Record snowfall in the Sierra: Storms smash 51-year-old record, force closures
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES/GREGORY THOMAS: "The snowstorm that pounded the Sierra over the weekend sent crews racing to clear clotted roadways and restore electricity service to tens of thousands of households left in the dark after powerful winds sheared trees that toppled power lines.
Storms also closed major transportation arteries for a second consecutive day, as state officials pleaded with members of the public to stay home if possible to avoid traveling on treacherous roads.
Some 69,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers were still without power across four Northern California counties Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for the utility said. Most of those without power — 58,000 in all — were from El Dorado and Nevada counties, according to the utility."
More rain and snow for Southern California ahead of New Year’s Eve
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "A cold, wet holiday season will continue this week with two winter storms hitting Southern California and Northern California grappling with heavy accumulations of snow and rockslides that have closed off the Tahoe area.
The first Southern California storm arrived in the Los Angeles region Monday afternoon, with a second storm expected Tuesday night that could linger into Friday morning. Significant rain, mountain snow and wind gusts are likely, as are localized flooding, debris flows and additional travel delays. The forecast for the end of the week is uncertain, but New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles is expected to be cold and dry.
Meanwhile, all major roads in and out of Tahoe have shut down, stranding skiers and other travelers."
California’s minimum wage rises to $15 per hour
Capitol Weekly, SETH SANDRONSKY: "Minimum-wage workers in the Golden State will get an hourly pay raise in the new year. Under California law, the state minimum wage rises to $15 per hour for employers with 26 or more workers and to $14 hourly for employers with 25 or less employees on Jan. 1, 2022.
California’s minimum wage is about double that set by the federal government.
This news began at the state Capitol. In April 2016, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, Jr. signed the measure into law. With the stroke of his pen, California became the first state in the U.S. to hike the hourly minimum wage. Labor unions and the “Fight for 15” campaign helped to push the then-governor to sign this bill."
California to shorten COVID quarantine, isolation times following new CDC guidance
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "California public health officials said Monday that the state would follow recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortening isolation and quarantine times for people who test positive for COVID-19.
The new guidance shortens the isolation time from 10 days to five days for people infected with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic or who are no longer symptomatic.
After the five days, those individuals can leave isolation if they continue to mask for an additional five days."
California COVID-19 hospitalizations top 4,000 as Omicron surge picks up steam
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in California over the weekend reached levels not seen in months as the rapid spread of the Omicron variant caused major airline interruptions and sent throngs of people to testing sites.
Officials said they expected Omicron’s spread to worsen in the coming weeks, with President Biden promising the federal government will do all it can to assist states facing surges in coronavirus cases. Biden acknowledged those who faced long waits for tests over the holiday and said his administration was seeking to alleviate the issue.
“Seeing how tough it was for folks to get a test this weekend shows we have more work to do,” Biden said, “and we’re doing it.”"
Burglars hit at least a dozen Sacramento lobbyists and nonprofits in downtown break-in
LARA KORTE, SacBee: “Lobbying firms, nonprofits and a union were among the tenants affected by a burglary at the Forum Building on Thursday.
The 10-story building, located a block from the Capitol at the intersection of 9th and K Streets, houses a swath of government relations firms and other organizations that do business with the state. On the morning of Dec. 23, tenants were informed that the building had been broken into the night before.
Rubicon Property Management, which manages the Forum Building, declined to comment on the robbery. In an email to tenants obtained by The Sacramento Bee, management said more than a dozen offices had been compromised by forced entry.
Coming Bay Area cold snap could drop S.F. to below 40 degrees for the first time in 4 years
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "The Bay Area was bracing for more precipitation in the coming days ahead of clearer conditions that meteorologists expect will arrive by mid-week.
Scattered showers were expected through Tuesday morning as colder temperatures begin moving into the region. Forecasters say most areas could see a quarter of an inch of rain, with more in some areas on Wednesday.
The rain will be “spotty, hit-and-miss across the area. Not everyone’s going to get the same amount,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass."
Bay Area legislators resolve redistricting standoff with pillow fight, not punches
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "Apparently, resolving a redistricting standoff between two heavyweight state legislators from the Bay Area was more akin to a pillow fight than a knock-out, drag-out boxing match.
Assembly Member Evan Low, D-Campbell, told The Chronicle on Monday that he plans to move to the new central South Bay district to avoid running against fellow Democratic Assembly Member Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, in next year’s election.
Low and Berman were drawn into the same Silicon Valley district after California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission last week finalized legislative district maps for the next decade."
Ninth Circuit upholds $13M settlement in Google Street View privacy case
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Google can pay $13 million to privacy-rights groups to settle a suit over its former use of “Street View” vehicles to collect private computer information, including emails and passwords, from homes around the world, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The technology company began a program in 2007 to send specially equipped cars around neighborhoods to photograph and transmit panoramic views to subscribers. The vehicles also used Wi-Fi devices that were supposed to gather information about locations for program users, but also collected data that internet users transmitted over their own Wi-Fi, including user names, passwords, emails and other documents.
Google said it stopped collecting the data and halted the program — which opponents dubbed “WiSpy” — in 2010. The company paid $7 million in 2013 to settle a lawsuit by 38 states, including California, and said it would erase all the private information its vehicles had collected. The vehicles still take and transmit panorama photos, but Google says they no longer collect private Wi-Fi data."
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "This fall, a pair of middle school teachers from the Central Valley traveled to Palm Springs for the California Teachers Association’s annual LGBTQ+ Issues Conference. There, on a Saturday afternoon, Lori Caldeira and Kelly Baraki spoke to a few dozen people about a subject they knew well: the difficulty of running a GSA, or gay-straight alliance, in a socially conservative community.
Speaking about recruiting students, Baraki said, “When we were doing our virtual learning — we totally stalked what they were doing on Google, when they weren’t doing schoolwork. One of them was Googling ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ And we’re like, ‘Check.’ We’re going to invite that kid when we get back on campus.”
Shortly after the October conference, a surreptitious recording of the presentation was handed to a conservative writer known for asserting that transgender adolescents are part of a dangerous “craze.” She published a story Nov. 18 headlined “How Activist Teachers Recruit Kids,” criticizing Caldeira and Baraki for actions they had seen as proper: keeping club members’ identities confidential from parents and finding a couple of potential members by viewing their online activity in class."
Aggressive ‘active shooter’ tactics face scrutiny after LAPD kills girl at Burlington store
LA Times, CONNOR SHEETS/ROBERT J. LOPEZ/KEVIN RECTOR: "The frantic 911 calls started coming in late Thursday morning from a Burlington clothing store in North Hollywood. Multiple callers said a man was threatening people inside the shop, either with a bicycle lock or a gun. At least one caller reported that shots had been fired.
Los Angeles police were dispatched, and by noon a small group of officers with guns drawn filed up the double escalator to the second floor, where they encountered and quickly shot 24-year-old Daniel Elena-Lopez, as depicted in bodycam footage released by the LAPD on Monday.
An officer’s bullet killed lentina Orellana-Peralta, a 14-year-old trying on clothes in a dressing room nearby. A relative said she died in her mother’s arms at the store. The officer opened fire as Elena-Lopez appeared to be moving away from a bloodied woman he attacked. It is unclear whether the officers knew the suspect didn’t have a gun."
Exclusive: California prison fires 2 officers, cuts pay for others following guards’ deaths
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: “The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has moved to fire two officers while disciplining 10 other employees at a prison near Sacramento where two officers died after making claims of harassment, hazing and corruption within a specialized investigative unit.
Most of the employees are appealing the discipline to the State Personnel Board, according to three current and former corrections employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.
Valentino Rodriguez, who was 30, died of a fentanyl overdose at his home in West Sacramento in October 2020. Rodriguez was an officer in the Investigative Services Unit at California State Prison, Sacramento, a high-security institution in Folsom. Kevin Steele, 56, a sergeant in the unit, was found dead at a home in Miller County, Missouri in August. The county’s coroner ruled his death a suicide.
‘A great gift to the world’: California, art community pay tribute to Wayne Thiebaud
DARRELL SMITH, SacBee: “Reaction continued to pour in from California and across the art world upon the death of Wayne Thiebaud.
The luminary artist whose iconic works from vividly colorful confections to soaring city streets and meandering landscapes celebrated the everyday and who dedicated his life to teaching a new generation of artists died Christmas Day at his Sacramento home.
Thiebaud was 101. Thiebaud was “a great gift to the world,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Sunday night.
California child care providers say raises aren’t enough to keep the system afloat. Here’s why
JEONG PARK, SacBee: “Fresh off of winning a 15% minimum pay raise, more than 40,000 California child care providers are aiming to secure more benefits from paid sick days to affordable health care.
California will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years to boost the number of child care slots by 200,000. Yet, the existing providers say they need more help too to keep their own businesses open.
Thousands of providers have closed since the pandemic, cutting the number of child care slots available for California families by tens of thousands, according to an estimate from the union Child Care Providers United.
Bay Area man who sent menacing email to McConnell can be criminally charged, appeals court rules
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A Bay Area man who told then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an anonymous 2018 email, that "the resistance is coming to DC to slash your throat" can be charged with making a criminal threat, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The charge against Howard Weiss had been dismissed last year by U.S. District Judge Stephen Breyer of San Francisco, who said the email and other messages to McConnell were “vile and repugnant” but were not direct threats, just predictions that someone else would harm the Republican leader. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a jury could reasonably conclude that Weiss himself was threatening McConnell.
The 2018 message “was likely to engender a fear of violence by describing when and how the threat would be carried out,” the three-judge panel said. It said the email, sent through a form on McConnell’s website, was “personally directed” at McConnell, whose staff reported the message to law enforcement as a threat."