News you don’t want to miss for July 25:
1. San Francisco’s soon-to-be-ex leader of its Municipal Transportation Agency is taking a job at Oakland City Hall, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Ed Reiskin will become an Oakland assistant city administrator. $$
2. Richmond City Manager Carlos Martinez is out after less than a year on the job, Radio Free Richmond reports. The Richmond City Council narrowly voted, 4-3, this week to terminate Martinez’s contract. The former East Palo Alto city manager was facing opposition from labor unions upset over cuts to personnel.
3. The Guardian looks to get to the bottom of why there seems to be so many freeway shootings in recent years. One theory is displacement due to the ongoing housing crisis.
4. Growing suspicions about China in the realm of science and technology by the Trump administration is affecting university research at U.C. Berkeley and other U.C. schools, the Los Angeles Times reports. Chinese students and professors are facing delays in securing visas, along with greater interest in their activities at the universities. $$
5. “Latinos, Asian Americans and women are underrepresented among applicants for the 2020 commission that will draw California congressional districts,” the Sacramento Bee reports. In 2010, 30,000 people applied. This time around the number is at 7,500, leading some to urge for the deadline to be extended. California could lose a congressional seat after 2020 and the contraction could be in the East Bay. $$
6. A lawsuit is arguing California’s open primary system is anything but when it comes to those registered as independents, Calmatters reports. The complaint said No Party Preference voters is unconstitutional because it disenfranchised some voters, particularly those who receive Democratic vote-by-mail ballots, by locking them out of each party’s primaries. The workaround for independents is they have to register with a party in the primary.
$$ = Stories you may have to pay to read.
