Deal reached on plan for more than $9 billion in gas refunds to California drivers
LAT, TARYN LUNA: “Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have reached a tentative deal to send $9.5 billion in tax refunds to Californians, providing as much as $1,050 to families this fall in long-awaited financial relief from record-high gasoline prices and other rising costs.
The plan would provide larger refunds to households that earn less money and include an additional payment for dependents, according to documents outlining the proposal.
Though Newsom originally hoped to get money back in people’s pockets this summer, discord among Democrats at the state Capitol delayed the timeline for months. Refunds to offset the highest fuel costs of any state in the nation will probably not start going out until October if approved by the Legislature next week.”
California Republican Rep. David Valadao, who voted to impeach Trump, survives primary
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA: “GOP Rep. David Valadao, one of the most endangered Republican congressional incumbents in the nation, has survived the California primary and will advance to the November ballot.
Valadao, of Hanford, will face Assemblymember Rudy Salas, a moderate Democrat, in the contest to represent the 22nd Congressional District in the general election. The Central Valley district includes parts of Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.
Valadao, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, faced challengers from his right. But Trump didn’t publicly attack Valadao. And former Fresno City Councilman Chris Mathys and Kings County Board of Education Trustee Adam Medeiros were not able to secure Trump’s endorsement or raise significant campaign funds.”
California colleges are leaping onto the cannabis bandwagon
EdSource, CALIFORNIA STUDENT JOURNALISM CORPS: “Humboldt Institute for Interdisciplinary Marijuana Research was formed in 2012 at Cal Poly Humboldt, making it the first academic institute devoted to cannabinoid research and analysis pertaining to information and issues surrounding the cannabis plant.
Since then there has been a green rush at other colleges across California that have added their own courses dedicated to marijuana research, politics and policy.
California is said to have the largest legal and illicit cannabis markets in the United States. Since 2018, the legal cannabis market in California has generated more than $3 billion in tax revenue.”
These California candidates oppose abortion rights or won’t say where they stand
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: “With the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, abortion rights promise to be a major issue in November’s general election.
Democrats running for statewide office in California strongly support abortion rights and have pledged to protect the state’s existing laws allowing women to terminate pregnancies. They see abortion as a winning campaign issue in the Golden State , where polling has found about 3 in 4 likely voters didn’t want the Roe v. Wade decision overturned . Most have been aggressively promoting a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the California Constitution.
Republican candidates for statewide office have been more hesitant to speak about the issue. Some, like gubernatorial candidate Brian Dahle, oppose abortion rights. Most others, including controller candidate Lanhee Chen, have refused to say where they stand.”
Abortion rights activists continue protests across Los Angeles on Sunday
LAT, CONNOR SHEETS/LAURA NEWBERRY: “For the third day in a row, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday to express their grief and anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to end a constitutional right to abortion.
Peaceful protesters assembled in the afternoon outside Los Angeles City Hall and then marched through downtown streets, waving signs lambasting the Supreme Court and listening to speakers from local reproductive rights groups. The crowd peaked at 450 people.
“When abortion rights are under attack, what do we do?” demonstrators shouted in a call-and-response. “Stand up, fight back!””
Joy, fear, anger at Sunday church services shows widening divide over abortion
LAT, HEIDI PEREZ MORENO/EMILY ALPERT REYES/COLLEEN SHALBY/DEBORAH NETBURN: “For Pastor Netz Gómez and the 1,500 members of his Houses of Light church in Northridge, the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe vs. Wade was an answer to their prayers and decades of hard work.
“We are thanking God that this injustice has finally been rectified, and that states have the right to decide how they want to proceed with abortion rights,” said the pastor, a Mexico native who started the church in his living room 22 years ago and has steadily immersed himself deeper into U.S. politics. “But we are really thanking God because we have prayed so much for the end of abortion. Abortion is injustice. Killing babies is injustice.”
It was one of the broad range of responses to the court’s momentous ruling that has divided members of the same faith across Southern California, including sometimes within the same congregation.”
Her illegal abortion paved the way for Roe. 56 years later she shares her story
LAT, BRITTNY MEJIA/JACKELINE LUNA/IRFAN KHAN: “The college student lay down on an operating table, her legs trembling in the stirrups. The doctor warned her to remain absolutely silent.
She was 22, terrified of needles but prepared to go through with the medical procedure no matter what. Her future depended on it.
“I don’t think I was particularly afraid,” she said. “I had that strong determination. This was the right thing for me to do.””
California tax relief: What’s in the deal
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF: “Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have agreed to provide as much as $1,050 to millions of California families to help with rising gas prices and inflation, they confirmed Sunday night.
The three-tier program would benefit an estimated 23 million California taxpayers, including individual filers making as much as $250,000 and joint filers making as much as $500,000, with low- and middle-income households set to receive incrementally more money.
The $9.5 billion in tax refunds, which CalMatters reported Friday, is part of a $12 billion relief plan that is central to a broader $300 billion budget deal that state leaders announced Sunday night. “
State budget deal: Most Californians will get stimulus payments
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: “Most Californians would receive stimulus payments ranging from $200 to $350 per person under a budget deal that Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislative leaders announced Sunday night.
Tax refunds under the agreement’s $17 billion “inflation relief package” would provide $350 to individuals making less than $75,000 per year. Couples making less than $150,000 who file their taxes together would receive $700. If families in those categories have at least one dependent, the deal calls for them to also receive another $350. That means families could receive up to $1,050.
The agreement also would provide checks, although in smaller amounts, to many people who make more money. The smallest payments are designated for individuals making up to $250,000, who would get $200. Couples filing jointly who make less than $500,000 will receive $400, plus an additional $200 for dependents.”
California could get a new national park honoring César Chávez
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: “California could open its first national park in almost a decade under a recently revived plan to commemorate labor leader César Chávez and the saga of farmworkers.
The proposed César E. Chávez and the Farmworker Movement National Historical Park, based outside Bakersfield and possibly extending to the Bay Area, would offer the public a chance to visit a constellation of landmarks central to the civil rights story of Mexican Americans. The success of the proposal is uncertain given the sharply politicized climate in Washington, but if it comes to fruition, it would be the first national park to honor this chapter of American history.
Among the sites proposed for inclusion in the new park is Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in the rural Kern County town of Keene. Also included, if a deal can be reached with the current property owner, would be McDonnell Hall in San Jose, where Chavez and other activists once famously organized. Additionally, a historic trail following the 300-mile labor march by farmworkers from Kern County to Sacramento in 1966 would be established.”
Montana woman accuses ex-Windsor mayor of raping her when she was 18
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON/ALEXANDRIA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: “A Montana woman has filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County accusing former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli of raping her several times in 2020 when she was 18 years old.
She is the 14th woman to come forward with accusations of sexual assault or misconduct against Foppoli, who resigned in May 2021 after a series of Chronicle investigations first brought several women’s allegations of sexual violence to light.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, gave a statement to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office for its criminal investigation into Foppoli, according to her lawyer, Deborah Mallgrave. The Orange County attorney said the woman, now 20, had also filed a police report in Montana.”
Raw politics determine Californians’ medical care
CALMatters, DAN WALTERS: “Medical care in California is a patchwork of federal, state and local government services, plus those financed by employers and — rarely — individual people.
It’s also, by far, the largest single component of California’s $3.4 trillion economy with upwards of 2 million workers and at least $450 billion in spending from all sources, an average of more than $11,000 per Californian.
Virtually every facet of the system is subject to some form of governmental oversight — not surprisingly since the federal government pays half of the costs, and state and local governments kick in another 30%.”
COVID death rates for Latinos have declined, but advocates say more help is needed
The Chronicle, SHWANIKA NARAYAN: “The success of vaccination campaigns has narrowed disparities in COVID death rates in California, especially for the Latino community, which has been disproportionately affected with coronavirus infection during the pandemic.
Since the state began tracking deaths in April 2020, more than 91,000 Californians have died from COVID-19 — approximately 230 deaths per 100,000 people — according to the Public Policy Institute of California, a policy research nonprofit with offices in San Francisco and Sacramento.
During the health crisis, Black and Latino communities suffered from higher infection and death rates than did white and Asian communities in California, according to multiple research reports. By August of 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, Latinos surpassed all other groups in death rates.”
Monkeypox at ‘critical stage’ in the Bay Area: Here’s what you need to know
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “There are only a handful of confirmed monkeypox cases in the Bay Area, but following the lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic, local health officials are scrambling to control the rapidly growing global outbreak.
With 48 cases counted in California since early May, the state represents almost 28% of the total to date in the United States.
Local health officials are advising Bay Area residents and their health care providers to look out for symptoms of monkeypox ahead of summer travel and other festivities, given that most of the cases identified so far are associated with possible sexual transmission.”
Researchers discover giant bacteria in mangrove ecosystems
Daily Californian, NEWS STAFF: “Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, or Berkeley Lab, discovered giant bacteria in Guadeloupe marine mangrove systems, notably unusual due to their visibility to the naked eye.
According to a Berkeley Lab press release, the study was conducted in collaboration with Université des Antilles in Guadeloupe, the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, or JGI, an Office of Science user facility located in Berkeley Lab.
JGI scientist Jean-Marie Volland said in a press release the bacterium is “vermicelli-like” in appearance and is 5,000 times larger than most bacteria.”
Inside John Eastman’s California rise from GOP ‘happy warrior’ to Jan. 6 firebrand
LAT, MELANIE MASON: “The theme of the third congressional hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection was unmistakable: John Eastman was not just a peripheral figure in the panel’s investigation, but a main character. If Eastman was tuning in, though, the proceedings may have struck him as something else — a bizarro episode of “This Is Your Life.”
On the dais was the panel’s vice chair, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, with whom he attended University of Chicago Law School. Another alum, Greg Jacob, was at the witness table, detailing Eastman’s relentless attempts to persuade Jacob’s boss at the time, Vice President Mike Pence, to unilaterally block the counting of the electoral votes that would cement Joe Biden’s victory.
Offering testimony at Jacob’s side was retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, a foundational figure in Eastman’s early legal life. Eastman’s clerkship with Luttig led to yet more long-standing friendships — with Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni — that are fodder in the investigation.”
The Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: “With new housing development in San Francisco slowed to a crawl Mayor London Breed is looking into whether reducing affordable requirements or deferring fees might get residential building job sites up and running again.
On Friday Breed’s office called for the reconvening of the “technical advisory committee” that is supposed to periodically revisit the city’s inclusionary affordable housing program — which requires market rate developers to either include affordable units, pay a fee or dedicate land. The eight-person committee, which also includes four mayoral and four Board of Supervisors appointees, has not met since February of 2018.
Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan said that rising construction costs, high inflation and interest rates, along with a sluggish pandemic recovery “make it an absolutely appropriate time to look at our policies so we can ensure that we are building the most housing, including affordable housing, that is possible.””
How brother of a 9/11 firefighter is helping house West L.A. homeless veterans
LAT, DOUG SMITH: “With its donations swelling, a charity formed by the older brother of a firefighter who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was ready to up its game.
Its mission of paying the mortgages of fallen first-responders’ families and building housing for critically injured veterans was no longer enough, Tunnel to Towers founder Frank Siller decided.
“We must expand our mission to eradicate homelessness among our veterans nationwide,” Siller told his board late last year.”
Famine threatens wide swaths of world, now worsened by Ukraine war
LAT, TRACY WILKINSON: “The scenes witnessed by journalists and humanitarian workers in recent months have been striking: In Sudan, swollen-bellied babies are looking for anything to eat. In Yemen, where warring parties have blocked humanitarian aid, hollow-eyed children and their mothers languish on the brink of death from starvation. In Ukraine, the elderly are collecting rancid rain runoff for drinking water.
Malnourishment and hunger were big problems even before Russia invaded Ukraine in February and cut off Europe’s breadbasket from its markets, sparking a flurry of dire warnings about the world’s food supplies. Dozens of countries across the globe are already suffering from devastating food shortages, so much so that the number of people facing starvation more than doubled in just the last two years, to 345 million, according to United Nations figures.
The causes are myriad: drought and flooding, and the interruption of supply chains triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in China. An estimated 20 wars or conflicts — the latest in Ukraine — have also seriously disrupted access to food and water.”