Californians will vote on $15B bond to renovate aging schools, build more classrooms
Sacramento Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California voters will have a chance to approve $15 billion in bond funding to renovate aging school buildings in the state’s March primary under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday."
"The measure designates $9 billion for preschool through high school, $2 billion for community colleges, $2 billion for the University of California and $2 billion for California State University."
"Our school facilities at all levels across this state are in subpar condition and need a major investment,” said Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, the Long Beach Democrat who wrote the bill. “It’s a good chunk of money for a huge challenge."
From the Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN, ALEJANDRO SERRANO and J.D. MORRIS: "Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Monday that it might preemptively cut power this week to much of Northern California — including parts of almost every Bay Area county — to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires during dry and windy weather."
"The shut-off watch, covering 29 of the state’s 58 counties, and affecting more than 600,000 customers, is unprecedented in scope and could grow as forecasts come into focus. Customers in parts of the counties could lose power as soon as Wednesday morning, and the watch extends through Thursday."
"Seven of the nine Bay Area counties — all but San Francisco and Marin — were advised of the potential outage, along with the North Coast, the northern parts of the Central Valley and the northern and central Sierra and foothills. The company cited a “potentially widespread, strong and dry wind event.”
Who gets to control PG&E? Hedge funds, wildfire victims await critical ruling
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER: "A group of Wall Street hedge funds has a plan for snatching control of PG&E Corp as the troubled utility tries to navigate a bankruptcy case driven by billions of dollars in damages from the state’s devastating wildfires."
"But the hedge funds’ efforts have been put on hold at least temporarily, while a judge decides whether to allow these investors to press ahead with their plan right away or wait for PG&E’s own plan to percolate."
"U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Dennis Montali deferred an immediate ruling Monday after hearing nearly four hours of argument on an issue that could determine who winds up owning California’s largest utility company."
Newsom signs bill to make anti-HIV drug available without prescription
The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER: "California will make up to two months of an HIV-prevention drug available to patients from a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription."
"Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB159 on Monday, allowing pharmacists to dispense 30 to 60 days of the drug to patients if they first receive counseling on the drug’s effects and an HIV test."
"Supporters said the law will remove barriers to people’s access to the drug PrEP, sold under the trade name Truvada. The drug has helped San Francisco reduce its infection rate to record lows."
Landlords say state rent caps may force them to raise rents more frequently
LA Times's ANDREW KHOURI: "Prominent landlord attorney Dennis Block stood before a crowd of more than 200 at an apartment owners trade show in Pasadena and, to laughs, boasted of having evicted “more tenants than anybody else on the planet Earth."
"Block said he was proud to enforce what he said America was built on: property rights. He then talked about the “scourge of this new statewide rent control that is coming up” and offered some ways that landlords could evade rules that as of Jan. 1 would cap annual increases for tenants at 5% plus inflation and require “just cause” to evict."
"His advice? Quickly hand out no-fault eviction notices to tenants who pay low rent or make frivolous requests."
$600,000 for homeless housing? Audit suggests spending money on shelters instead
LA Times's DOUG SMITH: "With the costs of building housing on the rise, Los Angeles City Controller Ron Galperin is recommending that some projects be reevaluated to see if their budgets can be cut to use less of the city’s $1.2-billion homeless housing bond."
"In an audit that will be released Tuesday, Galperin found that more than 1,000 units of housing approved for funding through Proposition HHH could top $600,000 apiece."
"The median cost of building many of these units approaches — and in many cases, exceeds — the median sale price of a condominium in the City of Los Angeles and of a single-family home in Los Angeles County,” according to the audit, an early copy of which was obtained by The Times."
Supreme Court allows case against Domino's Pizza by blind Californian to continue
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "The U.S. Supreme Court, in a case from California, allowed blind people on Monday to sue restaurants and similar businesses that fail to make their websites accessible to the visually impaired."
"The court denied review of an appeal by Domino’s Pizza from a ruling in January by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. That court said Domino’s, as a “place of public accommodation,” must make its services — including websites where customers order food for delivery — fully accessible to blind and other disabled people."
"Domino’s, supported by business groups nationwide, argued that the equal-access requirements in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were intended to apply only to a business’ physical location."
State workers attacked by homeless people in Sacramento may carry pepper spray, state says
Sacramento Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "Capitol groundskeepers who have been attacked by homeless people recently may carry pepper spray, but the state won’t yet pay for it, according to a letter the California Department of General Services sent to the workers’ union."
"The department said in a letter to the union that it has “yet to determine” whether it will provide pepper spray, along with training, as the union requested last month."
"The International Union of Operating Engineers made the request in a grievance it filed with the department after reports that homeless people had attacked up to five groundskeepers in separate incidents."
A gender profile of mass shootings in California
Kaiser Health News's PHILLIP REESE: "Soon after a 19-year-old man killed three people and wounded more than a dozen at a festival in Gilroy in late July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom noted something often taken for granted about mass shootings."
“These shootings overwhelmingly, almost exclusively, are males, boys, ‘men’ — I put in loose quotes,” Newsom said during a press conference. “I do think that is missing in the national conversation."
"From January 2013 to August 2019, there were 11 shooting rampages in California in which the perpetrator indiscriminately shot victims in public places and killed three or more people, according to an open source database maintained by the nonprofit news organization Mother Jones. Nine of those mass shootings involved a sole male suspect, one involved a sole female suspect, and one involved a male and a female couple."
Julian Castro escorts LGBTQ and disabled asylum seekers across Mexico border
LA Times's MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE: "Presidential candidate Julián Castro on Monday escorted a group of asylum seekers across the border bridge to his native Texas from Mexico, where they had been sent under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy."
"Walking across the bridge with Castro were eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as a deaf Salvadoran woman and her three relatives. All had earlier tried to cross here with a lawyer after being returned to Mexico to await court hearings, and all had been sent back by U.S. Customs officers. Some had already waited four months."
"The asylum seekers said they knew they were taking a risk: They could be returned to Mexico or placed in long-term detention."
Why District Five supervisor race matters for Mayor Breed -- and SF
The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI: "It’s an off election year in San Francisco, and the campaign for the sole open seat on the Board of Supervisors has yet to capture much attention beyond City Hall insiders."
"But there’s a lot at stake."
"The outcome of the Nov. 5 election will not only influence the political makeup of the board, it will also determine whether Mayor London Breed will have another ally — or another adversary — in City Hall. That means this campaign, which covers just one section of the city, could have a broad impact on San Francisco over the next four years."
Breed pushes expansion of mandated SF mental health treatment
The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "San Francisco officials took some initial steps Monday toward expanding the number of people that the city can compel into mental health treatment."
"The passage of state legislation last week catalyzed the city’s moves by broadening the population of severely mentally ill people who can be forced into treatment."
"After months of contentious debate, San Francisco is poised to treat an additional 50 to 100 gravely disabled people a year deemed by the courts to pose a threat to themselves or others and in need of mandated help. Those are beyond the 600 or so people now enrolled in inpatient and outpatient court-ordered treatment."
Judge rips into Trump Education chief DeVos over student debt
BLOOMBERG: "U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos faces potential sanctions or a finding that she’s in contempt of court for continuing to collect on the debt of former students at bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc., going so far as to seize their tax refunds and wages."
"I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim told lawyers for the Education Department at a hearing Monday in San Francisco. “I’m not sending anyone to jail yet, but it’s good to know I have that ability."
"The judge said she was “astounded” that the department violated her June order to stop collecting the debts from students, who had been promised refunds of their tuition."
Trump says Schiff and Pelosi committed 'Treason' and should be 'impeached'
LA Times's ALEXA DIAZ: "President Trump lashed out against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), accusing them of treason and calling for their “impeachment” in a series of tweets Sunday night."
"The California political leaders are leading the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump that is focused on the president’s outreach to foreign governments to help him win reelection in the 2020 presidential election."
"Pelosi announced the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry into the president about two weeks ago and Schiff, as the head of the House Intelligence Committee, is overseeing the effort."
Trump's plan to pull troops back in Syria threatens chaos in the region, sparks GOP revolt
LA Times's DAVID S CLOUD/JENNIFER HABERKORN/NABIH BULOS: "President Trump’s decision to pull remaining U.S. troops back from northeastern Syria could revive the Islamic State terrorist group and destabilize the volatile region, senior U.S. officials said Monday, while senior Republicans in Congress angrily rebuked the president as he fights an impeachment inquiry."
"Trump abruptly announced the move late Sunday without consulting top Pentagon or State Department advisors, sparking a cascade of warnings that withdrawing even the token U.S. force — up to 100 special operations troops — will allow Turkey to launch a long-planned military operation aimed at eliminating the Kurdish fighters long backed by Washington, the officials warned."
"Without U.S. support, the Kurdish fighters who form the bulk of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State are expected to shift to fighting Turkish troops and to release some of the 12,000 Islamic State fighters they now hold in camps, the U.S. officials warned. The militant group has lost its territory but could pose a potent threat if reinforcements return."
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