Both parties had high hopes for California in the midterms. Neither saw their dreams fully come true
LA Times, MELANIE MASON/SEEMA MEHTA/HANNAH FRY: "The battles for California’s most competitive congressional races have effectively ended in a draw after months of campaigning and more than $100 million in advertising. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have so far ousted an incumbent or won new ground in their opponent’s territory — though with a handful of races unresolved, a flicker of those hopes remain.
Each party had higher aspirations this cycle than a continuation of the status quo. Democrats saw California as a beacon, a rare opportunity to play offense in a season that appeared increasingly ominous. Republicans, giddy with confidence of an easy takeover of the House majority, sensed an opportunity to run up the score in the state’s blue-tinted districts.
Though neither best-case scenario came to pass, both sides say there were bright spots to be found in the stalemate."
About-face: Why Newsom relented, released $1 billion despite lackluster local homeless plans
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS: "Two weeks after withholding $1 billion in homelessness funding over lackluster local plans, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday that most cities and counties would get the funds as early as next week anyway — as long as in the next round, they commit to more aggressive plans to reduce street homelessness.
But it’s been a whiplash-inducing couple of weeks, triggered by a funding process that frustrated both the governor and the locals. Newsom dissed local applicants for seeming too complacent about a dire California problem, while the applicants retorted that the Newsom administration sent conflicting signals — and that in any case, state lawmakers had inadvertently given them a financial motive to lowball their goals.
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More than 100 local mayors and county officials gathered virtually and in-person in a sleek downtown Sacramento government building Friday afternoon to broadly discuss how to better tackle the state’s most pernicious crisis."
Colorado mass nightclub shooting fueled by anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, Bay Area mourners say
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES/NORA MISHANEC/CATHERINE HO: "Bay Area LGBTQ leaders, politicians and residents, stunned by the weekend mass shooting that killed five people at a Colorado Springs gay nightclub, said Sunday that the attack is the latest horrific consequence of hateful laws and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric across the county.
“My blood just went cold” upon learning of the shooting, which left 25 people injured in addition to the five dead, said Eric Curry of San Francisco. Curry, a 29-year-old gay man, joined a growing crowd of several dozen people Sunday afternoon outside San Francisco City Hall for a rally marking the nationwide Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“I wasn’t necessarily planning on coming. That made it no longer an option,” Curry said. “I thought, I need to be with my community.”"
The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, transcribed and annotated by our experts
LA Times, STAFF: "More than a year after it was secretly recorded and a month after it was leaked, a backroom conversation among three Los Angeles City Council members and a prominent union president continues to shake city politics. It has triggered resignations, protests that halted much council business, and condemnations from the highest levels of the Democratic Party.
The discussion among the four Latino political leaders was widely denounced as racist, and featured profane remarks and insults about Black people, Oaxacans, Jews, Armenians and others. They also plotted how to use the city’s contentious redistricting process for their own gain.
It’s a rare glimpse into bare-knuckle power politics. Parts of it can be hard to follow. To help readers better understand the context and contours of the discussion, The Times brought together a team of City Hall reporters and columnists to annotate the conversation. Beat reporters offer facts and analysis; columnists provide their perspectives on a discussion that has changed the city’s political history."
Special Episodes of the Capitol Weekly Podcast: 2022 Election Post-Mortem
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "On Thursday, November 10, Capitol Weekly presented the 7th edition of our Election Post-Mortem. Held just two days after the election, our panelists offered an exciting, unique and informative review of the November 8 election, providing analysis, opinions and insight. What happened? Why? What happens next? These episodes were recorded Thursday, November 10 at Capitol Weekly’s Post-Mortem of the 2022 Election, which was held via Zoom.
Panel 1 was a rundown on key California races – the battles for the constitutional offices, Congress and the Legislature, and major local elections, including the LA mayoral race. Our panelists talk about this very atypical Midterm election and predict the outcome for uncalled state and national races, including the US Senate.
Panelists were: Sean Clegg, Bearstar Strategies; Marva Diaz, Marva Diaz Strategies; Robb Korinke, GrassrootsLab; Paul Mitchell, Political Data Inc. The panel was moderated by Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times"
Kevin de León refuses to resign. What happens to his constituents?
LA Times, RACHEL URANGA: "Just down the street from Pamela and Valentin Marquez’s tidy two-bedroom home, next to an industrial strip where trains rumble through the night, is a park and playground with a walking path through oak trees.
For decades, the couple, now in their 70s, took on issue after issue in El Sereno, beating back plans to build a freeway offramp nearby, advocating for improvements in their working-class neighborhood — and building the El Sereno Arroyo Playground.
In their nook of Los Angeles, they are the type of hyperengaged citizens that turn a community’s needs into political action. But leaked audio of three council members using racists insults as they plotted to reshape district maps has upended City Hall and thrown into question how much neighborhood advocates can do in a district that’s in limbo."
How a political rookie pulled off an election upset to lead San Jose
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Ed Berger cast his vote for Cindy Chavez in the San Jose mayor’s race, but he wasn’t totally surprised by the political veteran’s narrow loss this past week to newcomer Matt Mahan.
While he thought Chavez did a fine job representing the downtown area on the City Council years ago, the Northside Neighborhood Association president felt Mahan had tapped into a frustration among residents that put Chavez, now a Santa Clara County supervisor, on the defensive. Many feel the neighborhood has been “overrun” with homeless people, and aren’t clear what Chavez and the county – the key local provider of homeless services – have been doing to help."
Mentally ill prisoners in California are three times likelier to get shuffled around
CALMatters, BYRHONDA LYONS/JOCELYN WIENER/ERICA YEE: "California state prisons transfer people with serious mental illness far more frequently than other prisoners — sometimes moving them dozens of times — a CalMatters’ analysis of newly acquired state data has found.
The findings underscore a CalMatters’ investigation from earlier this year which revealed the state’s practice of shuffling around mentally ill prisoners, which some advocates say can be disruptive and damaging to these vulnerable people.
The story focused on the case of Adam Collier, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and anxiety disorder, among other mental illnesses. Collier was serving a five-year sentence for exposing himself to women in public while high on meth. He was moved 39 times between 2016 and 2020 — bouncing among crisis units, state hospitals and seven different prisons — before he killed himself in Kern Valley State Prison in October 2020."
CEO of S.F. nonprofit accused of mishandling public money is no stranger to controversy
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "The CEO of a nonprofit group accused of illegally selling housing access to the homeless has carved a jagged path through San Francisco civic life, becoming an influential leader in the Bayview while also landing in the center of investigations and ethical controversies.
But Gwendolyn Westbrook’s troubles haven’t stopped the city from working with her.
Raised by noted civil rights activist Idaree Westbrook — a valued ally of such political titans as Willie Brown and John Burton — Gwendolyn Westbrook gained prominence as president of the San Francisco Black Leadership Forum, which her mother founded.
Later, she took the helm of United Council of Human Services, a Bayview organization that controls nearly $28 million in public funds to operate shelters, dining rooms, housing for veterans and other services for the destitute."
How Jennifer Siebel Newsom became a champion of youth mental health
EdSource, CAROLYN JONES: "First partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom has spent decades spotlighting, examining and uplifting the mental well-being of young people. But for her, the topic transcends professional duties. It’s personal.
When Siebel Newsom was 6 years old, her older sister died in an accident, leaving her to navigate grief and emotional upheaval at a young age. She knows firsthand, she said, what it feels like to be a child who’s experienced loss and trauma, like so many California children have endured during the pandemic.
“I think we went to therapy once (after my sister died), and then it was like, move on, everything’s fine, we’re just going to pretend like nothing happened,” she said in a recent interview with EdSource, her eyes filling with tears. “And that was traumatic to lose your best friend and your sister. So I’ve always known that, without your mental health, what do you have?”"
Large number of trails opening in Santa Cruz Mountains, thanks to conservation work
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDERL :The Santa Cruz Mountains will soon offer a slew of new trails for hiking and biking, the product of years of grassroots work to open thousands of acres of private lands to the public.
The first new trails are at San Vicente Redwoods, a preserve near the community of Bonny Doon. The property was acquired as part of a campaign by conservation groups to safeguard what is one of the largest privately owned redwood forests in California. Formerly mined and logged by materials giant Cemex, the newly protected land is making its public premiere with about 8 miles of trails on Dec.
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Nearby, the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument in Davenport, which was designated a national monument by President Barack Obama after longstanding threats of development, had planned its opening this fall but that’s been put on hold for at least a few months to address traffic concerns. Four miles of trails have been built, and more are expected to emerge before the monument’s debut.
Should you mask or test for Thanksgiving? Here’s how COVID experts are handling the holidays
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Thanksgiving is approaching, and the pandemic picture is much different from the previous two holidays. Multiple vaccines, boosters and therapeutics are available, at-home testing is easily accessible, and most people have some form of immunity from vaccinations, prior infection or both. Most COVID restrictions have been lifted for many months now, including masking requirements.
At the same time, health experts and officials are warning of a possible winter surge with COVID cases in California on the upswing, plus the potential for a “tripledemic” as flu and RSV cases strain local hospitals. Cases spiked around this time for the past two years as people traveled and gathered for the holidays.
So, how should you prepare for Thanksgiving gatherings and travel? What precautions, if any, should you consider? We talked to experts about their recommendations for the holiday and what they would do for Thanksgiving."
Could these antiviral pills treat long COVID?
BANG*Mercury News, LISA M KRIEGER: "Could Paxlovid solve one of the pandemic’s biggest puzzles? A new study at Stanford University aims to find out.
In the nation’s first medical trial of an antiviral strategy to treat long COVID, scientists are testing the drug to see if it helps ease the misery of fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, body aches, digestive symptoms and heart problems.
“It is important to gain further understanding whether this could be effective therapy,” said principal investigator Dr. Linda Geng, clinical assistant professor at Stanford Medicine and co-director of Stanford’s Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Clinic."
BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA WELLE: "A group of Los Altos Hills residents is standing up to internet giants Comcast and AT&T.
Tech-rich but internet-poor, residents of the Silicon Valley neighborhood were fed up with sluggish broadband speeds of less than 25 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload — the federal definition of a home unserved by adequate internet.
Frustrated by the take-it-or-leave-it attitude of internet providers, they created their own solution — and now this tony enclave has one of the fastest residential speeds in the nation."
In Hollywood stunner, Robert Iger returns to head Disney as Bob Chapek exits
LA Times, MEG JAMES/RYAN FAUGHNDER: "In a blockbuster development, Walt Disney Co.’s longtime chief Robert Iger is returning to lead the Burbank-based entertainment giant.
The Sunday night announcement by the Disney board — made shortly before Disney+ began its high-profile livestream of the Elton John concert at Dodger Stadium — stunned Hollywood.
The switch comes less than a year since Iger said his long goodbye after a storybook 15-year run as chief executive."
BANG*Mercury News, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "In an apocalyptic vision of Bay Area public transit, BART cancels its weekend service and shutters nine stations just to keep the lights on elsewhere. Trains run once an hour, instead of every 15 minutes. San Francisco’s Muni buses crawl around on life-support, and the East Bay’s AC Transit eliminates “numerous local lines.” Ferry service across the bay is halved.
This is not a doomsday fantasy, conjured up on a paper napkin. These are real scenarios drafted by the region’s transit agencies in a series of federally mandated planning documents obtained through a public records request by the Bay Area News Group. The grim projections come as the region’s commuter trains, buses and boats struggle to recover from massive ridership declines during the COVID pandemic and burn through the remaining federal relief funds that have helped keep them operating.
“People don’t understand the transit system is so close to collapse,” said Ian Griffiths, who heads Seamless Bay Area, a transit advocacy group. “They’re on the brink.”"