Troubled California bullet train pushes biggest contract ever, facing war with Trump
LA Times's RALPH VARTABEDIAN: "The California bullet train authority is moving ahead with an aggressive plan to issue its biggest contract in history, steering into sharp criticism by federal regulators and even the state-appointed peer review panel that it is overreaching."
"The agency took a key step last week toward issuing a 30-year-long contract to install track, set up high-voltage electrical lines, create a digital signaling system, build a heavy maintenance train garage and obligate future maintenance of the equipment and track."
"It would cover future track from San Jose to Bakersfield, more than half the proposed Los Angeles-to-San Francisco system. It would lock the state into a maintenance contract, as well as equipment, on segments that it currently does not have money to build."
California 'insurer of last resort' sues the state as crisis deepens in wildfire zones
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER: "With thousands of rural Californians losing their homeowners’ insurance because of wildfire risks, the state’s “insurer of last resort” sued its regulator Friday, seeking to block his order requiring the insurer to broaden its coverage."
"The lawsuit, by the industry-backed California FAIR Plan against Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, is the latest twist in a deepening crisis over property insurance in rural areas prone to wildfires. Earlier this month Lara imposed a one-year moratorium banning traditional carriers from canceling homeowners’ insurance in the Kincade Fire zone in Sonoma County and other areas struck by wildfires this year."
"That moratorium won’t help the thousands of homeowners who’ve lost coverage after the devastating fires of 2017 and 2018 cost the industry $25 billion. Many of those homeowners, unable to get replacement coverage from traditional carriers, have been forced to purchase insurance from the FAIR Plan, which was established by the Legislature but is privately run and funded by insurers. More than 30,000 homeowners in California have FAIR Plan insurance."
LA Times's MICHAEL FINNEGAN/SEEMA MEHTA: "Television viewers in Southern California can hardly miss the ads promoting Michael R. Bloomberg for president this holiday season."
"On Sunday, the former New York City mayor ran two commercials on CBS during the NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Chargers, then another during “60 Minutes.” A Bloomberg spot also aired in prime time during “The Sound of Music” on ABC."
"Soap-opera fans saw the Democrat’s ads last week during “General Hospital” and “Days of Our Lives”; game-show devotees during “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.” On Friday alone, L.A. broadcast stations showed Bloomberg ads about 80 times."
Newsom rejects PG&E bankruptcy plan, demands 'radically restructured' California utility
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER: "As the wildfire raged and thousands of Northern Californians endured one blackout after another in late October, a furious Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would insist on a thorough makeover of PG&E Corp."
"He wasn’t bluffing."
"In a stunning rebuke to the embattled utility, Newsom late Friday rejected PG&E’s plan to compensate wildfire victims and exit bankruptcy."
How is Devin Nunes funding so many lawsuits on a Congressman's salary?
Sacramento Bee's KATE IRBY: "Rep. Devin Nunes’ critics have obsessed over how he is paying for the six lawsuits he filed this year, but there are no public records showing how he has paid his Virginia lawyer."
"That means Nunes is either paying for the lawsuits out of his own pocket, promising to pay his lawyer a portion of any money they’re awarded in court at a later date, or flouting House Ethics rules that would require him to publicly disclose who is funding the legal work."
"Nunes, R-Tulare, has filed lawsuits against Twitter, anonymous social media users known as Devin Nunes’ Cow and Devin Nunes’ Mom, a Republican political strategist, media companies, journalists, progressive watchdog groups, a political research firm that worked for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and a retired farmer in Nunes’ own district."
SF DA-elect Boudin sets new course in gang cases, citing charges 'infused with racism'
The Chronicle's EVAN SERNOFFSKY: "One of Chesa Boudin’s first planned policy changes when he takes over as San Francisco’s district attorney next month seeks to answer a question that has long ignited debates in the city: Should people accused of crimes face harsher punishments if their actions allegedly benefited a street gang?"
"The former public defender, who takes office Jan. 8, promises to put an end to filing what are known as gang enhancements against defendants — charges that can add years to felony sentences. Gang enhancements have drawn increased opposition in California, driven by statistics showing that they are disproportionately applied to people of color in poor neighborhoods."
"Many law enforcement leaders say the charges are an important tool that allows them to hold gang members accountable for the fear they create in communities when they protect turf, intimidate witnesses, recruit new associates and commit violent crimes. But critics say gang enhancements yield arbitrary and excessive sentences, sending black and brown people to jail and prison at higher rates than white people who commit the same crimes, like assault or robbery."
Is Joe Biden the one most likely to beat Trump?
Sacramento Bee's BRYAN ANDERSON: "As Californians weigh their options ahead of the state’s March 3, 2020 primary, Democrats are increasingly considering electability when deciding which candidate to support."
"A recent survey of likely primary voters found 55 percent of California Democrats care more about finding a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump, while 38 percent prefer someone whose policy views come closest to theirs, according to the Public Policy Institute of California."
"With less than 100 days until Election Day, the 15 Democrats still in the race are making their case to voters about why they are the best person to take on Trump. Here’s a breakdown of the top four candidates:"
California requires 'humane' space for farm animals. Now, pork industry is suing
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER: "How much elbow room does a pig need?"
"California voters, by approving a ballot initiative last fall aimed at treating farm animals more humanely, decreed that pregnant sows should have at least 24 square feet of space to themselves. The initiative bans the sale of pork in California produced under conditions that violate that standard — regardless of where the pigs come from."
"Midwest farmers like Randy Spronk, who’s been raising pigs in southwest Minnesota since the 1980s, say they know how to care for their animals, thank you. They argue that California’s minimum-space requirements are unfair and could actually harm the pigs."
Commercial Dungeness crab season gets cracking after delay
The Chronicle's STEVE RUBENSTEIN/CATHERINE HO: "Crabs began doing on Sunday what humans love for them to do best: crawling into crab traps and getting hauled in small boats to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco."
"It was the opening day of California’s commercial Dungeness crab season, which began a month later than expected because of concerns that whales might get caught in fishing gear."
"Fishing boats began returning through the Golden Gate on Sunday afternoon, their decks full of giant plastic bins jammed claw to claw with wiggly crustaceans that were beginning to think twice about the wisdom of having crab-walked into the wire traps. Wholesalers at Pier 45 began unloading and weighing the day’s catch."
What to expect as Kaiser's 4000 behavioral health workers launch 5-day strike statewide
Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "Kaiser Permanente’s behavioral health clinicians will be picketing Monday outside the health care giant’s Sacramento Medical Center on Morse Avenue, joining in a weeklong labor strike that will affect services at more than 100 facilities around California."
"Roughly 4,000 psychologists, psychiatric nurses and other behavioral health workers — members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers — say they want the company to shorten wait times for return appointments and reduce therapist caseloads."
"I know of nowhere else but in the Kaiser system that there is literally no definition of a caseload or maximum number of patients for which one is responsible,” said Susan Whitney, a Kaiser therapist in Kern County. “There are about 35 therapists and social workers that serve Kaiser’s Kern County population of 109,000 members, only one mental health worker for every 3,000 members. In contrast, Kaiser primary care physicians have a panel, or caseload, of 1,500 patients, and also have staff such as nurses and medical assistants that support them."
E-cigarettes found to increase risk of chronic lung diseases
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "People who smoke e-cigarettes face a significant risk of developing severe, chronic lung illnesses — such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema — that have long been associated with smoking combustible cigarettes, according to a UCSF study released Monday."
"The study found that people who use e-cigarettes in addition to smoking traditional tobacco triple their risk of chronic lung disease."
"The study, from tobacco researcher Stanton Glantz, showed for the first time that e-cigarette smoking, or vaping, has long-term effects on respiratory health that are similar to those of traditional tobacco smoking. Earlier studies identified a link between e-cigarettes and lung disease at a single point in time, but researchers hadn’t demonstrated long-term impacts, Glantz said."
Most people are sleeping on sidewalks in Sacramento -- even as federal spending rises
Sacramento Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "More and more people are living on Sacramento’s streets, in makeshift encampments or their cars — or what the federal government calls “other places not suitable for human habitation."
"Seventy percent of homeless people in Sacramento County were living in unsheltered conditions in the 2019 count, up from 56% in 2017 and 40% in 2015."
"Federal lawmakers say they understand the gravity of the problem. The issue got unusually unified political support this year as House and Senate budget-writers quietly agreed on more spending."
Santa Rosa struggles with biggest homeless camp in county history
The Chronicle's KEVIN FAGAN: "Kat MacKay is tired of screams erupting around her at night. She’s tired of the outbreaks of syphilis and stomach flu in the nearby tents, the stench of trash, the rats and mice chewing anything resembling food."
"MacKay is one of 300 people living at the biggest homeless camp Sonoma County has ever seen, a mile-long sprawl of tents alongside Highway 12 at the southwest end of Santa Rosa on county parkland. Still, there are two things the 19-year-old likes about the settlement: She can stop hunting for places to sleep, and she has lots of company in her misery."
"This is the only place where they don’t hassle you for being homeless,” she said the other day as she pulled a sodden hoodie over her forehead in a steady downpour near her tent. “But it’s awful out here. It smells bad, it’s not sanitary, it’s not safe. I wish the county would give us a real spot to be in."
Volunteer rescuer plunges to his death while searching for a lost hiker in California
Sacramento Bee's DON SWEENEY: "A rescue volunteer died Saturday after possibly plummeting down an ice chute while searching a Southern California mountain for a missing hiker, KNBC reported."
"A helicopter spotted Timothy Staples, 32, dead on the ice and snow after he became separated from his partner, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook."
"Staples, a 9-year veteran of the volunteer search team, was a newly married teacher at Damien High School in La Verne, California, KCBS reported."