A third of Californians live in or near poverty. Advocates say the budget must do more
OWEN TUCKER-SMITH, SacBee: "California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom are in a fierce debate over several-hundred dollar gas rebates as budget negotiations approach the June 30 deadline.
But with one-third of Californians living in or near poverty and one-time pandemic relief payments largely in the past, advocates say leaders must use the state’s record surpluses to create more support for low-income residents.
That was the message Tuesday at the inaugural meeting of the legislature’s new Select Committee on Poverty and Economic Inclusion. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), who announced the panel’s formation in February, said it was meant to address “the growing divide in prosperity across California.”
Fossil fuel divestment bill dies in California Legislature — and a Democrat killed it
The Chronicle, CHASITY HALE: “Climate activists and environmental groups were seething Wednesday after a Democratic Assembly member killed a measure that would have required the state’s pension systems — two of the country’s largest — to divest from fossil fuels in the next decade.
Senate Bill 1173, written by Sens. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would have ordered the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to divest from the fossil fuel industry by 2030. CalPERS and CalSTRS invest a combined total of about $9 billion in fossil fuel companies.
The bill was scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement on Wednesday. But the day before the hearing, Assembly Member Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), the committee chair, removed it from the committee’s agenda.”
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “With the Supreme Court apparently prepared to repeal the right to abortion it declared in 1973, California voters are likely to consider, and approve, a measure in November that would proclaim a right to abortion in the state Constitution. But some constitutional researchers at UC Berkeley say the proposal, as currently worded, may not protect abortion rights for long.
SCA10, introduced by Democratic leaders soon after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overrule Roe v. Wade, breezed through the state Senate on a party-line 29-7 vote on Monday. It needs another two-thirds vote in the Democratic-controlled Assembly by June 30 to make the November ballot, with polls showing a strong majority of state voters supporting a right to abortion.
The measure declares that “the state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives.” It adds that these rights enhance the right to privacy that California voters added to their Constitution in 1972.”
Lawmakers weaken California nursing homes bill — sponsors yank their support
CALMatters, JOCELYN WIENER: “A group of advocates that has long fought to reform the state’s troubled nursing home licensing system is now attempting to kill legislation it sponsored, calling the amended bill “a step backwards.”
“Instead of the major reform that the nursing home licensing system needs, AB 1502 now codifies and endorses the current system, a system that has nourished the worst operators in the state,” wrote Patricia McGinnis, executive director of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.
Her strongly worded letter of opposition went to Dr. Richard Pan, chair of the Senate Health Committee, a few days ago. Nonetheless, the committee approved the bill this afternoon.”
California primary’s lesson for pundits: Don’t speak too soon in the age of mail-in voting
LAT, JASPER GOODMAN: “In the hours after polls closed in the closely watched California midterms on June 7, reviews from pundits were quick to come in.
Turnout: abysmal. Progressive reforms: rejected. Ex-Republican Rick Caruso: the surprise star of the night in liberal Los Angeles.
But with the proliferation of mail-in voting, messages from California voters now arrive with a lag — one that hasn’t proven friendly to the quick takes of social media and cable news.”
Mistrial in Suge Knight wrongful-death suit of man run down in Tam’s Burgers lot
CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ, LA Times: "A Los Angeles Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after the jury deadlocked in a wrongful-death lawsuit against rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight, court records show.
The suit was filed in 2015 by Lillian Carter after her husband, Terry Carter, was killed after Knight ran over him during filming of the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” in which Knight was portrayed.
Knight pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in connection with the death."
State OKs lawsuit over Wesson appointment, throwing his future at City Hall in doubt
LAT, DAVID ZAHNISER: “A state official cleared the way for a group of South Los Angeles community leaders to sue over the selection of Herb Wesson as a temporary member of the Los Angeles City Council, throwing the future of his City Hall appointment into question.
Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta issued an opinion granting the request from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California to challenge Wesson’s appointment in court. The civil rights group has argued that Wesson is ineligible to serve as an interim replacement for Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is fighting federal corruption charges and was suspended from his post last year.
In Wednesday’s opinion, Bonta said the SCLC of Southern California had raised substantive questions about whether the council’s selection of Wesson violated the City Charter, the city’s governing document. The city’s term limit law may prevent Wesson from holding that office again, he said.”
S.F. Mayor London Breed tests positive for the coronavirus
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: “San Francisco Mayor London Breed has tested positive for the coronavirus, her office said in a statement Wednesday.
She is vaccinated and boosted and feeling well, the statement said. She will be conducting meetings from home and will not attend any public events while isolating.
Following public health guidance, Breed will isolate at home for five days. After that, if she tests negative, she can leave. If she continues to test positive, she could stay home for up to 10 days or until she tests negative.”
California wildfires caused by humans are more dangerous than fires sparked by lightning
LAT, CORINNE PURTILL: “The sheer acreage consumed by fire in California in recent years is numbing: more than 2.5 million acres last year, and 4.3 million acres the year before that.
Already in 2022, before peak fire season has descended upon this drought-parched state, fire has burned nearly 17,000 acres.
Yet not all fires are equal. New research from UC Irvine shows that fires caused by human activity — be it arson, a neglected campfire, sparking electrical equipment or ill-conceived gender reveal parties — spread faster, burn hotter and destroy more trees than those caused by lightning strikes.”
Three beaches in one Bay Area county are among the most polluted in California, report says
The Chronicle, KATE GALBRAITH: “Three San Mateo County beaches are among California’s most polluted beaches, according to a list compiled by an environmental group.
Erckenbrack Park, Marlin Park and Lakeshore Park all struggle to clear pollution, as they are “enclosed in an engineered patchwork of channels that do not allow much water circulation so pollution is not easily flushed away from the beaches,” the report, from Heal the Bay, states.
Heal the Bay named all three as “Beach Bummers,” a designation shared with the Santa Monica Pier and parts of Marina del Rey Mother’s Beach (Los Angeles County); Moonstone County Park (Humboldt County); Newport Bay, Vaughn’s Launch (Orange County); and part of the Tijuana Slough (San Diego County). The group rates beaches on a scale of A to F and those with the highest levels of three types of fecal bacteria—including E.coli—make the “Beach Bummers” list.”
Monsoon thunderstorms are lashing region just south of the Bay Area
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: “Thunderstorms lashed the San Benito County area Wednesday evening, signalling that a monsoon had flowed in from the coast of Mexico —which could possibly send ripples through the South Bay and Central Valley, one meteorologist said.
Sheets of rain pounded over Highway 101 outside King City, spattering a Chronicle photographer’s car windshield so relentlessly that she had to pull over.
In Hollister, people gleefully tweeted video of flickering in the murky sky, which at one point had a sliver of a rainbow and clouds so pink, they could have been drawn in crayon.”
Stanford power outage: University preparing for a restoration that could ‘take days’
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: “The power outage that forced Stanford University to cancel classes for a day had no end in sight Wednesday afternoon, after Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it could not access an area where repairs are needed to fix an equipment failure due to a nearby grass fire. The university said that officials are “preparing for the possibility that it may take days” to restore power and announced classes are now canceled through Friday.
Stanford’s campus was on its second day of a power outage Wednesday after a PG&E equipment failure that apparently coincided with the Edgewood Fire — the grass fire that has since been 20% contained in unincorporated San Mateo County.
Stanford’s campus — along with other customers in portions of San Mateo County — lost power Tuesday afternoon, prompting university officials to cancel all classes, child care, day camps and conferences through Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, university officials announced that summer session classes were canceled for Thursday and Friday “given the increasing possibility of a multiple-day disruption and the time required to re-start classrooms and equipment even once power is restored.””
Women will benefit greatly from necessary financial aid reform (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, SURINA A. KHAN: “A daughter of immigrants working hard labor jobs. A first-generation student who suffered the loss of her father and whose mom was laid off. A single mother working to provide for her three children.
These are the students our California colleges would have lost and whose futures would have been limited were it not for financial aid. Their stories are powerful and ring true for many of our state’s women college students working to earn their degrees and break the cycle of poverty through education.
Women disproportionately worry about affording college compared to male students, and that anxiety is compounded by first-generation female college attendees.”
Lowell High School admissions will return to merit-based system after S.F. school board vote
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: “After nearly two years of intense and bitter debate, test scores and grades will once again determine which San Francisco students are admitted to Lowell High School after the city’s school board decided to return to the merit-based admission system Wednesday.
In a 4-3 vote, the school board decided to restore the previous merit process after two years of using a lottery-based system. The vote will now apply to freshman entering in the fall of 2023 as well as future classes, unless the board takes further action in the future to change the admission process.
A decision, which will include an appointed task force, will address a long-term process in the coming months as the district looks at improving high schools while analyzing competitive admission at Lowell and other sites.”
Tutoring options in Los Angeles Unified leave families frustrated
EdSource, KATE SEQUEIRA: “Across Los Angeles Unified, tutoring options vary.
At Manchester Avenue Elementary in South Los Angeles, Rebecca Jacobo Lopez’s fifth grade daughter had access to support from a tutoring nonprofit. At Melvin Avenue Elementary in Reseda, Arianna Jurado’s first grade daughter received small group tutoring from her teacher. At Bell High School in Bell, Cristina Sanchez’s ninth grade son had access to homework assistance.
In response to the learning loss students across L.A. County have dealt with as a result of the pandemic, LAUSD has largely left tutoring up to the local districts and their schools, which has satisfied some and frustrated others. While also leaning on outside contracts, LAUSD reached less than 10% of students through its tutoring and small group instruction, according to numbers presented in March.”
Yes, a recession looks inevitable. But it may not be that bad. Here’s why
LAT, DON LEE: “Whether it’s President Biden insisting a recession is avoidable or his critics arguing that the wolf is at the door, both sides are acting as if the nation faces an unprecedented catastrophe.
Partly it’s political theater — Biden fighting on behalf of an already beleaguered presidency and many of the doomsayers hoping a downturn could be the coup de grace for Democrats.
Behind the rhetoric, the reality is that recessions are a normal part of American economic life. The U.S. has had one, on average, every 6½ years since 1945.”
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “Drawing film fans from around the world with premieres, film festivals and sing-alongs, the Castro Theatre is one of the most famous movie houses in the United States. The oldest continuously operating single-screen theater in San Francisco, it has played a starring role in the history of the city and its namesake neighborhood for 100 years.
1899
Abraham Nasser immigrates to San Francisco from Lebanon, moving his family upstairs from their grocery store at 18th and Collingwood streets in the neighborhood later known as the Castro district.
1907
A year after the great 1906 quake and fire, a customer asks Nasser if he would like to expand his business by projecting moving pictures on a blank wall at the back of the store. The shopkeeper agrees.”
A faulty forensic test sends mothers to prison for killing their newborns
LAT, LEILA MILLER: “Shortly after being found at a high school on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the body of a newborn arrived at the medical examiner’s office.
The autopsy team placed the boy on a scale — which indicated 5 pounds, 4 ounces — and searched for clues to how he died. Opening his chest, they removed a tiny pair of reddish lungs and set them in a container of water.
It was a key moment and a test. If the lungs floated, they presumably contained air, which would suggest the infant took a breath when he entered the world. If the lungs sank, it would point to a stillbirth.”
Ghislaine Maxwell deserves at least 30 years in prison, U.S. prosecutors say
AP, LARRY NEUMEISTER: “British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell should spend at least 30 years in prison for her role in the sexual abuse of teenage girls over a 10-year period by her onetime boyfriend, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday in written arguments.
Prosecutors said she should serve between 30 and 55 years in prison, reflecting federal sentencing guidelines. They made their recommendations to the judge who will preside over a sentencing hearing Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of sex trafficking and other crimes after a monthlong trial that featured testimony from four women who said they were abused in their teens.”