California halts insurance cancellations in major wildfire areas across 22 counties
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "Wrestling with an insurance crisis that’s bedeviled much of rural California for years, the state imposed a one-year ban Monday that prevents carriers from dropping homeowners in areas affected by the Dixie Fire, Caldor Fire and other major 2021 wildfires.
The one-year moratorium, announced by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, affects about 325,000 homeowners. It came a month after Lara imposed a similar moratorium affecting 25,000 homeowners who live in the vicinity of the Lava and Beckwourth Complex fires.
The latest moratorium covers parts of 22 counties across Northern California and affects homeowners who live near the burn zones of the Dixie and Caldor fires — the two most destructive fires of the year — as well as the River, Tamarack, Antelope, McFarland, Monument, Fly and Cache fires."
Remembering Scott Lay, 1972-2021
ANTHONY YORK, Capitol Weekly: "In the months after California voters removed Gray Davis from office, I would roll out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and log on to find a document waiting for me. It was from Scott Lay. The document was the rough draft of that morning’s edition of The Roundup, a daily email digest of California political news and information that went to nearly 10,000 subscribers.
Scott, who died earlier this month at his Sacramento home at the age of 48, was a tireless advocate for community colleges and fought tirelessly to make higher education affordable and accessible for all who wanted it.
But while he spent much of his professional career as an advocate and CEO of the Community College League of California, it will be for his hobbies as a digital tinkerer and lover of California politics and policy that thousands in the California Capitol Community will most remember him. (He also served as vice president of the board of the nonprofit Open California, the publisher of Capitol Weekly.)"
Newsom won the recall election with liberals' help. What do they want from him now?
Sacramento Bee, HANNAH WILEY: "Hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom crushed the effort to oust him from office, he said it was time to “get back to work.”
California’s left-leaning advocacy organizations are ready with a list of ideas. They want Newsom to refocus on health care, police accountability and climate change.
They waited to press the governor harder until the election was over, and now they say it’s time to regroup. Their organizations helped deliver him a victory, after all."
Capitol Weekly Interview: Susan Talamantes Eggman
SIGRID BATHEN, Capitol Weekly: "Susan Talamantes Eggman was raised in Turlock, where her family owned a small almond orchard and apiary (bee-keeping), and her first job that wasn’t on the family farm started her on a path to working in health care and mental health throughout her life.
Toward the end of her senior year at Turlock High School, in 1979, she got a job at a psychiatric facility, Crestwood Manor, where her title was “milieu manager,” a fancy way of saying she tried to keep the severely mentally ill patients safe, mediate disputes, help them with daily tasks and medication.
“There were fights, and falls, and people could still smoke,” she recalled in an Aug. 26 interview with Capitol Weekly. “We would go outside, and I was the lighter of people’s cigarettes.” And she remembers “very clearly, the first time I was laid out in the hallway during [dispensing of] meds.”
National demand makes monoclonal antibodies hard to get in California
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "Health officials in California are warning of shortages and distribution problems for a medical treatment that can keep COVID-19 patients from falling critically ill.
Monoclonal antibodies have been developed as a treatment for COVID-19. They are thought to be a way to counteract the coronavirus before it can begin destroying the body’s organs, said Dr. Rais Vohra, the interim Fresno County health officer. The antibodies can be used to treat mild or moderate COVID-19 in patients who are not hospitalized.
Recently, the nation has seen a twentyfold increase in demand for monoclonal antibodies; as a result, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is reserving the treatment for areas hit hardest by the pandemic, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, a deputy health officer for Orange County."
Marc Levine to challenge Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara in 2022
ALEXEI KOSEFF, Chronicle: "Marc Levine, a five-term Assembly member from Marin County, will run for state insurance commissioner next year, challenging incumbent Ricardo Lara, a fellow Democrat whom Levine says has not taken bold enough steps to stabilize a home insurance marketplace increasingly strained by California’s worsening wildfires.
The elected insurance commissioner, a position created by California voters in 1988, oversees the state Department of Insurance, which licenses and regulates the industry.
“This can’t be a backwater job at a time when this is the one position that has the ability to affect the most Californians,” Levine, of San Rafael, said in an interview Monday. “We’ve got so much work to do right now that’s not getting done because the current insurance commissioner has conflicted himself out of a job.”
Haven't gotten your $600 stimulus check? Here's where Californians may get them
Sacramento Bee, JEONG PARK: "Millions more Californians will get $600 to $1,100 payments from the state in the next couple weeks.
Through its Golden State Stimulus, the state has already sent more than $1.8 billion to eligible taxpayers in the last few weeks, according to the Franchise Tax Board. The last batch of payments to some 2 million Californians was sent last week on Sept. 17.
Another batch of payments will be sent on Oct. 5. By then, the state will also begin sending out paper checks for those who had chosen to receive their tax refunds that way, according to the Franchise Tax Board."
What can workers expect from Biden's COVID vaccine mandate? Here's what we know
Sacramento Bee, JEONG PARK: "More COVID vaccine mandates are on the way for California.
President Joe Biden last week rolled out his plan to get more Americans vaccinated by requiring federal workers and their contractors to get the shots. Health care workers in facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are also required to be fully vaccinated.
Most significantly, Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, known as OSHA, to create a rule requiring employers with 100 or more employees to mandate their workers be fully vaccinated or get tested at least once a week."
One Bay Area county is approaching 100% of eligible residents with one COVID vaccine dose
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Marin County has marked a new pandemic-fighting milestone, with more than 90% of its eligible population now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to county data, 90.7% of residents 12 and older were fully vaccinated as of Monday. A whopping 97.3% of Marin’s eligible population has received at least one vaccine dose.
Among its total population, Marin’s rate of completed vaccinations is 78%, with 84% partially vaccinated. Marin has the highest overall vaccination rate of all counties in California and is among the top 10 most highly vaccinated counties in the U.S."
SHRA grant program wants to improve diversity among Sacramento homebuyers. Why it's not working
Sacramento Bee, ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "In March, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency launched a new program designed to help more low-income families and people of color buy their first home.
Called the Community Homeownership Initiative, SHRA would shepherd families through the homebuying process, partnering with local real estate agents and banks. After finding a home, participants could receive up to $22,000 in grants to cover closing and down payment costs from the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco as part of its longstanding WISH program.
Six months later, the program has had little success in actually helping Sacramento families buy a home. As of August, of the 17 families in Sacramento who have been pre-approved to receive WISH grants, none have received them."
Oakland pledges to house 1,500 homeless reesidents in 16 months as part of federal push
The Chronicle,SARAH RAVANI: "Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf pledged Monday to house 1,500 homeless residents and build 132 new units of permanent affordable housing in 16 months.
Schaaf’s announcement comes as part of the federal initiative called House America, which aims to house at least 100,000 households and to add at least 20,000 new units of affordable housing by Sept. 30, 2022. Oakland will receive about $11.3 million in federal funds as part of the House America program. This is in addition to the nearly $2.6 million the city gets from the federal government every year.
Oakland is one of the first cities to participate in the launch of the initiative. San Francisco, Sacramento and Gov. Gavin Newsom have also pledged to participate in the program."
Biden to urge action on climate change and the pandemic at U.N. today
CHRIS MEGERIAN, LA Times: "President Biden will try to reassure allies that the United States will not turn its back on global commitments during his first speech at the United Nations on Tuesday as he pushes for more cooperation on combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
His remarks come as he’s trying to strengthen alliances as a vanguard against China’s global ambitions, but also as missteps have weakened some of Washington’s key relationships. Biden has faced criticism over his administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war, and he upset France by pursuing a separate defense agreement with Australia and Britain.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the spats don’t mean that Biden isn’t committed to stronger ties after his predecessor, President Trump, spent four years frustrating U.S. allies with his “America first” approach to foreign policy."