Bipartisan support building to curb “policing for profit”

Proponents of a measure to close a loophole that allows local law enforcement agencies to seize citizens’ property without a criminal conviction or even an arrest — a practice dubbed “policing for profit” — are moving behind the scenes to shore

Read More

CalWatchdog Morning Read – May 24

  Bay Area court stops suspending driver licenses over unpaid fines SF to look at its sanctuary city policies Bernie and Hillary come to SoCal State Senate votes to ban private communications with Coastal Commission Under pressure from civil liberties

Read More

Bernie Sanders goes for broke leading up to CA primary

  With California the final battleground in his insurgent campaign to beat Hillary Clinton for the Democrats’ nomination for president, Sen. Bernie Sanders has pulled out the stops, barnstorming the state and demanding a final televised debate, which Clinton has now declined,

Read More

Court to stop suspending licenses for unpaid fines

Under pressure from civil liberties groups, Contra Costa County Superior Court announced last week a moratorium on the practice of suspending driver’s licenses over unpaid fines. In March, the ACLU of Northern California and other groups urged the California Judicial Council

Read More

CalWatchdog Morning Read – May 23

After a year of controversy surrounding his department’s actions, including sending racist and homophobic text messages and questionable use of force incidents, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr stepped down last week. But will his resignation quiet the political and

Read More

Uncertain CA community colleges eye tuition cuts

  Little was heard about president Barack Obama’s call, in his last State of the Union address, to make community college free around the country. But now, facing gnawing affordability problems and the prospect of weakened enrollment, many of California’s community colleges — and

Read More

Besieged Berkeley chancellor’s home gets $700,000 protective fence

Twenty-four years after police killed a protester who had broken into the on-campus home of UC Berkeley’s chancellor and seven years after anarchists tried to burn the home down with the chancellor and his wife inside, the building now has

Read More

San Francisco police chief out — mayor or fire chief next?

After a year of controversy over his officers sending racist and homophobic text messages and killing crime suspects in questionable circumstances, San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr is gone, resigning at the request of Mayor Ed Lee on Thursday. The

Read More

FBI startles CA with secret courthouse surveillance

  Touching off another national controversy centered around California, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was discovered to have concealed video and audio monitoring devices around a courthouse in the San Francisco East Bay five to six years ago. “Federal agents planted

Read More

Democrats launch anti-Trump attacks on down-ticket GOP candidates

The Trump effect has begun. It’s what Republicans fear and Democrats embrace: How the controversial presumptive nomination of Donald Trump as the GOP’s presidential candidate will affect races further down the ballot. Democrats are hoping to tie Trump around the necks of Republican candidates

Read More