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But even though the bill which arrived on the House floor today is only a study it still inspired insults from at least one Democrat aimed at its sponsor Rep. Chris Olson of West Fargo.

It was conceived in ignorance and fear, and born in prejudice and suspicion, a visibly angry Rep. Mary Schneider (D-Fargo) said on the House floor today. The study is given life from a mean spirited bill, and it guarded that nature in its current form. Its designed to look for and report only the negatives.

Olson spoke immediately after Schneider and asked for an apology.

To impugn my motives..is completely out of order and I would hope for an apology on that, he said.

He went on to point out that the bill is a study into a federal resettlement program.

This is a program that has become largely an unfunded mandate, he continued, adding that its not unreasonable for the state to ask for some information about resettlement.

To watch the full video and to finish reading this story, click here.

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Port: ND House Democrat insults sponsor of refugee study 'born in prejudice and suspicion' - West Fargo Pioneer

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Memory of Japanese internment inspires call to safeguard rights

A 4.1 quake hits The Geysers

Project-based learning: turning ideas into real-world experience

Sonoma County wants to be more senior-friendly in 2017

Slice of Swiss cheese coming to Windsor roundabout

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DEREK MOORE AND KEVIN MCCALLUM

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | February 20, 2017, 8:59AM

| Updated 3 minutes ago.

The North Bay appeared to be avoiding the worst of a Presidents Day storm battering Northern California, but with rain continuing to fall Monday afternoon accompanied by strong winds there were still problems across the region including mudslides, a vacation home sliding into the Russian River and woman swept off a rock into the turbulent Sonoma County surf.

Fire crews were called to home on Moscow Road for a report of a sinkhole Monday afternoon, and found a $318-per-night pyramid-shaped rental home severely undermined by the river.

It looks like its getting ready to slide into the river, Baxman said. Its a sad deal.

The Lakeport Police Department also issued mandatory evacuations for four areas of the city due to rising flood waters, including two mobile home parks and lakefront homes.

A woman who answered the phone at Russian River Vacation Homes said she was aware of the homes structural issues but it was not currently rented. She declined to provide additional information about the property or its owners. The Air B&B website declared the Pyramid House an architectural delight and shows photos of the homes striking wood interior and wide deck overlooking the river.

Baxman said efforts appeared to have been made to reinforce with rock the footings being undermined by the eroding riverbank, but the home nevertheless was listing toward the river.

I hate to see a house go down, but I dont see much hope for it, Baxman said, noting the river was expected to rise another 7 feet in the next 24 hours.

The river is now expected to crest at 31.7 feet, down from the 34.2 feet originally forecast. The rivers flood stage at Guerneville is 32 feet.

On the Sonoma Coast, a 19-year-old woman who was swept into the ocean at Schoolhouse Beach near Bodega Bay was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The unidentified woman was perched on a rock when she and several other members in a group of five were swept into the frigid water by storm-fueled waves pounding the beach.

A California State Parks lifeguard arrived on the scene about five minutes after the 1:35 p.m. call for help. He could not immediately locate the missing woman, Supervising State Park Ranger Damien Jones said.

Jones said the lifeguard and a Bodega Bay firefighter went into the water after donning special gear to search for the woman. She was found floating facedown and unconscious approximately 10 to 15 minutes after she was reported missing. The Sonoma County Sheriffs helicopter lifted her from the water.

The woman was taken by ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where her condition was not immediately known.

A washout on Old Monte Rio Road west of Guerneville sent asphalt, mud and trees crashing down a hillside, narrowly avoiding homes on either side.

About 300 feet of the road partially collapsed after the soaked ground beneath it gave way.

Officials at the scene were determining whether the slide posed a risk to Highway 116, about 500 feet below the washout.

The road was closed, preventing vehicular traffic from passing through to homes on the other side of the washout. The homes, which included a vacation rental and a home for sale, were unoccupied at the time of the slide.

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Several residents on the former logging road visited the washout Monday to see for themselves the damage wrought by several weeks of pounding storms. The site is about a mile west of a Jan. 9 mudslide on Old Monte Rio Road and Santa Rosa Avenue that forced evacuations and led to seven homes temporarily being red-tagged.

I think its just a part of living here, said a man who gave his name as Scott. The rest of the year its beautiful up here.

Numerous road closures were reported due to flooding. That included Highway 12/121 in Schellville south of Sonoma and Valley Ford Road east of Bodega. A large fir tree that toppled over in the 6700 block of Covey Road in Forestville around 7:45 a.m. struck power lines and forced the closure of that road.

The good news is the region appears to have avoided the brunt of the storm, with the heaviest concentrations of rain shifting south overnight.

It took a jog south of about 40 to 50 miles, Brian Garcia, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service said.

He said forecasters have downgraded flood warnings for the Russian and Napa rivers. The rain is expected to last the rest of Monday before starting to clear out around midnight. Scattered showers are predicted for Tuesday.

Santa Rosa had received 2.86 inches of rain by Monday night, pushing totals for this time of year to more than 200 percent of average rainfall.

Nearly 5 inches of rain fell in Venado, a rural outpost west of Healdsburg.

The California Highway Patrol reported no major crashes on roads Monday morning.

Theres a lot less traffic out there. So far, so good for us, Sgt. Allan Capurro said.

Sonoma County is still is under a high wind warning and wind advisory, which will last from 1 p.m. Monday to 3 a.m. Tuesday, with 25- to 35-mph winds gusting up to 60 mph this afternoon.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 707-521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek. You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.

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Read the original here:
Presidents Day a wet one in the North Bay - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos announced Monday she will not run for Illinois governor next year, leaving the Democratic field without a major Downstate candidate.

The 55-year-old, three-term congresswoman from East Moline said after several months of considering a bid that she was calling supporters to say she instead will seek re-election to the House in 2018.

In an interview, Bustos called Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner "entirely beatable." She said despite big promises, Rauner had been a "disaster" with respect to job creation and had shown disregard for "people who need a little help" such as domestic-violence victims and autistic children.

A campaign for governor would have been challenging for Bustos, who is not well-known outside her district, has never run statewide and faced having to raise a sizable amount of campaign cash. On the other hand, as a Democrat from outside of Chicago, she had the potential to capture Downstate votes. That second base of support in a statewide race is part of the formula used by one of her mentors, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Springfield.

Bustos has not endorsed a Democrat in the still-developing governor field but said she wants someone who will be a "fighter" for people all over the state, naming cities as diverse as Chicago, Moline and Carbondale.

Her decision leaves three declared Democratic candidates and several others mentioned as potentially running.

Earlier this month, Chris Kennedy, a former University of Illinois board chairman and Merchandise Mart president, kicked off his campaign with a web video and media interviews. He is the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 while running for the Democratic nomination for the White House, so he brings a big political family name to the race and could have considerable fundraising muscle.

Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th, has announced he'll give the race a go. And Bob Daiber, a regional schools superintendent in Downstate Madison County who has little name recognition statewide, said last week that he'll run.

Chicago billionaire businessman J.B. Pritzker has been touring Illinois as he mulls entering the Democratic primary for governor. A handful of other Democrats haven't said whether they'll get in, including U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson, and state Sens.Daniel Biss of Evanston, Kwame Raoul of Chicago and Andy Manar of Bunker Hill.

The winner of the Democratic primary is likely to square off against Rauner, who has said he's running for a second term as his state budget battle with Democrats has dominated his first so far. The lack of a full spending plan has left the governor without many bumper-sticker-style accomplishments to tout, but he found some political success last year as the state Republican Party he largely finances helped win a handful of seats at the Capitol from Democrats.

Late last year, the governor parked $50 million in his campaign account, a deposit that GOP operatives called a "first installment" on a 2018 campaign.

Bustos won re-election in November with more than 60 percent of the vote in a district that narrowly favored Republican Donald Trump for the White House. She represents the 17th Congressional District, which takes in the Quad Cities, parts of Rockford and Peoria, and stretches of northern, central and western Illinois. The district's western border is the Mississippi River.

After the win, she was one of three lawmakers elected co-chairs of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee, which helps with strategy and communications. Bustos said the post makes her the "voice of the heartland" on a leadership team otherwise drawn "entirely from the coasts." She sits on the Agriculture Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Bustos is a former reporter for the Quad-City Times, a former hospital communications executive and a former East Moline city councilwoman. Her husband, Gerry Bustos, is Rock Island County sheriff.

kskiba@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @KatherineSkiba

More here:
Democratic U.S. Rep. Bustos won't run for Illinois governor in 2018 ... - Chicago Tribune

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD | February 19, 2017, 12:11AM

The Golden State is getting ready to do battle again.

Thats because among the spectrum of issues President Donald Trump covered in his animated news conference Thursday was an announcement that he would be issuing a new executive order on immigration this week, a version tailored around the concerns raised by the federal appeals court that blocked the last one.

Trump said the new order would comprehensively protect our country, but he offered few specifics. Extreme vetting will be put in place, and it already is in place in many places, he said.

In addition, Trump reiterated his order for a crackdown on sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal law and that harbor criminal aliens. That order, signed by the president in late January, has made clear that cities would risk losing federal money if they didnt commit their police to enforcing federal immigration laws.

How that would work, if at all, is still unclear. But California is not waiting around to find out.

In this state we celebrate diversity, Senate leader Kevin de Len, D-Los Angeles, told a gathering of newspaper executives in Sacramento Wednesday. We dont deport it. We dont ban it. We dont wall it off.

To combat the presidents immigration agenda, de Len has introduced SB 54, which would, among other things, prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies as well as school police and security departments from using resources to investigate, detain or arrest individuals for immigration enforcement purposes. Some say its an attempt to turn the entire state into a sanctuary city. But de Len said it is an effort to preserve Californias set of values. We are going to have to fight and defend like never before to protect it to shield our people and our policies from federal intrusion and overreach, he told a California Newspaper Publishers Association conference.

But many members of law enforcement are opposed to the bill, including Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas, who supports the current system in which the county notifies Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an individual that ICE is interested in is scheduled to be released on bail or set free. Freitas contends SB 54 doesnt allow exceptions for serious and violent felons.

We were disappointed with the decision by Freitas to join in a discussion with controversial Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Feb. 7, a meeting that Freitas knew would set off unnecessary alarm in a community that depends on undocumented workers for its agriculture-based economy and has pledged to support immigrants. It was, to say the least, bad optics. At the same time, his concerns about SB 54, which he said he expressed to Sessions, deserve attention.

As weve noted before, illegal immigrants who are convicted of serious or violent crimes should be deported after completing their sentences, and if SB 54 prevents that from occurring, then the wording needs to be altered. Protecting families and peaceful workers is something worth fighting for. Protecting criminals is not.

However, Trump has indicated he expects to deport at least 3 million undocumented immigrants, which is two to three times more than the estimated number of criminals who are here illegally. California lawmakers are right to be wary about the administrations true intent and right to be ready to hold the president to the letter of the law.

Read more from the original source:
PD Editorial: Immigration rules that protect families not criminals - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

CBS Local

New Hampshire Democrat Drops DNC Bid To Back Keith Ellison CBS Local CONCORD, N.H. (AP) New Hampshire Democrat Ray Buckley has dropped out of the race for Democratic National Committee chair and is throwing his support behind Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison. Buckley's announcement comes a week before ... NH Democrat Buckley drops out, endorses national chair hopefulThe Union Leader Democrats in the AfterlifeNashville Scene Top Georgia Democrats choose a side in race for DNC chairAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog) Common Dreams all 117 news articles »

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New Hampshire Democrat Drops DNC Bid To Back Keith Ellison - CBS Local