Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Berkeley City Council unanimously voted to move forward with a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $12.53 an hour by October 2016, the Trib$ reports. The proposal will come back to the council on June 24 for final approval, and city officials are expecting opposition from restaurant owners. Under the plan, the city’s minimum wage would increase to $10 on hour on October 1 this year, and then to $11 an hour by October 1, 2015, before rising to $12.53 an hour the following year.
[jump]
2. The Oakland Planning Commission approved a new plan for West Oakland that is designed to increase the amount of housing in the area and dedicate more space to parkland, but anti-gentrification activists contend that the proposal will drive more low-income African American residents out of the district, the Chron reports.
3. Democratic state lawmakers are hammering out a budget plan that would provide funding for preschool programs for low-income kids in California, the SacBee$ reports. Democrats had originally proposed to fund preschool for all four-year-olds, regardless of income.
4. City College of San Francisco will not be shut down permanently as planned this summer, thanks to a policy shift by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, the Chron reports. The college, which serves about 80,000 students, was facing closure because of problems with governance, fiscal oversight, and academic planning.
5. And hopes for compromise legislation on immigration reform took hit this week, when GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost in a surprise upset in the Virginia primary to a far-right Tea Party candidate, the Chron reports.
$ = news stories that may require payment to read.
