Rob Reiner and wife found dead in apparent homicide at Southern California home, police say
Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead Sunday afternoon inside their Brentwood home in what authorities are investigating as an apparent homicide, police said.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a medical aid call at the residence on the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue around 3:30 p.m. and discovered the bodies of a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman."
READ MORE -- Rob Reiner, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ director, ‘All in the Family’ actor and political activist, dead at 78 -- LAT, CHRISTIE D'ZURILLA; Rob Reiner’s son arrested on suspicion of homicide, records show -- LAT, RICHARD WINTON/CLARA HARTER/GRACE TOOHEY/CHRISTIE D'ZURILLA; Rob Reiner used his fame to advocate for progressive causes. ‘Just a really special man. A terrible day’ -- LAT, SEEMA MEHTA/DAVID ZAHNISER
Gavin Newsom saved California’s last nuclear plant. But do we really need it?
Chronicle, JOHN EMSHWILLER: "Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant, was supposed to be closed by now.
In 2016, owner Pacific Gas & Electric reached an agreement with environmentalists and others to shutter the plant by August 2025, turning off the 40-year-old facility’s two domed reactors, marvels of 20th century technology that can power hundreds of thousands of homes. Top state officials, including then Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, supported the deal, deeming Diablo Canyon unnecessary and uneconomical as state energy policy increasingly focused on renewables such as solar and wind power."
Trump may no longer deploy California Guard in Los Angeles, judges rule
SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "The Trump administration must temporarily halt deploying the California National Guard in Los Angeles, a federal appeals panel ruled late Friday, granting a partial victory to Gov. Gavin Newsom in his effort to regain state control of the troops.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower judge’s order temporarily barring the administration from actively using the soldiers in Los Angeles, but put on hold a key portion of the same ruling that would have required President Donald Trump to cede control of the California Guard altogether."
Does PTO roll over? Here’s what California law says
Chronicle, JESSICA ROY: "The end of the year is an exciting time. Holiday parties, travel plans, family visits… and of course, a thoughtful review of your work benefits.
If you’ve got banked hours burning a hole in your employee benefits portal, you don’t need to rush to use them. California law says your employer has to let you roll over paid time off and sick time from year to year."
‘Not giving up’: SD philanthropy fights to fill federal funding cuts to cancer research
Times of SD, ELIZABETH IRELAND: "In a laboratory somewhere in San Diego, an emerging scientist wonders if this will be the last year they can afford to search for a cure.
This is the new reality of cancer research in America, where a $1.8 billion federal funding cut across the National Institutes of Health has transformed San Diego County nonprofits and private donors into lifelines."
California charter school oversight bill faces challenges, future uncertain
EdSource, KATHRYN BARON: "Interest groups that tussled over legislative efforts to crack down on fraud in charter schools hope to try again when the next legislative session begins in January.
Key to negotiations is whether Gov. Gavin Newsom is willing to take the lead in bringing opposing sides back to the table."
Talk of school closures often sparks fury across the Bay Area. Except in this city
Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Less than 20 minutes into the Sept. 17 Vallejo City Unified School District board meeting, Superintendent Rubén Aurelio publicly shared for the first time his preliminary list of schools recommended for closure at the end of this academic calendar.
It took him about a minute to outline his proposal to close three elementary schools and relocate the district’s alternative high school, although seven schools remained in the mix for closure consideration. Then, he stopped talking."
Rain returns to California this week. Here’s the storm-by-storm outlook
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "After nearly four weeks without rain, Californians are finally seeing precipitation return to the forecast. The wet pattern arriving this week comes in pieces, and the Bay Area should see significant rain from the final storm, while temperatures will remain cool.
Here’s how the week shapes up, storm by storm."
Can a once-sleepy village off Highway 101 become the Bay Area’s next retail mecca?
Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Just six years ago, cowboys drove a herd of 30 longhorn cattle past banks and breweries in downtown Santa Rosa to herald the start of the county fair. Wine Country’s biggest city has been “kind of an overgrown cow town,” Mayor Mark Stapp said.
But Santa Rosa is fast changing."
They lost their homes in the L.A. wildfires. Now they can’t get the mortgage relief the state promised
LAT, LAURENCE DARMIENTO: "After business consultant Len Kendall lost his Pacific Palisades home in the January firestorms, he sought to put a temporary stop on his mortgage payments but set aside the effort after realizing the paperwork involved.
So he was pleased to learn in September about a new state law that required mortgage servicers to offer up to 12 months of relief to fire victims, with only an affirmation of financial hardship and a ban on lump sum repayments."
Prison health workers are among the best-paid public employees. Why are so many jobs vacant?
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars to fill vacant medical and mental health positions at prisons and state hospitals, California has little to show for it, according to a new report from the state auditor.
Job vacancy rates have increased since 2019 at the three facilities examined in the audit, as has the state’s reliance on pricey temporary workers. Atascadero State Hospital, Porterville Developmental Center and Salinas Valley State Prison had health-related vacancy rates topping 30% during fiscal year 2023-24. At Salinas Valley State Prison more than 50% of health positions were unfilled."
DoorDash delivery drones would be grounded under S.F. supervisor’s legislation
Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "DoorDash’s bid to expand its San Francisco food delivery service with airborne drones could be delayed 18 months under legislation seeking to preserve industrial space and blue-collar jobs in the Mission District and surrounding neighborhoods.
The Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee planned to take up legislation Monday by Supervisor Jackie Fielder that would impose 18-month interim zoning controls in parts of the Mission District, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill, during which a conditional use authorization would be required for any “laboratory uses” in areas zoned for “production, distribution and repair,” known as PDR."
California stereotypes are real — and this extremely detailed data proves it
Chronicle, HANNA ZAKHARENKO/ZARA IRSHAD: "There are only 24 hours in the day, and most of us spend that time on the same tasks: eating, working, sleeping and other survival necessities. But what we do in between those activities is where it gets interesting — and where Californians set themselves apart.
Every year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts the American Time Use Survey, a poll of around 8,000 randomly-selected individuals about how they spend their day. Participants complete a diary for a particular day of the week, starting at 4 a.m. for a 24-hour period, and log their main activity at each moment."
‘Acts of pure evil’: Feds indict alleged members of child sex abuse network
LAT, CLARA HARTER/BRITTNY MEJIA: "The 15-year-old girl was sitting in her bedroom when “Sociopath” and “Rohan” added her to a Discord chat that, several months later, would nearly end in her death.
She said within hours of joining the chat on the online messaging platform in 2020, she became the target of a network of predators who, according to federal prosecutors in an indictment, specialize in coercing minors to perform sex acts and self-harm on camera."
