Kamala Harris’ struggles create a bind for Democrats
NOAH BIERMAN and MELANIE MASON, LA Times: "When Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate last year, some Democrats said they believed he was naming an eventual successor who could replace him as soon as 2024 and give better representation to the party’s core constituencies: women and people of color.
Ten months into the new administration, the perception that Biden was anointing Harris has become a source of tension among Democrats, as growing worries over Harris’ political stature collide with concerns that any move to sideline her would alienate the voters needed to win elections and undercut the party’s own promise of equity.
Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, and Harris are slipping in public opinion polls, and the vice president is facing a new wave of tough media coverage about public gaffes and internal dysfunction in her office, pushing the question into sharper focus."
House Narrowly Passes Biden’s Social Safety Net and Climate Bill
EMILY COCHRANE and JONATHAN WEISMAN, NY Times: "The House on Friday narrowly passed the centerpiece of President Biden’s domestic agenda, approving $2 trillion in spending over the next decade to battle climate change, expand health care and reweave the nation’s social safety net, over the unanimous opposition of Republicans.
The bill’s passage, 220 to 213, came after weeks of cajoling, arm-twisting and legislative legerdemain by Democrats. It was capped off by an exhausting, circuitous and record-breaking speech of more than eight hours by the House Republican leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, that pushed a planned Thursday vote past midnight, then delayed it to Friday morning — but did nothing to dent Democratic unity.
Groggy lawmakers reassembled at 8 a.m., three hours after Mr. McCarthy finally abandoned the floor, to begin the final series of votes to send one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in half a century to the Senate."
California won’t mandate COVID vaccines for private sector workers just yet. Here’s why
JEONG PARK, SacBee: "A Cal-OSHA board is holding off on requiring workers in large California companies get vaccinated or regularly tested for the coronavirus, citing the court’s recent ruling temporarily blocking a similar proposed federal mandate.
The board had planned to adopt the requirement at its meeting Thursday. Because California has its own occupational safety and health department, it could have had its own mandate regardless of the court’s ruling, as long as it was as strict as or stricter than the federal regulation.
However, the board decided to wait to see how the legal battle over the proposed federal mandate plays out. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Nov. 12 stayed the federal mandate, with some experts predicting it will ultimately be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The drought is going to stick around for a third year in California, federal scientists project
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "California is likely to emerge from the winter with little relief from drought, federal climate experts said Thursday, setting the stage for a third year of dry weather and continuing water shortages.
The monthly climate report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that drought conditions will persist in almost all of California through February. With the next three months historically the state’s wettest, the opportunity for drought recovery is essentially lost.
Many parts of California, including the Bay Area, are already having to ration water supplies while farmers statewide have been forced to irrigate less and contend with smaller harvests of grapes, rice, cotton and other crops. Another dry year would only exacerbate the hardship."
California's coronavirus cases top 5M as hospitalizations continue to drop
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "California has now reported 5 million coronavirus cases, a sobering total that underscores the pervasiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic during its nearly two-year rampage through the state.
The milestone comes at a somewhat promising, though still precarious, time in the outbreak. The daily numbers of newly recorded infections and those hospitalized with the disease have declined in recent weeks, a welcome trend heading into the heart of the fall-and-winter holiday season.
But officials have long circled this winter on their cautionary calendar, warning that the combination of holiday travel, colder weather and increasing indoor gatherings could threaten to fuel the still-potent pandemic."
California fentanyl deaths spiked during the pandemic. What Biden wants to do about it
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: "California could get some relief for its rising overdose deaths as the Biden administration moves to better control the opioid epidemic.
More than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses in the year between April 2020 and 2021, according to the National Center for Health Statistics — the highest year on record and a jump of almost 30% from the prior year.
Synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl — caused two-thirds of those deaths.
Woman dies in freeway shooting near Bay Bridge
RICK HURD, Mercury News: "A woman died in a shooting Wednesday on Interstate 80 near the Bay Bridge, causing a massive backup that clogged westbound traffic heading to San Francisco from the MacArthur Maze, authorities said.
A man and two juveniles in the same car were not injured in the shooting, according to the California Highway Patrol.
In a statement, the CHP said they were notified around 9:12 a.m. that a maroon-and-gray SUV had been hit by gunfire while on westbound I-80 just east of the West Grand Avenue exit."
Booster shots: California's MyTurn site just expanded eligibility
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "The California Department of Public Health updated its My Turn website on Thursday to open COVID-19 vaccine booster sign-ups to all people 18 and older. Those who want a shot can schedule an appointment or find a walk-in clinic on the website.
Everyone 18 and up is eligible, as long as it has been at least six months since they got their Pfizer or Moderna second dose, or at least two months since they got a Johnson & Johnson shot.
Previously, the state had followed federal booster guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which make the shots available to those 65 and older; to Johnson & Johnson recipients; and to those 18 and older with underlying health conditions or working or living in a high-risk setting."
College instructor accused of setting blazes near Northern California wildfire indicted
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted a college instructor with arson counts in connection with a series of fires set last summer near the massive Dixie Fire.
Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, of San Jose originally was charged in the case in August and now faces four counts of arson to federal property and a count of setting timber afire.
Each arson count carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years.
SF schools see $123M windfall after final ruling in tax case as district faces big shortfall
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "San Francisco schools will get $123.4 million collected from property owners that has been frozen for three years while the state’s courts decided whether the parcel tax was legally authorized by voters.
The money is a boon to the cash-strapped district, which faces a $125 million deficit next year. Yet much of the windfall must be repaid to the city or has already been allocated, leaving just over $50 million to help cover the shortfall or other expenses.
District officials announced a final decision in the case Wednesday evening, after the California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling and said a simple of majority of voters, rather than the two-thirds required previously, was enough to pass Proposition G in 2018."
UC slams the door on standardized admissions ntests, nixing any SAT alternative
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "The University of California has slammed the door shut on using any standardized test for admissions decisions, announcing Thursday that faculty could find no alternative exam that would avoid the biased results that led leaders to scrap the SAT last year.
UC Provost Michael Brown declared the end of testing for admissions decisions at a Board of Regents meeting, putting a conclusive end to more than three years of research and debate in the nation’s premier public university system on whether standardized testing does more harm than good when assessing applicants for admission.
“UC will continue to practice test-free admissions now and into the future,” Brown said to the regents, during a discussion about a possible alternative to the SAT and ACT tests."
California’s $1.2 billion Capitol renovation is underway. Activists are still trying to halt it
HANNAH WILEY, SacBee: "Dozens of environmental and preservation activists on Wednesday protested the demolition of the California Capitol annex, a 69-year-old structure attached to the historic statehouse that lawmakers consider outdated and dangerous.
Close to 50 people congregated on the west steps of the Capitol in opposition to the $1.2 billion plan to bulldoze the warren of offices and upgrade it by 2025, arguing that it is an unjustifiable expense that sacrifices the building’s historical integrity and risks killing several important trees in the park.
They carried signs reading, “Save Your Capitol Porch and Trees,” and “No Demo.” Karen Jacques, a board member of Preservation Sacramento, said razing the annex would mean losing a “historic resource” critical to the capital city’s character.
Stanford's biggest diversity survey reveals 'very troubling' harassment, discrimination
The Chronicle, LAUREN HEPLER: "Draven Rane was overwhelmed by all the possibilities when he arrived at Stanford’s sunny, palm-lined Silicon Valley campus in August 2018.
It was the polar opposite of growing up in rural Michigan, where fresh food and stable housing weren’t always guaranteed. In the coming weeks and months, Rane’s newfound freedom morphed into a sense of confinement; life on a scholarship was tight, and he got the impression that “beggars can’t be choosers” at the prestigious university.
After Rane joined a committee this spring planning a first-of-its-kind, campus-wide diversity survey, he found that he wasn’t the only one treated like an outsider. Nearly half of transgender students who responded to the survey reported being harassed, and 63% of Black students said they had been subjected to microagressions."
Inflation is spiking in the US. Here's what goods are getting pricier in the Bay Area
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/NAMI SUMIDA: "It’s no mystery to anyone living here that pretty much everything is pricier in the Bay Area.
But recent data shows exactly what has been costing Bay Area residents a lot more in the past year, particularly as the country is experiencing the most intense inflation spike in decades.
According to the latest Consumer Price Index figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for all consumer goods in the U.S. jumped 6.2% from October 2020 to 2021 in the U.S. In the San Francisco area, which comprises Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, the year-over-year increase was 3.8%."
How drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in one year
LA Times, EMILY BAUMGAERTNER: "The drug crisis that has gripped the U.S. for years hit a milestone during the pandemic. More than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses in the one-year period leading up to April, an almost 30% jump from the prior year, according to data released this week by the National Center for Health Statistics. That startling figure exceeds the number of traffic and gun fatalities combined.
How did that happen? The Times spoke to Sam Quinones, who chronicled the drug trade in the 2015 book “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” and most recently explored the evolution of the epidemic in his new book “The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.”
Quinones is a former Times reporter. This interview has been edited for clarity."
BART's safety procedures investigated in NTSB probe of SF woman dragged to her death
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Federal officials are focusing on BART’s safety procedures and public awareness of them as they investigate the cause of an incident in September in which a woman leashed to her dog stepped off of a departing BART train and was dragged down the station platform to her death.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday released a preliminary report that looks at the facts of what happened on Sept. 13 at the Powell Street station. The early report doesn’t identify or speculate on causes, and a full investigatory report could take a year or longer to complete.
Amy Adams, a 41-year-old San Francisco resident, was dragged to death after she boarded a train with her dog tethered to her, then stepped off the train “at the last second,” according to BART officials. The doors closed on the leash — with the dog still on board — and the departing train dragged her down the platform then onto the tracks, killing her. The dog survived."
Thanksgiving travel is expected to make a major rebound in the Bay Area. Here's how to prepare
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "After a dramatic downsizing last year due to the COVID pandemic, Thanksgiving travel is poised to make a near-total turnaround in the Bay Area and U.S., according to airport officials and industry experts.
Last Thanksgiving, the worst COVID-19 surges of the pandemic were getting underway, slamming the brakes on traditional holiday air and road trips.
This year, with 69% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated, things are starting to look far more normal. According to the American Automobile Association, overall travel — including air, road, bus, rail and cruises — is expected to come within 5% of 2019 pre-pandemic levels."
How an SF housing advocate wields power by funding ballot measures
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "In 2018, San Francisco political campaign manager Jen Snyder was in the early stages of running a ballot measure to provide free legal aid to tenants facing eviction when she got a phone call “out of the blue” from someone she had never met before: veteran South of Market nonprofit housing boss John Elberling.
Elberling, the president of the South of Market low-income housing owner TODCO, said he supported the measure. They discussed strategy, potential direct mail pieces and what it would take to win.
“Afterwards he wrote us a check for $20,000,” she said. “He didn’t want anything in return for it.”"
Trial of LA County sheriff's deputy charged with manslaughter now in hands of jurors
LA Times, JAMES QUEALLY: "The fate of the first law enforcement officer to be prosecuted in an on-duty shooting in Los Angeles County in 20 years is now in the hands of a jury.
Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday afternoon in the manslaughter trial of L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Luke Liu, who could face up to 11 years in prison for fatally shooting Francisco Garcia in a Norwalk gas station in February 2016.
Liu pulled his cruiser into a 7-Eleven parking lot near Alondra Boulevard and Studebaker Road because he believed Garcia, 26, was driving a stolen Acura. After a brief interaction, Garcia tried to speed off but Liu chased him on foot and opened fire, shooting the man in the back four times. Liu tried to perform lifesaving measures at the scene, but Garcia died a short time later."