1. The Berkeley City Council is scheduled vote tonight on a ballot measure that would establish a new independent police oversight commission in the city, reports Emilie Raguso of Berkeleyside. The new commission would have authority over the police chief and would be in charge of disciplining cops for misconduct.
2. Oakland and Alameda County officials appear to like the A’s’ plan to purchase the Coliseum property, reports Kimberly Veklerov of the San Francisco Chronicle. The A’s are proposing to pay off the city and county’s $135 million debt on the Coliseum and Oracle Arena in exchange for the 120-acre site. The team, however, has not said definitively whether it plans to build a new ballpark there.
3. Another development team is proposing to build a huge housing development — 1,275 units — at the West Oakland BART station, reports Scott Morris for Oakland Hoodline. The development group, which includes Chinese government-owned China Harbor Engineering Co. and local developer Strategic Urban Development Alliance, also has an alternative plan for the site east of the station — a mostly commercial development with 180 units of housing. Developer Patrick Kennedy is also proposing a 1,032-unit housing project on another site next to the West Oakland station.
4. The state of California is suing the Trump administration over its decision to add a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, the Washington Post$ reports. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra contends that the Trump administration’s decision is unconstitutional and that it will reduce federal dollars flowing to the state if non-citizens decline to participate in the Census due to fear of deportation.
5. Health care costs in Northern California are 20 percent to 30 percent higher, including for medical treatment and health insurance, than in Southern California, reports Catherine Ho of the San Francisco Chronicle, citing a new study by UC Berkeley’s Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare. The study concluded that the consolidation of hospital, physician, and insurance markets in Northern California led to the higher costs.
6. And two teens are suing the Richmond Police Department after an K-9 officer released his or her dog and it chased and attacked them, reports Nate Gartrell of the East Bay Times$. The two teens — a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl — were innocent bystanders who were attacked on their way home from school.
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