Donald Trump indicted; expected to surrender early next week
AP: "Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House.
The exact nature of the charges was unclear Friday because the indictment remained under seal, but they stem from payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. Prosecutors said they were working to coordinate Trump’s surrender, which could happen early next week. They did not say whether they intended to seek prison time in the event of a conviction, a development that wouldn’t prevent Trump from seeking and assuming the presidency.
The indictment, the first against a former U.S. president, injects a local district attorney’s office into the heart of a national presidential race and ushers in criminal proceedings in a city that the ex-president for decades called home. Arriving at a time of deep political divisions, the charges are likely to reinforce rather than reshape dueling perspectives of those who see accountability as long overdue and those who, like Trump, feel the Republican is being targeted for political purposes by a Democratic prosecutor."
LA TIMES, SARAH D. WIRE, ARIT JOHN: "Former President Trump was indicted Thursday in New York City on charges related to an alleged hush-money payment made to a porn actor in the final days of the 2016 campaign, marking the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been criminally prosecuted.
The unprecedented indictment, confirmed Thursday by Trump’s attorneys, comes as Trump is facing separate investigations into his alleged involvement in 2020 election interference by his supporters and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, along with his handling of classified documents after leaving office.
“He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court,” Trump’s lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said in a statement."
Trump indictment throws 2024 race into uncharted territory
AP, JILL COLVIN: "The historic indictment of former President Donald Trump thrust the 2024 presidential election into uncharted territory, raising the remarkable prospect that the leading contender for the Republican nomination will seek the White House while also facing trial for criminal charges in New York.
In an acknowledgment of the sway the former president holds with the voters who will decide the GOP contest next year, those eyeing a primary challenge to Trump were quick to criticize the indictment. Without naming Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the move “un-American.” Former Vice President Mike Pence, whose life was threatened after Trump incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, told CNN the charges were “outrageous.”
That posture speaks to the short-term incentives for Republicans to avoid anything that might antagonize Trump's loyal base. But the indictment raises profound questions for the GOP's future, particularly as Trump faces the possibility of additional charges soon in Atlanta and Washington. While that might galvanize his supporters, the turmoil could threaten the GOP's standing in the very swing-state suburbs that have abandoned the party in three successive elections, eroding its grip on the White House, Congress and key governorships."
The GOP made a devil’s bargain with Trump; the bill is coming due
LA TIMES, DAVID LAUTER: "Nearly seven years ago, the GOP made what many party officials privately called a devil’s bargain with Donald Trump. The bill just came due.
It’s not possible yet to assess the strength of Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg‘s case against Trump. The investigation was known to involve hush money payments to a porn star to cover up an alleged affair, but its full dimensions and the precise charges on which a New York grand jury indicted the former president Thursday afternoon remain under seal and may not be known until he is arraigned, likely Tuesday.
Nor is there much point in trying to guess the impact on a general election that remains more than 19 months — and perhaps several indictments — in the future."
‘Trump is innocent’: Die-hard California supporters stand by former president despite indictment
THE CHRONICLE, JOE GAROFOLI: "An indictment from a New York City prosecutor won’t pry away Donald Trump’s most fervent California supporters from continuing to back the former president.
To those die-hards, there are a million other people to blame for Trump’s predicament: Democrats. The liberal media. Establishment Republicans. Anyone other than the wealthy, twice-impeached developer-turned-TV-reality star who told 30,573 untruths during his four years in office, according to the Washington Post."
Column: Scandal after scandal, Trump has defied political physics. Will this time be different?
LA TIMES, MARK Z. BARABAK: "From the moment he blustered his way onto the political stage, Donald Trump defied expectations.
He won the White House despite lacking any government or military experience, a first in the nation’s history. As a candidate and then as president, Trump drew supporters ever closer with his brash, impulsive and decidedly unpresidential behavior — not in spite of it.
When he was denied a second term, Trump failed to recede from politics, as his predecessors have. And now he’s again broken ground — breaking things being a singular capability — becoming the first ex-president ever criminally indicted."
Gavin Newsom unveils $10 million for official push to antagonize Republicans in red states
THE CHRONICLE, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Gavin Newsom has been working to raise his national profile for months with attacks on prominent Republican politicians across the country. Now, his efforts have an official campaign name and a political action committee for fundraising.
The Democratic governor of California announced the effort Thursday with a flashy website featuring videos of him walking with supporters in Sacramento for his inauguration and posing with Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden. The website also features photos of the Republicans he frequently rants about on Twitter and in speeches: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis."
Reparations for Black Californians could top $800 billion
AP: "It could cost California more than $800 billion to compensate Black residents for generations of overpolicing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination, economists have told a state panel considering reparations.
The preliminary estimate is more than 2.5 times California’s $300 billion annual budget and does not include a recommended $1 million per older Black resident for health disparities that have shortened their average life span. Nor does the figure count compensating people for property unjustly taken by the government or devaluing Black businesses, two other harms the task force says the state perpetuated."
Here’s the science behind the endless storms drenching California this winter
THE CHRONICLE, JACK LEE: "This winter has been one for the record books, with the snowpack built up to colossal heights across the state. In the southern Sierra Nevada, the amount of snow is literally off the charts.
“The graph had to be extended in the vertical, or y-axis, direction,” said Benjamin Hatchett, an Earth systems scientist at the Western Regional Climate Center and the Desert Research Institute, during a drought webinar on Monday."
Striking satellite photos from space show California’s transformation from dry to lush
LA TIMES, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "With an incredibly wet winter comes a major shift in the landscape of previously parched California.
Reflecting on a wild winter, California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said at a recent meeting of the agency that the state was “unique across the western U.S.” in its capacity to “move from very, very wet to very, very dry and back to very, very wet.”
The image below shows the incredible change from space."
April storm for the Bay Area? Here’s what you need to know
THE CHRONICLE, GERRY DIAZ: "The Bay Area’s parade of March storms came to an end Wednesday afternoon as the weather pendulum swung from cold and wet to warm and dry. But things may swing back yet again early next week as weather models hint at another low-pressure system for the West Coast.
What are the odds that it evolves into yet another storm?"
State officials to halt Dungeness crab fishing on April 15 to protect whales
THE CHRONICLE, JORDAN PARKER: "The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the closure of commercial Dungeness crab fishery between Sonoma/Mendocino County and the U.S.-Mexico border.
The closure, which will go into effect April 15, is being implemented to minimize entanglement risk for humpback whales returning to the California coast to forage. According to CDFW, there were “several” entanglements that occurred during March and April 2022."
Mark Ridley-Thomas found guilty in corruption case
LA TIMES, MATT HAMILTON: "Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of Los Angeles County’s most prominent politicians, was found guilty Thursday of federal corruption charges for extracting special benefits for his son from USC while voting in support of motions and a contract sought by the university.
The verdict, which jurors reached in their fifth day of deliberations, marks a devastating fall for a man who for more than 30 years was a power broker in L.A. politics and a staunch advocate for civil rights and racial justice.
Ridley-Thomas, 68, now faces the possibility of years in federal prison and the permanent loss of his seat on the L.A. City Council, from which he has been suspended for the last 17 months."
L.A. County ends COVID-19 emergency, a milestone as case rate falls to 20-month low
LA TIMES, LUKE MONEY, RONG-GONG LIN II: "Los Angeles County is officially ending its COVID-19 emergency declaration Friday, a milestone that comes as the region’s coronavirus case rate has fallen to its lowest level since summer 2021.
It’s perhaps fitting that the nation’s most populous county delayed lifting its local declaration, doing so a month after the state. L.A. County has been one of the hardest-hit parts of California — so much so that the National Guard had to transport corpses from overwhelmed hospital morgues during the pandemic’s first winter. Officials also led the nation in sounding the alarm about the danger posed by the Delta variant, which fueled a significant surge the following summer.
But L.A. County health officials, like their counterparts across the state, say the local declaration has served its purpose and the region is now ready to enter a promising new phase."
Social media has some significant upsides for teenage girls, survey finds
EDSOURCE, CAROLYN JONES: "Researchers, legislators, therapists and concerned parents for years have been voicing alarm about the effects of social media on teenage girls. But how do girls themselves feel about social media? It’s mostly thumbs up.
More than 80% of adolescent girls surveyed by Common Sense Media said that social media has a positive or neutral impact on themselves and their peers, according to a report the Bay Area-based nonprofit released today.
A majority said it connects them with friends, helps them find community and exposes them to positive messages about racial and sexual identity. It even helps them find mental health resources and information."
Collaboration at center of keeping students in school after juvenile detention
EDSOURCE, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Each morning begins the same way for Hattie Tate: She reviews a list of Oakland students at the local juvenile facility who have been booked, released or scheduled for a court appearance. For over a decade, her job as an educator and administrator has been to secure the quickest possible re-enrollment of students into their local schools once they are released from the juvenile facility.
But the re-enrollment process is rarely straightforward. The students that Tate works with have at times been in and out of the local juvenile justice system more than once, have experienced traumatic situations that can range from sexual assault to housing insecurity and sometimes have difficulty trusting adults.
By the time Tate meets them, school is rarely their priority. Plus, they may be missing school records, may have been enrolled in various schools, and may be facing resistance from their local public school to being re-enrolled. This means that her job includes figuring out ways to not only re-enroll them into school upon their release but to make sure they remain engaged in their classes and attend every day."
Plunging enrollment, financial woes, trustee exodus. Whittier College confronts crisis
LA TIMES, ALEXIS TIMKO, SHREYA AGRAWAL: "The grounds of Whittier College are lush and the buildings stately. But the once-bustling quad is often all but empty these days, students say, and inside the Wanberg Hall dormitory, carpets smell musty, the WiFi is spotty, and 25 students share two restrooms with toilets that frequently break down and take ages to fix.
The eerie quiet outside and fetid bathrooms inside are signs of the turmoil roiling one of California’s oldest liberal arts colleges, President Nixon’s alma mater and a higher education institution rooted in its Quaker heritage of social justice and respect for diversity.
Since 2018, enrollment has plummeted by about 35%, from 1,853 students to about 1,200, according to college figures. Annual revenue has plunged by 29% over roughly the same period, audited financial statements show."
THE CHRONICLE, ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "San Francisco is fighting off a barrage of claims of up to $10,000 each from homeless residents who accuse the city of illegally confiscating or destroying their belongings during street cleaning operations.
Since mid-January the city has received over 100 such administrative claims, totaling more than $1 million and exceeding the number of filings it received in the prior three years.
The city rejects the vast majority of claims, some of which officials say are fraudulent, but claimants may appeal in court. Since 2020, the city has spent more than $132,000 to resolve 24 cases, paying out an average of $5,500, according to data from the City Attorney’s Office."
Bay Area drivers spend 97 hours a year in traffic. Why didn’t remote work end commute nightmares?
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "There’s a new mystery that thousands of Bay Area commuters are trying to solve. Downtown offices that once buzzed with techies and lawyers are deserted. BART’s ridership is down 60% after many passengers fled the system three years ago and never came back.
So why are freeways once again full?
Radio stations ping with morning traffic-jam updates: The MacArthur Maze is a mess, I-880 a slog, and 101 a zoo — even though remote work ushered in a colossal shift in travel patterns, and taxpayers have spent billions of dollars to provide buses, trains and other alternatives to driving. Ultimately, the long-term fix for resurgent congestion may be the least popular idea yet: Make it even more costly to commute by car."