The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN/DUSTIN GARDINER: "President Biden signed legislation Tuesday to ensure that same-sex and interracial marriages will be recognized by the federal government and all states. The Respect for Marriage Act protects couples in states that might otherwise decline to recognize certain marriages in the event existing protections were rolled back by the Supreme Court.
For many transgender leaders, federal recognition of marriage equality was a moment to celebrate the LGBTQ community’s collective strength and take stock of how the visibility of same-sex couples helped drive a sea change in public opinion about gay marriage over the last 25 years. They said the victory could be a bridge to broader equality for trans, nonbinary and gender queer people.
But the moment also served as a poignant reminder ofhow much their community’s treatment has diverged from the successes of the broader LGBTQ movement. In recent years, the trans community has increasingly become a scapegoat for the political far right, and seen its protections eroded as dozens of states across the country passed bills to ban young trans people from participating in team sports or receiving gender-affirming health care."
Justices appear uncertain about gig worker ballot measure as Prop. 22 faces its next big legal test
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A state appeals court appeared uncertain Tuesday over the legality of a 2020 ballot measure — approved by the voters after a $200 million campaign by Uber, Lyft and other app-based ride-hailing and delivery companies — that classified their thousands of drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.
Proposition 22, passed by a 59% vote in November 2020, was found to be in violation of the California Constitution by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch in August 2021. He said the state Constitution authorizes the Legislature to grant workers’ compensation benefits, one of the employee benefits Prop. 22 denies to the drivers. And by making it virtually impossible for the drivers to organize unions to negotiate with the companies over wages and working conditions, Roesch said, the ballot measure regulated a different subject than its declared intent to protect the workers, violating the Constitution’s limitation of initiatives to a single subject."
‘Let’s atone for the wrongs.’ Proposed reparations for California to begin taking shape
Sac Bee, STEPHEN HOBBS/MARCUS D. SMITH: "California’s Reparations Task Force has already made history.
The panel’s nearly 500-page report released this year shattered the myth that the state was free from slavery. Its systematic review of the racist harms inflicted on generations of Black people is the first of its kind at a state level. And a hotly-debated decision to limit reparations to California residents who descend from enslaved people or Black freedmen could become a model for future efforts.
But starting Wednesday in Oakland, the nine-person committee will begin perhaps its most daunting task: Deciding what forms reparations could take."
San Jose: Mayor pushes expansion of police auditor’s investigative powers
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA: "In one of his final policy moves in office, outgoing Mayor Sam Liccardo is pushing to make good on a two-year-old pledge to move San Jose Police Department misconduct investigations away from cops and into the hands of a civilian watchdog.
The City Council unanimously approved Liccardo’s direction Tuesday, laying the groundwork for a test run that would transfer some internal-affairs investigations from the police department to the city’s Office of the Independent Police Auditor. Details on the scope of the so-called “hybrid” model are sparse and still have to be worked out by IPA Shivaun Nurre and City Manager Jennifer Maguire.
The proposal encountered immediate, fierce resistance from the police union, which criticized it as overreach. Police Chief Anthony Mata was less confrontational in his response to the mayor’s proposal but voiced his support for the current auditing arrangement, in which IPA functions largely as an evaluator of internal affairs investigations after they’ve been completed."
Lumber mill accused of sparking deadly Mill Fire to settle with victims
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "The Northern California lumber company accused of igniting the Mill Fire in Weed (Siskiyou County) has reached a settlement agreement with hundreds of people who filed wrongful death, personal injury and property loss claims in the deadly conflagration.
Roseburg Forest Products of Springfield, Ore., announced the settlement Wednesday."
Is California’s drought over? Water providers still predict shortages next year
CALMatters, ALASTAIR BLAND: "December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated.
Throughout California, urban water managers are bracing for a fourth consecutive drought year. Nearly one out of every five water agencies — 76 out of 414 — in a recent state survey predict that they won’t have enough water to meet demand next year. That means they are likely to impose more severe restrictions on customers, with some Southern California providers considering a ban on all outdoor watering.
While December’s rain and snow show promise, water managers remember the same thing happened last year — epic early storms followed by the driest January through March in California’s recorded history."
U.S. death toll tied to long COVID exceeds 4,000, CDC report says
LA Times, MELISSA HEALY: "The health challenges that a bout of COVID-19 sometimes leaves in its wake can be troublesome, scary and quite mysterious. New research confirms they can be deadly as well.
A study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between January 2020 and June 2022, long COVID was implicated in at least 3,544 deaths in the United States alone.
The authors of the study acknowledge that their tally of long COVID fatalities is likely a significant undercount of people whose deaths were caused, at least in part, by COVID-19’s lingering effects. It represents a mere sliver — less than 0.4% — of the more than 1 million pandemic deaths that occurred during the study period in the United States."
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Absences have skyrocketed in Bay Area public schools this fall, with students out sick and missing significant learning time, even as educators are desperate to get them caught up after academic losses during the pandemic.
In San Francisco, roughly 38% of the 49,000 students missed at least one day of school in the first two weeks of December — up from 29% last year and 27% before the pandemic."
Nuclear fusion breakthrough in California seen as milestone toward clean energy future
LA Times, CORINEE PURTILL: "In a first, U.S. scientists have created “net energy” through a nuclear fusion reaction, the Department of Energy announced Tuesday.
The successful experiment, which took place Dec. 5 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is the most significant milestone yet reached in the decades-long quest to produce cheap, clean, carbon-free energy through nuclear fusion.
“We have taken the first tentative steps toward a clean energy source that could revolutionize the world,” said Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.""
COVID-19 cases are starting to drop in L.A. Will the decline last?
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II/EMILY ALPERT REYES: "The number of newly reported COVID-19 cases has ticked down in Los Angeles County, a reprieve following weeks of increases.
Whatever the wider prognosis for the winter, this dip will almost surely delay the return of a public indoor mask mandate in the nation’s most populous county.
For the week to Tuesday, L.A. County’s case rate was 3,148 a day, down 18% from last week. On a per capita basis, that’s 218 cases a week for every 100,000 residents. A rate of 100 or more is considered high."
Bay Area will get hit with freezing temperatures today — here’s where it will get coldest
The Chronicle, MICHELLE APON: "After a cool and sunny start to the work week, we can expect more of the same for the next few days thanks to a high pressure system hovering over the Western U.S. This ridge of high pressure will stretch from Washington state, down all the way to Southern California, and dry and calm conditions are expected Tuesday.
The ridge will mean Bay Area residents can expect frigid mornings and nights, with chances for subfreezing temperatures and frost in some areas."
NASA satellite could show unprecedented view of S.F. Bay Area waters — and looming threats
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "Scientists are about to get a clearer picture of Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
High-definition details will come courtesy of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, scheduled to launch on Thursday, Dec. 15 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County. The mission is co-led by NASA and French space agency Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales."
P-22’s health seriously deteriorating, with euthanasia or sanctuary possible
LA Times, CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ/NATHAN SOLIS: "P-22, Los Angeles’ legendary mountain lion, is suffering from serious health issues and will not be released back into Griffith Park, according to officials, who said euthanasia is one option if his health deteriorates.
When the big cat was hauled out of a Los Feliz backyard Monday, wildlife officials planned to give him a thorough examination in order to assess what may have led him to wander into residential areas recently and attack small pets.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said no options are off the table when it comes to determining what might come next for the cat, who in November killed a leashed Chihuahua in the Hollywood Hills and attacked another Chihuahua in Silver Lake."
First year college students facing what Covid cost them, especially in math
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "First-year college students started this school year with a lot stacked against them.
On top of moving away from home for the first time, many had to face a tough reality: Covid robbed them of learning, especially in math, after more than a year of attending high school from home.
San Diego State freshman Victor Contreras fell behind in math in high school during the pandemic and is still struggling with it in college. Taking calculus online as a senior at Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove ruined math for him, Contreras said."
S.F. teachers aides to get a big bonus to encourage them to stick around
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "San Francisco’s 1,600 classroom teachers aides will split $3 million, a one-time bonus coming out of city coffers to encourage the hourly wage workers to stay in the district.
Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who secured the funding, is expected to announce the one-time bonuses Wednesday at a press conference, with school board President Jenny Lam and Superintendent Matt Wayne in attendance."
‘Always have a knife with you’: Women and trans students fear harassment, hate at CSU campus
LA Times, ROBERT J LOPEZ/COLLEEN SHALBY/GARY CORONADO: "The outrage and frustration had been building for years at California State University’s Maritime Academy, an elite training ground for students bound for work on the sea. It reached a peak last year, when student cadets publicly confronted the school’s president, a retired rear admiral.
Dozens of cadets gathered on the Quad that day to protest what they said was widespread sexual misconduct, racism and hostility toward women and transgender and non binary students.
One student told President Thomas Cropper that a male classmate sexually harassed her. Another accused administrators of failing to adequately discipline cadets who exchanged messages disparaging trans people as “fags” and comparing them to a castrated dog."
Twitter reportedly stopped paying office rent, including at San Francisco headquarters
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Twitter has stopped paying rent on all of its office space, including its San Francisco headquarters, as the company seeks to renegotiate leases, the New York Times reported.
The nonpayment is one of the efforts by owner Elon Musk to cut more costs, which have included laying off cafeteria workers and, according to the Times, potentially not paying severance to former employees, which could open up Twitter to more legal action. Ex-workers are already suing and seeking arbitration over the company’s mass layoffs last month."
Private jets and millions weren’t enough. This L.A. con man wanted something more
LA Times, MATTHEW ORMSETH: "Edgar Sargsyan’s journey to bankruptcy court began with a one-way ticket from Armenia.
It descended into the underworld of Los Angeles, where he learned at the elbow of a crime figure how deals are made and dirty money can underwrite a glittering facade of legitimacy.
Sargsyan shook hands with governors and presidents at a Beverly Hills cigar club and conferred with gangsters in jail. He made a fortune through fraud and drug dealing while surrounding himself with an entourage of corrupt lawmen."
This is the best San Francisco movie of all time, chosen by Chronicle readers
The Chronicle, ERIKA CARLOS: "Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo" is considered by many to be one of the best movies ever made — and there was a poll to prove it. The beloved movie reigned as the Greatest Film of All-Time on an influential poll for a decade, igniting controversy when it was ultimately booted from its No. 1 spot this month and replaced by Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman” (1975). Amid the news, we decided to launch our own poll, asking: What is the best San Francisco movie of all time?
We published a survey on our site allowing readers to choose from a list of 13 acclaimed movies that heavily feature San Francisco. Here’s a breakdown of more than 1,300 responses:"
Bass’ emergency homelessness declaration approved during tumultuous City Council meeting
LA Times, JULIA WICK/DAVID ZAHNISER/DAKOTA SMITH/BENJAMIN ORESKES: "The Los Angeles City Council approved Mayor Karen Bass’ declaration of a homelessness emergency at a fraught four-hour meeting Tuesday, giving the new mayor a potentially critical tool for addressing the city’s humanitarian crisis.
The vote should have been a simple procedural step. But it was thrown into jeopardy by the tumult at City Hall.
Embattled Councilmember Kevin de León stepped onto the council floor midway through the session. Council President Paul Krekorian immediately called for a recess, sending the meeting into limbo."
‘Catfishing’ cop told Virginia police he was treated at mental health facility, records show
LA Times, SUMMER LIN/ERIN B. LOGAN: "Austin Lee Edwards, the now-deceased cop who “catfished” a 15-year-old Riverside girl and killed her grandparents and mother last smonth, disclosed during his application to become a Virginia state trooper that he had voluntarily checked himself into a mental health facility several years earlier, according to records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
The Virginia State Police hired him anyway.
Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman, said last month that there weren’t “any indicators of concern” that surfaced during Edwards’ “extensive” hiring process. But the records reviewed by The Times show the agency had at least some indication of Edwards’ mental health struggles."
How DNA from spitting on the sidewalk helped land a murderer in prison for life
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "A 38-year-old Torrance man who was convicted of raping and murdering two women and dumping their bodies near Los Angeles freeways more than 10 years ago has been sentenced to life without parole.
sAnd it was DNA evidence collected from spit on a sidewalk that helped authorities crack the case.
Geovanni Borjas was arrested in May 2017 and convicted in the slayings of Michelle Lozano and Breanna Guzman in October after his trial was delayed by the pandemic. On Monday, Borjas was given a life sentence."