(San Jose Mercury News) // Monday's Supreme Court ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration law upheld the mandate for a police officer to ask for a person's immigration papers after stopping them. In California, the law is not so different from Arizona's, but enforcement varies widely and is often up to the discretion of individual officers…
(Contra Costa Times) // East Contra Costa Fire is looking for new firefighters, but not looking to pay them. After voters rejected a tax increase that would have helped close the fire departments budget gap, the department was forced to shut down half of its stations and lay off a third of its active firefighters. A typical firefighters salary and benefits cost the fire district $100,000 per year. Training and certifying a new volunteer firefighter would cost just $9,500…
(Oakland Tribune) // Community groups in Oakland are pressing City Council for a civilian-run police commission. The commission would have the power to set department policy, audit investigations and discipline officers, and, supporters hope, prevent the district from being taking over by the Federal government. A U.S. district judge will decide later this year if the district has met conditions set out following a misconduct case nine years ago…
(New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle) // After a failed 90-day mediation period, the city of Stockton is poised to declare bankruptcy. The city council voted six to one in favor of filing for bankruptcy protection in Sacramento. The city of roughly 270,000 would be the first in California to declare bankruptcy since Vallejo in 2008 and the largest city in American history so far to go bankrupt…
(San Francisco Chronicle) // Eliana Lopez, the estranged wife of suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, has agreed to testify against him, if the city will pick up her $1,500 plane ticket from Venezuela. The city's ethics commission has declined to foot the bill, but the mayor or city attorney may pick up the tab...
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