Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
Utah Governor Signs Bill to Advance Oakland Coal Plan // KQED
"Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed a bill that approves $53 million in state funds to aid construction of a new Oakland cargo terminal that backers hope to use to export coal.
"Herbert on Tuesday signed legislation authored by Republican state Sen. J. Stuart Adams that would help finance the project so Utah coal and other products reach overseas markets more easily."
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Court refuses to block Berkeley law requiring cell phone warnings // SF Gate
"A federal appeals court denied a request Wednesday by cell phone companies to halt enforcement of a Berkeley ordinance requiring retailers to tell customers that carrying switched-on phones next to their bodies might expose them to radiation levels above federal guidelines.
"A federal judge had allowed the ordinance to take effect Jan. 25, rejecting arguments by CTIA-The Wireless Association that the city was violating retailers’ free-speech rights by requiring them to communicate a message they opposed."
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California community colleges embark on path to new accreditor // The Sacramento Bee
"City College of San Francisco was saved from closure last year when it was given two more years to come into compliance with governance and financial standards, but the fallout from that clash with the regional accreditor continues.
"The California community college system’s governing board on Monday approved a resolution to begin searching for a replacement for the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The organization, which regulates two-year schools in California, Hawaii and American territories in the Pacific, has been under fire for an inconsistent, oblique and overly punitive accreditation process."
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LAO proposes full-day preschool for all low-income working families // EdSource
"The state should require all its preschool and transitional kindergarten providers to offer, at a minimum, part-day programs to all low-income families, with full-day programs available for all low-income families with working parents, the state Legislative Analyst’s Office is advising.
"The recommendations, contained in a review of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed childcare and preschool budget for 2016-17, would cover 270,000 4-year-old children through both part- and full-day publicly funded programs. That would be nearly 50,000 more than the combined number of children now in the California State Preschool Program, which serves low-income and at risk-children, and transitional kindergarten programs, which provide an extra year of public school for 4-year-olds with fall birthdays."
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You may be in California’s gang database and not even know it // Reveal
"One mild fall evening, two deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s gang unit headed into the streets of Carson, California, where palm trees are tagged with gang graffiti and street signs in some neighborhoods are turned around or removed to confuse outsiders.
"The deputies, Jon Boden and Alfredo Garcia, had a big job to do. As part of the Operation Safe Streets Bureau, they were expected to get a handle on gang violence in the cities of Carson and Compton."
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Mystery solved: Navy tug, lost for nearly a century, found outside Golden Gate // San Jose Mercury News
"For nearly a century, the disappearance of the USS Conestoga, with 56 officers and sailors on board, remained one of the U.S. Navy's great maritime mysteries.
"But over the past year and a half, intrepid research, days on the high seas and haunting photographs helped finally solve the sensational saga, which grabbed national headlines in 1921 and spurred a search as immense as the one for Amelia Earhart's plane a decade later."
