Drought is now over in more than half of California, including the Bay Area, feds say
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS/SCOOTY NICKERSON: "Soaked by heavy rains in recent weeks, the biggest Sierra snowpack in 30 years and flooding from a parade of atmospheric river storms in January, the majority of California — including the Bay Area — is no longer in a drought, federal officials reported Thursday.
Overall, 49.1% of California can be classified as in a drought, a dramatic drop from 84.6% last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska.
That’s the lowest percentage in more than three years when 48.2% of the state was in a drought in July 2020, according to the report, which is based on rainfall totals, reservoir levels, snowpack, soil moisture and other measures."
Could California become the first state to require Tesla charging stations to open to all EVs?
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "Hopping in a Tesla and driving from San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles has gotten easier as charging stations along Interstate 5 rapidly expand. The trip now takes about eight hours, including two charging stops that double as meal and bathroom breaks.
But making the same road trip in another type of electric vehicle can be problematic due, in large part, to a lack of access to fast-charging stations, according to a new EV road trip planning tool The Chronicle launched Thursday."
Before and after photos from space show storms’ effect on California reservoirs
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "After a series of atmospheric-river storms hit California in December and January, the state’s two largest reservoirs are looking a lot fuller than they did a few months ago. Before-and-after satellite photos from NASA Earth Observatory show that those early-winter deluges were difference-makers.
The photos don’t take into account several February storms, including the epic snowfall over the weekend, which also are likely to help move the needle."
Stunning photos show Yosemite National Park under 15 feet of snow
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "So much snow fell on Yosemite National Park over the past week that even the most veteran rangers were awed by what they saw.
As storm clouds departed from Yosemite Valley on Thursday, a carpet of fresh powder, sometimes 10 feet deep, exposed itself beneath newly blue skies. Thick snow teetered on the branches of cedar and fir, mountain walls shimmered an icy white and partially-frozen waterfalls dropped from the cliffs, their crackling sound piercing the ambient silence.
It was the most snow the area has seen in a generation, and it was a spectacle. The few who were there, mostly employees hamstrung by impassable roads, looked out at their cars completely submerged in snow or their park-provided homes with several feet of snow on the roof. Some couldn’t open their doors, at least temporarily, until they shoveled out."
Cut off for 10 days, running low on food, stranded mountain residents angry, afraid
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS/SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "For days, Michael Bowen could see the snow piling up outside his home.
Having grown up in Massachusetts, he thought he could handle a California winter storm. Most of his neighbors in Crestline told him that snowfall in the San Bernardino Mountains wouldn’t get over a few feet.
Then Bowen began to hear his roof creak under the stress of roughly 6 feet of snow piled on top of his home. He started to see large trees, weighed down by several days’ worth of snow and rain, bend to the ground."
Three California beaches rank among the best in the US. Here’s why people love them
Sac Bee, HELENA WEGNER: "With an eye toward spring and summer, beachgoers are getting ready to soak up the sun again. And in California, beach weather is fast approaching.
Tripadvisor released its top 25 beaches in the U.S., and three Southern California spots made the list — just in time for spring breakers.
The top contenders included: Coronado Beach in Coronado (No. 8); La Jolla Cove in La Jolla (No. 10); and Santa Monica State Beach in Santa Monica (No. 25)."
To protect our health, tell the truth about the fossil fuel industry (OPINION)
Capitol Weekly, LINDA RUDOLPH: "Climate change and fossil fuel pollution are two sides of the same health emergency. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels caused about 8 million deaths in 2018, nearly 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. And fossil fuel pollution is a primary driver of climate change, which threatens health in numerous ways – from chronic and infectious disease to deaths from extreme heat.
The fossil fuel industry wants you to forget all that.
In 2010, Koch Industries and big oil refiners spent many millions in an effort to suspend California’s landmark climate change law, AB 32. Now they are at it again."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is hospitalized in San Francisco with shingles
The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein is receiving treatment for shingles in a San Francisco hospital, her spokesperson told The Chronicle Thursday.
Feinstein was diagnosed with the virus in late February and is expected to make a full recovery. Her staff did not disclose where she is receiving treatment. The shingles virus causes a painful rash and can require antiviral medications to treat."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes California pilgrimage to woo influential Republicans
LA Times, SEEMA MEHTA: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, viewed as the greatest GOP threat to former President Trump’s 2024 White House campaign, is visiting Southern California this weekend to promote his new book and curry favor as he raises money for Republicans in conservative strong-holds.
DeSantis, who frequently tangles with California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, has not officially announced a presidential bid. However, his Sunday appearances in front of nearly 2,000 well-heeled donors and influential Republicans in Simi Valley and Anaheim is yet another signal that he’s considering a bid for the GOP nomination.
California is a well-worn stop for presidential contenders because the state is a top source of campaign cash for politicians in both parties. DeSantis’ visit also comes days after a poll shows he has overtaken Trump among the state’s Republican voters as their choice to be their party’s presidential nominee next year."
California Assembly member tried to get rid of paper receipts — again
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "California Assembly Member Phil Ting is still pushing for a state bill that would require businesses to print out receipts only when customers ask for them, a shift that he says would save billions of trees, millions of dollars, and greatly reduce the unseen health dangers that many receipts carry.
Donning a lengthy custom-made CVS receipt scarf, Ting, D-San Francisco, announced the new bill, AB 1347, Thursday morning inside the California State Capitol. He was joined by Chloe Brown of Californians Against Waste and Nancy Buermeyer of Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, whose organizations are supporting the bill."
As conservatives champion ‘parents’ rights,’ California focuses on kids’ autonomy
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California lawmakers want to make it easier for children over 12 to access mental health treatment without a parent's permission. They also want to let 16- and 17-year-olds get treatment for opioid addiction.
As conservative political leaders champion parents’ rights to control what kids learn in schools and how they express themselves, including with a new “Parents Bill of Rights” introduced by House Republicans this week, California is focusing more on the rights of minors to make their own decisions about medical care and gender expression."
Forcing Californians into mental health treatment would get easier with proposed legislation
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL: "A state senator is attempting to make it easier to force people into treatment when they are incapable of caring for themselves, the latest in a series of reforms intended to move Californians with severe mental illnesses off the streets.
Two new bills introduced by Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Stockton Democrat, would overhaul how the state handles conservatorships — a last-resort program for those who are incapacitated due to mental illness or addiction. The current system, which has been in place for decades, makes it difficult to help those with severe mental illness who are unable to take care of themselves. As a result, advocates of reform say too many people are left to wander the streets of the Bay Area and beyond — even when they are partially clothed, meandering into traffic and screaming at cars.
“We know that they deserve care. They are somebody’s sister. They are somebody’s mother,” Eggman said during a news conference this week to announce the bills. “It’s so hard to explain to our children why we can’t do better. This is the year that we are going to do better.”"
The state of emergency is over, but how well do you know what is true or false about COVID?
Sac Bee, DARRELL SMITH: "California’s COVID-19 state of emergency came to its ceremonial end Tuesday without much ceremony at all, Sacramentans likely thinking more about low snow on a chill, damp February day than mask mandates.
Three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom put pen to paper in March 2020 enacting the emergency order, what have we Californians learned about the virus, do we know what we thought we knew and how well do we know it? The pandemic feels over, even though, of course, cases persist. What also persists is the examination of what we experienced, what was right, what was true, what we knew and what we thought we knew.
So let’s take an exam of that examination."
COVID in California: As virus slows elsewhere, S.F. sees another uptick
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Though California figures for COVID-19 are trending flat to downward, San Francisco is showing signs of an uptick in test results and wastewater samples. Hopes for a combination COVID and flu jab before the end of 2023 have been dashed by technical delays and policy questions. President Biden is asking Congress for $1.6 billion to root out fraud in pandemic-era relief programs. And a new Canadian study finds signs that people with long COVID can have reduced oxygen uptake to the brain, impairing their cognitive abilities."
California proposal calls for diversity in all K-12 textbooks, prevent Florida-style bans
Sac Bee, SAWSAN MORRAR: "Months after Florida schools began removing books from shelves, a new California bill could mean millions of students statewide would read only from textbooks and instructional materials that reflect the Golden State’s many groups.
Authored by Assemblyman Corey Jackson, D-Riverside, if signed into law Assembly Bill 1078 would prohibit the California Board of Education from approving K-12 textbooks and curriculum that doesn’t reflect the diverse state.
The bill states textbooks should include underrepresented groups including people from different races, ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations."
UC Berkeley students protest plans to shutter rare anthropology library
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "The anthropologists of UC Berkeley are fighting back.
The university is known around the world for its stellar academic research – and its lively campus protests. Both are on a collision course as the University of California’s flagship campus squeezes its library system to save $5 million – and prepares to shut down the George and Mary Foster Anthropology Library to make up a small, undetermined portion of that shortfall."
Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence?
LA Times, DEBORAH NETBURN: "Sometimes Rabbi Joshua Franklin knows exactly what he wants to talk about in his weekly Shabbat sermons — other times, not so much. It was on one of those not-so-much days on a cold afternoon in late December that the spiritual leader of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons decided to turn to Artificial Intelligence.
Franklin, 38, who has dark wavy hair and a friendly vibe, knew that OpenAI’s new ChatGPT program could write sonnets in the style of Shakespeare and songs in the style of Taylor Swift. Now, he wondered if it could write a sermon in the style of a rabbi.
So he gave it a prompt: “Write a sermon, in the voice of a rabbi, about 1,000 words, connecting the Torah portion this week with the idea of intimacy and vulnerability, quoting Brené Brown” — the bestselling author and researcher known for her work on vulnerability, shame and empathy."
Pasadena police banking on phone-hacking tool to solve cold case murder
LA Times, LIBOR JANY: "For years, a locked cellphone belonging to the suspect in a Pasadena homicide sat in an evidence room as investigators sought a way to get around the device’s security measures.
Police might have finally caught a break.
Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite has released a software update with a “Lock Bypass” feature that could allow police to access the suspect’s locked Samsung g550t phone and retrieve any evidence about the December 2015 slaying, according to a recently filed search warrant application."
California’s juvenile justice system seeks to end the incarceration of girls and young women
EdSource, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Four California counties will soon be offering girls and young women in youth jails more community-based alternatives to being detained.
The initiative follows a pilot in Santa Clara County, established in 2018, which found that most incarcerated youth in girls’ units were in jails for lack of somewhere safe to go. Even when probation officials recommended their release, the girls stayed in county jails because of a lack of appropriate alternatives, such as safe temporary housing in a foster home or financial support to avoid returning to an abusive relationship.
“Ultimately, there was no place to have them be other than juvenile hall,” said Katherine Lucero, referring to her time as a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge prior to joining the new state agency overseeing the state’s juvenile justice system. “That was hard for me to digest because I always thought we were only putting youth in detention facilities for public safety reasons.”"
Special counsel urges sheriff to ban the ‘cancer’ of deputy gangs
LA Times, KERI BLAKINGER: "After dozens of interviews and seven public hearings, the Civilian Oversight Commission’s special counsel has released a 70-page report condemning the “cancer” of violent deputy gangs and urging Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna to create a policy officially banning the secretive groups.
“They create rituals that valorize violence, such as recording all deputy-involved shootings in an official book, celebrating with ‘shooting parties,’ and authorizing deputies who have shot a community member to add embellishments to their common gang tattoos,” the special counsel team wrote this week.
The Sheriff’s Department has long faced allegations about violent groups of inked deputies who run roughshod over certain stations, and the new report not only bolsters some of the most troubling claims about them but calls out those who could have done more to solve the problem — including the deputies’ union, county counsel and the district attorney’s office."
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