February 2012
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Fewer smokers is bad news for California’s budget. A major bond rating agency sounded an alarm this month, saying the state may have borrowed more than $4 billion against settlement money that might never materialize.
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Southern Californians at risk of death from air...
Southern Californians are among those at highest risk of death due to air pollution, according to recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research published in the journal Risk Analysis.
The study, published last month, was conducted to “provide insight to the size and location of public health risks associated with recent levels of fine particles and ozone, allowing decision-makers to...
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“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the...”
– Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion declaring that California’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. More in the San Francisco Chronicle.
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Californians gave more than $12 million to super...
In all, California residents gave more to super PACs last year than residents of any other state except Texas (which threw millions behind its own governor, Rick Perry), New York and Washington, D.C., according to filings submitted yesterday – the first time most super PAC donors have been made public.
See who’s donating to what super PAC in our new searchable database.
January 2012
13 posts
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SF official wants to restrict police role in...
A San Francisco politician wants tougher oversight of local police and the role they play in terrorism investigations following complaints from residents that they were unnecessarily targeted for questioning and surveillance by Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
Dozens of new task forces led by the FBI were created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks so local, state and federal law enforcement could work...
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Healthycal.org: Rethinking poverty in Alameda... →
healthycal:
The Alameda Point Collaborative, a non-profit in Alameda California, has converted former Navy housing into 200 affordable units for homeless families.
Doug Biggs is the executive director of A.P.C. “We’re an entire community out here. It’s not just like other housing programs. Other homeless programs are a facility, but we’re a real neighborhood,” said Biggs.
A.P.C....
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“Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand...”
– Chris Dodd, former U.S. senator and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, to Fox News last week.
As anti-piracy legislation stalled in Congress last week, the movie industry’s top lobbyist, former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, warned Democrats not to count on Hollywood money if...
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Counterterror, disaster response centers not...
Dozens of high-tech command centers built or beefed up throughout the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to promote better information sharing and disaster preparation have struggled to do just that.
No state has more intelligence fusion centers than California, with five of the 72 around the country that are formally recognized today by the federal government. They were first...
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WatchReporter Tim Sheehan of the Fresno Bee traveled to Spain to talk to passengers and experts about the high-speed rail system that opened there in 1992. What can California learn from Spain?
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Monterey, Alameda counties have highest youth...
Monterey County had the highest youth homicide rate in California in 2010, followed by Alameda County, according to an analysis conducted by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit group focused on curbing firearms violence.
The homicide rate for 10- to 24-year-olds in Monterey County, which includes Salinas, was 24.36 per 100,000, nearly triple the statewide rate. Alameda County, which...
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Border agency seeks more unmanned aircraft use in...
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are looking to expand the use of remotely piloted surveillance aircraft to cover nearly all of California, allowing the unmanned vehicles to fly over the last major section of the Southwest border. The agency’s Office of Air and Marine expects the Federal Aviation Administration this year to permit it to extend its unmanned aircraft operations...
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California has 745 new laws on the books for 2012.
More from KQED: “Some of them put the state in new territory, such as a law that mandates teaching the contributions of gays and lesbians. Others, like the California Dream Act, grant tuition benefits to undocumented immigrants.”
December 2011
15 posts
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WatchWhether it’s the seismic safety of our schools or the pesticides that might be sprayed on your strawberries, California Watch produces stories that matter. In an age of aggregators, we are content creators! Learn more about us and consider making a donation today!
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Controversial church sends kids to solicit money...
A West Oakland church and private school that sends children to solicit donations at BART stations has a history of financial and legal troubles, including two cases in which church leaders admitted they illegally received government assistance.
The children, including one who said he was 7 years old, have been raising funds for St. Andrew Missionary Baptist Church at East Bay BART stations...
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Barry Bonds put on probation in BALCO steroids...
Barry Bonds, holder of baseball’s career home run record and former San Francisco Giants superstar, was put on probation today for obstructing justice in the BALCO steroids scandal.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston rejected a plea by federal prosecutors to punish Bonds with a 15-month prison term on his felony conviction for obstruction of justice. She also agreed to postpone imposing the...
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Live Tweet Coverage from Barry Bonds Sentencing
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=458a5d22ce” _mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=458a5d22ce” >Barry Bonds Sentenced, Dec. 16</a>
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“This report concludes that the [Division of the State Architect] is unable to...”
– From the California State Auditor report “The Division of the State Architect Lacks Enforcement Authority and Has Weak Oversight Procedures, Increasing the Risk That School Construction Projects May Be Unsafe.”
The new report confirms the findings of our On Shaky Ground investigation...
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“I don’t think the levels that are approved for use in wine in the EU and...”
– Wendell Lee, general counsel for the Wine Institute, the trade group for California’s wine industry. Lee commented on the news that the Australian government has given the nod to winemakers to begin using a chemical contained in laxatives.
While the chemical, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose,...
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Maywood residents facing pollution outline...
California Watch’s Public Engagement Manager Ashley Alvarado visited Maywood, Calif., to listen and learn from community members. Read her full report here.
The invite was a pleasant surprise. Janet Wilson’s excellent report on the severe health struggles of one Maywood family and the polluted conditions that envelop them had run recently, and I was doing research for “A Field Guide...
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Fewer than 1 out of 4 schools in California is staffed with a credentialed librarian, according to the state Department of Education.
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HIV, AIDs rates rise sharply among blacks,...
The profile of HIV and AIDS patients in California has shifted significantly since the disease first made headlines 30 years ago, reflecting the success of drugs to extend patients’ lives and the failures to stem the spread of the disease in diverse communities.
A statewide analysis of health data [PDF] completed in recognition of World AIDS Day, celebrated today, reveals the changing face of...
New reality show offers two men $1M to sneak out... →
centerforinvestigativereporting:
From our homeland security reporter G.W. Schulz …
ageofperil:
It’s almost 2013, so perhaps no one should be surprised that a reality show in the works would mimic the 1996 dystopian flick “Escape From L.A.” What’s chilling is that the show is not fiction and may in the end say more about the post-Sept. 11 surveillance state than anything else so far.
...
November 2011
20 posts
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“The task is formidable, but not impossible.”
– Jim Williams, an associate professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and co-author of paper published last week in the online version of the journal Science. The authors show it is possible for California to achieve its state-mandated goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to...
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Palm Springs reports rise in anti-gay hate crimes
California hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation bucked a national trend and rose by 25 percent – nearly all of the increase coming from cities. The most dramatic shifts took place in Palm Springs and San Francisco – both cities with significant gay and lesbian populations.
In Palm Springs, hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation jumped from three cases in 2009 to 14 in 2010. San...
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Updates, photos from Occupy Cal
thedailycal:
Tuesday marks another Day of Action at UC Berkeley for Occupy Cal. Campus protesters have planned teach-ins, a march through the city, a rally and a general assembly in Sproul Plaza.
Follow our live blog and our Storify post for the latest updates and photos.
Source: (www.dailycal.org)
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About 8 of 10 Palo Alto residents hold at least a bachelor’s degree, making the Silicon Valley hotspot California’s most educated city, recently released census data show.
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“We walked into the jail, and the first thing I smelled was urine. They threw us...”
– Longtime Los Angeles resident Wilberle Vereus. Vereus was only 2 years old when his family fled Haiti on a boat following the 1991 coup d’état of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But after a U.S. immigration judge sent him to Haiti this year, Vereus found himself back where he was born, in a...
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Health officials recall lead-tainted candy
The California Department of Public Health initiated a recall Tuesday of an Indian candy that is tainted with high levels of lead.
The candy, sold under the brand name Roopal Swad, was analyzed by the Public Health Department and found to contain up to 0.18 parts per million of lead. In California, foods with more than 0.10 parts per million of lead are considered contaminated.
The company...
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Another California solar company with federal loan...
SunPower Corp., a San Jose-based solar power company that received a last-minute Department of Energy loan in September, announced today that it lost more than $370 million in its fiscal third quarter – more than double its second-quarter loss – and that its chief financial officer would resign. The company said it also would likely lose money in its fourth quarter and would embark on a...
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WatchLiving in industry’s shadow: After years of illnesses, family looks for answers
The Martin family lives 10 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, in a neat yellow house in a city called Maywood. Starting a few blocks from their home, nearly 2,000 factories churn out Southern California’s hot dogs, pesticides, patio furniture and other products. Trucks rumble off the I-710 freeway into sprawling...
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WatchDoctors were coached on diagnoses, ex-staff say
Prime Healthcare Services has a reputation for buying financially troubled hospitals and turning them around, winning awards and reporting profits in the tens of millions. But a more troubling trend has emerged, according to an investigation by California Watch. Prime hospitals report that the Medicare patients they see are far sicker than ...