California is missing an entire year of rainfall since mid-2019, new figures show
PAUL ROGERS, Mercury News: "California’s water issues may be complicated. But the rainfall shortage driving the state’s current drought comes down to basic math.
“In most places we are missing an entire year of rain over the past three years,” said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services in Half Moon Bay. “It’s like if you worked three years but only got paid for two. You are going to be hurting.”
Over the three-year period that ended June 30, most Northern California cities received only about half to two-thirds of their historical average rainfall, according to data that Null compiled. And each passing year without soaking winter rains has been steadily drying the state out a little more — further dropping reservoirs, parching soils and forests and depleting groundwater."
The Chronicle, Jordan Parker/Matthias Gafni/Joshua Sharpe: “Flames from the Electra Fire burning southeast of Jackson swelled to cover 3,900 acres Tuesday, with numerous neighborhoods evacuating while residents in other areas hunkered down for as long as they could amid billowing smoke.
By 9 p.m., firefighters had managed to get 5% containment around the fast-growing wildfire, which sparked Monday near Vox Beach, Cal Fire said, noting the blaze grew “at a dangerous rate of speed” overnight.
Chris Vestal, public information officer for the Electra fire, said late Tuesday that firefighters were pleased with the progress of the day but worried about upcoming weather.”
Rampant wildfires once led to global mass extinction, scientists say. Can it happen again?
LAT, CORINNE PURTILL: “A long time ago the carbon was rock, buried in the earth as securely as a secret. Then an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented scale began. The rocks burned, and the atoms inside them disassembled into carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Temperatures rose and wildfire — always a natural part of the ecosystem — became more frequent and more powerful. Forests disappeared into the flames. Carbon once stored inside countless leaves belched back into the atmosphere, which became hotter and drier, and the fires sparked even faster.
Without trees to hold them back, nutrients leached from denuded soil into lakes and streams. Those nutrients fed algae that bloomed in toxic quantities, while other species starved.”
California will not bring back mask mandate for the new school year
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “California kids will be allowed to go to school without face masks when classes resume in the fall. But public health officials, while not requiring them, still will be recommending face coverings for students and staff in an effort to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks at K-12 schools.
The state’s guidance, updated last week, allows a continuation of the mask-free classrooms that returned this spring.
“COVID-19 is here to stay, but we have learned methods and gained tools to decrease its impact on our health and well-being,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement. “California’s schools can manage this disease in sustainable and adaptive manners.””
At some schools, education is a path to healing
EdSource, CAROLYN JONES: “Elizabeth Madole, 8, is a regular at UC San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco. At least once a month, she and her family trek from Redding so she can get transfusions to treat a rare neuromuscular disorder.
It can be a painful, difficult time. But amid the IV tubes and machines, there is one bright spot: Miss Erika.
“We read ‘Narwhal and Jelly’ books. We do art. I like doing math, too,” Elizabeth said. “She’s just a fun teacher. … What I like best is that she loves me.””
Labor pool shortage hits public pools. Here’s why California needs lifeguards
LAT, ANABEL SOSA: “When the heat hits in California, public swimming pools become vital refuges for tens of thousands of families, many of modest means. But because of bureaucratic red tape and the aftermath of pandemic shutdowns, many pools statewide are confronting a labor pool problem — not enough lifeguards.
Oceanside is one of these. The coastal Southern California city recently earmarked $600,000 to upgrade one of its oldest and most beloved public pools, the Brooks Street Swim Center, which serves a low-income neighborhood. The pool’s future triggered an intense dispute last year when some city council members wanted to shift its funding to a new aquatics center in a more affluent part of town, an idea that was shelved after community members called it racist and “disrespectful.”
But because of the lifeguard shortfall, Brooks Street Pool is one of many in California that have been forced to cut back hours.”
Visiting scene of massacre, Kamala Harris says U.S. must do more to address gun violence
The Chronicle, ERIN B. LOGAN: “Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday visited the Illinois city where seven people were slain in a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade, telling residents that “we’ve got to be smarter as a country in terms of who has access to what, and, in particular, to assault weapons.”
“There’s no question that this experience is gonna linger with trauma,” Harris said, standing near the site of the massacre that occurred a day earlier. “I’d like to urge all the families and all the individuals to do seek the support that you so rightly deserve. ... We are here for you and to stand with you.”
Harris was scheduled to be in Chicago to give a speech at the National Education Assn.‘s annual convention. In her remarks to the association, Harris lamented how “yesterday should have been a day to come together with family and friends to celebrate our nation’s independence.””
Capitol Weekly Podcast: BIG week at SCOTUS – with Professor Courtney Joslin
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: Last week’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to set their own abortion rules is nothing short of an earthquake in American life.
We invited UC Davis Constitutional Law Professor Courtney Joslin to talk about the Dobbs decision itself, the implications of the decision and Justice Thomas’ comments that other rights grounded in concepts of Privacy, including Gay Marriage, may also need to be reconsidered.
Joslin is an expert in the areas of family and relationship recognition, with a particular focus on same-sex and unmarried couples. She helped draft the Uniform Parentage Act – a statutory scheme for determining children’s legal parentage, and in some cases, allowing children to have three parents.”
These Bay Area cities saw the worst air quality levels from July 4 fireworks
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: “The lingering effects of fireworks fouled air quality across the region Tuesday morning, according to data from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Parts of East Oakland, San Francisco and Gilroy reported unhealthy quality conditions — some as high as 199 on the air quality index — from firework celebrations on Monday evening, said Tina Landis, a public information officer for the air district.
Fireworks “do have a health impact on our communities,” said Landis. “You’re constantly breathing it, and it’s getting into people’s homes. It was really not healthy.””
L.A. coronavirus cases hit highest level in months as BA.4 and BA.5 bring reinfections
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: “Los Angeles County’s coronavirus case rate hit its highest point in nearly five months over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, a troubling sign of how two new super-infectious Omicron strains are creating conditions for a fraught summer.
Two Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, have become dominant nationwide, and they appear to be among the most contagious yet of this pandemic.
Coronavirus case rates have also been increasing statewide, with the San Francisco Bay Area reporting California’s highest rate. Hospitalizations have also been creeping up, but hospitals haven’t reported being overwhelmed. Still, experts are concerned the next weeks could see more rapid spread that would put new pressures on the healthcare system.”
Here’s why thousands of anchovies washed up dead in a Bay Area lagoon
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: “The thousands of anchovies that piled up on the eastern shore of Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County last week created a strange, disturbing image, but were most likely part of a natural cycle, scientists say.
On June 26, a resident first noticed that the side of the lagoon was piled with the tiny silver fish, in a band several feet thick. Anchovies swim in schools, and the theory is that a large one was pushed into the lagoon by birds and then trapped by its sand bar. With so many fish stuck in a relatively small body of water, there wasn’t enough oxygen, which killed the fish and stranded them on shore, said Samantha Haimovitch, a superintendent with Marin County Parks, which manages the lagoon.
The fish disappeared by Friday, washed out by the tide, said Haimovitch, who added that they weren’t around long enough even to create a bad smell. The die-off was first reported by KGO Bay Area.”
Drug courts face choice: Close or expand access after Prop. 47 fallout
CALMatters, NIGEL DUARA: “Last year, Yolo County tried an experiment: No one arrested for simple drug possession would be prosecuted or sent to drug court. Instead, those arrested with drugs were directed to the county health department.
The county was responding to a trend across California: Significantly fewer people are choosing to go to drug court, in part because the penalties for drug possession were reduced by the passage of Proposition 47 in 2014.
Without the threat of potential jail time, people just weren’t showing up – participation in Yolo County’s drug court is down 86% since 2014.”
LAT, ANDREA CASTILLO: “Laurens Van Beek left his parents’ Iowa City home on Tuesday with three suitcases full of clothes and electronics to board his first international flight in 17 years. He doesn’t know when he’ll be back.
Van Beek grew up in Iowa but was born in the Netherlands. His parents, who own a small jewelry shop, have renewable work visas. But as of his 21st birthday, just before his senior year at the University of Iowa, he no longer qualified as their dependent.
Now 24 and a software developer who works in DNA synthesis, Van Beek got an international student visa and extended it for three years of postgraduate training. But when that clock ran out, so did his ability to legally stay in the U.S. He returned to the Netherlands.”
These are the S.F. neighborhoods where home prices haven’t rebounded from pandemic lows
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “Home prices in most San Francisco neighborhoods have rebounded into strong growth territory during the past year and a half after taking a pummeling early in the pandemic — but some areas have been far slower to recover than others, according to data from Zillow.
An analysis of home value data from the real estate listings website from January 2021 to May 2022 shows significant growth for nearly all of San Francisco. That marks a big reversal from January 2020 to April 2021, when home values declined in 51 of the 75 neighborhoods analyzed.
However, even though most downtown San Francisco neighborhoods saw home values grow over the past year and a half, their recovery was slow compared to areas farther from the city center. And nearly all neighborhoods in San Francisco lagged the average increase in home values across the wider San Francisco metropolitan region, which Zillow defines as the Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin.”
The Chronicle, JOSHUA SHARPE: “In 2008, San Francisco rapper Mac Minister was convicted of a double murder based largely on the testimony of a star witness who now says he lied on the stand — even about his own name.
“My statements to law enforcement and testimony at (the) trial (were) false,” Antione Cantrell, who testified under the fake last name Mouton, wrote in a new sworn declaration obtained by The Chronicle.
The declaration comes as Mac Minister, whose given name is Andre Dow, continues a 16-year campaign to have his conviction and four life sentences overturned, a fight that’s won support from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. A managing attorney at the office filed a declaration that badly undercuts Cantrell’s trial testimony, which Dow’s attorney argues was the only testimony to establish that Dow had knowledge of the killings.”