A.M. Splash: Health Care Ruling; Calif. Budget Deal; Ed Lee Considering 'Stop and Frisk' Policy

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Thursday upholding the landmark health reform law will enable California to continue moving full speed to implement it, including setting up a new insurance marketplace for consumers and expanding Medi-Cal in 2014. The ruling saves programs and consumer protections affecting millions of Californians and will bring billions of dollars in additional federal revenue to the stat

...Gov. Jerry Brown signed a spending plan Wednesday that he hopes will put California's budget troubles to bed for good. One of his demands was that Democrats send him a plan that not only eliminates the current $15.7 billion deficit but maintains a balanced budget in years to come.

...On Wednesday, despite opposition from large banks and title companies, housing advocates moved a step closer to passing a Homeowner Bill of Rights that they say would help people like Bombola trying to stave off foreclosures. The most significant parts of the legislation passed out of a bipartisan conference committee in Sacramento, the final step before an expected vote by the full Senate and Assembly next week.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said Wednesday he is considering implementing a controversial stop-and-frisk policy similar to that used in New York and other cities, where officers try to reduce violent crime by searching people they consider suspicious in an attempt to seize illegal weapons.

Eliana Lopez, the wife of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, accused her neighbors of fabricating details of an argument she had with her husband that left her with a bruised arm and put his job in jeopardy. Lopez filed a seven-page sworn declaration with the city's Ethics Commission on Wednesday, the day before Mirkarimi is scheduled to testify in the fact-finding hearing on the official misconduct charges Mayor Ed Leefiled against him.

After hearing passionate arguments to do so, the Oakland school board on Wednesday voted to reverse staffing cuts for its special education programs in its $519 million budget for 2012-13. The board also voted to place a $475 million facilities bond measure on the November ballot. If the levy receives 55 percent approval, its proceeds would go to replace old portable classrooms and to upgrade schools' technology and science labs, among other projects.

More California teens are graduating and fewer are dropping out, according to two years of data released Wednesday by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. But he stressed that graduation rates are still not where they should be, and too many students are failing to make it through. Statewide, 76.3 percent of students graduated last year after four years of high school, up 1.5 percentage points from 2010. About 14.4 percent dropped out, down from 16.6 percent the previous year.