Northern California wildfires merge, forcing more from their homes
PAUL PRINGLE, LA Times: "California’s largest wildfire so far this year merged with another, smaller fire overnight, swelling to 192,849 acres by Sunday evening as it burned through some area neighborhoods.
Authorities on Sunday issued new evacuation orders as the massive Dixie fire in Butte County, north of Sacramento, continued to spread rapidly to the north and east and burned together with the nearby Fly fire, which had previously scorched about 4,300 acres.
“Right now, with the weather getting hotter and drier, the fire is moving faster,” Luis Jimenez, public information officer on the fire, said Sunday afternoon."
READ MORE on WILDFIRES: Dixie Fire slows after destroying at least 23 structures, but a dangerous week lies ahead -- JOHN KING, Chronicle
A rush to calculus leaves some students behind in California
EdSource, SYDNEY JOHNSON: "Even in the birthplace of microchips and iPhones, unequal access to advanced math starts early for many California students.
Luis Castro Limon, an incoming senior in Pomona Unified, has seen the inequity play out firsthand. Limon excels in math, but when he transferred to a new middle school in eighth grade, a counselor rejected his request for advanced math because he didn’t take the school’s seventh-grade math course.
“Math is his forte. When I requested the honors class because I knew my son was capable, the counselor said he didn’t qualify,” Limon’s mother, Yésica Limon, told EdSource through a Spanish translator. “But she never explained why or that we could talk to a teacher or do anything else. At that point, I made an appointment with the principal, but they didn’t explain anything.”
Who will take care of the disabled and elderly? California faces 'unprecedented' labor shortage
Sac Bee, ISABELLA BLOOM: "Before the pandemic, David Katz had his own home with supported living services in Rocklin, a 12-minute drive away from where his parents live in Roseville.
He had been living there since 2016 with direct support professionals funded by the regional center.
David, 39, wanted to live on his own instead of with his parents, but he needs 24/7 supervision because, due to various aspects of his autism, he cannot be at home alone safely, according to his mother."
California overtime law could put sheep ranching operations that prevent fire out of business
LA Times, TARA DUGGAN: "Residents of San Anselmo’s Sleepy Hollow neighborhood joined rancher Bianca Soares to watch a herd of 400 goats and sheep tumble over a steep Marin hillside. Like kindergartners let out for recess, the brown-and-white goats jumped and jostled as they ran, while the dusky white sheep stole occasional bites of grass as they were corralled by two herders and their dogs.
“Can I encourage you to get closer to the houses?” a neighbor asked Soares, who was overseeing the herd’s move from one grazing site to another this month. The animals are actually firefighters — their job is to remove fuels and help prevent fire in the community at the foot of Mount Tamalpais.
A fourth-generation sheep rancher, Soares oversees three herds in Marin for her mother’s company, Star Creek Land Stewards, which does prescribed grazing for fire prevention — fire grazing — on public and private lands around the Bay Area. As fire season started early this year and with prospects of worse yet to come, their services are highly sought after. But California sheep ranchers say the cost of this type of fire prevention will skyrocket because of a new state overtime pay law that will increase sheepherder pay by 50%. It’s already causing some ranchers to sell their animals."
CW Podcast: Lanterman, Laura's Law, and Britney Spears
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Today we welcome Randall Hagar, the Policy Consultant and Legislative Advocate for the Psychiatric Physicians Alliance of California. Hagar has been advocating for sound mental health policies for over 20 years and helped draft the language for the original Laura’s Law, a landmark state law that allows for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment.
Hagar joined John Howard and Tim Foster to talk about the growing numbers of mentally ill Californians that are either homeless or behind bars, and efforts to reform the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, the 1967 legislation that put strict limits on involuntary commitment. He also outlines the big difference between a Probate Conservatorship (i.e. what pop star Britney Spears has) and the mental illness conservatorships that exist under Lanterman-Petris-Short.
Plus: who had the #WorstWeekCA?"
As delta variant surges, Bay Area reaches realization that COVID 'will be with us chronically'
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "For several days in late spring, San Francisco General Hospital had no COVID-19 patients, and the staff rejoiced.
From the intensive care floors no longer near-overflowing with patients to the emergency department where doctors and nurses had worried for more than a year that anyone who showed up could be infected, the relief was palpable, said Dr. Robert Rodriguez, an emergency physician at San Francisco General and a professor at UCSF.
Then California reopened and dropped almost all pandemic safeguards, and the highly contagious delta variant arrived. Few had believed the pandemic was over, of course. But it’s discouraging to be bracing for yet another surge, Rodriguez said, and living again under a cloud of anxious anticipation of just how bad things will get." Kamala Harris is the highest-ranking mom ever in US politics. Here's why that matters
The Chronicle, TAL KOPAN: "As Democrats maneuver over what to include in their massive infrastructure package working its way through Congress, there’s someone perhaps unexpected shaping the conversation: Shyamala Gopalan Harris.
Legislators are working on a $3.5 trillion Democrat-only bill that would fortify America’s “human” infrastructure, not just physical items like roads and bridges, a potentially historic move that is also politically fraught.
That’s where Vice President Kamala Harris’ mother comes in. It’s no secret that the vice president was heavily influenced by Gopalan Harris, an Indian immigrant scientist and single mom who raised Kamala and her sister in the East Bay in the ’60s and ’70s. Many of Harris’ speeches feature quotes or stories about her mother, who died in 2009."
California Republican who denounced Trump continues to draw GOP cash for upcoming election
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/GILLIAN BRASSIL: "A California Republican who backed former President Donald Trump’s impeachment is piling up money for his 2022 reelection campaign despite a challenge from within the GOP.
The congressman, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, regarded as one of the nation’s most vulnerable Republican incumbents, has also been contributing some of his campaign cash to fellow House Republicans.
Valadao, who has about $820,000 on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission, which tracks campaign finance, raised more than $482,000 in the second quarter of this year compared to just over $320,000 in the first."
Were you unemployed in 2020? Here's why you might see a tax refund in your bank account
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Unemployed last year in California for a long period of time? You may qualify for a federal tax refund.
If you filed your federal taxes before mid-March, you should probably be seeing that refund from the Internal Revenue Service in your bank account soon, if you haven’t already.
The average refund is $1,265, and it’s the result of the COVID-related economic plan Congress passed in March."
READ MORE ECONOMIC NEWS --- Cryptocurrency has a 'bro' problem. Women in the field say they can disrupt the bitcoin brotherhood -- The Chronicle, JENNIFER SOR
Pride patches on OC police uniforms: Progress, or performative activism?
LA Times, PRISCELLA VEGA: "For decades, law enforcement has neither accepted nor embraced the LGBTQ community — especially not in traditionally conservative regions.
Maybe that’s why Officer Erin Enos was shocked when the Seal Beach Police Department granted her request to create a rainbow-themed patch to be worn on police uniforms during LGBTQ Pride Month.
Enos, a lesbian, knows the rejection and judgment that comes with being in the marginalized LGBTQ community. She grew up in rural California when coming out was not only unacceptable but dangerous."
More California prison employees to wear body cameras through new oversight measures
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "California prisons are preparing to require more correctional officers to wear body cameras through an expansion of employee oversight programs funded in the state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed earlier this month.
The budget includes $90.6 million in funds aimed at installing fixed security and body-worn cameras at five state facilities — Kern Valley State Prison; California Institution for Women; California State Prison, Corcoran; Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran; and California State Prison, Los Angeles.
That funding is intended to bring the state into compliance with a court order in the case of Armstrong v. Newsom, where several disabled inmates at a San Diego County prison alleged that they were victims of brutality at the hands of corrections officers."
LAFD received complaints that a top official was drunk on duty. Some say it was covered up
LA Times, PAUL PRINGLE: "In May, as the Los Angeles Fire Department was battling the Palisades blaze, Chief Ralph Terrazas received a report that his top administrative commander appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs while on duty at the agency’s headquarters, where he was overseeing its operations center, The Times has learned.
LAFD rules require agency officials to deal promptly with employees suspected of being under the influence, but records and interviews show that the complaint about Chief Deputy Fred Mathis’ condition was not filed for three days, a delay the department has not explained.
The complaint says that Mathis admitted he had been drinking. Terrazas did not respond to a Times question asking whether Mathis was ordered to submit a urine sample for testing, as required under LAFD rules."
Cockroach infestations are growing in Placer, Sacramento. Expert tips on limiting the pests
Sac Bee, MOLLY SULLIVAN: "Have you noticed a growing number of cockroaches in your home, your garage or your yard lately? If so, you’re far from alone, pest control professionals say.
Cockroach infestations are becoming more common in the region, stretching from South Placer communities such as Lincoln and Granite Bay to Sacramento.
Stressed by the rising temperatures and drought conditions, cockroaches that typically live in the municipal sewer systems are making their way into homes, seeking moisture and cooler temperatures, said Rich Sartain, general manager of Rocklin Pest Control."
Overdose reversal drug Narcan has already been used more than 4,200 times in SF this year
The Chronicle, YOOHYUN JUNG: "The opioid-driven drug overdose crisis in San Francisco, which accelerated in 2020, continues to kill an average of more than 50 people nearly every month in the city.
From January to June, 344 people have died of accidental overdoses in San Francisco, 256 of which involved fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to the latest report from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Without the widespread distribution of the opioid reversal drug naloxone, more commonly known by its commercial name, Narcan, the crisis could be worse."