Stanford researchers blame Trump campaign rallies for an estimated 700 coronavirus deaths
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "As President Trump holds a string of rallies across the country in the final days of the presidential campaign, Stanford researchers released a study that found that earlier presidential campaign gatherings accounted for 30,000 additional cases of the coronavirus and may have led to 700 deaths.
The study from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research looked at the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the weeks after Trump held 18 large campaign rallies between June 20 and Sept. 22.
“The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death,” said the study by B. Douglas Bernheim, a Stanford economics professor who conducted the research with three doctoral students. It was released late Friday to two scholarly websites."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: LA County reports 1590 coronavirus cases, 4 deaths amid rise in SoCal infections -- The Chronicle's ALEX WIGGLESWORTH; What a coronavirus outbreak at a church says about the election -- LA Times's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS/ANITA CHABRIA
CA120: The early vote and the roller coaster of Election Day
PAUL MITCHELL, Capitol Weekly: "As has been reported in Capitol Weekly, the early vote has been dominated by Democratic voters. This is in direct contrast to every other election in California history in which Republicans have over-performed in the early returns, leaving Democrats to play catch-up in the late mail and Election Day vote.
As the following chart shows, year by year Republicans have had turnout levels that are well above their rate of registration. But this year, Democrats are above their registration at 52% of the early vote and Republicans are below their registration line at 23% of the returns.
Looking at this data another way, the following shows the partisan over/under performance from each of the past five statewide elections. On average, Republicans have over performed their rate of registration in the early vote by 7 points while Democrats have held steady, always within 1 point.
READ MORE related to Election Day: Here's what to look for while watching election returns Tuesday night -- and beyond -- The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH; These Gen Z Latinos are casting a ballot for the first time. What's on their minds? -- Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ
Billions have been spent on California's ballot measure battles. But this year is unlike any other
LA Times's RYAN MENEZES/MALOY MOORE/PHI DO: "Powerful interest groups have a long history of circumventing the statehouse and putting decisions directly to Californians. By now, voters are used to having the airwaves flooded with ads and their mailboxes stuffed by campaigns.
But it has never been like this. Wealthy individuals, corporations, organized labor and other well-funded interests have poured more than $785 million into the 12 yes-or-no questions on this year’s ballot, a record-breaking sum.
The Times compared their fundraising to the historical record and found that four of the 10 most expensive campaigns ever are happening now."
Youth voter turnoout is way up in California. What does that mean for close races?
Sac Bee's KATE IRBY/GRACE ASIEGBU: "After the Parkland high school shooting in Florida in 2018, members of Generation Z started promising huge voting turnout among their ranks.
Early numbers on both voter registrations and ballots returned in the mail demonstrate they are showing up, and in larger numbers than ever before. But will they throw prove themselves to be a voting bloc that politicians have to court in the same way they do voters in older generations?
What the numbers show in California so far is complicated."
Here are the Bay Area and Silicon Valley bigwigs who raised huge sums for Biden
The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE: "A list of Joe Biden’s top fundraisers released over the weekend reveals a who’s who of Silicon Valley tycoons and Bay Area big shots, including diplomats, philanthropists, politicians and the beau monde of San Francisco society.
The Biden campaign listed 817 of its top donors on Saturday, the first update since he won the Democratic presidential nomination, and it showed that the Bay Area played a prominent role in raising a record-breaking $383 million for the campaign last month.
Each of the big money donors, called “bundlers,” raised at least $100,000 for the candidate, most of them after making the maximum allowed individual contribution to the Biden campaign."
Newsom stumps for Biden in Nevada
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom left California on Sunday to pump up crowds of election volunteers in Reno, traveling from a state sure to vote for former Vice President Joe Biden to one that’s considered a battleground in the presidential race.
It was a rare day of in-person campaigning for Newsom.
In an election year when COVID-19 and record-breaking wildfires have limited the Democratic governor’s ability to attend events in person, his four-hour trip across state lines was the highest profile campaign event he’s done."
READ MORE related to Campaign Trail: Biden leads Trump by double digits nationally, USC poll suggests -- LA Times's DAVID LAUTER; Trump caravan roars into Marin City, angering residents -- The Chronicle's JK DINEEN; Black churches' Souls to the Polls efforts, even during pandemic, aim to boost voter turnout -- LA Times's SEEMA MEHTA/MELISSA GOMEZ
Missing from Trump's re-election pitch: What he'd do if re-elected
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "President Trump spoke for 74 minutes recently in Bullhead City, Ariz., near the Nevada border. He spent roughly two minutes explaining what he would do if re-elected.
The rest of the speech was a free-form ramble, as Trump careened from grievances to fearmongering to goofiness. He said the “fake news” and “big tech” were conspiring against him, predicted that a Joe Biden victory would cause a depression “maybe (like) 1929,” and said — falsely — that Californians are required to always wear “special masks” and joked that “when you eat spaghetti and meatballs, it looks like you got in a fight with (Ultimate Fighting Championship president) Dana White,” who was in the audience.
“A typical incumbent is usually running on his record and selling more of that,” said Casey Dominguez, a professor of political science at UC San Diego and co-editor of the book “The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2020.” “But President Trump is just not that. He’s never been a conventional candidate, and this is part of it."
AA fight intensifies over Ward Connerly comments about white nationalists
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "The final days of a ballot measure campaign to overturn California’s ban on affirmative action have been turbocharged by comments about white nationalism made by Ward Connerly, the driving force behind the 1990s law.
Connerly, who is Black, was quoted this week as saying that white nationalists were “super patriots” and that he considered himself to be a “super patriot” as well. In an interview with The Chronicle, he denied sympathizing with white nationalism and said he was unfamiliar with the concept.
“I have had the question many times before about nationalism, white nationalism, and I’ve never understood why white has to be associated with nationalism,” Connerly said in an interview Thursday."
Bad blood runs south: Breed blasts Gascon in his race for LA district attorney
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "Mayor London Breed has served up a blistering — and personal — election-eve hit on George Gascón, the former San Francisco police chief and district attorney now running for D.A. in Los Angeles, telling Southern California voters to “take into account both his poor record as a D.A. and his lack of character as a public servant.”
“Like countless others who have witnessed Gascón’s brand of ‘leadership’ up close, I have opposed his candidacy from the start and for very simple reasons: Gascón was bad for San Francisco and he would be bad for L.A.,” Breed wrote in a recent opinion piece for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the city’s leading African American newspaper.
The mayor goes on to slam Gascón on everything from his former support of the death penalty to his record of never charging police in fatal use-of-force cases, saying Gascón “has a long history of going whichever way the winds blow, saying whatever suits his political purposes and only looking out for himself.”"
Huge Chinese New year parade in San Francisco canceled due to coronavirus concerns
Sac Bee's DON SWEENEY: "Fears of a coronavirus surge have canceled plans for the 2021 Chinese New Year parade in downtown San Francisco, which normally draws hundreds of thousands of people.
“We must deal with our current conditions and recognize that plans for everyone’s safety in the future is our most important responsibility,” the San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce said in a news release, KTVU reported
The annual celebration, which dates back 150 years, had been scheduled for February, KPIX reported."
Rescue operations underway in the San Gabriel Mountains for rare species marooned by wildfire
LA Times's LOUIS SAHAGUN: "Just weeks after the Bobcat fire ravaged the San Gabriel Mountains, state and federal biologists are racing to salvage as many federally endangered species as possible before storms could inundate the animals’ last outposts with mud and debris.
Creating clouds of ashes and dust with every step in the shadows of skeletal trees scorched by the blaze, eight U.S. Geological Survey scientists on Wednesday made their way down to a vein of water at the bottom of steep Little Rock Canyon, armed with long-handled nets, backpack coolers and emergency rescue permits.
“This may be the last time in my life that I see wild mountain yellow-legged frogs in the last best place for them,” said biologist Robert Fisher, gazing at dozens of tadpoles browsing on algae at the bottom of a granite tub."
Rent prices drop again in SF and other Bay Area cities, but 'freefall' may be slowing
The Chronicle's KELLIE HWANG: "The ultra-pricey Bay Area continues to lead the nation in declining housing rental prices, but new data show the pandemic “freefall” may be slowing.
In October, San Francisco once again topped the U.S. list for biggest rental price decreases, according to listing websites Zumper and Apartment List. Zumper reported that the average one-bedroom rent in the city was $2,800, a decline of 1.1% from the previous month and a 20.7% decline year over year.
No. 4 on the list is San Jose, with a median one-bedroom rent of $2,120, a decrease of $110 from September. Oakland is fifth on the list, dropping to $2,020 last month, which is also a decline of $110 from the previous month."
Trump decries FBI probe of supporters surrounding Biden bus
AP's MICHAEL BALSAMO: "President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested the FBI should stop investigating an incident in which his supporters were seen surrounding a Biden campaign bus in Texas, which led Democrats to cancel an event there.
The president’s tweet came hours after the FBI confirmed that it was “aware of the incident and investigating.”
On Sunday night, Trump retweeted a screenshot of the FBI statement, adding: “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”"