Newsom and guards challenge vaccine mandates at prisons, warning of staff departures
RICHARD WINTON, LA Times: "With COVID-19 vaccine mandates growing across California, opponents in law enforcement are warning that their ranks would rather quit or retire than get their shots.
And the state’s prison guards and staff have an unusual ally: Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has otherwise been a champion of vaccines.
Newsom has joined the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in appealing a vaccination order for all prison employees. They are asking that a September ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar be paused pending appeals, saying that if it is implemented, numerous correctional officers will leave their jobs rather than submit to a COVID-19 vaccine."
New records reveal depth of probe into California Office of AIDS fraud
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "As investigators began to realize there were financial irregularities inside the California Office of AIDS in 2018, they confronted worker Schenelle Flores Nov. 7 of that year and told her she was no longer in charge of the office’s HIV Prevention Branch’s fiscal operations.
Flores response: She called in sick the next day and every day after that until her resignation on Nov. 20, 2018, citing “medical and personal reasons.”
“I am left now unable to continue working in my position as the Health Program Manager in the Office of AIDS at the California Department of Health,” Flores wrote in a 5:45 p.m. email to her boss. “Unfortunately I now need to face facts and pay more attention to my health and I am unable to do this while I am still working.”"
California taxpayers could see big breaks for state and local deductions soon. Here's why
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHtMAN: "Middle- and upper-income Californians stand to save lots of money on their federal income tax next year under new congressional plans allowing them to deduct more state and local taxes.
A new plan in the House of Representatives would allow much higher deductions, reportedly up to $72,000., though last-minute negotiations could change that figure. The current deduction limit is $10,000, a cap imposed in the Republican-written tax cut of 2017.
The proposal is part of the House version of the Biden administration’s $1.75 trillion spending bill. It would permit the deduction to be in effect this year. That means people could subtract their state and local taxes on the return they file next year. It would also extend the break through 2031."
Pomona defunded school police. But after a shooting, campus officers are coming back
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "Just four months ago, community activists celebrated a milestone decision in the Pomona Unified School District: The Board of Education defunded school police, removed officers from high schools, and brought in proctors trained to de-escalate tensions. But prompted in part by a recent shooting near a campus, the board has reversed course and brought back police, saying that student safety is paramount.
The unanimous vote during the Oct. 27 school board meeting came after a shooting near Pomona High School left a 12-year-old injured by broken glass and debris. The pressure from activists that led the board to eliminate funding for police and reimagine school safety in June gave way to new pressures from those who believe that the Pomona Police Department plays a crucial role in keeping schools safe.
“An incident such as this drives us, as leaders, to examine our practices and our protocols in caring for students and staff in regards to mental health, conflict mediation, emergency procedures, communication facilities and safety,” Supt. Richard Martinez said during an Oct. 20 meeting after the shooting."
We obtained never-before-seen data on how Boudin is prosecuting cases. Here's what it shows
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "When Chesa Boudin ran for San Francisco District Attorney in 2019, he promised to approach crime differently than his predecessors, in part by no longer prosecuting lower-level offenses like recreational drug use. He also pledged to take more rape cases to trial, even if that meant he would lose those cases more frequently.
Less than two years after taking office, Boudin faces a likely recall election after critics of his administration garnered more than 83,000 signatures from residents who believe he has made the city less safe. To explore that claim, the Chronicle conducted a comprehensive review of how often his office decides to prosecute arrested individuals and how often it secures convictions in selected types of crime.
Boudin’s overall charging rate is 48%, slightly lower than predecessor George Gascón’s 54% in his last two years and on par with Gascón’s charging rates in 2016 and 2017. But overall charging rates can be misleading because the types of cases the D.A. receives from police can change significantly from year to year, especially during abnormal periods such as the current global pandemic."
California counties that backed Trump suffer much higher COVID death rates than others
Sac Bee, PHILLIP REESE: "Residents of California counties where most voters supported Donald J. Trump in 2020 are dying from COVID-19 at much higher rates than residents of counties where most voters did not, new state data show.
Trump beat Biden by at least 15 percentage points in 16 California counties. About 51 of every 100,000 residents in those counties died from COVID-19 from July through October, according to the latest figures from the California Department of Public Health. By comparison, about 16 of every 100,000 residents in the 23 California counties that backed Biden by a similar margin died from COVID-19 during those same months.
Eight of the 10 California counties with the highest COVID-19 death rates in California from July through October backed Trump over Biden, most of them by a wide margin."
Study shows dramatic decline in effectiveness of all three COVID-19 vaccines over time
MELISSA HEALY, LA Times: "As the Delta variant became the dominant strain of coronavirus across the United States, all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans lost some of their protective power, with vaccine efficacy among a large group of veterans dropping between 35% and 85%, according to a new study.
Researchers who scoured the records of nearly 800,000 U.S. veterans found that in early March, just as the Delta variant was gaining a toehold across American communities, the three vaccines were roughly equal in their ability to prevent infections.
But over the next six months, that changed dramatically."
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "The kelp forest off the Sonoma-Mendocino coast, a vital habitat for marine life that historically bobbed across 9,000 acres of seashore, roughly doubled between 2020 and 2021, recent satellite and drone surveys show.
It’s a welcome sign after the bull kelp canopy all but disappeared from the North Coast between 2014 and 2020 because of several environmental conditions converging at once, including warming ocean temperatures. The abrupt collapse, which turned shorelines teeming with life into blank seascapes, is one of the region’s most striking examples of the impact of climate change. While the bull kelp canopy still isn’t back to pre-2014 levels, the new growth gives hope for its potential to recover.
“Anecdotally, it seems completely possible that many sites this year have twice the amount of kelp compared to last year,” said Vienna Saccomanno, an ocean scientist who does drone surveys of the kelp forest for the environmental group the Nature Conservancy. They haven’t yet been fully analyzed, but she is cautiously optimistic. “It is important that to note that doubling something when there’s not a lot of it to begin with does not mean that we can call it recovered."
Utilities commission approves gas storage plan at Aliso Canyon over residents’ objections
GREGORY YEE, LA Times: "The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of a controversial plan to increase the amount of natural gas that can be stored at the troubled Aliso Canyon facility.
The plan allows for up to 41.16 billion cubic feet of natural gas to be stored at the facility, where a catastrophic 2015 blowout became the largest methane leak in U.S. history.
That amounts to about 60% of capacity — a compromise between the ultimate goal of decommissioning the site entirely and utilizing all 68.6 billion cubic feet of available storage, said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, who proposed the measure."
Employers are gathering data on your work habits. California labor advocates want to change this
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "Most people are used to whipping out their smartphones to track their latest online orders with airstrike-like accuracy. But the technology on some delivery vehicles also closely monitors the drivers, tracking everything from whether they are wearing seatbelts, to engine idle time and even whether they are taking too many time-consuming left turns.
That data can be fed into algorithms to determine the safest, most fuel-efficient routes and speediest delivery times. It can also be used to track a particular driver’s behavior and inform performance warnings, said Doug Bloch, the political director of Teamsters Joint Council 7, which represents many UPS drivers with those kinds of onboard systems in California. (A UPS Spokesperson said the company uses technology to track packages and driver behavior for safety, but not for disciplinary purposes.)
That is because despite the passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act that took effect last year, how data is collected and used about people in workplace settings and most industries is still largely unregulated — even when it comes to remote workers logging in from home."
Why are more immigrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border? Labor shortage may be key
Sac Bee, KIM BOJORQUEZ: "California’s labor shortage, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is the main driver of why federal agents are encountering more unauthorized immigrants attempting to illegally cross the border from Mexico to California, according to Kevin R. Johnson, dean of the UC Davis School of Law.
Johnson, an immigration expert, attributes the influx of immigrants attempting to cross the border to the labor shortage in the U.S., particularly in the low-skill job market.
“There are jobs to be had and I don’t know if in my lifetime I’ve seen this many signs in store shop windows about hiring opportunities and employers claiming that they can’t get enough workers,” he said. “You got to think that’s going to have an impact on people making the decision whether to cross or not.”
The pandemic deepend inequities for Bay Area students. How can schools respond?
The Chronicle, RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "For Nawf Abuelgasim, an eighth grader at AIMS College Prep Middle School in Oakland, the best thing about her year in online learning exile may have been the dress code.
Like plenty of remote-working adults, the 13-year-old spent countless weekday hours glued to her computer screen in a socially acceptable top and oh-who-cares pajama bottoms. The rest of seventh grade was pretty much a soul-sucking wash of technical difficulties, hands-off learning, withering friendships, and the kind of turf battles that occur when you, your little brother and your parents all work out of the same two-bedroom apartment.
“It was mentally challenging,” Nawf said. “I guess we just adjusted.”"