Karen Bass sworn in as Los Angeles mayor, the first woman to hold the office
LA Times, JULIA WICK/BENJAMIN ORESKES/DAKOTA SMITH: "After 241 years, the nation’s second-largest city has its first female mayor.
The mood was jubilant Sunday afternoon, as thousands of Angelenos danced to a surprise Stevie Wonder performance and cheered while Karen Bass was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris as Los Angeles’ 43rd mayor.
The crowds inside downtown’s Microsoft Theater exploded into applause after Harris said the words “Madam mayor” and remained on their feet as Bass walked to the podium."
A low for L.A. politics: Council member and activist fight as children watch in horror
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA/LIAM DILLON/GREGORY YEE: "On Friday evening, more than 100 children and their parents were gathered at Lincoln Park for a tree-lighting celebration.
Parents took videos of their daughters performing in pink tutus inside the auditorium. Children played in a snow pit outside. The DJ played “Christmas Is Here” and other holiday songs.
On stage, Councilmember Kevin de León, who wore a Santa hat, was handing out gifts to children when a handful of activists entered."
In unusual move, Gov. Newsom smacks stem cell agency
Capitol Weekly, DAVID JENSEN: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has rebuked California’s stem cell agency about its conduct of the election of a new chairperson for the $12 billion enterprise, a process that has been disrupted with the withdrawal of one candidate and the addition of a new one.
Newsom’s comments came virtually on the eve of the election, a process that began last spring and was scheduled to end next week. The job is a key to the success of the agency’s efforts to produce revolutionary therapies that would cure afflictions ranging from cancer and heart disease to diabetes and immune deficiencies such as the “bubble baby” disease.
In an unusual letter six days ago to the outgoing chair, Newsom said he was nominating a new candidate for the $569,000-a-year job after his earlier nominee, John A. Pérez, dropped out. Pérez is a former speaker of the state Assembly."
Will California keep getting hit with storms throughout December? Here’s what to expect
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "The 2022-2023 wet season officially launched for California on Oct. 1, but it may as well have started following mid-September’s historic rainstorms — these were the precursors that contributed to an early end to the 2022 fire season.
The most recent deluge from back-to-back winter storms this December further highlights the active wet season that’s been at play over the Golden State, despite La Niña ’s attempts to promote drier conditions on the West Coast.
Looking at the latest outlooks from the European weather model, which has done a good job at capturing storm tracks in Northern California since October, the extended range signals the potential for low-pressure systems to continue tunneling into the Bay Area, Sierra Nevada and Central Coast through the end of December."
Storm blankets Sierra Nevada in heavy snow, brings rain across California
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "A storm blanketed the Sierra Nevada in heavy snow and soaked much of California with rain, bringing a wet start of winter weather after three years of record drought.
The storm brought 3 to 4 feet of fresh snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada over the weekend.
From the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California, between 1 inch and 4 inches of rain fell in many areas. Some parts of the hills and mountains received up to 7 inches of rain over two days, sending water rushing in creeks."
Hold onto those umbrellas: More rain forecast for Bay Area; additional powder coming to the Sierra
BANG*Mercury News, JAKOB RODGERS/ETHAN VARIAN: "Sunny skies are expected to return to Northern California on Monday after a storm system drenched the Bay Area over the weekend and dropped several feet of fresh powder atop the Sierra Nevada.
The final bands of rain were expected to trail off early Monday for much of the Bay Area after having soaked the drought-ridden landscape as part of a healthy, moist start to the region’s critical rainy season. Skies — as well as snowbound roads — also could begin clearing up Monday to the east, where up to 4 feet of snow was reported at ski resorts around Lake Tahoe.
A few stray bolts of lightning remained a possibility late Sunday, as forecasts called for the last lines of storms to drop between a tenth and a half inch of rain across most of the Bay Area."
Is that dry cough COVID-19, RSV or the flu? Here are the most common symptoms
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "If it feels like everyone you know is getting sick, that’s because they are. The Bay Area is getting pummeled with a triple threat of viruses.
COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases are surging across the region and the nation, making it harder than ever to determine what is causing your dry cough or runny nose. The infections cause similar symptoms, but it’s important to know how to tell them apart to get proper treatment and avoid spreading them to others.
“Distinguishing COVID from flu can be difficult because the symptoms overlap so much,” said Dr. Brooke Bozick, an expert on respiratory diseases with the National Institutes of Health."
COVID-19, influenza cases at recent high in Alameda County, on campus
The Daily Californian, KIMBERLY FONG: "Cases of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases are at a recent high, causing Alameda County’s health officials to announce that the county’s transmission level has increased from the CDC’s “low” COVID-19 Community Level to “medium.”
An Alameda County emergency press release Dec. 9 states that homeless shelters, emergency shelters and cooling and heating centers are now required to reinstate “universal masking requirements” for all staff and residents in compliance with California’s face masking guidance as daily reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are reportedly rising at a rapid rate.
Similar masking requirements have been installed at Alameda County correctional and detention facilities, as well as in health care settings, as per the press release. COVID-19 and other respiratory illness cases have also risen in part at UC Berkeley, according to Tami Cate, University Health Services, or UHS, spokesperson."
How will California handle the youth fentanyl overdose crisis?
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "Expect a lot of debate over how California should respond to the state’s mounting fentanyl epidemic when state lawmakers return to Sacramento early next year.
Bills dealing with the super-powerful synthetic opioid are already piling up, many of them focused on youth in the wake of a stunning analysis that found fentanyl was responsible for 1 in 5 deaths among 15- to 24-year-old Californians in 2021.
Amid a surge of fentanyl overdoses on school campuses, new Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson of Rocklin unveiled a proposal to require public K-12 schools to keep on campus Narcan, medicine that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, the Los Angeles Times reports. Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese of San Jose introduced a bill to create a state framework to prevent youth fentanyl overdoses, including by training school staff to administer Narcan and by asking schools to share overdose prevention information with students and parents."
Nancy and Paul Pelosi’s daughter: ‘I haven’t slept since the night my father was attacked’ in S.F.
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is healing physically after he was bludgeoned in their San Francisco home, but the emotional scars remain, according to the couple’s youngest daughter, Alexandra Pelosi.
In the early hours of Oct. 28, an intruder broke into the couple’s home in Pacific Heights, looking for Nancy Pelosi, and instead found and hit her husband in the head with a hammer. The skull fractures required emergency surgery.
The alleged intruder, David DePape, faces attempted murder, battery, assault and a string of other charges, and is also accused of plotting to kidnap and interrogate Nancy Pelosi, a longtime Democratic party leader."
Senate Democrat says Sinema party change doesn’t ‘functionally’ change anything
The Hill, BRAD DRESS: "Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on Sunday said Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) switching her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent does not "functionally" change the Senate.
Tester told NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd he was "surprised" Sinema made the change, but that Democrats would "continue doing the same thing" in the upper legislative chamber.
"Functionally, I don't think that changes a thing," the Montana senator said. "She's going to continue to caucus with the Democrats, so we'll still have the committee structures that we've had before.""
10 things California parents should know about transitional kindergarten
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Even as families continue to take stock of pandemic-triggered learning loss and emotional upset, California is expanding an early childhood education program that may help young learners begin to bounce back.
Next year, transitional kindergarten, or TK, will be available to far more 4-year-olds. In the 2023-2024 school year, children whose fifth birthdays are between Sept. 2 and April 2 will be eligible for the program. By the 2024-25 school year, children who turn 5 between Sept. 2 and June 2 will be able to enroll in TK. And by 2025-26, the program will reach all 4-year-olds.
Many districts are beginning to register new students for the coming year so now is the time to reach out. Here’s a quick primer on 10 things parents should know about expanded transitional kindergarten, a $2.7 billion program hailed by many experts as a game-changer for families in a state with almost 3 million children under the age of 5."
UHS launches new service to help students navigate stress
The Daily Californian, LORENZO DELA CRUZ: "Rapidly approaching deadlines, essays to write and projects to finish – for students, stress can be just as difficult to avoid as it is overwhelming. UC Berkeley’s University Health Services, or UHS, launched a new service to help students navigate these issues, offering thirty-minute consultations on stress management.
The service provides resources on a variety of potential academic, career and personal root causes of stress. Students are connected with solutions across campus and offered tools for handling the emotional side effects of stressors during these appointments.
“Students will be prompted to share what brought them to seek this service, and then they will be given resources and helpful next steps that may assist them,” said assistant director of Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, Chris McLean in an email. “Our counselors will act as navigators of sorts to help students in learning about resources offered through CAPS/the Career Counseling Library, as well as on the greater UC Berkeley campus, that may help them overcome some of the stress they are experiencing.”"
Urban ecology: 'Newly emerging' field comes to UC Berkeley
The Daily Californian, ZOE KESSLER: "Urban ecology is a newly emerging interdisciplinary field which links humans to ecological processes in human-dominated landscapes.
Recently, UC Berkeley has been integrating this field of study into its coursework. Last semester, ESPM 150 Special Topics: Urban Ecology was taught by Professor Christopher Schell and graduate student instructor Tyus Williams.
“I was looking for a little bit of something more intellectually stimulating for me and something where I could really engage with students in conversation about urban ecology because it’s really fascinating stuff,” Williams said. “Within the turn of the last decade, we’re starting to ask ourselves more questions fundamentally and along the lines of like, ‘What does it mean to be a human society that’s not just present and existing but that’s a living, breathing organism?’ ”"
One of Bay Area’s largest private coastal properties to become a park
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "One of the greatest conservation stories on the San Mateo County coast is about to come to a close with 6,300 acres of rolling hills and valleys moving into public hands.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which manages a network of nature preserves between San Francisco and San Jose, won approval from its governing board Saturday to proceed with the $16 million purchase of what’s known as Cloverdale Ranch.
The acquisition of the land along Highway 1, south of Pescadero, will put one of the Bay Area’s largest pieces of private coastal property under permanent public protection and sets the stage for opening the sprawling stretch of prairie and forests to visitors."
5,000 in the Bay Area remain without power after a punishing storm
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "A fierce storm that walloped the Bay Area on Saturday cut power to more than 10,000 customers in the morning, with a bit more than half seeing power restored by late afternoon.
PG&E spokesperson JD Guidi reported that 4,898 customers in the nine-county Bay Area remained without power just after 6 p.m.
Those affected included 987 customers in the South Bay, 2,421 in the East Bay, 324 in the Peninsula, 709 in the North Bay and 457 in San Francisco."
Cliff collapses onto California beach in a massive roar of dust and rocks, video shows
Sac Bee, DON SWEENEY: "Dramatic video shot by two California news helicopters shows a cliff collapsing onto a Palos Verdes Estates beach on the Southern California coast.
A KTTV video shows an enormous plume of rocks and dust plunging to the beach, while a KCBS video shows a pickup truck parked below the cliff being roughly shoved aside by the falling debris.
No one was injured in the 10 a.m. collapse Friday, Dec. 9, near Rosita Place, the city of Palos Verdes Estates said in a news release."
Stolen Time: Portraits of Californians living through wage theft claims
CALMatters, JULIE A., HOTZ/FELIX URIBE/PABLO UNZUETA: "Unpaid overtime. Working through meal breaks. Stolen tips. Being told to show up to work at one time but not clock in until an hour later.
For decades California has tried to crack down on wage theft, the failure of employers to pay their workers what they’re legally owed.
It’s a problem that mostly affects the state’s most vulnerable workers — those earning low wages, who often are immigrants and people of color."
Want to own a piece of Twitter? The starting bids are $25, says online auction firm
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "If you’re planning to launch a startup aimed at becoming the next Twitter, here’s a way to outfit your pad with digital whiteboards and espresso machines: buy some discarded from Twitter itself.
The once-ascendant, now-beleaguered social media firm will be the subject of an online auction in January on 850 lots of furniture and equipment culled from its headquarters at 1355 Market St. in San Francisco. Individual items will start at $25 when bidding begins on Jan. 17 for the two-day event. Lots such as a dozen ergonomic Knoll chairs — which start at $300 for the 12 — have higher opening prices."
‘Huge sigh of relief:’ Sacramento County deputies walk away from helicopter emergency
Sac Bee, BENJY EGEL/ROSALIO AHUMADA/SAM STANTON: "A Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office helicopter made an emergency landing Sunday afternoon in Rancho Cordova but the two people onboard walked away uninjured.
The five-seat helicopter landed at 2:17 p.m. near the intersection of Grant Line and Douglas roads, the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department confirmed. It had been circling a property just south of there for several minutes prior and had flown 28 miles total Sunday.
No one was hurt, according to the Sheriff’s Office."
Impugned East Contra Costa cops allegedly schemed to fake college degrees
BANG*Mercury News, NATE GARTRELL: "The FBI and state criminal investigation of East Contra Costa police officers began with allegations of cops conspiring to fraudulently obtain college degrees to collect pay bumps, this news organization has learned.
What started out as suspected salary fraud quickly snowballed. On cell phones seized by authorities, investigators uncovered evidence of other potential crimes — and more officers to look into.
Now, with indictments expected by year’s end, the probe has swelled to encompass at least a dozen Antioch and Pittsburg police officers, and a growing list of crimes including premeditated civil rights violations, falsifying reports, using and distributing steroids, using cocaine, and accepting bribes while on patrol."
Man sets fire to more than a dozen US flags hanging outside homes, California cops say
Sac Bee, DON SWEENEY: "Residents of a Long Beach neighborhood say they are puzzled and frightened after a man set fire to more than a dozen U.S. flags hanging from their homes.
“It was terrifying,” resident Alexis Lenon told KNBC. “Somebody on your property burning a flag? It’s pretty scary. We have a baby in the house. That was our first thought.”
Long Beach police arrested a 35-year-old Laguna Niguel man accused of setting fire to more than a dozen flags early Thursday, Dec. 8, KTLA reported."
Highway 1 closed in Big Sur for 45 miles as crews clear mud, rockslides
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "A 45-mile-long stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur will remain closed through at least Monday morning as road crews clear mud and debris from this weekend’s heavy rainstorms.
Califonia highway officials have shut down the internationally famous, two-lane winding cliffside road from just south of Deetjen’s Inn to Ragged Point.
“There’s mud along the highway as well as rockslides in a number of places,” said Caltrans spokesperson Alexa Bertola, adding the roadway itself does not appear to be damaged."
RNC Members Wish Trump Arrested by 2024 So Party Can Move On: Ex-GOP Chair
Sac Bee, FATMA KHALED: "Michael Steele, the former chair of Republican National Committee (RNC), said in a recent interview that some members of the GOP are "privately wishing" that former President Donald Trump would be arrested by 2024 so the party can move on.
Trump has faced growing backlash from Republicans, including some who were seen as allies, after the failure of many of the high-profile GOP candidates he endorsed ahead of the 2022 midterm election in November. Polling also shows a shift among some Republican voters, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis surpassing Trump as the frontrunner for the party's 2024 presidential nomination in multiple surveys.
"How much of a difference will it make in the 2024 presidential primary that the RNC has been shaped so much by Trump?" Steele was asked during an interview with Politico published on Sunday."
The Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER: "People entered San Francisco’s Masonic Auditorium with water dripping off their clothes Saturday night, taking shelter from the storm soaking the region, but also to find comfort in a voice of our recent political past.
Michelle Obama took to the Masonic’s stage while waving to the raucous crowd and showing off an emerald green pantsuit and rocking a head of braids to much applause.It took the former first lady little time to level with the crowd in a candid way about life, mentioning how she finally felt comfortable wearing her hair how she wanted.
“Freedom!” she screamed to much applause. “They wouldn’t have understood my braids,” Obama said about her time in the White House, referencing the nation at large."
Schiff says Putin attempted to ‘roil the American body politic’ in Griner-Bout prisoner swap
The Hill, ZACH SCHONFELD: "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin's agreement to free WNBA star Brittney Griner was "calculated" to stir division within the U.S.
During an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," Schiff noted that former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and others remain in Russian custody while Putin agreed to release only Griner in exchange for infamous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
"In terms of Putin, he gets an arms dealer back," Schiff told moderator Margaret Brennan."
Trump says he turned down deal to release Paul Whelan
The Hill, STAFF: "Former President Trump on Sunday said he turned down a deal to release former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who's been detained by Moscow since 2018, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout during his time in the White House.
"I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn't have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals," Trump said on Truth Social.
Bout was released last week in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, who spent about 10 months in Russian custody."
Marjorie Taylor Greene Says MAGA Would’ve Won on Jan. 6 if She Organized It
Newsweek, THOMAS KIKA: "Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, suggested that the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot would have succeeded if she was in charge.
Greene was among the high-profile guests to attend and speak at an event hosted by the New York Young Republican Club in New York City on Saturday evening. Others in attendance included former President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and commentator Jack Posobiec.
During her address at the event, Greene touched on the Capitol riot, a subject she has been consistently outspoken on, and said that rioters would have been successful had she and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon been in charge of them, according to the New York Post."
Jim Jordan’s Own Words Used Against Him as Ted Lieu Accuses Him of Lying
The Hill, FATMA KHALED: "Representative Ted Lieu, a California Democrat, on Saturday shared remarks previously made by Representative Jim Jordan to point out that the Ohio Republican reportedly lied about a tweet posted by an account for the GOP on the House Judiciary Committee that praised Twitter CEO Elon Musk, rapper Kanye West, and former President Donald Trump.
"'One thing I've learned: People who mislead folks on small things mislead them on big things.' Jim Jordan, December 8, 2022 #SaturdayMorning receipts," Lieu tweeted, quoting Jordan's remarks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday.
Lieu's tweet comes after Jordan denied that a post on Twitter, which has since been deleted, seemed to have shown approval of Musk, West, and Trump, reading "Kanye. Elon. Trump," The Independent reported."