Newsom calls in National Guard to secure California Capitol
The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has called in the California National Guard to help secure the state Capitol amid concerns that protesters seeking to keep President Trump in office will create unrest.
Newsom said up to 1,000 members of the Guard will be deployed to help protect the Capitol and other state infrastructure in the days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday.
“We’re treating this very seriously and deploying significant resources to protect public safety, critical infrastructure and First Amendment rights,” Newsom said in a video statement. “Let me be clear: There will be no tolerance for violence."
California fighting endless war with unemployment fraud. Why state is a prime target
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "Criminals are still brazenly attempting to steal millions in COVID-19 benefits from California’s beleaguered unemployment agency, but now they’re operating from the four corners of the globe and targeting the state with cyber-weapons.
Months after district attorneys unveiled a prison fraud ring that conned the California Employment Development Department out of an estimated $2 billion or more, the head of an identity-security firm working for the state says global cyber-criminals are bombarding EDD with fraudulent unemployment claims at a stunning clip.
Blake Hall, chief executive of ID.me, said in an interview this week that systems deployed by his company are flagging $750 million worth of bogus claims each week."
Derick Almena, defendant in deadly Ghost Ship fire, expected to accept plea deal, avoid second trial
The Chronicle's SARAH RAVANI: "The remaining defendant charged in the deaths of 36 people killed in Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse fire, is expected to accept a plea deal that will keep him from prison and prevent him from undergoing a second trial, a victim’s family member said.
Derick Almena, the master tenant of the Fruitvale neighborhood warehouse, is expected to plead guilty to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter on Jan. 22. In return, he will be sentenced to nine years in custody and three years of post-custody supervision.
A spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the plea deal, citing a gag order issued by Alameda County Superior Judge Trina Thompson."
California's minimum wage would rise quickly to $15/hour under Biden's stimulus plan
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "California’s minimum wage would rise to $15 an hour a year sooner than planned under a proposal in President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 economic stimulus package.
Biden campaigned on raising the minimum wage during the 2020 election. He included the proposal in a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan that also calls for a new round of stimulus checks and expanded unemployment benefits.
“It’s time we has a $15 an hour minimum wage, so families can earn a living and get ahead,” Biden said in a campaign video released last October."
READ MORE related to Economy/Stimulus: Biden's economic plan includes $1,400 checks, boosted unemployment benefits. Can it pass? -- Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN/MICHAEL WILNER; These Californians don't get stimulus checks -- why advocates want Newsom to do more for them -- Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ
CalPERS doesn't have to release names of retirees with disability pensions after ruling
Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "An appeal court issued a decision this week that will keep information on CalPERS disability pensions private unless the state Supreme Court gets involved.
Robert Fellner, executive director of Transparent California, a website that publishes public salaries and pension information, said the organization plans to make another pass at making pension statuses public after a Monday dismissal by the Third District Court of Appeal.
Fellner’s organization sued CalPERS in 2018 after the pension fund declined a California Public Records Act request for information on disability pensions, which allow public employees to retire early for medical reasons. Industrial disability pensions, which are for on-the-job injuries, are partially tax-exempt."
Turning Dodger Stadium into mass vaccination site
LA Times's MAYA LAU/LAURA J NELSON: "The plan goes like this: Anyone eligible for a coronavirus vaccine will be able to drive to Dodger Stadium, roll down their car window and get an injection.
About 12,000 people a day will get shots under the ambitious goals for what will probably be one of the country’s largest vaccination sites, set to open Friday at 8 a.m.
As California officials rush to set up vaccination “super sites” at Dodger Stadium, Disneyland and other major landmarks in a bid to improve one of the country’s lowest per-capita vaccination rates, they’re facing even bigger hurdles than in the early days of mass coronavirus testing."
California county giving first-come, first-serve alerts for excess COVID vaccine doses
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "Facing slow progress all throughout the state and the prospect of unused COVID-19 vaccines going to waste, a Northern California county had an idea.
Earlier this week, El Dorado County set up a web portal letting residents sign up for notification alerts to be sent when there are surpluses of shots available.
“No matter what Phase/tier you’re in, if you want a vax & can get to our Public Health office (Tahoe or Placerville) w/in 30-60 minutes, sign up for a text or phone alert!” the county announced in a Monday morning Facebook post."
READ MORE related to Vaccine: California far short of Newsom's goal of 1 million vaccinations in 10 days -- The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF
Why one of the Bay Area's biggest coronavirus outbreaks hit a horse racing track
The Chronicle's RON KROICHICK: "Ellen Lee Jackson, a longtime trainer at Golden Gate Fields, suppressed her frustration for months. Every Saturday, she said, she walked past another trainer on a narrow path to the area where she could watch her horses work out.
The man wore no face covering, Jackson said, defying track and Alameda County guidelines and ignoring signs posted around the property. Finally, after an avalanche of positive coronavirus tests at the track in November, she confronted him.
She suspected his barn sparked the outbreak, though city and state officials still are investigating the origin. Jackson asked the man, whom she declined to identify, to put on his mask. He complied the first time, she said, but the next week he wore a “big smirk” when she approached, then shook his head and refused."
Monterey Bay power plant now a record-breaking battery project that could ward off outages
The Chronicle's JD MORRIS: "The twin smokestacks that have long stood like giants along the Monterey Bay shoreline will never again help turn fossil fuels into electricity — and planet-warming carbon dioxide.
While the 500-foot structures in the coastal hamlet of Moss Landing aren’t going anywhere, much of the facility around them in Monterey County is being transformed into something else: a huge installation of batteries that will aid California’s transition to a cleaner energy grid.
Vistra Corp., a Texas energy company that owns the Moss Landing power plant, announced this month that its long-awaited battery system on the site has begun to come online. At 300 megawatts by the time it’s fully functional within the coming months, it will be the largest facility of its kind in the world, according to Vistra."
Why veterans of the military and law enforcement joined the Capitol insurrection
LA Times's JAWEED KALEEM/KURTIS LEE: "An Air Force veteran from Southern California and ardent conspiracy theorist bent on war against the government. An Army psychological operations officer at Ft. Bragg, N.C. A decorated, retired Air Force officer of 18 years from Texas who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attracted a variety of far-right extremists who shared a devotion to President Trump and his insistence on a false belief that the November election had been stolen from him through fraud.
Many rioters also had something else in common as they sought to upend the American government in an insurrection that bristled with Confederate flags, racist symbols and conspiracy theories: They were ex-members of the military and police or actively employed by the armed services and law enforcement."
2020 was SF's deadliest year for overdoses, by far
The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI: "San Francisco lost a total of 699 people to overdoses last year, a 59% rise from 2019, according to new data released Thursday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
That number is more than three times the amount of people that died of COVID-19 in the city during the same period. It also represents 699 sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends and loved ones felled by an epidemic that the city has been unable to control.
“It didn’t have to happen,” sighed Kristen Marshall, director of the DOPE Project, which manages the city’s overdose response. “The root of these overdose deaths in San Francisco is homelessness, poverty and racism that has been institutionalized throughout our systems of care.”
Facebook banned Trump. Leaders who say worse often go unpunished
LA Times's SHASHANK BENGALI: "A political leader uses social media to spread misinformation and hate. Followers are spurred to violence. People are killed.
It is a toxic brew that has surfaced repeatedly across the world — in Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Brazil and now the United States.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube banned President Trump from their platforms for inciting last week’s deadly mob attack on the Capitol. But in other countries, social media giants have been far slower to shut down misinformation and hate speech, often failing to remove inflammatory posts and accounts even after they’ve contributed to lynchings, pogroms, extrajudicial killings or ethnic cleansing."
How to plan a safe and successful ski trip to Tahoe during the pandemic
The Chronicle's GREGORY THOMAS: "As regions across California grapple with restrictions on commerce and travel during the coronavirus pandemic, one destination has remained open all winter: Lake Tahoe’s ski areas.
The Tahoe region was allowed to reopen outdoor dining and hotels earlier this week, just in time for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, a popular time for skiing. However, a state travel advisory implores people to avoid driving more than 120 miles from home, which puts Tahoe out of range for Bay Area residents. The advisory also asks that out-of-state travelers self-quarantine for 10 days upon arrival. For anyone who lives closer to Tahoe or has met those requirements, skiing this weekend is a possibility.
When the pandemic first hit California last spring, ski resorts across the Sierra shut down, fearing that crowds of out-of-towners comingling in packed lodges and chairlift lines could worsen the outbreak. But after an off-season of careful planning and infrastructure improvements, Tahoe's 11 major ski areas have worked to pandemic-proof themselves."