California Policy & Politics This Morning
Judge denies L.A. school district’s bid to block teachers strike -- The district’s legal maneuver was based on its responsibility under federal law to provide services to students with disabilities. The district is under additional legal restrictions based on a settlement that is under the supervision of a federal judge. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Willie Brown: Nancy Pelosi brings class back to Washington -- Interestingly, Pelosi seems to be one of the few people in D.C. whom Trump respects. He’s repeatedly praised her political skills and refrained from hanging one of his putdown nicknames on her. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 1/5/19
San Diego proposes housing asylum-seeking migrants at closed juvenile detention facility -- The city of San Diego has proposed using a former juvenile detention facility in Alpine known as Camp Barrett as a migrant shelter. The proposal, made Friday in a letter to the state, comes after nonprofit organizations working to support arriving asylum-seeking families have called repeatedly for help from local and state governments. Kate Morrissey in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
PG&E could sell gas division, or seek bankruptcy, as Camp Fire woes mount -- PG&E, facing billions in potential losses from the Camp Fire and other wildfires, is reportedly exploring the sale of its natural gas division or a bankruptcy filing as it tries to deal with its staggering financial liabilities. Dale Kasler and Tony Bizjak in the Sacramento Bee J.D. Morris and Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle Liana B. Baker, Greg Roumeliotis, Mike Spector Reuters George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury -- 1/5/19
L.A. is suing IBM for illegally gathering and selling user data through its Weather Channel app -- The Los Angeles city attorney’s office alleges in a lawsuit that a subsidiary of IBM deceptively mined the private location data of users of the Weather Channel app and sold it to advertising and marketing companies. Sam Dean in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Looming teachers' strike complicates a Garcetti presidential bid -- Los Angeles mayors do not control the L.A. Unified School District, but that hasn’t stopped some of them from trying to use their highly visible office to assert authority over the sprawling system. Dakota Smith and Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be -- Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governor's mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times Alexei Kosef in the Sacramento Bee -- 1/5/19
Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office -- The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
City of Industry is about to be slammed again by state for lax financial oversight -- Nearly three years after a scathing state review, the city of Industry remains plagued by gaps in financial oversight and has been unable to justify a host of suspect transactions, according to a draft of a new state report reviewed by The Times. Adam Elmahrek in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
More shutdown fallout: Investigation of Yosemite death delayed, while Death Valley closes campgrounds -- Several sites in Death Valley National Park are closing Friday because of health and safety concerns over human waste, trash, vandalism and damage to park resources, officials said. Meanwhile, an investigation into the Christmas Day death of a man at Yosemite National Park is being delayed by the partial government shutdown, a park spokesman said. Javier Panzar in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Housing
California has 70% of the nation's priciest ZIP codes when it comes to home sales -- The 94027 ZIP code — Atherton, Calif. — set the bar for the second straight year with a median sales price of $6.7 million, a 35% increase compared with 2017. Jack Flemming in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/5/19
Immigration, Border, Deportation
Citing health risks, authorities shut Tijuana shelter, but Central American migrants won't leave -- As police in riot gear stood outside, dozens of Central American caravan members refused on Friday to leave a private warehouse near the U.S. border where they have camped out since mid-December. Sandra Dibble in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 1/5/19
Education
The Fight to Keep Teachers in Tech Hubs From Being Priced Out -- Rizi Manzon lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, in a modest-looking neighborhood of garden apartments and one-story houses on small lots. His own home is five minutes from Apple’s headquarters in what is, by some measures, the most expensive housing market in the country. Average rent in Santa Clara County is over $3,500. Dana Goldstein in the New York Times -- 1/5/19
POTUS 45
Trump threatens years-long shutdown for his wall as GOP support begins to fracture -- President Trump warned Friday that the partial government shutdown could go on for months or even years, delivering no real breakthrough with congressional leaders as his own administration scrambled to shore up support among Republicans for a gambit that has started to fracture. Seung Min Kim, Erica Werner and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post -- 1/5/19
McConnell, Thune notably absent as Trump, House GOP leaders talk about shutdown -- As a defiant President Trump fielded questions in the White House Rose Garden on Friday afternoon, he was flanked by the two top-ranking House Republicans, who waited patiently behind him as he spoke. But the top two Senate Republicans weren’t there. Sean Sullivan in the Washington Post -- 1/5/19
Beltway
While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises -- While hundreds of thousands of federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, scores of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year. Lisa Rein and Peter Whoriskey in the Washington Post -- 1/5/19
T.S.A. Screeners, Working Without Pay, Are Calling Out Sick -- Transportation Security Administration workers at several major airports around the country, working without pay since the partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22, have been calling in sick in heightened numbers, according to union and airport management officials. Glenn Thrush in the New York Times -- 1/5/19
-- Friday Updates
If teachers strike in Los Angeles, where will half a million kids go? -- L.A. Unified has said that all schools will be open during the strike, if there is one, and that students will receive instruction. But staffing will be thin. About 400 substitutes and 2,000 credentialed district staff will be spread out to fill in for around 30,000 members of the teachers union. Sonali Kohli in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/4/19
Will Gavin Newsom change the state’s water course? Fish and farmers will soon find out -- In the final weeks of Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, his appointees on a state board ordered some powerful water districts to cut their historic river diversions to protect endangered salmon populations. It was a major move by a panel that in the past has often been leery of flexing its regulatory muscles. Bettina Boxall in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/4/19
Newsom proposes free community college in California -- As part of his broad education blueprint for California, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose a full two years of free community college in his first budget next week, according to a source close to Newsom with knowledge of the plan. Angela Hart Politico -- 1/4/19
What Jerry Brown has learned -- Turning a staggering budget deficit into a rainy-day reserve of more than $14 billion, renewing the cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gases, and passing a wave of climate change initiatives and prison reform measures are successes that are happening only in California, the governor said. Just don’t call it his legacy. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 1/4/19
L.A.'s many dangerous faults pose challenge for earthquake early warning system -- Earthquake early warning systems have been part of life in metropolises like Tokyo, Taipei and Mexico City for years. But bringing the technology to California, where numerous faults crisscross the region, proved to be a complex and time-consuming undertaking. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times -- 1/4/19
Fox: Jerry Brown Bookends -- Like many Californians I came from someplace else. On my last stop before entering California in Las Vegas, I remember looking into a sidewalk newspaper box (remember those?) to read the headline that Jerry Brown was just elected to his first term as governor of California. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 1/4/19
The Latest: Dem says Trump threatened ‘years’ for shutdown -- President Donald Trump told congressional leaders he’d keep the government closed “for a very long period of time, months or even years.” That’s according to Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who was among those meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday. The partial government shutdown over Trump’s demand for money to build a border wall with Mexico is in its 14th day. Associated Press -- 1/4/19