California community college students pursuing an associate degree will soon likely have a new course requirement: a three-unit ethnic studies class. This week, the statewide Board of Governors that oversees California's 116 community colleges will hold a public hearing on a proposal to add the class to the community college system's general education requirements. The board is then expected to vote on the change in July. If the board approves the new requirement as expected, it would mean that every student seeking an associate degree will need to take a class in Native American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies or Latina and Latino studies. The state chancellor's office has not yet determined when the requirement would be implemented. The earliest it could take effect would be for incoming first-year students in fall 2022.

Offshore wind could provide clean power for up to one-point-six million homes over the next decade. The agreement between California and the federal government was announced today by Governor Newsom. He said floating offshore wind platforms located twenty to thirty miles off the California coast would provide the power. Under the deal, the Department of the Interior plans to offer a lease sale as early as next year within a 399-square-mile area of the Central Coast northwest of Morro Bay and a separate area on the North Coast of California. Newsom said the offshore wind industry has the potential to create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. He has proposed 20 million dollars in funding to support California's offshore wind capacity.

An Oroville man was arrested on suspicion of homicideTuesday following an early morning shooting death near the 3000 block of Burlington Avenue. The Oroville Police Department received a 911 call Tuesday around 3:30 a.m. from a resident who reported they heard a gunshot. Officers arrived in the area and located a man inside of a residence who was suffering from a gunshot wound. Medical personnel arrived and determined the man was deceased. Detectives gathered evidence and information showing Isom Brown, 27, of Oroville, was responsible for the man's death. Deputies located Brown during a traffic enforcement stop in Oroville. Brown was booked into the Butte County Jail on suspicion of an open count of murder.

As California sinks deeper into drought it already has had more than 900 additional wildfires than at this point in 2020. And that was a record-breaking year that saw more than 4% of the state's land scorched by flames. The danger has prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to propose spending a record $2 billion on wildfire mitigation. That's double what he had proposed in January, though lawmakers have already approved a quarter of the funding to get a quicker start on an earlier fire season. California's mountains and foothills are expected to see above-normal wildfire potential from June through August and potentially into the fall.

(AP) — San Francisco officials have approved a task force that will study financial compensation, community programs and other ways to make reparations to the descendants of slaves, becoming the largest city in the nation to take such a step. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint the 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee. It includes Black people who have been displaced from San Francisco, have been incarcerated or have experienced homelessness, among other criteria. In the next two years, the committee will have to submit a final draft that should determine "the scope of and eligibility for a citywide reparations program."

(AP) A federal judge is weighing whether Pacific Gas & Electric violated its criminal probation by sparking a wildfire north of San Francisco. The fire destroyed more than 100 homes and injured six firefighters in October 2019. Prosecutors and attorneys for PG&E appeared at a hearing Tuesday before U.S. District Judge William Alsup. The hearing came a month after the Sonoma County district attorney charged the company with five felony and 28 misdemeanor counts in the fire. PG&E has accepted investigators’ findings that its transmission line ignited the fire. But it has denied committing any crimes.

Organized labor is reportedly contributing to the anti-recall campaign designed to keep Governor Gavin Newsom in office. The donation of 250-thousand dollars comes from the Professional Engineers in California Government, a group representing some eleven-thousand state engineers. Other unions are also expected to defend Newsom against the recall in the weeks ahead. Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also expressed their support for Newsom via videos released to the California Democratic Party statewide convention over the weekend.

Wildfire Preparedness Week is underway in California ahead of what is expected to be another challenging fire season. The state office of emergency services says the 2020 fire season featured six of the largest and most destructive fires in state history. The more than four-million acres burned last year was more than the 2017 and 2018 fire seasons combined. CAL FIRE says the time is now to harden your home and create a defensible space. They say it is also good to have a family escape plan and a go-bag ready in case of evacuation.