1. California ranks near the bottom nationwide in its treatment of homeless children, placing above only Mississippi and Alabama, the Chron reports, citing a new study by the National Center on Family Homelessness. California ranks third from last in the number of homeless children per capita. And the report ranks the state 49th for its ongoing failure to adequately help homeless kids and their families.
2. Two Pomo Indian bands are competing to build a casino in Vallejo on the former Navy shipyard on Mare Island, the Chron reports. It would be the biggest casino complex in Northern California. But the proposal faces an uphill battle because California voters just rejected Proposition 48, which would have allowed a similar off-reservation casino in the Central Valley.
John Pérez.
3. Governor Jerry Brown appointed former Assembly Speaker John Pérez and Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach City College, to the UC Board of Regents in advance of a meeting this week, in which the regents will consider raising student tuition again, the LA Times$ reports. The governor opposes the tuition hike and his two new appointments are expected to vote against it.
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4. The Berkeley City Council will consider tonight a proposal that would require gas stations in the city to post climate change warning signs on gas pumps, the Chron reports. San Francisco is considering a similar measure.
5. Caltrans is delaying the demolition of the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge to give engineers more time to analyze the complicated project and to make sure that cormorants nesting on the old bridge aren’t impacted during their nesting season, the CoCo Times$ reports.
6. Scientists suspect that an unusual die-off of small seabirds known as Cassin’s auklets on the California coast may be due to ocean warming caused by climate change, the Mercury News$ reports.
7. And scientists have concluded that the mass die-off of starfish in state coastal waters is being caused by a virus — although they’re not sure what prompted the virus to spread, the Merc$ reports.
