Up in Smoke

Oct 20, 2022

A single, devastating California fire season wiped out years of efforts to cut emissions

 

LAT, HAYLEY SMITH: "A nearly two-decade effort by Californians to cut their emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide may have been erased by a single, devastating year of wildfires, according to UCLA and University of Chicago researchers.

 

The state’s record-breaking 2020 fire season, which saw more than 4 million acres burn, spewed almost twice the tonnage of greenhouse gases as the total amount of carbon dioxide reductions made since 2003, according to a study published recently in the journal Environmental Pollution.

 

Researchers estimated that about 127 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent were released by the fires, compared with about 65 million metric tons of reductions achieved in the previous 18 years."

 

California's greenhouse gas emissions actually rose in 2021, according to new government data

 

The Chronicle, YOOHYUN JUNG: "California has ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of its climate action plan, but emissions by large facilities, such as power plants and refineries, went up in 2021 compared with the year before.

 

Large facilities in the state released 94 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021, compared with 92 million in 2020, new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows. A single metric ton is approximately 2,200 pounds and can fill a sphere that’s about 32 feet in diameter. The increase in emissions by power plants contributed the most to that increase."

 

COVID in California: Majority of U.S. adults embrace continued masking if needed

 

The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "It was a busy day for health policymakers.


The Food and Drug Administration approved use of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine as a booster shot and authorized a home COVID test that employs either a nasal swab or a saliva sample to test for the coronavirus. Over at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advisors recommended adding pediatric COVID vaccines to a federal program that covers their cost for families in need. And no, they didn’t mandate shots for kids; that’s up to the states.


Moderna reported strong results from clinical trials of its dual booster, but it won’t likely be enough to convince millions of Americans — especially young people, Republicans, people without college degrees or those with lower incomes — to get a dose, according to the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation attitudes study."

 

Black developers refuse to work with De León on $1.6-billion Angels Landing project

 

LAT, ROGER VINCENT: "Black real estate developers behind the proposed $1.6-billion Angels Landing project in downtown Los Angeles said that they refuse to continue working with City Councilman Kevin De León, in light of the secretly taped racist conversation he took part in, saying they now fear he holds a racial bias against them and has been stalling city approvals.

 

In a letter to then-acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell Friday, two of the country’s most prominent Black builders, Victor MacFarlane and R. Donahue Peebles, called for De León to resign.

 

They said in an interview that another councilmember should oversee the approval process for the skyscraper residential and hotel complex they want to build on Bunker Hill and complete in time for the 2028 Olympics."

 

Hoping to beat historic odds, GOP hopeful eyes controller’s office

 

Capitol Weekly, LISA RENNER: "Lanhee Chen decided to become a Republican at age 10 after watching the 1988 presidential debate between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.

 

He has a vivid memory of watching Bush talk about “compassionate conservatism” and how important it is to encourage people to help one another. “Government is not the reflexive solution to everything,” said Chen, 44. “That was the vision.”

 

Chen, running as the Republican candidate for state controller in the Nov. 8 election, still resonates with that message. “I haven’t always been happy with my party, but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in what George Bush was talking about.”"

 

State senate candidate says she received death threats due to false campaign mailers

 

The Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER: "State Senate District 10 candidate Aisha Wahab and her campaign spoke out Wednesday alleging that two political action committees sent voters across Alameda and Santa Clara Counties “false and bigoted attack ad mailers” that used rape for political gain.

 

Wahab, currently serving on the Hayward City Council, said she received death threats after the mailers were sent to Bay Area homes."

 

New conflict after Boudin recall: Jenkins accuses fired prosecutor of removing confidential files

 

The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has accused a prominent former prosecutor of improperly transferring records from his office laptop to an external storage device on the day she fired him amid a broader staff overhaul.

 

The former prosecutor, Lateef Gray — who as a deputy district attorney managed a special unit investigating police abuse and brutality — has denied the allegations, which represent the latest conflict between Jenkins’ office and people who worked for or supported her predecessor, Chesa Boudin."

 

Schaaf delivers her final state of the city: ‘It has been the honor of a lifetime’

 

The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI: "Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf delivered her final state of the city address on Wednesday and said the city’s biggest challenges are crime, homelessness and a rising cost of living.

 

Her comments, made at an affordable housing site, come as the city sees another violent year with a spike in homicides and as voters are increasingly concerned about gun violence. Oakland recorded more homicides in 2021 than in any year since 2012.

 

In addition, Oakland is grappling with skyrocketing homelessness. The city’s homeless population has increased by 24% over the past three years — from 4,071 in 2019 to 5,055 in 2022." 
Students, faculty urge University of California system to hire undocumented students
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "New enrollment in DACA, the federal program that allows young undocumented immigrants to live and work legally in the United States, has been shut down by federal judges, cutting off job prospects for thousands of young people, including many University of California students. On Wednesday, students and faculty members asked the university to do something about it.
“UC has a moral and legal obligation to act now on behalf of our undocumented graduate and undergraduate students,” leaders of the Undocumented Student-Led Network and immigration faculty said in a letter delivered to UC President Michael Drake’s office in Berkeley calling on the university to make jobs available to students regardless of their immigration status.

They said a study by immigration scholars refutes the university’s contention that offering jobs to the undocumented would violate federal immigration law."

 Wednesday’s heat was record breaking in these parts of the Bay Area
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "Unseasonably warm temperatures have been stifling the Pacific Northwest due to a high-pressure system parked in the upper levels of the atmosphere and on Wednesday, the heat made it down to the Bay Area.Longstanding daily temperature records were tied or broken across the region, according to the National Weather Service Bay Area.
San Francisco and Oakland reached 90 degrees; Redwood City made it to 92.
These temperatures are about 20 degrees warmer than the average maximum temperatures for these locations, based on climate normals from 1991 through 2020."

Kylie Jenner’s private jet is bad for the climate. It’s far worse for the residents of Van Nuys 

LAT, CAROLINA A MIRANDA: "“You wanna take mine or yours?” That was Kylie Jenner’s caption for a July Instagram post that showed her and boyfriend Travis Scott in the middle of a make-out sesh between a pair of private jets.
It was a simple question. The response was withering.
Jenner’s post was greeted by an avalanche of criticism about the ways the 1% are incinerating the environment. Time magazine included her in a roundup of the most egregious celebrity overconsumption. An article in the Washington Post described celebrity jet usage as “a climate nightmare,” adding to the pillory other jet owners such as Taylor Swift and Drake. The best response, however, was a TikTok from user @unabella3 that shows a squadron of military jets blasting through the sky along with the deadpan caption: “The Kardashians on their way to Starbucks.”"

S.F. is spending $1.7 million on one public toilet: ‘What are they making it out of — gold?’
The Chronicle, HEATHER KNIGHT: "San Francisco politicians will gather at the Noe Valley Town Square Wednesday afternoon to congratulate themselves for securing state money for a long-desired toilet in the northeast corner of the charming plaza.
Another public toilet in a city with far too few of them is excellent. But the details of this particular commode? They’re mind-boggling, maddening and encapsulate so much of what’s wrong with our city government.
The toilet — just one loo in 150 square feet of space — is projected to cost $1.7 million, about the same as a single-family home in this wildly overpriced city. And it won’t be ready for use until 2025."
Packed In: Overcrowded housing in Los Angeles has brought death by design
LAT, STAFF: "It’s the cruel paradox at the center of Los Angeles housing. L.A. is known worldwide as the capital of single-family-home sprawl.

Yet for three decades, it has had the most overcrowded housing among large counties in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fatal consequences, with death rates in L.A.’s most overcrowded neighborhoods at least twice as high as in those with ample housing.It didn’t have to be this way.
The crowded conditions have been a century in the making, with local leaders designing Los Angeles in a way that made these circumstances inevitable."

L.A.’s love of sprawl made it America’s most overcrowded place. Poor people pay a deadly price

LAT, STAFF: "The virus first struck Leonardo Miranda, who rented a shed and shared the kitchen, bathroom and dining room in the main house.
It spread to a man who slept on three red cushions in the laundry room. Then to a grandfather and grandson who wedged two mattresses into one room. By the time COVID-19 was finished with the three-bedroom home, shared by eight, Miranda and the grandfather were dead.
Miranda’s death in January 2021 would become part of a calamitous pattern. Los Angeles’ most overcrowded neighborhoods have experienced COVID-19 death rates that are at least twice as high as those with ample housing."

The public health workforce got an infusion of money during the pandemic, but is it enough?

CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "A two-year search for a laboratory director.

 

Sixty-three retirements or resignations of county public health leaders since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

 

More than 100 current public health nursing vacancies."