L.A. County elementary schools are cleared to fully open
HOWARD BLUME, LA Times: "Los Angeles County elementary school campuses are cleared to fully reopen for the first time in nearly a year because of dropping coronavirus rates, health officials confirmed Monday night.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn tweeted out the news before the official confirmation, with a celebratory tweet in the late afternoon: “L.A. County has officially reached the State’s threshold for reopening elementary schools.
Starting tomorrow, schools can reopen” if they have submitted and posted the necessary paperwork with county and state officials.
“This is what we have been working towards,” Hahn added.
California's low kindergarten attendance creates first-grade problem
The Chronicle's ELIZABETH AGUILERA: "Thousands of California families chose to keep their children out of kindergarten this past year, opting instead for other in-person programs or no school at all.
That means thousands — or potentially tens of thousands — more children than usual will be hitting first grade next school year without having been through kindergarten, putting even more stress on an already strained system.
California is one of 32 states where kindergarten is optional. It’s an option that experts have increasingly come to disagree with. Children who skip kindergarten, they argue, arrive in first grade behind their peers in key areas like reading."
Renowned Bay Area epidemiologist predicts prolonged pandemic
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "It will take years, not months, to gain the upper hand in the coronavirus pandemic — and it will require thinking well beyond our borders, says Dr. Larry Brilliant.
The 76-year-old Bay Area epidemiologist, who has worked to eradicate smallpox, polio and co-founded the Seva Foundation in Berkeley to combat blindness, has a unique perspective on the subject.
For years, Brilliant warned of a pandemic on the scale of the one we are living through. He even served as the senior technical adviser on the 2011 motion picture “Contagion,” filmed partly at the San Francisco 49ers old stadium, Candlestick Park — during which time he presciently predicted that epidemiologists would become rock stars and stadiums would become mass vaccination sites."
Vaccinating the homeless population for COVID adds a whole new layer of difficulty
BENJAMIN ORESKES, LA Times: "For Lance Curtis, the journey to receive the COVID-19 vaccine began with a phone call from Los Angeles Christian Health Centers.
Doctors and nurses had culled a list of nearly 900 homeless people they wanted to vaccinate. Their outreach workers walked the streets of skid row preaching the gospel of Moderna’s two-shot salvation.
And they sought out people in the community’s large shelters to make sure they got pricked."
California will pay up to $15M to distribute vaccines under new contract with Blue Shield
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California could pay insurance company Blue Shield up to $15 million for expenses as it helps the state increase and accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations under a contract the Newsom administration released Monday afternoon.
Blue Shield’s work officially begins Monday as the state’s “third party administrator” for vaccine distribution.
The company will be able to bill the state up to $15 million in third-party costs and non-staff costs. That doesn’t include staff time, which Blue Shield will provide for free, according to the contract."
State fines Kaiser $499K for COVID-19 worker safety violations
ANA B. IBARRA, CalMatters: "California officials gave a nod to Kaiser Permanente’s reputation for efficiency when they recently selected it to help speed vaccine rollout. But a review of worker safety citations shows Kaiser has had its own pandemic troubles, failing to adequately protect its employees early on.
Kaiser Permanente has on multiple occasions failed to provide hospital employees the gear or training needed to protect them from COVID-19, according to 12 citations issued by California’s enforcer of workplace safety laws, Cal/OSHA.
The agency has issued more citations against Kaiser than any other health care employer in California, fining it almost $500,000. In addition, Santa Clara County has separately penalized the hospital for not immediately reporting an outbreak in December."
How That High Couple used YouTube to turn a love of weed into a serious side hustle
ADAM TSCHORN: "Alice Campbell has short, platinum blond hair, a penchant for stripes and polka dots, a strong sunglasses game and a thing for bright red lipstick.
Onscreen, her husband, Clark, favors flannels and allover print camp shirts, which are often coordinated to slightly complement Alice’s outfits. His eyeglasses and short-cropped brown hair give him a just-this-side-of-nerdy vibe.
The Campbells — she’s 29, he’s 33 — make cannabis-themed videos, which they post on YouTube."
Pelosi: Independent commission will examine Capitol riot
AP's HOPE YEN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress will establish an independent, Sept. 11-style commission to look into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol.
Pelosi said the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power."
In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the House will also put forth supplemental spending to boost security at the Capitol."
COVID-19 vaccines might be tweaked if variants get worse
AP's LAURAN NEERGAARD: "The makers of COVID-19 vaccines are figuring out how to tweak their recipes against worrisome virus mutations — and regulators are looking to flu as a blueprint if and when the shots need an update.
“It’s not really something you can sort of flip a switch, do overnight,” cautioned Richard Webby, who directs a World Health Organization flu center from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Viruses mutate constantly and it takes just the right combination of particular mutations to escape vaccination. But studies are raising concern that first-generation COVID-19 vaccines don’t work as well against a mutant that first emerged in South Africa as they do against other versions circulating around the world."
Schools must have COVID relief funds and more resources to reopen safely, Fauci says
Sac Bee's BAILEY ALDRIDGE: "Dr. Anthony Fauci says a COVID-19 stimulus package needs to pass for schools to reopen safely.
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, discussed Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” the new guidelines released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic. He said school districts will need more resources to follow the guidelines.
“That’s the reason why the national relief act that we’re talking about getting passed — we need that,” he said."
For the year of the Ox, Bay Area's food community is grounding itself
The Chronicle's SOLEIL HO: "We’re entering this new phase in the lunar calendar, which has come along with a palpable period of mental and physical fatigue among a lot of people I know. The year of the rat has left many with feelings of cynicism, exhaustion and grief, and rightfully so, considering everything that we’ve endured until now. But I’m finding comfort in knowing that we’re entering the year of the ox — or in the Vietnamese version of the zodiac, the water buffalo. The buffalo’s steadiness and determination are grounding forces: antipodes to the chaos and instability of the previous year.
I see promises of this in the many ways our local Bay Area community has worked through the tumult of this year. The pandemic hit Hang Ah Tea Room, the oldest dim sum restaurant in this country, particularly hard, emptying out the 100-year-old Chinatown institution’s dining room. On some days, owner Frank Chui told The Chronicle, the restaurant makes only $200 in sales. Incoming aid from the city will help it survive, and Chui plans to celebrate by distributing 2,020 meals to food-insecure families in the neighborhood.
Xenophobic violence in our Chinatowns, mirroring the uptick in hate crimes against Arabs and South Asians in the wake of 9/11, has also compounded economic stress. The moment has prompted difficult conversations about the role of policing in Asian enclaves, a historically fraught topic for these communities, which have been subjected to multiple incidents of nativist and white supremacist violence since their establishment in the 1800s."
LA DA and George Floyd's family add voices to LAPD mock-valentine photo outrage
LA Times's KIM CHRISTENSEN/KEVIN RECTOR: "Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor and the family of a Black man killed by Minneapolis police last summer have denounced allegations that Los Angeles officers circulated a mock valentine photo of George Floyd with the caption “You take my breath away.”
The LAPD has launched an internal investigation and was scheduled Monday to interview the officer who reported the incident, Chief Michel Moore told The Times on Saturday. No further information was available Monday afternoon, an LAPD spokesman said.
Floyd was killed in May after one officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes as Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” His death prompted protests and worldwide outrage, which has been amplified by the allegations of the mock valentine."
Sen. Graham threatens VP Harris with possible impeachment if Reeps win House next year
The Chronicle's SHWANIKA NARAYAN: "Senator Lindsey Graham warned Sunday that if Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections, Vice President Kamala Harris could face impeachment for her tweet supporting a bail fund for Black Lives Matter protesters over the summer.
Speaking in an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” a day after the U.S. Senate acquitted President Trump, the South Carolina Republican said the former president’s impeachment trial, brought forth because of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riots, “opened Pandora’s box.”
“If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House, because she actually bailed out rioters,” Graham said of the former California senator from Oakland. “So we’ve opened Pandora’s box here, and I’m sad for the country.”"