Coronavirus-induced 32.9% collapse in GDP is one for the record books
LA Times's DON LEE: "U.S. economic output fell at a stunning 32.9% annual rate in the second quarter -- a level not seen since the Great Depression, according to data released Thursday.
The history-making contraction in the nation’s gross domestic product, which followed a 5% drop in the first quarter, was widely expected after the coronavirus outbreak shut down large swaths of the economy and led to massive job losses in the spring.
By comparison, during the worst of the Great Recession, GDP, the total of all goods and services produced in the country, shrank at an 8.4% pace in the final quarter of 2008. The single largest quarterly decline since the Commerce Department’s records began in 1947 was 10% in early 1958."
Warren Buffett controls dams in NorCal. Why Gov. Newsom wants them torn down
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "Desperate to complete a historic but complicated dam removal on the California-Oregon border, Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed to one of the world’s wealthiest men to keep the project on track: financier Warren Buffett.
Newsom dispatched a letter to Buffett and two of his executives Wednesday urging them to support the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, where the dams have hurt salmon populations. The dams are owned by PacifiCorp, an Oregon-based electric utility that’s part of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate.
The $450 million project has been in the works for years and would constitute the largest dam removal in American history, in an area of the West where conflicts over water have sparked massive protests and, in 2002, a controversial intervention at the highest levels of the George W. Bush administration."
Charts show the new coronavirus hot spots bordering the Bay Area
The Chronicle's KELLIE HWANG/MIKE MASSA: "The Bay Area was California’s first coronavirus hot spot. Los Angeles and the larger Southern California counties were next. Now, in the latest phase of the pandemic, the epicenter has shifted inward, to the agricultural regions of the Central Valley. And some of the hardest-hit counties are those that border the Bay Area.
“I’ve heard many people using the metaphor of a fire burning that throws out embers,” said John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert with UC Berkeley. The “fires” rage in the large urban areas, but as time goes on, embers get flung out, igniting outbreaks in surrounding regions.
How do these Central Valley outbreaks compare to what’s happening now in the Bay Area, and in other parts of Northern California? Here’s what we found."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Humans are notoriously bad at assessing their risk. In a pandemic, that's a problem -- The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN; House makes masks mandatory after scoffer Rep. Louie Gohmert gets coronavirus -- AP; California scales back coronavirus testing task force despite long lines, new outbreaks -- LA Times's EMILY BAUMGAERTNER
Dozens infected with COVID-19 at California youth prisons. Should inmates get released early?
Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW: "Jane Faalataina’s son is among the 47 teens and young adults who have tested positive for COVID-19 inside the walls of California’s youth prisons. So far, his symptoms are minor, but he’s locked in an isolation unit inside a Stockton facility, and his studies are suffering, she said.
The state adult prison system has seen thousands of inmates released early as the coronavirus has surged through those institutions. Faalataina said she wonders why California isn’t willing to do the same for incarcerated youth offenders like her 20-year-old son.
There are around 775 teens and young adults in the facilities. Forty-seven inmates infected with COVID-19 represent 6% of the population."
How a blue state Republican became the face of mail voting
LA Times's ARIT JOHN: "Kim Wyman’s phone started ringing at the end of February.
As the rapid spread of the coronavirus made it clear that the 2020 election cycle would have to accommodate social distancing, reporters and election officials across the country started reaching out to Washington’s two-term secretary of state to discuss the vote by mail system she oversees.
“From March until the end of April, every day was nonstop calls,” Wyman, 58, said in an interview this month."
More stimulus checks? California Democrats say money should go to 'those who need it'
Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both Democrats, aren’t crazy about the Republican plan to send most people another round of economic stimulus payments, saying the proposal won’t always reach the people who need the money most.
“The Republican proposal is insufficient and comes months too late for people who need it. Bills come in every single month during the pandemic and so should help from government,” Harris said.
Harris, regarded as a leading contender to be picked by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden next week as his running mate, is a key backer of a plan to provide a guaranteed monthly income to middle and lower income people during and briefly after the coronavirus pandemic."
READ MORE related to Economy: California's backlog of unemployment claims will take 2 months to clear, Newsom says -- Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER; US jobless claims rise for second week as extra pandemic benefits expire -- The Chronicle's DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA; (Column) Trump taps Kodak to bring stability to the drug market -- LA Times's DAVID LAZARUS
Vallejo police chief to open inquiry on allegations that officers bent badges to mark killings
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY/JOSH KOEHN: "Vallejo police Chief Shawny Williams is opening an “official inquiry” into bombshell allegations that officers bent their badges to mark on-duty shootings, a fact-finding mission that he said may lead to an independent investigation.
Williams spoke about the allegations Wednesday, a day after they came to light, and as his department comes under increasing scrutiny over controversial police shootings.
Badge bending, Williams said in an interview with The Chronicle, would amount to misconduct."
VP Karen Bass? Joe Biden considers California leader for key 2020 role
GIL DURAN in Sac Bee: "Surreal.”
That’s how Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles describes the feeling of being on Joe Biden’s shortlist of potential vice presidential picks in 2020.
Most Americans don’t know Bass, but Biden’s team appears to be giving her serious consideration. Bass, a former physician’s assistant who rose to become the first woman to serve as speaker of the California State Assembly, is in competition with Sen. Kamala Harris for the role."
With California's plastic bag ban back in effect, reusable bags are ready for checkout
Sac Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "California’s single-use plastic bag ban is back, but Sacramento-area supermarkets’ rules on personal shopping totes remain a mixed bag for now.
Some stores – think Costco and Smart & Final – allow customers to bring in bags and pack their own groceries.
Other grocers ask that shoppers buy a new bag at checkout or keep their personal bags in their car and pack their goods in the parking lot."
Latinos, African Americans most likely to view pollution as a serious health threat
Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Latinos and African Americans are more likely to view pollution as a serious health threat than other groups, according to a new statewide study by the Public Policy Institute of California.
“African Americans and Latinos are more likely than others to say that air and water pollution in their part of California are very serious health threats to themselves and their families,” said Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, in the study.
Two-thirds of Californians surveyed said air pollution is a very serious or somewhat serious threat."
JPL's Perseverance rover blasts off for Mars
AP: "The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built — a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers — blasted off Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life.
NASA’s Perseverance rode a mighty Atlas V rocket into the morning sky in the world’s third and final Mars launch of the summer. China and the United Arab Emirates got a head start last week, but all three missions should reach the red planet in February after a journey of seven months and 300 million miles.
The plutonium-powered, six-wheeled rover will drill down and collect tiny geological specimens that will be brought home in about 2031 in a sort of interplanetary relay race involving multiple spacecraft and countries. The overall cost: more than $8 billion."
Lower speed limits coming to dozedns of Sacramento roadways. Here's where
Sac Bee's EMILIANO TAHU GOMEZ: "The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday approved speed limit reductions proposed this month. The changes will go into effect when the new signs are installed, said Grace Nunez, a city spokesperson
Nunez said Traffic Engineering staff have begun the process of changing signs, and, in some cases, pavement markings at the sites. The changes could be completed within the next “few weeks to a month.” See below for where the changes will occur.
Original story: The city of Sacramento is set to lower speed limits at 24 different locations throughout the city."
Trump floats election 'delay' amid claims of voting fraud
AP's ZEKE MILLER/MARK SHERMAN/COLLEEN LONG: "President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a “delay” to the Nov. 3 presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.
The dates of presidential elections — the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year — are enshrined in federal law and would require an act of Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021 presidential inauguration.
Trump tweeted Thursday: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”"
Pro-democracy candidates barred from HK elections, activists arrested under national security law
LA Times's DAVID PIERSON: "Hong Kong authorities have expanded their use of a contentious national security law to disqualify a dozen pro-democracy candidates from running in the city’s upcoming legislative elections and to arrest four pro-independence activists for “inciting secession” on social media.
The two moves, which took place in a span of 24 hours starting Wednesday, give substance to fears that the new law, imposed by the Communist regime in Beijing, is being deployed to silence organized dissent in a city that was supposed to be guaranteed a high degree of autonomy from China.
The 12 candidates, who included sitting legislators and high-profile opposition leaders such as Joshua Wong, said they were disqualified for opposing the national security law, which gives mainland China sweeping powers in Hong Kong."