L.A. County will require masks indoors amid alarming rise in coronavirus cases
RONG-GONG LIN II, MELISSA HERNANDEZ and LUKE MONEY, LA Times: "Just a month ago, Los Angeles County and the rest of California celebrated a long-awaited reopening, marking the tremendous progress made in the battle against COVID-19 by lifting virtually all restrictions on businesses and other public spaces. Now, the coronavirus is resurgent, and the nation’s most-populous county is scrambling to beat back the pandemic’s latest charge.
Starting Saturday night, residents will again be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status.
The latest order not only puts the county further at odds with both the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — both of which continue to maintain that vaccinated people need not cover their faces indoors — but puts officials in the precarious position of asking the inoculated to forfeit one of the benefits recently enjoyed."
Dixie Fire prompts evacuations
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON/ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "Firefighters on Thursday struggled to gain containment of a nearly 5,000-acre wildfire burning near the footprint of the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Plumas and Butte counties.
The Dixie Fire was not threatening any homes Thursday in the Feather River Canyon along Highway 70. The fire was 7% contained by Thursday night and moving through tracts of timber toward the popular High Lakes recreation region, causing the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office to order campers and others to evacuate.
Cal Fire spokesman Jacob Gilliam said crews were strengthening firebreaks around the southern and western flanks of the fire, critical to defending the communities of Concow and Pulga in Butte County, where residents were under evacuation warnings, should the fire make a southwestern push."
Amid escalating drought, Bay Area residents slow to cut back on water use
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "As the sun began to rise over Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village neighborhood, the headlights of a city work truck brought into view utility official Shiloh Jones’ target: wasted water.
Jones, part of Santa Rosa’s newly formed “water waste patrol,” had spotted a puddle on the sidewalk and traced it to a runaway irrigation system in a bed of pink roses.
“It looks like there’s a tear in the line,” Jones said, after hanging a notice of water misuse on the front door of the home one morning this week."
While trying to be California's governor, Caitlyn Jaenner blew her shot to be a real heroine
Sac Beem JACK OHMAN: "When I was growing up in the 1970s, I admired Jenner, the Olympic gold medalist. When I was an adult in the 2010s, I admired Jenner, the transgender heroine. I watched her show. I bought and read her book.
In 2021, I’m not sure what’s left to admire about Caitlyn Jenner, the California gubernatorial candidate.
Jenner has completely shredded the faint remnants of her leadership and her admirability in a matter of weeks."
Caitlyn Jenner's historic run struggles
LA Times, JULIA WICK: "When Caitlyn Jenner launched her bid for governor in late April, the Olympic Gold medal-winning decathlete and reality television star’s website had just two options: “Shop” and “Donate.”
The gubernatorial candidate wouldn’t stake out her first policy position until a week later, when a camera-wielding paparazzo in the parking lot of an upscale Malibu strip mall asked Jenner for her opinion on legislation in various states that would ban transgender girls from playing girls’ sports in school.
The most prominent transgender candidate in American political history paused to shepherd her dog Baxter into her Cadillac Escalade, turned back to the camera and said she opposed “biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school.” Jenner’s position put her in diametric opposition to LGBTQ advocacy groups around the country, who have been battling a record number of anti-trans bills pushed by conservatives in more than 30 states."
Larry Elder talks politics on the radio. Can he get votes in the California recall election?
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "Larry Elder is normally not a fan of recall elections.
As a nationally syndicated talk radio host and longtime columnist, Elder says he believes elected officials should be able to finish their term before voters get to decide whether or not to keep them.
But in the case of California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom, he said, it’s an emergency."
California cuts the number of tests teachers must take to earn credential
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "California’s newly approved state budget allows teacher candidates to skip two of the tests that had been required to earn a teaching credential if they take approved coursework.
Teacher candidates no longer have to take the California Basic Skills Test, or CBEST, or the California Subject Matter Exams for Teachers, referred to as CSET to earn a credential.
The CBEST tests reading, math and writing skills and is usually taken before a student is accepted into a teacher preparation program. The CSET tests a teacher candidate’s proficiency in the subject they will teach. Teacher candidates must prove subject-matter proficiency before earning a credential, but many teacher preparation programs require the test be taken before a student enters its teacher preparation program."
UC regents poised to approve landmark $300M housing gift despite eviction concerns
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "The University of California Regents are expected to approve a new construction project in Berkeley on Wednesday, but the dorm proposed on Walnut Street for UC Berkeley transfer students is anything but a vanilla plan.
The 14-story building envisioned for 772 incoming juniors — including terraced patios, courtyards, a meditation room, fitness center and retail space — is possible because of a $300 million gift to the school from the Helen Diller Foundation, the largest donation in campus history.
The 244 furnished apartments aimed at low-income, first-generation college students are also possible because the university is evicting residents of the eight-unit, rent-controlled building on the site, at 1921 Walnut St. UC Berkeley bought the building last year."
UCD researchers discover new way to test effectiveness of heart medicine for cats
Sac Bee, VICTORIA HSIEH: "Researchers at the University of California, Davis have discovered a new way to administer heart medicine for cats.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as HCM, affects 1 in 7 cats. It leads to the thickening of the heart muscle and cats can form blood clots as the condition worsens, leading to extreme pain or even sudden death.
Cats are typically prescribed clopidogrel to prevent clots from forming. However, co-authors and veterinary cardiologists Josh Stern and Ron Li from UC Davis consistently saw at least 20% of cats continue to form blood clots despite being on the drug."
Hotter temps increased workplace injuries in California; incidents undercounted
LA Times, ANNA M. PHILLIPS: "Hotter temperatures in California significantly increase the risk that workers will be injured on the job, according to a new study that finds these incidents are vastly undercounted in official records.
The study, to be published next week by the Institute of Labor Economics, was conducted by three researchers at UCLA and Stanford who gathered information on about 18 years’ worth of claims from California’s workers’ compensation system — the largest in the country — and compared it to daily temperature data. They found that workplace injuries and accidents increased by as much as 9% on days when temperatures were in the 90s and rose by as much as 15% on days in the 100s.
Though much of the research and media attention has been on how heat affects people who work outdoors in agriculture and construction, the study found that high temperatures increased accidents for indoor workers, too, endangering people employed in manufacturing, warehousing and wholesale."
California will spend a record amount on homelessness. Here's where it's going
LA Times, ARI PLACHTA: "California will spend a record $4.8 billion over two years to alleviate homelessness after legislators Thursday unanimously passed key details of a new state budget. The package, once signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, will mark the state’s largest financial commitment to date in assisting people without adequate and safe housing.
In a deal reached last month, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to expand last year’s program to convert former hotels into permanent housing with federal coronavirus relief dollars and provide an additional $2 billion over two years to local governments.
Appropriation and oversight details were released this week as part of a lengthy process to divvy up a $262.6-billion state budget boosted by a record cash surplus and federal pandemic relief."
SF has unprecedented $1.1B to spend on homelessness. The pressure is on to make a difference
The Chronicle, TRISHA THADANI: "For Pamela Tisdale, the amount of money that San Francisco plans to invest in homelessness — more than $1.1 billion over the next two years — is irrelevant as long as she lives in a small, temporary hotel room that has “rats galore.”
“I just want my own housing,” said Tisdale, who lives in a city-leased hotel that local officials plan to close next year. “I’m just fed up.”
As the 62-year-old struggles to a find a permanent and affordable place to live, San Francisco has never been so flush with cash to help people like her. The city’s spending on homelessness has increased dramatically over the past five years — but never like this."
Sheriff identifies man shot during California wildfire as tensions rise with pot growers
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "Amid escalating tensions between Siskiyou County authorities and Hmong marijuana growers, officials have identified the man shot June 28 by authorities during the Lava Fire as a 35-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, man.
The Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said the man, who was shot near a roadblock set up to keep residents from entering the fire zone at the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision, was Hawj Soobleej Kaub, a father of three and farmer.
“Mr. Kaub’s family has been notified of his death,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post. “Additional information surrounding the incident will be released once the investigation is complete."
Police officers treat Black and white men differently. You can hear it in their tone of voice
LA Times, AMINA KHAN: "Scientists who analyzed the body camera footage from more than 100 police officers have found a subtle but clear pattern: During traffic stops, officers spoke to Black men in a less respectful and less friendly tone than they did to white men.
This disparity in treatment is not only real, but may help to fuel a cycle of mistrust between police and the Black community, the researchers reported this week in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Law enforcement experts agreed."
Higher tides will threaten Bay Area roads. Highway 37 shows the challenge ahead
The Chronicle, STAFF: "It is by no means the only one. All along San Francisco Bay, low-lying roadways and rail lines face the potential of being flooded as sea levels rise and the bay expands.
“This is a much bigger thing than most people realize,” said Randy Rentschler, director of legislation for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “The whole area is a transportation network at risk.”
That risk is the result of generations viewing the shoreline’s shallow tidelands and mudflats as easy places to build the infrastructure required by a growing region, including highways and railroad tracks lines. The assumption was that the bay was locked in place — portions could be filled in, but it would never grow."