city to sue Equifax credit agency over massive data breach -- San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued Equifax Tuesday, accusing the credit-reporting giant of putting more than 15 million Californians at risk of identity theft by failing to adequately safeguard their personal information. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/26/17
Republican leaders: Senate won’t vote on Obamacare repeal -- Facing assured defeat, Republican leaders decided Tuesday not to even hold a vote on the GOP’s latest attempt to repeal the Obama health care law, surrendering on their last-gasp effort to deliver on the party’s banner campaign promise. “The bill is dead as a door nail,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., leaving a luncheon where GOP senators decided against holding a futile roll call. Alan Fram Associated Press -- 9/26/17
Tom Steyer won't rule out challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but says not to read too much into it -- Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer did a little political two-step Tuesday when a reporter pressed him on whether he might challenge Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein if she runs for re-election. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/17
Fresno County GOP moves fundraiser with Joe Arpaio, criticizes ‘bullying from the left -- The Fresno County Republican Party has doubled down on its speaker choice, noting that “bullying coming from the left” and “scare tactics” have elevated the event to not only a military/law enforcement/Second Amendment celebration, but also an opportunity for Republicans to exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech. Rory Appleton in the Fresno Bee -- 9/26/17
Cyber Security Experts Say California Vote Audit Has Exploitable Problems -- Federal officials told California Friday that Russians probed the state's election system for vulnerabilities before the 2016 election. That's raising new questions over a bill on Governor Jerry Brown's desk. Cyber security experts say the measure could weaken California's voting systems. Ben Bradford Capital Public Radio -- 9/26/17
Black Lives Matter, other activists protest to stop jail expansion -- Dozens of people gathered outside the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration on Tuesday morning for a news conference and rally to protest the expansion of jails in the county. Nina Agrawal in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/17
California Farm Academy Offers Path For Immigrants And Second Career Farmers -- American farmers used to hand down their farms to the next generation of their family. But for the most part, farm succession doesn't work that way anymore. Julia Mitric Capital Public Radio -- 9/26/17
Death knell for Obamacare repeal? -- Even as it entered its death spiral, the latest Republican attempt to do away with Obamacare came in for fiery denunciations from California health care leaders. “Incredibly damaging.” “Worst of all repeal bills.” “Politics over policy.” “Appalling.” Those were only a few of the accusations. Chuck McFadden Capitol Weekly -- 9/26/17
Abcarian: The Milo Yiannopoulos shtick shows the disconnect between Berkeley students and the meaning of free speech -- For many, the lasting image of Milo Yiannopoulos in his fizzled “Free Speech Week” appearance on the UC Berkeley campus will be of the selfie he took as he was surrounded by a small throng of admirers and journalists. Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/17
Trump's team is getting taxpayer-funded travel perks – but where's the outrage? -- The Treasury secretary requested a military plane for his European honeymoon. The head of Health and Human Services ran up a six-figure tab flying around the country on private jets. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency dinged taxpayers for repeated excursions back home to Oklahoma. Michael Finnegan and Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/17