California’s big reservoirs projected to meet just 5% of demand next year as drought crisis deepens
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "Despite this week’s blast of rain and snow, California water managers say reservoirs run by the state, including massive Lake Oroville, won’t likely provide much water for cities and farms next year as a fourth year of drought looms.
The California Department of Water Resources announced Thursday that it expects to meet just 5% of water requests from urban and agricultural contractors supplied by the State Water Project, many of which are in the Bay Area.
The scant allocation, one of the lowest ever, will invariably mean continued pressure on Californians to cut back water use and for farmers to rein in irrigation. Already, many cities and towns are penalizing residents for going too heavy at the tap while hundreds of thousands of acres of cropland have gone unplanted because of too little water. More than 27 million people and 750,000 acres of fields are served by the State Water Project."
California set for more brown lawns and water restrictions as state issues 5% allocation
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "Californians should brace for another year of brown lawns, tight water restrictions and increased calls for conservation as state water managers Thursday warned that severely reduced allocations are once again likely in 2023.
The Department of Water Resources announced an initial allocation of just 5% of requested supplies from the State Water Project — a complex system of reservoirs, canals and dams that acts as a major component of California’s water system, feeding 29 agencies that together provide water for about 27 million residents.
Water managers will monitor how the wet season develops and reassess the allocation each month through spring, officials said. But California typically receives the bulk of its moisture — both rain and snow — during the winter, and current forecasts are leaning toward a fourth consecutive year of dryness despite the recent storms."
By the numbers: California’s mild 2022 wildfire season
CALMatters, JULIE CART: "As California emerges from its “peak” wildfire season, the state has managed to avoid its recent plague of catastrophic wildfires. So far in 2022, the fewest acres have burned since 2019.
State Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said California had “a bit of luck” with weather this summer. Although enduring yet another drought year, much of the state was spared the worst of the heat and dryness that can spark fires. And in some instances, well-timed rain came to the rescue.
Cal Fire officials also attribute some of the mild wildfire season to their emphasis on clearing away vegetation that fuels fires. Cal Fire Chief Joe Tyler said the $2.8 billion spent in the last two years on forest management made a difference, with the work “moderat(ing) fires approaching communities.”"
California AG moves to halt $4 billion shareholder payout in Kroger-Albertsons merger
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "California Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined a legal effort to block grocer Albertsons from paying a $4 billion “special dividend” to shareholders ahead of its proposed merger with rival supermarket chain Kroger.
Bonta and attorneys general from Illinois and the District of Columbia filed a preliminary injunction Thursday morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. If approved, the motion would delay the $4 billion payment while the court reviews the states’ arguments that the dividend would hamstring Albertsons and prevent it from competing with Kroger while regulators continue to review the merger — a process that legal experts estimate would take at least a year.
“Right now, Albertsons seems more concerned with prematurely putting cash back into the hands of its shareholders than protecting consumers’ access to fresh and affordable food, and frankly, I find that more than a little alarming,” Bonta said in a statement."
DWP’s first inspector general leaves after seven months
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH: "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s first inspector general for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, who was hired in the wake of a massive contracting and legal scandal at the utility, is leaving after just seven months.
Sergio Perez is stepping down next week to join the L.A. city controller’s office, Perez confirmed Thursday.
Garcetti’s office announced the creation of the inspector general position in the wake of the 2019 FBI raid at the utility. However, it took 2½ years to fill the job, with Garcetti aides blaming the pandemic for the delays."
Assemblyman Ken Cooley was an incumbent Democrat in liberal California. So how did he lose?
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, called his Republican challenger, Josh Hoover, on Tuesday to concede the race for Assembly District 7. But the question remains: How did an incumbent Democrat with a massive spending advantage lose his seat in liberal California?
The race was close. While ballots were still being counted Wednesday afternoon, Hoover held a wafer-thin 1% edge over Cooley, 82,226 to 80,749.
The spending, however, was nowhere near close. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22, Cooley’s campaign dropped $3.4 million, averaging out to about $42 per vote. Hoover’s campaign spent a little more than $940,000 in that same period, amounting to roughly $11 per vote."
Feds cite ‘disturbing’ past of California Jan. 6 defendant, fight his request to move trial
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "Federal prosecutors are slamming efforts by a California man accused in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to have his charges dismissed, his past criminal history hidden from public view and to have his upcoming trial moved from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento.
They also are asking a judge to reject a request by Sean McHugh that he be released from custody in Washington pending trial because of claims he is being abused in jail and facing mental deterioration, noting that McHugh has twice been found to be a danger to the community and was on probation at the time of his alleged offenses Jan. 6, 2021.
“The defendant has a remarkably long and disturbing criminal history, which lists arrests for violent offenses such as home invasions, burglary, domestic violence, destruction of property, and rape offenses, as well as at least twelve convictions for offenses such as vandalism, theft, and statutory rape,” prosecutors wrote in one of four motions filed this week in federal court in Washington."
COVID cases and hospitalizations are surging again in California. What will it mean this time?
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/MATT KAWAHARA: "California is seeing a sustained rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with numbers climbing at the same alarming rate that the state experienced ahead of previous COVID-19 surges.
Nearly a year to the day after the first case of the omicron variant in the United States was identified in a San Francisco resident, the daily number of newly reported cases in the state has climbed to 5,466, up 157% from a month earlier. More worryingly, new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID are at 3,793, up 133% over the same period, according to health department data published Thursday.
With the third holiday season since the start of the pandemic under way and colder weather driving people indoors amid laxer attitudes, public health experts are bracing for another virus wave this winter. Hospitals are already under strain from two other infectious diseases this year — respiratory syncytial virus and the flu — that have come back with a vengeance."
COVID in California: L.A. County poised to bring back indoor mask mandate
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/MATT KAWAHARA: "As signs grow of the expected winter COVID-19 surge, health experts in the Bay Area offer new advice on how to protect yourself and others, including whether it’s time to put back on masks when you’re out in public. Former President Bill Clinton has tested positive for the coronavirus and says he’s experiencing mild symptoms and working at home. New research suggests emerging subvariants in the BQ and XBB family show “alarming antibody evasion.” And a San Jose church that defied pandemic orders to halt in-person services won’t have a pay a penalty after the California Supreme Court followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling."
Pandemic stress prematurely aged teens’ brains, Stanford study finds
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Here’s one more disturbing example of how COVID messed with our heads: The stress from the pandemic prematurely aged adolescents’ brains, according to a new Stanford University study that adds to the growing list of the lockdown’s troubling impacts on teens.
Using MRI scans, the study found that changes in brain structure that occur naturally with age sped up in adolescents as they experienced the COVID-19 lockdowns. Their brains ended up looking like those of their peers about three years older. And that could have lasting implications for those youths if the changes are found to be more than temporary, researchers say.
“We know developmentally that brains change over time. That’s not at all a surprise,” said Stanford Professor of Psychology Ian Gotlib, lead author of the study published Thursday in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science. “What was surprising here was how quickly these changes occurred in adolescents as a result of the pandemic.”"
A major Bay Area hospital opened a critical care unit for kids. Then four died
The Chronicle, CYNTHIA DIZIKES/MATTHIAS GAFNI/DAN KOPF: "Eight years ago, hospital leaders at John Muir Health and Stanford donned tuxedos, gowns and feathered masks. At a masquerade-themed gala, they mingled with donors to raise money for a new unit that would provide care for critically ill children in the East Bay.
The eight-bed pediatric intensive care unit at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek would operate in partnership with Palo Alto-based Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, lending the prestige of one of the country’s top medical institutions to the community hospital in Contra Costa County, while allowing Stanford to expand its footprint in the Bay Area.
At the gala, doctors and donors toasted the alliance with fizzy cocktails and bid on vacations to Hawaii and Yosemite and a dinner at the French Laundry. In a hospital newsletter detailing the November 2014 celebration, a John Muir medical director said the new pediatric ICU, or PICU, would provide the “best of both worlds”: quality as well as convenience for local families."
S.F. baby’s reported fentanyl overdose is ‘astonishing,’ but experts say it’s not impossible
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER/MALLORY MOENCH: "Medical experts across the Bay Area and country weighed in Thursday on the report that a 10-month-old baby overdosed on fentanyl at a public park in San Francisco, saying they were stunned and describing such an incident as “very rare,” “unlikely” and “astonishing.”
But, they added, possible.
They could only speculate on the how, which experts may never figure out."
Bay Area Weather: How much rain fell and when the next storm is coming
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "December began in wintery fashion across the Bay Area and Northern California on Thursday as a storm from the Pacific Northwest brought the first steady rain in three weeks and heavy snow covering the Sierra Nevada.
Forecasters said that after a brief interlude Friday, another slightly smaller rain system is expected on Saturday and Sunday.
For parched California, now entering the fourth year of drought, the soggy day was a hopeful sign. But it brought with it the usual headaches."
Striking UC student workers occupy chancellor’s office in Berkeley to push for deal
The Chronicle, NANNETE ASIMOV: "Hundreds of student workers in the third week of a massive strike across the University of California system occupied the UC Berkeley chancellor’s office Thursday, disrupted a meeting of undergraduates and administrators and held sit-ins in buildings across campus as part of a series of planned actions up and down the state, union officials said.
Shortly after 10 a.m. at UC Berkeley, about 200 “picketers rushed the doors at California Hall,” the campus administration building, said Janet Gilmore, a Cal spokesperson. UC police were standing by, and campus leaders met to “monitor and evaluate” the situation, she said. Chancellor Carol Christ was not in the building and all staff except security left."
Stanford investigated over allegations of bias against men
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/RACHEL SWAN: "Federal officials are investigating allegations that Stanford University is biased against men, stemming from a Title IX complaint filed by two men’s rights activists who say that scholarships and programs dedicated to women create a hostile environment for male applicants.
Arguing that “women are the overrepresented sex among college students nationwide,” and that women also dominate law schools, medical schools, and teaching jobs in the public school system, complainants Kursat Pekgoz, the CEO of a Turkish real estate company, and James Moore, a Stanford alumnus and emeritus professor at USC, are seeking a series of injunctive measures from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
Among the remedies Pekgoz and Moore have called for are the elimination of discriminatory language and “affirmative action practices” for women, as well as the creation of programs and scholarships that target men, to “offset the balance.”"
Can trees reduce pollution at schools next to freeways? A Fresno campus tries plantings
EdSource, ASHLEIGH PANOO: "At first glance, the 60 trees that border Tehipite Middle School in Fresno may not look like much. Only a few years old, they are still short and thin, some supported by wooden poles on each side.
But their potential is large, especially for the health of students and staff.
As the trees grow in the coming years, their planters hope to find they provide a barrier from what lies just over the fence: the tangle of busy and noisy freeways at the Highway 41 and 180 interchange."
25 places across Southern California to pick up the perfect Christmas tree
LA Times, ADAM TSCHORN: "There are few holiday décor decisions you’ll be forced to confront as often and as visibly each year as choosing the Christmas tree upon which lights are strung, under which presents are stacked and around which so much merriment is made.
If you’re ill-prepared, the time-honored tradition of tackling your tannenbaum and bringing it home can be super stressful (cue “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”).
There’s no need to get your needles in a knot, though. Just get your hands on the right information — and maybe a hand saw — and your adventures in coniferous acquisition will go as smoothly as that last can of Who hash up the chimney."
How much do you need to earn annually to afford a house in Los Angeles?
LA Times, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "The annual income needed to buy a home in Los Angeles skyrocketed past $220,000, a recent study found, with higher mortgage rates and inflation cutting deeper into household incomes.
That means the ability to own a home is a goal inching further and further away from more families and households in Los Angeles, where the median annual household income in 2020 was just over $65,000.
According to the residential real estate firm Redfin, the yearly salary needed now to buy a median-priced home in the city and comfortably make the mortgage payment is now $221,592, up nearly 41% from last year."
Update: California judge dismisses fraud charges against 48 CHP officers in alleged OT scheme
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge dismissed felony wage theft and fraud charges against 48 California Highway Patrol officers on Thursday after the officers agreed to pay restitution, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The dismissals ended most of the high-profile criminal cases Attorney General Rob Bonta filed in February against 54 CHP officers stationed in East Los Angeles, who were accused of fraudulently obtaining pay for unworked overtime on Caltrans protective details in the area.
Judge Ronald Coen offered all 54 of the officers a deal on Nov. 2: He would reduce their felonies to misdemeanors and then dismiss them if the officers agreed to pay the money the CHP accused them of improperly receiving. The deal did not require the officers to admit guilt."
Senate moves to avert rail strike amid dire warnings
AP, KEVIN FREKING/JOSH FUNK: "Legislation to avert what could have been an economically ruinous freight rail strike won final approval in Congress on Thursday as lawmakers responded quickly to President Biden’s call for federal intervention in a long-running labor dispute.
The Senate passed a bill to bind rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the rail companies and union leaders in September. That settlement had been rejected by some of the 12 unions involved, creating the possibility of a strike beginning Dec. 9.
The Senate vote was 80 to 15. It came one day after the House voted to impose the agreement. The measure now goes to President Biden’s desk for his signature."
San Jose leaders propose mandating Uber and Lyft to report sex assault claims to police
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA/ETHAN BARON: "Mayor Sam Liccardo and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen are backing a proposed ordinance that would force Uber and Lyft to notify authorities when sexual assault claims are made against their drivers, setting the stage for another battle in the political and legal fight over whether the rideshare titans are doing enough to protect their users.
Under the ordinance, Uber, Lyft and taxi companies operating in San Jose would have to alert police any time a rider makes a sexual assault or misconduct report involving their drivers and vehicles. Police would then contact the reported victim to evaluate their account, propose an investigation, and refer the person to support and medical services.
The rideshare companies remained firm on their current policies and practices to defer to survivors’ judgment on contacting law enforcement, which they say are informed by the guidance of sexual assault support advocates."
Watch this hungry Tahoe bear take down its kill — an inflatable Rudolph lawn decoration
Sac Bee, BROOKE BAITINGER: "A bear must have been deliriously hungry, confused or perhaps just looking to play when he hunted an inflatable Rudolph lawn decoration in South Lake Tahoe.
The attack was captured on the Rudolph owner’s Ring camera. The bear takes an initial swipe at Rudolph’s hindquarters and seems to startle when the decoration buckles at the knees and ankles. The curious bear continues attacking its prey, even attempting to drag it off before losing interest and scampering from the yard.
Dave Lester posted the video and photos on Facebook."