Sacramento’s appalling homeless issue, the right to privacy for some, and Donald Jr.
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Our take
Editorials
3,600 homeless people in Sacramento? Time to stop badmouthing San Francisco.: Homelessness is up dramatically in Sacramento County – a sign of both the housing crisis and dysfunction in local government.
San Luis Obispo Tribune: For years, residents of the Nipomo Mesa have been breathing air polluted with dangerously high levels of tiny dust particles linked to respiratory diseases like asthma, bronchitis, even lung cancer. It’s shocking that people who live and work on the Nipomo Mesa have been forced to put up with this as long as they have. What’s even more shocking is the lack of outrage on the part of officials who are supposed to be safeguarding public health.
Columns
Dan Morain: In the name of helping workers, this bill would strip workers of basic privacy. In 2016, organized labor went all in to elect Ash Kalra to the assembly. Now, Kalra is helping labor with a bill that would require the state to turn over personal information of private company workers.
Dan Walters, CalMatters: California faces higher education crisis, but politicians dither.
Op-Eds
Ryan Loofbourrow: The number of homeless is up in Sacramento County. Collaboration is our best hope. If we are successful, we can address the housing shortage and the significant cost of frequent users of public services.
Susan Rohan: Senate Bill 35 would completely eviscerate local control over housing, silence residents’ voices in the development process and undermine California’s important environmental laws.
Take a number: 13
Of the 43 scheduled executions across America in the first half of 2017, 13 actually took place and were not blocked by court or governors, or rescheduled. Both numbers are on track to make 2017 another year in the decline of capital punishment, the Death Penalty Information Center reported Monday. That’s despite the spree of four executions in Arkansas at the end of April. None of the executions in 2017 were in California, which hasn’t had one since 2006. Voters passed a ballot measure to speed up executions last November. California could turn around the long-term decline because of the 748 or so people on death row. But that won’t happen soon. The California Supreme Court has yet to issue a decision about that initiative’s constitutionality, and Gov. Jerry Brown is a moral opponent of capital punishment who could commute any death sentence. – Foon Rhee, @foonrhee
Their take
San Diego Union-Tribune: California is moving too slowly on computer science graduation requirements. As of September, according to the Education Commission of the States, computer science could be used to fulfill mathematics, science or foreign language graduation requirements in 20 states, but only Virginia has decided to make computer science a graduation requirement.
Kansas City Star: We look forward to the day when the U.S. Senate finally turns its attention to health care. And no, we’re not talking about the current Republican bill beloved by next to no one.
Mercury News: The American people expect the White House to meet the North Korean crisis forcefully yet prudently – and successfully. After so much trouble with cyber conflict coming from North Korea, the United States should turn the tables for a win. Not just for the United States but for the world.
National Review: What is needed, obviously, is a clear-eyed view of Vladimir Putin and his aims. The president is not incapable of this.
Chicago Tribune: The Cubs had Major League Baseball's best regular-season record in 2016 and won the World Series with a magical Game 7 performance in Cleveland. Most of the key players returned this year. Yet nothing seems quite the same.
Syndicates’ take
Eugene Robinson: The question at this point is what strikes a chord with special counsel Robert Mueller – and what kind of legal jeopardy Trump’s closest associates, including his eldest son and son-in-law, might eventually face.
Charles M. Blow: Clearly, Donald Trump having a great relationship with Vladimir Putin, and Trump not knowing Putin at all, cannot both be true.
Paul Krugman: Republicans can’t come up with a non-disastrous alternative to Obamacare because you can’t change any major element of the Affordable Care Act without destroying the whole thing.
Michael Gerson: America has been inflicted with idealism since the day of its founding. The assertion is still shocking: That a life on the other side of the world is created equal – honestly, objectively, God-blessedly equal – to our own.
Letters to the editor
“Forcing women into military service is not the road to equality.” – Deborah Moreno Cassio, Folsom
Tweets of the day
“That was fast. 1) Collusion is a hoax 2) No evidence of collusion 3) What do you mean by “collusion” exactly? 4) Collusion is good”– David Frum, @davidfrum
“Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent... went nowhere but had to listen.” – Donald Trump Jr., @DonaldJTrumpJr
As opposed to calling the FBI about Russian meddling in U.S. elections.
This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Sacramento’s appalling homeless issue, the right to privacy for some, and Donald Jr.."