Updating . .
Gavin Newsom plays to a bigger audience as California’s problems await action -- Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in January with an agenda full of campaign promises on housing, homelessness, health care and early childhood education. But it’s the death penalty, Central American migrants heading for the U.S. border and Donald Trump that have dominated his first 100 days, a milestone Newsom reaches Wednesday. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
Democrats have a lot riding on California's tax day revenues -- It’s long been said that two things are key to successfully governing California: ample Sierra Nevada snow to keep the water flowing and plenty of income tax payments to keep state services running. Problems with either can trip up even the most charismatic politician. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
Feeling strapped on a $400,000 income? That’s the Bay Area -- Marvin Chan says he doesn’t live an extravagant life. He lives in Palo Alto, but drives a 2007 Nissan Murano. Family vacations with his wife and two sons are usually camping trips. Leonardo Castañeda in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/14/19
Bretón: Do the math: Teachers + health costs + insanity = we all lose -- Even if you don’t live in the City of Sacramento, or if you don’t have kids in the city public school system on the verge of blowing up, what is happening here affects you too. Marcos Bretón in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/14/19
California Policy & Politics This Morning
What a major earthquake would do to San Francisco -- A repeat of the most powerful earthquake in San Francisco’s history would knock out phone communications, leave swaths of the city in the dark, cut off water to neighborhoods and kill up to 7,800 people, according to state and federal projections. If a quake like that were to strike along San Andreas Fault today, building damage would eclipse $98 billion and tens of thousands of residents would become homeless. Kimberly Veklerov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
Dump detained immigrants in sanctuary cities? Bay Area mayors react -- A day after the White House dismissed it as merely “a suggestion that was floated and rejected,” President Donald Trump doubled down Friday on the idea of sending detained immigrants to “sanctuary” cities that have bucked his efforts to enforce immigration law. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/14/19
Poll: San Jose voters support a switch to strong-mayor government -- San Jose is one of California’s last major cities whose mayor has largely ceremonial authority and must often defer to the city manager, who oversees departments like police and fire, roads and parks, libraries and planning. Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/14/19
How Much Hip Can the Desert Absorb? -- An unlikely art festival blooms in no man’s land, like Burning Man and Coachella before it. But this one is different! Maybe. Penelope Green in the New York Times$ -- 4/14/19
The Many Reasons to Run for President When You Probably Don’t Stand a Chance -- There is no discernible mass groundswell for an Eric Swalwell presidential campaign. Matt Flegenheimer in the New York Times$ -- 4/14/19
Supervisor Janice Hahn and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard oppose Coliseum name change -- Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard took to the stage at a Hawthorne community center Saturday to mobilize more veterans against a $69-million deal to let United Airlines put its name on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — and to pitch a compromise. Louis Sahagun in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
Putting American flags on police cars sparks backlash in Laguna Beach -- A decision to affix an American flag graphic to the side of freshly painted Laguna Beach police cars is dividing residents who are alternately praising the image as patriotic or panning it as too aggressive. Faith E. Pinho in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
Walters: Bond issue transparency still under assault -- Two years ago, in a rare display of support for transparency in government finance, the Legislature and then-Gov. Jerry Brown required local governments and school districts to tell voters how proposed bond issues would affect their property taxes. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 4/14/19
Willie Brown: Downtown San Francisco traffic is insane. Maybe it’s time to make drivers pay -- It may be time to start charging drivers in downtown San Francisco. The streets are packed, and with all the construction going on, it’s becoming a nightmare even to walk. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
Lopez: When Trump wanted to boot immigrants with temporary status, one Van Nuys firm fought back -- On a typical workday, David Acevedo uses his hands, his back and a forklift to move tons of lumber around a warehouse in Van Nuys. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
Warszawski: Think racism isn’t an issue in Fresno? This reader’s email might change your mind -- When you write opinions for a living, you can expect all manner of responses. This one, from an older female reader, landed with a thud in my email inbox the day my column appeared saying the next mayor of Fresno will be a Democrat and probably a Latino who represents neighborhoods south of Shaw Avenue. So delightful I thought I’d share. “Well here we go with another sick, so-called Journalist,” it begins. “You are so Non-American you should go back to Poland.” Marek Warszawski in the Fresno Bee -- 4/14/19
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Full-Service Grocery Store Set to Open in West Oakland Food Desert -- After years of trying, one neighborhood in West Oakland is about to get its first full-scale grocery store in decades. Community Foods Market has been in the works for nearly a decade, and it is expected to finally open at 3105 San Pablo Ave. in June. Sara Hossaini KQED -- 4/14/19
Stratolaunch’s gigantic twin-bodied plane takes its first flight -- The Stratolaunch twin-hulled airplane, its wings stretching wider than a football field, took its first flight Saturday morning and spent more than two hours soaring above California’s Mojave Desert. Samantha Masunaga and Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ John Antczak Associated Press -- 4/14/19
Transit
More concrete falls from the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, damages driver's windshield -- Two more pieces of the Richmond-San Rafael bridge broke off and fell Friday night, damaging a motorist's vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol. CHP said a report of the incident came in at 7:53 p.m. Friday and that the motorist was not injured. The two pieces of concrete were smaller than a baseball, according to the CHP. Drew Costley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
Homeless
Both GoFundMe campaigns fully funded in battle over homeless navigation center in San Francisco -- The battle over a homeless navigation center being built in San Francisco's Embarcadero reached another level on Friday when opposing GoFundMe campaigns for and against the center surpassed their fundraising goals. Drew Costley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
Homeless surge at San Francisco airport: Police contacts triple, and officials want BART to step in -- Authorities at San Francisco International Airport are struggling to deal with rising numbers of homeless people arriving at the International Terminal, many of them seeking shelter in the middle of the night after riding BART trains south from the city. Matthias Gafni in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
The Kings and Luke Walton have reached a four-year deal on the head coaching job -- The Kings have filled their coaching vacancy, according to multiple reports. The Athletic’s Sam Amick tweeted that Kings general manager Vlade Divac and former Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton agreed on a four-year deal Saturday for Walton to become the team’s next head coach. The Bee’s Jason Anderson has confirmed the deal. Noel Harris in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/14/19
Education
As Lori Loughlin’s legal problems mount, she faces a fateful choice in college admissions scandal -- In Boston to face charges in the college admissions scandal two weeks ago, actress Lori Loughlin waved at fans, shook the hands of prosecutors and signed autographs. Richard Winton and Matthew Ormseth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
Cannabis
It was the largest cannabis farm in SLO County. Supervisors just voted to shut it down -- A large cannabis business in Nipomo is being forced to shut down after the county Board of Supervisors stripped its permitting Tuesday, citing multiple code violations and saying it was intentionally thwarting regulations and would likely continue to operate in bad faith. Nick Wilson in the San Luis Obispo Tribune -- 4/14/19
Immigration / Border
Previously deported parents hope to resume asylum claims and get their children back -- Seventeen parents who had been separated from their children by immigration authorities were released from a detention center near Calexico this week, more than a month after they returned to the Mexico border to claim asylum in the United States. Andrea Castillo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/14/19
‘Called to the Wall’ religious caravan gathers at border -- For the ninth consecutive year, Episcopalians from the dioceses in San Diego and Los Angeles marked the arrival of Holy Week on Saturday with a caravan fueled by a message — love your neighbor — that came straight from the Bible. This time, there were also undertones that came straight from the headlines. John Wilkens in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 4/14/19
Environment
Wildlife officials, mountain bikers fight turf war over Carlsbad reserve -- State wildlife officials are shutting down a spiderweb of bike trails that weave across Carlsbad Highlands Ecological Reserve, and warning bikers to stay out, in a campaign to stop illegal use of the sensitive property. Deborah Sullivan Brennan in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 4/14/19
Also . . .
New records show deputy linked to San Francisco beating shot and killed two other suspects -- The East Bay sheriff’s deputy who has been charged with severely beating a suspect in a San Francisco alley in 2015 had previously shot to death two suspects, one less than two months before the baton attack, according to records released Saturday. Matthias Gafni in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/14/19
POTUS 45
Trump White House braces for full Mueller report -- Aides insist they have nothing to fear from the special counsel's nearly 400-page report, though not all of the president’s allies are so confident. Eliana Johnson, Daniel Lippman and Darren Samuelsohn Politico -- 4/14/19
Beltway
Balz: Trump’s immigration policies have been a failure. Neither he nor Democrats have much of a solution to the current problem -- President Trump’s immigration policies have been a failure. His goal of sealing the border has come to naught, and a mass of asylum seekers has overwhelmed the system. Dan Balz in the Washington Post$ -- 4/14/19
-- Saturday Updates
Newsom team calls for less utility liability on wildfire—and ignites ‘a hornet’s nest’ -- In a comprehensive and already controversial report aimed at spreading the staggering cost of wildfires in California, an advisory panel to Gov. Gavin Newsom recommended on Friday that California ease strict liability laws that have already prompted the state’s largest utility to file for bankruptcy in this era of climate change. Judy Lin Calmatters Kathleen Ronayne Associated Press Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ J.D. Morris and Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ Marisa Lagos, Lisa Pickoff-White KQED Katherine Blunt in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 4/13/19
‘They go on the state dime.’ Gavin Newsom wants to get a grip on state agency travel -- In El Salvador this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom said state agencies have taken a “shotgun approach” to foreign travel and that his administration is working to develop an organized system to coordinate state workers’ trips abroad. Sophia Bollag in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/13/19
Sheriff’s Department killing more misconduct investigations under Villanueva, report finds -- Officials working under Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva have been inactivating internal investigations of department personnel at a high rate, with most of the cancellations not conforming with department policies, according to a report issued Friday by the Sheriff’s Department’s chief watchdog. Maya Lau in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/13/19
California Air National Guard removes commander over threats against whistleblowers -- A third high-ranking officer in the California Air National Guard has been removed from his position because of complaints he made whistleblowers feel threatened at the 144th Fighter Wing in Fresno. Paul Pringle and Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/13/19
LAPD ends another data-driven crime program touted to target violent offenders -- The Los Angeles Police Department has scrapped a second data policing program it once hailed as a way to target violent offenders in neighborhood hot spots, following concerns that the programs unfairly target black and Latino communities. Mark Puente in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/13/19
Former West Covina Mayor Mike Spence found dead in motel room -- Former West Covina Mayor Mike Spence, once a rising conservative political star who openly struggled with drug addiction, was found dead at an Inland Empire motel Thursday night, according to authorities. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/13/19
Beverly Hills businessman quits air board after Times charter school investigation -- Beverly Hills businessman Clark Parker has resigned from Southern California’s air quality board following a Los Angeles Times investigation into charter schools he founded with his wife. Anna M. Phillips and Tony Barboza in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/13/19
California considers the unthinkable: Canceling horse racing at Santa Anita Park -- There is a mystery unfolding along the rail here at one of the nation’s most storied horse tracks, where since Christmas nearly two dozen peak-of-form thoroughbreds have died during races or training at Santa Anita Park. No one knows why. Scott Wilson in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/13/19
Fox: Charter School Battle May End Up on the Ballot -- Can charter schools regain momentum against the education establishment which wants to re-establish monopoly control over education? That would probably require more positive results for charters at the polls—and not simply candidate elections. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 4/13/19