These Democrats hoping to replace Feinstein largely agree on policy. So how do they differ?
LA Times, SEEMA MEHTA: "The biggest names vying to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein largely agree on many issues dearest to Democratic voters, so their differing political passions, generational perspectives and life stories will likely be front and center in the first hotly contested Senate race in California in more than a decade.
Reps. Katie Porter, Adam B. Schiff and Barbara Lee all claim the progressive mantle, an almost essential ingredient for any politician hoping to put together a winning Senate campaign in a state that champions gun control, abortion rights, marriage equality and combating climate change. They face the difficult task of defining themselves in a heavily Democratic electorate that may struggle to distinguish what separates them.
“California is not going to elect a Republican. And they’re not going to elect a centrist. The question is what kind of progressivism is most important” to voters, said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at UC Berkeley, USC and Pepperdine University. “These three candidates represent very different strains of progressivism.”"
Taxing guns, pushing housing and penalizing Big Oil. Here are California bills to watch
Sacramento Bee, LINDSEY HOLDEN: "California lawmakers’ bill introduction frenzy is over.
The Legislature’s deadline for introducing bills was Friday, meaning senators and assemblymembers now turn to the real business of the session — pushing their measures through the Capitol and hammering out a state budget.
Lawmakers have more than 2,000 bills to consider, not mention a special session on oil company price gouging and a budget deficit of more than $22 billion."
Marshall Tuck Says There are Two Californias (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Educator Marshall Tuck came within a hair of becoming State Superintendent of Public Instruction twice, narrowly losing both the 2014 and 2018 elections (first to incumbent Tom Torlakson, and then to Tony Thurmond). Tuck first came to statewide prominence as an education advisor to LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who tapped him to head the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Following his two runs for office, Tuck looked for other opportunities to “make a difference,” as he put it, and landed a gig late last year as the head of EdVoice, a philanthropist-founded Education nonprofit with a mission of eliminating educational inequality and bringing underperforming schools up to par.
He joined us today to talk about his priorities at EdVoice, the potential for program cuts as the state budget tightens, and why he wanted the job as State Superintendent. Tuck is a passionate advocate for improving educational opportunities for all of California’s children, and denounced the wide disparity between the highest and lowest performing schools- what he calls ‘Two Californias.’
Plus we tell you who – or in this case “what” – had the worst week in California politics."
Goodbye sunshine, hello snow? Here’s where flurries could fall in the Bay Area this week
The Chronicle, MICHELLE APON: "The Bay Area will soak up one more day of sunshine on Presidents Day to close out the long weekend before a shift in weather patterns brings piercing cold temperatures, gusty winds, rain and even isolated snow.
The change will be abrupt after the warm and sunny spell over the holiday. A ridge of high pressure kept skies clear Sunday, with above-normal high temperatures. Monday will be even warmer, with highs possibly reaching the upper 60s — around five degrees above average for North Bay valleys and inland across the East Bay."
Power restored for thousands of PG&E customers in East Bay
The Chronicle, JOAQUIN PALOMINO: "Power has been restored to thousands of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers who spent 24 hours without electricity after a series of blackouts caused widespread disruptions in the East Bay over the holiday weekend.
The blackouts began Sunday afternoon when a transformer caught fire at the PG&E substation near 50th Avenue and Coliseum Way in Oakland. At its peak, about 54,000 customers in Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro were left in the dark. Oakland International Airport was also forced to close for several hours."
Bay Area likely to see snow on the hills this week from unusual winter storm, forecasters say
BANG*Mercury News, MARTHA ROSS: "When Bay Area residents wake up later this week and get a look outside, they might wonder if they’ve been transported many degrees north, with snow from an unusually cold and windy winter storm possibly carpeting the region’s major peaks and even reaching hills as low as 1,000 feet.
“Nearly (the) entire population of CA will be able to see snow from some vantage point later this week if they look in the right direction,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, tweeted Monday. “While snow remains very unlikely in California’s major cities, it’ll fall quite nearby.”
Swain and the National Weather Service say that a major system, moving down from Canada into California on Tuesday, is expected to bring strong wind gusts and rain through Friday, as well as snow — definitely to the Sierra and possibly to the Bay Area and other coastal areas."
COVID in California: White House to halt vital weekly coronavirus report
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The latest figures from the CDC show the continued rise of the XBB.1.5 subvariant but national COVID trends are mostly flat. The number of U.S. counties classified as having “high” community COVID levels is less than 3% as of Friday. Millions of Americans who have had the bivalent booster shot are waiting for guidance from the CDC on when to get their next dose, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study. More protection might be a good thing, according to a Swiss study that found death rates 54% higher among patients hospitalized for COVID than for those with influenza."
COVID-19 states of emergency are ending. What does that mean for you?
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "California is poised to record its 100,000th COVID-19 death. But at the end of this month, the Golden State — the first in the nation to lock down because of the virus — will end its pandemic state of emergency.
A few months later, on May 11, the federal government will halt its COVID public health emergency.
In many ways, it’s a symbolic victory over a virus whose threat has eased after more than two years of successive waves of infections, hospitalizations and 1.1 million U.S. deaths."
City of Berkeley to launch non-police mental health crisis team
Daily Californian, VICTOR CORONA: "After years of community advocacy, the city of Berkeley plans to launch a 24/7 mental health crisis response team that is independent from law enforcement this summer.
In light of increased conversations, particularly those stemming from the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the city is launching its Specialized Care Unit, or SCU, according to Lisa Warhuus, director of the city’s health, housing and community services.
“Our hope is that by providing this alternative response, guided by principles of harm reduction and diversion, we can better serve community members in need,” Warhuus said in an email. “Connecting clients to these resources will involve leveraging the current network of Berkeley service providers as a continuum of care to provide necessary support.”"
Arts education funding in California: How will Proposition 28 roll out?
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Austin Beutner recalls struggling to fit in at a new school as a fifth grader. He felt awkward and alone until the music teacher suggested he try playing an instrument. Beutner took up the cello and found his voice.
That epiphany transformed his childhood, paving the way for an eclectic career that includes working for the U.S. State Department, serving as vice mayor of Los Angeles, investment banking, philanthropy and keeping the nation’s second-largest school district afloat during the depths of the pandemic.
Beutner, the former superintendent of LAUSD who spearheaded Proposition 28, recently talked with EdSource about how the groundbreaking arts education initiative will roll out and why this is such a game-changer for California public education. Proposition 28 creates a guaranteed annual funding stream for music and arts education by setting aside 1% from the state’s general fund. In 2023, that comes out to roughly $941 million."
Stanford blames inflation for highest tuition hike in at least a decade
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "First, it was gas and groceries. Now, it’s college tuition.
Stanford University is blaming inflation for its largest tuition increase in at least a decade, a 7% hike that will push undergraduate tuition to nearly $62,000 and the total cost of attendance including room and board to above $82,000 in the next academic year.
While colleges around the country are raising tuition higher than usual as they grapple with inflation that soared last year to heights not seen in decades, Stanford’s increase for 2023-2024 is the biggest among major local universities. It is more than twice the 3% fall increase at nearby Santa Clara University, which will now cost $58,586. The University of California is raising tuition by 4.9% to $13,752."
UC Berkeley Regents' and Chancellor's scholars reflect on scholarship
Daily Californian, LYDIA SIDHOM: "When Aryia Dattamajumdar, a campus junior and former Daily Californian staffer, received the news in her senior year of high school that she was accepted into UC Berkeley early with consideration for the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship, she remembers screaming in excitement, hugging her family and wearing a Cal sweatshirt to school the next day.
With early admissions letters and Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship interview offers currently in full swing, the r/berkeley subreddit is filled with questions from prospective scholars.
Berkeley Financial Aid & Scholarships considers the award the most prestigious scholarship offered to undergraduates, its website reads. Every year, about 150 incoming students to UC Berkeley — including freshmen and transfers — are granted the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship."
Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in Google case with potential to upend the internet
CNN, BRIAN FUNG: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to hear oral arguments in the first of two cases this week with the potential to reshape how online platforms handle speech and content moderation.
The oral arguments on Tuesday are for a case known as Gonzalez v. Google, which zeroes in on whether the tech giant can be sued because of its subsidiary YouTube’s algorithmic promotion of terrorist videos on its platform.
According to the plaintiffs in the case — the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, who was killed in a 2015 ISIS attack in Paris — YouTube’s targeted recommendations violated a US antiterrorism law by helping to radicalize viewers and promote ISIS’s worldview."
Fewer people working from home in 2023 as employers push hybrid schedules
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "The amount of time Americans spent working from home modestly declined in January, according to research from a group of academics who do a monthly survey of workers.
The percentage of paid full days worked from home in January was 27%, compared with 30% a month earlier. Back in 2017-18, the average was about 5%. It soared to more than 60% when the pandemic started in early 2020. It has steadily declined since then but leveled out to hover around 30% in the past year."
This Bay Area county wants to put low-income housing next to a toxic dump
The Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "In 2007 there were high hopes for Bay Point’s marinas and the 250 acres that lie east of the railroad tracks in hardscrabble Contra Costa County.
A redevelopment plan for this land that lies along Suisun Bay called for an expanded and upgraded harbor with housing, restaurants and a new boardwalk along the waterfront. Pacific Gas and Electric Co, which owns the property, had plans to clean up the metals and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that Shell Oil Products Co. had dumped there decades earlier. That portion would be restored as wetlands. An adjacent parcel, which doesn’t require environmental remediation, would be developed into apartment buildings and restaurants and ball fields.
That plan never happened — the victim of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012 elimination of redevelopment agencies. Since then, while PG&E has been working on the cleanup, the rest of the property has remained a fenced-off wetland with mounds of dirt that stretches all the way to the Delta Energy Center in Pittsburg, the Bay Area’s largest power plant. A sign on the fence along the plot says “PG&E Environmental Restoration Project.”"
Rent registry fee reimbursement available to low-income tenants in Berkeley
Daily Californian, CHRISSA OLSON: "The increase in rent may be small, but it still adds up: Landlords passing rent registry fees onto their tenants’ rent raise their rent by up to $150, which can be reimbursed to low-income tenants.
Due to most rent increases happening at the beginning of the year, it is the busiest time for the city of Berkeley to intake reimbursement requests, according to Ollie Ehlinger, a staff attorney for the city’s Rent Stabilization Board.
“The percentage increase this year that regulated units were subject to is high because inflation was high,” Ehlinger said. “It’s squeezing a lot of folks, especially folks on a fixed income, so any programs out there available to help we want to make sure anyone eligible can get it.”"
Mayor Bass calls for overhaul of LAPD discipline system, more detectives to work cases
LA Times, LIBOR JANY/RICHARD WINTON: "Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has laid out her priorities for the LAPD, calling on Police Chief Michel Moore to add detectives to boost crime clearance rates; shorten the time it takes to recruit, hire and train new officers; and overhaul a discipline system she said too often lets problem cops off the hook for misconduct.
In the clearest indication yet of the direction she will take on public safety, Bass told The Times last week that she wants to see broad change in the Police Department, but her focus at the moment is on goals that are realistic given where the department and city are today.
“One of the things that I believe needs to be changed is the culture, and I don’t think you can legislate that. I think that’s a leadership issue,” she said Thursday. “I have done legislation in many different areas that I would love to do more and see it go further. At the end of the day, I like to promote policies that will actually be implemented.”"
In two high-profile cases, victims’ families don’t want to press charges. Does it matter?
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Crime victims and their survivors, like the family of an Oakland bakery owner slain by robbers, sometimes speak out against severe punishment for the perpetrators. Do prosecutors have any duty to comply?
Not legally, analysts say, although some cases are hard to prosecute without the victims’ cooperation. But questions of policy and morality may raise deeper and more personal issues."
‘Backed up nonstop’: Tahoe’s epic ski traffic riles everyone
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Getting to North Lake Tahoe’s most popular ski resorts — Palisades Tahoe and Northstar California — on a winter weekend, particularly a holiday weekend, can require patience and endurance.
Even after drivers get across Donner Summit on I-80 with its chain controls, slippery conditions and periodic closures for whiteout conditions, the travel travails continue. Resort-bound traffic into Truckee can get so heavy that it backs up onto Interstate 80, worrying the California Highway Patrol, and along highways 89 and 267, which lead to the ski resorts."
New Mexico downgrades manslaughter penalty against Alec Baldwin in ‘Rust’ shooting
LA Times, MEG JAMES: "New Mexico prosecutors have downgraded felony penalties against Alec Baldwin and the armorer in the fatal “Rust” shooting, removing the threat that either could spend years in prison.
Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed were charged last month with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the Oct. 21, 2021, death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the movie’s set south of Santa Fe.
The most serious charge included a “firearm enhancement” penalty that carried a maximum five years in prison, if convicted."
Housekeeper’s husband is arrested in slaying of L.A. Bishop David G. O’Connell
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON/JAMES QUEALLY/MARISA GERBER: "Authorities have arrested the husband of a woman who worked as a housekeeper for Auxiliary Bishop David G. O’Connell in connection with the slaying of the beloved Los Angeles cleric, officials said Monday.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified Carlos Medina as the suspect in the slaying. He did not cite a motive but said a tipster had told authorities Medina was acting strangely after the killing and claimed that the bishop owed him money. Luna said Medina is 65; however, jail records show the suspect as 61. He is being held in lieu of $2-million bail.
Luna said detectives connected Medina to the crime from a surveillance video that showed a vehicle at the O’Connell home about the time of the killing, a “dark, compact SUV.” Weapons were found at Medina’s home in Torrance, and Luna said ballistic tests are pending."
California triple killer diagnosed with cancer to be released from prison
AP: "A Southern California motorcycle club founder who killed three people in 1980 has been ordered to be released this week, following a terminal cancer diagnosis, prosecutors said last Thursday.
Thomas Maniscalco, 77, has been incarcerated for nearly 40 years after his 1994 conviction on three counts of second-degree murder, with enhancements for being armed with a firearm, according to state prison officials. He was sentenced to life in prison and has been denied parole twice.
He was ordered released under California’s compassionate release law, which was amended last year and allows for incarcerated people to be freed if they have a serious and advanced illness with an end-of-life trajectory."
Three key Trump figures intersect two Justice Department probes
The Hill, REBECCA BEITSCH: "Three key figures connected to Donald Trump are at the intersection of two accelerating Justice Department probes seen as the most viable pathways for a prosecution of the former president.
Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing what began as two entirely separate cases: the mishandling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and the effort to influence the 2020 election that culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Several Trump World figures straddle both events, providing prosecutors with what experts say is a potent opportunity to advance both investigations."
AP, KATE BRUMBACK: "They were led down a staircase into a garage beneath a downtown Atlanta courthouse, where officers with big guns were waiting. From there, they were ushered into vans with heavily tinted windows and driven to their cars under police escort.
For Emily Kohrs, these were the moments last May when she realized she wasn’t participating in just any grand jury.
“That was the first indication that this was a big freaking deal,” Kohrs told the Associated Press."
As war anniversary nears, Ukrainians in Poland face fatigue – and hope
Capitol Weekly, MOLLY DUGAN: "Anastasia Makarova chases her animated toddler through the dimly lit play area, snowflakes pelting the windows and the sound of their steps echoing through the chilly hall.
The winter has taken temperatures well below freezing. Funded by local donations, the room provides a needed respite for Makarova.
“I came (to Poland) because of him,” she says, nodding at 21-month-old Kirill, clad in a bright blue snowsuit. “I was really afraid that something would happen.”"
Putin suspends nuclear treaty as he defends Ukraine invasion and chides the West
AP, VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV: "Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow was suspending its participation in the New START treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms-control pact with the U.S. — in a move that sharply ups the ante amid tensions with Washington over the war in Ukraine.
Speaking in his state-of-the-nation address, Putin also said that Russia should stand ready to resume nuclear weapons tests if the U.S. does so, a move that would end a global ban on nuclear weapons tests in place since Cold War times.
He also accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in Ukraine, dismissing any blame of Moscow almost a year after the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor, which has killed tens of thousands of people."