Tahoe’s record snowfall has officials warning everyone to stay away
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "The highways leading to Lake Tahoe reopened after record Sierra snowfall closed them for days. But highway officials, political leaders and even tourism and business associations are urging visitors to stay away from the iconic region — at least for another day or two.
More than 6 feet of snow fell over the past week at lake level, with at least twice as much at Tahoe ski resorts and mountain passes. The heavy snowfall, believed to be the most in December in more than 50 years, closed both Highway 50 and Interstate 80, the main routes between the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe.
While the highways were cleared enough to allow passage for vehicles outfitted with chains or snow tires, conditions were still treacherous, authorities caution, snowplows are everywhere. Spinouts and jack-knifed tractor-trailers have led to temporary closures on both Interstate 80 and Highway 50 — and traffic was slow."
Sierra storm: 10,000 without power as Placer County declares local emergency
ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS, SacBee: "Placer County proclaimed a local emergency Wednesday evening, as a massive winter storm that battered much of the Tahoe area has left thousands of residents without power.
Heavy snow during the holiday weekend has downed trees and utility lines, and left large trucks and cars struggling to navigate roads. The storm has also damaged county infrastructure, such as the county water agency’s Boardman canal in Colfax.
Tens of thousands of residents across the Sierra have been plunged into darkness for days, with about 56,000 PG&E customers still without power as of Wednesday morning between Placer, El Dorado, Sierra and Nevada counties."
California grocery worker arrested in Iowa on charge of threatening Obama, Clinton, Fauci
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "A former Central Valley grocery store worker has been arrested in Iowa and charged after making threats against former U.S. presidents, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as part of a plan to “combat evil demons in the White House,” court records say.
Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, was in custody at the Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa, after his arrest Dec. 21 following a traffic stop in Cass County, Iowa, court records say.
Xiong, who is described in court records as a former grocery store worker from Merced who also lives in Sacramento, had an AR-15 rifle, boxes of ammunition and loaded magazines and body armor in his car when he was stopped. He had the White House in his GPS as his destination.
All Bay Area counties now require everyone to wear masks inside public settings
ANNIE SCIACCA, Mercury News: "As COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates rise again, Bay Area counties are tightening up health rules to require everyone — vaccinated or not — to wear masks inside public settings at all times.
Contra Costa, Alameda, Marin, Sonoma and San Francisco counties and the city of Berkeley announced this week that beginning Thursday, people will have to wear masks inside gyms, churches, offices and other places that had been exempted from mask rules as long as everyone was vaccinated.
The counties had eased their rules just weeks ago by allowing fully vaccinated groups of 100 or fewer people to remove their masks in “controlled spaces” such as workplaces and gyms."
New coronavirus cases top 16,000 in L.A. County, among highest of pandemic
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/ANUMITA KAUR/RONG-GONG LIN II: "Los Angeles County reported one of its highest single-day coronavirus case counts on Wednesday as the fast-spreading Omicron variant continues to trigger an avalanche of infections statewide.
The fierce resurgence of the coronavirus has raised fresh concerns about end-of-year gatherings even as preliminary evidence mounts that the strain may result in less severe disease than its Delta counterpart.
Health officials in L.A. County confirmed 16,510 new positive cases Wednesday, a staggering figure they attributed to surging transmission of both Delta and Omicron."
County issues alert as San Diego emergency departments fill with coronavirus patients
PAUL SISSON, Union-Tribune: "San Diego County emergency departments saw such a significant increase in traffic Wednesday that the region’s emergency medical director issued a special alert just after 1 p.m.
About half of the 22 hospitals across the region were so busy that they had to divert some ambulances to other facilities, a common practice designed to give overburdened medical staffs time to catch up with crushing demand. The spike appeared to be due in part to a demand for testing.
“If emergency departments are on diversion, then ambulances have to drive farther away and they’re less available to respond to 911 calls, which puts the whole system at risk,” said Dr. Kristi Koenig, medical director of San Diego County’s emergency medical system. “It’s not a good situation, one that we try to prevent whenever we can.”
New California laws for 2022: More duplexes, fewer ketchup packets and all mail-in elections
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "A slate of new California laws set to go into effect Jan. 1 touches on everything from police accountability to housing reform, ketchup packets and how veterinarians gather blood donations for sick pets.
Some laws Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last year, such as a ban on the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers and a requirement that large retailers maintain a genderless kids area, don’t go into effect until a couple of years from now.
Here’s a round-up of some of the high-profile laws set to take hold New Year’s Day:"
New Year’s parties? Indoor dining? Skiing? Which activities are safe as Omicron spreads
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "A sharp spike in coronavirus cases, in part fueled by the new Omicron variant, is prompting health experts to urge that New Year’s Eve gatherings be toned down.
Revelers can still hold indoor parties, but they would be safer if smaller, with guests who have been fully vaccinated and gotten a booster shot, officials say.
Larger gatherings can be held more safely outdoors, but people should still mask up in crowded settings, regardless of whether they are inside or out."
Mohamed Hadid’s infamous Bel-Air estate is auctioned off for $5 million
JACK FLEMMING, LA Times: "After a half-decade of criminal charges and court battles, the half-finished mega-mansion of developer Mohamed Hadid has sold at auction for $5 million. Next, it will be destroyed.
Hadid, a reality TV regular and father to models Bella and Gigi, bought the property in 2011 and quickly got to work cramming a 30,000-square-foot house onto the 1.22-acre lot, which was both bigger and taller than city rules allowed. At the time, he claimed the house would last forever.
Bel-Air neighbors feared the code-violating estate would slide down the hill and crush the homes below and took him to court, where an L.A. County judge declared the hulking structure a “danger to the public” and ordered it to be torn down."
Dungeness crabs arrive in San Francisco after delayed start to fishing season
The Chronicle, ANDRES PICON: "After hours out on the ocean, the Crown Royal fishing boat pulled into Pier 45 in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon nearly overflowing with a haul of thousands of Dungeness crabs. On the pier, a dock manager and his employees at Pezzolo Seafood Inc. smiled with excitement.
It was opening day for the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season in the waters around San Francisco — a highly anticipated kickoff after the start of the season was delayed by more than six weeks.
For fishers, wholesale seafood sellers and crab shacks along Fisherman’s Wharf, the delay — the result of state regulations meant to protect whales — was frustrating, they said, but enthusiasm for the arrival of the giant crabs abounded."
LAPD officer who fatally shot 14-year-old girl along with assault suspect is identified
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR/RICHARD WINTON: "The Los Angeles police officer who killed an assault suspect and a 14-year-old bystander in a shooting at a Burlington store in North Hollywood two days before Christmas was Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr., according to multiple sources.
The LAPD has withheld the officer’s name “pending department review processes,” despite having promised to be transparent about the incident and releasing video Monday in which Jones is not only visible but also referred to by his last name by other officers.
Jones could not be reached for comment. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment."
Harry Reid dealt first blow to filibuster, leaving Democrats to decide whether to kill it
LA Times, ARIT JOHN: "Harry Reid, the pugnacious Nevada Democrat and former Senate majority leader who died Tuesday at age 82, never regretted having gone nuclear.
In 2013, Reid ended the filibuster — the rule that requires 60 votes to prevent a lone senator from speaking at length to block approval — for executive branch and judicial nominees other than those for the Supreme Court. It was among his most consequential decisions as majority leader and allowed President Obama to appoint more judges to key posts than in any other two-year stretch in his presidency. It also opened Reid up to criticism that he accelerated the chamber’s evolution into a partisan battlefield."
Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty in Epstein sex abuse case
AP, TOM HAYS/LARRY NEUMEISTER: " The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at the late Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.
Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. With the maximum prison term for each charge ranging from five to 40 years in prison, Maxwell faces the likelihood of years behind bars — an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold Maxwell accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims, and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse."