L.A. mayor candidates visit neighborhoods across the city in final push for votes
DAKOTA SMITH, JULIA WICK and BENJAMIN ORESKES, LA Times: "Los Angeles mayoral candidates visited neighborhoods from Boyle Heights to Mar Vista to Woodland Hills over the weekend, pushing for votes ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.
Rep. Karen Bass, who was joined by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, rode atop a double-decker Starline Tour bus crisscrossing through L.A. on Sunday. Dressed in a red linen suit, Bass danced jubilantly to the 1979 disco hit “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.”
One man craned his head out of his car window to yell, “You got my vote, baby!”
Progressive Prosecutor Movement Tested by Rising Crime and Angry Voters
ZUSHA ELINSON and JACOB GERSHMAN, WSJ: "District Attorney Chesa Boudin declared his 2019 election victory a call by voters for radical change. He promised to do more than lock up criminals and embarked on a progressive agenda to reduce incarceration rates and scrutinize police misconduct.
On Tuesday, Mr. Boudin faces voters again, in a recall election backed by business owners unhappy with his performance. Polls indicate his ouster is supported by the majority of residents in a famously liberal city that has seen, along with the rest of the nation, a spike in murder and other crimes.
“Crime makes everyone more moderate,” said Albert Chow. He owns a hardware store in a once-placid San Francisco neighborhood hard-hit by home and business burglaries."
Will the Central Valley elect its first Latino candidate to the US House in 2022?
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: "The Central Valley has never sent a Latino candidate to the United State House of Representatives.
This could be the year, progressives say.
People who identify as Hispanic or Latino make up the largest ethnic group in California: 39% of the population, according to the latest census.
Digital currencies flow to campaigns, but state rules vary
ANDREW SELSKY and STEVE LEBLANC, AP: "For congressional candidate Shrina Kurani, cryptocurrency is not only the future of money, it’s a transformative technology that could revolutionize campaign funding and attract a new generation of voters.
She is among a vanguard of candidates courting campaign contributions in digital currencies such as Bitcoin.
“We are a campaign that is speaking to a large part of the population, especially younger people,” said the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants, who is on Tuesday’s primary ballot as she seeks the Democratic nomination for a congressional seat east of Los Angeles."
California lawmakers mull buying out farmers to save water
ADAM BEAM, AP: "After decades of fighting farmers in court over how much water they can take out of California’s rivers and streams, some state lawmakers want to try something different: use taxpayer money to buy out farmers.
A proposal in the state Senate would spend up to $1.5 billion to buy “senior water rights” that allow farmers to take as much water as needed from the state’s rivers and streams to grow their crops. If state officials owned those rights, they could leave the water in the rivers to benefit endangered species of salmon and other fish.
California has been mired in drought for most of the last two decades, prompting intense scrutiny of the state’s complex water system and how it might be modified to ensure steady supplies during exceptionally dry periods — including a separate state proposal that would pay farmers to grow fewer crops to save water."
Marijuana business is booming in Sacramento and so are the jobs that come with it
RANDY DIAMOND, SacBee: "The cannabis industry in the city of Sacramento has become the ninth largest employer with nearly 8,000 workers four years after recreational marijuana was legalized, shows a report commissioned by city officials.
“It’s a remarkable turn of events” said David Zehnder, a managing principal with consulting firm Economics & Planning Systems and the study’s lead researcher.
In a city dominated by the state government and its 25,000 workers, Zehnder said legalized cannabis has created a growing stream of companies and employees."
Confidence in LAPD drops sharply, poll finds, but L.A. voters don’t want to shrink force
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR, ALEJANConfidence DRA REYES-VELARDE: “Voters in Los Angeles have serious concerns about the Los Angeles Police Department but little interest in shrinking its size amid worries over rising crime, according to a new poll by UC Berkeley and The Times.
Fewer than a third of the city’s registered voters surveyed said they approve of the LAPD’s overall performance — a startling drop from 2009, when a Times poll found 77% of people approved of the department under the leadership of William J. Bratton, an influential chief who oversaw dramatic reforms.
And a majority of respondents believe LAPD officers are tougher on Black residents than other Angelenos. Nearly half said such racial inequities are the result of systemic problems within the department, not just the behavior of individual officers.”
How a suicide in his family pushed a California congressman to fight for gun control
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "Salud Carbajal was 12, in his bedroom with his brother, when he heard a loud pop coming from another room.
His sister had killed herself with her father’s revolver.
“I got up and saw my sister on the ground with a pool of blood around her,” recalled Carbajal, now 57. “That trauma has been with me the rest of my life.”
Trump endorses Tom McClintock for Congress in California primary, is silent on Valadao
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "Rep. Tom McClintock got former President Donald Trump’s endorsement Sunday for another House term, as the former president said the congressman has worked to “reject the woke mob trying to destroy our country.”
Another Republican incumbent, Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, did not receive Trump’s backing. Valadao, running in a swing district, was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump last year.
McClintock, a seven-term representative running in the new 5th Congressional District, won a perfect rating last year from the American Conservative Union. During Trump’s presidency, he was a stalwart ally and defender.
Orange County man to plead guilty to $5-million COVID-19 relief loan scam
CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ, LA Times: "An Orange County man has agreed to plead guilty to a $5-million COVID-19 relief loan scam, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a release.
Raghavender Reddy Budamala, 35, of Irvine allegedly used relief loans to purchase a $1.2-million “investment property” in Eagle Rock, a nearly $600,000 property in Malibu and a “personal residence” in Irvine. Budamala deposited nearly $3 million into a personal account, the U.S. attorney said.
Under the plea agreement, Budamala will admit to one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering and will forfeit all of the money he gained during the scheme."
Victim identified in 1999 Yolo County cold case homicide using genetic genealogy
DOMINIQUE WILLIAMS, SacBee: "Sacramento-area law enforcement on Thursday identified the victim of a 1999 homicide in Yolo County using genetic genealogy, authorities said.
Gerron Gipson, who had ties to the region, was 29 years old at the time of his death on March 4, 1999, according to a Friday news release from the Yolo County district attorney.
Gipson’s remains were found on the bank of a slough near Clarksburg, and due to decomposition, he could not be identified at the time.
Here is what to look out for as monkeypox cases crop up in California and the world
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “As the still-rare monkeypox crops up around the world, including a San Francisco case now among five in California, people on the alert for the symptoms may not always see the typical patterns and blisters.
The rash is there, but experts say it may be subtle, even unnoticed, and it doesn’t always start on the face. As well, the more recent disease may present with or without the flu-like symptoms of traditional monkeypox.
“The rash is similar in some senses, and different in others, to what we know about ‘textbook’ monkeypox,” UCSF infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong said Sunday. “The major difference in this current outbreak is that the rash appears to start in the genital area and the anus rather than the face or trunk. From the genitals, it can move to the arms and palms of the hands, and sometimes the face, including the mouth.”
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: “As the campaign to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin heads to a vote Tuesday, campaign finance data shows that groups created to oust the embattled D.A. out-raised anti-recall groups by more than 2 to 1, primarily thanks to high-spending individual donors and corporate entities.
The four local committees created to support the recall have raised $7.2 million, while four committees opposing the recall raised $3.3 million, according to data on political contributions filed with the San Francisco Ethics Commission. Put together, $10.5 million was raised for the recall by June 1, the last filing due date before San Franciscans are scheduled to vote on whether Boudin should stay in office.
By comparison, the 2018 special election for mayor only garnered $5.2 million in contributions across nine candidates.”
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: “Several hundred residents of a San Francisco luxury apartment tower spent the weekend in two downtown hotels — and it wasn’t a group staycation.
Instead, the tenants of 33 Tehama St. were evacuated Friday when a water pipe broke atop the sleek 35-story highrise in the Transbay district that bills itself on its website as a haven of “truly cosmopolitan living.” They don’t expect to return before Friday, and are exiled until then to hotel rooms near Union Square that were leased hurriedly by 33 Tehama’s owner.
“The elevators are broken beyond repair and the fire marshal won’t let anyone return,’’ said Austin Caldwell, 28, who pays $3,330 with his partner for a one-bedroom on the second floor.
Summit of the Americas opens in L.A. as U.S. grapples with deteriorating relations and influence
LA Times, TRACY WILKINSON: “It was the early 1990s, and the Western world seemed full of promise. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and the Cold War that had gripped and shaped global politics for decades was over.
So were many of the wars in Central America and some of the most intractable and brutal military dictatorships in South America, from Argentina and Chile to Brazil.
Then-President Clinton seized on the moment and the Summit of the Americas was born, with the inaugural event held in Miami in 1994. All of the countries of the Western Hemisphere except Cuba joined to debate trade, prosperity, immigration and democracy. And every one of the governments involved had been democratically elected, a sign of major progress.”
Britain says its high-tech missile system can help Ukraine push back Russia
AP, JOHN LEICESTER: “ystems it is offering to Ukraine will bring “a significant boost in capability” for the country’s efforts to resist Russia’s invasion.
“If the international community continues its support, I believe Ukraine can win” its war against Russia, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement.
The statement came after comments Sunday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warned the West against sending longer-range rocket systems to Ukraine.”