California delayed or wrongly denied jobless benefits for millions during pandemic, report says
AP, ADAM BEAM: “California delayed or improperly denied unemployment benefits for roughly 6 million people during the pandemic because state policies “do not prioritize getting benefits to workers quickly,” according to a nonpartisan report released Monday by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
The report said payments were delayed for about 5 million people — up to half of all workers who applied for benefits during the height of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the California Employment Development Department denied benefits for 3.4 million workers during that time. Of the 200,000 workers who appealed those denials, nearly 80% of them won their case.
“We believe many of the workers who did not appeal likely were eligible, meaning the state may have improperly denied 1 million additional claims,” said Chas Alamo, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office.”
California unemployment checks: New report explores why they’re often so hard to get
CALMatters, GRACY GEDYE: “If you get laid off, there’s a system that’s supposed to help you get by: unemployment benefits. Whenever California stares down a pandemic or a possible recession, the partial wage-replacement program is one of the most important economic safeguards for workers.
But the benefits have become more difficult for workers to access, due to the program’s design and decisions made by California’s embattled Employment Development Department. That’s according to an in-depth report released this morning from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a non-partisan agency that provides advice to the Legislature.
The report found that the benefits program’s orientation toward businesses — which fund the benefits and have an incentive to keep costs down — led the department to emphasize holding down costs. Pressure from the federal government to avoid errors led the department to try, however successfully, to minimize fraud.”
Lightning could spark more California fires as world warms
CALMatters, JULIE CART: “Wildland firefighters don’t admit to fearing much, but lightning is one terror that even the most experienced veterans say they hope to never encounter.
The worry is not being struck by a bolt, although it can be deadly. Instead, their primary concern is that lightning, slashing down in remote areas, can trigger unseen fires that smolder for days before they flare up, bursting into a dangerous and difficult-to-fight wildfire.
In August 2020, a remarkable barrage of lightning in Central and Northern California spawned more than 15,000 strikes over a few days, igniting more than 600 fires and burning more than 2 million acres. Five simultaneous lightning-sparked fires destroyed thousands of homes and buildings and claimed the lives of at least seven people.”
Trump says FBI searched estate in major escalation of probe
AP, ERIC TUCKER/MICHAEL BALSAMO: “The FBI searched Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said Monday, a move that represents a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.
Trump, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement, asserted that agents had opened up a safe at his home and described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.”
The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in more than a dozen boxes located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year. It occurs amid a separate grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and adds to the potential legal peril for Trump as he lays the groundwork for another run.”
California’s water chief steps up to fight historic drought
Capitol Weekly, LISA RENNER: “As a native of the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs where it hardly ever rains, Joaquin Esquivel has always known that water is precious.
His uncle often took him to the Salton Sea, and he had family served by a well.
He carries that respect for the resource as chair of California’s State Water Resources Control Board. “Growing up in the desert, you are very aware of water,” he said.”
Plastic Waste Game Changer: Jennifer Fearing on SB54
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: “On June 30, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB54, what most stakeholders characterized as the most aggressive plastic packaging recycling/reuse law in the United States.
The bill came after years of battles between environmentalists and the business community, battles which came to a head earlier this year when environmental advocates succeeded in qualifying a ballot initiative that would target plastic waste producers and would have banned some types of plastic outright. The initiative got the plastics industry to take notice, and over months of negotiations, a compromise emerged. That compromise was SB54.
We’re joined today by lobbyist Jennifer Fearing, who was a key player in the negotiations. She walks us through the compromise, explains what SB54 will actually do, and talks about the differences between the ballot proposal and the final bill.”
A state program to provide children’s hearing aids for uninsured families falls short
CALMatters, ELIZABETH AGUILERA: “A little over a year after California launched a program to provide hearing aids for an estimated 2,300 children annually who lack health insurance, it has provided devices to only 39 children.
There have been multiple problems with the Hearing Aid Coverage for Children Program. The application process is cumbersome and families with partial insurance coverage are not eligible. For physicians, reimbursement time is long, reimbursement rates are low, and some don’t know about the program or choose not to participate, according to parents and advocates who lobbied the state to fund children’s hearing aids.
The California Department of Health Care Services, which oversees the program, refused to say why the program had served so few children in its first year and refused to let CalMatters interview anyone who works with the program. Instead, department spokesperson Anthony Cava emailed that the agency “has already implemented several key improvements to HACCP to increase access, including implementing an online directory to locate a provider for HACCP-eligible children. DHCS is committed to continuing the ramp-up of this important program, through program operations and outreach activities, to expand the program’s reach.””
Why is Lyft bankrolling this California ballot measure on electric cars?
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: “California voters could decide in November to hike taxes on wealthy people and earmark the money for climate projects. But the effort has been bankrolled by an unlikely cheerleader: Lyft, the ride-hailing app that contributed to an increase in emissions from cars.
Lyft has poured more than $15 million into the campaign for Proposition 30, a ballot measure to raise the income-tax rate for wealthy people to pay for programs to get more drivers into electric cars.
The company’s involvement has divided Democrats who otherwise tend to be aligned over the state’s ambitious goals to reduce heat-trapping emissions that exacerbate climate change. Many environmentalists and building labor groups support the measure, while Gov. Gavin Newsom and the teachers unions oppose it.”
S.F. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is officially running to keep her job in November
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: “A giddy crowd greeted San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins as she strode into the Department of Elections on Monday morning, filing paperwork to seek office in November.
The appointed top prosecutor, who drew attention after she quit working for then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin last year and became a key spokesperson for the campaign to oust him, has signaled she may reverse some of the reforms instituted by the previous administration.
Her entrance into the race comes a week after Boudin announced he did not plan to run this year and two months after his historic recall.”
Proposed ‘FAST Act’ directly assaults CA’s restaurant industry
Capitol Weekly, JOT CONDIE: “The California Legislature is back in session after its annual summer recess, and over the course of this month, there will be hearings on hundreds of measures. Those include one that is a direct assault on the restaurant industry, as well as working families dealing with the dramatic rise in costs for the goods and services they rely on.
Assembly Bill 257 – known as the “FAST Act” – has been pushed through the legislative process under the guise of helping California workers in the counter-service restaurant community.
If enacted, the bill – sponsored by the Service Employees International Union – would set aside existing labor laws in favor of new rules developed and enforced by 13 unelected political appointees with zero oversight.”
Biden administration to halt controversial ‘Remain in Mexico’ program
LAT, HAMED ALEAZIZ: “The Biden administration will halt the use of a Trump-era policy that forced migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico, after a Supreme Court ruling said the government could unwind the program, according to two U.S. officials.
The administration’s action follows a federal judge’s ruling to vacate his previous decision to restart the policy.
“Remain in Mexico,” formally known as the Migration Protection Protocols Policy, or MPP, forced back more than 60,000 asylum-seekers during the Trump administration, as part of an effort to deter migration at the southern border. Many immigrants faced rape, kidnapping and murder while they languished in Mexico, according to advocacy groups.”
S.F. all but gives up on contact tracing for monkeypox
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: “San Francisco has demanded more vaccines and treatment options for its escalating cases of monkeypox — but the city has all but abandoned a time-honored method of containing outbreaks: contact tracing.
U.S. health officials declared monkeypox a national health emergency last week, as did California and San Francisco city officials, and although it’s typically non-fatal, no one wants to become infected by the smallpox relative, with its painful lesions that can lead to scarring.
With 472 cases — 36% of the state’s 1,310 cases — city public health officials believe San Francisco has the nation’s highest per-capita rate.”
Could this COVID program help reduce the California housing crisis?
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS/JEANNE KUANG: “Section 8 vouchers have been one of the federal government’s landmark responses to unaffordable housing for half a century. But too often in California, families sit on a waitlist for years only to see their once-golden ticket expire before they can find a home.
A fresh batch of emergency vouchers became available last year to address growing housing insecurity during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic — and local and federal officials watching their rollout believe the new vouchers’ features already offer some promising solutions to a broken system.
Housing choice vouchers, added in 1974 to Section 8 of the federal Housing Act of 1937, allow low-income tenants to pay only 30% of their income toward rent and utilities while Uncle Sam shoulders the rest. These vouchers have helped pay rent for more than 300,000 households in California this year, totaling $1.9 billion in assistance.”
Mercedes driver charged with murder in crash that killed 5 in Windsor Hills
LAT, RICHARD WINTON/NOAH GOLDBERG/NATHAN SOLIS: “A registered nurse was charged Monday with six counts of murder and five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter in connection with a fiery crash in Windsor Hills last week that killed a pregnant woman, a baby and three other adults, the Los Angeles County district attorney announced.
Nicole Lorraine Linton, 37, is accused of reckless disregard for life in connection with Thursday’s multi-vehicle crash. Prosecutors say the Los Angeles woman was behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz that was speeding as fast as 90 mph when she ran a red light shortly after 1:30 p.m. and plowed into traffic at the busy intersection of La Brea and Slauson avenues.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said Linton faces up to life in prison if convicted of all charges.”
Officers in this Northern California county stop Asian drivers at 12 times the rate of other drivers, lawsuit claims
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO/DUSTIN GARDINER: “Officers in rural Siskiyou County, fueled by racial prejudice and drug fear-mongering, are stopping the county’s small population of Asian American drivers at 12 times the rate of other drivers, according to a new lawsuit in federal court.
County supervisors are also restricting Asian American residents’ access to water and illegally placing liens on their property, in a policy “designed to drive a disfavored racial minority from the county,” the suit said. It was filed Wednesday in Sacramento by the American Civil Liberties Union and Asian Americans Advancing Justice as a proposed class action on behalf of the county’s 1,200 Asian American residents.
The suit said the policy began several years ago with reports of increased cannabis cultivation in the northwestern California county coinciding with increases in Asian American refugees moving to the county, shortly before the outbreak of a pandemic that then-President Donald Trump called “the Chinese flu.” Then-Sheriff Jon Lopey described all Asian Americans as pot growers and told county supervisors in January 2019 that he would assign his officers to conduct traffic stops in the county, a job they had not performed in the past, the suit said.”
LAT, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: “Los Angeles County prosecutors are convening a criminal grand jury to investigate whether the Sheriff’s Department mishandled an incident in which a sheriff’s deputy knelt on a handcuffed inmate’s head for three minutes, according to documents and interviews.
Several subpoenas have been served ordering sheriff’s officials to appear and testify starting later this week, according to two sources with knowledge of the subpoenas. Prosecutors are also seeking communications by a number of sheriff’s executives, one of the sources said.
It’s unclear how many subpoenas were issued or who received them. It’s also unclear whom prosecutors are targeting in their investigation. The district attorney’s office on Monday declined to comment.”
These charts show exactly where San Francisco’s wealthiest people moved in the pandemic
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: “Where did San Francisco’s wealthiest people decamp to in the pandemic’s first, frightening wave? Ritzy ski towns, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Each year, the IRS collects data on how many people are listed on tax returns filed in a given region, along with the total amount of income reported on those returns. It tracks migration by comparing the addresses people file at from one year to the next, calculating the total number of people moving from one region to another and the total amount of income moving between those regions.
Previously the Chronicle reported that because of San Francisco’s steep population loss — the city lost 4.5% of individuals listed on tax returns, or 39,000 people, according to the IRS data — people who left San Francisco by the time they filed their 2019 tax returns took about $10.6 billion with them, while people entering the city made just $3.8 billion in total, a net loss of nearly $7 billion.”
Olivia Newton-John, acclaimed singer and ‘Grease’ and ‘Xanadu’ star, dies at 73
LAT, CHRISTIE D’ZURILLA: “Olivia Newton-John, the beloved singer and actor known for her 1970s and ’80s hits and the movie “Grease,” died at her ranch in Southern California on Monday at age 73.
A cause of death hasn’t been announced, but she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 and underwent years of treatment. The cancer returned in 2017.
“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer,” her husband, John Easterling, wrote Monday on the singer’s official Facebook page to announce her death. “Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer.””
Killing pro-Moscow officials. Blowing up bridges. Ukraine’s guerrillas take up the fight
AP, YURAS KARMANAU/HANNA ARHIROVA: “In a growing challenge to Russia’s grip on occupied areas of southeastern Ukraine, guerrilla forces loyal to Kyiv are killing pro-Moscow officials, blowing up bridges and trains, and helping the Ukrainian military by identifying key targets.
The spreading resistance has eroded Kremlin control of those areas and threatened its plans to hold referendums in various cities as a move toward annexation by Russia.
“Our goal is to make life unbearable for the Russian occupiers and use any means to derail their plans,” said Andriy, a 32-year-old coordinator of the guerrilla movement in the southern Kherson region.”