Kevin McCarthy wins GOP nomination for House speaker
LAT, NOLAN D MCCASKILL: "House Republicans voted Tuesday to nominate Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker, putting the Bakersfield lawmaker on track to achieve a long-sought ambition.
But while the GOP is on the verge of securing a narrow House majority, its surprisingly poor performance in last week’s midterm election forced McCarthy to scramble much harder than anticipated to keep his caucus united and behind him.
Even if he wins the top job when the new House convenes in January and elects a speaker, McCarthy faces a difficult road in corralling the party’s factions."
Sen. Feinstein could be 3rd in line to succeed Biden. But she’s not interested
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein does not plan to seek to become President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate, a position that would put her third in the line of presidential succession.
Feinstein, 89, told the Washington Post last month that if Democrats won control of the Senate, she would not be interested in the job, which in recent decades has been held by the longest-serving member of the majority party. Her office reiterated that position to The Bee Tuesday.
Asked by The Bee Tuesday if she wants the position, she answered three times the same way: “I haven’t thought about it.”"
Part of Harvey Weinstein’s defense strategy: Put Gavin Newsom on trial
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Facing the prospect of another rape conviction for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, defense attorneys are seeking to haul Gov. Gavin Newsom into the spotlight in a bid to discredit his wife as an accuser.
As Jennifer Siebel Newsom testified in a Los Angeles courtroom this week that Weinstein had raped her in a hotel suite after they met in 2005, defense lawyers homed in on Newsom’s subsequent acceptance of campaign donations from the film mogul — donations that, according to Siebel Newsom, were made before she’d explicitly told her husband what had happened to her.
Weinstein’s effort to make the governor a prominent figure in the trial have gone further. Defense attorneys sought to bring up his and Siebel Newsom’s controversial visit to the French Laundry in Napa Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic, a request that was denied by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench."
Robert Luna to become L.A. County sheriff as Alex Villanueva concedes
LAT, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Robert Luna, a little-known retired police chief from Long Beach, will be the next sheriff of Los Angeles County after he soundly beat the incumbent, Alex Villanueva, who leaves office in the wake of a single term marred by the upheaval and discord he sowed.
With Luna holding a commanding 20-percentage-point lead in the vote count and the number of ballots yet to be tallied shrinking by the day, Villanueva conceded the race Tuesday.
“I want to wish the incoming sheriff well,” Villanueva said at the end of a rambling concession speech. “The safety of the community depends on him succeeding.”"
New CalPERS rule limits how long retirees can work while drawing a pension
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "The CalPERS Board of Administration approved new restrictions Tuesday on how long retired public employees may work without giving up pension payments.
The board set an initial two-year limit, plus extensions, on retired annuitant appointments. The appointments allow retirees to earn paychecks for up to 960 hours of work per year from employers who participate in CalPERS.
The new regulation addresses an ambiguity in California retirement law, which says retirees may return to work for a “limited duration” in emergencies and when employers need retirees’ specialized skills. Some retirees’ appointments have lasted decades, according to data from a 2019 CalPERS audit."
Trump’s return is ominous for California Republicans — and anyone touched by his racism
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Donald Trump’s newly minted 2024 presidential campaign isn’t going to win California — if the ex-president survives the GOP primary — but his presence on the ballot has a lot of Californians concerned about the damage he could inspire on the way there.
Politically, his presence on the ballot is bad news for Republican candidates in a state where two-thirds of the voters dislike him. Trump is a twice-impeached former president who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election on false charges, inspired an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and is the subject of multiple federal investigations.
Even Trump’s longtime stenographers at Fox News seemed a bit bored during his speech Tuesday. The network cut away from Trump’s speech about 40 minutes in to ask their panel to begin analyzing it... before it was even over."
The California Republican Party isn’t endorsing Trump. But many loyalists remain
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "More than an hour before former President Donald Trump took the stage at his Mar-a-Lago country club to announce his next presidential run, the California GOP made clear: It’s not ready to embrace the former president.
“The California Republican Party does not endorse in presidential primaries and will stay neutral,” party spokespeson Ellie Hockenbury said in a statement. We would be lucky to have any of the outstanding Republican leaders who may decide to run.”"
Democrat Christy Smith knows she’ll lose her congressional race. She blames her own party
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA/MELANIE MASON: "The race for a hotly contested Los Angeles-area congressional district had not been called, but Democrat Christy Smith sensed she would end up on the losing end. And she felt there was a clear reason why.
“Our campaign got next-to-zero outside resources to fight this battle. In fact, I was fighting the institutional power of my own party from the outset of this race,” Smith said in a scathing series of remarks on Twitter. With no help on the airwaves and little elsewhere from Democratic Party committees and PACs, “we didn’t stand a chance.”
Smith is no different from scores of other candidates who believe victory would’ve been theirs if not for stingy support from Washington. But her unusually blunt remarks Sunday highlighted the stark turn of events in the campaign for California’s 27th District — a contest in which Democrats were expected to mount an all-out effort to oust incumbent Rep. Mike Garcia after he barely eked out a win two years earlier."
Congressman Josh Harder wins California midterm in key clinch for House Democrats
Sac Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "Rep. Josh Harder will return to the U.S. House of Representatives after prevailing in a must-win district for Democrats in their bid to reduce a Republican majority.
Harder, D-Tracy, beat San Joaquin County supervisor Tom Patti, a Republican, in California’s new 9th Congressional District. The congressman had earned more than 56% of the votes when the Associated Press declared his win. More than 79% of the votes had been counted."
Progressive nabs rural seat long held by Santa Clara County conservatives
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "In a race with major consequences for the political tilt of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for years to come, progressive candidate Sylvia Arenas has defeated Johnny Khamis to represent the largely rural district in the county’s southern edge.
Arenas’ win ends a decades long reign by conservatives in District 1, where the San Jose council member holds a roughly 7,769-vote lead over Khamis. About 80% of the vote has been counted, according to the Registrar of Voters.
The district, known colloquially as “South County,” covers vast stretches of unincorporated land along with eastern San Jose, Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy. In a statement, Arenas said she was “deeply honored” to win the seat."
LA Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell concedes to Hugo Soto-Martinez in 13th District race
LA Daily News, ERIC HE: "Labor organizer Hugo Soto-Martinez has defeated two-term Councilman Mitch O’Farrell in the race for the Los Angeles City Council’s 13th District seat, with O’Farrell conceding Tuesday.
Soto-Martinez led O’Farrell by nearly 5,000 votes after Tuesday’s vote-counting update, holding more than 55% of the vote. He has been ahead since Election Day after also taking first place in the June primary.
“We ran this campaign to build community power for workers, immigrants, the unhoused, people of color, young people, renters, and all of us who have been neglected by our city officials,” Soto-Martinez said in a statement declaring victory. “Now, we’re bringing this movement into City Hall.”"
Mahan’s lead grows in San Jose mayor race as ballot count reaches 90%
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "The tight race to become San Jose’s next mayor remained close Tuesday, but Matt Mahan saw his lead over Cindy Chavez stretch for a second day in a row with now 90% of estimated ballots counted countywide.
Tuesday’s count put Mahan 6,351 votes ahead with 51.32% of the 240,521 votes counted so far to Chavez’s 48.68%, a lead of 2.64 percentage points.
Still, tens of thousands of ballots may remain to be counted in the race and it’s unclear where they are from. Batches processed over the weekend favored Chavez and chipped away at Mahan’s lead before additional ballots counted Monday and Tuesday tilted back toward Mahan."
Lisa Gillmor extends lead over Anthony Becker as Santa Clara mayor’s race approaches finish line
BANG*Mercury News, VANDANA RAVIKUMAR: "The future leadership of Santa Clara remained in limbo Tuesday as the county continued to tally votes in a mayoral race in which incumbent Lisa Gillmor maintained a steady lead over District 6 Councilmember Anthony Becker with 90% of the expected ballots counted.
The tight race between Gillmor and Becker is the culmination of long standing tension between the two candidates over the city’s relationship with the San Francisco 49ers, who manage Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara and poured $4.5 million into this year’s city council races. The two have frequently butted heads during city council meetings.
A week after the election, Gillmor had 14,199 votes to Becker’s 13,502, a lead of 2.52%. The county has tallied more than 27,000 votes so far, an 11% increase from Monday’s count."
Leads change in close Sacramento County elections, from Folsom to Sac City Unified
Sac Bee, ALEX MUEGGE: "One week after Election Day, results from Sacramento County show that there are some tight races across the region.
Anna Rohrbough, a newcomer who previously served as city council member in Washington state, leads incumbent Kerri Howell in the race to become Folsom’s next mayor by just 29 votes as of Tuesday afternoon. Howell led as recently as Tuesday morning.
Rohrbough holds the lead with 1,647 votes to Howell’s 1,618."
How did Gascón end up launching a criminal probe sparked by far-right election conspiracy theories?
LAT, JAMES QUEALLY/SARAH D WIRE: "More than a dozen QAnon adherents rubbed shoulders with conservative journalists and bloggers at an undisclosed Phoenix location in August, gathering to hear new allegations from a far-right group convinced the 2020 election was stolen.
Dubbed “the Pit,” the event was hosted by True the Vote, a group of election deniers who funded and appeared in the long-debunked propaganda film “2000 Mules” by right-wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza, which purported to prove that then-President Trump lost his bid for a second term because of coordinated ballot box stuffing by Democrats.
Rising GOP star Kari Lake, Arizona’s Trump-backed candidate for governor this fall who repeatedly questioned election integrity in her failed campaign, gave opening remarks at the event, which was livestreamed. Organizers claimed they had new information that was exponentially worse than what was reported in the film."
S.F. supes rip into state, Newsom over requirement to build more housing
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors used a public hearing Tuesday night to bash state housing officials for what they said were unrealistic expectations on housing production and to rebuke the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom, saying the state failed to fund the 46,000 affordable units the city is expected to produce over the next eight years.
With the deadline looming in 75 days to submit a compliant state-mandated plan for 82,000 housing units — or face the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for affordable units and transportation — board members called on the local, state, and federal government to come up with a concrete plan to fund the billions of dollars needed to build the 5,000 units a year of subsidized affordable housing that would be needed to meet the state mandate.
While the reservation system succeeded at limiting numbers in years when park staffing and services were down because of the coronavirus, it became a sore point for last-minute travelers unable to win admission and gateway communities dependent on the tourist traffic. Others liked the program because it eliminated much of Yosemite’s notorious congestion."
Newsom asked cities to set targets for reducing homelessness. Sacramento’s goal? A 71% spike.
Sac Bee, MAGGIE ANGST: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has been increasingly clear about California’s homeless crisis: he wants to see results from local government.
That means fewer roadside encampments, fewer people sleeping on the sidewalks at night and more stable housing for those who don’t have any.
So while reviewing local plans for action in recent weeks, he said he was dumbfounded by one region’s official goal: to keep the growth of its unsheltered homeless population from rising by more than 71%."
Top FBI official in L.A. silent about his and mom’s connection to Tom Girardi
LAT, MATT HAMILTON: "The FBI’s Los Angeles field office, which is leading the high-profile investigation into rampant corruption at Tom Girardi’s now-defunct law firm, is refusing to answer questions about the relationship among the agency’s top local official, his mother and the disgraced legal legend.
Donald Alway, the assistant director in charge of the field office, is the son of Girardi’s former girlfriend and secretary. His mother, Michelle Alway, received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Girardi and his law firm during the mid-1990s, according to court papers.
By that period, Girardi had already started misappropriating clients’ settlement money for his own purposes, a practice that continued into recent years, according to court filings from a bankruptcy trustee."
NASA’s mightiest rocket, Artemis, lifts off on lunar mission 50 years after Apollo
AP, MARCIA DUNN: "NASA’s new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early Wednesday, bringing the U.S. a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago.
If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December.
After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 8.8 million pounds of thrust and hitting 100 mph within seconds. The Orion capsule was perched on top and, less than two hours into the flight, busted out of Earth’s orbit toward the moon."
Yosemite National Park ends controversial reservation system
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "Love it or hate it, the policy requiring a reservation to enter busy Yosemite National Park is no more.
Park officials announced Tuesday that the contentious crowd-control policy enacted during the first two years of the pandemic and continued a third year because of construction will not be in place next year.
The reservation requirement covered the park’s peak summer season, when historically Yosemite has been one of the most visited sites in the National Park Service."
Back-to-back Santa Ana winds will raise fire risk in Southern California
LAT, GREGORY YEE: "Southern California will be buffeted by back-to-back Santa Ana wind events this week, bringing an elevated fire risk to parts of the region.
The National Weather Service office in Oxnard expects the first round of high winds and low humidity to hit Los Angeles and Ventura counties overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday. A second round is possible Saturday.
Although the region was hit by record rainfall last week, not all areas received significant precipitation, said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist with the Oxnard office."
Battling climate change is task of new LA County Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health
LA Daily News, STEVE SCAUZILLO: "While global leaders were meeting in Egypt for an international summit on climate change, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Nov. 15 created a new county department aimed at helping local communities pounded by the affects of a warming climate and industrial pollution.
The new Office of Environmental Justice and Climate Health will be carved out of the county’s Department of Public Health, which has been tasked with appointing an interim director for the agency within 30 days. The new department will develop a strategy for addressing environmental pollution, which disproportionately affects low-income communities and people of color, the supervisors said.
Some areas of concern include communities exposed to freeway traffic and air pollutants, with an emphasis on those freeway corridors clogged with diesel trucks. Diesel emissions produce particulate pollution, which gets into the lungs and causes disease and leads to increases in heart attacks and canscer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and health studies out of UCLA."s
UC workers say they are struggling to survive in California. Will strike bring change?
LAT, GRACE TOOHEY/SUMMER LIN/ANH DO: "For doctoral candidate and single parent Konysha Wade, the financial struggle is daily.
More than half of her monthly earnings from her two on-campus jobs at UC Irvine goes toward renting her university apartment, where she lives with her 11-year-old son.
She brings home about $2,700 a month after taxes from working as an African American Studies instructor and a graduate student researcher — all while taking at least two classes toward her Culture and Theory doctoral degree and raising her son. She said their rent is more than $1,500 a month, which leaves just over $1,000 a month for all other expenses."
UC undergraduate students divided in reaction to strike
EdSource, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "As the strike of nearly 48,000 University of California graduate student academic workers enters its third day Wednesday and many classes remain canceled, undergraduates appear divided in their reaction.
Some are worried about the impact on their grades and studies as the current term draws to a close and have continued attending any classes that haven’t been canceled. Others have skipped class and joined the picket line in solidarity with the strikers.
Students milling around midday at UC Davis seemed aware of the strike even if they were not participating."
Decision day approaches: UC Board of Regents meets this week to take action on UCLA’s future
BANG*Mercury News: "The University of California Board of Regents is expected to finalize its position on UCLA’s planned departure to the Big Ten when it meets Thursday morning in San Francisco.
Probably.
Guessing along with the board is risky business, but all signs indicate the months-long review is nearing a conclusion."
UC Irvine med school professor spent $400,000 of state funds on cameras used for Instagram posts
LAT, MELODY PETERSEN: "Yi-hong Zhou was working as a research scientist at UC Irvine’s medical school in April 2014 when she received a strange question from the university’s equipment managers: Could she confirm she was using a $53,000 camera in her lab?
Zhou replied that she’d never seen such a camera and didn’t understand why the department of neurological surgery would need anything of the kind. She didn’t receive much of an answer, she recalled.
But five years later, the circumstances behind the curious email snapped into focus when another department member met Zhou in a parking lot and handed her a shopping bag filled with receipts detailing the purchases of more than $400,000 in photography equipment, including 14 cameras and 46 lenses. All had been purchased by Frank P.K. Hsu, the department’s chair."
CALMatters, ANA B IBARRA: "California’s nursing agency this week approved rules that will allow nurse practitioners to treat patients without physician supervision. It’s a move that aims to expand access to care in the Golden State at a time when workforce shortages plague just about every corner of health care.
Monday’s vote is one of the last major steps necessary to fully implement a 2020 law that will allow nurse practitioners to practice more freely. Nurse practitioners, who have advanced degrees and training, currently must enter into a written agreement with a physician who oversees their work with patients.
Despite some earlier concerns about potential delays, nurse practitioners say they are now confident that applications to start the certification process will go live early in the new year as planned."
Laid-off tech workers describe what it’s like to hunt for a job now
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "Every day, headlines blare stories of turmoil in the tech world as companies including Meta, Twitter, Stripe, Lyft and Salesforce slash their workforces.
It’s an anxious time for the tens of thousands of newly laid-off workers now hitting the job market amid inflation pressures and recession concerns. As they seek new jobs, they contend with fewer openings, hiring freezes and competition from all the other suddenly unemployed people.
The change in atmosphere is palpable."
San Francisco tech news site Protocol shutting down
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "San Francisco-based tech news site Protocol is shutting down and around 60 employees will be laid off.
The sister publication to Politico, Protocol began publishing in 2020. Then-owner Robert Allbritton had ambitions to shake up tech coverage just as Politico, founded in 2007, reshaped the media landscape in Washington, D.C."
Layoffs at Amazon, Asana hit the Bay Area
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "The day after news broke that tech giant Amazon planned to lay off 10,000 employees, the Bay Area felt the effects, with the company telling state regulators it planned to cut 263 jobs at its Sunnyvale locations.
In a separate filing, San Francisco-based software company Asana said in a filing with the state and the city that it planned to lay off 97 employees.
An emailed statement from an Asana spokesperson said the cuts would impact 9% of its workers globally as part of a restructuring plan to make the company more efficient. “We are supporting our departing team and remain so grateful for each person’s contribution to Asana,” the statement read."
California prison supervisors to receive $155 million settlement for unpaid time, court rules
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "A San Francisco Superior Court Judge last week tentatively approved a $155 million settlement for more than 10,000 current and retired California prison supervisors who sought compensation for tasks they performed before and after their shifts.
The decision likely ends a nearly 15-year litigation battle between the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2008, with claims of unpaid overtime wages for tasks such as tool pick-up and briefings before shifts."
Caltrain’s shiny new trains are finally here. Can the agency keep them running?
BANG*Mercury News, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "It’s been 159 years since trains first ran from San Francisco to San Jose. Now the oldest continually operating rail line west of the Mississippi is on the verge of a 21st-century transformation.
Caltrain’s brand new electrified trains are in the Bay Area, and passersby might catch a glimpse of the gleaming red and white fleet quietly sailing through Silicon Valley on test runs. By late 2024, these trains will phase out the agency’s loud and polluting diesel-powered locomotives on the 51-mile stretch to San Jose’s Tamien Station.
In their place are 19 trains built by a Swiss company that set up shop in the windswept plains of Salt Lake City. Eventually, passengers will glide up the Peninsula, with a power outlet at every seat, LCD screen maps, and a coveted baby changing station. It’s part of a green vision of Bay Area train travel akin to the sleek rail systems in Europe."
Data shows one promising sign that San Francisco's homelessness crisis is improving
The Chronicle, ADRIANA REZAL: "More San Franciscans have exited homelessness through city programs so far in 2022 than any other year since 2018, the latest data from the city’s supportive housing department shows.
Fueled by a push to house more people during the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment for homeless relief programs rose for the first time in recent years to 2,375, a 12% increase from 2018. This is according to the city’s performance scorecard data that tracks the number of households — which includes individuals or families — enrolled in three homelessness relief programs that provide interventions like affordable housing options or rent subsidies."
S.F. abortion rights protester accuses city’s paramedics of kidnapping in lawsuit
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Kareim McKnight remembered being handcuffed and strapped into a gurney on June 13 when the Vallejo resident saw a San Francisco paramedic approach with a syringe.
McKnight, who goes by they/them pronouns, had no idea what was in it or why they might be injected — and they were terrified.
Earlier that night, McKnight and a friend unfurled a banner declaring “Overturn Roe? Hell No” and marched down chanting from their seats at Chase Center during the Warriors playoff game to protest the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade."