Updating . .   

Police agencies forfeit millions after new law chokes off funds from asset seizures -- Jewels worth $7.2 million were seized in Los Angeles. Fine art worth $4.1 million was seized in Signal Hill. U.S. currency totaling $30.8 million was seized in Beverly Hills. Teri Sforza in the Orange County Register -- 4/21/19

How Gov. Gavin Newsom is progressing on his key policy promises for California -- In his first 100 days in office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly set about launching parts of the progressive agenda he promised during his campaign. On the day Newsom was sworn into office, the Democrat vowed to expand Medi-Cal coverage for immigrants in the country illegally and drive down the high cost of prescription drugs. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

A national first: San Francisco opens safe house for embattled transgender youths -- Transgender homeless youths now have the nation’s first transitional housing shelter program made specifically for them. It quietly opened in San Francisco, filling a need long described as acute and tragic by counselors. Kevin Fagan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

Mounting lawsuits against Juul reminiscent of early tobacco litigation -- The 15-year-old girl’s path to nicotine addiction is familiar to many teens of the “Juul generation”: Initially drawn to the vapor’s sweet mango flavor, she started taking puffs from a Juul e-cigarette when she was 14, not knowing it contained nicotine, the same addictive substance found in tobacco cigarettes. Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

Bretón: Before Mayor Pete, Mayor Chris helped pave the way in West Sacramento -- The story of how West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon became an integral part of a presidential campaign announcement rally last week for Pete Buttigieg, the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and an openly gay man, says something profound about social progress in America against all odds. Marcos Bretón in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/21/19

Students of the college scandal: Who knew, who didn’t and why so many ended up at USC -- It’s been called the largest college admissions cheating scandal in U.S. history. And with some of the accused parents expected to formally plead guilty in coming weeks, attention is turning to their kids and how the scandal might affect their acceptance, enrollment or degrees. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/21/19

H-1B: Meet the attorneys behind the tech industry’s favorite visa -- Marco Satala is an H-1B superstar. He filed 9,338 new visa applications in the past fiscal year — roughly one an hour if he worked every hour of every day. Leonardo Castañeda and Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/21/19

On patrol with an LAPD unit whose traffic stops prompted racial-profiling concerns -- After a Times investigation showing that Metro pulled over black drivers at a rate more than five times their share of the city’s population, Mayor Eric Garcetti in early February ordered the LAPD to scale back on vehicle stops like this one. Cindy Chang in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

Five years later, some fear Orange County jail snitch scandal will go unpunished -- Nearly five years have passed since a lawyer representing the man who slaughtered eight people inside a Seal Beach salon first raised questions about the way investigators used informants inside Orange County’s jails. James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

Lawyer files $5-million claim, saying L.A. City Hall rat problem caused her illness -- A Los Angeles city attorney who says a City Hall rat infestation caused her to contract flea-borne typhus has filed a $5-million legal claim, saying Mayor Eric Garcetti and other elected officials allowed trash outside her office to become a threat to public health. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

L.A. quadruples the fine for disabled-placard fraud -- After 17 years navigating Los Angeles in a wheelchair, reality star Angela Rockwood rarely bothers looking for a blue spot to park anymore. Sonja Sharp in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

Build 10,000 houses for homeless in 10 years? L.A. is closer, but it'll have to stretch funds -- In 2016, Los Angeles voters approved a $1.2-billion bond measure to help fund housing for homeless people, with a goal of 10,000 new units in a decade. Now, after hustling to get as many housing projects started as soon as possible, city officials are coming to the end of the money available through Proposition HHH, and it’s not certain that promise will be kept. Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

Hollywood hit-and-run victim had been wrongfully convicted of murder in Australia -- Andrew Mallard got another chance at life after the highest court in Australia tossed out his murder conviction in 2005, ultimately allowing him to go free after more than a decade in prison. That life ended this week in Hollywood, when Mallard was killed by a hit-and-run driver. Emily Alpert Reyes in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

Harris’ half-million-dollar presidential campaign kickoff pays off -- Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential kickoff drew an estimated 20,000 people to Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza, but the Jan. 27 rally didn’t come cheap. Federal Election Commission records show the Democrat’s campaign paid a whopping $484,896 to the Sacramento events production company Legion AVS to stage the event, where the overflow crowd spilled onto downtown streets for blocks. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

Schiff: ‘Ample evidence of collusion in plain sight’ -- Responding to attacks by White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Rep. Adam Schiff on Sunday insisted his criticism of the Trump administration was not wrong, saying there was “ample evidence of collusion in plain sight.” David Cohen Politico -- 4/21/19

Interior’s Bernhardt worked closely on matters he promised to avoid -- New disclosures of the secretary's schedule add to questions surrounding his ties to past lobbying clients, including a California water district. Annie Snider Politico -- 4/21/19

Trump tweets, then deletes, grossly overstated death toll in Sri Lanka church explosions -- “Heartfelt condolences from the people of the United States to the people of Sri Lanka on the horrible terrorist attacks on churches and hotels that have killed at least 138 million people and badly injured 600 more,” Trump tweeted. “We stand ready to help!” As of 2018, the population of Sri Lanka was around 22 million. Katie Mettler in the Washington Post$ -- 4/21/19

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Mueller report takes muzzle off pro-impeachment Democrats -- In the aftermath of Robert Mueller’s report, impeachment is turning into a major problem — for Democrats. They can’t agree on whether to pursue it. Joe Garofoli and John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

Willie Brown: Impeachment would be suicide for Democrats -- So we finally have the Mueller report. What do the Democrats do now? I say, plow on. Call for hearings. Go over every page, line by line, if for no other reason than to make everyone aware of every questionable act committed by President Trump and his entourage. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

‘We let the public down’: Outrage swirls after man convicted of 1985 Richmond murder freed from Death Row -- A February plea deal that set a man free from Death Row 33 years after he was convicted of raping and beating an 84-year-old widow to death has led to harsh criticism from inside and outside the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office. Nate Gartrell in the East Bay Times -- 4/21/19

LAPD gang officer reported to be stable after undergoing surgery, he and a suspect were shot and injured in South L.A. -- The gang officer patrolling in South Los Angeles made a traffic stop just after 9 p.m. in the area of 52nd Street and Long Beach Avenue, pulling over a vehicle with two occupants, Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Mehgan Aguilar said. A foot chase ensued that led to an officer-involved shooting in which one suspect and one officer were wounded, Aguilar said. The item is in the Orange County Register -- 4/21/19

Walters: Why is our ‘achievement gap’ so stubborn? -- California has poured tens of billions of additional dollars into its public schools this decade on the assumption – or hope – that they would close the state’s stubborn academic “achievement gap.” Dan Walters Calmatters -- 4/21/19

Housing  

Will rent control and other tenant bills get through the Capitol this time? -- Ready for another fight over rent control? Six months after a statewide initiative that could have expanded rent control across California was rejected overwhelmingly at the polls, a group of progressive state lawmakers are back with a suite of pro-tenant legislation that faces its first major legislative hurdle this month. Matt Levin Calmatters -- 4/21/19

Wildfire  

A Third of Homes Lost in 2017 Tubbs Fire Now Being Rebuilt -- In 2017, the Tubbs Fire razed several thousand homes in Santa Rosa. One of the neighborhoods hardest hit was Coffey Park. Now, waves of families are returning home. Adia White KQED -- 4/21/19

Education 

Silicon Valley Came to Kansas Schools. That Started a Rebellion -- Public schools in Kansas rolled out a web-based learning platform backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Now students have staged walkouts and sit-ins. Their parents have organized. Nellie Bowles in the New York Times$ -- 4/21/19

Cannabis 

High turnout for annual 420 pot festival on Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill -- Smokers passed cone-shaped joints, cradled glass pipes of all sizes and worked to keep blazing blunts alive amid strong winds on the grassy fields of Golden Gate Park as part of the annual 420 celebration at Hippie Hill. Lauren Hernández in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/21/19

Also . . . 

Charley Hess, dean who built UC Davis agriculture college’s reputation, dies at 87 -- Charles “Charley” Hess, the dean emeritus of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis who was instrumental in building the college’s reputation as one of the top schools for agricultural and environmental studies in the world, has died. He was 87. Mila Jasper in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/21/19

POTUS 45  

Trump lashes out at Romney -- President Donald Trump on Saturday ridiculed Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 election — one day after Romney said he was “sickened” by Trump’s actions as detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. Quint Forgey Politico -- 4/21/19

Beltway 

McManus: Ten questions Congress should ask Robert Mueller (and how he might respond) -- Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was supposed to provide clear answers to two questions: Did Donald Trump collude with Russia in his 2016 presidential campaign? And as president did he try to obstruct the investigations that ensued? Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/21/19

 

-- Saturday Updates 

Meet the woman trying to save the DMV -- She’s been called a “Jedi knight” when it comes to slashing bureaucratic red tape, a benevolent Svengali skilled at breaking down complex government organizations into their most basic parts, the calming eye at the center of political hurricanes. Erin Baldassari in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/20/19

Remorseful Felicity Huffman could get home confinement over prison time -- When actress Felicity Huffman announced she would plead guilty to charges related to the college admissions scandal, she expressed unwavering remorse for her actions. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/20/19

Lopez: He got into a great college the old fashioned way. He dreamed big, worked hard -- Eva Vazquez was at a bus stop on Wilshire Boulevard, on the way to work as a cashier at a discount store near MacArthur Park, when her phone rang. “I knew it was probably him,” she said. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/20/19

Teen starts club to encourage male peers to join the conversation about ‘rape culture’ -- It was by chance that Ezugo Ononye found himself on the Sage Hill School campus in Newport Beach the same weekend as a women’s empowerment summit in April last year. Lilly Nguyen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/20/19

Wildfires make it harder for California homeowners to get insurance -- As the cost and risk of California wildfires grow, it’s getting harder for homeowners to get and keep insurance in fire-prone regions including the Sierra foothills, Tahoe and some parts of the Bay Area. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/20/19

Great whites the most fearsome ocean predators? New findings say no -- Great white sharks, long considered the most bloodthirsty killers in the sea, are cream puffs compared with killer whales, fleeing like scaredy-cats whenever the black-and-white predators show up at their Farallon Islands feeding grounds, researchers have found. Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/20/19

Tech IPOs add fuel to San Francisco’s office boom -- Next to the Warriors’ new arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, Uber’s four new headquarters buildings are rising. The ride-hailing giant, which has filed to go public this year, plans to move 7,000 employees there starting in 2020. Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/20/19

‘An audio gathering ground’ is slashed: The purge of a public radio station -- Dramatic funding cuts, staff firings and the sudden clear-out last week of KHSU-FM, Humboldt State University’s popular public radio station, have outraged North Coast listeners and lawmakers who are demanding to know what has happened to a community institution. Darrell Smith in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/20/19

Lawsuit: San Jose landlord illegally evicted renters -- A group of tenants is suing their landlord, alleging she evicted them from their rent-controlled apartments under false pretenses, and in violation of a new city ordinance. Marisa Kendall in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/20/19

Richmond-San Rafael Bridge studies to assess shelf life of decks -- State transportation agencies are set to kick off a $300,000 study next week to analyze the condition of the bridge decks. The study will be one part of a larger assessment headed by the Bay Area Toll Authority and Caltrans of several of the Bay Area’s state-owned bridges. Will Houston in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/20/19