Former officials Nunez, Boxer and Villaraigosa lead exodus from powerful lobbying firm
LA Times, SEEMA MEHTA and MELANIE MASON: "Former prominent Democratic elected officials Fabian Nuñez, Barbara Boxer and Antonio Villaraigosa led the mass resignations from one of the state’s most powerful lobbying firms, Mercury Public Affairs.
The departures are largely prompted by financial disputes. Nuñez filed a lawsuit that alleges that Omnicom — Mercury’s parent company — failed to live up to an agreement that would allow the California group to grow its business around the world. The suit also faults Omnicom for its use of restrictive covenants — in effect noncompete clauses — that are illegal under California law even if signed. And Nuñez excoriates the company’s handling of a foreign nonprofit tied to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort that exposed Mercury to liability and public denouncement.
“I have no choice but to stand up for not only my business, but my reputation and my dignity,” Nuñez, a former state Assembly speaker, wrote in a resignation letter to Omnicom Chief Executive John Wren on Friday."
Wintry weather - and snow - are on the way to these parts of NorCal
Sacramento Bee, DOMINIC FRACASSA: "A cold front sweeping across Northern California was expected to send temperatures across the region plummeting while bringing what could be some of the first snowfall of the year in the higher reaches of the Sierra, meteorologists said.
Temperatures could drop by 10 degrees between Wednesday and Thursday as a cold air mass, expected to last through early next week, settles over the region.
The western edge of San Francisco could see high temperatures in the 50s Friday amid a persistent, high-elevation cloud cover that will make it hard for the sun to peek through."
Some Californians are seeing large unemployment balances. Why they won't get the money
Sacramento Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Thousands of people with unemployment" claims are seeing they have a claim balance of thousands of dollars — but if it involves federal claims, forget it. You won’t see any of that money.
That’s because federal unemployment benefits, funded by the federal government, ended nearly a month ago and no lawmakers in Washington are talking about reviving them.
“The issue of a ‘claim balance’ is all part of the general confusion people are facing as the federal unemployment benefits have expired,” said Loree Levy, spokesman for the state’s Employment Development Department."
Oil puts spotlight on the magic and fragility of California's coast
LA Times, JOE MOZINGO: "The hills glowed as the sun fell. The light glinted off the kelp beds, roused the shorebirds and turned the waves translucent green before they crashed and chased the sandpipers up the beach. It was an everyday scene here that felt strikingly removed from modern times.
Even as one of the uglier aspects of modern times encroached.
The miles-wide oil slick from the spill reported Saturday off Huntington Beach had already befouled beaches and estuaries just to the north. Now it was drifting off one of the most treasured stretches of the California coast – the coves of Laguna Beach."
Booster shots vs third doses of COVID vaccines: The difference
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "Bay Area health officials report they are encountering some confusion about the difference between a booster and a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Though both involve an additional shot, the rules and guidelines differ in several ways — depending on the vaccine brand, who the recipient is, and when the dose can be administered.
Here’s what you need to know."
Pfizer asksUS to allow COVID shots for children ages 5 to 11
AP: "Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 — and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.
Many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, today’s age cutoff for the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. Not only can youngsters sometimes get seriously ill, but keeping them in school can be a challenge with the coronavirus still raging in poorly vaccinated communities.
Pfizer announced in a tweet that it had formally filed its application with the Food and Drug Administration."
Accused murderer’s name stripped from California state park. Here’s the new one.
ISABELLA VANDERHEIDEN, Eureka Times-Standard: "In the first renaming of state-owned land in California, Patrick’s Point State Park is now Sue-meg State Park.
A unanimous vote Thursday by the California State Parks and Recreation Commission endorsed the name used by the indigenous Yurok Tribe.
Yurok Tribal Chairman Joe James called the commission’s decision “a turning point in the relationship between tribes and the state.”
Newsom signs bill aimed at encouraging more prescribed fires
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "The movement to expand prescribed fires in California received a boost Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law reducing the financial risks for burn bosses when fires escape control lines and require an emergency response.
Senate Bill 322 raises the legal standard to hold trained managers overseeing prescribed fires on the hook for firefighting costs only if they acted recklessly, allowing the fire to burn out of control.
Prescribed fires are increasingly seen as a crucial tool to fight the state’s wildfire crisis by clearing overgrowth to create healthier forests and add buffers between wildlands and communities. They are rooted in indigenous forest management traditions."
Biden wants new rules to keep workers safe in heat waves. California could be a model
Sacramento Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "June was the hottest it has ever been in the United States this year, with deadly heat waves and wildfires ravaging the West Coast.
As hotter temperatures stretched into the fall, the White House sounded the alarm on heat-induced workplace problems.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will draft a set of workplace standards this month on heat-illness prevention for indoor and outdoor workplaces, the Biden administration announced late last month."
Draconid meteor shower peaks this week -- here's how to see it in the Bay Areas
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "If you find time to look up at the sky on Friday evening, you might be surprised by what you see.
Unlike the many meteor showers that peak in the wee hours after midnight, a meteor shower called the Draconid is projected to peak from the early evening into nightfall this Friday, and may be active for a few nights before and after its apex.
According to NASA, the shower usually delivers no more than 20 meteors per hour at its peak, but in some instances has sparked far more. In fact, in 2011, European viewers saw 600 meteors in one hour, according to Earth Sky."
Big question for Newsom, lawmakeres: Who can opt out of school COVID vaccine mandate?
LA Times, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week that California would require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a critical caveat was tucked within the nation-leading announcement: Parents can opt their children out of inoculation based on personal beliefs.
Newsom did not define the criteria for obtaining those exemptions, leaving the task to state public health officials. Now, lawmakers are expressing concerns that allowing broad exemptions in the mandate will undermine the state’s effort to protect schools if too many families decide against vaccination.
Under California law, students are allowed to skip vaccines required for in-person attendance at K-12 schools after a doctor says it’s medically necessary to do so. Because the law only applies to previously approved immunizations, the state must offer broader personal belief exemptions for all newly mandated vaccines unless lawmakers and Newsom override that requirement."
New law makes it easier for community college students to transfer to 4-year universities
LA Times, COLLEEN SHALBY: "A number of new laws will significantly help community college students transfer into both Cal State and UC campuses, and boost financial aid and housing assistance as part of a $47.1-billion higher education package signed by Gov. Newsom on Wednesday at Cal State Northridge.
Two of the bills were designed to clarify and simplify degree requirements for transfer students. Assembly Bill 928 requires the California State and University of California systems to establish a general education transfer process for lower-division students that identifies and expands the specific required courses students need to gain acceptance.
The second, Assembly Bill 111, requires a common course numbering system across all community colleges — which was opposed by California Community Colleges Academic Senate — to ensure that a student doesn’t take excess units to transfer."
Parents upset, students plan strike as special education classes moved from Sacramento school
Sacramento Bee, SAWSAN MORRAR: "Some Sacramento-area students are planning a strike Thursday, protesting the decision to move some special needs classes at A.M. Winn Elementary School to other campuses.
A.M. Winn, a Waldorf inspired K-8 public school that serves nearly 400 students, is part of the Sacramento City Unified School District. The district’s decision to move some of the classes, which will affect a handful of students in first, second and third grades, was made to balance staffing with student enrollment.
But on Wednesday, more than 50 parents and students stood outside the school objecting to the decision, saying the district is splitting apart a school community. Some parents and children held signs that read, “Waldorf is for everyone,” and “We aren’t a school without special ed.”"
The Chronicle, LAUREN HERNANDEZ: "Plastic bags filled with rice and leaflets inscribed with a swastika and the phrase “Aryan Nation” were left on the doorsteps of more than 10 homes and on an elementary school playground in a Sacramento County suburb, authorities said.
Several residents living in the the Carmichael Colony Neighborhood in Carmichael on Tuesday called the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office communications center to report the bags, each located at homes in the area near California Avenue and Palm Avenue, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday. Bags were also found in the playground at Deterding Elementary School. Sheriff’s deputies were treating the case as an intimidation probe.
Authorities said deputies canvassed the neighborhood, interviewed people and obtained video footage as part of their investigation. Crime scene investigators collected evidence, sheriff’s officials said."
Riverside County sheriff was once a member of an extremist group with ties to Jan. 6 insurrection
LA Times, LA Times, LILA SEIDMAN: "Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco was a paying member in 2014 of the Oath Keepers, a far-right, anti-government group whose ranks participated in the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, prompting some local leaders to call for his resignation.
Bianco acknowledged his former membership — but did not denounce the group — after the information came to light through a data leak.
“Like many other law enforcement officers and veterans who were members, I learned the group did not offer me anything and so I did not continue membership,” Bianco said in a statement Wednesday."