The top of Sather Tower at UC Berkeley. (Photo: Guangli, via Shutterstock)The University of California is facing court challenges over its use of the SAT and ACT tests to decide student admissions.This comes as a special UC faculty group, the Standardized Testing Task Force, prepares to release its own report on the tests in early 2020.
David Bernardt testifies at a Senate hearing on March 28. (Photo: Roll Call, via Associated Press) The inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department has opened an investigation into Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s past work on behalf of California’s huge Westlands Water District and other organizations. Nancy DiPaolo, spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of the Interior, told Capitol Weekly her office had received 12 letters asking for an investigation of Bernhardt’s role in some California fish and game issues, including protection of the delta smelt.
Migrant laborers work a Salinas, Calif., strawberry farm during harvest season. (Photo: David Litman, via Shutterstock) For the second time in recent months, the U.S. Department of Labor has extracted penalties from a California farm business blamed for the deadly crash of a vehicle transporting migrant field workers to their jobs. The Labor Department announced this month that Fisher Ranch LLC — a major produce farm near Calexico, close to the Mexican border — has agreed to pay $49,104 for violating the Migrant Seasonal Workers Protection Act. The case stemmed from a March 2017 van crash that killed one laborer and hurt six others.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)California’s Odd Couple find themselves on a wild ride in Washington, replete with cloak-and-dagger meetings, reports of Russian sneakiness and confusion all ‘round. But while Schiff and Nunes are both Californians and veteran politicians, that’s pretty much where the resemblance ends.
Rep. Adam Schiff, right, vice chair of the House Intelligence Committee, ponders testimony. (Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)In an overheated political environment where it’s dangerous to stand between some politicians and a television camera, the national spotlight has suddenly fallen on a low-key Californian who implores Donald Trump to be truthful. He is Adam Bennett Schiff, 56, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
An elderly patient in a wheelchair receiving care at a California hospital. (Photo: bikeriderlondon, via shutterstock)In 2008, outraged by a string of snooping incidents involving celebrities’ medical records, California legislators passed a groundbreaking law that compelled hospitals to quickly report patient privacy breaches and gave the state power to levy fines for such violations. But a ProPublica analysis of state data shows enforcement has been inconsistent.
One night in March 2014, state Senator Leland Yee stood before a fancy dinner thrown in San Francisco by the Society of Professional Journalists to receive the Public Official Award — for a second time. Yee, then a candidate for secretary of state, was saluted for “his courage to oppose his own Democratic Party leaders and the governor in 2013 with public criticism of efforts to weaken the California Public Records Act.” A week later, a handcuffed Yee appeared in federal court, accused of taking bribes, political racketeering and even running guns in the Philippines.
Demonstrators protesting police conduct at a gathering in Capitol Park, Sacramento, October 2014. (Photo: Rachael Towne)An effort is under way to make California the first state in the nation to have its top law enforcement officer independently investigate deaths in police custody, bypassing the prosecutors in California’s 58 counties. Under the plan, the state attorney general would appoint a special prosecutor to direct an investigation when a civilian dies as a result of deadly physical force by a peace officer.
Prime Healthcare has decided not to buy six California health care facilities, a highly controversial transaction that was approved under unprecedented conditions by Attorney General Kamala Harris last month. Officials for the financially strained Daughters of Charity Health System chain say failure to complete the sale will force them to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Lawmakers who seek or receive bribes face a boosted level of fines and penalties, under a plan that is getting renewed attention because of the scandals rocking the Senate. The proposal by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens Democrat, also bars the use of campaign funds to pay restitution fines in bribery convictions.