Kaiser Permanente Reaches Tentative Deal With Unions, Averting Strike
NOAM SCHEIBER, NY Times: "Kaiser Permanente, the health care provider and hospital network, reached a tentative agreement on Saturday with a coalition of unions representing workers in California, Oregon and other states that will avert a strike of more than 30,000 workers scheduled to begin on Monday.
The four-year agreement would provide workers with wage increases and address concerns about adequate staffing. It also abandons a proposal by Kaiser to pay new workers significantly less than current workers, which many had cited as a source of frustration that led to the planned strike.
Hal Ruddick, the executive director of the labor coalition representing Kaiser employees, the Alliance of Health Care Unions, said in a statement, “This contract protects our patients, provides safe staffing, and guarantees fair wages and benefits for every Alliance member.”
COVID-19 surge fueled by unvaxxed children in UK, a warning for California
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "Unvaccinated adolescents have been the driving force behind a stubbornly persistent Delta surge in Britain, a potential warning sign for California if inoculation rates don’t improve considerably among this age group, health experts warn.
Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist and infectious-disease expert, said unvaccinated 10- to 14-year-olds are driving the pandemic in the United Kingdom, with case rates among these ages significantly higher than any other group.
Rutherford was citing data from a New York Times analysis, which said that in mid-October, school-age children in England were 15 times as likely to be infected with the coronavirus as 80-year-olds. The analysis noted that England ended mandatory mask-wearing in mid-July, and officials did not recommend vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds until mid-September, four months after they were available for those ages in the U.S."
Longest partial lunar eclipse of the century is coming this week
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "The longest partial lunar eclipse of the century will get underway late Thursday for the Bay Area and will stick around well into the wee hours of Friday morning.
The near-total eclipse, in which the full moon will fit almost fully into the Earth’s shadow and create a dramatic visual effect, is expected to arrive at 11:19 p.m. PST and will last for 3 hours, 28 minutes and 23 seconds, making it the longest lunar eclipse of the century, according to statistics compiled by NASA. The longest total eclipse this century occurred on July 27, 2018, and lasted 1 hour, 42 minutes and 57 seconds.
It’s also the longest partial lunar eclipse in nearly six centuries, according to NASA’s data. The last time a longer partial lunar eclipse occurred was Feb. 18, 1440, at 3 hours, 28 minutes and 46 seconds — and the next one won’t be until Feb. 8, 2669, predicted to be 3 hours, 30 minutes and 2 seconds."
36 of the most expensive ZIP codes are in the Bay Area -- but only 4 of them are in SF
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "The Bay Area has long had a reputation for being notoriously expensive, especially when it comes to the housing market. A new report from real estate data provider PropertyShark shows that the Bay Area continues to live up to that exclusive status.
According to its 2021 list of the top 100 most expensive ZIP codes in the country, 72% were concentrated in California, with 36 ZIP codes in the Bay Area’s nine counties appearing on the list. PropertyShark list included 127 ZIP codes, but for our analysis we cut the list down to just the first 100 zip codes.
The majority of the Bay Area ZIP codes are on the Peninsula and in the South Bay, with 13 ZIP codes in Santa Clara County and nine in San Mateo County. For the fifth year in a row, Atherton in San Mateo County topped the list with a staggering median home sale price of $7.5 million. Last year, Atherton’s median home sale price was $7 million."
How will California spend $13.6 billion in federal Covid relief?
JOHN FENSTERWALD, EdSource: "An intensive focus on reading skills. Tutoring. More mental health services. Cleaner indoor air. More teaching aides for English learners. Summer activities for more students.
These are some common themes in the plans that California school districts and charter schools have adopted for spending a huge amount from the latest round of federal Covid aid: $13.6 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act that Congress passed in March.
Districts have nearly three years, until Sept. 30, 2024, to spend the money, which is more time than what’s allowed for many one-time grants. School boards had until Oct. 29 to approve their spending plans, after consulting with the public for suggestions. With the final sign-off earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Education, they are entitled to all of the funding."
Coronavirus cases are spiking in Europe. What does that mean for California?
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "As the winter holidays approach, COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing in Europe — an unwelcome reminder even thousands of miles away here in California that the pandemic is nowhere near an end point yet, and that more hard times may lie ahead.
Last week, 2 million cases were reported in the continent — the highest number of cases in a single week in the region since the pandemic started, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said in a news briefing on Friday. Deaths also rose by 10% across the region.
72 hate groups operated in California last year. Here's where and what they are
Sac Bee, MILA JASPER: "In California last year, 72 hate groups and 51 extreme anti-government groups operated in the state, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which compiles lists of such groups annually. SPLC tracked 838 hate groups and 566 anti-government groups across the U.S. in 2020.
Hate groups are collectives that denigrate other groups of people for personal characteristics they cannot change such as race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation, according to SPLC."
Read indictment of California men charged in bombing plot of Democratic Party building
Sac Bee, RYAN SABALOW/JASON POHL: "This summer, a San Francisco grand jury indicted two Northern California men, Ian Benjamin Rogers of Napa and Jarrod Copeland of Vallejo, on charges of plotting to blow up the Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento.
The FBI alleges that the men, one of whom was a member of the “Three Percenters” militia group, wanted to punish Democrats on the basis of bogus claims that President Donald Trump “actually won the presidential election” and that citizens “should ‘go to war’ to ensure he remained in power.”
Rogers and Copeland remain in custody. A status conference in their case is scheduled for Dec. 14."
Recovered from COVID-19, Mayor Garcetti scheduled to return to LA on Tuesday
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, recovered from a bout of COVID-19, landed Sunday in Washington, D.C., where he plans to join President Biden at a signing ceremony for the administration’s infrastructure bill before returning to Los Angeles on Tuesday, a mayoral spokesman said.
Garcetti, who is fully vaccinated, had been in Glasgow, Scotland, attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, when he tested positive for a breakthrough infection. Garcetti had a fever and symptoms of a head cold and isolated in a Glasgow hotel room, he told his staff.
Biden plans to be joined Monday by governors, mayors, and labor union and business leaders for the bill-signing ceremony, according to his office."
COVID appears here to stay. But what about the 'long' version of the disease?
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "Among the coronavirus pandemic’s most frightening features is that a brush with COVID-19, however mild, pushes survivors into a dangerous lottery: They recover within weeks or stay ill, perhaps for a very long time.
Unpredictable to doctors and confounding to researchers, “long COVID” syndrome can saddle patients with deep fatigue, scramble their thinking and rob them of breath or the sense of smell. Those are just the most common long-term complaints. The National Institutes of Health calls the syndrome a public health priority and is pouring millions of research dollars into learning more about this medical mystery.
Vaccines have brought hope because few fully vaccinated people get COVID in the first place. (A new study of more than 4 million vaccinated people in Washington state showed fewer than 1% infected with the coronavirus.)"
SoCal sees another day of record temps as cooling nears
LA Times, ANDREW J CAMPA: "Four Los Angeles County cities had record high temperatures Sunday, but cooler days are expected beginning Monday.
Woodlands Hills topped out at 96 degrees, breaking the previous record of 93 set in 2016. Burbank and Lancaster hit highs of 93 and 83, respectively, and the mercury leaped to 79 in the small hilly hamlet of Sandberg in the Antelope Valley, another record.
Sunday’s four records followed three new county highs and soaring temperatures on Saturday. Burbank, Lancaster, Long Beach, Palmdale and the UCLA campus also established daily records on a blistering Friday."
In gun debate, Rittenhouse verdict unlikely to be last word
AP, SARA BURNETT: "Kyle Rittenhouse walked the streets of Kenosha, Wis., a rifle slung around his chest and shoulder.
The weapon was supposed to be for hunting on a friend’s property up north, the friend says. But on that night in August 2020, Rittenhouse says, he took the Smith & Wesson AR-style semiautomatic with him as he volunteered to protect property damaged during protests the previous evening. Before midnight, he used it to shoot three people, killing two.
After a roughly two-week trial, a jury will soon deliberate whether Rittenhouse is guilty of charges, including murder, that could send him to prison for life. Was the then-17-year-old forced to act in self-defense while trying to deter crime, as he and his defense attorneys say? Or did Rittenhouse — the only person in a well-armed crowd to shoot anyone — provoke people with his weapon, instigating the bloodshed, as prosecutors argue?"
Two new California Democrats on how they're courting rural voters: By listening to them
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Max Steiner didn’t need to see Terry McAuliffe whacked in the Virginia governor’s race to learn that Democrats have problems connecting with rural voters. He’s living the dream every day as a Democrat running in California’s most rural — and conservative — House district.
How conservative is California’s District One? Represented by cowboy-boot-wearing Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa since 2013, it’s a massive swath that includes 11 thinly populated counties in the northeastern part of the state where 8 in 10 voters are white and 22% graduated from college.
Last year, Donald Trump won 56% of the vote there. Last month, on the day that thousands of students in the district walked out to protest vaccine mandates, LaMalfa, whose four children are homeschooled, told an anti-vax rally in Redding that “no vax is going to be forced on my kid.”"