California’s top utility regulator leaving as state wrestles with wildfires, power grid woes
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "Marybel Batjer, who steered the California Public Utilities Commission through a brief but tumultuous era of wildfires, bankruptcy and blackouts, announced her resignation Tuesday.
Batjer, in a letter to the commission’s staff, said she will end her tenure at the end of December, just two years after she was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Her term wasn’t due to expire until 2027.
A veteran of decades in state government, Batjer leaves as the state wrestles with instability in its electrical system and investigations into its largest utility, PG&E Corp., and the role it may have played in recent wildfires.
California's economy is recovering, but new report shows it's not there yet
Sacraemtno Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Waiting for a big bounce-back from COVID where jobs are plentiful and prices are stable? Be patient. The economy is recovering, but somewhat more gradually than anticipated, a new economic forecast released Wednesday says.
“In June, it was noted that the COVID-19 pandemic continued to cast a shadow over the California forecast. Three months later, the shadow persists,” says the latest economic forecast from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
The outlook is cautiously optimistic. As people become vaccinated and the state continues to reopen, “a clearer-though-still-uncertain picture emerges,” the report says."
Matt Haney to run for state Assembly. He'll push housing policies he didn't always agree with
The Chronicle, HEATHER KNIGHT: "Three years ago, Supervisor Matt Haney trounced Sonja Trauss, co-founder of the YIMBY movement to build more housing everywhere, to win his seat representing District Six at San Francisco’s City Hall.
In a debate, Haney questioned Trauss’ insistence that solving the city’s dire housing crisis meant forcing every neighborhood to take on more housing units. He said he’d focus on his district, which includes the Tenderloin and South of Market, not harangue others.
“I am not going to pick fights on the other side of the city,” he said. “I’m actually going to fight for all of you, the residents of District Six.”"
He got a nice pension when 'spiking' was legal. Supreme Court could decide if he keeps it
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "A Bay Area county retirement system has asked the state Supreme Court to review a pension lawsuit whose outcome could have implications for other local government retirees.
The case is focused on a 2015 decision by the Contra Costa County Employees’ Retirement Association to reduce the pension of former Moraga-Orinda Fire District Chief Peter Nowicki years after Nowicki retired."
California outlawed the all-white-male boardroom. That move is reshaping America
LA Times, EVAN HALPER: "When Dr. Maria Rivas joined the board of a medical tech firm called Medidata a few years ago, she was a novelty: The company had never had a woman in that role.
Medidata was no outlier. Rivas, chief medical officer at Merk, had impressive credentials when she breached the rarefied world of boardrooms in 2018, but much of corporate America wasn’t looking for candidates like her. “It is unfortunately comfortable for humans to go with people who look like they do,” Rivas said.
For hundreds of public companies, that meant filling boards exclusively from their networks of familiar faces — typically white men."
Children have some of the lowest vax rates in Sacramento. These groups are lower than others
Sac Bee, ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS/SAWSAN MORRAR: "Children who are American Indian and Alaska Native, Black or white are among the least vaccinated in Sacramento County, according to new data from the public health department.
Children between ages 12 and 19 in general have the lowest vaccination rate of any age group in Sacramento County, but only about one in three American Indian and Alaska Native and Black children are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Sept. 16.
Less than 37% of white children, and about 42% of Hispanic and Latino children, have received at least one dose. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander children and Asian children have the highest rates of at least partial vaccination, about 58% and 77%, respectively."
LA considers sweeping vaccine mandate for restaurants, gyms, malls and salons
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "Los Angeles leaders on Wednesday will consider a sweeping law requiring adult customers to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination to enter a wide array of public places, including indoor restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, shopping centers, museums, movie theaters and hair and nail salons.
The plan would be one of the strictest vaccine orders to date — and likely make demonstrating inoculation status part of the daily routine for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Angelenos.
The move comes as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have been falling after a summer surge caused by the highly contagious Delta variant. Officials have credited swift restrictions such as indoor mask rules with helping turn the tide, but officials said more vaccinations are needed to get Los Angeles County to herd immunity. Health experts hope vaccination mandates in public places not only will keep people safe but encourage those who are unvaccinated to get their shots."
What SF is saying about the future of the indoor mask mandate
The Chronicle, TRISHA THADANI: "San Francisco’s strict indoor mask mandate could ease in the near future, a top San Francisco health official said, though the nature of the changes and the timing are unclear.
While the indoor mask mandate currently remains in effect, Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said that discussions are ongoing to figure out “where there may be flexibility.”
“Right now we’re on a positive path downward in terms of cases and hospitalizations, and we’re looking at it,” he said when asked about whether the Department of Public Health is reconsidering its indoor mask mandate as the city comes down from the summer surge in coronavirus infections."
California vineyards can still make great wine despite limited water supply and droughts
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "While climate change and drought loom as existential threats to California agriculture, there’s one farming sector that may come out ahead: wine grapes.
Many California winegrowers have had to cut back on irrigation this year, but using less water for a limited period doesn’t necessarily hurt quality. In fact, some of the best recent vintages were from 2012 to 2014, during the last drought, and many vintners are saying grape quality is looking excellent so far during the current harvest, despite the record-breaking drought this year and last.
Two new studies from UC Davis bolster the long-held view that water-deprived vines can produce high-quality wine grapes, when managed carefully."
As deadlines approach, thousands of LA school employees, students remain unvaccinated
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "High-stakes COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadlines are fast approaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District and employees who refuse the inoculations face losing their jobs while unvaccinated students would ultimately be forced off campus into an online program.
While the vast majority of students and teachers are expected to comply — and possibly even feel reassured by the mandate — large numbers in the nation’s second-largest school district have so far resisted the requirement. Currently, about 1 in 5 district employees, about 12,000 workers, have not begun their immunization, according to information provided at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting. A loss of that magnitude would add more disruption to school operations, especially as the district is struggling to fill more than 2,000 vacancies.
All school-district employees must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15, unless they have an approved religious or medical exemption. A deadline also looms for students: By Oct. 3, students 12 and older must receive their first of a two-dose regimen if they wish to take part in any school-affiliated extracurricular activity, including all sports as well as clubs, dance teams, band, drama or anything else outside of academic work."
23 new species are now extinct, US says
AP, MATTHEW BROWN: "Death’s come knocking a last time for the splendid ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 more birds, fish and other species: The U.S. government is declaring them extinct.
It’s a rare move for wildlife officials to give up hope on a plant or animal, but government scientists say they’ve exhausted efforts to find these 23. And they warn that climate change, on top of other pressures, could make such disappearances more common as a warming planet adds to the dangers facing imperiled plants and wildlife.
The ivory-billed woodpecker is perhaps the best-known of the species whose extinction the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce Wednesday. It went out stubbornly and with fanfare, making unconfirmed appearances in recent decades that ignited a frenzy of ultimately fruitless searches in the swamps of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida."