The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "A Los Angeles jury found former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and two other counts of sexual assault, but could not reach a verdict on charges that he raped and assaulted Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the first partner of California.
The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for more than 40 hours over nine days. They found Weinstein guilty of raping and sexually assaulting one woman, but could not reach a verdict on charges that he assaulted two others, including Siebel Newsom. They found him not guilty of sexual battery of a fourth woman.
A mistrial was declared on the counts where the jury could not reach a verdict, according to pool reports."
‘Where he belongs’: With life in prison likely for Weinstein, accusers react
LA Times, NARDINE SAAD/ALEXANDRA DEL ROSARIO: "More than two weeks after jury deliberations began in Los Angeles, the verdict is in for disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. And so are the reactions.
The former Miramax producer, 70, was found guilty Monday of raping a woman, identified in court as Jane Doe 1. He was convicted of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. Weinstein faces the possibility of 18 or more years in prison. Given his age, health and the current 23-year term he’s serving after his rape conviction in New York, he will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
Reacting to Monday’s verdict, Weinstein accuser and California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said a life term was what the disgraced movie mogul deserved."
‘Magic mushrooms’ would be decriminalized in California under new bill
LA Times, HANNAH WILEY: "The possession and personal use of certain psychedelic drugs such as “magic mushrooms” and ayahuasca would be decriminalized in California under a bill introduced Monday backed by mental health professionals and veterans groups.
Supporters of Senate Bill 58 say that the legislation is a step toward ending California’s “war on drugs” and that decriminalizing psychedelics could pave the way for better treatment options to alleviate substance use disorders and other health issues such as anxiety and depression. The bill will likely face opposition among law enforcement groups, which have raised concerns in recent years with the possible public safety risks associated with hallucinogens.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) reintroduced the bill roughly four months after an earlier version was gutted in a key state Assembly committee amid opposition from law enforcement and a handful of Democrats who joined Republicans in voting against it."
California Democrats bring back concealed carry bill in renewed push for gun safety
Sac Bee, LINDSEY HOLDEN: "A California lawmaker will make another attempt to shore up the state’s concealed carry gun laws following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down key provisions.
Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-Burbank, introduced his bill on Dec. 5, the first day of the new legislative session, after his last concealed carry measure narrowly failed in the Assembly during the final hours of the last lawmaking term.
Portantino told The Sacramento Bee that Senate Bill 2 in its current form is a “spot bill,” or placeholder measure that will be amended with more specific language in the future. He said he remains committed to getting it passed."
Prop. 30 tanked – What next for clean air efforts?
Capitol Weekly, STAFF (PODCAST): "CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Proposition 30, the ambitious plan to combat wildfires and fund EV infrastructure throughout the state by taxing California’s wealthiest citizens failed at the ballot box in November. Early polls found broad support for the measure, but a strong opposition campaign led by Gov. Newsom and the CTA turned the tide and ultimately derailed the measure.
We spoke with Bill Magavern, Policy Director of the Coalition for Clean Air, and an author of Prop. 30, about efforts to combat pollution and climate change in the wake of Proposition 30’s defeat."
California should ban ‘pretext stops’ by police, state committee says
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A state committee says California should prohibit police officers from stopping drivers for reasons unconnected to traffic safety, like violations related to license plates, lighting or vehicle registration, because the stops serve little public purpose and have “disturbing racial disparities.”
“Law enforcement openly admit that many of these are ‘pretext stops’ to investigate serious offenses — yet data show these traffic stops rarely result in the discovery of evidence of crime,” the Committee on Revision of the Penal Code said Monday in its annual report recommending changes in the state’s criminal laws."
Oregon cleared its death row. California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he’s considering it
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, about to leave office, has commuted all 17 of her state’s death sentences to life in prison. And California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who halted executions after taking office in 2019, now says commutations for the state’s 674 condemned inmates have “long been considered” and are still under review.
But Newsom also said, in response to Brown’s announcement last week, that “it’s more complicated in California, for many different reasons.” He didn’t elaborate, but the most obvious complication is a unique provision in the state Constitution, since 1879, requiring approval by a majority of the state Supreme Court’s seven justices to commute the sentence of anyone with felony convictions in at least two cases.
Statistics from prison officials weren’t immediately available, but legal commentators say half or more of the state’s Death Row inmates had previous felony convictions, requiring Newsom to seek permission from at least four justices for any grant of clemency. The governor — who has called the death penalty racially discriminatory and an “abject failure” — has made no such requests to the court. Nor has he acted on his own to commute the death sentences of hundreds of prisoners who have no other felonies on their record."
‘No surprises’ so far in recount of Sunnyvale council election determined by one vote
BANG*Mercury News, VANDANA RAVIKUMAR: "A hand-tallied recount in a Sunnyvale city council race decided by a single vote began Monday under the watchful eyes of candidates, supporters and election officials.
Justin Wang, who lost the District 3 election to Murali Srinivasan, asked that two four-member recount boards perform the new tally. In a memo submitted to the Sunnyvale City Clerk’s office on Dec. 12, he also asked to review other election-related materials, including vote by mail envelopes, provisional ballot envelopes, voter registration records and materials used to verify voter signatures.
“It is absolutely just about making sure every vote is properly counted and very standard in any recount,” Wang said."
COVID in California: FDA eyes updating vaccines to better target changing virus
The Chronicle, RITA BEAMISH: "Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is urging governors in the face of a winter COVID-19 surge to step up and lead on getting people vaccinated with the latest boosters to reduce the strain on our health care systems.
For their part, California health officials are taking a more aggressive stance than the federal government on who should seek COVID treatment, stating that everyone who tests positive should do so.
The guidance comes as more than a third of Americans now live in a region with “medium” COVID-19 community levels, including all nine Bay Area counties, based on hospitalization and case metrics.The virus has claimed more than 1 million lives in the United States."
Man faces 11 years for BB gun attacks on California Planned Parenthood
SGV Newspapers, RUBY GONZALES: "An Ontario man and felon who used a BB gun to shoot at a Planned Parenthood in Pasadena on 11 occasions pleaded guilty Monday, Dec. 19, to interfering with women seeking abortions and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, authorities said.
The gun-related charge is a felony while forcible interference with the obtaining and provision of reproductive health services is a misdemeanor.
Richard Royden Chamberlin, 53, faces a possible maximum sentence of 11 years at his March 20 sentencing in federal court in Los Angeles, according to Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office."
What’s the coldest spot on Earth? NASA has pinpointed it — and the nights are deadly
Sac Bee, MARK PRICE: "If you think a little cold air and snow might bolster your holiday spirits, NASA says it knows the perfect destination for frigid Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
“Looking for the coldest place to spend the holiday season?” the space agency asked in a Facebook post.
“You won’t find anyone else there, but the coldest place we’ve found on Earth (with the help of NASA Earth satellites) is a high ridge on the East Antarctic Plateau.”"
The amazing role turkey vultures play in our ecosystem
Marin IJ, ALISON HERMACE: "Longtime Marin residents will remember the late Elizabeth Terwilliger’s famous mnemonic for telling the difference between a flying hawk and a flying turkey vulture: “V is for vulture!” A large circling bird whose wings form the shape of a “V” is a turkey vulture. A soaring bird whose wings in flight are held flat and straight across is a hawk.
You can spot a turkey vulture, or even a group of them “kettling” together, virtually anywhere in Marin County. Once the sun heats the environment enough to create the thermals they need to soar, turkey vultures seem to exist in every corner of the sky. But what are these big, soaring birds doing? The answer is looking for dead things, but the turkey vulture’s role in our ecosystem goes far beyond their disgusting job description.
Everything about a vulture is built for soaring, and, let’s be honest, eating carrion. That naked head? Perfectly designed for inserting into the body cavity of a carcass. That sharp beak? Excellent for tearing and rending tough hides. Those huge nostril-like openings? Well-suited for detecting the scent of rot on the wind. Turkey vultures have extremely advanced olfactory senses, one of the best in the natural world."
S.F. came within just one degree of setting a record cold temperature
The Chronicle, JACK LEE/GERRY DIAZ: "December has been unforgivably cold.
On Monday, downtown San Francisco reached only 45 degrees, just 1 degree higher than the daily record set in 1924. As of 2 p.m. on Monday, downtown Oakland reached only 48 degrees, breaking a daily record of 49 degrees set in 1970."
During UC strike, professors take learning outside of the classroom
CALMatters, MEGAN TAGAMI: "For UC Riverside student Amanda Soto, the drive to campus is a two-and-a-half hour round trip. But the commute didn’t stop her from attending the picket line more than five times in the last month of the fall quarter to support thousands of University of California academic workers on strike.
Soto, a fourth-year ethnic studies major, said she would have attended the strike of her own accord. But she is also a student of Dylan Rodríguez — a professor of media and cultural studies at UCR who seized the strike as a teaching opportunity. Rodríguez encouraged his media studies class to visit him on the picket line, challenging students like Soto to consider how campus events tied into course themes of class and racial disparities.\
“When being in solidarity with the strikers, we can also see the power structure that we see within a lot of the concepts and theories within the course,” Soto said."
Struggling California students will get an extra month of class time — here’s how it could work
The Chronicle, AUDREY BROWN: "California schools are about to embark on an ambitious and expensive gamble to try to close the achievement gap and redress pandemic learning losses: Expand the school day by three hours and the school year by 30 days for vulnerable students who are struggling to keep up with their peers.
Schools can spend the additional time on any activities outside regular school hours that contribute to students’ learning and wellbeing. Some districts, like Franklin-McKinley in San Jose, have already started implementing the program, and many have opted for high dose tutoring and small group instruction."
Teaching young children how to read: What California parents need to know
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Like most of us, I don’t remember very much about learning how to read. I just remember loving it. I read in the car, I read while walking down stairs, which drove my parents crazy, and I frequently had to be chided to put the book down and go outside and play. My daughter, 12, was much the same, so honestly until we launched California’s Reading Dilemma, a series digging into why nearly 60% of California children don’t meet state standards by third grade, I had never given much thought to how reading is taught.
I assumed reading might come naturally, like walking and talking. I was wrong. It turns out that while some children will learn to read no matter how you teach them, many will struggle unless they get the kind of lessons they need. This disconnect between what the exhaustive scientific research tells us about how kids learn and what actually happens in the classroom is what we’ve tried to explore in this special project.
Now, I want to cut to the chase for time-pressed parents and caregivers about the bottom line on the literacy crisis, an ongoing problem deepened by pandemic learning loss. I reached out to a group of literacy experts and advocates to ask them what parents most need to know about early literacy given the national debate over how best to teach reading. What should parents do, especially if they notice their child is falling behind?"
Thousands of L.A. students show up for school on first day of winter break
The Chronicle, HOWARD BLUME: "“Acceleration days” — two extra days of school over winter break — were a no-brainer for the brainy Kimberly Sanchez, a senior at the Maywood Center for Enriched Studies. If there had been five extra days, she’d have done them all. She did not need the all-out sales pitch and communication blitz of the last few weeks from school officials urging students to attend.
After a slow start in registrations, about 72,000 Los Angeles students had signed up to be back in the classroom on their first day of winter break Monday, an increase from about two weeks ago when some 45,000 of the district’s 422,276 students had registered and the deadline was removed.
Although actual attendance had not been confirmed — and some teachers reported that many students did not show up — L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho declared victory, saying the enrollment of 1 in 6 district students surpassed what could be reasonably expected — even though an earlier plan, which was rejected by the teachers union, was set up to attract the majority of students."
BANG*Mercury News, SCOOTY NICKERSON/JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "The student gasped for breath. Her eyes widened. Her pupils shrunk.
Slumping in a chair in a conference room at W.C. Overfelt High School in late October, she was showing all the signs of overdosing on the powerful opioid fentanyl.
Principal Vito Chiala’s safety team had rushed her in when they encountered her walking to class and knew something was off. But now, she was slipping in and out of consciousness. They had all been trained to administer the nasal spray Narcan, which can reverse opioid overdoses. But that was last summer. Did they remember everything? Were they supposed to squirt it into one nostril or two? Was there a safety latch?"
Supreme Court temporarily blocks the end of Trump-era immigration policy
LA Times, DAVID G SAVAGE: "Acting on an emergency appeal from some Republican-led states, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a temporary order Monday that will preserve — for now — a Trump-era policy that turned away most migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
The chief justice asked for a response from the Biden administration by the end of the day Tuesday.
It remains unclear whether Roberts or the full Supreme Court will make a decision on the appeal before Wednesday, when the so-called Title 42 rule is set to end."
DHS accidentally informed Cuba that deportees had sought protection in U.S.
LA Times, HAMED ALEAZIZ: "The Department of Homeland Security inadvertently tipped off the Cuban government this month that some of the immigrants the agency sought to deport to the island nation had asked the U.S. for protection from persecution or torture, officials said Monday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are now scrambling to foreclose the possibility that the Cuban government could retaliate against individuals it knows sought protection here. The agency has paused its effort to deport the immigrants in question and is considering releasing them from U.S. custody.
The accidental disclosure to the Cuban government is an example of any asylum seeker’s “nightmare scenario,” said Robyn Barnard, associate director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First."
Who helped seal Carlos Correa’s $350 million contract for the Giants?
The Chronicle, SUSAN SLUSSER: "Steve Cohen is redefining baseball ownership, taking a firm hand in ensuring the Mets land some big free agents. Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner played a key role in getting Aaron Judge to come back to the pinstripes. Now, the San Francisco Giants have an owner who is taking an active part in free-agent acquisitions, too.
Agent Scott Boras told The Chronicle on Monday that Giants Chairman Greg Johnson helped drive negotiations with shortstop Carlos Correa, who will be introduced as San Francisco’s shortstop Tuesday morning after signing his 13-year, $350 million deal with the club."
S.F.’s Fillmore district is the latest neighborhood in revolt over homelessness and drugs
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR/SAM WHITING: "Leaders in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood are pressuring city officials to intervene with what they say is an uptick in homeless encampments, public drug use and crime.
At a meeting Monday at Third Baptist Church in the Fillmore, leaders, residents and businesses described untenable conditions and the need for a plan.
“We have to police ourselves as a community. The biggest problem I see is that the community needs to take ownership of the situation,” said Daniel Landry, who lives at the Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Co-Op Apartments in the Fillmore and is part of the New Community Leadership Group nonprofit. “We all have a responsibility.”"
This popular S.F. tourist spot is about to see its worst day of year for car break-ins
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN/SUSIE NEILSON: "An Audi station wagon zoomed up a quiet street in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood, spinning around with a squeal of tires.
In a flash, a door popped open and one of the passengers tossed a duffle bag on the pavement before the car lurched and sped away."
Home prices falling in Sacramento faster than nearly any U.S. metro. See the latest values
Sac Bee, RYAN LILLIS: "Sacramento’s 2022 real estate is cooling off at a rate seen in few other places.
The median home price in the region declined 8.4% between peaking in the spring and October, the seventh-largest drop in the nation, according to the latest mortgage monitor report by national real estate data analysis firm Black Knight. Zillow’s data shows a similar trend, with that site reporting Sacramento’s price decline is 6.4% since the peak.
San Francisco and San Jose have both seen declines of about 13% since the peak, tied for the steepest drop in the nation, according to Black Knight. Other regions in the western United States that have experienced significant drops include Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles."
Jan. 6 committee’s criminal referral of a former president is a first in U.S. history
LA Times, SARAH D. WIRE: "In an unprecedented step in American history, the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol unanimously recommended Monday that former President Trump be criminally prosecuted for insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, knowingly and willfully making materially false statements to the federal government and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
The referrals for Trump and others in his orbit are nonbinding recommendations and cannot compel the Justice Department to act. But they show the committee believes it has gathered sufficient evidence to prove Trump provided “aid and comfort” to a mob that ransacked the Capitol and actively tried to prevent the peaceful transition of power to a new president selected by voters, Joe Biden.
“Every president in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority, except one,” said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel’s vice chair. “January 6, 2021, was the first time one American president refused his constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully to the next. In our work over the last 18 months, the select committee has recognized our obligation to do everything we can to ensure this never happens again.”"