California election results near final form
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "And then there was one.
Just one California race for a U.S. House of Representatives seat remained too close to call as of Tuesday, two weeks after the Nov. 8 election: With about 335,000 unprocessed ballots left to count, Republican farmer John Duarte was leading Democratic Assemblymember Adam Gray by fewer than 1,000 votes in the new, open 13th District anchored in the middle of the Central Valley.
Two other California House seats went to Republicans this week: On Tuesday, GOP Assemblymember Kevin Kiley beat out Democrat Kermit Jones for the new 3rd district, which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs down the Sierra to Death Valley."
Another high-stakes election looms — but largely under the radar
Capitol Weekly, DAVID JENSEN: "California has another election coming up this fall, but it is not your usual political campaign free-for-all.
Instead, it involves the leadership of the $12 billion state stem cell agency, which is trying mightily to develop “miraculous” treatments and cures for diseases that afflict — according to its backers — half of the families in California.
Some of the potential treatments currently being financed would change the genetic makeup of some human beings or trigger “killer” cells that fight off cancer. But they have yet to clear the federal barriers that assure their safety and effectiveness."
Kevin Kiley called out California’s ballot counting on Fox News. Why is it slow?
Sac Bee, JENAVIEVE HATCH/DAVID LIGHTMAN: "]Kevin Kiley, the declared winner of California’s 3rd Congressional District, did not pull his punches when he criticized the state’s slow ballot counting on national television.
“We have a government that doesn’t perform, that has an extremely low standard of performance,” Kiley said Sunday on Fox News’ “The Next Revolution.” At the time, he had already declared his victory but the Associated Press, which usually calls races, had yet to do so. The news organization named Kiley the winner on Tuesday afternoon.
Election officials in Placer County, where Kiley grew up, went into the weekend with a reported 82,000 ballots left to count. When the Associated Press called the race four days later, there were still about 52,000."
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "At the trial of a transgender man charged with multiple traffic-related crimes, a Solano County prosecutor referred to the driver as “she,” said it was an accidental mistake, then kept on doing it. A state appeals court says such conduct “offends the administration of justice” — but it wasn’t enough to overturn the driver’s convictions on all counts.
The evidence against Jasmine Mareza Zarazua was “overwhelming” and the verdict would not have been affected by the prosecutor’s misconduct, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said Monday in a ruling upholding Zarazua’s convictions for resisting and recklessly evading a peace officer, hit-and-run driving resulting in property damage and driving with a suspended license.
A police officer in Rio Vista spotted Zarazua driving an SUV without a rear license plate in 2019, and instead of stopping, the driver led officers on a 15-minute chase, drove into a gated retirement community, nearly collided with a truck, then crashed into the bushes, the court said. He fled on foot but was eventually caught and arrested."
‘They were in tears’: Unruly fans force California high schools to take action
The Chronicle, CONNOR LETOURNEAU: "For a week after she was the victim of a racist taunt during a girls soccer regional championship game in March, Ciara Wilson barely left her house.
The soccer field had long been her haven. Now, as video of the heckling went viral, the Buchanan High School (Fresno County) senior was missing school to emotionally recover.
“I told her to just take the time she needed,” Ciara’s mother, Rachel Wilson, told The Chronicle. “It was so tough. The spotlight was on her.”"
Walmart employee opened fire in break room, killing 6, Virginia police say
AP: "A Walmart manager opened fire on fellow employees gathered in the break room of a Virginia store, a witness said Wednesday. Six people died in the country’s second high-profile mass shooting in a handful of days.
The gunman, who apparently killed himself, was dead when police found him, said Chesapeake Police Chief Mark G. Solesky said. There was no clear motive for the shooting, which also left four people in the hospital.
The store was busy just before the attack Tuesday night with people stocking up ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, a shopper told a local TV station."
Safety, laughter, love: Club Q represented the opposite of what the shooting there evoked
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR: "In its most trying hour, as an armed assailant waged war on its patrons, Club Q remained what its clientele has long cherished, and what queer bars everywhere have been for generations: a source of kindness and community, where people look out for one another.
After Ed Sanders was shot in the back and leg, he collapsed to the floor beside the bar, next to a woman he didn’t know.
Sanders, 63, covered her with his coat in an attempt to shield her from whatever onslaught might come next, he said in an interview from his bed at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central in Colorado Springs."
Are we hugging again now? How to handle the awkwardness of greeting people
LAT, JEN DOLL: "Something surprising happened recently to Mia Schachter, a consent educator, podcaster and intimacy coordinator who founded the school Consent Wizardry. “I met a completely new person, and I put out my hand to shake hers, and she went in for a hug,” Schachter explains. “I am a hugger!” But “the total stranger with no check in — it’s too intimate!” they say. “I think that I was optimistic with COVID, as we come out of this global tragedy, that at least people will be better about boundaries, which is turning out to be not the case.”
“It’s like the Wild West again,” agrees social psychologist Tessa West, a professor at New York University and author of “Jerks at Work: Toxic Coworkers and What to Do About Them.” “During the pandemic, we went into a really awkward period where we started to just elbow each other instead of hugging. And now no one knows whether hugs are back. Now especially, we just don’t have implicit norms around these types of behaviors.”
Instead, we get the awkward dance of should-we-or-should-we-not, hugs that people don’t want and at least a few hugless folks who really wish someone had given them one. As we head back to workplaces and get ready for the holidays, it’s time to confront how we really feel about hugging — and what we’re going to do about it."
California’s ‘tripledemic’ of viruses is on the rise. Here’s how to care for a sick loved one
Sac Bee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "Trying to avert a heavy surge in respiratory illnesses, California’s leading public health officials once again stressed on Tuesday that state residents should do all they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, as they gather for the holidays.
“As we prepare for Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings, we need to continue being vigilant in preventing the rapid spread of winter viruses,” said Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist. “It is concerning to see the rise in RSV and flu in babies, young children and our elderly population. It is crucial we are aware of prevention methods, but also, how to care for our loved ones at home, and what symptoms to be aware of for parents to seek care for their children.”
Pan’s has focused her career on treating and preventing illness in children as a pediatric infectious disease physician and a public health official. She and other state public health officials have warned that all three viruses, a so-called tripledemic, are ramping up around the state."
Pandemic impact continues at Cal State with fall 2022 enrollment decline
EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH: "Undergraduate enrollment in California State Universities continues to suffer from a pandemic-induced drop as fewer transfer students arrive from the state’s community colleges.
Despite first-time freshman numbers rebounding to their pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, the decreases in transfer are having an impact on the 23 Cal State campuses.
“We now face a challenge that requires our collective and immediate attention, as well as the resolve to be nimble and creative in our adaptations,” interim Chancellor Jolene Koester recently told trustees about the system’s enrollment challenge."
Ex-CSU chancellor Castro’s teaching job stirs controversy over ‘retreat rights’
CALMatters, ODEN TAYLOR: "Backlash is growing to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s granting of a teaching position to former Cal State chancellor Joseph Castro, who resigned in the wake of allegations he mishandled sexual harassment complaints against another administrator.
The controversy over the appointment of Castro as a professor of leadership and public policy in the university’s Orfalea College of Business revolves around a provision in some Cal State executives’ contracts that allows them to ‘retreat’ into the faculty once they leave their roles. Those ‘retreat rights’ have come under increased scrutiny since figuring in a February USA Today investigation that documented the sexual harassment allegations against former Fresno State administrator Frank Lamas and Castro’s response. The university’s board of trustees last week passed the second of two measures restricting their use.
Castro plans to start work at Cal Poly in the spring of 2023. On Nov. 8, the university’s Academic Senate, which represents its faculty, published a resolution calling on Castro to turn down his appointment as professor, arguing that his presence at Cal Poly “will generate a chilling effect on our campus and classroom climate.”"
The future of public toilets has arrived in San Francisco — here’s what it looks like
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "The future of public toilets has touched down in San Francisco — at least if you dream stainless steel loos that radiate a space-age sheen.
The contemporary commode is scheduled to begin service on Wednesday, offering eight minutes of privacy on one of the city’s high-visibility promenades, at the edge of Embarcadero Plaza between Market Street and the Ferry Building. The plan is to install 24 identical siblings during the next year or so, replacing an equal number that date back to the mid-1990s.
A public convenience in more ways than one, the newcomer is a symbol of changing tastes in civic architecture. It’s a reminder of the controversies surrounding such supposed examples of extravagant infrastructure as $1.7 million toilets — though this one costs the city nothing, bureaucrats are quick to emphasize."
Supply chain issues not a problem this holiday season as shoppers hit stores, websites early
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "Cardboard boxes of holiday merchandise — gifts, toys, decorations — fill every square inch of Katie Dhuey and Dan Melin’s San Jose home, consuming both spare bedrooms, the garage and the crawl space. Every day when they go to work at Affordable Treasures, their Los Gatos store, they load boxes into their cars to unpack onto its shelves.
The couple were determined that supply chain woes wouldn’t wallop their store, which sells party items, decor, gifts, novelties, toys and crafts. They placed their holiday orders back in January — and when the deluge of goods arrived early, they stored them at their own home and the Soquel home of Melin’s parents, who founded the store in 1986 and sold it to the younger couple in 2000.
“We’ve spent the entire year trying to make sure we don’t get into the same situation as last year, which was a revolving mess of supply chain disasters,” said Dhuey. “We always have to place seasonal orders early, but we placed them even earlier and took shipments earlier. We probably overbought a bit because we were so paranoid.”"
Sacramento’s last base exchange closing. Here’s why veterans will miss tax-free shopping
Sac Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA: "Roy Parson remembers a bustling base exchange retail shopping center with a busy food court at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento County when he was first stationed there 35 years ago.
The retail center, now known as the McClellan Main Exchange, has remained open for business for more than two decades after the federal government closed the base in 2001. But it’s a shell of its former self.
The number of customers has dropped significantly over the past 10 years, and there just isn’t enough business to keep the doors open. Parson said the parking lot is never full; only reaching half of its capacity a few times in recent years."
Alameda has been invaded by turkeys. They’re jerks. And also beloved
The Chronicle, CONNOR LETOURNEAU: "For a week after she was the victim of a racist taunt during a girls soccer regional championship game in March, Ciara Wilson barely left her house.
The soccer field had long been her haven. Now, as video of the heckling went viral, the Buchanan High School (Fresno County) senior was missing school to emotionally recover.
“I told her to just take the time she needed,” Ciara’s mother, Rachel Wilson, told The Chronicle. “It was so tough. The spotlight was on her.”