California's deficit tops $54B
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "California is facing a deficit of more than $54 billion in its upcoming state budget as tax revenue plummets and the demand for social services soars amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The updated projection, released Thursday by the state Department of Finance, is the latest sign of how badly California’s economy has been battered since the pandemic took hold less than three months ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom said a multibillion-dollar budget reserve would be of some help, but he also pleaded for Washington to come to the state’s rescue with bailout money.
“This is not a cry by any stretch. We are proud of this state and our capacity to meet the moment and to be resilient,” Newsom said at a news conference. “But this is bigger than all of us, and we really need the federal government to do more and to help us through this moment."
READ MORE related to Economy: Newsom's property-tax relief extends way past what counties requested or expected -- The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER; SF plans to allow curbside sales for some businesses -- The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA; Someday we'll return to the office. It'll be nothing like we've seen before -- LA Times's ROGER VINCENT
Nation's unemployment skyrockets to historic 14.7%
LA Times's DON LEE: "The U.S. economy suffered its biggest labor market shock on record last month, as government figures released Friday showed the COVID-19 pandemic erased 20.5 million jobs and sent the nation’s unemployment rate to 14.7%, the highest since at least the 1940s.
As recently as February, the United States had enjoyed record economic expansion and the lowest unemployment in half a century, 3.5%. Not only is that gone, but more bad news is almost certain in the weeks and months ahead.
“It’s just staggering,” said Holly Wade, director of research and policy analysis at the National Federation of Independent Business, referring to the economic damage wrought by the pandemic."
California is responding in force to the 2020 census. But these rural areas are way behind
Sac Bee's MICHAEL FINCH II: "Stuck at home and glued to the internet, Californians are responding in large numbers to the 2020 census questionnaire so far, placing the state at about the same participation rate as a decade ago.
Now comes the hard part — finding the people who haven’t responded to the online survey, don’t get mail at home, and who may need a special visit from the U.S. Census Bureau.
That includes rural pockets of the state, where responses to the survey are lagging."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Mike Madrid on the Lincoln Project
STAFF: "Mike Madrid, longtime GOP consultant, former political director for the state Republican Party and board member of the Lincoln Project, joins us to talk about two of his recent skirmishes: a public battle with a squirrel family that occupied an eave of his house, and his even more public battle with the family that occupies the White House.
Madrid has made no secret of his distaste for the Trump wing of the Republican Party, calling out the nationalist and sometimes racist rhetoric that comes from the Trump administration and many of its supporters. Joining other disaffected Republicans, Madrid helped launch the Lincoln Project, which made news this week with a hard-hitting anti-Trump ad called “Mourning in America.” The ad was seen by thousands when it originally aired on Fox TV, but a late-night Trump tweet tirade about the Lincoln Project drove views to well over a million — and they’re still climbing."
California can't cope with its budget deficit without federal help, Newsom says
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was confident Thursday that the state will work through a state budget deficit now estimated at $54.3 billion. But he said his optimistic outlook is conditioned on one thing: “More federal support.”
The governor said additional federal spending will be critical for California to pull its way out of the recession’s effect on the state’s spending plan.
“It is absolutely incumbent upon our federal partners to recognize, as many do ... the magnitude of this moment and how it’s directly related to COVID-19, not mismanagement,” Newsom said."
1996 court document confirms Tara Reade told of harassment in Biden's office
Sac Bee's MATT FOUNTAIN: "A court document from 1996 shows former Senate staffer Tara Reade told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working for Joe Biden in 1993.
The declaration — exclusively obtained by The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, California — does not say Biden committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade’s more recent allegations of sexual assault.
Reade’s then-husband Theodore Dronen wrote the court declaration. Dronen at the time was contesting a restraining order Reade filed against him days after he filed for divorce, Superior Court records show."
Fears of a second coronavirus surge haunts California as it begins slow-speed reopening of economy
LA Times's PHIL WILLON/RONG-GONG LIN II/TARYN LUNA: "Reopening California’s devastated economy is increasingly looking to be a slow, deliberative process in many parts of the state as Gov. Gavin Newsom issued strict protocols that communities must satisfy to speed reopening and health experts warned of the risks of a surge if social distancing is abandoned too early.
California will take baby steps in the process on Friday, as a scattering of retail businesses are allowed to reopen for curbside pickup.
But that will still leave huge sectors of the economy shut down, and leaders in communities across California will have to declare they’ve reduced the coronavirus danger to open up more businesses, such as restaurant dining rooms and shopping malls. That is going to be a challenge in hard-hit areas such as Los Angeles County, which has seen more than 1,400 deaths — more than half of the state’s total — and is still recording hundreds of new cases a day."
Young progressives aren't thrilled about Biden. Some fear that will help Trump, again
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "More than a few progressive Democrats under 35 didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton four years ago, and they aren’t shy about voicing their similar lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden.
They dismiss him, according to a study released Thursday by a top youth vote organization, as a “dated option” who “caters to the ultra-wealthy” and “represents the stagnation of American politics.” Others say they are “absolutely disgusted about the sexual allegations brought against him.”
Ben Wessel, executive director of the left-leaning NextGen America, which will spend at least $45 million this year trying to fire up young voters in 11 battleground states, sighed at the findings of his San Francisco organization’s new study."
California hospitals ask Newsom for $1B now, $3B later for coronavirus costs
Sac Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "California hospitals have suffered short-term losses of $10 billion to $14 billion in revenue alone and face long-term financial upheaval as a result of measures taken to prepare for a surge of COVID-19 patients, leaders of the California Hospital Association said Thursday.
CHA President Carmela Coyle said: “We emptied California’s hospitals to make way, canceling surgeries, procedures and more because it was and continues to be the right thing to do, but meeting that moment to address the COVID outbreak has come at a devastating loss and risk for California’s hospitals.”
The hospital association sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, asking for $1 billion in financial assistance out of the state’s current fiscal budget, said Coyle, who was joined on a conference call by CHA board members Diane Hansen of Escondido-based Palomar Health and Scott Reiner of Roseville-based Adventist Health."
How Mayor Steinberg wants Sacramento to spend its $89M coronavirus stimulus check
Sac Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proposed Thursday spending tens of millions of dollars in federal stimulus aid on small business assistance, youth and workforce training programs, housing for the homeless and the arts and tourism.
In a seven-page letter to the City Council posted to a city website Thursday, Steinberg laid out four categories to spend $89 million in coronavirus stimulus money the city recently received, with a focus on helping the city rebound economically from the crisis.
“Sacramento seven weeks ago had a significant amount of momentum on the economic front and now it has been temporarily affected and affected in very serious ways,” Steinberg said. “So this money is intended to help us regain that momentum. When you look at every category and every specific idea within the category, all of it relates to COVID-19 but also relates to what it’s going to take to continue what we just started here in Sacramento."
As coronavirus reshapes campaigns, Reeps fear loss of Senate control
LA Times's JANET HOOK: "Republican control of the U.S. Senate could become another casualty of the coronavirus crisis.
The pandemic has upended 2020 politics — not just for President Trump — and his party increasingly worries that the turmoil has given Democrats fundraising and strategic advantages that put Republicans’ 53-47 Senate majority at risk.
Even as Republicans struggle to avoid being dragged down by Trump’s unsteady handling of the COVID-19 response, they’re facing an enthusiasm gap, at least among donors, that favors Democrats."
UCSF medical workers question federal distribution of COVID-19 medicine
The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE/JD MORRIS: "The distribution of a promising drug by the federal government to hospitals with COVID-19 patients has raised hackles among medical professionals after UCSF and many other medical centers with critical patients weren’t given a single dose.
The experimental drug, remdesivir, reduced coronavirus symptoms in clinical trials and was approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under what is called an emergency use authorization, but only two of the 25 medical centers that got the drug were in California.
Pharmacists at UCSF were shocked when they learned this week that they would not be getting any of the 1.5 million doses in the initial distribution. It was a particularly hard blow because UCSF was one of five sites in the country where clinical trials of the drug were conducted."
Sacramento area fails Newsom's early reopening test
Sac Bee's STAFF: "Sacramento-area counties hoping to reopen restaurants, offices and shopping malls in the next week ran into what amounted to a sorry, not yet from the governor on Thursday, angering some local officials, leaving others preaching patience and prompting one Placer County official to threaten to take the state to court.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he’s willing to let some counties reopen certain businesses sooner than the state as a whole. But, based on much-anticipated standards Newsom revealed during a mid-day press conference, none of the six Sacramento-region counties appears to qualify yet.
Although most have low coronavirus infection rates and few hospitalizations compared to the state average, none appears to have enough staffers trained in the critical role of coronavirus “contact tracing” to qualify for early opening."
Syndrome similar to Kawasaki disease linked to coronavirus at Children's Hospital Los Angeles
LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH: "Three patients at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles who displayed symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that can weaken blood vessels in children, have tested positive for antibodies against the novel coronavirus, indicating a potential link between the little-understood syndrome and the virus, according to a doctor who studies Kawasaki disease.
Recently, doctors in Los Angeles, New York and the United Kingdom have identified a condition called pediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome, or PIMS, among children who have tested positive for antibodies against the novel coronavirus, Dr. Jacqueline Szmuszkovicz, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said in an interview.
The presence of such antibodies indicates the children were previously infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coroanvirus, she said."
Women released from Mesa Verde ICE detention facility amid coronavirus fears
The Chronicle's ANNA BAUMAN: "More than a dozen women held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Bakersfield have been released after they held a hunger strike amid coronavirus concerns, an advocacy group said Thursday.
ICE officials released at least 15 women from the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Kern County, according to Centro Legal de la Raza, an Oakland-based legal organization that represents some of the women who were released.
A coalition of attorneys that included the San Francisco public defender’s office and the ACLU filed a lawsuit in April calling on ICE to release inmates from Mesa Verde and Yuba County Jail. The lawsuit alleged crowded and unsanitary conditions."
READ MORE related to Public Safety: 574 inmates test positive for coronavirus at Lompoc federal prison complex, 2 dead -- The Chronicle's MATT KAWAHARA
No pro sports in California this year? Newsom says games will have to wait for COVID-19 vaccine
Sac Bee's JASON ANDERSON: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom said professional sports have the power to lift the nation’s spirits and unite people living in isolation, but he doesn’t believe major sporting events will return any time soon.
Newsom offered a regretful response during his daily news conference Thursday when asked if the games will go on as the state eases COVID-19 restrictions in the months ahead. Newsom said he doesn’t envision large-scale, live-audience sporting events until a vaccine is available, and that is unlikely to happen for a minimum of 12 to 18 months, according to medical experts.
“It’s difficult to imagine a stadium that’s filled until we have immunity, until we have a vaccine,” Newsom said."