On Tuesday, the Oakland City Council will bring back the previously defeated #Flock expansion after it failed at the Public Safety committee. Meeting starts at 1pm, item is expected to come up a few hours later. This will be the final discussion, so if you're opposed, now is the time. https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7778357&GUID=BC9ADFD5-2714-4303-BEA4-70DF1AD489D1&Options=&Search=

Californians may be sorting through competing AI Safety ballot initiatives on Election Day 2026. One of them is coming from #OpenAI. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/openai-ai-safety-california-kids-00683191

California sells 900 acres near #Yosemite Park back to the Sierra Miwuk tribe after Republicans block its addition to the national park. #landback https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/12/08/nearly-900-acres-of-land-on-yosemite-border-returned-to-tribe-forced-out-175-years-ago/?

"The audit labeled 86% of the prison system’s internal affairs disciplinary and criminal caseload as “inadequate” or “needs improvement” — only 14% of the cases handled by the internal affairs department were rated “adequate.” #prison https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/12/prisons-sex-assault-inspector-general/

Virginia lawyer challenges a reactionary law that prevents lawyers from sharing publicly available #court records with non-lawyers. Members of the public have to go to the court themselves to see public court #documents including complaints, motions and rulings. #public records https://www.courthousenews.com/news-groups-challenge-virginias-prior-restraint-on-distribution-of-court-records/

Our friends at On Spec podcast (a sponsored project) are chasing a big story and need your support to get it to print. Please donate if you can. #immigration #sexualabuse https://chuffed.org/project/onspecpodcast

City of Oakland claims they have to re-vote on the failed #Flock expansion item on 12-16 because the "Flock contract has expired". That's a lie. The Flock contract with CHP doesn't expire until March 29, 2026. Here's the contract. (And you can renew the CHP contract "without" expanding the program to incorporate private camera footage.

"In a statement, the LAPD acknowledged that the department is “currently outside the 90-day public posting requirement,” saying the delay “stems from the extraordinary volume and complexity of incidents that occurred during that period.” #teargas #rubberbullets https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/lapd-report-less-lethal-weapons

California/Mexico #border from Arizona line to Tecate to be militarized and handed over to the US #Navy. https://apnews.com/article/trump-adds-militarized-zone-border-california-b592a6a82351c4a632e861e92d71a181

Firefighting equipment will be free of #PFAS after the enactment of AB 1881 (Haney). SF beat the rest of the state and will be getting the new equipment first. https://www.kqed.org/news/12066755/all-sf-firefighters-will-soon-have-equipment-free-of-toxic-forever-chemicals

HS kid kidnapped by #ICE while walking his dog is released after 4 months in #Adelanto and a detention camp in Arizona. https://laist.com/news/education/los-angeles-high-school-student-released-immigration-detention-benjamin-marcelo-guerrero-cruz

In a big fuck you to the hundreds of Oaklanders who stayed till midnight to oppose the expansion of the #Flock contract, the #Oakland City Council is now debating sending the item directly for a Council vote on 12/16. Extremely out of order. Rules committee meets at 10:30am at Oakland City Hall. https://oakland.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1352259&GUID=7DAF1C9C-D32E-4F01-8DBD-2EFC73119009&Options=info|&Search=

Media Alliance joins 200 community groups in asking for an #AI data center moratorium. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/08/us-data-centers?

OPD refuses to release body camera video from the death of former running back Doug Martin during a mental health episode. #police https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2025/12/03/oakland-police-wont-release-body-cam-footage-of-ex-nfl-player-doug-martins-in-custody-death/?

Texas plans to test California's shield laws for medical #abortion providers. https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/shield-law-abortion-ban-21208348.php?

"The gold rush is long history, but Storey county is once again one of the fastest-growing economies in Nevada. A new boom is happening here in the high desert – fueled by artificial intelligence" #AI #DataCenters theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/04/nevada-ai-data-centers

"In California, laborers as young as 12 can legally work in #agriculture. But many of them toil in punishing and dangerous conditions, and the state is failing to ensure their health and safety" #farmworker https://capitalandmain.com/californias-child-farmworkers-exhausted-underpaid-and-toiling-in-toxic-fields

"The object that Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Kibbe said was wielded as a #weapon: An umbrella that an investigator needed a special scale to weigh because it was less than one pound." #ICE https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-01/dhs-1000-percent-increase-attacks-on-ice-agents-times-analysis

"The only time a CNS-acting weapon was used at scale was by the Russian Federation in 2002 to end the Moscow theatre siege. Security forces used fentanyl derivatives to end the siege, in which armed Chechen militants had taken 900 theatregoers hostage". #brain #weapons https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/22/mind-altering-brain-weapons-no-longer-only-science-fiction-say-researchers

"“They’re not going to stop until I fire you or you quit,’” Williams recalled Malone telling him. “And he said that over half a dozen times.” #Vallejo #Police https://openvallejo.org/2025/11/24/former-vallejo-police-chief-says-city-ignored-threats/