California has become a battleground for the protection of consumer privacy rules

A landmark California law signed last year to enact the strongest privacy rules in the country and regulate the online marketplace of personal data is caught in a tug of war between industry lobbyists who want to weaken it and consumer groups that say it doesn’t go far enough.

The California Consumer Privacy Act, which takes effect in January, will grant people in the state new rights to control the information that businesses gather about them and sell at a time when tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon are facing pressure to change their data collection and advertising practices.

But as state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra puts together new regulations to implement the law, advocacy groups are seeking more protections for consumers and business groups are working to rein it in, arguing that it will stifle competition and burden companies struggling to comply with a much broader privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union.

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As Trump and his wall push Mexico away, California aims to pull it closer

As President Trump pushes Mexico further away, declaring a national emergency to force the construction of a wall along the border, Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers have made clear they want to draw the country closer.

Along with a commitment to reopen a trade office in Mexico City, the governor also plans to revitalize a state commission that would allow California officials to work on issues with their counterparts in Mexican government. And over the course of his first term, Newsom and state Democrats are expected to refocus attention on what they consider the real issues at the heart of the U.S.-Mexico relationship: tackling cross-border pollution, promoting cultural and educational exchanges, and defending the human rights of all immigrants.

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Slamming Trump's 'political theater,' California Gov. Gavin Newsom pulls National Guard from border

As a second partial government shutdown looms in Washington over border discussions, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an order to withdraw and redeploy roughly 360 National Guard members from California’s southern boundary with Mexico, repudiating President Trump’s characterization of a recent influx of Central American refugees and migrants as a national security crisis.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Newsom said he was giving the National Guard a new mission so that troops would not take part in the White House’s “political theater” in perpetuation of what he once more called “a manufactured border crisis.”

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Newsom plans to move California Juvenile Justice Division out of corrections department

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he intends to shift control of the state’s Juvenile Justice Division away from corrections officials to government health and human services providers, a move he called long overdue and necessary to build on past efforts to divert children and teens from a path to prison.

Under the proposal, first unveiled as part of his January budget, the California Health and Human Services Agency would oversee more than 660 young offenders, the majority held at a camp in Pine Grove and three detention centers in Stockton and Camarillo. It is a small population compared with the more than 39,000 young people on probation or detained in juvenile halls statewide and the hardest to serve because of the serious charges and mental and medical health needs they face.

Corrections and health and human services officials say the plan heralds a cultural change in the state’s approach to the youngest in the justice system, and creates opportunities to better bridge educational, mental health and social services to prepare minors for release.

But probation officers, healthcare professionals and community activists who have long been at the forefront of a push to shut down youth detention centers and improve treatment are wary that the changes could merely be symbolic — or worse, halt progress that they say has led to fewer young people in custody.

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On crime and punishment, Gov. Jerry Brown leaves behind revised rules and a new focus on redemption

When Gov. Jerry Brown’s final term in office ends next week, he will leave behind a California criminal justice system infused with a new commitment to second chances, a shift away from an era in which tens of thousands — many poor, most black or Latino — were imprisoned with little opportunity to turn their lives around.

“It’s called hope,” Brown said in a late December interview. “One hundred fifty thousand young men with zero hope bolsters the gangs, leads to despair, leads to violence and makes the prisons very dangerous. Many of them, the majority, will get out anyway. And they’ll get out as very wounded human beings.”

The governor’s attempt to unwind the old approach stands in contrast to his legacy from the 1970s. Despite a professed belief in redemption, no governor did more to launch the state’s tough-on-crime era — signing a seminal law four decades ago that paved the way for strict sentences, even for nonviolent crimes.

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How young immigrant 'Dreamers' made flipping control of the House a personal quest

Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldn’t vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls.

The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didn’t have.

“It could really make a change for us,” said Cruz, 29.

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California’s Legislature convenes as a record number of Democrats settle in to govern

A bumper crop of Democrats convened Monday in the California Legislature, the largest group in the state’s modern history, swept into office by an electoral flood that could create a significant change on big-ticket issues including healthcare and child poverty.

Sixty Democrats joined the Assembly, making up three-quarters of the lower house’s membership and the party’s largest caucus in the chamber since 1883. In the 40-member Senate, 29 lawmakers are Democrats, a high-water mark reached just once before in more than half a century.

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Election 2018: The fight for control of the House in California

GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher loses, and the Republicans' 'bad year' may get worse yet

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has lost the congressional seat he held for 30 years in one of the most conservative stretches of Orange County, a stunning defeat for the GOP as other Republicans’ early leads receded in the latest ballot counts, putting the party in fear of losing all six tightly contested House races in California.

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In California's Central Valley, two candidates who reflect the urban-rural divide remain neck and neck

To resounding cheers and applause on Tuesday, Democratic congressional candidate Josh Harder took the stage at a downtown Modesto banquet hall and said he was proud of running a campaign that didn’t “get dragged down into the mud” but painted a brighter picture for the Central Valley.

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Streets are packed with cars. Businesses have put up “no parking signs.” More than a dozen volunteers expected to hit the streets for Josh Harder today. Campain staffers say it’s the largest canvassing operation for a congressional district in the country. #CA10 #midterms2018 pic.twitter.com/mJJVkXZ4Ry

— Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) November 3, 2018

In this Central Valley district, candidates don't mention Trump or his wall. Instead, it's 'build water storage!'

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and California gubernatorial candidate John Cox on Sunday called for a repeal of the state’s gas tax increase and underscored the need to expand roads and add jobs.

Stumping in Modesto, where Cox’s bus made a stop at Denham’s campaign headquarters, the two made little mention of President Trump in an area where Democrats hold a slight edge in registered voters. Their most passionate pleas were to bring water to Central Valley farmers and to build not a wall along the border with Mexico but greater storage capacity.

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Lots of shots taken at San Francisco and Bay Area values. “There is a real battle here,” Denham said.

“I would love to hear somebody say something postive about the president,” a woman in the back as they ended their speeches. “Build the wall,” yelled another. pic.twitter.com/0wHJavTh0W

— Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) November 4, 2018

'We are building a foundation': Democrat Andrew Janz's supporters hopeful for a win against Rep. Devin Nunes despite the odds

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is beloved by his supporters in this rural Central Valley district where GOP registered voters safely outnumber Democrats. But that hasn’t stopped 71-year-old Patty Lennon from working to unseat him over the last year.

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What’s good Fresno? Starting off today at campaign headquarters for Democrat Andrew Janz. He’s posing the most serious challenge Republican incumbent Devin Nunes has faced in years. #CA22 pic.twitter.com/d9T1zPPYuY

— Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) November 5, 2018

These are the billionaires hoping to influence elections that will determine control of Congress

One is the world’s richest person, another has been described as a “chain-smokerwho often dresses without socks,” and yet another has changed political parties twice, most recently this year.

With the election just around the corner and their party on the defensive, Republicans have railed against Democratic billionaires pouring big money into this year’s midterm. But the top political donors of the closely watched battle for control of Congress are a bipartisan and varied lot.

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Love or hate Trump, he's made California a hive of midterm election activity

For many Californians, Saturday was a sunny gift of a fall day, a chance to stroll the beach, rake leaves, visit a park or take in a child’s soccer game.

For Cristina Escobedo, it was a time to save her daughter from possible deportation. For Marylee Sanders, an opportunity to stand up for Brett Kavanaugh. For Paul Samuels, a chance to learn some newfangled technology and feel as though he was making a difference.

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‘We are tired of being attacked’: Farmworkers and immigrant rights activists make a final push to flip the House

Immigrant rights advocates and farmworkers hit the streets early Saturday to get out the vote in the 10th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and Democrat Josh Harder are locked in one of the most intense races in California.

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Out in Ceres, south of Modesto, United Farm Workers Union volunteers are at it again. They’ve ticked off more than 32 houses and had 17 conversations with people who answered the door. #midterms2018 pic.twitter.com/ktPBB4w5kV

— Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) November 3, 2018

In this California House race, water is 'lifeblood.' Will an edge on the issue give Republican Rep. Denham a boost?

Jake Wenger grows walnuts on land where early settlers arrived in search of gold and instead found rich soil. His orchards just west of Modesto stretch 700 acres and supply a nut company that has remained in his family for four generations.

Like other farmers in this congressional district at the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley, Wenger, 34, said he fears his livelihood is under siege by a state plan to reduce the waters diverted from Northern California rivers for irrigation.

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Devin Nunes is attacking his district's newspaper before the midterm election. It's a page from Trump's playbook

For years, Rep. Devin Nunes and the Fresno Bee got along just fine. But now, facing his first serious election challenge in years, the Central Valley congressman is on the attack — not against his Democratic opponent, but his district’s largest newspaper and what he calls its “band of creeping correspondents.”

The Republican from Tulare is bashing the Fresno Bee in TV and radio ads and a glossy, 40-page mailer after the newspaper angered him with harsh editorials and less-than-flattering news stories. In one ad, he looks into a camera and accuses the paper — which had endorsed him in the last eight elections — of “working with radical left-wing groups to promote fake news stories.”

It’s a tactic that Nunes — along with other Republican candidates — has borrowed from President Trump when encountering coverage he doesn’t like.

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California has ended money bail. Who will bail out the industry?

Under the glare of neon signs and unforgiving fluorescent office lights, bail agents are spending time processing a new California law signed just days ago by Gov. Jerry Brown that could decimate their industry.

The new system, which would virtually eliminate the payment of money as a condition of release, could spell doom for not only bail agents, bounty hunters and surety companies across the state, but also a $2-billion bail industry nationwide. Reform in California, which holds roughly a quarter of the market, could prompt other states to follow suit, bail groups and lobbyists said.

Reaction has been swift: Just a day after Brown signed the bill into law, bail associations filed a voter referendum in an attempt to block it, asking for support from the very criminal justice groups and activists they’ve long been at odds with. Now agents say they are scrambling to find new careers, closing up shop or weighing whether to move their businesses out of state.

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Beaten and raped in El Salvador, a domestic violence survivor finds little hope for asylum in U.S.

Xiomara started dating him when she was 17. He was different then, not yet the man who pushed drugs and ran with a gang. Not the man who she says berated and raped her, who roused her out of bed some mornings only to beat her.

Not the man who choked her with an electrical cord, or put a gun to her head while she screamed, then begged, “‘Please, please don’t kill me — I love you.’”

Fleeing El Salvador with their daughter, then 4, the 23-year-old mother pleaded for help at a port of entry in El Paso on a chilly day in December 2016.

After nearly two years, her petition for asylum remains caught in a backlog of more than 310,000 other claims. But while she has waited for a ruling, her chance of success has plunged.

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Senators call family separation policy 'immoral,' 'failure' as officials try to defend their actions

Trump administration officials on Tuesday sought to defend the immigration enforcement policy that allowed Border Patrol agents to separate more than 2,500 migrant families, but ran into sharp criticism from senators as one official compared detention centers for children to “summer camp.”

“These individuals have access to 24/7 food and water,” Matthew Albence, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, said. “They have educational opportunities. They have recreational opportunities, both structured as well as unstructured, there’s basketball courts, there’s exercise classes, there’s soccer fields we put in there.”

"Would you send your children” to one of the centers, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) demanded of the administration witnesses. None said they would.

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Family separation crisis continues on border even as court-ordered deadline nears

The calls for help started coming in to immigration lawyers across the country just before Memorial Day. Immigrant detainees, many fleeing gangs and violence and seeking legal asylum in the U.S., were flooding courtrooms along the Southwest border.

Dozens were parents reporting that Border Patrol agents had taken away their children, and many were under the impression they would see their sons and daughters again within hours.

“We had to break the news to them that that wasn’t true,” said Efrén C. Olivares, who was among the attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project to come to the aid of public defenders in McAllen. “And then the question became, ‘If not today, then when?’

“We didn’t have an answer to that.”

Nine weeks of chaos and confusion later, many still don’t.

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Painful scenes of child separations force a rare retreat from the White House

A 2-year-old girl, with red sneakers and dark hair, crying as a U.S. Border Patrol agent searches her mother. Boys filing along white tents against a desolate desert backdrop. Toddlers screaming for their parents in a detention center in South Texas.

As wrenching scenes of the more than 2,300 immigrant children pulled apart from their parents at the southwest border sparked anguish around the globe and a political backlash at home, President Trump said migrants illegally “infest our country,” framing his policy to separate families as a deterrent against drug smugglers and Central American gang members.

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In the heart of the Central Valley, a push to get Latino voters to the polls

In a city most known for its prison and farmland, the modest, one-story home of Mary and Raul Gomez has the feel of the quintessential American dream with its trimmed green lawn, little porch and white picket fence. In the driveway, there’s even a remodeled 1968 black Chevrolet Biscayne visible from Dairy Avenue.

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Democrats in these House races are 'extreme long shots.' Here's why they're still trying

As national Democrats play up talk of a wave that could help them regain control of the House, more than a dozen of Democratic candidates are attempting to unseat GOP incumbents in California districts long considered unwinnable. It’s a bold move in a year when skeptics may soon accuse them of sapping resources Democrats need elsewhere.

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In cycling-obsessed Colombia, he dreamed of glory. But first he needed a bike

Steven Motavita was 13 when he bought a mountain bicycle to compete in local road races. It was cheap, with a heavy aluminum frame and fat tires unsuited for competition, but it was all he could afford with the money he made harvesting potatoes with two uncles who once shared his great cycling ambitions.

Riding along steep highways in the Colombian countryside, he soon met another young cyclist and learned about the Santiago de Tunja cycling club, a ragtag group of aspiring riders who gather most Saturdays under the shadow of a towering concrete soccer stadium in this colonial city.

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Survivors of violent crime raise their voices in California

As the state has rolled back sentencing laws through legislation and voter initiatives, a growing victims' rights movement is pushing for alternatives to incarceration, with greater investment in rehabilitation services and a reevaluation of what it takes to make communities safe. On the other side, a smaller but visible coalition of crime survivors and law enforcement officials wants a return to tougher sentences and fewer people on parole.

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A fight simmers in the Bay Area over protecting the privacy of immigrants here illegally

Few cities have done as much as Oakland to examine and push back against the ways law enforcement, through new technology and shared databases, collects personal information, images and communications of criminal suspects and innocent bystanders alike. Over the last year, as city leaders found themselves at odds with President Trump's immigration agenda, the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission has worked to ensure those surveillance tools aren't used to target immigrant or Muslim communities.

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