Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Wednesday Must Reads: Federal Probe of West Contra Costa Schools Deepens; Senate Votes to Require Warrants for Drone Use
Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 10:44 AM
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The federal investigation of the West Contra Costa school district’s construction bond measure program has deepened, with Securities and Exchange officials issuing an extensive subpoena for documents, the CoCo Times$ reports. The subpoena shows that the SEC is probing the possible misuse of taxpayer funds in the school district’s $1.6 billion bond program. West Contra Costa includes Richmond and El Cerrito schools.
2. The state Senate voted to require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before using aerial drones to collect criminal evidence, Reuters reports (via Rough & Tumble). The bill, which faced stiff opposition from law enforcement groups, now heads back to the Assembly for a final vote before going to Governor Jerry Brown.
3. State lawmakers approved legislation that would ask California voters in 2016 to overturn the state’s ban on bilingual education, the SacBee$ reports. The legislation is now waiting for Brown’s signature.
4. The state Assembly narrowly passed a bill that would require toy guns to be painted bright colors so that they’re not confused with real guns, the SacBee$ reports. The legislation, which comes in the wake of officer-involved shootings in which police mistakenly thought a toy gun was real, was opposed by law enforcement groups because they fear that criminals would just paint real guns to look like toy ones.
5. And organized labor helped kill legislation that sought to ban single-use plastic bags in the state, arguing that large corporations like Walmart that don’t employ union workers would unfairly profit from the ten-cents per bag charge on paper bags included in the bill, the Chron reports.
1. The federal investigation of the West Contra Costa school district’s construction bond measure program has deepened, with Securities and Exchange officials issuing an extensive subpoena for documents, the CoCo Times$ reports. The subpoena shows that the SEC is probing the possible misuse of taxpayer funds in the school district’s $1.6 billion bond program. West Contra Costa includes Richmond and El Cerrito schools.
2. The state Senate voted to require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before using aerial drones to collect criminal evidence, Reuters reports (via Rough & Tumble). The bill, which faced stiff opposition from law enforcement groups, now heads back to the Assembly for a final vote before going to Governor Jerry Brown.
3. State lawmakers approved legislation that would ask California voters in 2016 to overturn the state’s ban on bilingual education, the SacBee$ reports. The legislation is now waiting for Brown’s signature.
4. The state Assembly narrowly passed a bill that would require toy guns to be painted bright colors so that they’re not confused with real guns, the SacBee$ reports. The legislation, which comes in the wake of officer-involved shootings in which police mistakenly thought a toy gun was real, was opposed by law enforcement groups because they fear that criminals would just paint real guns to look like toy ones.
5. And organized labor helped kill legislation that sought to ban single-use plastic bags in the state, arguing that large corporations like Walmart that don’t employ union workers would unfairly profit from the ten-cents per bag charge on paper bags included in the bill, the Chron reports.
