Newsom’s plan seeks to give hope to families of mentally ill, homeless Californians
HANNAH WILEY, LA Times: "Brian Lungren and his family wonder what could have spared him some of the 13 years he spent at Napa State Hospital in treatment for mental illness and serious drug and alcohol addiction.
Since Brian, or Bri to his family, was diagnosed as a teenager with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, his parents tried everything to save him from a years-long and emotionally painful spiral into drug use, incarceration and homelessness.
His dad, Brian Lungren Sr., tallied nine temporary and involuntary psychiatric holds, and up to three failed attempts at court-ordered conservatorship."
California lawmakers approved CARE Court. What comes next?
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS/JOCELYN WIENERZ: “In the next two years, California’s 58 counties will be tasked with setting up new court systems to address the needs of people with severe mental illness who often languish on the streets.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal swept through the state Legislature with resounding approval from Democrats and Republicans in both houses on Aug. 31 — only two of the state’s 120 legislators voted against it — and was signed into law by the governor on Sept. 14. The proposal was authored by Democratic Sens. Tom Umberg of Garden Grove and Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton through Senate Bill 1338.
“This is one of the things I think we’ll look back on with tremendous pride, when we’re done,” Newsom said during the bill signing ceremony in San Jose, where he first announced the proposal in March. “We get a moment in time, but this might live on, if we make it real. And that’s the hard work of the next year.”
California union members would get money from state for paying dues under bill on Newsom’s desk
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: "California union members could receive tax credits to reimburse a portion of their dues payments under a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Assembly Bill 158, approved by the Legislature in June, doesn’t specify the size of the credits for most dues-payers.
The bill instead sets out lawmakers’ intent to provide $400 million worth of the credits starting in 2024. It asks the state Franchise Tax Board to develop proposals for how much money union members might be able to get back — calculated as a percentage of their dues — with a $400 million allocation."
Legal pot spawned a wave of corruption, threats and secret financial deals for politicians,
LA Times, ADAM ELMAHREK/ROBERT J LOPEZ/RUBEN VIVES: “In the San Gabriel Valley, a city councilman demanded bribes from businesses seeking cannabis licenses, according to a source cooperating with the FBI.
In another small L.A. County city, a cannabis industry group offered $15,000 to council candidates who would pledge to support changes to city regulations that weed businesses wanted — an exchange one legal expert said “flirted at the edges” of the law.
And in rural Northern California, an elected official pushed to expand the amount of weed that farms could legally grow, a proposal sought by a cannabis business that was paying her and her husband hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy their ranch.”
Voters push to take local redistricting from politicians
CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL: “California’s independent redistricting commission has received generally good reviews for its new maps that voters are using to elect legislators and members of Congress in November.
Voters who say they are disenfranchised want similar panels to draw their local districts — and they’ve gone to the Legislature to make that happen.
Three bills on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk would overrule local officials and require independent redistricting commissions in Fresno, Kern and Riverside counties, respectively. If he signs them, those panels would work on districts for the boards of supervisors in those counties, starting after the next Census in 2030.”
New law takes targets truth in advertising — especially plastics
Capitol Weekly, AARON GILBREATH: “In September 2021, the California Legislature passed “The Truth in Labeling for Recyclable Materials” bill, SB 343, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law that October. Taking effect on Jan. 1, 2024, the law targets inaccurate and misleading product labeling to eliminate confusion about which plastics are recyclable and which are not.
Approximately 85% of single-use plastics in California never get recycled. By standardizing and clarifying the labeling of recyclable waste, the law aims to align manufacturing standards with state regulations in order to increase the amount of plastic material that actually gets recycled. Only truly recyclable materials will bear the chasing arrows symbol or the word ‘recyclable.’”
Why California might become a major hub for a new type of tourism
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: “Starting this month, California’s tourism bureau is trying something it’s never tried before: nudging travelers toward the state’s tribal lands, many of which haven’t historically hosted large numbers of sightseers, in hopes of benefiting from a largely untapped resource of rich cultural history.
A new promotional campaign called “Visit Native California” represents the bureau’s first effort to spotlight the cultural heritage of some of the 109 federally recognized tribes here and help them gain a foothold in the state’s immense tourism market. It comes at a time when several tribes and Indigenous communities are just beginning to build new tourism businesses.
“When I found out about (the campaign), I started crying because I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen here,” said Ashley Bowers, marketing lead for Yurok Country, the promotional arm of Northern California’s Yurok Tribe, of which she is a member. “This is huge.””
California is trying to purge this offensive term from all public places
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: “Darrel Cruz recently wrote up proposals to rename three landscape features of the dramatic mountains surrounding the Palisades Tahoe ski resort — all of which carried the derogatory term "squaw."
Cruz, director of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office for the Washoe Tribe, whose ancestral lands encompass Lake Tahoe, was instrumental in helping Palisades rebrand itself last fall after operating as Squaw Valley for 72 years.
Many Native American tribes deride the term as an offensive, dehumanizing objectifier of indigenous women.”
California wage theft whack-a-mole: workers win judgments against bosses but still don’t get paid
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG/ALEJANDRO LAZO: “Manuel Chavez, a former front-desk manager at the Stuart Hotel in Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park neighborhood, was elated when he won a wage claim victory of more than $200,000 against his old boss in 2017.
California’s Labor Commissioner ruled Chavez had worked thousands more hours than his employer paid him for over a three-year period — a clear case of wage theft, the state decided after administrative hearings.
“I felt good, very content, after so much work and so much suffering,” Chavez said about his case.”
How Roundup, the weed killer linked to cancer, became one of California wine’s biggest controversies
The Chronicle, ESTHER MOBLEY: “One of the most hotly debated issues in California wine these days involves a chemical that can be found in every Home Depot in America: Roundup.
Monsanto’s high-profile herbicide is the go-to method of weed control for many California vineyards. As with all crops, weeds are a nuisance among grapevines, competing for resources like water and potentially causing young vines to die.
But Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is probably a carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization. Repeated exposure to glyphosate has been linked to cancers like non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Recently, new research has revealed just how pervasive glyphosate may be in our environment: In July, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study of 2,310 subjects that found glyphosate in the urine of 80% of adults and 87% of children.”
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “The Trump administration's separation of thousands of immigrant parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border has been renounced by President Biden. Now a lawsuit by an immigrant mother and daughter living in Oakland, who were forcibly separated for more than 10 months after crossing the border, could help determine whether the government will pay any price for the former policy.
J.R.G. and her 8-year-old daughter, M.A.R., as they’re identified in court filings, fled their native El Salvador and were stopped while crossing the border at El Paso, Texas, in May 2018. According to their suit, filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, less than a day later, at about 1 a.m., an officer grabbed the terrified child from her mother’s arms and took her away, and soon afterward J.R.G. was escorted to a freezing detention center run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Despite a Border Patrol agent’s promise of quick reunification, the suit said, they did not see each other again until March 2019. Meanwhile, J.R.G. pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegal entry, and was sentenced to probation, but was nevertheless locked up for 10 months, suffering pain, cramps, dizziness and fevers, the family’s lawyers said.”
It’s the Bay Area’s Eden — but it’s far from paradise with few trees and inescapable heat
The Chronicle, JUSTIN PHILLIPS/CHASITY HALE: “Ashland resident Diana Maravilla can count on one hand the number of trees along the route she walks her terriers Foxy and Linus.
On days like Thursday, when the thermostat shot to at least 102 degrees for the third time in five days, her walks become a dangerous game of hide and seek.
“I’m having to stop for shade at any tree I find because I know it’s going to be a while before we see another one,” Maravilla said. “As an environment, it’s not safe for anyone.””
The Chronicle, HEATHER KNIGHT: “Living in San Francisco can induce regular emotional jolts. Glory and misery, beauty and ugliness, delight and despair, all pack tightly together in our small, confounding city.
Some days I ask myself why I still live here. Other days, I pledge to never live anywhere else. Occasionally, those feelings strike within minutes of each other.
Clearly, many San Franciscans feel the same way.”
The Chronicle, JOSHUA SHARPE: “In the months before her niece was found dead, Emerald Johnson said she repeatedly told Alameda County social workers the 8-year-old was in danger.
The warnings started in January 2021 and included accusations that Sophia Mason had been beaten and choked. Each time, Johnson said, social workers either didn’t investigate or found insufficient evidence to remove the child from the home.
“They could’ve saved her,” Johnson said.”
With monkeypox, California colleges seek to control spread of two diseases at once
CALMatters, MALLIKA SESHADRI: “After a couple years of living with COVID-19, UC Santa Barbara student Alex Niles heard about the monkeypox outbreak. “Here we go again,” he thought.
Niles, who is president of the UC Student Association, knew monkeypox was transmitted very differently than COVID-19 and generally posed less risk. But he began to notice concern percolating within UC Santa Barbara’s student body.
“There’s a good share of folks who are definitely like ‘OK, I’m going to get vaccinated, I’m going to start taking precautions,’ ” Niles said.”
Cal State turns to the Legislature for faculty and staff pay increases
EdSource, ASHLEY A SMITH: “The Cal State system knows it needs to give its employees sizable salary and wage increases, but finding and getting the money to do so means relying on the state.
And on top of that, Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering whether to sign a bill that would require the system to give CSU staff increases over the next 10 years that would cost $878 million, but neither the bill nor CSU has any money to pay for it.
It all adds up to a huge problem for CSU, which faces a wide gap between the raises it wants to give faculty and staff and what it can afford. As a state system, CSU got in line early to ask for a healthy increase in funding in the 2023-24 state budget, an early version of which Newsom will unveil in January.”
Tentative railway labor agreement reached, averting a strike, Biden says
AP, JOSH BOAK/ZEKE MILLER: “President Biden said Thursday that a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a potentially devastating strike before the pivotal midterm elections.
Railroads and union representatives had been in negotiations for 20 hours at the Labor Department on Wednesday to hammer out a deal, as there was a risk of a strike starting Friday that could have shut down rail lines across the country.
Biden made a key phone call to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh at 9 p.m. as the talks were ongoing after an Italian dinner had been brought in, according to a White House official insisting on anonymity. The president told the negotiators to consider the harm to families, farmers and businesses if a shutdown occurred.”
Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin spends record $70 million on Ronald Reagan’s former home
LAT, JACK FLEMMING: “Hollywood Hills just saw its priciest home sale ever. In the Bird Streets, a property once owned by Ronald Reagan has traded hands for $70 million — by far the most ever paid for a home in the neighborhood.
The buyer is Fanatics Chief Executive Michael Rubin, sources told The Times. Fanatics is a sports e-commerce company valued at $27 billion, and Forbes puts Rubin’s net worth at $10.2 billion.
Records show the seller is a limited liability company tied to Francesco Aquilini, a Canadian businessman and developer who serves as chairman of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team. Aquilini has been on a hot streak in Hollywood Hills over the last few years; he set the neighborhood’s previous price record in 2020 when he sold a spec mansion to Jeffrey Gou, film producer and heir to the Foxconn fortune, for $42.5 million.”