POLICY & POLITICS
North SJ Valley:
Turlockers seek support to recall Gov. Newsom
Turlock Journal
As the nation watches its president go through impeachment proceedings on the global stage, another battle is being waged on leadership in California by coalition of activists looking to get rid of the governor.
The city has a lovely vision for downtown Modesto. But a bad idea for how to get there
Modesto Bee
The vision of a lively, vibrant downtown — a place pulsing with positive energy, drawing people near and far, day and night — is bewitching to those who love Modesto. At times it seems we’re getting close.
California cannabis group wants tighter vaping-safety rules
Modesto Bee
An alliance of major legal marijuana businesses in California is urging the state to adopt tougher safety rules for ingredients and devices used in vaping. Recommendations from the industry group — Legal Cannabis for Consumer Safety — follow a national outbreak of mysterious and sometimes fatal lung illnesses apparently linked to vaping.
See also:
Intense anti-drug program at school Modesto Bee
‘I know many ... losing family, lives.’ Drug program hits close to home for students Modesto Bee
Central SJ Valley:
Judge delays Nunes suit after McClatchy lawyer’s home heavily damaged in wildfire
Fresno Bee
A Virginia judge postponed a hearing Monday on California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes’ lawsuit against the McClatchy Company, siding with a defense lawyer affected by the devastating California wildfires.
EDITORIAL: Media reporting would be criminalized under proposed city law. It must be rejected
Fresno Bee
A proposed law being considered Thursday by the Fresno City Council would criminalize newsgathering by organizations like The Fresno Bee. It violates the First Amendment and should be rejected out of hand.
South SJ Valley:
City Council and Supervisors to take on weighty issues at upcoming meetings
Bakersfield Californian
Both the Kern County Board of Supervisors and Bakersfield City Council will hold meetings over the next week that could drastically impact the lives of some residents. Up first, Supervisors will discuss on Tuesday a wide range of smoking and vaping bans in response to a wave of vaping injuries that have swept across the country.
Assemblyman Vince Fong hosts meeting on homeless action plan progress; Goh, McCarthy provide updates
KGET
Members of the Bakersfield Kern Regional Homeless Collaborative hosted a meeting Monday where they offered a progress report on plans of action to combat homelessness.
See also:
Rep. McCarthy discusses Trump impeachment inquiry, homelessness, Taft Correctional Institution KGET
State:
California voters approved getting rid of daylight saving time. Here's what happened
abc30
California voters approved Proposition 7 to end Daylight Saving Time on November 6, 2018. So, why did we still change our clocks this past weekend? It's a fairly straightforward answer with a not-so-simple solution.
California conservatives leaving the state for ‘redder pastures’
Los Angeles Times
The Volkswagen SUV whizzed past the Texas state line, a U-Haul trailer in tow, as it made its way toward Amarillo. “Yay!” Judy Stark cried out to her husband, Richard, as they officially left California. The pair bobbed their heads to ’50s music playing on the radio.
California appeals court says more languages must be offered in election materials
San Francisco Chronicle
California election officials are not fully complying with a law that requires them to post ballot materials in languages other than English at polling places where surveys show voters need them, a state appeals court ruled Monday.
How an abortion rights law ended up bankrolling anti-abortion forces in CA
CalMatters
California lawmakers knew the reproductive FACT Act had constitutional issues, but passed it anyway. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned it, legal penalties have been a windfall for attorneys fighting abortion here and nationally.
California conservatives leaving the state for ‘redder pastures’
Los Angeles Times
Like many other Republican and conservative voters in California, the retired couple have decided to leave the state. A major reason, Stark and her spouse say, is their disenchantment with deep-blue California’s liberal political culture.
See also:
The number of people fleeing California is growing. Is the Golden State too expensive? Sacramento Bee
California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E
Wall Street Journal
The mayors of Oakland, Sacramento and more than a dozen other California municipalities are joining San Jose in a campaign to buy out the investor-owned PG&E and turn it into a giant customer-owned cooperative.
Opinion: Anti-Deepfake Law in California Is Far Too Feeble
Wired
Deepfakes—the use of AI to generate deceptive audio or visual media depicting real people saying or doing things they did not—are a serious threat to democracy and lawmakers are aggressively responding. Unfortunately, their current efforts will largely be ineffective.
Federal:
Trump makes it official: U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord
Washington Post
The Trump administration notified the international community Monday that it plans to officially withdraw from the Paris climate accord next fall, a move that will leave the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases as the only nation to abandon the global effort to combat climate change.
See also:
Trump administration files paperwork to withdraw U.S. from Paris climate agreement Politico
Cities, states and companies vow to meet U.S. climate goals without Trump. Can they? Los Angeles Times
Elections 2020:
California’s presidential primary is up for grabs. How to win it is the question
Sacramento Bee
But the campaign trail in the Golden State is largely empty three months before mail balloting begins on Feb. 3. Political experts suggest the lack of attention is a sign that crafting a strategy just for California is nearly impossible.
For Kamala Harris’ presidential hopes, Iowa is do or die
Los Angeles Times
To revive her flagging campaign, Harris is betting big on going small. It is a marked tonal shift and a strategy born of necessity, reflecting her dwindling cash and limp poll numbers.
See also:
Tom Steyer aide resigns after stealing Kamala Harris’ SC 2020 volunteer data Palmetto Politics
California’s Voters Choice Act and the 2020 elections
Capital Weekly
In the past 20 years, we’ve seen changes to when the primary is held, then changed back, then back again. We’ve seen an open primary, then another version of the open primary. We shook up the Legislature with term limits, then imposed different term limits.
A Few Good Questions for the Next Democratic Debate
Fox & Hound
A good question to start with would be: Why is California, the most liberal and most Democratic of the big states, also America’s number one impoverished state?
Scrutiny Grows Over Elizabeth Warren’s Medicare-for-All Plan
Wall Street Journal
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s call for a Medicare-for-All health plan drew heightened scrutiny from her Democratic presidential rivals after she released a highly anticipated plan to pay for it.
See also:
Opinion: Warren Asks What the Country Can Do for You Wall Street Journal
Opinion: Column: Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump have more in common than you’d think Los Angeles Times
California’s Latino voters helped turn state blue. Will others catch the wave?
CSMonitor
Latino voters in California skew Democratic, driven in part by the politics of immigration. Should that trend repeat nationally, the demographic tide of Latino votes could move more states onto the Democratic ledger.
Opinion: Where Wealth Taxes Failed
Wall Street Journal
Bernie Sanders often points to Europe as his economic model, but there’s one lesson from the Continent that he and Elizabeth Warren want to ignore. Europe has mostly rejected the wealth taxes that the two presidential candidates are now promising for America.
Commentary: New Poll Shows Democratic Candidates Have Been Living in a Fantasy World
New York Intelligencer
In 2018, Democratic candidates waded into hostile territory and flipped 40 House districts, many of them moderate or conservative in their makeup. In almost every instance, their formula centered on narrowing their target profile by focusing on Republican weaknesses.
Opinion: A tale of two parties and their very different fields of candidates
Washington Examiner
Have you noticed that the two parties’ fields of presidential candidates have, in the past two cycles, grown much larger (if not necessarily better in quality) than those of past years? Where parties once had two to five serious candidates to choose from, Republicans in 2016 had 17 and, by my count, Democrats this cycle have had 26.
Other:
Decline of local journalism is likely increasing voter polarization
Roll Call
In May 2017, former Republican Rep. Leonard Lance crossed party lines and voted against the GOP health care repeal, a proposal deeply unpopular with voters in New Jersey’s 7th District, which he had represented in Washington for nearly a decade.
The Internet Is Less Free Than It Was a Decade Ago, Report Says
Bloomberg
The internet is less free than it was a decade ago, and it’s getting worse as some governments expand efforts to use social media to manipulate elections and monitor citizens, according to Freedom House, a Washington-based pro-democracy group.
Column: Shadowy data brokers make the most of their invisibility cloak
Los Angeles Times
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that businesses use “secret” scores to grade consumers on a variety of factors, including creditworthiness and likelihood of declaring bankruptcy. It’s been known for years that such scores exist.
MADDY INSTITUTE PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAMMING
Sunday, November 10, at 10 a.m. on ABC30 – Maddy Report: California’s Concealed Carry Permits: The Wild West of Permitting? - Guests: California State Auditor Elaine Howle. Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.
Sunday, November 10, at 10 a.m. on Newstalk 580AM/105.9FM (KMJ) – Maddy Report - Valley Views Edition: Concealed Carry Permits: Are Valley Standards the De Facto State Standards? - Guests: Fresno Co. Sheriff Margaret Mims, Tulare Co Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, Stanislaus Co. Sheriff Adam Christianson. Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.
Sunday, November 10, at 7:30 a.m. on UniMas 61 (KTTF) – El Informe Maddy: “Participacion en 2018: lo que puede significar para 2020” – Invitado: Secretario de Estado Alex Padilla, Gisell Gasca - Mi Familia Vota y Alexei Koseff con San Francisco Chronicle. Presentado Por: Coordinadora del Programa del Maddy Institute, Maria Jeans.
AGRICULTURE/FOOD
California cops seize almost 1 million marijuana plants in raids on black market farms
Sacramento Bee
Local, state and federal law enforcement in California have arrested 148 people and eradicated nearly 1 million unlicensed marijuana plants at grow sites across the state, according to a statement from the California Attorney General’s Office.
See also:
California illegal pot seizures top $1.5 billion in value Associated Press
Almost 1 million illegal marijuana plants seized in California Los Angeles Times
Sources: Law enforcement bulldozes purported hemp fields near Arvin
Bakersfield Californian
Law enforcement officials bulldozed purported hemp fields near Arvin Monday after tests showed the plants were actually marijuana, according to people familiar with the multi-agency investigation.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE / FIRE / PUBLIC SAFETY
Crime:
To solve homelessness, Californians must treat certain crimes as cries for help
CALmatters
Those of us who have watched a friend or family member wrestle with addiction or cope with mental illness recognize that certain acts are a cry for help. For one of my friends, it was getting into a car accident while under the influence, with her young children inside.
A sane, innocent woman went on suicide watch at a California jail. It nearly broke her
Sacramento Bee
Shackled at the wrists and ankles, Christine Taylor followed a red line on the basement floor directing her to the elevator at Kern County’s central jail. She heard groans and cries from among the hundred people locked above, a wail echoing through the shaft.
Public Safety:
Op-Ed: We have studied every mass shooting since 1966. Here’s what we’ve learned about the shooters
Los Angeles Times
In the last week, more than 30 people have died in three separate mass shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton, Ohio. We believe that analyzing and understanding data about who commits such massacres can help prevent more lives being lost.
Fire:
As cold weather rolls in, Kern residents encouraged to 'check before you burn'
Bakersfield Californian
It’s that time of year again. The weather is getting colder. The season is getting merrier. And for those who might want to warm things up a little with a crackling fire, it’s time to check before you burn.
This California firefighter nearly died. Then voters laid him off — in fight for lower taxes
Sacramento Bee
Firefighter Scott Wager was battling a wildfire in rural El Dorado County this summer when he and his partner were unexpectedly surrounded by roaring flames and flying embers. Wager and Capt. Chris Schwegler ran to their engine and got inside.
PG&E says its equipment may have caused another California fire during windstorm
Sacramento Bee
That means PG&E, which is under intense pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials, has been connected to five fires that began in late October. The largest, the Kincade Fire, prompted the evacuation of 180,000 residents of Sonoma County but is now 80 percent contained.
Trump Threatens To Cut Federal Fire Assistance To California, Local Fire Chief Says Aid Is Critical
KPBS
Once again, President Donald Trump is criticizing California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the handling of wildfires. "You’ve got fires eating away at California every year because management is so bad," Trump said Sunday. "The governor doesn’t know, he’s like a child he doesn’t know what he’s doing."
Invasive Grasses May Worsen Wildfires, Study Suggests
New York Times
The fires that have ignited in California, leading to mass evacuations and seemingly otherworldly scenes, may have gotten their start from a surprising source. Invasive grasses, or grasses that have encroached from other regions, can make wildfires more frequent, not just in California but nationwide.
See also:
Why Everything They Say About California Fires — Including That Climate Matters Most — Is Wrong Forbes
5 Lessons We Learned From the California Wildfires New York Times
California wildfires signal the arrival of a planetary fire age PBS NewsHour
ECONOMY / JOBS
Economy:
California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E
Wall Street Journal
The mayors of Oakland, Sacramento and more than a dozen other California municipalities are joining San Jose in a campaign to buy out the investor-owned PG&E and turn it into a giant customer-owned cooperative.
PG&E’s spending on lobbying climbed amid bankruptcy, rate hike requests
Fresno Bee
As Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s bankruptcy unfolded, the embattled utility increased its lobbying at the California Capitol, expense records filed with the Secretary of State show. The state’s largest privately owned utility faces billions of dollars in claims from wildfires sparked by its equipment in 2017 and 2018.
Most business incentives don’t work. Here’s how to fix them.
Brookings
In 2017, the state of Wisconsin agreed to provide $4 billion in state and local tax incentives to the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn. In return, the Taiwan-based company promised to build a new manufacturing plant in the state for flat-screen television displays and the subsequent creation of 13,000 new jobs.
Uber Posts $1.2 Billion Loss as Growth Improves
New York Times
Uber has reported record losses and slowing growth over the past few months. Its stock has tanked. While Uber is still losing large amounts of money, it did not bleed as much cash as it did in the previous quarter, and its revenue growth rate improved.
U.S., China Consider Rolling Back Tariffs as Part of Initial Trade Deal
Wall Street Journal
U.S. and Chinese officials are actively considering rolling back some tariffs to clinch the partial trade deal under negotiation, according to people familiar with the talks. “If there’s a deal, [removing] tariffs will be part of it,” a senior administration official said late Monday.
Why Are 401(k)/IRA Balances Substantially Below Potential?
Center for Retirement Research
401(k)s/IRAs have the potential to provide significant wealth. But a typical 60-year-old with a 401(k) in 2016 had less than $100,000 compared to a potential $360,000 in combined 401(k)/IRA assets.
Opinion: The Truth About Income Inequality
Wall Street Journal
Never in American history has the debate over income inequality so dominated the public square, with Democratic presidential candidates and congressional leaders calling for massive tax increases and federal expenditures to redistribute the nation’s income.
Jobs
Valley’s fastest growing companies shine bright
Business Journal
With The Business Journal’s 2019 Fastest Growing Companies list (published Oct. 25) comes a variety of companies ranging from upstarts in their industries to recognizable, household names that continue to grow today.
Nestle to lay off 600 Bakersfield workers in action it calls ‘temporary’
KERO
On Monday, Nestlé USA, lnc. announced that its South Bakersfield facility on District Boulevard will temporarily lay off around 600 employees starting December 13.
Bakersfield Californian
Charter Communications announced it has laid off 75 people at its Bakersfield facility at 4450 California Ave. The telecommunications company said the layoffs will not result in the facility's closure.
Newsom has an organized labor problem
Politico
Some of California's most powerful unions are openly denouncing Gov. Gavin Newsom less than a year into his tenure, exposing early fractures in the Democratic governor's base after he spurned proposals they considered a bellwether of his support for labor.
EDUCATION
K-12:
Local VFW post changing name in memory of Medal of Honor winner
Bakersfield Californian
Veterans of Foreign Wars Foothill Post 7216 in east Bakersfield is working to change its name in honor of the memory of East Bakersfield High School alumnus and Medal of Honor recipient Leonard L. Alvarado. Bill Lytle was there in Phuoc Long Province, Vietnam when Alvarado earned the Medal of Honor, and lost his life in the process.
Local school district's test scores exceed state average for first time
abc30
A local school district's test scores are exceeding the state average for the very first time. Test scores at Kings Canyon Unified School District (KCUSD) have been rising steadily over the years, but this is the first time they've surpassed the state average.
Intense anti-drug program at school
Modesto Bee
The Drug Store Project showed students at Whitehead Intermediate School in Waterford what can come from bad decisions on alcohol and drugs.
See also:
Blackface classroom rap lands California teacher on suspension, school says
Sacramento Bee
A Northern California high school teacher has been put on leave after a video went viral online showing a staff member in blackface performing a rap on Halloween. The Twitter user who shared the video on Friday wrote that a white teacher at Milpitas High School “decided to paint his face (to) look like Common the rapper yesterday.”
Higher Ed:
BC to host symposium bringing together educational leaders to increase degree attainment
Bakersfield Californian
When students in Kern County graduate high school, often times higher education isn't on their mind. Instead, they might have to help their families financially and put college on hold.
New funding provides two free years of community college. How it could help in Modesto
Modesto Bee
Many Californians can attend two full years of community college for free thanks to an expansion of the California College Promise Program in the 2019-20 budget. With the California College Promise Program, first-time, full-time community college students can get their college career started with less fear of going into debt.
A novel idea for California: requiring students to fill out financial aid forms
EdSource
Beyond all the debate about the types and sizes of financial aid for college, one fact matters most for students and parents: You can’t get grants and loans unless you apply for them.
ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY
Environment:
EPA proposes eased regulations on coal-ash pollution
Sacramento Bee
The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday proposed to make it easier for power companies to dispose of the toxic residues from burning coal, building on other steps the agency has already taken to rewrite Obama-era rules for coal ash pollution.
Sacramento Bee
It's the time of year when ghouls and goblins, mummies and monsters are out in force. But unlike many Halloween creatures, bats live in more than the imagination, making their homes in caves and hollowed-out trees in Illinois and the urban parks of Chicago.
Trump team has a plan for national parks: Amazon, food trucks and no senior discounts
Los Angeles Times
At the urging of a controversial team of advisors, the Trump administration is mulling proposals to privatize national park campgrounds and further commercialize the parks with expanded Wi-Fi service, food trucks and even Amazon deliveries at tourist camp sites.
California’s plastic pollution fight may be headed to voters
San Francisco Chronicle
California environmentalists battling to stop plastic from polluting the ocean and piling up in landfills say they can’t wait for state lawmakers to act — they’re hoping to take the fight to the ballot box.
San Francisco Chronicle
Dino Torres, an Oakland Fire Department battalion chief, was telling me how Station No. 17 on High Street, a block from Interstate 580, specialized in fighting wildfires. Then, two bells rang. It was an emergency. Someone called about sagging power lines.
When the power went out during California’s wildfires, the air quality monitors turned off, too
Washington Post
The 2019 wildfires have laid bare the drawbacks to an air quality monitoring system designed more for measuring large swaths of land over time than for providing real-time, localized data that is more valuable in disasters like wildfires.
Trump makes it official: U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord
Washington Post
The Trump administration notified the international community Monday that it plans to officially withdraw from the Paris climate accord next fall, a move that will leave the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases as the only nation to abandon the global effort to combat climate change.
See also:
Trump administration files paperwork to withdraw U.S. from Paris climate agreement Politico
Cities, states and companies vow to meet U.S. climate goals without Trump. Can they? Los Angeles Times
HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES
Health:
Fresno County is in ‘state of preterm birth crisis among women of color.’ What’s being done?
Fresno Bee
Niecia Harris was 32 weeks pregnant when she suddenly stopped feeling her baby move inside her womb. His heartbeat slowed down, and doctors at Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center had to do an emergency C-section.
Ground beef is likely cause of salmonella outbreak that killed 1, hospitalized 8, CDC says
abc30
One person from California is dead and eight others are in the hospital after ground beef likely caused a salmonella outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California cannabis group wants tighter vaping-safety rules
Modesto Bee
An alliance of major legal marijuana businesses in California is urging the state to adopt tougher safety rules for ingredients and devices used in vaping. Recommendations from the industry group — Legal Cannabis for Consumer Safety — follow a national outbreak of mysterious and sometimes fatal lung illnesses apparently linked to vaping.
California’s strict vaccination law will have only ‘modest’ impact, study says
Los Angeles Times
Since California tightened its childhood vaccination laws in 2016, public health officials across the country have been closely watching for signs of success in bolstering vaccination rates. In a brief in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers found that the strict law will have only a “modest” impact in increasing vaccination rates by 2027.
Human Services:
How an abortion rights law ended up bankrolling anti-abortion forces in CA
CalMatters
California lawmakers knew the reproductive FACT Act had constitutional issues, but passed it anyway. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned it, legal penalties have been a windfall for attorneys fighting abortion here and nationally.
Rural and Safety Net Hospitals Prepare for Cut in Federal Support
Pew Trusts
Absent action by Congress in the next three weeks, Dr. Michael Waldrum, CEO of Vidant Health, is going to have to figure out what medical services to deny hard-pressed communities in rural eastern North Carolina.
As Meth Use Surges, One Region Tries to Combat ‘The Pull’
Pew Trusts
When Haas was 24, her doctor prescribed OxyContin for back pain. She quickly progressed to heroin — and then to methamphetamines. Now 30 and in recovery, she described the grip that meth had over her for more than five years.
Obscure Model Puts a Price on Good Health—and Drives Down Drug Costs
Wall Street Journal
The makers of the cholesterol-lowering drug Praluent, which first went on sale for $14,600, offered to sell it for as little as $4,500, after rebates. A new migraine drug called Aimovig, expected to cost up to $10,000 a year, went on sale for $6,900.
IMMIGRATION
Statewide Call-In Special -- Proposition 187: 25 Years Later
KVPR
The clash was crystalized in the battle over Proposition 187, a ballot measure that sought to bar the state’s undocumented population from accessing public benefits, among other things. Billions in taxpayer money, proponents argued, would be saved by 187. Opponents called it “anti-immigrant.”
See also:
How The 25th Anniversary Of Proposition 187 Resonates Today Capital Public Radio
For ICE, business as usual is never business as usual in era of Trump
Los Angeles Times
Americans hold sharply divergent views of ICE. Some support the controversial agency’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Others, angered by tactics they find excessive and even unconstitutional, want it abolished.
Op-Ed: Want to fix the United States’ immigration and economic challenges? Try place-based visas.
AEI
Over the past decade, fewer births, mostly flat immigration rates and a rapidly aging society have reduced overall U.S. population growth to its lowest rate since the Great Depression. As a result, the country adds roughly 900,000 fewer people each year than it did in the early 2000s.
LAND USE/HOUSING
Land Use:
New Modesto manufacturing plant Entekra could turn city into hub for home building
Modesto Bee
Construction company Entekra, which specializes in automated off-site wood framing for homes, showed off its new $35 million headquarters and facility in south Modesto on Monday.
The city has a lovely vision for downtown Modesto. But a bad idea for how to get there
Modesto Bee
The vision of a lively, vibrant downtown — a place pulsing with positive energy, drawing people near and far, day and night — is bewitching to those who love Modesto. At times it seems we’re getting close.
Housing:
Apple commits $2.5 billion to combat California housing crisis
abc30
Apple will give $2.5 billion to help assist with the housing crisis in California. The company says $1 billion will create an affordable housing investment fund. Another $1 billion will go towards a first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund.
See also:
Apple Pledges $2.5 Billion To Combat California's Housing Crisis Valley Public Radio
Public invited to check out new Modesto homeless shelter
Modesto Bee
Officials are holding an open house Tuesday for the new 182-bed homeless shelter, which is expected to open Nov. 15 near downtown Modesto. The public can hear from officials about the project and tour the shelter, which occupies part of The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center at Ninth and D streets. The open house starts at 1:30 p.m.
High Speed Rail Authority purchases Bakersfield Homeless Center
KGET
California’s High Speed Rail Authority has purchased the Bakersfield Homeless Center campus allowing for plans for a more certain future for the shelter, according to a statement from the homeless center.
See also:
High-speed rail, Homeless Center finalize long-awaited agreement Bakersfield Californian
Madera Residents Suspect Eviction Notices Mean Landlord Wants To Avoid New Renter Protections
KVPR
Residents of a Madera apartment complex are being evicted en masse, and some suspect the landlord is issuing evictions to avoid upcoming renter protections.
New Study 'Evicted in Fresno' Finds Highest Rates of Evictions Are In South Fresno
KVPR
Thousands of people in Fresno County are evicted from their homes every year. It’s a misconception that failing to pay rent is the only reason people are evicted, according to a study just released by the organization Faith in the Valley.
Lenders Support, Advocates Slam Trump Housing Plan
Pew Trusts
A Trump administration plan to shift the full burden of proof onto plaintiffs suing over housing discrimination drew tens of thousands of responses from individuals, housing advocates, mayors, public housing authorities, state officials, builders and bankers.
PUBLIC FINANCES
Californians benefit most from this federal tax break. It’s under siege in Washington
Sacramento Bee
A California Air Resources Board report this year to the Legislature found that state and federal tax incentives help consumers bridge the pricing gap for the cars, which tend to cost more than comparable conventional vehicles.
Pension costs hitting home — hard
CALmatters
Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Protection District came into being 14 years ago when four small fire departments serving farms and small towns east of Modesto merged. The district now flirts with insolvency, a case study in how rapidly growing costs for pensions and other employee benefits are clobbering local governments.
TRANSPORTATION
DMV may be overcharging Kern County residents with use tax
Bakersfield Californian
The Department of Motor Vehicles may be charging tax rates higher than allowed for some Kern County residents. Assemblyman Vince Fong’s office is looking into two complaints of sales tax issues involving the DMV in Bakersfield.
WATER
Does a rain-free October signal a return to drought in California?
Los Angeles Times
“There are 200 different definitions of drought,” said climatologist Bill Patzert. “If you’re a firefighter with no rain in the month of October, and there are strong Diablo and Santa Ana winds, it’s a drought.” Southern California got no rain during October, and it was desiccated by super-dry Santa Ana winds.
Priorities for California’s Water
Public Policy Institute of California
After years of responding to severe drought, the state’s water management systems were pushed to the breaking point last year by heavy rains that flooded towns and farmland, damaged infrastructure, and caused landslides.
USA Today
A recent risk assessment determined that, in an extreme weather event, water could flow over the nearly 50-year-old dam and it could breach, endangering 16,000 residents downstream and property valued at $1.5 billion.
“Xtra”
To Keep Communities Beautiful 'We Need People With Energy And Enthusiasm'
KVPR
The Keep America Beautiful campaign, established in 1953, has motivated communities to clean their neighborhoods, and those efforts are now expanding into the City of Fresno and Kern County.
Valley Public Radio To Sponsor Storytelling Event In Bakersfield
KVPR
The Beale Memorial Library, in association with Bakersfield Toastmasters Clubs and Valley Public Radio will present a storyteller's showcase - an evening of true stories, told before a live audience. The theme of the event will be "Miles to Go Before I Sleep."
Asked for money on streets, what should Christians do? Modesto clergy on helping poor
Modesto Bee
That admonition from the Bible reportedly was among Mother Theresa’s favorites — not surprising given that the Catholic nun and now saint dedicated her life to helping the poorest of the poor.
Goodbye Honey-Do List, Hello Shared-Labor App
Wall Street Journal
Christy MacGregor and Ted Iobst set aside time every Sunday evening to go over their shared to-do list. Most of the items are tasks like scheduling doctor appointments and organizing play dates for their three young children.
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