Early votes are pouring in: 'It's staggering how many ballots we've received'
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "A massive wave of mail ballots is flooding into election offices across the state, foreshadowing what could be a huge California turnout for next week’s election.
As of Wednesday, nearly 8 million of the state’s voters, or 36% of all those registered, had already returned their ballots, with some of the biggest return days still ahead. Nationally, nearly 75 million ballots have been turned in, well over half the 136 million total votes cast in the 2016 election.
“It’s staggering how many ballots we’ve received,” said Lynda Roberts, Marin County’s registrar. “Just removing all those ballots from the envelopes takes time.”"
An early-voting survey of the ballot propositions
JOHN HOWARD, Capitol Weekly: "Capitol Weekly’s tracking poll of by-mail voters has been running since Oct. 13 and reflects the ballooning numbers of early returns. This electorate, as reported in a recent CA120 article, overwhelmingly leans Democratic, with a significant number of likely Republican voters still expected to turn out on Election Day.
As a result, the findings on ballot measures explored in this initial report skew to the left. For experienced poll watchers, this is the opposite of the early exit polling that often skews Republican.
The full crosstabs of the survey portions being released can be downloaded and accessed here. These include favorable/unfavorable ratings for many of the state’s top political leaders, additional questions on what methods voters are using to learn about elections and the top voting issues this election cycle. In the race for president, Joe Biden appears to be headed for a historically large win."
Is it too late for Sacramento voters to mail in their ballot? No, but be aware of this
Sac Bee 's TONY BIZJAK: "Sacramento-area voters, taking advantage of multiple ways of voting, are hitting record numbers heading into the last weekend before the Nov. 3 voting deadline day.
More than 43% of all registered Placer County voters have submitted ballots via mail or official county drop boxes. Sacramento County has hit the 40% mark. Yolo County topped 36% as of last weekend.
But, in the final days, concern has again popped up about one method: Mail-in balloting."
Lodi City Council candidate arrested in money laundering, internet gambling operation case
Sac Bee's JASON ANDERSON: "A Lodi City Council candidate was being held in a San Joaquin County Jail cell Wednesday after being arrested on suspicion of money laundering and other felony crimes, authorities said.
Shakir Khan, who appears as Shak Khan on election ballots for Lodi City Council District 4, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering, conspiracy and maintaining gambling premises, according to jail records. He was being held on $225,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
Khan owns the American Smokers Club on Waterloo Road in Stockton, where he operated an illegal internet gambling operation, authorities said. In his candidate statement, Khan, 31, described himself as a small business owner, husband and father of two children who served as an overseas U.S. military contractor for the Department of Defense from 2012-16."
Amy Coney Barrett pushes Rep. Ro Khanna to propose SCOTUS term limits
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "As the Supreme Court swings further to the right and Joe Biden contemplates structural changes if he wins the presidency, a Bay Area congressman has introduced legislation that would expand the court and set term limits for new justices, without amending the Constitution.
“The Supreme Court was designed to be the final chapter in a distinguished jurist’s career, not a partisan battle to see who can appoint the youngest, most ideological judge to sit on the bench for the next four decades,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, said Wednesday.
“Right now, the previous generation is making the laws for our generation,” he said. “It’s anti-democratic. We need term limits."
LA Times's LAURA J NELSON/MAYA LAU: "In a last-minute move to ensure mail ballots are delivered in time for the election, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to rescind guidelines that slowed mail delivery over the summer and boost the numbers of late and extra truck trips.
The nationwide order from Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia comes as new data show that on-time mail delivery in some parts of the country has dropped to levels lower than in July, when millions of Americans went days, even weeks, without mail. Ballots arriving late could disenfranchise thousands of voters in this election cycle in states with strict ballot deadlines, data show.
Some states with tight deadlines have seen a deterioration of on-time delivery this year, including the battleground states of Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. The Postal Service delivered 83.76% of first-class mail on time in that region in mid-July, a rate that sank to 82.69% the week of Oct. 10, according to the Postal Service. Normal performance is around 92.4%."
24 Hour Fitness COO touts COVID-19 protocols; asks California leaders to ease restrictions
Sac Bee's JASON ANDERSON: "24 Hour Fitness Chief Operating Officer Karl Sanft gave state and local officials a guided tour of the chain’s downtown Sacramento location Wednesday, highlighting the facility’s COVID-19 provisions while asking policymakers to consider easing capacity restrictions.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg asked questions of Sanft and his staff as they made their way through the 48,000-square-foot facility, which is next to Golden 1 Center in the Downtown Commons. City Council members Angelique Ashby and Eric Guerra, Assemblyman Jim Cooper and Danielle Stumpf from the California Department of Health and Human Services also participated in the tour.
“It’s more important than ever to take care of your physical health and your mental health,” Steinberg said. “I’ve said oftentimes over the past seven or eight months that COVID-19 is the pandemic, but mental health and mental illness might be the epidemic because this has been an extraordinarily difficult time for people.”"
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The Chronicle's JD MORRIS/ESTHER MOBLEY/SANTIAGO MEJIA: "Flames surged once again toward the vineyards, livestock pens and tasting room at Six Sigma Ranch and Winery.
Owners Kaj and Christian Ahlmann were ready on that hot, arid day this summer. Five years earlier, three fires — the Rocky, the Jerusalem, the Valley — had burned nearly a circle around their 4,300-acre property in Lake County. The blazes were considered shocking at the time, yet were merely the prologue of a longer and darker story that’s still unfolding.
So when the gargantuan LNU Lightning Complex spread toward the community of Lower Lake in August, fleeing fire had become routine for the Ahlmanns, a father-and-son duo who have operated Six Sigma for more than 20 years. The six-day evacuation didn’t even interrupt their wine harvest, as the sheriff gave them permission to return during the day and tend to their vines."
Older Californians can skip DMV trip: New order allows license renewals by mail
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that lets older Californians renew their drivers licenses by mail, allowing them to skip a trip to a DMV office during the coronavirus outbreak.
The order is the latest in a series of actions Newsom has taken this year giving senior citizens flexibility on DMV appointments. His previous orders gave Californians age 70 and older extensions on license renewals. Most other drivers are also eligible to renew their licenses online or by mail.
These Californians traditionally have to apply in-person for a new license at a DMV office. The department estimates around 860,000 seniors visit offices every year to apply for updated licenses."
California's chaotic reaction to Prop. 16 shows the state's feelings on equality
The Chronicle's JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "Here’s something I’ve known for years but still can’t quite wrap my head around: As far as I’m aware, I’m the only Black guy working as a full-time food writer at a major daily news publication in America. This includes the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
Only about 7% of the journalists in this country’s newsrooms are Black, according to a recent Pew research poll. So, it makes sense I’m flying solo. But the reason I’m thinking about my isolation more lately is because of Proposition 16, which would allow Californians to reverse a 24-year-old law that bans affirmative action, and how split people are over it.
Chronicle political writer Joe Garofoli published a nuanced dive into the confusion, support and anger around Prop. 16 and mentioned how “half of likely voters oppose Prop. 16, while 37% support it and 12% remain undecided,” according to a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California."
Doctors: Federal family separation policy amounts to 'torture'
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "The U.S. government’s policy of separating migrant children from their families at the southern border is “cruel, inhuman,” and “rises to the level of torture,” according to a new academic article authored by a slate of doctors throughout the country.
The paper, published Tuesday in the medical journal Pediatrics, found that the controversial anti-immigration practice meets the U.N.’s three criteria to be defined as torture for children: It causes “severe pain and suffering,” it’s purposeful and it’s state-sponsored.
“Targeted physical and psychological abuse is inflicted on children,” the authors wrote, adding that the suffering is severe given their age and stage of development. “It is a purposeful strategy of the state to use children to reduce border crossings by their parents.”"
LA's surge in homicides fueled by gang violence, killings of homeless people
LA Times's KEVIN RECTOR/NICOEA SANTA CRUZ: "Curtis DeTurk had always been a “drifter,” but he had a dream, according to his sister Shelby Schnitz.
A religious man from a tight-knit family, DeTurk, 27, had recently moved from Indiana to Los Angeles with the hope of becoming a famous guitar player. “He just wanted a fresh start where no one knew him and he could become famous,” she said.
Instead, DeTurk was shot dead earlier this month while asking for change outside a North Hollywood pizzeria — a tragic fate similar to those of dozens of other people experiencing homelessness in L.A. this year."
Restoring affirmative action would lead to white flight from California, former UC regent says
Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Leaders of a campaign seeking to repeal California’s 1996 ban on affirmative action denounced “offensive” comments about white nationalists and Latinos made by former University of California Regent Ward Connerly in a recent news article.
Connerly is leading the campaign against Proposition 16, the ballot measure that would restore affirmative action policies in governing hiring, government contracts and university admissions.
Connerly also was the main advocate for the affirmative action ban when voters approved Proposition 209, prohibiting race and gender preferences."
Jack Dorsey's beard dominates online reaction to tech hearing
The Chronicle's BRYAN MENA: "Senators pressed tech CEOs Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai on misinformation, censorship, foreign interference in U.S. elections and content moderation during a hearing Wednesday. People watching online, though, had a different question for Dorsey: What’s up with the beard, nose ring and disheveled hair?
Michael Clouse, a podcast host, wondered on Twitter if Dorsey was in fact rocking a quarantine beard or auditioning for “Cast Away 2.”
Dorsey also sported a shiny nose ring that almost makes him look like he’s about to offer someone homemade kombucha at an Oakland house show, according to a Twitter user that goes by Eve. Dorsey told Vanity Fair in 2011 that he took out the nose ring, which appears in early online photos of him, after Twitter got its first round of financing. A GQ writer noticed that it made a reappearance in 2018."
Hollywood producer David Guillod arrested in new LA rape case
LA Times's JAMES QUEALLY/RICHARD WINTON: "Hollywood producer David Guillod was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault at his Sherman Oaks home Wednesday, just four months after he was charged with multiple counts of rape and kidnapping in Santa Barbara, sources said.
On Oct. 21, 2020, a woman reported being sexually assaulted by Guillod during an evening meeting, the LAPD said in a news release Wednesday night. After a search of his home, detectives took Guillod into custody without incident and booked him at the Los Angeles Police Metropolitan Detention Center, where he remains held on $5-million bail.
Guillod, 53, surrendered to authorities in Santa Barbara in June and was charged with rape, kidnap to commit rape and rape of a drugged victim in connection with four alleged attacks that occurred between 2012 and 2015."
While decrying 'socialized medicine,' Trump spends billions on COVID drugs
LA Times's DAVID LAZARUS: "In his second and final debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden, President Trump once again bemoaned the prospect of “socialized medicine,” a theme he’s sounded repeatedly in trying to scare voters into thinking a government takeover of the U.S. healthcare system is imminent if he isn’t reelected.
That’s not something Biden or any other prominent Democrat is calling for, so Trump’s warnings are just another example of his dishonesty and fearmongering.
And, it turns out, his hypocrisy."