“Outrageous”: Gas prices reach new record high in California, U.S.
JAKOB RODGERS, Mercury News: "Gas prices in the Bay Area and California broke records again Wednesday, with some stations hitting $7 a gallon for mid- and premium-grade, exacerbating concerns about inflation and the region’s exceptionally high cost of living.
The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in California hit $6.19 Wednesday, marking the latest in a string of record price hikes that began May 14 and showing no sign of relenting amid oil supply concerns, Russia’s war in Ukraine and rising demand as post-pandemic travel continues to surge. The most expensive places to buy gas in the state were in the Bay Area, with most cities seeing prices at least 15 to 30 cents higher than the rest of the state.
Calling the record prices “ridiculous,” Justin Miller marveled at the $117.74 it cost to refuel his truck at a Chevron gas station in Woodside, where mid- and premium-grade blends cost more than $7 a gallon Wednesday morning before dropping slightly later in the day."
Why new COVID variants are driving a surprise surge
LISA M. KRIEGER, Mercury News: "In its evolutionary fight for survival, the COVID virus is switching strategies: It’s becoming a master at slipping past our immune systems. And that, say experts, is largely why we’re dealing with an unexpected surge.
Powered by two mutations, new lineages of the omicron variant — called BA.2 and its more recent descendants BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 — are increasing rates of vaccine breakthrough and reinfection, according to an analysis published Saturday by Trevor Bedford, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who studies the evolution of viruses.
These latest strains are succeeding “not because they’re more contagious, as much as they are more immune evasive,” Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA adviser and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said at a recent presentation at UC San Francisco. “This is something that surprises virologists.”
Covid challenges, bad student behavior push teachers to limit, out the door
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: “Lynda White, who taught English, creative writing and social studies at El Monte Middle School in the small Central Valley town of Orosi for 21 years, started having panic attacks this school year as she drove to the campus.
“I would sit in my car, taking slow breaths, trying to calm myself down because I knew when I got on campus it would be horrible,” White said.
The veteran educator was among thousands of California teachers who quit their jobs before this school year ended. Some teachers left because of the challenges of teaching during a pandemic, while others were fearful they would contract Covid-19 and some were offered higher-paying jobs. Many just burned out.”
Column: Live with a gun owner? Researchers say that makes you less safe
LA Times, GEORGE SKELTON: “People buy handguns to protect themselves and their families. But guess what? Living with a handgun owner makes a person less safe.
That conclusion is derived from two research projects. One is a national survey of gun owners, including why they buy firearms. The other is a lengthy study of California homicides.
“Living with a handgun owner is associated with substantially elevated risk for dying by homicide,” concludes a Stanford University study of nearly 18 million Californian adults over a 12-year period. The report was released in April.”
Sacramento appellate justice forced to retire. Commission says he delayed 200 court decisions
BRIAN MELLEY, AP: "The presiding justice of the California appeals court in Sacramento has retired as part of a punishment announced Wednesday for delays in deciding 200 cases over a decade that cost litigants money and some criminal defendants their freedom.
Justice Vance Raye agreed to step down from the Third District Court of Appeal as part of a public admonishment for excessive delays that lasted years in some cases, the Commission on Judicial Performance said. “Justice Raye engaged in a pattern of delay in deciding a significant number of appellate cases over a lengthy period,” the commission said.
“He failed to encourage and adopt reasonable procedures to ensure that priority and older cases were decided first.”
Inmate shuffle: How California bounces around its mentally ill prisoners
CALMatters, Byrhonda Lyons/Jocelyn Wiener: “On the last day of Adam Collier’s life, he had breakfast in his cell in Kern Valley State Prison. He wrote two letters, one to his mother, the other to the guard who would later find his body.
During the previous four years in prison, Collier had been hospitalized for mental health crises 14 times. His many letters to family and friends wobbled between lucidity and gibberish. His medical records proffered graphic descriptions of self-harm. Collier had originally landed in prison for exposing himself to women in public while high on meth. Ashamed and delusional, he tried to castrate himself with a broken plastic cup because he believed it was God’s desire.
The prison system’s response to Collier’s increasing anguish?”
The ‘Dead Kid Club’: Parents of mass shooting victims are a growing network
LA Times, CONNOR SHEETS: “Four years and six days before a fourth-grade class was gunned down at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Rhonda Hart lost her teenage daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, in a shooting at a high school about 300 miles east.
She’s a member of a tragic, steadily growing network: parents of children who were killed in mass shootings. “We call it, unofficially, the Dead Kid Club,” she said.
So when she heard the news of yet another school shooting in Texas, Hart knew better than most what that will mean for the 19 families now missing young members.”
California fast-food workers plan statewide walkout, demand better workplace standards
ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS, SacBee: "Just three weeks into Carmen Guerrero’s new job at a Jack in the Box in Roseville, her 2-year-old daughter became severely ill, requiring Guerrero to take time off.
Even though Guerrero returned to work with a doctor’s note, she was not eligible for sick pay under state law because she had not worked long enough at the restaurant. Guerrero said her hours were also reduced shortly after. “I felt I was stripped of my dignity,” Guerrero said in Spanish through a translator.
“I live off my work, but if my daughter dies, I lose everything.”
COVID in California: Bay Area case numbers have hit a plateau for now
The Chronicle, Dominic Fracassa/Aidin Vaziri/Catherine Ho: “A large study of more than 60,000 people tested for the coronavirus in San Francisco found intriguing shifts in COVID-19 symptoms over subsequent surges. Bay Area COVID cases surged in May as the region endured a sixth surge. With the Warriors-Celtics NBA Finals about to get under way in the midst of a surge in coronavirus cases, health experts weighed in on the riskiest places to watch a game.
Latest updates:
Bay Area COVID cases have hit a plateau for now
The number of new coronavirus cases in the Bay Area appears to have temporarily leveled off, according to state data Wednesday analyzed by The Chronicle. The region is averaging a little over 51 confirmed daily cases per 100,000 residents, marking a slight decrease from the 55 per 100,000 reported a week earlier. San Francisco, which is once again leading the state with most infections relative to its population, is reporting 57 cases per 100,000 residents, compared to 62 last Monday. Other Bay Area counties are reporting similar dips in case counts. Hospitalizations in the region, a lagging indicator of the virus’ impact, have wavered slightly but remain as high as they were in early March. While the figures are promising, health experts say the Bay Area is still entrenched in the sixth surge of the virus and Memorial Day weekend activities, graduation parties and summer travel could easily push the numbers back up, especially if subvariants such as BA.4 and BA.5 gain a foothold in the region.”
As Bay Area cases swell again, it’s ‘very hard right now to avoid getting COVID’
The Chronicle, Erin Allday: “Coronavirus cases blew up across the Bay Area in May, as the region became entrenched in a sixth surge that is likely many times larger than what reported infections show and may even be approaching the magnitude of this past winter’s massive omicron wave, health experts say.
COVID hospitalizations are climbing in the Bay Area too — they’ve nearly doubled since the start of the month — though they remain at a relatively low and manageable level compared to prior surges, experts said. The number of patients with COVID needing intensive care in the region has more than doubled over the past month, but ICU capacity is not tapped out.
Deaths also remain far below the levels seen in earlier waves; the Bay Area has reported on average three deaths a day for almost all of May.”
Where L.A. mayoral candidates have raised the most money ahead of the June 7 primary
LA Times, IRIS LEE/SANDHYA KAMBHAMPATI: “With less than a week left until the primary, Los Angeles residents and businesses have contributed at least $8.7 million to mayoral candidates, nearly doubling in a month, according to new data released from the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
Roughly $49 million has poured in from contributions and loans, the most of any Los Angeles mayoral race to date. Of that, $33.5 million is money loaned from billionaire developer Rick Caruso to himself, who has spent more than any other candidate in the race. Other mayoral candidates are relying on money raised through political contributions.
The Times' analysis of contributions found the Westside of the city continues to have a large financial influence on the mayoral race.”
L.A. Democrats failed to mount united campaign against Sheriff Villanueva despite anger
LA Times, CONNOR SHEETS: “To pull off his improbable win in 2018, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva convinced liberal Democratic voters he was one of their own.
Many of them were in for a rude shock.
Villanueva has spent his first term in office thumbing his nose at the “woke left” and rebranding himself as a swashbuckling lawman who holds court on Fox News and has gained a following among some on the right.
Despite anger over Villanueva’s political shift, L.A. County Democratic clubs and progressive advocacy groups, hampered by infighting and indecision, have failed to unite behind any of the candidates seeking to unseat the sheriff, according to party officials, delegates and voters.”
The Chesa Boudin interview: Recall is 'scapegoating'
The Chronicle, Fifth & Mission Podcast: “San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is trying to fight off an effort to recall him from office in next Tuesday's election.
On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, Boudin sits down with San Francisco Chronicle Director of News and Fifth & Mission co-host Demian Bulwa to talk about the recall and the state of crime in the city.
"I'm working as hard as I can every day to make the city safer for all of us," Boudin says, "and I can't blame people ... for being frustrated.
The last two years have presented us individually and collectively with challenges and changes we never could have anticipated."”
S.F. Mayor Breed’s $14 billion budget would pump money into law enforcement, filling police ranks
The Chronicle, J.D. Morris: “Mayor London Breed wants to take advantage of some of San Francisco’s projected $75 million surplus over the next two fiscal years to help hire more police, give raises to experienced officers and boost the pay of new recruits to city law enforcement.
The plans are included in the new two-year city budget that Breed proposed Wednesday, reflecting her desire to fill vacant law enforcement jobs in response to public safety concerns raised by the San Francisco Police Department as well as many residents and business leaders. The proposed budget is $13.95 billion the first year, dropping to $13.85 billion the second — massive figures that reflect San Francisco’s rare status as both a city and county.
Breed has in recent months embraced an active role for law enforcement to address some of the city’s most dire street conditions and the ongoing drug crisis that worsened during the pandemic. Her push to bolster the police force comes despite mixed crime data — assaults and robberies are down, but shoplifting is up, for example — and as voters decide whether to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin.”
HUD secretary to see LA’s homelessness crisis, housing options Thursday
SoCal News, CITY NEWS SERVICE: “U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge will be in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 2, at the request of Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, to get a first-hand look at the city’s homelessness crisis and how federal dollars are being used to address it.
“Tackling the homelessness crisis through a Housing First approach is a top priority. At HUD, we are focused on ensuring that people have safe, stable, accessible housing and supportive services. Together we have an opportunity to solve this crisis and help people suffering live with healthy, hope, and dignity,” Fudge said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
Bass, who is running for mayor in Tuesday’s primary, is hosting the event in her capacity as congresswoman to show Fudge the urgent need for additional housing assistance, according to Bass’ office.
The tour, which will include visits to housing facilities that receive federal funding, will focus on the need for Section 8 housing vouchers and more low-income and moderate housing units. Fudge and Bass will also meet with housing and service providers.”
‘It didn’t have to happen.’ Experts review video, criticize S.F. police in double fatal shooting
The Chronicle, Megan Cassidy: “Policing experts who viewed footage of San Francisco police fatally shooting two unhoused men said the incident raised concerning questions, including why so many officers surrounded the men with guns drawn, why so many fired their weapons and whether the supervisor on scene gave them adequate direction.
The experts said police could have used better tactics to defuse the situation and disarm one or both of the men without firing their weapons. Despite their questions, however, at least one expert said it’s unlikely authorities will criminally charge the officers.
Police shot the men May 19 under a highway overpass near Mission Bay, as the two fought on the ground and as one appeared to lunge at the other with a knife. During a standoff that lasted for about nine minutes, officers had repeatedly ordered them to drop their knives, though it was unclear if both had weapons.”
LAUSD families urge district to provide tutoring programs
Daily News, LINH TAT: “With students still struggling to catch up following pandemic-related school closures, Los Angeles Unified families are demanding that the school district immediately use some of its COVID-19 governmental relief dollars to provide tutoring and small group instruction to the most vulnerable students.
L.A. Unified received $395 million in Expanded Learning Opportunities Program grant dollars from the state last year, of which $54 million was dedicated to tutoring and small group instruction, according to the advocacy group Innovate Public School.
But group members say the district hasn’t spent any of the $54 million.”
Fraternity sues Stanford over ‘draconian’ punishment after OD death of a student
The Chronicle, Andres Picon: “Alumni of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity at Stanford are suing the university, claiming that Stanford unjustly revoked its recognition of the fraternity chapter last year following an investigation that found that the frat had violated university drug policies.
Stanford officials announced in March 2021 that the fraternity, known as TDX, would lose university recognition for six years and have to surrender its on-campus house. In a statement Wednesday, fraternity alumni said that punishment was “unprecedented” at Stanford and claimed that it was meant to “shift blame” onto the fraternity for the overdose death of a member in January 2020.
Eitan Weiner, 19, the son of two Stanford employees and an undergraduate student at the university, died in January 2020 on a bathroom floor inside the TDX house from a fentanyl overdose after he took counterfeit Percocet pills. Stanford began its investigation into TDX following Weiner’s death, when officials received a report of illicit substances in the house.”
Berkeley teen tried to recruit students for mass shooting, bombing at high school, police say
The Chronicle, Lauren Hernández: “Berkeley police arrested a 16-year-old boy on Monday for allegedly trying to recruit other high school students to carry out a mass shooting and bombing at Berkeley High School, authorities said Wednesday.
The student turned himself in to Berkeley Police Department on Monday afternoon — days after police first received a tip about the teen’s alleged conduct — and was arrested on suspicion of possessing destructive device materials and for threatening to commit a crime which would result in death or great bodily injury, police said.
Police first received a tip on May 21 that a 16-year-old boy was trying to recruit other students to participate in a school shooting at the high school “that included explosives,” police said.”
Man arrested, suspected of threatening to shoot, bomb students at 5 LA schools
SoCal News, CITY NEWS SERVICE: “An Oklahoma man who grew up in Los Angeles was arrested Wednesday, June 1, accused of calling in bomb threats to five Los Angeles schools, including two elementary campuses, and also of threatening to shoot children as they left.
Marcus James Buchanan, 44, of Blackwell, Oklahoma was charged with one count of making a telephonic threat to damage or destroy buildings by fire or explosives, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to court papers, in less than two hours on the morning of Feb. 28, Buchanan allegedly called in bomb threats to two elementary schools, two middle schools and a high school.”
Horses, dogs, emus, bees: A farm in Ukraine becomes a wartime sanctuary (for humans, too)
LA Times, NABIH BULOS: “There once was a farmer with 10 sheep, a beekeeper with 41 hives (and a turtle) and a cook with 62 pheasants and peacocks. And they all lived peacefully in the fields and meadows of a place called the Donbas.
But then Russian invaders came from the north and east, and rockets rained down around them, and the farmer, beekeeper and cook prepared to leave their homes, joining millions of other Ukrainians in an exodus that has become the largest migrant crisis in Europe since World War II.
With their owners getting ready to go, where could the sheep, the bees (and the turtle), the pheasants and the peacocks go?”