Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Oakland city officials fired the firm that was in charge of recruiting a new police chief because it discriminates against gays and lesbians, the Trib$ reports. The city’s decision to terminate the contract with the International Association of Police Chiefs could further delay a decision to hire a new chief or give Interim Chief Sean Whent the job permanently. This was the second police chief recruiting firm that has left Oakland. The International Association of Police Chiefs does not offer benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian employees — in violation of city policy.
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2. The Berkeley City Council voted 6-3 to place a new districting map that would create the city’s first-ever student district on the November ballot, Berkeleyside reports. The council approved the map last fall, but opponents of it successfully gathered enough petition signatures to force the council to either rescind the map or ask voters to okay it. Opponents of the map believe it would have likely led to the ouster of longtime Councilman Kriss Worthington. The council also voted to ask a judge to decide whether the city should use the new map or old districting maps in this year’s council elections.
3. State health investigators concluded that Children’s Hospital Oakland followed standard medical procedures in the case of thirteen-year-old Jahi McMath, who died unexpectedly after tonsil surgery late last year, the CoCo Times$ reports. However, an attorney for McMath’s family blasted state investigators, contending that their report was incomplete.
4. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has opened a criminal fraud probe of a security company that has ties to the former Your Black Muslim Bakery and won a contract at the Port of Oakland after lying about also having contracts with other public agencies, the Bay Area News Group$ reports.
5. And the state has decided to erect three temporary dams in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River to hold back saltwater intrusion, the Mercury News$ reports. There’s not enough freshwater flowing into the delta because of the drought.
