News you don’t want to miss for Jan. 2:
1. Two arrests have been made stemming from the New Year’s Eve death of a man attempting to stop suspects from stealing his laptop computer at a Starbucks in Oakland’s Montclair district, the Bay City News reports.
2. Rep. Barbara Lee got married on Dec. 31, the East Bay Citizen reports. Lee wed retired Southern California pastor Rev. Dr. Clyde Oden, Jr.
3. The California Consumer Privacy Act became law yesterday. The nation’s most stringent data privacy law gives Californians the right to know what information tech companies are gathering about them and the right to ask them to delete the data, the Los Angeles Times reports. However, it’s not clear how consumers can be assured the tech companies are really following through with the request to delete. $$
4. BART and AC Transit fares went up on New Year’s Day, KQED reports. BART fares went up roughly 10 cents, while AC Transit’s monthly bus pass for adults increased from $198 to $216.
5. Payam Zamani, the CEO of One Planet, a Walnut Creek tech technology, donated $15,600 to the Oakland Unified School District to clear the lunch debt of all students in Oakland public schools, KTVU reports.
6. Alameda County Fire Chief David Rocha announced his retirement, effective Dec. 31, the East Bay Citizen reports. Rocha, who served as fire chief since 2014, will stay on as interim until his replacement is found.
7. A case in the California Supreme Court could politicize judicial campaigns and recall efforts of judges, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. A code of ethics forbids judicial candidates from voicing opinions on specific legal cases, which makes it often difficult to discern the candidate’s worthiness for office. The case follows the recall of Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky for the lenient sentence of a Stanford student convicted of sexual assault. By the way, Alameda County has one judicial race on the March primary ballot.
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