California state lawmakers rush to fix UC Berkeley’s enrollment problem
NANETTE ASIMOV, Chronicle: “In a bid to salvage admission to UC Berkeley for thousands of new students next fall, California lawmakers took steps Monday to free all state colleges and universities from the portion of an environmental law that led to an enrollment cap for the fall at the state’s premier public campus.
The state Assembly moved with lightning speed by a vote of 69 to 0 to approve SB118, an amendment to the state budget that would remove public college enrollment as a consideration in the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA.
If approved by the Senate and signed into law by Gov. Newsom as expected, the bill could also nullify a legal ruling requiring UC Berkeley to freeze fall enrollment at 2020 levels — which triggered the rapid writing of this bill from Assembly member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and other concerned lawmakers.”
UC Berkeley’s housing crisis is 50 years in the making, and students say, ‘We get screwed at every turn’
J.K. DINEEN, Chronicle: “In the mid-1990s, developer Patrick Kennedy approached UC Berkeley with a deal he thought it couldn’t refuse.
Kennedy owned a piece of property on Oxford Street, directly across from campus, that was approved for 56 apartments. Kennedy, who was short of cash at the time, was willing to sell it to the university for a bargain price of $500,000. There was some initial interest from UC Berkeley’s administration, but after months of going back and forth, the deal fizzled out. Kennedy eventually raised the cash to build it himself. The entire complex leased up “before it was sheet-rocked,” Kennedy said.
“UC Berkeley couldn’t get it together to buy it,” Kennedy said. “At that time they were a bureaucracy that couldn’t act nimbly if their lives depended on it.”
UC Berkeley Enrollment Case Fuels Wider Battle for Student Housing
CHRISTINE MAI-DUC, Wall Streetr Journal: “California universities are turning dormitory lounges into bedrooms, putting students in hotel rooms, and leasing entire apartment buildings to deal with a housing shortage that recently led to a judge ordering UC Berkeley to freeze its on-campus enrollment.
The state’s public higher learning institutions have added tens of thousands fewer beds than students in recent years, as a problem across the state—a lack of affordable homes caused in large part by restraints on construction—hits college towns particularly hard.
Spurred by a national outcry over the Berkeley decision, California legislators have proposed measures to delay its impact or spur more construction at colleges. State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a proposal that would exempt many student housing projects from environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, which was at the heart of the Berkeley suit.”
Could Berkeley environmental suit spur new reform?
LOUIS HANSEN, Mercury News: “In the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling this month limiting UC Berkeley admissions, business groups, housing advocates and lawmakers have rallied again to support reforms to a controversial environmental law long used to slow growth.
But will the national notoriety drummed up by the case – Cal students as environmental hazards? – finally push lawmakers to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act?
It’s doubtful, experts say, meaning the law will remain a strong obstacle to new development for years to come.”
How Californians Feel About the End of School Mask Mandates
SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, NY Times: “In March 2020, California became the first state in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Two years later, Covid-19 policies here and elsewhere are being rolled back, a shift that is sowing division among those who once agreed how best to handle the pandemic.
One of the most contentious changes in California has been the lifting of the statewide school mask mandate.”
Column: Renting a car from Hertz? You could wind up in jail
MICHAEL HILTZIK, LA Times: “Tederhi Usude, a Santa Clarita dentist, rented a car from Hertz in June 2020 to drive to a job at a nonprofit health clinic in rural Mendocino County. He extended the rental several times with Hertz’s permission and paid a total of $7,000.
Usude, 55, says that in his last conversation with a Hertz agent he explained that he was temporarily quarantined because of a COVID-19 outbreak at the clinic, and would return the car as soon as he was cleared to travel again. On Dec. 18, 2020, he was on his way to return the vehicle the week before Christmas — in fact, he had turned onto the very street where the Hertz office was located.
That’s when his nightmare began. A police car flashed its lights behind him. He pulled over and was ordered out of the car. By then six or eight squad cars were on the scene. He was told to lie on the ground, was handcuffed and was taken to the local jail, where he spent the night.”
Del Norte County sheriff charged with voter fraud
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: “A Northern California sheriff is facing felony charges for allegedly filing false voter registration and nomination papers with a nonpermanent address, prosecutors said.
Del Norte County Dist. Atty. Katherine Micks announced the charges — including perjury, filing false voter registration and false declaration of candidacy — against acting Sheriff Randall Waltz on Wednesday.
Waltz, formerly the county’s undersheriff, was appointed to the top job in September after his predecessor abruptly resigned. After announcing plans to run in the primary election this June, he listed on his voter registration a Smith River address where he did not permanently reside, court documents say.”
California oil industry wants to drill more. Why that wouldn’t tame runaway gas prices
DALE KASLER, SacBee: “From the dusty fields of the San Joaquin Valley to the offshore platforms of Southern California, the state’s oil producers say they could help stabilize runaway gasoline prices — if only Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration would let them.
Oil industry executives say the state Department of Conservation is sitting on an estimated 1,000 permit applications to drill new wells — frustrating their efforts to increase supplies as war rages in Ukraine and America cuts off imports from Russia.
“We could see a surge in production if the Newsom administration would get the permits off the desk,” said Kevin Slagle, a spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association, the industry’s main lobbying organization in Sacramento.”
Column: California must stop taking away child support from kids and families
GEORGE SKELTON, LA Times: “This seems counterintuitive in such a liberal state, but it’s a fact: California rips off child support payments intended for moms who receive government aid.
It’s largely Washington’s fault because of a federal law enacted nearly a half-century ago.
Not only California, but most states engage in this shameful heist based on federal guidelines.
School districts across L.A. County go mask optional; L.A. Unified is an exception
HOWARD BLUME and LUKE MONEY, LA Times: “Monday marked the first day since most schools reopened in spring 2021 that students across Los Angeles County have the option to remove their masks in class — although the L.A. Unified School District is an exception.
The option to remove masks took effect based on a revised county health order and clearance from state health officials. Yet county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer strongly urges that masking continue as a prudent and valuable measure, especially because student vaccination rates are lagging: 29% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated.
Data indicate that children are far less susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19 and are frequently asymptomatic, but they can still pass on the infection to others of all ages.”
California’s first lab-grown mosquitoes may take flight — stirring controversy
LISA M. KRIEGER, Mercury News:”A biotech firm is seeking permission to release genetically modified mosquitoes into the open air of California for the first time later this year, aiming to reduce the expanding populations of invasive mosquitoes and prevent deadly disease.
If approved, the controversial research project – planned for the Tulare County community of Visalia, with potential expansion into Fresno, San Bernadino and Stanislaus counties – will over time introduce 2 million male mosquitoes with a “kill switch” built into their DNA. When they mate with wild insects, their offspring die, causing an eventual collapse of the population.
Their target: Swarms of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, first detected in Los Angeles County in 2011, which have since spread northward into 20 California counties. While California’s native mosquito emerges at dusk, these black-and-white-striped invaders hunt for blood during the day, when people are outside. Elsewhere, they transmit potentially fatal Zika, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya and other viruses.”
Will California gasoline prices ever go down? Here’s what needs to happen
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: “California gasoline prices are likely to go down – eventually, those monitoring the escalation say.
“You can argue that prices at the pump now are artificially driven,” said Sanjay Varshney, professor of finance at California State University, Sacramento.
Lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington are frantically scrambling to find ways to stabilize and lower gasoline prices that have been setting new records almost daily.”