California confirms that next week it will end its universal indoor mask mandate
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY/AIDIN VAZIRI: "California’s statewide mask mandate, which requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors regardless of vaccination status, will be lifted Feb. 16 as anticipated, health officials said Monday, noting that cases have dropped dramatically from the peak of the omicron surge.
It was not immediately clear whether all Bay Area counties would also lift local mask mandates, some of which have been in place for six months. Several counties previously had said they planned to align with the state and ease their mandates right away. Others have hinted that they plan to apply new metrics for removing mandates, likely based around hospitalization rates.
The easing of the state order next week will not apply to K-12 schools, where indoor masking continues to be required for all students and staff. State officials said Monday that they are working with educators and local health officials to update masking requirements for schools. “Additional adjustments” to state policies will be revealed later this week, a news release from state health officials said."
SoCalGas may end up paying nearly $10 million for using customer money to fight efficiency measures
LA Daily News, OLGA GRIOGORYATS: "SoCalGas could end up paying the state $9.8 million after an agency that oversees the utility said the company used ratepayer money to advocate against the adoption of energy efficiency measures.
The California Public Utilities Commission issued a decision last week to penalize Southern California Gas Co. after it banned the company in 2018 from using customer money on fighting to weaken building and appliance efficiency measures that would wean customers off gas, decreasing planet-warming emissions.
The utility, which provides gas to about 22 million customers across Central and Southern California, said it has been working on enhancing the company’s accounting and oversight practices."
$250K later, investigation into California cop text messages drags on behind closed doors
JASON POHL, SacBee: 'Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Santa Rosa said he’d closely follow the newly announced outside review and “ensure that this investigation begins immediately and is transparent.”
But nearly 11 months and some $250,000 since The Sacramento Bee’s damning report that sparked those pledges for transparency, city officials have not released any of the 200-page report they commissioned. It’s been months since leaders have updated the public about the costly and sprawling investigation.
Miles Slattery, Eureka’s city manager, said five officers are facing discipline but declined to elaborate, citing due process rights and a “potential appeal process.” Though it’s unclear how much longer the public will have to wait, Slattery said the city still planned to release some version of the wide-ranging report or its findings. “We will provide what we are able to based on current legislation and policy,” he said."
Silicon Valley town backs down on bid to evade housing law with ‘mountain-lion habitat’ claim
LA Times, LIAM DILLON: "Following four days of widespread scorn after attempting to block a new state law allowing duplexes on single-family lots by declaring itself a “mountain-lion habitat,” the wealthy Silicon Valley enclave of Woodside has backed down.
At the end of a nearly 90-minute town emergency Town Council meeting Sunday night, almost all of which was held in closed session to discuss potential litigation, city officials announced they would begin accepting applications for new duplexes.
The change came after a whirlwind sparked by a story published Wednesday in the Almanac local newspaper, revealing that city officials would refuse to permit duplexes and other projects allowed under Senate Bill 9 because the entire community sits in land that’s habitat for potentially endangered mountain lions."
Proud Boys member files to run for Sacramento-area Assembly seat
LARA KORTE, SacBee: "An acknowledged member of the Proud Boys, a far-right, white nationalist group, has filed to run for California Assembly against Democratic incumbent Ken Cooley.
Jeffrey Erik Perrine last week filed paperwork for the newly-drawn 7th Assembly District, which encompasses much of eastern Sacramento County, including Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, Folsom, and Citrus Heights.
Perrine last year was expelled from an elected position on the Sacramento County Republican Party’s central committee after a report from The Sacramento Bee detailed his ties to the hate group.
UCLA to review threat protocols after criticism over last week’s response
LA Times, GREGORY YEE: "A week after UCLA’s response to suspected threats of mass violence by a former lecturer was criticized by some students as slow and inadequate, officials announced Monday that a task force will review the university’s threat response protocols.
Chancellor Gene Block said in a news release that the university is committed to protecting the campus community, improving its response to potential threats and “taking the opportunity to reflect on what worked well and what could be improved.”
“To that end, I am calling for the creation of a task force, including student representatives, to conduct a comprehensive review of our current protocols for responding to potential threats and other incidents on campus,” Block said."
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: "A landmark police brutality trial in San Francisco opened Monday with prosecutors and defense attorneys painting starkly different pictures of events preceding the moment Officer Terrance Stangel repeatedly struck Dacari Spiers on Oct. 6, 2019.
Neither side disputed that the officer was responding to a domestic violence call when he struck Spiers with his baton, delivering several blows while Spiers was on the ground.
But the lawyers offered competing versions of how Spiers reacted when he was confronted by Stangel and another officer."
Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle to announce challenge to Gavin Newsom
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Republican State Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber (Lassen County), will announce a campaign to challenge Gov. Gavin Newsom for governor Tuesday, The Chronicle has learned.
David Orosco, one of Dahle’s Senate aides, confirmed to The Chronicle Monday that Dahle is running. A top California Republican Party official also confirmed Monday that Dahle will announce his candidacy. They were granted anonymity so they could speak freely about the race.
“I have some important news I will be sharing next week” Dahle wrote on his Twitter account last week. On Monday, Dahle directed followers to join him at noon Tuesday for the announcement."
Nursing home infamous for high number of COVID deaths to close
JOE MOZINGO, LA Times: 'Kingston Healthcare Center in Bakersfield — a long-troubled nursing home that saw 19 residents die during an early COVID outbreak — announced it would close after the Department of Health and Health Services said the facility could no longer receive Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The department cited a long history of health code and other violations.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services office in San Francisco notified Kingston that its contract would be terminated Feb. 6 because it “failed to attain substantial compliance with multiple Medicare and Medicaid requirements,” including infection control, resident rights, quality of life, quality of care, food and nutrition, and dental and physician services."
One home, 1,200 potential buyers: The Bay Area’s daunting real estate math after COVID
The Chronicle, LAUREN HEPLER: "Frustrated house hunters aren’t imagining it — there really is just one home for sale for every 1,206 South Bay households earning $100,000 to $125,000 a year.
That’s according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors, which compares household income to the number of homes listed for sale in each price bracket as one way to gauge housing supply against potential demand. From households earning $50,000 a year to those raking in $500,000, the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas are at or near the top of the list for the nation’s least accessible cities, and competition is steepest in lower price ranges.
“Even though people can afford to buy, there are not houses for them,” said Nadia Evangelou, the association’s senior economist and director of forecasting."
S.F. Bay Area’s February heat wave begins this week. Here’s when temperatures will peak
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "It may be February, but Bay Area weather over the next few days was expected to feel more like late spring as temperatures climb into the 70s — with no rain in sight.
Temperatures were expected to stay within seasonal averages Monday and Tuesday, with highs in the low 60s and chilly overnight lows in the mid-40s, according to the National Weather Service.
But they’re expected to soar into the 70s — even hitting 80 in the North Bay — on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before cooling by a couple of degrees for the weekend."
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "Muni service, already hobbled by a persistent shortage of transit personnel, has been further battered in recent weeks by the Bay Area’s surge in omicron cases.
Since late December, more employees at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, have tested positive for COVID-19 than in the prior 22 months combined, according to the agency’s top leader. A surge in positive cases, as well as staff quarantining because of potential exposure to the virus, have contributed to high absence rates among the operators, mechanics and agency employees essential to keeping the transit service running.
Though absences at the agency have seemingly improved over the past week, the disruptions to Muni operations are expected to continue “over the next couple of weeks,” SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin said Monday."