Officers search state Sen. Wiener’s S.F. home for bombs after Sunday death threat
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: “Uniformed officers with bomb-sniffing dogs searched the San Francisco home of state Sen. Scott Wiener following a written death threat filled with hate language.
The threat, which was full of sexual obscenities and a subject line stating “he will die today,” was emailed to members of Wiener’s staff. “We placed bombs in his office and his house,” it said. “You bastards all deserve to die.”
It was deemed a threat credible enough that it is being investigated by San Francisco Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.”
EdSource, MICHAEL BURKE: “At least one-third of California’s community colleges are still unnecessarily enrolling students in noncredit remedial math classes — a practice that could come to an end if new state legislation is signed into law, a new analysis found.
At 38 of the state’s 115 degree-granting community colleges, students with strong high school records are being enrolled in remedial math classes, according to a report released Monday by the California Acceleration Project, a group advocating for the elimination of remedial classes. This fall, those colleges are among 47 colleges that are planning to continue offering remedial classes, which can’t be used for transfer to a four-year university.
The report says the colleges are violating the intent of Assembly Bill 705, a law passed in 2017 that says colleges must allow students access to transfer-level classes unless they are deemed highly unlikely to succeed in those courses.”
Has California’s top-two primary system worked?
DAN WALTERS, CalMatters: "By happenstance, last week’s “top two” primary election marked the 10th anniversary of the system that dramatically changed California’s political dynamics.
Prior to 2012, California had a closed primary system in which registered voters of the two major parties separately chose their parties’ candidates to face each other in the general election.
Critics said the system had a polarizing effect because candidates won their nominations by appealing to activist elements which tended to be very liberal in the Democratic Party and very conservative in the Republican Party. The rising numbers of independent voters, registered in neither party, were discouraged from participating in primary elections, which affected the outcomes of other issues, such as ballot measures."
Newsom says recall of San Francisco D.A. Boudin was ‘so predictable’
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he was not at all surprised that San Francisco voters recalled progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin last week, and he decried the national attention it drew.
“That was so predictable, predictable, particularly after the school board recall,” Newsom said Friday in an interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles. “Nothing about that was surprising.”
What was unexpected was the scrutiny it attracted, Newsom said, particularly the view that it was an “arbiter of something farther reaching.””
Lawmaker fights insurers, gets personal about his health
Capitol Weekly, SAMANTHA YOUNG: “Scott Wiener made a startling revelation at a spring legislative committee hearing: “I was in the hospital. I experienced the most intense abdominal pain that I could even imagine.”
The Democratic state senator recalled crawling up the stairs to his landlord’s apartment last July to get a ride to the hospital.
The San Francisco lawmaker also disclosed to his colleagues on the Senate Health Committee that he has Crohn’s disease, a chronic autoimmune condition that causes inflammation in the digestive tract. His body, he said, wasn’t responding to his medication, which led to abscesses in his abdomen and a weeklong stay in the hospital.”
Senators reach a bipartisan deal on gun safety
LA Times, NOLAN D. MCCASKILL, JENNIFER HABERKORN: “A bipartisan group of senators on Sunday announced it had reached a framework for enacting modest gun restrictions, such as closing loopholes and increasing background checks for gun purchases by people between ages 18 and 21, in response to a recent spate of mass shootings that included a massacre at a Texas elementary school.
If enacted and signed by President Biden, the measure would become the most significant piece of firearms legislation produced by Congress in nearly three decades. The group of 20 senators, led by Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), said it had struck a deal “to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across the country.”
Although the proposal falls far short of the gun safety reforms Biden has lobbied Congress to pass and is far less sweeping than the comprehensive package that advanced in the House last week, it garnered the immediate support of anti-gun groups and the White House.”
Spider-Man stunt robot loses control over Disneyland, slams into building, video shows
DON SWEENEY, SacBee: "Visitors to Avengers Campus at Disneyland gasped in surprise when an animatronic Spider-Man stunt robot lost control and hit a building, a video shows.
No one was injured in the mishap about noon Thursday, June 9, and the high-flying robot returned for a show later that afternoon, Deadline reported.
“As with any flight, there can be some bumps along the way, but Spider-Man was back in action in time for his afternoon adventures in Avengers Campus!” a Disneyland spokesperson told the publication."
Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot appears effective in kids under 5, FDA says
AP, MATTHEW PERRONE/MIKE STOBBE: “Federal health officials said Sunday that kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for children under 5, a key step toward a long-awaited decision to begin vaccinating the youngest Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the Pfizer shot ahead of a Wednesday meeting where outside experts will vote on whether the shots are ready for the nation’s 18 million babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S.
Late last week the FDA posted a similar analysis of Moderna’s shots for children under 6.”
Why do some people never test positive for COVID, even after exposure and symptoms?
The Chronicle, Jessica Flores/Ryan Kost/Ricardo Cano: “A group of men police believe may be part of the far-right Proud Boys organization stormed a children’s story program hosted by a drag queen Saturday at the San Lorenzo Library and shouted anti-LGBTQ slurs, authorities said.
The host of the Drag Queen Story Hour, Panda Dulce, said the men disrupted the afternoon event, yelling “tranny” and “pedophile.” Dulce said the disruptions “totally freaked out all of the kids” and that the group “attempted to escalate to violence.”
The story hour, which was being held for preschool-aged children in celebration of Pride Month, is part of an international program that began in San Francisco and strives to teach youth about gender fluidity.”
Following brief dip, Bay Area infections are on the rise again
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “The first COVID shots for kids under 5 are expected to arrive within days in the Bay Area, but initial shipments won’t be enough for all of them yet. Despite a growing number of “rebound” COVID symptoms among people taking the antiviral pill Paxlovid, Bay Area experts retain confidence in the drug.
Coronavirus cases are rising again in the Bay Area after a brief reprieve, according to state data released Friday. The region is reporting about 4,378 new COVID-19 cases a day on average, up 25% from a week earlier when it appeared the spring surge might be leveling off.
Health experts believe Memorial Day events and seasonal gatherings like graduations, combined with waning immunity and more transmissible variants, may be contributing to the resurgence in infections. Hospitalizations, which typically lag cases, are edged up. There were 653 people in Bay Area hospitals with COVID-19 as of Friday, compared to 612 a week earlier. About four people are dying every day.”
Fire in Wrightwood explodes to 775 acres as another blaze spreads in San Gabriel foothills
LA Times, LAURA NEWBERRY: “Brush fires broke out in and around the San Gabriel Mountains this weekend, first in Wrightwood and later in Duarte as warm weather gripped the Southland, fire authorities said.
The blaze in Wrightwood, which began Saturday, exploded from 45 to 775 acres between1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, according to Angeles National Forest officials. There was a mandatory evacuation order for Desert Front Road and Wild Horse Canyon in Wrightwood, and the rest of the town was under an evacuation warning, officials said.
The fire was 5% contained. The road from Highway 138 to Highway 2 was closed, and an evacuation center has been set up at Serrano High School in Phelan.”
Thousands turn out for LA Pride parade’s return to Hollywood
LA Times, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS/ROBERT GAUTHIER: “Kaylee Atkinson came to her first Los Angeles Pride parade Sunday with the two most important people in her life: her mom and dad.
Atkinson, 19, even picked out their outfits.
Mom wore a T-shirt that read: “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.””
Many baby formula plants went uninspected because of the pandemic
AP, MATTHEW PERRONE: “U.S. regulators have historically inspected baby formula plants at least once a year, but they did not inspect any of the three biggest manufacturers in 2020, according to federal records reviewed by the Associated Press.
When they finally did get inside an Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Michigan after a two-year gap, they found standing water and lax sanitation procedures. But inspectors offered only voluntary recommendations for fixing the problems and issued no formal warning.
Inspectors returned five months later after four infants who consumed powdered formula from the plant suffered bacterial infections. They found bacterial contamination inside the factory, leading to a four-month shutdown and turning a festering supply shortage into a full-blown crisis that sent parents scrambling to find formula and forced the U.S. to airlift products from overseas.”
How a Black family’s Bible ended up at the Smithsonian Institution
LA Times, ERIN B. LOGAN: “On a rainy spring afternoon, Denise Diggs visited the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She was in search of a family artifact.
Wearing jeans and a blue windbreaker, she blended in with other Washington tourists, until she descended into a dimly lit exhibition area. There, Diggs began weaving in and out of visitors engrossed by the remnants of a slave ship, a wrought-iron slave collar and a six-foot statue of Thomas Jefferson standing in front of a wall of stacked bricks memorializing the hundreds of humans he owned.
Diggs was on a mission — to find a Bible once owned by her family’s patriarch.”
Jan. 6 panel to show evidence that Trump knew he lost, but spread fraud lies anyway
LA Times, SARAH D WIRE: “Former Trump campaign manager William Stepien will testify Monday in a hearing expected to focus on the former president’s decision to spread false allegations of election fraud, despite admonitions from his own administration and campaign staff who told him his claims were groundless.
Monday’s hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will also focus on Trump’s decision to declare victory on election night even though he was repeatedly told the results did not back his assertion.
The committee touched on the topic during its June 9 hearing, which featured clips of former Atty. Gen. William Barr and other high-ranking Trump campaign officials telling the committee of how and when they had informed Trump he had lost. Depositions the committee included as exhibits in a court case show the campaign had determined in mid-November that Trump’s claims were false, and Trump had largely handed proving fraud over to his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani rather than people with election experience.”
Biden’s foreign policy prioritizes alliances. Beyond Ukraine, there’s little to show for it
LA Times, ELI STOKOLS, COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN: “A year ago during his first meetings with Group of 7 and NATO leaders, President Biden vowed that “America is back,” promising the world’s other industrialized democracies that they could once again count on the U.S. to shore up alliances and the global order.
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, Biden led a reinvigorated transatlantic alliance that has gone to great lengths, often in spite of narrower national interests, to punish President Vladimir Putin and support Ukraine with tens of billions in aid.
Beyond Ukraine, however, Biden has struggled to deliver on his lofty rhetoric and the promise of a reinvigorated multilateralism. He has been hamstrung by record inflation and domestic politics, forced to confront a geopolitical reality that’s more complicated than the president often suggests when dividing the world into democracies and autocracies.”
LA Times, NABIH BULOS/MARCUS YAM: “How does a city die? To find out, turn to Severodonetsk, at the very edge of the Ukrainian government’s control on the eastern front, and currently the focal point of the fight between its soldiers and the Russians who have invaded.
Viewing Severodonetsk from across the river that separates it from its sister city Lysychansk, one witnesses the spasms in real time: Almost a dozen columns of smoke wreathe the skyline where tons of Russian ordnance smash through a building and start a fire, the flames twinkling in the distance like a votive candle. The soundtrack of the warfare— the bangs of artillery, the guttural whoosh of rockets launched in rapid succession, the snare-drum beat of heavy machine guns — signals fresh destruction to both cities.
“You never get used to it. It’s always terrifying,” said Natalya Sakolka, a 55-year-old mining engineer and administrator in Lysychansk, standing with a few neighbors in the backyard of her apartment building.”