Are soaring murder rates here to stay in California, local communities?
TERI SFORZA and CAITLIN ANTONIOS, OC Register: "Through the long lens of history, violent crime is a fraction of what it was in the early 1990s. But homicides have surged from historic lows over the past several years in many California cities — and across the nation — and no one’s sure if it’s a pandemic-inspired spike, or if it’s here to stay.
The city of San Bernardino recorded the highest per-capita murder rate among California’s larger cities in 2020 — 30.6 murders for every 100,000 residents, according to federal data collated by Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that supports education and research about firearms in America.
In similarly sized Moreno Valley, there were just 7 murders per 100,000 residents."
Face masks and omicron: Should you upgrade from cloth to N95s? Double mask?
GWENDOLYN WU, Chronicle: "Although Bay Area counties so far have not signaled any changes in their mask policies, the arrival of the omicron variant has many people wondering whether it’s time to double down on their masking habits — and upgrade their face coverings.
Local experts say that regardless of omicron, the coming weeks are a good time to buy better masks and practice the same public health protocols from last year’s holiday surge. While little data is yet available on whether the newest variant is more infectious than delta, experts said upgrading your mask strategy is one way to reduce the risk of catching any version of the virus.
“Forget about omicron for a minute,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley. “We’ve been anticipating for a while we’ll see a steady increase in cases right about now.”
LAUREN HEPLER, Chronicle: "Paul Austin thought things were going well when the appraiser came to his Marin City home last January.
The appraiser complimented the views of the San Francisco Bay, and he was sure to point out all the improvements, Austin recalled at an Oct. 13 meeting of a state reparations task force. So he and his wife Tenisha Tate-Austin were shocked when the appraisal valued their home at $995,000 — nearly half-a-million dollars less than another appraisal 10 months earlier.
The couple, who are Black, got a second opinion last February. This time, they asked a white friend named Jan to sit at the kitchen island and pretend to be the homeowner. They also “whitewashed” their home by hiding art and family photos. That appraiser said their house was worth $1,482,500."
Fog limits visibility in California’s Central Valley
CAMERON CLARK, SacBee: "Dense fog was limiting visibility across areas of the Central Valley in northern California on the morning of Saturday, December 4, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento warned.
This timelapse video from ALERTWildfire shows fog rolling over mountains in the Sutter Buttes range, north of Sacramento. Twitter user @EquitableMaps shows conditions along Highway 99 near Sacramento.
The NWS urged drivers to use low-beam headlights, to slow down, and to delay travel until the fog lifts."
Democrats eye massive shift in war on wildfires: Prevention
LA Times, JENNIFER HABERKORN: "Democrats are proposing a potentially seismic shift in how the nation battles wildfires by dramatically increasing funding for efforts that aim to prevent blazes, rather than focusing on the tools to put them out.
Under the social safety-net and climate bill passed by the House and now being negotiated in the Senate, Democrats would funnel $27 billion into the nation’s forests, including a sizable $14 billion over a decade for clearing vegetation and other dry debris that can fuel a fire.
Known as “hazardous fuels reduction,” such proactive measures have been “underfunded for so long,” said Ann M. Bartuska, a senior advisor at environmental nonprofit Resources for the Future and former Forest Service official. “This really cries out and says, ‘All right, we get it, we need to reduce wildfire risk.’”"
Bob Dole, forever the presidential hopeful, passes away at 98
LA Times, DAVID M. SHRIBMAN: "A son of the heartland, a veteran disabled in one of the nation’s great wars and a leader in the political dramas that shaped the country, America may have served up no purer emblem of the nation’s triumphs and challenges in the second half of the 20th century than Bob Dole.
He was a state legislator, House member, Senate leader, national spokesman for a sturdy brand of common-sense conservatism, four times a candidate for national office and always an advocate for the country’s farmers and war veterans.
He dominated the life of the Senate for a decade, was a leading Republican in Washington and emerged as a potent symbol, not only for Democrats who derided him as an obstructionist, but also for the new breed of hard-right Republicans who considered his style too accommodating, his ideology too squishy and his identification with the Washington establishment too strong."
Art Acevedo says he will not enter LA County sheriff's race
LA Times, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Art Acevedo, a prominent law enforcement figure who has run some of the country’s largest police agencies, said that he will not enter the race for Los Angeles County sheriff."
The decision, which spares Sheriff Alex Villanueva from what would have been a significant challenge, was a last-minute change of heart for Acevedo, who had been planning to run.
“The current sheriff’s failure of leadership and continuous degradation of relationships are at the expense of the public and the diverse people of this county deserve better,” Acevedo told The Times on Sunday.
“Serious work must be done, and now is the time to coalesce around one candidate, not dilute the field.”
Fauci says early reports encuragng about Omicron variant
AP, GENE JOHNSON: "U.S. health officials said Sunday that although the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than Delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.
President Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that scientists need more information before drawing conclusions about Omicron’s severity.
Reports from South Africa, where it emerged and is becoming the dominant strain, suggest that hospitalization rates have not increased alarmingly."
Sexual misconduct claim against Cuomo was the last straw for CNN
LA Times, STEPHEN BATTAGLO: "Chris Cuomo was already doomed at CNN after the New York state attorney general’s report described the extent of his role in guiding his brother Andrew’s sexual harassment crisis.
But a sexual misconduct claim against the fired anchor — made by a former colleague at ABC News — accelerated the stunning end of his career at the cable news network.
Cuomo’s termination Saturday ended a long embarrassing chapter at CNN, where network President Jeff Zucker and his team went to great lengths to retain one of the network’s most popular anchors in the face of mounting problems that damaged the organization’s reputation.
Myanmar sentences Suu Kyi to four years in prison
LA Times, DAVID PIERSON: "A court in Myanmar sentenced civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison on charges of inciting violence and violating COVID-19 rules, dealing another blow to democracy in a country plunged into chaos by a military coup.
The ruling is expected to be the first of more to come; Suu Kyi is facing 11 charges in total, including for corruption and the sharing of state secrets. If found guilty of all charges, the 76-year-old Suu Kyi faces more than 100 years behind bars.
“It was already clear from day one of the coup that Aung San Suu Kyi was to be silenced, locked away indefinitely on trumped-up charges. So these verdicts come as no surprise,” said Richard Horsey, an analyst on Myanmar at the International Crisis Group. “They are an attempt to demonstrate the military’s power: that they can incarcerate an incredibly popular leader and ignore the will of the country.”"