California’s overflowing coffers hand Newsom ‘every politician’s dream’
LA Times, TARYN LUNA: "There seems to be nothing standing in the way of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Despite early concerns that the pandemic would weaken the state’s economy, another year of gushing tax revenue ensures that the politics of plenty will continue to define his first four years in office. A Legislature teeming with Democrats and his easy defeat of the recall election have made him even more powerful.
“He’s sitting on a massive budget surplus that is every politician’s dream,” said Susan Kennedy, a top aide to former Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis. “He’s got no credible opposition to reelection and the wind at his back. He should be able to tackle any major issue he sets his mind to.”"
These are California’s tightest US House races in 2022. Here’s who is vulnerable
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: “These are California’s 10 closest United States House of Representatives elections in 2022, according to initial expert analyses.
Editors for three election-tracking organizations — The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections — designate a race as a “toss-up” or rate districts on a diminishing scale from being “safe” to “likely” to “leans” for either Democrats or Republicans.
Each report released updated ratings following the end of California’s redistricting process, the once-a-decade reformation of legislative boundaries. California lost a seat in the U.S. House due to slow population growth over the last decade. The commission charged with making new maps absorbed a Democratic district near Los Angeles.
California Democrats worry Black turnout hinges on voting rights bills. Can Biden deliver?
MARCUS D. SMITH and DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: “Could Black voters in California and across the country sit out this year’s midterm elections if Democrats in Washington can’t strengthen rapidly eroding voting rights protections?
That’s the fear some Democratic Party and civil rights leaders are airing as President Joe Biden campaigns this week for voting rights protections.
Promoting turnout has long been a challenge in the Black community for a variety of reasons.
With hospitals reeling, California tells COVID-positive medical workers to stay on the job
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "Daylong waits in the emergency room. No one to answer the phones. No one to take out the trash. And more patients arriving each day.
That’s the scene playing out at some hospitals across Southern California as the Omicron-fueled surge of COVID-19 contributes to a crippling shortage of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. While Omicron is causing significantly fewer serious illnesses than last year’s winter surge, the unprecedented number of people becoming infected has left the medical infrastructure on edge.
State officials are attempting to address California’s staffing shortage through a sweeping policy change that allows asymptomatic healthcare workers who have tested positive for the coronavirus to return to work immediately, without isolation or testing. The policy, set to remain in place through Feb. 1, is designed to keep many healthcare workers on the job at a time when hospitals are expecting more patients."
Omicron surge anxiety, absences and confusion mark first day new LAUSD semester
LA Times, PALOMA ESQUIVEL/COLLEEN SHALBY/MELISSA GOMEZ: "Hundreds of Los Angeles Unified school district employees rushed to campuses to help cover for absent teachers and staff. Students waited in long lines to get on campus after the health screening system sputtered during morning rush. And in many classrooms, empty desks reflected both a massive increase in positive coronavirus cases among students and pandemic-worried families who kept students home.
Yet amid a record 62,000 positive coronavirus cases among students and staff, the nation’s second-largest school district opened its campuses and welcomed hundreds of thousands back, with a number of families and students saying they felt reassured by safety precautions the district was taking — including mandatory weekly testing and masking.
“It’s a little concerning, but I think we’ve done all we can in terms of getting them ready, getting them tested and making sure that they’re ready to come back to school,” said Pablo Pacheco as he dropped his 6-year-old off at Yorkdale Elementary in Highland Park. “All we can do is do our best.”"
California Democrats’ single-payer healthcare plan passes first hurdle
LA Times, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "In any other year, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to add an estimated 700,000 immigrants without legal status to the state’s healthcare program for low-income residents would be a monumental lift. On Tuesday, it was painted as the “status quo” as legislators considered a separate proposal with a much broader reach.
A group of Democratic lawmakers are pushing a massive restructuring of the state’s healthcare system under legislation that would guarantee medical coverage for every resident in the state by enacting billions in new taxes to create a single-payer system. Assembly Bill 1400 passed its first hurdle during a contentious Assembly Health Committee hearing on Tuesday evening, moving forward legislation that has so far overshadowed Newsom’s proposal, but also faces significant bipartisan challenges moving forward.
The bill’s author, Assemblyman Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), said piecemeal reforms have only made it more clear that the state’s healthcare system needs to be upended. Kalra said Newsom’s effort is a positive step and shows the state’s compassion by ensuring no one is excluded from the healthcare system based on immigration status."
Here’s why some California school districts still require mask wearing during recess
SAWSAN MORRAR, SacBee: “Pass by many California elementary schools during a recess break, and you will see dozens of students playing tetherball and tag with their masks on.
Drive a few miles to another school in another district, and students at recess are playing basketball and swinging on monkey bars without their masks.
That’s because district officials are interpreting outdoor masking rules differently as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impose safety restrictions at K-12 schools.
California state government ending office leases as employees shift to telework
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: “New budget documents show California’s state government has begun to make progress on one of the promises of telework: saving money on office leases.
The Department of General Services, which manages about 14.4 million square feet of leased office space for the state, has relinquished or is in the process of relinquishing about 767,000 square feet of space, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday budget proposal.
The changes will save the state about $22.5 million per year, according to the state’s projections.
L.A. County foster care system to ramp up services in Indigenous languages
LA Times, JACLYN COSGROVE: "After a 4-year-old boy was severely injured while in the care of his foster mother, Los Angeles County officials will strengthen efforts to provide interpreters in Indigenous languages to families in the foster care system.
On Tuesday, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion directing the Department of Children and Family Services to come up with a plan to improve its language services for Indigenous families and to strengthen its Asian Pacific and Native American programs.
The 4-year-old, Andres F., was hospitalized Oct. 28 with life-threatening injuries. His foster mother, Gabriela Casarez, 26, of Norwalk, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of child abuse and one count of assault leading to coma or paralysis."
Should undocumented people vote in San Jose elections? Officials vote to study charter change
The Chronicle, LAUREN HERNANDEZ: "The San Jose City Council voted Tuesday to support studying a possible charter amendment that would give undocumented immigrants the right to vote in local elections. Such a charter change would need approval from San Jose voters.
The proposal to study extending voting rights to undocumented people was put forth bycouncil members Magdalena Carrasco and Sylvia Arenas, who said they want to give voice to “those living in the margins and who are most affected by the decisions made by citywide elected positions.” They explicitly said they want to extend voting rights to undocumented people.
“Those who reside in the margins... have always added to the legacy and growth of San José and should have every right to be part of the democratic process that informs what is done with their taxpayer money,” their proposal said, adding that immigrants in San Jose paid $5.3 billion in state and local taxes in 2018. A “portion” of those immigrants were undocumented, the memo says."
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/NAMI SUMIDA: "If San Francisco were to follow the same omicron trajectory of several major cities that started their surges earlier, its coronavirus case rate would almost double over the next two weeks, a Chronicle analysis showed, even though current case rates are already breaking records almost daily.
The analysis illustrates just one of several ways the omicron surge could play out in San Francisco, but uses other cities’ experiences as a framework for understanding what might happen. Distinctive characteristics of the city, like its unusually high vaccination rate and mild weather could mean a less extreme outcome.
To estimate the possible trajectory of San Francisco’s current COVID-19 wave, we examined the trajectories in three metropolitan regions that experienced a surge in cases prior to San Francisco. These three areas — Philadelphia County; Cook County, which includes Chicago; and the counties that include New York City — all experienced a surge in cases two weeks before San Francisco, according to reported case counts from The New York Times."
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "If you were to redraw San Francisco’s 11 supervisorial districts, how would you draw them? That’s what the Redistricting Task Force, the nine-member committee in charge of revising the city’s district lines based on 2020 census data, is asking residents to do as part of the first phase of redistricting.
Redistricting is a process in which, every ten years, cities and states redraw district boundaries to ensure that districts have roughly the same population. In San Francisco, redistricting for its 11 supervisorial districts is currently underway, with the task force convening weekly to hear input from the community on how the lines should be drawn.
The Chronicle’s data team decided to create our own map. But instead of drawing it ourselves, we programmed a computer algorithm to do it for us."
Google is giving employees access to free COVID tests, but a union says access is unequal
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "Full-time Google employees have access to at-home COVID-19 tests for themselves and their families, but that’s not the case for thousands of company contractors and temporary workers, according to a Google engineer.
A Google spokesperson said in an email the company has free, at-home and in-person testing options available to employees as well as temps and vendors.
But Ashok Chandwaney, a software engineer at Google and member of the Alphabet Workers Union, said in a statement that access was unequal for the company’s contingent workforce."
The Chronicle, RYCE STOUGHTENBOROUGH: "Bay Area residents could expect a stretch of dry, partly cloudy and reasonably warm winter weather for at least the next week, meteorologists said Tuesday.
While a wet weather system was tracking toward the West Coast, it was expected to veer into the Pacific Northwest — prompting flood watches and warnings in places such as Seattle — while leaving much of Northern California and the Bay Area dry.
“We’re not seeing any strong signals for any system that’s really going to impact us,” said Jeff Lorber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service."
Environmentalists sue Point Reyes National Seashore over cattle ranches
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "Three environmental groups sued the National Park Service this week over a plan that allows cattle ranching to continue at the popular Point Reyes National Seashore.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, contends that administrators of the picturesque park along the Marin County coast are prioritizing dairy and beef operations over wildlands and wildlife, including the area’s famous herds of tule elk.
The suit takes issue with a policy that permits native elk to be killed, in order to keep elk populations in check and make room for cattle, as well as with dirty runoff from ranches that threatens the health of local waterways."
U.S. consumer prices soared 7% in past year, most since 1982
AP, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER: "Prices paid by U.S. consumers jumped 7% in December from a year earlier, the highest inflation rate since 1982 and the latest evidence that rising costs for food, rent and other necessities are heightening the financial pressures on America’s households.
Inflation has spiked during the recovery from the pandemic recession as Americans have ramped up spending on goods such as cars, furniture and appliances. Those increased purchases have clogged ports and warehouses and exacerbated supply shortages of semiconductors and other parts. Gas prices have also surged, in part because Americans have driven more in recent months after having cut back on travel and commuting earlier in the pandemic.
Rising prices have wiped out the healthy pay increases that many Americans have been receiving, making it harder for households, especially lower-income families, to afford basic expenses. Poll show that inflation has started displacing even the coronavirus as a public concern, making clear the political threat it poses to President Biden and congressional Democrats."
California prisons implement stricter health guidelines amid COVID-19 surge
The Chronicle, ANDRES PICON: "California’s state prisons and other correctional facilities were ordered to implement numerous protocol changes Sunday for a period of 15 days in an effort to keep COVID-19 from spreading within facilities and throughout the state amid a staggering surge, officials said.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation required the more than three dozen institutions under its purview to enact a “mandatory 15-day modified program” that limits the movement of inmates within and among facilities and defines stricter health guidelines for everyday activities for both inmates and employees, according to a department memo issued Thursday.
The changes come as the highly contagious omicron variant is smashing infection records in California and across the country. The CDCR implemented a similar plan in November 2020, when the number of COVID-19 cases in the state was rapidly increasing on its way to a massive winter spike."
Referee Natalie Simon is first Black woman to earn FIFA badge: ‘It’s kind of a miracle’
LA Times, KEVIN BAXTER: "Natalie Simon has spent much of her life on a soccer field, yet in those 32 years she’s rarely seen another person who looks like her.
“I haven’t had anyone to really identify with,” said Simon, who is Black and Native American. “I was always the only Black person on every team I played on. I was always the token Black girl.”
It was that way in high school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on travel teams in South Florida and in college at Stetson, a small, largely white private school east of Orlando."