Federal officials join Stockton serial killer investigation as fear grips the city
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: “Dozens of Stockton area residents told city and law enforcement officials during a public safety town hall Wednesday night they were scared for themselves and their loved ones amid a string of homicides that have been attributed to a possible serial killer.
The meeting was held after investigators determined this week that five shooting deaths in Stockton since July, plus a sixth killing in Oakland last year, appeared to be the work of one person, possibly a man who shot his victims after dark or before dawn in isolated places.”
News of a potential serial killer has shaken the city and neighboring communities."
Jan. 6 riot defendant from Northern California wants out of DC jail, citing mental decline
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "A week after rejecting a plea agreement from federal prosecutors, accused Jan. 6 rioter Sean Michael McHugh is asking a judge to release him from custody pending trial because his mental health is deteriorating and he is facing abuse inside a Washington, D.C., jail.
McHugh’s lawyer also is seeking dismissal of the charges the Northern California man faces, arguing that the bear spray and metal sign he is accused of using against police officers trying to defend the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection are not dangerous weapons.
McHugh, who allegedly texted someone that he “unloaded a whole can of bear spray on a line of cops,” also has filed a grievance against his jailers, claiming he was hit by pepper spray “for absolutely no reason” and had to wait two hours for medical treatment, court documents say."
California homeless population grew by 22,000 over pandemic
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS: “The first statewide snapshot of California’s homelessness crisis since the pandemic hit reveals that the number of people without a stable place to call home increased by at least 22,500 over the past three years, to 173,800.
That’s based on a CalMatters analysis of the federal government’s point-in-time count, a biennial headcount of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters tallied by California cities and counties earlier this year for the first time since 2019.
Homelessness experts mostly attribute the rise to precipitous drops in earnings during the pandemic among Californians already teetering on the edge. They also point to a worsening housing affordability crisis that is decades in the making.”
The youngest readers tackle sounds, words and the science of reading
EdSource, STAFF: “In the words of Frederick Douglass, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
In EdSource’s next installment of “California’s Reading Dilemma,” we take you inside the classroom at four high-poverty schools fighting to free their students from illiteracy. These schools are one year into an ambitious three-year program to overhaul reading instruction for the youngest learners. The project is funded by a $50 million settlement from a lawsuit accusing the state of denying these children their civil right to literacy.
This is the front line of the literacy crisis in a state where less than half of all third graders could read at grade level in 2019, long before the pandemic sent test scores plummeting. The statistics are far direr for children of color, with two-thirds of Black children and 61% of Latino children unable to read at grade level. At some high-poverty California schools, less than 10% of the children could read at grade level.”
COVID in California: Four out of five adults with long COVID struggle with daily tasks
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “Health officials in Marin County relaxed the rules governing when students and staff can return to school after a coronavirus infection.
A majority of Americans said they were unconcerned with the advent of new coronavirus subvariants, a poll showed.
Speaking to a conference in California, Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to keep their guards up when it came to the coronavirus, despite positive COVID-19 trends. “
Many California GOP candidates are against abortion. They just don’t like to talk about it
LINDSEY HOLDEN, SacBee: "California Republicans are heading into the midterm elections with messages for voters on everything from inflation to crime and education to homelessness.
But you’re less likely to hear anything about abortion. A group of GOP leaders and state Senate and Assembly candidates gathered Wednesday on the Capitol steps to tout their “California Promise” agenda.
Speakers were eager to share their vision for reforming criminal justice policies and helping unhoused residents."
Doctors fear California law aimed at COVID-19 misinformation could do more harm than good
LAT, CORINNE PURTILL: “California doctors will soon be subject to disciplinary action if they give their patients information about COVID-19 that they know to be false or misleading.
On its face, the new state law sounds like a clear blow to the forces that have fueled skepticism about life-saving vaccines, encouraged anxious people to trust discredited and dangerous drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and reduced face masks to symbols of political partisanship. The measure was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and goes into effect on Jan. 1.
But critics of the law, including many mainstream doctors who have advocated passionately for masks and vaccines, say it could end up curbing well-intentioned conversations between patients and physicians about a disease that’s still changing from one month to the next.”
Voters support Newsom’s mental health plan and back mandatory kindergarten, poll shows
LAT, HANNAH WILEY/PHIL WILLON: “California voters strongly support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to set up a new court system for people struggling with a combination of severe mental illness, homelessness and substance use, but split with the governor on requiring children to attend kindergarten, a new poll shows.
Newsom introduced his sweeping Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal earlier this year amid increasing concern over the number of people living in crisis on California’s streets. Legislation to codify CARE Court, Senate Bill 1338, easily passed the Legislature with bipartisan support, and Newsom signed the measure into law last month.
Civil and disability rights groups spent the majority of the legislative session in fervent opposition to CARE Court over concerns the new law could criminalize homelessness and lead to mentally ill people being coerced into treatment.”
Forget California and Amsterdam: This country wants to become the new king of weed
LAT, DAVID PIERSON: “Many hours from Bangkok, down a winding road dotted with ornate wooden spirit houses, past fields of drooping tapioca plants and across a bridge over the inky green River Khwae, a white-paneled building sits in a clearing.
Painted on one side is a graffiti-style mural: Snoop Dogg smoking a joint.
If all goes to plan, the rapper from Long Beach won’t be the only connection to California on this patch of wilderness — one of Thailand’s largest legal cannabis farms. The owners are awaiting approval to import seeds from the Humboldt Seed Co. to crossbreed Thai and Californian marijuana.”
California offers to reduce imports of Colorado River water
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: “Facing demands from the federal government, California water agencies offered today to cut back the amount of water they import from the Colorado River starting in 2023.
After months of negotiations, water agencies wrote to federal agencies today offering to reduce California’s water use by 400,000 acre-feet every year through 2026. That amounts to 9% of the river’s water that California is entitled to under its senior rights.
Most of California’s Colorado River water goes to the Imperial Irrigation District, serving nearly half a million acres of farmland in the southeast corner of the state. The district offered to cut 250,000 acre feet, although its offer is contingent on federal funding and the voluntary participation of their water users.”
Here’s how we can improve the way laws are made in California
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: “Are there ways to improve the lawmaking process in the California Legislature? I believe there are.
I believe the fundamental problem is that there are too many bills each year. There just is not enough bandwidth for all persons involved in the legislative process to sufficiently review and analyze the volume of bills.
This is absolutely not a criticism of legislators, their staff, or committee staff. The reality is there is only a handful of staff in each of the 120 legislator offices to deal with thousands of bills, as well as a small number of consultants that handle thousands of bills among the Assembly’s 33 policy committees and the Senate’s 22 policy committees.”
S.F.’s economic pain: 25% office vacancy, more tech layoffs and plunging venture capital funding
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: “San Francisco’s economy is being hit by a triple whammy that is dragging down hopes of a sustainable recovery: a glut of unused office space, accelerating tech layoffs and a downturn in venture capital investment.
The city’s office sector had one of its slowest quarters of the pandemic in the past three months, with the vacancy rate climbing to a record high 25.5% at the end of September, according to real estate brokerage CBRE.”
LAT, SUMMER LIN/ANOUSHA SAKOUI/MEG JAMES: “Nearly a year after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on the film set of “Rust” in an incident involving a prop gun fired by producer and actor Alec Baldwin in New Mexico, the Hutchins family and Baldwin have reached an undisclosed settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, filming will resume next year on the low-budget western with the cinematographer’s husband, Matthew Hutchins, as executive producer, according to his statement.
Joel Souza, the director injured alongside Halyna, will also return to the project, he said. The case will be dismissed as part of the settlement, which is subject to court approval in New Mexico.”
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: “A group of Oakland families say they are tired of sitting on the sidelines as school district officials and labor leaders negotiate agreements and contracts with far-reaching implications for their children.
On Thursday night, they plan to ask for a seat at the table.
Two parent advocacy organizations representing hundreds of parents in the district of 34,000 students have joined forces to request that the school board take up a resolution to ensure families have a voice in the bargaining process with the teachers union as well as other labor groups.”
Which S.F. neighborhood has the most expensive homes? Here are the top 20 by price per square foot
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “Even though average home prices have declined in the Bay Area in recent months amid rising interest rates and inflation, the San Francisco market remains among the priciest in the nation — which translates into less house for the dollar than in most other cities.
The median price per square foot for homes across the San Francisco metro area was $976 in August — more than twice the California average of $473 and more than four times the U.S. median of $225, according to real estate listings website Redfin.
But within the city of San Francisco, the average price per square foot varies widely depending on the neighborhood, Redfin data shows - from as low as $622 to more than $1,400 in the very priciest areas.”
Iranian women at home and abroad cut their hair to protest Mahsa Amini’s death
LAT, SARAH PARVANI: “Standing before her bathroom mirror, Elnaz Rahimpour fluffed her curly hair before braiding the tendrils into four pieces.
She reached for the scissors and cut each dark lock with tears in her eyes, as an old Iranian resistance anthem streamed over the video she posted to Instagram — her own gesture of protest in solidarity with the movement that has coursed through Iran in the weeks since a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died at a Tehran hospital after reportedly being brutalized by the country’s morality police.
Amid protests across Iran, many women in the country have adopted the political symbolism of cutting their hair — at once a statement against oppression and the rules of compulsory hijab for women, and an act of defiance in honor of Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s modesty laws.”