As Newsom recall hits milestone, Democrats scramble for united front to keep governor in office
LA Times's FAITH E. PINHO: "With backers of the recall against Gavin Newsom formally submitting the last of their petitions Wednesday, Democrats from California to Washington were readying what they hope will be a united front to keep the embattled governor in office.
Newsom’s campaign is trying to keep the party focused on fighting the recall and preventing prominent Democrats from getting into the race to replace him if it qualifies for the ballot as expected. He has racked up high-profile endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), among others, and hopes to tie the recall campaign to former President Trump and extremist groups.
The governor went on a national media tour this week, speaking out against the recall and generating both cheers from supporters and some controversy."
2.1M Newsom recall signatures are all in - California likely to vote later this year
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Critics of Gov. Gavin Newsom seeking to remove him from office turned in the last of more than 2.1 million signatures Wednesday, ending a nine-month petition drive that likely will force a recall election later this year.
Organizers said they had gathered 2,117,730 signatures by the end of the day, giving them a healthy cushion to meet the qualification threshold of nearly 1.5 million valid signatures from registered voters.
Anne Dunsmore, campaign manager for Rescue California, one of the groups collecting signatures, said they were feeling more confident than ever about ousting Newsom as he has embarked on a crusade to downplay the recall’s legitimacy. Dunsmore said Newsom’s approach has been condescending and that it would only further turn voters against him."
Final approval expected for divisive California ethnic studies curriculum model
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "California’s Board of Education is expected Thursday to pass the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum for high schools, after nearly four years of heated debate, division and rewrites.
The curriculum was created with the intention of covering four areas: Black/African American studies, Chicano/a studies, Native American studies and Asian American studies. It is a guidance document for districts to adopt lesson plans.
But discussions in developing the final draft included debate over whether additional lessons on other ethnic groups would detract from the study of those core groups."
Report shows California lagging most states in vaccination equity
The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO: "California ranks among the five worst states in getting its poorest and most vulnerable residents vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California is one of 31 states falling short on equitable vaccine coverage, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which analyzed vaccines administered during the first two-and-a-half months of the U.S. vaccination campaign, from Dec. 14 to March 1. It is the first report using national vaccination surveillance data focused on social vulnerability to look at equity, said the report’s lead author, CDC epidemiologist Michelle Hughes.
“While this is just a first look at how the vaccine is being administered nationwide, it tells us we need to continue to ramp up our efforts to ensure fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine,” Hughes said Wednesday."
Bay Area reacts with grief but little surprise over Atlanta shootings
The Chronicle's STAFF: "The mass shooting in Georgia Tuesday “felt like a punch in the gut” for an Asian American community reeling from a surge in racism and violent attacks over the past year.
That was how Melissa May Borja, a Filipino American researcher at Stop AAPI Hate, a San Francisco-based reporting center, described hearing the news. But she said she wasn’t surprised.
“There is a deep and long and ugly history of violence against women and racism against Asian Americans,” Borja told The Chronicle."
Atlanta spa shootings stir fear amid historic rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans
LA Times's JAWEED KALEEM/RICHARD READ: "June Macon planned to celebrate this week when her mother and grandmother had gotten COVID-19 vaccine shots, including finally hugging them after months of separation during the pandemic.
But after a gunman in the Atlanta area left eight people dead — six of them women of Asian descent — Macon, a Korean American, said she had “gone from really, really high to really, really low.”
Macon, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said Wednesday she had watched television news reports of the violence with a heavy heart."
Dianne Feinstein says she's staying in Senate regardless of husband's plans
The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein confirmed Wednesday that her husband is interested in an ambassadorship from President Biden but said that wouldn’t take her out of the Senate.
The California Democrat was responding to a story in the New York Times that her husband, Richard Blum, an investment banker, wanted a European posting from Biden. The report suggested the effort could move Feinstein out of the Senate as well.
But while Feinstein told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday that her husband “is interested,” she said it wouldn’t mean she would leave her job early."
Will state employees get $25K bonuses from Biden's COVID stimulus? (FACT CHECK)
Sac Bee's KATE IRBY: "No Republicans voted for the $1.9 trillion bill COVID-19 stimulus bill signed last week by President Joe Biden, while all but one Democrat voted for it.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has sought to point out — in floor speeches, on social media and in Fox News interviews — some of the problems he said made the law more of a Democratic “slush fund” than responsible government spending.
Here’s one of the issues he raised, and our analysis:"
Here's how SF wants to spend its $125M surplus this year
The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH: "San Francisco leaders want to use the city’s $125 million surplus to provide rent relief, create housing, help small businesses, support the arts, fund free summer programming for students, give to undocumented families and combat overdose deaths.
The mayor and the board’s budget chair agreed on the spending plan for this fiscal year that was due to get a formal vote during committee Wednesday. It then goes to the full board for a final vote Tuesday, where it’s likely to pass.
“These are urgent priorities that can’t wait and this supplemental package will help our city recover and help keep small businesses open, support kids and keep tenants in their home,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, the budget chair. “The funds are going directly and overwhelmingly to the people who are most impacted during this crisis."
Coronavirus strains from California and the UK in battle for US dominance
LA Times's MELISSA HEALY: "The grim horse race that is the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic has been reduced to a contest between two tenacious coronavirus strains: a variant native to California and an import from the United Kingdom.
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the California strain accounted for 13% of all coronavirus samples that were genetically sequenced as part of a new federal program in late February. An additional 7% of the samples were the strain from the U.K.
Both versions of the virus have scientists and health officials on edge because they spread more readily than their predecessors and seem to be less vulnerable to some of the medicines used to treat COVID-19. The California strain has also shown signs of resistance to the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines."
Vaccines could be ready for children by year's end, experts say
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "Vaccines to immunize children against the coronavirus could be ready by the end of the year, Bay Area experts in pediatric immunology said Wednesday, following Moderna’s announcement that it is expanding its drug trials to include children up to age 12.
A pair of studies involving adolescents from vaccine maker Pfizer also are moving ahead, with participation in the Bay Area from Kaiser in Oakland and Stanford University researchers.
Pfizer announced in November that it was expanding its trial in teenagers to include youth ages 12 to 15, with investigators from Kaiser, Oakland, enrolling participants in Santa Clara and Sacramento."
Vanessa Bryant names sheriff's deputies who allegedly shared Kobe Bryant crash photos
LA Times's ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Vanessa Bryant on Wednesday named the Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who allegedly shared grim photos of the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, their daughter Gianna and seven others.
The disclosure came after a legal fight with L.A. County lawyers who sought to keep the identities of the deputies secret. A federal judge this month sided with Vanessa Bryant, saying that the names of police officers accused of misconduct should not be kept from the public.
Bryant’s attorneys filed an amended copy of a lawsuit Bryant has brought against the county and the deputies that includes the names of four deputies whom Sheriff’s Department officials investigated for allegedly sharing photos of the crash site. The revised lawsuit also includes new details about what those deputies told internal affairs investigators about how widely they shared the images. Bryant’s legal team based their new claims on an internal affairs report the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department turned over."
LA officials get report on LAPD mishandling protests. Now what?
LA Times's EMILY ALPERT REYES: "Roughly a week after the release of a new report that faulted the Los Angeles Police Department for mishandling protests following the death of George Floyd, Los Angeles officials began to mull what should come next.
“Do we actually have to create a new bureau?” asked Councilman Kevin de León, referencing a core recommendation in the report that has drawn concern from activists critical of the department.
The report, sought by council members in the aftermath of the summer protests, was prepared by a team of former LAPD commanders headed by attorney Gerald Chaleff. It found a host of failures in how the LAPD had handled the unrest, including poor planning, scant training on weapons wielded against protesters, and a broader “chaos of command.”"
NorCal police officers placed on leave after sending degrading, violent texts
Sac Bee's JASON POHL: "Two police officers in the Northern California town of Eureka have been placed on paid administrative leave while a third-party investigator conducts its review of demeaning and violent messages sent in a private texting group.
The leave was effective immediately, Eureka Police Chief Steve Watson said Wednesday afternoon. The announcement came just hours after The Sacramento Bee published an investigation into a private text message group that involved a half-dozen officers in the North Coast department, including a sergeant.
“While we leave room for the investigation to reveal more information, we also fully denounce the content of the communications that have been reported,” Watson wrote in a message to the public on Facebook. “And, we respectfully ask you to join us in doing the same. This is, in my opinion, the only right way forward.”"
LA Times's ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "When aides to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva wanted to build a helicopter landing pad near the sheriff’s home, they sought help from a familiar face.
J. Isaac Gonzalez, a former sheriff’s deputy, now works for the parent company of the Southern California Gas Co. The utility owns a plot of land on a hill above Villanueva’s La Habra Heights house that sheriff’s officials decided was a suitable spot for a helicopter to land in an emergency.
“Sounds easy,” Gonzalez texted to a Sheriff’s Department lieutenant who had pressed him to get the gas company’s approval for the project."