.Tuesday Must Reads: Big Oil Funds False Ads Attacking Climate Change Bill; Coliseum City Developer Pushes for Public Bond Financing

Stories you shouldn’t miss:

1. The oil industry is running false TV ads in California in an attempt to defeat a landmark climate change bill that seeks to reduce gasoline consumption in the state by 50 percent by 2030, the SacBee$ reports. The ads are sponsored by a group calling itself the California Drivers Alliance, which, in fact, is the Western States Petroleum Association, an oil and gas industry trade group. The TV spots falsely claim that the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, also known as SB 350, would allow the state to dictate how often people drive, would monitor people’s “personal driving habits,” and would fine motorists for driving too much or using “too much gas.” The proposed law would do none of those things. The oil and gas industry and other interests also have spent $14 million lobbying on the bill, the SacBee$ reports.

2. Coliseum City developer Fred Kephart is pushing for the City of Oakland and Alameda County to float hundreds of millions of dollars of so-called public “conduit” bonds to help pay for a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders, the Chron$ reports. Kephart contends that the bonds would be paid back by revenue generated by the development, but city officials are wary that taxpayers may be on the hook for repayment if the development deal goes belly up.

3. A portion of the outfield baseball fence at the aging Coliseum fell down yesterday during an Oakland A’s game when an Angels left fielder crashed into the wall when chasing a fly ball, the Trib$ reports. The game was halted for 10 minutes while crews repaired the fence.

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4. A different kind of fence, meanwhile, is sparking controversy at UC Berkeley, where the campus has decided to build an expensive chain-link fence around the chancellor’s home because of supposed security concerns, the Trib$ reports.

5. Jeff Scott, the embattled director of the Berkeley Public Library, announced his resignation amid a firestorm of criticism over the destruction of library books, Berkeleyside reports.

6. The man who was killed by police last week in Oakland’s Adams Point district after he repeatedly struck an officer in the head with a bicycle chain had been recently convicted of strangling a goose near Lake Merritt with his bare hands and had been accused of stalking a female homeless shelter worker, the Trib$ reports.

7. State lawmakers sent legislation to Governor Jerry Brown that would ban the use of elephant bullhooks at circus shows in California, the SacBee$ reports.

8. Vandals sprayed racist graffiti at a Black church in San Francisco’s Bayview district and poured bleach on the church’s pews, the Chron reports.

9. More than one million elderly Californians are living in poverty, the SacBee$ reports, citing a new UCLA study on the state’s “hidden poor.”

10. And a UC Berkeley student who tested positive for measles rode public transportation in the East Bay last week, the Chron reports.