Another In-N-Out closes over COVID vaccine mandate, California health officials say
VANDANA RAVIKUMAR, SacBee: "Another In-N-Out restaurant in California has been temporarily closed by health officials who say the business is “creating a public health hazard” by violating local vaccine mandates.
Contra Costa Environmental Health suspended the Pleasant Hill In-N-Out location’s food permit and temporarily shut down the restaurant Tuesday because employees were not checking customers’ vaccination status, according to KRON 4.
Health officials said that location had already been fined four times in the last few weeks for violating the health order, amassing $1,750 in fines, KRON 4 reported.
READ MORE on In-N-Out: A second Northern California In-N-Out is forced to close for violating COVID-19 rules -- GREGORY YEE, LA Times; Contra Costa County shuts down an In-N-Out for violating vaccine mandate -- JANELLE BITKER, Chronicle
Judge orders Devin Nunes’ family to disclose who’s paying for Iowa defamation lawsuit
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: "A federal judge this week ordered Rep. Devin Nunes’ family members to disclose how they are paying for their defamation lawsuit against a reporter and magazine publisher over a 2018 story about their Iowa farm.
The judge will review the records detailing who is paying for the litigation behind closed doors before deciding whether to share them with lawyers for the reporter and publisher, meaning that there is a possibility that no one else — including those lawyers and their clients — will get to see the information.
Judge Mark Roberts of Iowa’s Northern District Court wants to know whether the congressman is involved in the family’s case, he wrote in his ruling.
Fire season still a threat to Southern California despite rains
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "Record rainfall this week could mean the end of fire season for much of Northern California, experts said, but conditions in the Southland remain more tenuous, and the coming weeks could still bring fire danger.
Southern California saw much less rain than the Bay Area and Sierras, and this region’s prime fire months often come later, with huge blazes of the past burning into November and December.
Many of the factors that drive fire spread, such as drought-dried vegetation, strong winds and high temperatures, remain a possibility in Southern California — including the potential for a strong Santa Ana wind event like the one that fueled the massive, late-in-the-season Thomas fire of December 2017."
Crews union reaches deal on film and TV contract for workers outside L.A. and New York
ANAOUSHA SAKOUI, LA Times: "The union representing film and TV crews has reached an agreement with the major studios on a new contract covering 20,000 workers outside of Los Angeles and New York City.
The tentative so-called “area standard” agreement was agreed to on Sunday, according to a statement from the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
The proposed agreement, which needs to be ratified by members, covers workers in crafts represented by 23 locals nationwide. It is modeled on a similar pact between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on behalf of 40,000 members of 13 West Coast-based IATSE locals."
S.F. District Attorney Boudin 'so grateful' his dad won parole after 40 years in prison
SAM WHITING, Chronicle: "San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin expressed deep gratification Tuesday at the news that his father, David Gilbert, was granted parole after serving four decades in a New York state prison for his part in a fatal Brink’s robbery in 1981 when he was a member of the radical Weather Underground.
“I am so grateful to the Parole Board and to everyone who has supported my father during his more than 40 years in prison,” said Boudin in a statement after getting the news at his San Francisco home. “I’m thinking about the other children affected by this crime and want to make sure that nothing I do or say further upsets the victims’ families. Their loved ones will never be forgotten. And I am thinking of the other people inside who have worked so hard to transform their lives and hope one day to return home.”
Gilbert, 76, was granted parole two months after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo commuted his sentence of 75 years to life for his conviction on felony murder and robbery charges, the state corrections department confirmed Tuesday. He is serving his sentence at Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Ulster County, N.Y., and will be able to leave the facility next month, the Associated Press reported."
Assaults on police in L.A., U.S. up in 2020 amid civil unrest
RICHARD WINTON and KEVIN RECTOR, LA Times: "During a year of global civil unrest, assaults on law enforcement officers increased nationwide, and Los Angeles reported the most attacks on police officers in the line of duty in the past decade, according to federal and state data.
FBI numbers released this month show there were 60,105 U.S. officers assaulted in 2020, with about 31% reporting some kind of injuries — a 7.2% increase from 2019. And more than half that increase came from confrontations with protesters.
In Los Angeles, state justice department records show LAPD officers were assaulted 1,172 times, up from 864 attacks the year before. Of those 2020 incidents, nearly 58% were inflicted by a person, about 31% with a dangerous object and nearly 9% with a firearm, state justice records show. Only a handful of LAPD officers had documented injuries, state data show."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: LA politics update with Fernando Guerra
Capitol Weekly Staff: "With the Recall in the rearview mirror, California political junkies can now fixate on the next big election in the state: the race to replace Eric Garcetti as the mayor of Los Angeles.
The contest has already drawn big names like Congresswoman Karen Bass and LA City Councilmember Kevin de Leon; Mark Ridley-Thomas had been rumored to be considering a run, but legal issues have put an end to that speculation.
Our guest this episode is Professor Fernando Guerra, who teaches political science at Loyola Marymount University and founded the Center for the Study of Los Angeles in 1996.
Sheriff Villanueva must testify to his ‘first-hand’ knowledge of Kobe Bryant crash photo-sharing
ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN, LA Times: "A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva to testify under oath in a lawsuit brought by Vanessa Bryant alleging that deputies shared gruesome photos of the crash scene where her husband, daughter and seven others died.
Lawyers for L.A. County sought to block Villanueva’s testimony, arguing that he doesn’t have any relevant information that Bryant’s attorneys can’t obtain elsewhere. Heads of government agencies are not typically subjected to depositions because of the potential for abuse and harassment that could get in the way of them performing their duties.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick knocked down the county’s argument, saying Villanueva, along with L.A. County Fire Chief Daryl Osby, both appear to have “unique first-hand, non-repetitive knowledge” relevant to the case. The judge limited each deposition to four hours."
So you want to run for re-election? Here’s a short primer
CHUCK MCFADDEN, Capitol Weekly: "You are an incumbent officeholder. You’d like to keep on being an incumbent officeholder.
That means a re-election campaign – you know, where you kowtow to special interests, rail against fraud and waste and, above all, avoid being called “one of those Sacramento politicians” — even if you are one of those Sacramento politicians.
The first step, of course, is the speech declaring that you are indeed running for another term."
A California Law School Reckons With the Shame of Native Massacres
THOMAS FULLER, NY Times: "They said they were chasing down horse and cattle thieves, an armed pursuit through fertile valleys and evergreen forests north of San Francisco. But under questioning in 1860 a cattle rancher let slip a more gruesome picture, one of indiscriminate killings of Yuki Indians.
A 10-year-old girl killed for “stubbornness.” Infants “put out of their misery.”
Documented in letters and depositions held in California’s state archives, the Gold Rush-era massacres are today at the heart of a dispute at one of the country’s most prominent law schools whose graduates include generations of California politicians and lawyers like Vice President Kamala Harris."