California lawmakers kill plans to ban oil drilling in state-controlled waters
LA Times, PHIL WILLON: "Facing fierce opposition from California’s powerful oil industry and trade unions, legislation to close down operations on three offshore oil rigs off the Orange County coast failed Thursday to win passage in a state Senate committee, seven months after a major spill fouled the beaches and wetlands around Huntington Beach.
Senate Bill 953 would have allowed the State Lands Commission to terminate offshore oil leases by the end of 2024 if the agency was unable to negotiate voluntary buyouts with the petroleum companies operating the oil platforms. The legislation focused solely on the three oil leases in state waters adjacent to Orange County, not the 23 oil rigs in federal waters along the rest of California’s coastline.
The measure was introduced by state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) after an October oil spill off Huntington Beach dumped an estimated 25,000 gallons into the ocean. Investigators suspect it was caused by a cargo ship anchor that snagged a 17-mile-long pipeline stretching from an oil platform that operates in federal waters to the Port of Long Beach."
Historic state budget blueprint faces crucial hurdles
CHUCK McFADDEN, Capitol Weekly: "Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a multi-billion-dollar package of monetary goodies for Californians, but how much of it will become reality is now up to legislators.
The clock ticks: Lawmakers have less than a month to approve the 2022-23 budget, an unprecedented, nearly $300 billion document, and send it to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who will then act on it by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
Despite the pandemic, an uncertain economy, spiraling home prices, a number of fiscal scandals and concerns for the future, California reported nearly $100 billion in additional revenues, much of it in the form of taxes paid by millionaires and billionaires."
Top California Democrats in a stalemate over gas rebates
NICOLE NIXON, CapRadio: "Aurora Chang leans over and flicks the gas pump off before the tank of her gray sedan is full. She gestures at the Safeway Gas sign that blares $5.69 in red numbers. It’s a good deal at 20 cents below Sacramento County’s average price, but still too high for Chang.
“Usually, I like to fill it up,” she says. “But with that price, now it’s probably going to take me more than $80 to fill it up.”
The Sacramento grandmother is the main source of transportation for her two grandchildren and two nephews. Getting them to and from school and after-school activities means she needs to fill up twice a week."
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/SOPHIA BOLLAG: "No ban on offshore drilling in state waters. No election day holiday. No speed cameras.
Those measures were among dozens of bills that died in the California Legislature on Thursday, without debate, as the Assembly and Senate appropriations committees moved hundreds of bills through a procedural bottleneck for legislation with significant fiscal impacts.
Here are four key measures that got shelved:"
Battle ready: Firefighters position themselves for possible wildfires in Lake, Colusa counties
The Chronicle, LAUREN HERNANDEZ: California emergency services officials have “strategically” placed fire engines and water tenders in Lake and Colusa counties ahead of critical fire weather conditions that are expected in parts of Northern California through Friday evening, authorities said Thursday.
Gusty winds, high temperatures and low humidity were forecast to start on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento, which issued a red flag warning for parts of inland Northern California stretching from Mendocino County to San Joaquin County — and including part of Solano County — through 8 p.m. Friday.
The weather service issues red flag warnings when there is an increased risk of extreme fire danger. Meteorologists said temperatures could reach the low 100s in the valleys, and state officials said wind gusts may reach up to 35 to 45 mph and could be stronger in “wind-prone mountain areas."
Black vice principal resigns, says Sacramento school failed to protect her from racist messages
MARCUS D. SMITH, SacBee: "A Black Sacramento high school administrator who said she was targeted in a series of racially motivated incidents on campus late last year is resigning from the Sacramento City Unified School District.
West Campus High School Assistant Principal Elysse Versher told the district this week that she will not return for the next school year.
She disclosed in the message that harassment she experienced harmed her health and led her to consider suicide.
L.A. County coronavirus cases rise to new risk level, sparking concern
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "Los Angeles County hospitals are once again seeing a marked increase in the number of coronavirus-positive patients requiring their care — triggering new concern that healthcare systems could once again come under strain unless the region gets its arms around the latest resurgence of the virus.
The case rate in the nation’s most populous county is now high enough to land it within the “medium” COVID-19 community level outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reaching this category, the middle on the agency’s three-tier scale, “is concerning, since it could signal that the increases that we’re seeing in our COVID cases may soon put pressure on our healthcare resources,” said county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
Fourteen California counties are now in the medium community level, but L.A. is the only one in Southern California. The others are eight of the nine counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (the lone exception is Napa County), the coastal counties north of the Bay Area, as well as Santa Cruz County and Yolo County, home to UC Davis."
There’s a monkeypox outbreak. What is it and should Bay Area residents be worried?
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "A new global virus outbreak is making headlines, and it’s not related to COVID.
Cases of the viral infection known as monkeypox, which is related to smallpox, have been reported worldwide. One case has been identified in the U.S. so far, and a handful of other cases have been reported in Canada, the U.K. and several European countries.
This is what we know so far about monkeypox and how it could affect Bay Area residents."
With baby formula scarce, California mothers are sharing their breast milk
LA Times, SONJA SHARP: "For Diana Granados, 29, the quest began with a callout on a popular Instagram page for new parents.
“Do you have any formula to spare?”
Granados didn’t. But as she thought of the ongoing national formula shortage, and of babies like her 6-month-old son, Raul, going hungry, she wanted to offer what she could."
Secret retreats and a powerful ‘cabal’: Corruption probe reveals who really runs Anaheim
LA Times, NATHAN FENNO, ADAM ELMAHREK, GABRIEL SAN ROMÁN: "A year and a half ago, two power brokers in Anaheim discussed a critical question on the phone: Who should they invite to a secretive gathering of Anaheim business leaders, consultants and politicians?
It would be a “retreat” at a local hotel, and one of them described their small group as a “cabal.” Attendance would be limited to people they could trust or, as they put it, “family members only.”
What the men didn’t know was that the FBI was listening."
San Francisco faces $1.3 billion shortfall in quest to meet state housing goals
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "San Francisco would need an additional $1.3 billion in order to meet the state-mandated affordable housing production requirements set to kick in next year, according to a report from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
That’s just the start: The number swells each year, topping out at $2.4 billion by 2029.
While San Francisco is still working on its “housing element” — a housing production plan every California city is required to complete every eight years — city planners face a daunting task: how to create 82,000 new homes in the eight years between 2023 and 2030, including 32,000 that are affordable to very low-income and low-income families. The housing requirements assigned to every city are known as Regional Needs Housing Allocation, or RHNA."
This elite Bay Area private high school is going remote as COVID infections rise
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "An elite private high school in Oakland will go remote for the last week of classes, a precaution to stave off rising COVID-19 infections among the student body, administrators said Thursday.
Beginning Thursday morning, teachers at The College Preparatory School held classes online, hoping that the school’s 372 students would return to campus for finals on May 27, followed by in-person events to celebrate graduation.
“We’re just trying to be prudent,” Sara Sackner, the school’s director of advancement, told the Chronicle. With cases rising in the Bay Area, fueled by new, infectious variants that relentlessly spawn every four to six months, Sackner and other staff saw an opportune moment to shut down and beat back the surge."
Russia says hundreds of Ukrainian troops in custody; U.S. Senate approves $40 billion in new aid
LA Times, PATRICK J. MCDONNELL/JAWEED KALEEM/TRACY WILKINSON: "Their fates unknown, more than 1,700 Ukrainian fighters were in Russian custody Thursday after they surrendered in the conquered city of Mariupol, Moscow said, even as Ukraine claimed battlefield gains elsewhere and heard a repentant confession from a Russian soldier in the country’s first war crimes trial.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the Senate gave final congressional approval to another massive package of aid for Ukraine. The $40-billion allotment includes weapons and humanitarian assistance. Heavy weaponry supplied by the U.S. and allies have made a significant difference in Ukraine’s underdog fight against its larger neighbor.
The Ukrainian soldiers who had defended the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol were taken to a pretrial detention center, Russian officials said. An undisclosed number of commanders remained inside the sprawling steelworks, which has become a symbol of resistance in the protracted war. The plant was Ukraine’s last redoubt in the devastated port city, whose capture has given Russia a key territorial gain along the southern coast."