Gas prices are dropping in the Bay Area — how low will they go?
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: “With crude oil prices at a 12-week low on Wednesday, drivers in the Bay Area and across the United States may continue to see some relief at the gas pump in the coming weeks, according to petroleum-industry experts.
Gas prices have dropped by about 10 cents at gas stations in the Bay Area in the past week. But it’s unclear how long the downward trend will last, the experts said.
Fears of a looming global recession led to the decline in crude oil prices this week, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum anaylsis at GasBuddy.
Deep-blue California: Where the GOP, hard right come for cash
SCOTT SORIANO, Capitol Weekly: "Staunch Donald Trump allies and the far right of the Republican Party have found deep-blue California – the state they love to hate – to be a treasure trove.
California, where Democrats hold every statewide elected office and overwhelmingly control the Legislature, has long been a political ATM for campaigns across the county, especially Democrats.
But hard-right Republicans are increasingly seeing the Golden State, the wealthiest state in the country, as the Golden Goose."
Super-infectious BA.4, BA.5 push L.A. coronavirus cases to highest levels in 5 months
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.”
Gavin Newsom signed two more gun-safety laws. Sacramento’s latest mass shooting came days later
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "On the Thursday before the July 4 weekend, as the Legislature feverishly wrapped up 11th-hour budget deliberations, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills that he felt deserved special attention.
Both of them dealt with gun control, making it a total of 17 such bills he’s signed since becoming governor three years ago. One of the new laws cracks down on homemade “ghost guns.”
The other prohibits the marketing of guns to minors — a practice he found so reprehensible that his staff released a video of Newsom clutching an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle as he ripped the gun industry and conservative politicians for peddling “a weapon of war” to kids."
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: “Yosemite National Park, like much of the country’s most spectacular wilderness, is bearing the brunt of climate change.
Forests are burning, glaciers are melting and waterfalls are drying up, a scenario that reflects the disproportionate vulnerability that scientists say national parks face as the climate warms. The toll was on extraordinary display last month with the catastrophic flooding of Yellowstone National Park.
This week, in an effort to address the burden of climate change on the national park system, a delegation from Congress arrived in Yosemite to try to better understand the impacts. Led by Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the vice chair of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, the group of eight legislators, including three from California, planned to meet and tour Yosemite with park managers and researchers through Friday.”
Newsom pushes back on ‘irresponsible’ Montana trip criticism amid state-funded travel ban
LINDSEY HOLDEN and ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing back against reports that he kept his family trip to Montana a secret because of a ban on state-funded travel to places with anti-LGBTQ laws.
“We are not in the business of regulating where people have family or where they spend their vacation,” said Erin Mellon, Newsom’s communications director, on Wednesday. “Nor will we persecute them for visiting their family.
The press shouldn’t either.” Newsom and his family left the state on July 1, the first day of the California Legislature’s month-long recess. The governor’s office said he was traveling out of state, but didn’t initially disclose his destination."
Marc Levine concedes in primary race for state insurance commissioner
PHIL WILLON, LA Times: "Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) on Wednesday conceded defeat in race for state insurance commissioner, sparing incumbent Ricardo Lara from what was expected to be a bruising campaign against a fellow Democrat.
Lara instead will face off against Republican Robert Howell, a cybersecurity equipment manufacturer, in the November election. Howell beat Levine by roughly 5,000 votes to finish second in the June election.
Under California’s “top-two” primary system, that was enough to advance to the general election. Lara top the field of nine insurance candidates in the primary, but only secured 36% of the vote."
College or career? California invests $500 million in program that tackles both
EdSource, EMMA GALEGOS: “A question that has long vexed American secondary education is whether to prepare students for college or a career. With the creation of the Golden State Pathways Program, California has decided to invest in both.
The state budget sets aside $500 million in competitive grants to establish a new program to ensure students “advance seamlessly from high school to college and career.” Its goal is to help students transition from high school to well-paying, skilled careers. The pathways include A-G course requirements for admission to state universities and the opportunity to earn 12 college credits through dual enrollment, AP or IB classes. Work-based learning must be part of the pathway, and schools must offer support to students along the way.
All of these are familiar ideas. Career technical education in California has been bolstered by federal workforce grants and previous state efforts, such as the California Career Pathways Trust and Career Technical Education Incentive Grant. Dual enrollment has received state funding — the latest budget sets aside $200 million.”
Campaign to recall D.A. Gascón has submitted thousands of signatures. What happens now?
LAT, JAMES QUEALLY: “The campaign trying to force Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón from office submitted more than 715,000 signatures in support of the recall to the L.A. County registrar on Wednesday.
Although that total exceeded a previous attempt to recall Gascón that failed last year and might be enough to put the issue to voters, opponents of Gascón’s reform-minded agenda can’t celebrate just yet.
It remains to be seen whether the referendum on Gascón will qualify for the ballot. And, if it does, the campaign then faces a much tougher challenge: convincing more than 50% of voters in a recall race that Gascón should go."
The Chronicle, CAMRYN PAK: “DeWayne Cox of Los Angeles spends 15 hours a week hooked up to an artificial kidney machine. During that time, Cox is strapped into a chair and can’t move his arms - not even to answer a phone call.
For him, receiving dialysis treatment has been routine for the past 12 years.
And for Californians, voting on measures to regulate the dialysis industry that Cox depends on has also become routine. They’ll do so once again in November.”
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS/MALLORY MOENCH: “San Francisco supervisors are poised to decide this month whether to put an affordable housing measure on the November ballot that would compete with a different measure backed by Mayor London Breed.
A Board of Supervisors committee on Wednesday voted 2-1 to send the proposed Affordable Housing Production Act to the rest of their colleagues for consideration. If six supervisors agree July 19 to put the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot, it would be expected to appear there alongside the Affordable Homes Now measure supported by Breed and her allies.
The stated goal of both measures is to accelerate the timeline for getting affordable housing, including mixed-income projects with more affordable units, approved and built, hoping to cut red tape that slows new development and compounds the city’s notoriously sky-high living costs. But the two proposals have different visions for how affordable a project would need to be to qualify for the loosened rules, with the measure being considered by supervisors proposing higher affordability requirements than the measure backed by Breed.”
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: “President Biden conceded Wednesday that Democrats “don’t have the votes to change the filibuster” to codify abortion rights into law in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The list of Senate Democrats who don’t support lifting the rule that allows a minority of members to block legislation not only includes perennial opponents Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. It appears to include California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein, through a spokesperson, would not explicitly say that she opposes overturning the filibuster rule, which allows a minority of 40 senators in the 100-member chamber to block a vote on many bills, despite being pressed multiple times for a clear answer.”
S.F.'s homelessness department has no formal oversight. Voters might get to change that
The Chronicle, TRISHA THADANI/JOAQUIIN PALOMINO: “While San Francisco’s $700 million homelessness agency is responsible for the city’s most urgent and persistent crisis, it has for years operated without formal oversight.
Now — following a Chronicle investigation into the squalid and chaotic conditions inside much of San Francisco’s housing stock for the homeless — the Board of Supervisors is poised to approve a ballot measure that would create an oversight commission for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, or HSH.
The proposed measure, sponsored by Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, passed the board’s Rules Committee with a 2-1 vote on Wednesday. Later this month, it will head to the full board, where The Chronicle confirmed it has enough votes to qualify for the November ballot.”
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: “San Francisco school officials used money voters approved for classroom and other facilities’ improvements to pay $525,000 in attorney fees to fight a lawsuit over the fate of a controversial Depression-era mural. The spending is now under review by an official oversight committee.
The district’s Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, a statutorily mandated watchdog group, is currently looking at whether the district properly spent Proposition A funds, which were authorized by voters in 2016 to upgrade, modernize or build school facilities.
The committee’s interim chairman, Rex Ridgeway, said he doesn’t believe bond money meant to ensure safe and modern schools should have covered the cost of a lawsuit over the mural.”
Britain’s Boris Johnson to resign after months of scandals and criticism
AP, SYLVIA HUI/DANICA KIRKA: “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to resign Thursday after months of scandals over illegal parties during lockdown, allegations of corruption against him and his cronies, and a new controversy over sexual misconduct by a senior colleague.
An official in Johnson’s Downing Street office confirmed that he would announce his resignation later Thursday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made, although several British news outlets reported the decision.
The turnaround came just hours after Johnson had vowed to cling to office despite snowballing discontent among fellow lawmakers from his ruling Conservative Party. By Thursday morning, the hemorrhaging of support became too much, with so many government ministers and officials resigning in protest that parts of the government had essentially been rendered unable to function.”