Political Stories – Top stories

Some women worried about Trump, rush to get affordable birth control — Three days after November’s election results were in, Alia Kuykendall made an intensely personal decision. She rethought her plan to remove the intrauterine device, or IUD, that she had been using since 2014 to ward off pregnancy. Like other California women, the 23-year-old Sacramento resident worried about consequences of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency on reproductive services and rights. Sacramento Bee article

Stanislaus County supervisor was independent, and smart, in three terms on board, colleagues say — Stanislaus County Supervisor Bill O’Brien is finishing a third term and attended his final board meeting last week. As they paid tribute to the 44-year-old retiring board member, colleagues said county government is losing a policy expert and a creative mind that took on challenges. Modesto Bee article

Valley politics

Two dozen vie for mayor, council members booted: The year in politics — Our top political stories include the historically crowded race for Bakersfield mayor, the ouster of two council members and David Valadao’s statement third win in the 21st Congressional District. Bakersfield Californian article

 Statewide politics/Ballot Measures

Ed Reinecke, California’s lieutenant governor who resigned after perjury conviction, dies at 92 — Ed Reinecke, the California lieutenant governor who resigned after being convicted of perjury in a Watergate-era scandal, died Saturday in Laguna Hills. LA Times article

Presidential Politics

Inside the Trump Organization, the company that has run Trump’s big world– With extensive entanglements around the world, many packaged in a network of licensing agreements and limited liability companies, the Trump Organization poses a raft of potential conflicts of interest for a president-elect who has long exerted such control over his company that, as he told The New York Times in a recent interview, he is the one who signs the checks. “I like to sign checks so I know what is going on,” he explained. New York Times article

 News Stories – Top Stories

Housing, retail, entertainment ‘super block’ planned south of Chukchansi Park – Fresno developer Terance Frazier wants to create a “super block” of apartments, restaurants, brew pubs and entertainment south of downtown Fresno’s Chukchansi Park. Fresno Bee article

Beer at your bookstore or nail salon? Alcohol at unexpected businesses could draw customers, but also health concerns – Movie theaters, grocery stores, nail salons, fast-food restaurants and other businesses that haven’t typically offered alcohol are trying their hand at it, hoping to draw customers with craft beer, wine and other offerings. Two new state laws have made it easier for some businesses to provide liquor. For public health researchers, that has raised some red flags. LA Times article

Jobs and the Economy

Will art finally bring Sacramento back to the river? — There aren’t many decorations yet in Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s office at Sacramento City Hall. But he does have one thing hanging on the wall: a map of Sacramento’s riverfront. Like his predecessors in that office, Steinberg sees the river as Sacramento’s untapped resource. The Sacramento River gave life to this city. Sacramento Bee article

Agriculture/Water/Drought

T&D Willey Farms passes its organic legacy to Food Commons Fresno — A 75-acre plot of land farmed by Tom and Denesse Willey just west of Madera sits empty. Just a few weeks ago, the final harvest of the year was wrapping up at the direction of the Willeys, who are retiring and handing their organic farm operation over to Food Commons Fresno. Fresno Bee article

Criminal Justice/Prisons

Stockton police bring cheer—and some tears – to children and families in need — Dozens of Stockton police vehicles cruise silently along the 100 block of W. Oak Street as the sun begins to rise on Christmas morning. As they reach their destination, the home of Taneisha Gasaway, sirens began to blare, mixed in with classic Christmas jingles. Stockton Record article

Under intense pressure, LA DA faces crucial test with two high-profile police shootings — In her latest test, Lacey has to decide whether to file charges in two high-profile killings of black men by police, including one in which Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck has publicly urged her to prosecute the officer who shot an unarmed man in the back near the Venice boardwalk last year.  LA Times article

Man dies after being hobbled by California sheriff’s department —  A man arrested by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department died after authorities say he was hobbled and put in the back seat of a patrol car. The sheriff’s department said Sunday that they responded to a call of an unwanted man in the remote community of Trona Friday afternoon. AP article

 Education

Where have California’s black college students gone? – Over the past decade, a surge of African American enrollment at California colleges, driven particularly by rapid expansion of the for-profit sector, just as quickly reversed course. The Public Policy Institute of California recently found that between 2011 and 2014, the most recent year data are available, the number of black college students in the state decreased by 13 percent, below 2008 figures. Sacramento Bee article

Gloria Allen hopes to find future avenues to serve —  Inside a downtown Stockton Starbucks on a bitterly cold morning in late November, Gloria Allen relayed her mixed feelings about leaving behind a position she loves: serving on the Stockton Unified Board of Trustees. Stockton Record article

Leaving ‘Homeless U’ behind, Brittany Jones gets an apartment — Two weeks ago Brittany Jones was homeless. Now she is safe and warm in an Oakland apartment, thanks to a KQED listener. KQED report

Health/Human Services

California victims of eugenics-based sterilization programs deserve reparations, researchers say — California should pay reparations to victims of its eugenics-based sterilization programs, which took away the reproductive abilities of about 20,000 people in the first half of the 20th century, researchers said in a new study. LA Times article

Land Use/Housing

One of the last Galt-area dairies looks to turn land into ranchette lots — Driving down Live Oak Avenue just west of Galt, green fields divided into long rectangular lots by white picket fences give way to a set of run-down buildings and cows. It’s the old Rocha Bros. Dairy, operated for decades by George, John and Frank Rocha. These days, another dairyman rents the facility and the 50 acres of land from the Rochas, who would like to close it down for good. Sacramento Bee article

Transportation

New years, new rules of the road — What better time than the day after Christmas, as that holiday glow begins to fade, for a primer from the Department of Motor Vehicles on new laws that will affect just about every driver in 2017? Stockton Record article

Other areas

Top stories nos. 6-10 – Candidates’ visits to police retention – Visits to Stockton by Bernie Sanders and Bill Clinton and improvements in the Stockton Police Department’s retention rates were among the Stockton Record’s top 10 stories of the year.  Stockton Record article

Fitz’s Stockton: A sign goes to ‘L’ and back — A crane plucked the giant, revolving ‘L’ off Lincoln Center’s 100-foot sign tower Dec. 9. A flatbed hauled it away. People who grew up with the iconic sign had an ing-bing. Fitz’s Stockton in Stockton Record

Fire department emails: Inspections flawed in fire-prone Oakland hills — Oakland’s embattled fire department, already under scrutiny for failing to inspect the Ghost Ship warehouse before this month’s deadly blaze, is facing a new round of allegations about its lax fire prevention efforts in one of the region’s most vulnerable areas to wildfires: the Oakland Hills, site of a 1991 firestorm that killed 25 people and destroyed thousands of homes. East Bay Times article