Click:推薦使用的電商平台2024
SAN DIEGO — 

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Wednesday that a special election would not be called to fill the congressional seat that will be vacated when Rep. Duncan Hunter resigns from office Monday.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

“The Governor’s Office received Rep. Hunter’s resignation letter. Based on the timing of the resignation, a special election will not be called,” Newsom spokeswoman Vicky Waters said by email.

The 50th Congressional District — which includes much of San Diego County’s eastern and northern regions and a small portion of Riverside County — will be without a representative until next January.

Hunter (R-Alpine), who was elected to office in 2008, was indicted in August 2018 on 60 federal counts alleging that he and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret Hunter, stole $250,000 in campaign funds, using it for family vacations, groceries, his extramarital affairs and other non-campaign uses, including airfare for a pet rabbit.

The congressman, 43, reached a deal and pleaded guilty Dec. 3 to a single count of conspiracy to convert campaign funds to personal use, a felony for which he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison. On Tuesday, he set the date for stepping down.

Because Hunter did not resign until after the 2020 filing deadline, which was in early December, Newsom had option of leaving the seat vacant until after the November general election.

Because Hunter resigned so late and close to the state’s March 3 primary, it also made it increasingly difficult for a special election to be conducted or for the special election to be consolidated with the primary. It is not clear whether that influenced Newsom’s decision.

The San Diego County Registrar of Voters has been finalizing proofs of the March ballot this week, and federal law dictates that overseas military ballots go out next week.

The timing of the resignation also would posed challenges if the California secretary of state and the registrar’s office were to conduct a special election separate from the primary.

State law mandates a relatively narrow window in which a special election can be conducted. In this case, the final special election would have needed to be held in late May or early June, but a primary for the race would also have needed to occur before that — probably on a Tuesday in March after the statewide primary.

In the case of either a consolidated election or a special election, voters would have received mail ballots for both the primary and special election around the same time, which could cause confusion.

Voter registration in the 50th Congressional District strongly favors Republicans. There are 141,853 registered Republicans, compared with 101,927 registered Democrats and 91,946 voters who registered with no party preference.

The week he pleaded guilty, Hunter issued a statement in the form of a staged interview with friendly television station KUSI. “I’m confident that the transition will be a good one,” he said. “My office is going to remain open. I’ve got a great staff. We’re going handle people’s cases and pass it off to whoever takes this seat next. And we’ll make sure that’s a seamless transition.”

Clark writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

WASHINGTON — 

The House will vote on a war powers resolution Thursday to limit what military action President Trump can take against Iran after Democrats — and even a couple of Republicans — complained a Trump administration briefing on the justification for killing a top Iranian general came down to simply: Trust us.

Democrats said Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, CIA Director Gina Haspel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley provided few specific details in a closed door meeting Wednesday about what imminent threat existed that warranted the U.S. drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani.

Though there was some initial hesitancy among Democrats earlier in the day about moving to limit the president’s power in the aftermath of Iran’s missile strikes against U.S. forces in Iraq, by the end of the day House members said they were more determined that Congress needs to reassert its role in deciding when military force is necessary.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) announced the vote in a statement shortly after the meeting ended.

“Members of Congress have serious, urgent concerns about the administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran and about its lack of strategy moving forward. Our concerns were not addressed by the president’s insufficient War Powers Act notification and by the administration’s briefing today,” Pelosi said.

The type of resolution the House will vote on has uncertain prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate. Congress has never successfully used the 1973 War Powers Act to halt a president’s use of the military, though it has been used to influence how long and under what conditions troops are engaged overseas.

Members of the House and Senate emerged from separate briefings Wednesday with vastly different versions of what information they learned from the administration to justify killing Suleimani, an act which dramatically ratcheted up hostilities with Iran for several days.

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) said the evidence presented by the administration officials was so vague that it boiled down to “trust me.”

“I’m not sure that trust me is a satisfactory answer for me,” Engel said.

Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) called the briefing “sophomoric, and utterly unconvincing. And I believe more than ever the Congress needs to act to protect the constitutional provisions about war and peace.”

An angry Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) scolded the briefers, who he said spent only 75 minutes with the lawmakers. He said it was “insulting and demeaning” to both the lawmakers and the Constitution.

“It is not acceptable for officials within the executive branch to tell us whether we can debate and discuss the appropriateness of military intervention in Iran,” Lee said. “I would hope and expect they would show greater deference to their own limited power.”

Both Lee and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that following the briefing they have decided to support a Senate version of the War Powers Resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). He is expected to force a vote on that resolution as soon as next week.

Multiple Republican senators said that little of the information presented to lawmakers isn’t already public information and that few specifics were provided about the threat the Trump administration has said it was attempting to stop by killing Suleimani.

“They made the case there was an imminent plan and didn’t give a lot of details on that plan, but did give details on the timing that would have made it imminent,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). That timing was closer to days than weeks, he said.

Several lawmakers said the administration officials cited Article 2 of the Constitution, which tasks the president with being the commander in chief of the country’s military, and the Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed in 2002 before the invasion of Iraq as the legal justification for the strike that killed Suleimani.

“I see no way in the world that an authorization to have war with Saddam Hussein has anything to do with having war with people in Iraq today,” Paul said.

But Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a Trump confidant, said when he left the briefing that the information shared was compelling and decisive.

“I think it leaves little doubt in my mind and certainly should leave little doubt in any members mind that not only did the president make the right call, but this was a clear and present danger for American interests and American individuals,” Meadows said.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) said the House vote is unnecessary and the president was acting decisively to protect the public.

“Congress gave that authorization in 2002 and has never rescinded it. So the president was not only acting entirely within his authority, he had a fundamental responsibility to protect U.S. military forces,” McClintock said.

Pelosi’s announcement comes just a day after Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi airbases where U.S. troops are stationed, damaging equipment and supplies, but causing no deaths. On Wednesday both Trump and Iran indicated they are prepared to back down without further escalation. But several House members said they aren’t convinced the hostilities have ended. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said this is the time for Congress to reassert itself.

“I think many of us feel like that to the extent that we have the benefit of a pause in hostilities right now, that underscores the importance of using this time to move forward with some sidebars on this president’s authority before more bad things happen,” Huffman said.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson in Washington contributed to this article.

It’s no longer all about potential with Chris Smith.

Buzzwords that apply after the UCLA junior guard’s opening week of Pac-12 Conference play include dominant, tenacious and determined.

Smith put together his best back-to-back games as a Bruin against Washington and Washington State. He had his first career double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds against the Huskies and followed it with a career-high 22 points against the Cougars.

Along the way, Smith made 16 of 27 shots (59.3%) while directing the Bruins’ offense out of the high post when they faced a zone defense. He also proved to be nearly unstoppable while playing power forward as part of a four-guard lineup.

“Just my teammates and my coach giving me the confidence to play like I did,” Smith said Wednesday of his breakthrough. “And I don’t see that wavering, so hopefully that can continue.”

Smith said he’s learning the difference between effort and winning effort, the latter illustrated by his diving onto the court in the final seconds against Washington to secure a loose ball during the Bruins’ 66-64 victory.

“Things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Smith said, “that’s what wins games.”

Smith occasionally stood out in the box scores through his first two college seasons but never with any consistency. After a strong start last season in which he reached double figures in scoring in his first five games, Smith averaged 4.9 points per game and made only 15.8% of his three-pointers in Pac-12 play.

This season, he’s averaging 12.2 points while making 47.1% of his shots, 32.1% of his three-pointers and 84.6% of his free throws, all career highs. At 6 feet 9, he’s also been ideally suited to attack zone defenses out of the high post.

“If you don’t have a guy against that zone that’s in that 6-7, 6-8 range that can make that shot and is comfortable in the middle of all that traffic, you’re in trouble,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said, “and he was our best guy in there. When you get Chris touches top of the key down, where he can have one or two bounces to score, is when he’s at his best.”

Smith didn’t seem satisfied with his play when he met with reporters Wednesday, noting the Bruins had achieved only a split of their games last week after he was double-teamed in the final seconds of regulation and lost the ball during the loss to Washington State.

Smith said he needed to improve his effort on defense, which has been the biggest predictor of his team’s fortunes considering the Bruins are 8-0 when they hold opponents to 73 points or fewer.

“Offense doesn’t win games,” Smith said. “As you can see, I’ve had good games recently, but we didn’t win the last game, so obviously there was something I could have done more.”

Coming back

David Singleton agrees with the assessment that he appears a step slow and a bit tentative as he continues to round into form long after suffering a broken foot in the Pac-12 tournament last season.

“I just have to keep working on it,” the sophomore guard said, “working on my shooting and my speed to get it back to where it was last year.”

Cronin said he was trying to fix a mechanical flaw in Singleton’s shot in which an elbow out of alignment has led to a lack of arc on the ball. Singleton has made 40% of his three-pointers this season, down from a team-high 46.7% as a freshman.

The dip in production, however, hasn’t impacted Singleton’s leadership style.

“He hasn’t found his groove yet,” Smith said, “but in practice he is always going hard and letting guys know if they’re messing up, letting guys know what they need to do. Everybody is holding each other accountable now, but I’d say he’s in charge.”

Etc.

The Bruins earned their UCLA logos back in practice after the way they fought during their road split against the Washington schools. “If you’re ever going to have a program that has any type of fiber to be a championship program, you’ve got to compete and play with pride,” Cronin said. “So I thought we did that.” … Fewer than 1,000 tickets remain for the UCLA-USC game on Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

There were upsets and near upsets on Wednesday night as league play began in high school basketball.

In the Mission League, two schools that came in as surprise 15-win teams, Alemany and Loyola, went after it, and when the 32 minutes was completed, it was clear that Alemany guards Brandon Whitney and Nico Ponce had proven too much to handle in leading the Warriors to a 69-61 victory. Whitney, called “the best point guard in Cali” by Ponce, finished with 26 points and 10 assists. Ponce made five threes and had 21 points.

“They just play hard,” said Alemany coach Tray Meeks, whose team is 16-4 and takes on league favorite Harvard-Westlake on Friday at Harvard-Westlake. Loyola (15-4) couldn’t overcome the absence of Colby Brooks (foul trouble). Jack Kresich had 15 points.

In the Trinity League, Santa Margarita stunned JSerra 45-43 on a basket by Kaine Roberts with one second left. Ian Martinez scored 23 points for JSerra.

St. John Bosco avoided the upset by rallying for a 71-67 overtime victory over Servite. Randi Ovalle scored 16 points and Wynton Brown 14. Tajavis Miller of Servite scored 40 points.

Mater Dei rolled to a 68-47 win over Orange Lutheran. Harrison Hornery had 18 points.

In the West Valley League, El Camino Real shocked City Section title contender Birmingham 72-67. The Conquistadores made a barrage of threes. Kyle Braun led the way with 15 points. David Elliott had 22 points for Birmingham.

Chaminade had to go to overtime before defeating Crespi 73-70. Kenneth Simpson finished with 32 points and former Crespi player Colin Weems had 13 points. Mike Price led Crespi with 24 points and Steven Jamerson had 20 points. Harvard-Westlake defeated Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 90-65. Mason Hooks had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Ben Shtolzberg scored 26 points for Notre Dame.

Oak Park received 33 points from Clark Slajchert to defeat Simi Valley 66-59.

Village Christian defeated Whittier Christian 90-46. Immanuel Taylor had 21 points.

Benny Gealer scored 22 points as Rolling Hills Prep defeated Sun Valley Poly 58-45.

Grant knocked off University 63-60. Anthony Paratore scored 15 points.

Viewpoint defeated Venice 68-62. Dante Ogbu had 16 points.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Corona Centennial opened league play with a 90-40 win over Corona Santiago. Jared McCain scored 20 points.

Capistrano Valley held on for a 41-40 win over Mission Viejo.

Thousand Oaks advanced to the championship game of the San Fernando Valley Invitational with a 38-30 win over Kennedy.

Oxnard improved to 19-1 after a 78-48 win over Rio Mesa. Kai Johnson scored 20 points.

Despite 23 points from Kyle Beedon, Campbell Hall was beaten by Providence 61-56.

When the Dallas Stars’ team plane touched down in Los Angeles this week, John Stevens texted his wife. Back in town for the first time this year, the former Kings coach was passing along a simple message.

He had forgotten how much he missed his former home.

“It reminds you how much you enjoy your time here,” said Stevens, midway through his first season as an assistant coach for a Stars team that beat the Kings 2-1 at Staples Center on Wednesday night.

During nine seasons with the Kings — seven as an assistant from 2010 to 2017, then two as head coach before being fired in November 2018 — Stevens had come to cherish life in Southern California.

There was the weather, which he enjoyed during his game-day runs, especially when the team would stay downtown during postseasons, allowing him to jog up-and-down the hills along Olive Street.

There was the winning, which included two Stanley Cup titles during his time as an assistant and a 45-29-8 playoff season in his one full campaign as coach.

And there were the people, from fellow Kings coaches and front-office staff members, to the core group of veteran players whom the 53-year-old Stevens helped develop.

“My time in L.A. here was special,” Stevens said, before adding: “All things come to an end at some point.”

Indeed, after eight seasons of harmony, Stevens left the Kings on a sour note last fall.

Months after the team was swept out of the 2018 playoffs by the Vegas Golden Knights, he was fired just 13 games into the 2018-19 season after a 4-8-1 start. It was the second time Stevens, who coached the Philadelphia Flyers from 2006 to 2009 before coming to the Kings, had been let go midseason in his career.

Yet, more than a year later, he spoke to reporters in a Staples Center hallway Wednesday morning without a complaint.

“When you start thinking the game owes you, that’s when you start having trouble, you can get angry at the situation,” Stevens said. “I know what we signed up for. I think it’s a privilege to work in the NHL, I think it’s a privilege to work in hockey. … I don’t have any regrets about anything I did here or in Philadelphia or anywhere else.”

Stevens’ Kings roots, it turned out, influenced his decision to branch out to Dallas this offseason. In the Stars, he saw a roster reminiscent to the Kings’ burgeoning squads of a decade ago.

“My time here, watching these guys evolve not just into talented players but all-around players, has really helped me give them some insight where I think I can help,” said Stevens, whose primary responsibilities as an assistant on Darryl Sutter’s staff were with the Kings’ defensemen.

“I use Drew Doughty as an example. I don’t think people realize how good he defends. He’s one of the best defenders in the National Hockey League. I think that really helps me, because these guys are good players already.”

Meanwhile, returning to Los Angeles on Wednesday — in a game that saw the Kings, who lost second-line center Blake Lizotte to a lower-body injury in the opening minutes, surrendering two goals in a 37-second span in the second period to squander an early 1-0 lead — reminded Stevens of how different the Kings have become. “They got an awful lot of young players in their lineup,” he said. “I think there is a transition going on with some of these old guys, with young guys getting an opportunity. I know they’ve drafted an awful lot of players over the years.”

Still, when he sat down to scout his former team this week, the veterans he knows best — especially Doughty and Anze Kopitar, who scored his team-best 16th goal Wednesday — stuck out the most.

“They have lots of road ahead of them where they can be good players who will see this thing through,” Stevens said. “I’m sure that’s the way the organization feels.”

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

UCLA BASKETBALL

Columnist Dylan Hernandez takes a look at the new UCLA basketball coach:

Considering the strength of USC’s frontcourt, UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin was asked if he would have to go big more often when UCLA hosts its crosstown rival on Saturday.

“I would say … ,” Cronin started, only to fumble for words.

The coach ran his left hand over his bald head.

“I would disagree with … ,” he said.

Cronin crossed his arms. After a couple of more sentence fragments, he abandoned his search for a diplomatic answer and got to the point.

“Is our big lineup better than their big lineup?” he asked.

Cronin smiled.

The question was rhetorical. The answer was obvious: No.

Cronin broke the silence with a chuckle.

Such frankness has become a trademark of UCLA’s new coach in the first two-plus months of the college basketball season.

Read the rest of the column by clicking here.

Read more UCLA:

UCLA’s Chris Smith is getting more confident and it’s showing on court

NFL

Sam Farmer, with a great story on….. well, I won’t spoil it:

Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, lay writhing on the grass and clutching his left knee. It was a “Monday Night Football” game here at Arrowhead Stadium in 2017, and the 320-pound right guard needed a doctor.

Fortunately, one was close by. Before the medical team could hurry onto the field, Duvernay-Tardif turned his foot this way and that, wincing as he applied pressure to his knee area. The diagnosis: He didn’t have a torn anterior cruciate ligament but a sprained medial collateral ligament, a more benign injury.

“Of course, I was biased, because nobody wants to tear his ACL,” Duvernay-Tardif said. “But I was right; it was an MCL sprain.”

The man knows his medicine. Duvernay-Tardif is the NFL’s only active player who doubles as a physician. The 28-year-old Montreal native graduated from the prestigious McGill University Faculty of Medicine in May 2018 with a doctorate in medicine and master’s in surgery.

In a small-world coincidence, that’s the same school where the mother of Chiefs coach Andy Reid received her medical degree.

“He’s brilliant,” Reid said of Duvernay-Tardif. “Doesn’t take long after talking to him to figure out that he’s on the ball, and he’d be a great doctor. I tell him with those fingers that big, though, man, they’re not going to have him do any small surgeries. He’s a big man.”

Early in his NFL career, Duvernay-Tardif felt out of place. A native French speaker, he started introducing himself as “Larry” to make it easier for teammates who butchered “Laurent,” pronounced LOR-uhn.

“It took me a little longer to integrate fully into the locker room just because of where I was coming from,” said Duvernay-Tardif, who speaks flawless English with a mild French accent. “Not playing the same football, not growing up watching football and knowing the NFL rules. I feel like when you get into an NFL locker room as a rookie, you for sure know somebody that you played against and somebody that you went to a bowl game with. You have connections. I had nobody.”

Now, vive la différence.

Not all of his efforts to do that have been successful. The NFL denied his request to put “M.D.” at the end of the 15-character last name on his jersey.

Read the rest of the column by clicking here.

NFL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Divisional Round

Saturday

Minnesota at San Francisco, 1:30 p.m., NBC

Tennessee at Baltimore, 5:15 p.m., CBS

Sunday

Houston at Kansas City, Noon, CBS

Seattle at Green Bay, 3:30 p.m., FOX

Conference Championship

Sunday, Jan. 19

TBD at TBD, Noon, CBS

TBD at TBD, 3:30 p.m., FOX

Super Bowl

Sunday Feb. 2

TBD vs. TBD, 3:30 p.m., FOX

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

In his travels across the country, Fox Sports officiating analyst Mike Pereira has noticed two things.

Regardless of region, college football officials get lambasted everywhere: “If I’m in SEC territory, the SEC officials are getting blasted in the media. If I’m in ACC territory, the ACC guys are getting blasted. Same way in the Big Ten. Same way in the Big 12. Same way in the Pac-12.”

But no matter where he goes, the officials from one league get derided the most.

“The one noticeable difference to me,” Pereira said, “is the perception the Pac-12 [officials] are the worst.”

Unfair or not, unwarranted or not, this has become the reality for the Pac-12, which will supply the officiating crew for the College Football Playoff title game Monday night between No. 1 Louisiana State and No. 3 Clemson.

Pereira is among those who agree that the league’s overall officiating is on par with the rest of the nation. But one egregious error after another — ranging from on-field oversights to administrative mayhem — has eroded public confidence in the conference’s crews.

“I don’t consider them any better and I don’t consider them any worse,” said Pereira, a former NCAA and NFL referee who offers officiating commentary for Fox’s coverage of NFL and college games. “But the reputation is still out there. That’s hard to overcome.”

LAKERS

After a Tuesday night filled with fear and uncertainty, the Lakers received good news Wednesday morning.

Anthony Davis did not have a bone bruise, as the team’s medical staff believed he had Tuesday night after taking a hard fall. Instead, Davis has a bruise on his gluteus maximus, the main muscle that makes up the buttocks.

Although it wasn’t certain whether Davis would travel with the team on its upcoming trip, the Lakers are listing Davis as questionable for Friday’s game in Dallas. The Lakers will play the next night in Oklahoma City.

KINGS

The Dallas Stars extended their winning streak to five with a 2-1 victory over the Kings as Jamie Benn and Blake Comeau scored 37 seconds apart in the second period.

Dallas has come from behind for all the wins on its current streak, and this was only the second time the Stars didn’t trail going into the third period.

Anton Khudobin gave up a goal to Anze Kopitar on the Kings’ first shot before making 30 saves. Esa Lindell added a pair of assists for Dallas, which has won five of its last six against the Kings.

It was Kopitar’s 328th goal in 14 seasons with the Kings, moving him past Bernie Nicholls for fourth-most in franchise history.

TODAY’S LOCAL MAJOR SPORTS SCHEDULE

All times Pacific

Kings at Vegas, 7 p.m., FSW

Dallas at Ducks, 7 p.m., PRIME, AM 830

BORN ON THIS DATE

1934: Football player Bart Starr (d. 2019)

1935: Sportscaster Dick Enberg (d. 2017)

1959: Race car driver Mark Martin

1965: Basketball player Muggsy Bogues

1971: Hockey player Scott Thornton

1975: Archer Justin Huish

1976: Hockey player Radek Bonk

1978: Football player Chad Johnson

1980: Golfer Sergio García

DIED ON THIS DATE

2004: Basketball player Yinka Dare, 31

2012: Boxer Brian Curvis, 74

AND FINALLY

Bart Starr is honored at halftime of the Packers-Vikings game this season. Watch it here.

That concludes the newsletter for today. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, please email me at [email protected]. If you want to subscribe, click here

SACRAMENTO — 

Aiming to speed up the construction of affordable housing and homeless shelters in California, new legislation would make all new low-income housing projects exempt from a key environmental law that has been used to restrict development.

Assembly Bill 1907, introduced Wednesday, would allow low-income housing projects and shelters to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act, the landmark 50-year-old state law known as CEQA that has been credited with helping to preserve California’s natural beauty but also blamed for stymieing construction.

“People are homeless, rents are too high and we just can’t sit here and say the status quo is working,” said Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), the bill’s author. “We have to push hard to get affordable housing done, emergency shelters and permanent supportive housing. We’ve got to say enough is enough.”

CEQA requires developers to disclose a project’s potential environmental effects on the surrounding community and take steps to reduce or eliminate them. Doing so is often a time-consuming and costly process made longer by lawsuits that can last years.

AB 1907 builds off a law Santiago authored last year that eliminated CEQA requirements for homeless housing projects and shelters in the city of Los Angeles.

That law was spurred by lawsuits filed by neighborhood activists in Venice against a proposed shelter there. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected the activists’ lawsuit in December, citing the new state law.

AB 1907 not only extends the CEQA exemptions that are now law in L.A. to the entire state, but goes further by allowing affordable housing developments — projects reserved for individuals and families making 80% or less of a region’s median income — to also bypass CEQA.

The new bill is one of the most significant efforts in recent memory from a Democratic lawmaker to change the environmental law. CEQA has staunch defenders among powerful Democratic environmental and labor interest groups, who contend its effects on stopping housing are overblown. They also argue that it provides an essential process to promote sustainable development and union wage standards.

Last spring, more than 100 environmental and preservationist organizations, including Sierra Club California, Natural Resources Defense Council and California Environmental Justice Alliance, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, urging the state to keep the law intact.

“Major changes to CEQA would pose a significant threat to our natural environment, including critical resources like clean air and clean water, and to California’s most disadvantaged communities,” the letter read.

Santiago, whose district includes skid row, said he expects his bill would be narrowed as it works its way through the Legislature. But he said he believes that lawmakers need to debate anything slowing the production of affordable and homeless housing.

Last year, California’s homeless population grew 16% to 151,000, more than a quarter of the national figure.

“This is a crisis of biblical proportions,” Santiago said. “Families are literally living on the streets. We need to do something.”

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

Other school districts have filed similar lawsuits against the e-cigaratte company, including Los Angeles Unified.

SAN DIEGO — 

The San Diego Unified School District is suing Juul Labs, a giant in the electronic cigarette industry, for the company’s role in fostering vaping among children, saying it’s an alarming phenomenon that has disrupted learning at schools throughout the district.

The district is the latest of several to take legal action against the company. The Los Angeles Unified School District filed a similar lawsuit in October. Districts in Glendale, Compton and Anaheim have also filed suits, along with districts outside the state.

Like those before it, San Diego’s suit seeks unspecified compensation for financial losses suffered as a result of vaping-related absences, the coordination of outreach and education programs about the health risks of vaping and enforcement actions. It also seeks an order telling the company to make amends for its role in the vaping epidemic, which could include the creation of programs to educate potential users about the risks of e-cigarettes, lawyers said.

“Our district is in the business of educating students in a healthy and safe environment,” San Diego Unified Supt. Cindy Marten said in a statement. “This lawsuit supports district goals by holding Juul accountable for its harmful marketing practices and unsafe products.”

A Juul Labs spokesman said the company remains focused on “earning the trust of society” by cooperating with a variety of stakeholders to combat underage use and to help adult smokers transition away from cigarettes.

The company recently stopped selling several e-cigarette pod flavors, including mint, and suspended all advertising in the U.S. Critics have contended that some of the company’s flavored pods were especially appealing to young, first-time nicotine users, and that its advertising techniques — which included the hiring of social media nfluencers — were aimed at teenagers.

“Our customer base is the world’s 1 billion adult smokers, and we do not intend to attract underage users,” said Juul spokesman Ted Kwong. “To the extent these cases allege otherwise, they are without merit.”

Juul Labs entered the e-cigarette industry in 2015 and now controls more than 70% of the market.

In its court filing, San Diego Unified said Juul has “severely impacted” its schools.

It’s been disruptive to the learning environment because educators and administrators have to spend time and energy on prevention and intervention efforts and the detection of student vaping, the lawsuit claims.

E-cigarette use also affects the student learning process, the lawsuit states. The habit has led to a rise in absenteeism, which has been linked to worsening academic performance and results in less school funding. Much of the revenue a district receives is tied to daily student attendance.

Funding is also increasingly used to combat vaping instead of programs designed to improve student achievement, the lawsuit claims.

“Districts have seen an incredible increase in vaping and e-cigarette use on campus and among students, and it has affected the learning and educational process that’s supposed to be taking place,” said attorney John Fiske, who is representing the district.

In San Diego Unified, about 4% of seventh-graders and 7% of 11th-graders reported they had used vaping devices in the 30 days prior to being surveyed, according to a state study.

Click Here: liverpool mens jersey

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked vaping to 2,561 cases of a mysterious lung disease over the last six months. At least 55 people have died since the outbreak began.

The illness is marked by chest pain, shortness of breath and vomiting, and it has largely affected young people. The vast majority of cases, almost 80%, involve e-cigarette users younger than 35, and 16% are younger than 18.

Winkley writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

A group of workers were cleaning out a U-Haul truck Wednesday, towed to a Fullerton rental business after it was abandoned in Anaheim, when they found a body inside the vehicle.

The Fullerton Police Department was called to the scene near Orangethorpe Avenue and State College Boulevard just before 1 p.m.

After determining that the truck had been rented and then dumped in Anaheim, Fullerton authorities contacted Anaheim police, who took over the case.

About 7:30 p.m., the body, found wrapped in plastic and cardboard with only with the crown of the person’s head visible, was taken to the Orange County coroner’s office for further examination. No details about the person’s identity were available Wednesday evening.

The truck was towed to “another controlled facility” where officers will glean any evidence from the truck, which also had clothing and furniture inside, said Sgt. Shane Carringer of the Anaheim Police Department.

Click Here: Argentina Rugby Shop

“We have nothing to indicate it is a homicide,” Carringer said. “We are handling it as if it could potentially be a homicide, so we’re going to complete a thorough, methodical search.”

SACRAMENTO — 

The main rap on Gov. Gavin Newsom after one year in office is that his focus is too scattered. He doesn’t prioritize. But there’s a sign that could be changing.

When a politician — or anyone — battles on too many fronts, the fighter’s strength is spread thin and weakened. Often, there’s not much of a fight at all.

But on Tuesday, prior to Newsom releasing his annual state budget proposal on Friday, a senior advisor signaled that the governor could be sharpening his strategy and narrowing his focus in 2020.

“There are three top priorities,” communications director Daniel Zingale said when asked about Newsom’s agenda for the year. “Homelessness, healthcare affordability and wildfires.”

Last year, after promising voters the moon while running for election, every issue seemed to be a top priority for the new governor. That included affordable housing, building more housing of all kinds and resolving age-old water wars.

There wasn’t much progress on those complex issues, although some limited rent control was enacted. Also approved were potential fines for local governments refusing to permit more housing construction.

Asked whether Newsom would be focusing on fewer state problems this year, Zingale hesitated to answer. We’ll need to watch how this plays out, but maybe the governor learned a lesson about prioritizing.

The advisor said that with homelessness, Newsom “now has an idea what is working and feels it’s important to double down. Same with wildfires.”

Actually, on homelessness, there has been a flurry of activity by state and local governments — and $1 billion appropriated by Sacramento for emergency shelters and mental health — but nothing seems to be working yet. On Monday, the federal government estimated California had 128,777 homeless individuals last year — around one-third of all homeless people in the nation.

Newsom revealed the homelessness piece of his 2020-21 budget proposal Tuesday. He’ll ask lawmakers for more than $1.4 billion to bolster state and local efforts to get homeless people off the streets.

Included is a unique new program to tap into Medi-Cal healthcare money to help the mentally ill find shelter and treatment. More than half the funds would come from the federal government.

Concerning wildfires, Newsom will propose spending a lot more money to beef up firefighting crews and equipment, and clear forests of combustible trees and brush. Fortunately for him, the state treasury is still overflowing with tax revenue.

Homelessness and wildfires clearly should be top priorities for any governor. Homelessness is a quality of life, health and safety issue — not only for the homeless, but all people who’d like to use downtown streets.

California has always suffered wildfires, but this is getting ridiculous. Also unacceptable are power shutoffs by private utilities trying to prevent wildfire ignition by their faulty equipment.

The healthcare priority is about the governor trying to make prescription drugs more affordable.

Sacramento insiders and interests have varied opinions about whether Newsom should have emulated former Gov. Jerry Brown and concentrated on just one or two — maybe three at most — issues at a time.

Brown was a savvy old political pro who could quickly size up a proposal’s prospects and would shun fighting losing battles.

Once I wrote that Newsom — a former baseball pitcher at Santa Clara University — seemed to swing at every pitch at the state Capitol, many of them out of the strike zone.

Newsom later told a USA Today interviewer that he is “not capable of not trying to solve a problem. … If [the] critique is we’re swinging at a lot of pitches, absolutely that’s fair criticism.”

But, he added: “Do I tell a senior citizen, ‘Sorry, I can’t help with your prescription because my team says I just need to focus on a couple of things?’ Do you tell kids, ‘Preschool can’t be a priority because my communications staff thinks I should stay on wildfires?’”

Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, who was communications director for Gov. Gray Davis, another college ballplayer, says: “When you swing at a lot of pitches, you hit a lot of foul balls. He should focus on hitting a few out of the park.”

But some applaud Newsom for not limiting his scope.

“Some people think he’s taking on more than he should,” says Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce. “But I say there are a lot of issues out there that need to be addressed in this diverse state. I would never fault him for trying. Different issues are important to different people. I’ve got to give him credit.”

Dan Dunmoyer, president of the California Building Industry Assn. — the home-building lobby — gives Newsom “high marks” for “sticking his neck out” against local governments and pushing them to permit more housing construction.

Of course, so far it hasn’t worked.

Veteran political lawyer Steve Merksamer, who was Gov. George Deukmejian’s chief of staff, says:

“People give a governor in the first year complete benefit of doubt on whether he fulfills his promises. The second year, the benefit of doubt begins to recede. This governor made more promises than any governor I’ve seen.

“This is not a criticism,” Merksamer continues, “but it’s the time to put up or shut up. Taking on issues other people haven’t is fine, but that’s not the question. It’s taking them on and solving them.

“It’s time to fish or cut bait. It’s the second year.”

Newsom probably knows that.