California’s snowpack may face an emerging risk that scientists are just discovering
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "A flurry of storms unloaded historic amounts of rain and snow across California over the past month. The deluges, fueled by a parade of atmospheric rivers, filled reservoirs and have improved drought conditions across large swaths of the state.
The Sierra snowpack has ballooned to more than double its usual size for this time of year. The snow will continue to replenish California’s water supplies as it melts during the warmer months."
As California’s climate heats up, Valley fever spikes — especially on Central Coast
BANG*Mercury News, SEAN CUMMINGS: "On a windy summer day a decade and a half ago, insidious fungal spores, each a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair, wafted through a Modesto orchard and into Jaime Gonzalez’s lungs.
Several weeks later, Gonzalez grew weak and feverish. The spores had infected him with Valley fever, a little-known and often-misunderstood disease that causes him fatigue, chronic pain and skin ulcers to this day. Sometimes, he said, his legs fail him.
“I try not to move from where I’m at because my feet will start to kill me,” said Gonzalez, 48."
‘A living spirit’: Native people push for changes to protect the Colorado River
LA Times, IAN JAMES/CAROLYN COLE/ALBERT BRAVE TIGER LEE: "On a bluff overlooking the Lower Colorado River Valley, the ground bears an image of two giant figures. Known as the Twins, these ancient figures are revered by members of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, who say they show their people’s deep connection to the land and the river.
“This is a reminder of who we are,” said Nora McDowell, an elder and former chairperson of the tribe. “This is our home. This is what the Creator gave us.”
These and other geoglyphs adorn the desert along the lower reaches of the Colorado River, where Indigenous people flourished long before Europeans set foot in North America."
These Sacramento County levees have serious damage. Why FEMA hasn’t paid for them
Sacramento Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL/ARIANE LANGE/CATHIE ANDERSON: "
A single Cosumnes River levee sustained $1.5 million in damage after recent winter storms tore out a hole the size of a football field. But the federal government’s emergency management has not yet agreed to give local officials the money to fix that embankment.
The agency has refused to fund this stretch of the river for years, saying the barriers do not meet the criteria for intervention because they were not built to meet the agency’s standards. It regards them as “levee-like” structures, not levees.
The policy has had lasting repercussions in this corner of south Sacramento County, where certain parts of flood infrastructure stay broken for years."
Adam Schiff has a national following. But his Senate bid will face only-in-California challenges
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Rep. Adam Schiff’s just-launched U.S. Senate campaign might not have happened without Donald Trump.
The Burbank Democrat spent a relatively quiet 16 years in the House before finding his voice as a pitbull going after Trump, from leading the first impeachment effort against the former president to being an aggressive force on the panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol."
The fall and rise of Roger Niello
Capitol Weekly, RICH EHISEN: "When Roger Niello left the California Assembly in 2010, he figured his time in elected office had run its course. After all, the year before he had committed the most unforgivable of sins for a Republican of the day: He was among six of his fellow GOP colleagues who voted for a budget that included tax hikes, drawing the wrath of his party’s most vocal anti-tax contingent.
And as it turned out, voters.
That fall, he ran for the District 1 Senate seat vacated by the death of Republican Senator Dave Cox, but lost badly to a fellow Republican, then-Assemblymember Ted Gaines, who had gleefully signed the no-new-tax pledge championed by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Niello had refused to sign the pledge, which had become a national purity test for any politico seeking Republican support."
California’s reparations task force is still inching its way toward critical decisions
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "As California’s task force to study reparations has toured the state seeking public input over the last year, one demand has risen to the top: Many in the Black community want reparations now, not promises down the road.
But as the first-in-the-nation task force wades deeper into the final stages of its work, the process has proven painstaking in practice, and even basic questions, like who should be eligible, are still being hashed out."
Victim of a violent crime? California may have money for you. (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "In the wake of the horrific January 21 shooting that killed 11 people in Monterey Park, Gov. Newsom visited hospitalized survivors. His conversation with one patient revealed an added stress for survivors of gun violence and other violent crime: the inability to cover expenses incurred or wages lost due to the incident.
“The first thing [the patient] said to me is, ‘How many days I’m going to be in here?’ And I immediately asked the doctor to come in.” Newsom recalled. “And it wasn’t for medical reasons. He was asking financial. He said, ‘I can’t afford to be here. I got to get out of here. I don’t have the money.’ And then the next question he asks is, ‘What can I do tomorrow? I’m supposed to be at work.'” (KJ Hiramoto, Fox 11)
The good news is that California has a program in place to help in exactly these types of situations. The California Victim Compensation Board was established in 1965 to provide victims of violent crimes with financial resources to cope with the impact of the crime. Crime victims (and others impacted by a violent crime, including relatives, caregivers and witnesses) who have been injured or were threatened with injury can apply for compensation, including funeral expenses, medical expenses and lost income."
Monterey Park shooter voiced paranoid threats to police years before opening fire, records show
LA Times, MATTHEW ORMSETH/ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Three decades before he shot 11 people to death in a Monterey Park ballroom, Huu Can Tran told police he believed relatives of a woman he’d been dating had threatened to kill him and were trying to lure him into a trap.
Tran’s suspicions — which were apparently groundless — were laid out in documents obtained by The Times from the San Gabriel Police Department. The records provide some insight into what appears to be his paranoid worldview. Just this month, authorities said, he went twice to the police station in Hemet, where he’d moved into a trailer park, and claimed his family had defrauded and tried to poison him.
Twelve days later, Tran, 72, opened fire in Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Garvey Avenue, killing 11 people on the eve of the Lunar New Year. He killed himself the next day as police closed in on his van in a Torrance strip mall."
‘The final straw’: Dispute over $100 repair bill may have sparked Half Moon Bay shootings
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI/SALVADOR HERNANDEZ/TERRY CASTLEMAN: "The suspected gunman accused of killing seven people last week at two farms in Half Moon Bay told investigators a dispute with his supervisor over a bill for machinery repair sparked the massacre, authorities said.
The suspect, whom authorities identified as Chunli Zhao, 66, told law enforcement he became angry after being told by his supervisor at California Terra Garden, the site of the first attack, that he had to pay $100 to service a forklift that was damaged in a crash with a bulldozer, which was reported in local news outlets and confirmed by San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Steve Wagstaffe.
Zhao told law enforcement he became agitated trying to explain the crash was not his fault. He told police he then killed the supervisor and a colleague, authorities said."
California saw nearly 20% more deaths since 2020, and COVID alone can’t explain it
BANG*Mercury News, HARRIET BLAIR ROWAN: "Three years after the first COVID cases were detected in the Bay Area, a vexing question persists that can no longer be explained by the terrifying arrival of a deadly novel coronavirus: Why are so many people still dying?
Since 2020, California has recorded 130,000 more deaths than in the three previous years, a nearly 20% increase in mortality, the largest sustained spike in more than a century, and the reversal of a decades-long trend of decreasing death rates. In essence, experts say, that’s 130,000 more burials, cremations, viewings and funerals than there should have been.
Those lost lives, referred to as “excess deaths” in the public health world, are the number of deaths over what could be expected based on historical data and demographic trends. COVID-19 — which was first confirmed in California in late January 2020 — is the obvious culprit for the bulk of them. But officially the virus is blamed for just under 100,000 of those deaths. So why did the other 30,000 Californians die?"
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "In one of his now-trademark Twitter threads detailing his approach to living amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UCSF chair of medicine Dr. Bob Wachter recently shared with his thousands of followers that while he’s open to taking more risks as cases in the Bay Area come down, there are some situations in which he’ll almost always mask up — forever.
In public transit and at large gatherings, he’ll “plan to wear a mask (always a KN95; why not wear a good mask if you’re going to mask?), likely forever,” he wrote. “I’m comfortable taking it off briefly to eat on a long flight, but will try to keep it on when I can.”"
Will arts education cuts in proposed California budget have a big impact?
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Amid looming economic uncertainty and fears of recession, the governor has proposed cutting $1.2 billion of one-time discretionary funding for arts and instructional materials in his pared-back 2023-24 state budget, which responds to a projected $22.5 billion budget shortfall. However, the loss of that block grant money can be largely offset with the nearly $1 billion earmarked for arts education through Proposition 28, many arts advocates say, softening the blow.
A game-changing piece of arts education legislation, Proposition 28, passed last fall, sets aside money in the state’s general fund to give school districts additional funding — about 1% of the total state and federal money they receive under the Local Control Funding Formula — for arts education. For districts with at least 500 students, the initiative requires that 80% of the funds go to hiring teachers and 20% to training and supplies, such as musical instruments.
“We see this as a long game, and Proposition 28 is ongoing funding, not a one-time grant. That’s the most important thing for us,” said Tom DeCaigny, executive director of Create CA, an arts advocacy group. “It’s a historic moment for anybody who is excited about creativity and public education.”"
Popular Bill Maher Show Coming to CNN As a Result of Merger
The Street, JEFFREY QUIGGLE: "Amid budget cuts resulting in show cancellations, HBO announces a new collaboration with CNN.
After Warner Bros. and Discovery (WBD) - Get Free Report merged in April 2022, big changes were soon to come for its media properties.
Newly installed CEO David Zaslav would soon be looking to cut $3.5 billion in costs."
Sale efforts push ahead at fraud-tied Fremont, San Jose housing sites
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Property sales are now underway for Bay Area condominium units linked to a massive real estate fraud case. But it’s unclear how much of the proceeds will be used to pay investors who were swindled.
Condo sales have begun for units in a Fremont residential complex that was developed by Silicon Sage Builders and its principal executive Sanjeev Acharya, federal court documents show. Separately, it’s expected that condominium sales should begin soon at a San Jose residential project that also was developed by Acharya.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Acharya and Silicon Sage of fraud and swindling hundreds of investors out of more than $100 million. Silicon Sage’s properties, most of which are incomplete projects or have yet to begin development, have been shoved into court-ordered receivership."
He came to Oakland to stop homicides. Three years later, violence prevention leader is leaving
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI: "The head of of Oakland’s violence prevention department is leaving in February amid a continuing spike in gun violence and the installation of a new mayor charged with confronting crime.
Guillermo Cespesdes spent three years in the position — central to the city’s public safety efforts — but his tenure coincided with a pandemic that saw violent crime spike in many cities throughout the country, including Oakland."
California Sikh who accused deputies of inaction after hate crimes wins in federal court
Sacramento Bee, MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "
A practicing Sikh man who accused a Northern California sheriff’s office of inadequately investigating a pair of racist hate crimes he said he experienced in 2021 has been awarded a $25,000 judgment after suing the county and two deputies in federal court.
Rouble Claire, a retiree living in the community of Sutter, west of Yuba City, was making a routine trip to a convenience store in May 2021 when a woman threatened to ram him with her car while shouting racial slurs at him, he told The Sacramento Bee in an interview last spring. That same afternoon, Claire caught a different woman, chalk in hand, writing slurs in front of his home and on his driveway.
Claire further alleged, in a civil lawsuit filed last May in Sacramento federal court, that unnecessary delays and inaction by Sutter County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the case resulted in prosecutors declining to pursue charges in the parking lot incident."
From California’s death row, a phone gave them a love connection. It led to murder
LA Times, MATTHEW ORMSETH: "Los Angeles, six years ago: A young woman boarded a bus to meet her boyfriend for the first time.
They had been dating for nearly two years, but she had only ever spoken to him over the phone.
Her destination was San Quentin. In his cell on death row, her boyfriend kept a cellphone. The phone is how they met, how they fell in love."
‘This is a place to honor Tyre’: Sacramento family and friends attend skate park vigil
Sacramento Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA: "Over 100 people gathered Monday on a chilly night at a Sacramento skate park to remember Tyre Nichols, share stories about the lasting bonds he made there and describe his warm, comforting smile that could light up a room.
Ryan Wilson was 12 years old when he met Nichols at the Regency Community Skate Park in North Natomas. They were best friends, spending a lot of time daydreaming about what their futures had in store for them. Wilson said Nichols had some struggles in his young life, but he would focus on making others feel happy.
“The one thing about Tyre that I’m sure all of us can agree on is that he just had overwhelming urge just make everyone else around him smile,” Wilson said at the vigil. “I just feel like all he wanted to do was find his place in this world, and he just wanted to be happy.”"
LA Times, NOAH GOLDBERG: "Neha Patel was still conscious when paramedics rescued her from a white Tesla that had gone off Highway 1 over the cliff at Devil’s Slide and tumbled hundreds of feet down to the beach.
As they rescued her, Patel made statements to paramedics that helped lead to the three attempted murder charges filed Monday against her husband, Dharmesh Patel, 41, who was driving the Tesla when the crash took place.
“‘He intentionally tried to kill us,’” Neha Patel told paramedics, San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Stephen Wagstaffe told The Times on Monday."
Wife’s statement, crash video lead to charges for dad who drove Tesla off cliff with family inside
The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI: "After visiting family in the Bay Area in early January, Dharmesh Patel drove southbound through the Tom Lantos Tunnel with his wife and two young kids.
Suddenly, his white Tesla veered onto the dirt shoulder of curvy Highway 1 and the Southern California doctor yanked the steering wheel to the right without braking, catapulting his car 250 feet off a cliff, according to prosecutors and video evidence."
At 16, he escaped a fringe Jewish sect accused of child abuse. Will he see his family again?
LA Times, LEILA MILLER: "Yoel Levy had just woken up in his apartment outside Tel Aviv one Saturday last fall when he received a long-awaited phone call. It was his friend Israel Amir, who was in southern Mexico for a rescue operation.
“I have my son!” Amir told Levy.
The young men shared an extraordinary past. Both were raised in Lev Tahor, a fringe Jewish sect that has fled from country to country over the last decade, on the run from authorities and child abuse allegations. Branded a cult by the Israeli government, the group is thought to have roughly 300 adherents scattered around the world."
Actor Cindy Williams, the optimistic Shirley of ‘Laverne & Shirley,’ dies at 75
LA Times, NARDINE SAAD: "Cindy Williams, who played sweet, wide-eyed Shirley Feeney on the “Happy Days” spinoff “Laverne & Shirley,” has died. She was 75.
Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement obtained by The Times.
“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”"