CalWatchdog Morning Read – August 19

• Affordable housing deal appears dead for the year
• Court rules medical pot safe from feds
• Stockton mayor pleads not guilty to charges from teen strip poker game
• Legislature close to decriminalizing prostitution for minors
• Concealed carry has begun in Kern High School District

Good morning and TGIF! The legislative session drew one day closer to its conclusion — and it appears that one of the biggest outstanding policy issues is done for the year.

A deal to spur the construction of low-income housing statewide has apparently fallen apart, according to multiple media reports.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, said talks have died for the year, largely because of Gov. Jerry Brown’s insistence on including provisions that would speed up development by relaxing requirements in the approval process — an idea that angered many local government officials.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “A new federal court ruling offers some reassurance that no federal authority can pull the plug on state-approved medicinal pot use,” writes CalWatchdog.
• Stockton’s mayor has “pleaded not guilty to criminal charges connected to a strip poker game with teen counselors at a summer camp for underprivileged children,” writes The San Jose Mercury News/AP.
• “A controversial bill that would decriminalize prostitution for minors squeezed out of the California Assembly on Thursday and is now headed back to the Senate for a final vote,” writes the Los Angeles Times. 
• “Kern High School District officials began allowing non-employee concealed carry weapon permit holders to bring firearms on campus Wednesday, but with a cost that at least one trustee said presents ‘obstacles’ to armed citizens,” reports The Bakersfield Californian. 

Assembly:

• In at 9 a.m.

Senate:

• In at 9 a.m.

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced.

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