Police officers say they’re overdosing from fentanyl exposure. What’s really going on?
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "It’s become a regularly occurring story line: Law enforcement agencies issue dire warnings, saying that officers have overdosed from an exposure to fentanyl, through the air, skin contact or even through administering CPR to someone experiencing an overdose, underscoring the dangers of the powerful synthetic opioid.
Last month, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that three deputies became dizzy and were hospitalized after searching a vehicle they suspected contained fentanyl, punctuated by photographs of first responders in hazardous materials suits. The deputies suffered no serious injuries, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Before that, the San Diego Sheriff’s Office shared a video of an officer seemingly overdosing just by coming into contact with the drug. In 2020, seven people, including four California Highway Patrol officers, were hospitalized following a potential fentanyl exposure on the Golden Gate Bridge."
School choice backers fail to put measure on California's November ballot
JOHN FENSTERWALD, EdSource: “School choice will not be on the ballot in November.
The man who led an initiative campaign to provide $14,000 per student for parents and guardians to select the private or religious school of their choice acknowledged that the drive fell substantially short of the signatures needed to put the measure before voters.
In an email to supporters last week, Michael Alexander, chair of California School Choice Initiative, said the campaign would collect about 200,000 signatures by the 180-day deadline for submitting them on April 11. That’s 20% of the required 997,000 verified signatures and less than a seventh of the campaign’s goal of 1.5 million signature to ensure the initiative would qualify.”
Sacramento teachers don’t have to pay for health care for life, a perk they’ll fight to keep
SAWSAN MORRAR, SacBee: “Retirement is comfortable for Richard Creel.
Creel, 62, taught in the Sacramento City Unified School District for 26 years, owns his Rancho Cordova home outright and receives a pension through the California State Teachers’ Retirement System.
And he doesn’t have to worry about health insurance. That’s paid for in full thanks to the benefits he earned in his teaching career.”
Garcetti gave ‘unintentionally blended numbers’ on sex allegations involving advisor, rep says
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH, JENNIFER HABERKORN: "As U.S. senators weigh the veracity of sexual harassment allegations lodged against Mayor Eric Garcetti’s former advisor and the mayor’s handling of the alleged claims, Garcetti twice made an inaccurate statement to reporters about witnesses in the case.
When pressed by reporters about the Senate’s concerns, Garcetti told two television reporters on Thursday that 40 people “under oath” didn’t provide corroboration to bolster the sexual harassment allegations made against his former aide, Rick Jacobs. The accusations have roiled Garcetti’s bid to become U.S. ambassador to India and have sparked an investigation by a Republican senator.
“I think it’s crystal clear,” Garcetti told Fox 11 News at a ribbon-cutting event for a senior community development in Pico-Robertson. “Forty people interviewed under oath, who said there’s zero corroboration. That speaks for itself.”
A beloved USC custodian was accused of theft and fired. The campus is rallying behind her
LA Times, MELISSA GOMEZ/KEVIN RECTOR: " On several floors of the Seeley G. Mudd building on USC’s campus, Francisca Trigueros was a known and trusted face. The 61-year-old custodian had been cleaning bathrooms, classrooms, labs and offices there for more than two decades, and was on a first-name basis with many of the psychology professors and staff who worked there.
So when word got out that Trigueros had been suspended and arrested for allegedly stealing a student‘s backpack with cash in it, many of those same faculty members jumped to her defense — demanding the university investigate what they saw as a wrongful campus arrest based on a “simple misunderstanding.”
Trigueros, they reasoned, would not have done what she stood accused of doing."
Shelter-in-place advisory lifted after massive fire engulfs San Jose Home Depot
MAGGIE ANGST, Mercury News: “A shelter-in-place advisory was lifted early Sunday afternoon for residents living or working near a South San Jose Home Depot that was destroyed Saturday in a fiery blaze, sending a thick plume of gray smoke into the air and forcing widespread evacuations.
The threat of hazardous gasses from the building’s smoldering remains caused the San Jose Fire Hazardous Incident Team to deem the air quality to be “unhealthy” Saturday night into Sunday morning. As a result, officials instructed residents in the area of the Home Depot store at 920 Blossom Hill Road to stay inside, close all windows and doors and turn off any air conditioning systems.
New details emerged Sunday of where the fire began, with the first flames appearing to originate in a back corner of the building in the store’s lumber section, said Capt. Christopher Pickup, a San Jose Fire Department spokesman. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.”
Lawsuit challenges community college vaccine and mask mandates
KRISTINA DAVIS, Union-Tribune: “A civil rights lawsuit has been filed against Southern California community colleges by a group of employees and a student who are challenging vaccine, mask and testing mandates that have aimed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campuses.
The lawsuit, filed March 30 in San Diego federal court, names the San Diego Community College District, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District and the South Orange County Community College District. The districts currently require staff and students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to be on campus, and to wear masks indoors. In some cases, unvaccinated students and staff may be required to test once or twice a week.
The lawsuit alleges the schools did not have the authority to adopt such widespread mandates and also ignored or failed to adequately accommodate employees and students seeking religious-belief or medical exemptions.”
What if College Were Free? This State Is Trying to Find Out.
SIMON ROMERO, NYT: “As universities across the United States face steep enrollment declines, New Mexico’s government is embarking on a pioneering experiment to fight that trend: tuition-free higher education for all state residents.
After President Biden’s plan for universal free community college failed to gain traction in Congress, New Mexico, one of the nation’s poorest states, has emerged with perhaps the most ambitious plans as states scramble to come up with their own initiatives.
A new state law approved in a rare show of bipartisanship allocates almost 1 percent of the state’s budget toward covering tuition and fees at public colleges and universities, community colleges and tribal colleges. All state residents from new high school graduates to adults enrolling part-time will be eligible regardless of family income. The program is also open to immigrants regardless of their immigration status.
California is trying to curb gun violence. What about other states?
The Chronicle, JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "Three days after one of the deadliest mass shootings in Sacramento history left six people dead and 12 wounded, the downtown corridor where it occurred — 10th and K streets — was covered in makeshift memorials. Red roses were scattered among candles, and photos of individuals who died last Sunday were taped to storefront windows.
As The Chronicle reported last week, authorities say at least five people fired guns during the shootout and the evidence collected by police included more than 100 shell casings and “a stolen handgun and a gun modified to make it capable of firing as an automatic weapon.”
This harrowing tragedy is too familiar in California."
Plans to curb California insulin costs abound. Will anything get done this year?
The Chronicle, ANA B IBARRA: "As consumers, advocates and others prioritize their fight to lower prescription drug costs, insulin is usually first in line.
Now, momentum to curb rising insulin costs seems to be building, with policymakers at the state and federal levels rolling out proposals seeking to provide diabetics some long-awaited financial relief. The questions now: What will materialize and how soon?
This week in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said it is moving forward with a first-in-the-nation plan to manufacture and distribute more affordable versions of insulin under its generic label, dubbed Cal Rx."
New district boundaries for S.F. supervisors take shape, and few are happy with result
The Chronicle, Lauren Hernández/Michael Cabanatuan/Jessica Flores: "San Francisco’s redistricting task force adopted a plan early Sunday to shift the boundaries of the city’s supervisorial districts following weeks of increasingly bitter debate over race and equity and allegations of a political power grab.
The vote, taken just before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, pushed ahead the latest draft of the revised map, created after hours of adjustments to district boundaries, often only a few city blocks at a time. Four members of the nine-member Redistricting Task Force did not vote on the draft, having walked out after a disagreement over procedure more than 15 hours into the meeting.
The nine-member Redistricting Task Force — appointed by the city’s mayor, board of supervisors and elections commission — will meet again this week and must vote on the final map by Wednesday. That version will be made official on Friday."
San Francisco’s tourists are returning, but hotel workers mostly aren’t
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "San Francisco’s beleaguered tourism industry got good news when hotels hit their highest occupancy rate — 76% — since before the pandemic when the Game Developers Conference, the NCAA basketball tournament and a top sailing race were in town last month.
But that tells only part of the story. While more tourists are enjoying their San Francisco vacations, many of the people who would be serving them in the city’s hotels remain out of work.
Nearly half of the 9,000 people who work in San Francisco’s hotels — more than 60% of them immigrants— haven’t been asked to return to their jobs full time."