Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
By Alexander Bolton – 07/12/14 06:00 AM EDT
Immigration reform has fizzled as an issue for Democrats, who are barely mentioning it on the campaign trail despite making the issue their top domestic priority in 2013 and 2014.
July 12, 2014
No, this is not another opinion as to whether “comprehensive immigration reform” will be passed this year. While we thought that the defeat of Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his reelection primary put the final nail in the coffin for this year, other immigration issues have now further embalmed and then cremated the body of any immigration reform legislation, perhaps in perpetuity.
Politics
By Katie Zezima and David Nakamura
July 9, 2014 at 8:56 PM
DALLAS — President Obama on Wednesday forcefully defended his decision not to visit the Texas border with Mexico to view a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, saying he’s “not interested in photo ops” and challenging Congress to give him new authority to respond to the situation.
By Michael Flaherty and Alistair Bell
WASHINGTON Thu Jul 10, 2014 4:02am EDT
(Reuters) – A surge of Republican pressure is bringing the Federal Reserve’s long-held independence into question again, as conservative lawmakers seek to place the U.S. central bank under tougher scrutiny.
Politics and Policy
Presumed Presidential Candidate Makes Clear She Won’t Be Running for de Facto Third Obama Term
By Peter Nicholas
July 6, 2014 – 8:13 p.m. ET
Hillary Clinton has begun distancing herself from President Barack Obama, suggesting that she would do more to woo Republicans and take a more assertive stance toward global crises, while sounding more downbeat than her former boss about the U.S. economic recovery.
National Security
Files provided by Snowden show extent to which ordinary Web users are caught in the net
By Barton Gellman, Julie Tate and Ashkan Soltani
July 5, 2014 at 8:46 PM
Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post.
Political Whispers
Saturday, July 5, 2014
So, as with all Presidential second terms, President Obama is fading from relevance. It is inevitable and common for second term Presidents to become less popular and effective, Republican or Democrat.
Posted on Thursday, July 3 at 1:59pm | By Carolyn Lochhead
Sen. Barbara Boxer visited a road-building project Thursday in Monterey County to warn that Congress is about to let the Highway Trust Fund go bankrupt, endangering highway and transit projects in every state.
If you think California highways look Second World now, wait until Congress lets federal funding dry up.
By JULIE PACE and ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Jul. 3, 2014 – 1:47 pm
Last Modified: Friday, Jul. 4, 2014 – 3:18 am
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is facing mounting calls from Republicans to take a firsthand look at the immigration emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, putting him on the spot concerning what he has called the “humanitarian crisis” of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children flooding in from Central America.
Ryan Grim and Kasey Varner
Posted: 07/03/2014 – 5:28 pm EDT
Updated: 07/03/2014 – 5:59 pm EDT
WASHINGTON — People are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore, an extensive new survey of public attitudes toward the government finds.
Thursday, July 3, 2014 – 10:15 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom Thursday morning.
Official unemployment rate falls in June
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 288,000 jobs were added in June. The number dropped the official unemployment rate (U-3) to 6.1%
Victoria Kim and Cindy Chang
July 2, 2014
Former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Paul Tanaka was testifying in the case of a deputy charged with obstruction of justice earlier this year when the prosecutor asked if he was familiar with a common investigative tactic: Start with low-level criminals, then go after their bosses.
Paloma Esquivel
July 2, 2014
After anti-illegal immigration protesters in Murrieta successfully forced buses full of migrants to divert to San Diego for processing, groups of immigration advocates have quietly galvanized.
Politics
By Dan Balz
July 2 at 1:08 PM
President Obama’s displeasure with gridlock in Washington — and with the Republicans he blames for it — has been rising for months. This week it has boiled over.
Victoria Kim and Cindy Chang
July 1, 2014
A jury Tuesday found six members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department guilty of attempting to impede a federal civil rights inquiry into the county jails, providing prosecutors with a decisive victory as they continue to investigate higher-level officials tied to the scandal.
Christi Parsons, Michael A. Memoli
July 1, 2014
In his latest attempt to get Congress to spend money to upgrade America’s roads and bridges, President Obama debuted a new sales pitch Tuesday: patriotism.
Michael Muskal
June 30, 2014
The poll, released Monday, had good news and bad news for the high court, a unique institution that serves as a check and balance in the United States. People have more confidence in the court than in any other arm of government, but that may not be saying that much when confidence in the presidency stands at 29% and in the Congress at 7%.
Jun 30, 11:30 AM EDT
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that some corporations can hold religious objections that allow them to opt out of the new health law requirement that they cover contraceptives for women.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
June 26 at 8:41 PM
The Supreme Court decision invalidating President Obama’s use of recess appointments laid bare the legal and political risks the president faces as he makes the aggressive use of executive power a core tenet of his second term.
Opinions
Charles Krauthammer Opinion writer
June 26 at 8:08 PM
The Supreme Court this week admonished the Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching in regulating greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act covers polluters that emit 250 tons per year (or in some cases, 100 tons). This standard makes no sense if applied to greenhouse gases. Thousands of establishments from elementary schools to grocery stores would be, absurdly, covered. So the EPA arbitrarily chose 100,000 tons as the carbon dioxide threshold.
By Daniel Newhauser Posted at 5:11 p.m. on June 24
Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans Tuesday he could have an announcement within days on whether the House will file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, challenging the executive actions that have become the keystone of the administration.
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2014 – 12:00 am
Despite political fallout from his prisoner exchange, the unfolding scandal in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and growing unrest in the Middle East, President Barack Obama has maintained encouraging job ratings in California, where he’s buoyed by a scarcity of Republicans, according to the new Field Poll.
Health Care
By Sam Baker
June 23, 2014
A Republican Senate majority wouldn’t be able to fully repeal Obamacare, but it could force some pretty significant changes to the health care law.
By Edward Klein
June 21, 2014 | 6:48pm
In his new book, “Blood Feud,” journalist Edward Klein gets inside the dysfunctional, jealous relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama — and how it could explode in 2016.
AP California News
Jun 22, 5:03 AM EDT
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Border Patrol will fly nearly 300 Central American migrants from south Texas to California for processing, an official said, as the government seeks to ease the workload on agents at the nation’s busiest corridor for illegal crossings.
By Fred Shuster, City News Service
Posted: 06/20/14, 6:02 PM PDT |
A prosecutor urged a jury Friday to convict six members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department of witness tampering, but their attorneys countered that the defendants were simply following orders from superiors when they helped keep an inmate informant hidden within the jail system during a federal probe of prisoner abuse.
By KENDALL BREITMAN | 6/20/14 6:07 AM EDT Updated: 6/20/14 8:42 AM EDT
Two in three Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama’s handling of immigration, according to a new Gallup poll.
At 65 percent, the disapproval rate is the highest that Gallup has reported since the group began polling on the subject and is up 10 points since August 2013.
Thirty-one percent of those polled approved of his handling of immigration, the lowest readings since 2010, when only 29 percent approved.
To read entire story, click here.
Friday, June 20, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom Friday morning, in case you missed it!
Romney tops New Hampshire straw poll
With the Presidential Election a little more than two years off, the finger-in-the-water polling has started.
Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Richard Simon
June 19, 2014
Republicans are challenging the president’s characterization of the surge in young immigrants from Central America across the southern border as an unforeseen crisis, accusing his administration of contributing to the influx and demanding that he deploy National Guard troops and other resources to secure the border.
Thursday, June 19, 2014 – 11:00 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom Thursday morning, in case you missed it!
High Desert cities approve budgets
Two High Desert cities have approved balanced budgets, for their 2014-15 fiscal years.
Transportation
By Ashley Halsey III June 18 at 2:33 PM
A bipartisan Senate proposal emerged Wednesday to rescue beleaguered federal transportation funding by raising the tax on gasoline by 12 cents a gallon.
Cindy Chang
June 18, 2014
A videotape of an encounter between two sheriff’s sergeants and an FBI agent outside the agent’s home, played in federal court Wednesday, showed a surprisingly polite exchange, even as the agent was advised she would soon be arrested.
By JONATHAN TOPAZ | 6/18/14 6:18 AM EDT
President Barack Obama’s approval rating is tied for the lowest mark since the beginning of his presidency, a new poll says.
Dan Balz
June 18, 2014 at 7:42 PM
It is a near-perfect storm that has come together as Hillary Rodham Clinton tours the country promoting her new book and preparing for a possible presidential campaign in 2016.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – 10:30 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom Wednesday morning, in case you missed it!
U.S. revenues hit all-time record, still running deficit
The amount of money the U.S. Government took in, through the month of May, has hit a new record of $1.93 trillion.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 – 11:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 18, 2014 – 12:30 a.m.
One has to wonder what’s coming down the road for the economy. There’s no debate that the Federal Reserve was responsible for the Internet and real estate bubbles, of the past.
The big question here is how big is the new Federal Reserve-driven stock and real estate bubble?
Post Politics
By Sean Sullivan
June 13, 2014
At least three polls released this week showed President Obama’s favorability rating hitting new lows.
In his first term, his favorable rating held steady even as his job approval rating slipped. But that’s no longer true.
By Joe Nelson, The Sun
Posted: 06/10/14, 8:21 PM PDT | Updated: 55 secs ago
A former inmate and chow server at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga said he was subjected to five years of Taser gun abuse by at least a dozen deputies who stunned him more than 80 times.
By MARK LANDLER
JUNE 9, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama signed an executive order on Monday intended to lessen the college loan burden on nearly five million younger Americans by capping repayments at 10 percent of the borrowers’ monthly income.
By BURGESS EVERETT | 6/9/14 8:26 PM EDT – Updated: 6/10/14 6:28 AM EDT
She stood beside President Barack Obama through the politically damaging revelations over NSA data-mining, but Dianne Feinstein can’t seem to stay on the White House’s call list.
By Josh Hicks
June 8, 2014 at 11:58 am
The heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee suggested Sunday that the White House has done a poor job of sharing information with Congress about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and his recent release from Taliban captivity.
By JONATHAN TOPAZ | 6/6/14 1:32 PM EDT
Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein said she has not seen any evidence that the Taliban would have killed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl if details of an agreement had leaked, contrary to what Obama administration officials have said.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE and CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 6/4/14 7:07 PM EDT Updated: 6/5/14 10:31 AM EDT
President Barack Obama’s Rose Garden appearance Saturday afternoon with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s parents was an attempt to humanize the prisoner swap to deflect potential criticism of letting five Taliban leaders out of Guantánamo Bay, White House aides say.
It didn’t work.
Victoria Kim
June 3, 2014
The deputy described beating inmates unprovoked, slapping them, shooting them with a Taser gun and aggressively searching them to pick a fight — something he learned “on the job.” He would huddle with other jail guards to get their stories straight and write up reports with bogus scenarios justifying the brutality. If the inmate had no visible injuries, he wouldn’t report the use of force, period.
Posted on Tuesday, June 3 at 2:43pm | By Carolyn Lochhead
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters Tuesday that she got a call from the White House apologizing for not letting Congress know about its exchange of Taliban prisoners for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner of Afghan rebels since 2009.
By JAMES RISEN and LAURA POITRAS
MAY 31, 2014
The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents.
Saturday, May 31, 2014 – 10:00 a.m.
Here’s some news flowing across the transom this week, in case you missed it!
Sterling Trust sells Los Angeles Clippers
The Sterling Family Trust and Shelly Sterling has agreed to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to Former Microsoft Executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
By Jim Steinberg, The Sun
Posted: 05/30/14, 8:41 PM PDT | Updated: 50 secs ago
LOMA LINDA >> Wendy Clouser of Big Bear Lake has been taking medications for post-traumatic stress disorder — one of them experimental — for two years.
By Greg Cappis, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Posted: 05/29/14, 10:08 PM PDT | Updated: 38 secs ago
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Four more inmates have filed a lawsuit against San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon and at least seven other members of the department, alleging abuse while incarcerated at the West Valley Detention Center jail.
Attorneys must answer or ask to dismiss by June 5
May 27, 2014 5:46 PM
SHEA JOHNSON, STAFF WRITER
VICTORVILLE • The Securities and Exchange Commission recently amended its complaint alleging fraud in a 2008 municipal bond offering against the city, Assistant City Manager Keith Metzler and others. The SEC had to do so to comply with a federal judge’s order to show proof of earlier dismissed claims that the city and Metzler were also benefactors of ill-gotten gains.
By Juliet Eilperin and Ed O’Keefe
May 22, 2014
President Obama delivered a forceful defense of his veterans policies Wednesday, saying that caring for veterans and their families is “one of the causes of my presidency” and vowing to punish those responsible for long wait times and other serious problems at military medical centers.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014 – 09:30 a.m.
Let’s end the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the San Bernardino County Jail System today.
Really!
By Joe Nelson, The Sun
Posted: 05/20/14, 8:31 PM PDT |
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon on Tuesday gave a tour of the West Valley Detention Center, praising the facility as first rate while countering allegations of inmate abuse in the wake of an FBI investigation, the firings of three deputies and the filing of a federal lawsuit by half a dozen inmates alleging civil rights violations.
McMahon also insists inmates get ‘excellent’ medical care
May 20, 2014 6:15 PM
ANNELI FOGT, STAFF WRITER
RANCHO CUCAMONGA • Amid allegations of deputy misconduct toward inmates at the West Valley Detention Center, Sheriff John McMahon on Tuesday said “there’s no evidence” leading him to believe that recent reports of violence were anything more than an “isolated group of deputies.”
By Thomas Himes, Los Angeles Daily News
Posted: 05/20/14, 11:08 AM PDT | Updated: 7 hrs ago
Sheriff’s candidate Paul Tanaka’s testimony in federal court this week set off a firestorm of criticism, as rivals called on him to bow out and some supporters remained steadfast.
Cindy Chang, Victoria Kim
May 19, 2014
The former undersheriff and a current captain of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department are subjects in an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into excessive force and corruption in the county’s jails, a federal prosecutor said Monday.
By BURGESS EVERETT | 5/18/14 5:05 PM EDT
Senate negotiators toiled for months to revive long-term unemployment benefits in a manner that could draw the support of both centrist Republicans and liberal Democrats.
But in a few days, that effort will be all for naught.
By Phil Stewart and David Alexander
WASHINGTON Fri May 16, 2014 6:08pm EDT
(Reuters) – The top health official at the Department of Veterans Affairs resigned on Friday amid a scandal over allegations of deadly healthcare delays, but critics dismissed the gesture as “damage control” because he planned to retire this year anyway.
Victoria Kim
May 15, 2014
The wide-reaching federal investigation into abuse and corruption in L.A. County jails that has thus far ensnared 20 deputies in the largest mass arrests of sheriff’s officials in decades arose out of a letter from a jail inmate detailing instances of violence by deputies, the lead case agent testified Wednesday.
Kathleen Hennessey, Michael A. Memoli
May 15, 2014
Without quick action by Congress, the U.S. Transportation Department may begin scaling back or halting work on thousands of roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects at the height of the construction season this July, when the nation’s Highway Trust Fund is expected to run dry.
By Joe Nelson, The Sun
Posted: 05/12/14, 4:43 PM PDT |
RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Inmates at the West Valley Detention in Rancho Cucamonga alleging they were tortured and terrorized by deputies also say they were denied grievance forms and threatened with retaliation if they pressed the issue.
By BURGESS EVERETT | 5/12/14 2:43 PM EDT Updated: 5/12/14 3:37 PM EDT
An earmark revival may be causing a stir in the Capitol — but John Boehner said there’s no way the House is going back to that “nonsense” under his leadership.
By Ron Fournier
May 12, 2014
In his forthcoming memoir, former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner captures a moment at which President Obama faced a choice between forging ahead with a promise to seek GOP compromise on the nation’s debt crisis or bow to pressure from his liberal base.
Obama chose surrender.
Monday, May 12, 2014 – 10:30 a.m.
The Los Angeles County-esque scandal now hitting the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department continues to build momentum.
Saturday, May 10, 2014 – 10:00 a.m.
The growing allegations of deputy-on-inmate assaults, within the San Bernardino County Jail System, has taken on a life of its own.
Saturday, May 10, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
The hits just keep coming for San Bernardino County.
Information is now surfacing that a female Sheriff’s Custody Specialist, working in the high security area of the West Valley Detention Center, was walked off the facility in the past three weeks.
By Melissa Pinion-Whitt, San Bernardino Sun
Posted: 05/08/14, 2:00 PM PDT |
SAN BERNARDINO — San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon on Thursday declined to comment on a federal lawsuit filed by six West Valley Detention Center inmates alleging abuse by sheriff’s employees, but said the department is taking the allegations seriously.
In wake of FBI probe, lawsuit alleges West Valley inmate abuse
May 08, 2014 2:21 PM
SHEA JOHNSON, STAFF WRITER
A $135-million federal lawsuit alleges six inmates at West Valley Detention Center were subjected to beatings and torture, including “electric shock to their genitalia, sleep deprivation … and sodomy” by jail officials under the color of authority over the course of a 14-month period beginning Jan. 1, 2013.
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Friday, May 9, 2014
LA JOLLA, Calif. — President Obama acknowledged Thursday that the executive actions he has been taking to work around an uncooperative Congress will go only so far in achieving his agenda, and said Democrats need to win control of the legislative branch to set the country on the right path in the final two years of his tenure.
Thursday, May 7, 2014 – 09:00 a.m.
The Sun newspaper publiched a story Thursday morning regarding inmate abuse at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s, West Valley Detention Center, in Rancho Cucamonga.
By Joe Nelson, The Sun
Posted: 05/07/14, 9:06 PM PDT |
A federal lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in damages was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Riverside and alleges San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies brutalized inmates at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, shocking them with stun guns without provocation, placing shotguns to their heads and subjecting them to other acts of torture including sodomy.
By Brian Fung
May 7 at 6:05 pm
A key House committee has approved a package of NSA reforms that would end the spy agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, nearly a year after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed the program’s existence.
By Josh Hicks and Ed O’Keefe,
May 8, 2014
The House voted Wednesday to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois G. Lerner in contempt of Congress and request a special prosecutor to investigate the agency’s targeting of advocacy groups during the past two election cycles.
Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
May 6, 2014
The federal government has rejected California’s initial design for new driver’s licenses to be offered to immigrants in the country illegally, saying the cards fall short of security safeguards.
May 5, 2014, 1:46pm PDT
Kathy Robertson
Senior Staff Writer- Sacramento Business Journal
Almost two years since the U.S. Supreme Court approved the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation gets a shot in appeals court this week at unwinding the mandate based on how it was enacted.
David Lauter
Monday, May 5, 2014
Six months out from the November midterm election, Republicans have a strong advantage which, if it holds up, would likely translate into significant gains in Congress, a new nationwide survey indicates.
By Steven Dennis
Posted at 12:21 p.m. on May 5, 2014
These aren’t the poll results President Barack Obama is looking for. A new USA Today/Pew poll has ugly numbers for the president’s Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections and even uglier figures for the president.
May 03, 2014 7:09 PM
MIKE LAMB, STAFF WRITER
BARSTOW • A Bureau of Indians Affairs official in the Pacific Regional office says the comment and review process for the proposed $160 million casino and resort off Lenwood Road could take two years or longer.
By JAKE SHERMAN and ADAM SNIDER | 4/30/14 7:29 PM EDT
Washington now is facing a new crisis: the highway cliff.
Sometime in the next four months, the Highway Trust Fund — which pays for infrastructure projects across the nation — will run dry. And this slow-moving Congress, in the throes of a heated election year, has to figure out a way to fill the coffers or risk halting construction projects across the country.
April 29, 2014; 06:42 PM
A year ago, Moreno Valley leaders got a surprising wake-up call when federal and local investigators raided the homes of Mayor Tom Owings and council members Victoria Baca, Marcelo Co and Jesse Molina.
To read story by Imran Ghori in The Press Enterprise, click here.
By Steven Dennis
Posted at 5:36 p.m. on April 29
Updated 6:20 p.m. | Speaker John A. Boehner talked to the leading Republican pushing for an unemployment insurance extension, telling Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada on Tuesday that he won’t budge from demands for add-ons that would create jobs before he will put the measure on the House floor.
By Timothy Gardner and Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:15pm EDT
(Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in an abrupt election-year shift in strategy, opened the possibility on Tuesday of allowing a vote on congressional approval of the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline.
By Dan Balz and Peyton M. Craighill
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Democrats face serious obstacles as they look to the November elections, with President Obama’s approval rating at a new low and a majority of voters saying they prefer a Congress in Republican hands to check the president’s agenda, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
By Wesley Lowery
April 27 at 2:35 pm
Mitt Romney has said time and time again that he has no interest in running for president a third time.
But, on Sunday morning, CBS’ Bob Schieffer said not to write off the idea of a 2016 campaign by Romney so quickly.
By BEN WHITE and MAGGIE HABERMAN | 4/28/14 5:04 AM EDT
NEW YORK — The biggest parlor game on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms these days is guessing whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will run for president and save the GOP’s old establishment base from its rising populist wing.
The second most popular game is guessing what happens if Jeb says no.