California Omicron surge arrives as cases spike, officials warn of tough weeks ahead
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II and LUKE MONEY: "The Omicron surge has hit California, with new coronavirus cases climbing rapidly and public health officials in some parts of the state warning that hospitals could be hit hard by a surge in patients in the coming weeks.
Data show new coronavirus cases in the state jumping in recent days, with Los Angeles County health officials expecting the Omicron variant to overtake the Delta strain within two weeks. But officials stressed that vaccinations, and especially booster shots, will give Californians who receive them strong protection against serious illness, which could make the coming surge less deadly than last year’s devastating winter.
“It’s not a time to panic, but a time to be vigilant,” said San Francisco Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax."
Omicron less likely to put you in the hospital, studies say
LAURA UNGAR and MIKE STOBBE, AP: "Two new British studies provide some early hints that the omicron variant of the coronavirus may be milder than the delta version.
Scientists stress that even if the findings of these early studies hold up, any reductions in severity need to be weighed against the fact omicron spreads much faster than delta and is more able to evade vaccines. Sheer numbers of infections could still overwhelm hospitals.
Still, the new studies released Wednesday seem to bolster earlier research that suggests omicron may not be as harmful as the delta variant, said Manuel Ascano Jr., a Vanderbilt University biochemist who studies viruses."
CA’s jobless rate falls to 6.9%, but new hiring slows down
SETH SANDRONSKY, Capitol Weekly: "California payrolls added 47,500 nonfarm workers in November compared with October’s 96,800 new hires, according to the state Employment Development Department. The November new hires accounted for 22% of the U.S.’s 210,000 jobs for the month. In California, November’s unemployment rate of 6.9% improved from October’s 7.3%.
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in November versus October’s 4.6%.
The employment story for California in November is mixed."
Heir Apparent or Afterthought? The Frustrations of Kamala Harris.
KATIE ROGERS and ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, New York Times: "The president needed the senator from West Virginia on his side, but he wasn’t sure he needed his vice president to get him there.
It was summertime, and President Biden was under immense pressure to win the support of Senator Joe Manchin III, whose decisive vote in a 50-50 chamber made him the president’s most delicate negotiating partner. Mr. Biden had invited Mr. Manchin to the Oval Office to privately make the case for his marquee domestic policy legislation. Just before Mr. Manchin arrived, he turned to Vice President Kamala Harris.
What he needed from her was not strategy or advice. He needed her to only say a quick hello, which she did before turning on her heel and leaving the room."
When and how to use at-home COVID tests as omicron surges
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "The omicron variant now has taken hold in the Bay Area, and appears to be causing some outbreaks, doubling case rates in a matter of days, and testing the distribution speed of health systems and labs that are rushing to provide tests to residents.
Public health officials and experts anticipate winter holidays and celebrations happening over the next weeks will further fuel omicron’s spread, with increased travel and social gatherings. Many more people in the Bay Area, including vaccinated and boostered people, are about to test positive, and may well be getting those results from at-home COVID tests like Binax Now and QuickVue.
The official guidance on when to test and what to do after you test positive hasn’t changed to account for omicron’s high contagiousness. But it is a good a time for a refresher, experts say, on finding wise ways to get tested as the holidays approach and as omicron becomes even more prevalent in communities."
Supply chain mess cost California farms $2.1 billion in stalled exports, study shows
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "Already staggered by the drought, California’s farmers are losing overseas sales as the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a devastating shortage in shipping containers.
A study led by UC Davis agricultural economist Colin Carter said California’s farm belt lost $2.1 billion in exports during a five-month stretch this year because of what he called “containergeddon.”
In a study released Wednesday by UC’s Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, Carter and two researchers from the University of Connecticut said the supply-chain mess snarling world commerce cost the state’s growers 17% of their export sales from May to September.
Capitol Weekly Podcast: What Next For Roe v. Wade?
CW Staff: "We are joined this episode by Jodi Hicks, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.
Hicks has been one of many voices sounding the alarm as the Supreme Court’s new conservative supermajority takes up the issue of abortion rights in cases from Texas and Mississippi.
Will 2022 be the year that Americans in half the states lose access to legal abortion? And, how will California be affected? Plus: Who had the Worst Week in California Politics?"
Supreme Court agrees to decide on Biden’s vaccine mandate for hospitals, other employers
LA Times, DAVID G SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will decide on a fast-track basis whether President Biden has the legal authority to order hospitals and other large employers to require their workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The justices said they will hear arguments Jan. 7 on what has become a red-state-versus-blue-state divide over the government’s authority to require people to be vaccinated.
The key question before the court involves whether Congress gave the president broad power to regulate the workplace and require employees to be vaccinated or regularly tested for a highly infectious virus."
L.A. races to distribute housing vouchers before homeless people are kicked out of hotels
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "Earlier this month, Los Angeles city officials tried something new in their pursuit of pairing homeless people with rental subsidies.
They brought a group of homeless people the paperwork and the resources necessary to get these complicated applications completed.
The lobby and pool area of the Mayfair hotel — whose rooms have been rented to unhoused people through California’s Project Roomkey program — became a pop-up center for people to apply for nearly 7,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers that have been made available to people in Los Angeles County through the federal stimulus package, which was passed earlier this year."
Will California’s Central Valley send a Latino to Congress in 2022? New voting maps could help
GILLIAN BRASSIL, JEONG PARK, AND ANDREA BRISEÑO, SacBee: "California’s new congressional districts give the state two more Hispanic-majority congressional districts, including seats in the Central Valley that have never sent a Latino lawmaker to Washington.
Sixteen of California’s new districts are more than 50% Latino, up from 14 districts prior to redistricting, according to census data gathered in 2015. Latino voters constitute the largest ethnic group, though not the majority, in two other districts. Altogether, California’s congressional delegation will include 52 lawmakers next year.
California’s population growth slowed over the last decade, leading the state to lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. The little growth there was largely came from the Latino and Asian communities, census data showed, with Latinos becoming the state’s largest ethnic group.
After a light drizzle, S.F. Bay Area to see drenching rains this week. Here’s the latest forecast
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "The light showers that dampened the Bay Area overnight were expected to continue Wednesday before giving way to heavier showers this week, the National Weather Service said.
Heavier rain could start drenching the region starting Wednesday night and last into Thursday morning.
Sporadic showers will continue throughout the holiday weekend, said David King, a meteorologist with the weather service."
CSU and UC campuses to require COVID-19 vaccine boosters for students and workers
MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee: "The California State University system will require students, staff and faculty members to receive a COVID-19 booster in order to be considered fully immunized and eligible for on-campus instruction and activities, it announced Wednesday, joining the University of California, which is implementing a similar policy.
CSU in a statement Wednesday morning said that system-wide, boosters must “be received by February 28, 2022 or six months after an individual received the final dose of the original vaccination, whichever is later,” but that individual campuses may choose to set earlier deadlines based on local conditions.
The policy will continue to include medical and religious exemptions.
Plastic waste from Amazon purchases soared by 29% amid pandemic, report finds
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "The COVID-19 pandemic drove far more consumers to shop online, and marine scientists say that shift in behavior has created dramatically more plastic waste that will likely wind up harming the ocean and environment.
A new report from Oceana, a wildlife advocacy group, estimates that the amount of plastic waste created by retail giant Amazon skyrocketed by 29% last year, compared with 2019 data.
The e-commerce site generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging worldwide in 2020, according to the report. That includes padded envelopes, bubble wrap, air pillows and plastic-lined paper envelopes — various types of plastic film."
Pause on student loan payments is extended through May 1
AP, COLLEEN LONG: "The Biden administration on Wednesday extended a student loan moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to put off debt payments during the pandemic.
Under the action, payments on federal student loans will remain paused through May 1. Interest rates will remain at 0% during that period, and debt collection efforts will continue to be suspended. Those measures have been in place since early in the COVID-19 pandemic but were set to expire Jan. 31.
President Biden said financial recovery from the pandemic will take longer than job recovery, especially for those with student loans."
Mayor Breed’s Tenderloin plan faces first big hurdle Thursday with key vote
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Mayor London Breed will face the first potential challenge Thursday in her bid to tackle drug dealing and open-air drug use in the Tenderloin when the board of supervisors is scheduled to vote on a major element in her plan.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on Breed’s declaration of a state of emergency in the Tenderloin related to the opioid epidemic. The declaration would speed up her ability to open a facility there to refer people to housing and services.
Last week, Breed garnered national headlines for her tough, raw talk about confronting crime, drugs and homelessness. The plan she announced for the Tenderloin includes setting up the service facility, ramping up policing to enforce laws against drug dealing and use, and improving infrastructure."
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "It started with a tweet from a Lakers fan.
For months, @SFBART had tried to promote riding BART and Muni to Chase Center events as the regional rail agency attempts to recover massive ridership losses during the pandemic. So the account sent out a tweet urging the public to “take BART then Muni to go see the hottest team in the NBA!”
Four minutes later, a user named @Jospitta replied in a quote tweet, “Damn. Y’all thirsty for riders.”"
Jan. 6 committee seeks interview with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan
LA Times, ANUMITA KAUR: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot on Wednesday requested an interview with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the second time this week the panel has sought to question a Republican member of Congress about the insurrection.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the special committee investigating the deadly insurrection, said in a letter to Jordan that the he appeared to have been in communication with then-President Trump on Jan. 6 and that he was reportedly involved in efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
“We understand that you had at least one and possibly multiple communications with President Trump on January 6th. We would like to discuss each such communication with you in detail,” Thompson wrote in a letter to Jordan, adding that the panel is looking into whether the congressman might have information about meetings with White House officials and Trump “about strategies for overturning the results of the 2020 election.”"
After sexual misconduct allegations, James Franco admits he ‘did sleep with students’
LA Times, CHRISTI CARRAS: "James Franco has addressed the sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him and explained why he went relatively quiet after the Los Angeles Times published interviews with his accusers in early 2018.
His latest remarks come several months after he reached a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed against him and two associates by two of his former students, actors Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, who accused him of abusing his position as an educator to subject people to “his personal and professional sexual exploitation.”
In a new SiriusXM interview with Jess Cagle, the actor and producer admitted he “did sleep with students” in his film classes, identified himself as a sex addict, opened up about his professional falling-out with Seth Rogen and claimed he has been “doing a lot of work” to better himself over the last four years."