Here’s where experts say California’s historic snowpack presents the greatest flood risks
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "While California’s historic snowpack is a boon for drought conditions, the unprecedented amount of water pouring down from the Sierra raises concerns for flooding downstream, where flows converge.
The snowmelt runoff forecasts for the April-to-July period range from 265% of average in the Kings River watershed, to an “absurdly high” 422% of average in the Kern River watershed, according to Sean de Guzman, manager for snow surveys and water supply forecasting for the California Department of Water Resources."
‘Very, very dangerous’: These parts of California face flood risk from snowmelt, spring sun
LA Times,. HAYLEY SMITH: "After a relentless three months of heavy rain and snow, California is facing yet another environmental threat — sunny skies and balmy weather.
That’s right, after announcing the deepest snowpack in decades, state officials are warning that runoff from melting snow will send torrents of water rushing from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the foothills and valleys thousands of feet below.
Of particular concern is the Tulare Lake Basin and other areas of the Central Valley that have already seen storm flooding this year and remain in the path of snow runoff and releases from nearby dams. Major waterways such as the San Joaquin River, and tributaries, will see treacherous conditions as well."
Here’s where new federal funding will be spent on California’s aging water projects
BANG*Mercury News, LISA M. KRIEGER: "Fixed pipes. Better pumps, turbines and motors. New bypass channels. Repaired fish ladders. Refurbished valves.
To improve California’s water infrastructure, more than $307 million of needed upgrades like those are included in staggeringly long to-do list of new public works projects throughout the West that will receive federal funding, Biden Administration officials announced on Wednesday.
“This winter’s onslaught of devastating winter storms was just the latest in a long line of weather whiplash in California that’s overwhelmed and battered our aging infrastructure, all pointing to the need to continue to invest in our infrastructure,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who joined officials during a visit to the Imperial Dam in Yuma, Arizona."
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Oil refining giant Valero must pay a $1.2 million penalty for major flaring incidents at its Benicia facility that spewed dark plumes of pollutants into neighborhoods, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.
The “significant chemical incidents” occurred in 2017 and 2019 and forced people, including schoolchildren, to shelter in place because of the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals, according to the agency."
How California can take the lead on preventing AI harms (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, BOB HERTZBERG, RODDY LINDSAY: "The potential transformative impact of recent advances in AI technology, such as San Francisco-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, has been compared to the personal computer, the internet, and the industrial revolution. We are just starting to grapple with the implications of a society where everyone can chat with a digital oracle equipped with the entirety of human knowledge immediately, at zero cost.
Undoubtedly, AI can yield many benefits for consumers in categories such as health, productivity, education, and the arts. But the extraordinary pace of AI development also threatens to overwhelm our fragile institutions and labor markets. While courts are flooded with AI-generated lawsuits and social media apps are awash in AI-generated art, actual lawyers and artists may see demand dry up for their services.
Scarier still, modern chatbots can easily be instructed to carry out malign tasks on behalf of users. During the creation of GPT-4, OpenAI’s external research group tested whether the AI could learn to trick humans to carry out tasks in the real world. GPT-4 was able to hire a TaskRabbit worker to solve an online “CAPTCHA”, a key technology that prevents online spam and abuse, by lying about its identity and convincing the human that it was a visually impaired person, not a chatbot."
The magic of story time: Why is reading aloud to kids so important?
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "As a teacher in San Jose Unified, Seena Hawley made a point of reading aloud to her fourth and fifth graders every day. Not only was it a highlight of their day, she also believes it boosted their reading comprehension and their sense of empathy.
“Storytelling can be very powerful in teaching,” said Hawley, who spent a dozen years in the classroom and now runs the Berkeley Baby Book Project, an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which gives children a book a month from babyhood to age 5. “The best children’s literature, like all literature, engages children on deep human issues, at their level, while giving them steppingstones to the next levels.”
Story time conjures up warm and fuzzy memories of milk and cookies for many parents, teachers and children alike. Whether it’s a bedtime rendition of “The Lorax” or “Charlotte’s Web” in the classroom, most people love hearing stories read aloud. However, reading aloud is not just about the charm of a rich oral tradition, a pleasurable pastime. It’s also an effective academic tool that parents and teachers often overlook as children age out of the footie pajama stage, experts say. Once children know how to read on their own, there is a tendency to cut back on reading aloud to them."
California child welfare agencies under fire for pocketing foster kids’ Social Security money
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: "In December 2019, a month after her son’s death, Patricia Baca contacted the federal government to provide for her surviving grandchildren.
The twins, just 3 at the time, had lived a difficult first few years of life. San Diego County had removed them from their parents’ custody that year due to allegations of drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence in the home, Baca said. The brother and sister were in foster care with Baca when their father died in an accident.
Hoping to secure the children a future nest egg, Baca filed for them to receive survivor’s benefits from the Social Security Administration for children whose parents have died."
Cash App founder killed in San Francisco stabbing, reigniting concerns over violent crime
The Chronicle, SUMMER LIN: "Tech executive Bob Lee, who founded the mobile payment service Cash App, was killed in a stabbing in San Francisco, according to authorities and media reports.
Police responded about 2:35 a.m. Tuesday to a report of a stabbing on Main Street in the Rincon Hill neighborhood, near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the San Francisco Police Department said in a news release. Officers found a 43-year-old man suffering from stab wounds and administered aid.
After paramedics were called to the scene, the man was taken to a hospital, where he died, police said. The attack is under investigation, and no arrests have been made."
Elon Musk said ‘violent crime in SF is horrific’ after tech exec’s killing. What does the data show?
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "After Cash App creator Bob Lee was stabbed to death in San Francisco early Tuesday morning, prominent members of the tech industry took to Twitter to express their shock and sadness. They also expressed their belief that the city is a hotbed for violence.
“Violent crime in SF is horrific and even if attackers are caught, they are often released immediately,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk wrote."
NPR criticizes Twitter for slapping it with a ‘state-affiliated media’ label
CNN, BRIAN FUNG: "NPR sharply criticized Twitter on Wednesday after the social media platform, in an apparent violation of its own policies, labeled the radio broadcaster as a “state-affiliated media” organization akin to foreign propaganda outlets such as Russia’s RT and Sputnik.
In a statement, NPR CEO John Lansing called the decision to lump NPR in with other outlets that Twitter identifies as being under government control as “unacceptable.”
“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’ a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR,” Lansing said. “NPR and our member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide. NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.”"
Why California public transit is at a pivotal moment
CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL: "For 22-year-old Henry Sanchez, a 25-cent increase in the bus fare makes a big difference.
It used to be $1.50 to get from his home in Bell Gardens to Cerritos College, where he studies. Now, it’s $1.75 one-way.
“It really sucks that you have to worry about the price going up, while the quality of the services is going down,” he said at the Metro Rail station in Norwalk this week. “And trying to buy a car is harder, even getting a used car. It’s risky.”"
Lawsuits target ‘extortionate’ phone calls, commissary items in California jails
LA Times, KERI BLAKINGER: "The high price of jail phone calls and commissary purchases is the focus of a pair of proposed class-action lawsuits filed in Los Angeles and San Diego counties, the opening volleys in what could become a sprawling legal battle over who should bear the cost of funding certain jail services.
The first claim, filed in San Diego state court last week, accuses the county of marking up commissary items — the food and hygiene products that inmates can purchase in jail — so much it amounts to an illegal tax on inmates and their families. The second suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, echoes that allegation but adds claims about the high price of phone calls.
Lawyers are asking the counties to pay inmates and their families back for almost two years of markups on food and phone calls, an uncertain price tag they say could easily reach tens of millions."
BANG*Mercury News, ALDO TOLEDO: "The bombshell federal drug trafficking charges filed last week against the executive director of the San Jose Police union are prompting critical questions about how the long-time officer manager was able for years to run the alleged opioid smuggling scheme right under the noses of police in America’s tenth largest city.
Joanne Segovia, 64, faces drug-trafficking charges and 20 years in prison for the decade-long opioid and fentanyl distribution network that she reportedly ran through her home and the San Jose Police Officers’ Association office where she has been the executive director since 2003. She was arrested last week as part of an ongoing Homeland Security investigation into the drug ring that shipped illegal and dangerous drugs from abroad through the Bay Area and to the rest of the United States.
“It’s like Breaking Bad, San Jose Edition,” said Raj Jayadev, a police reform activist with Silicon Valley Debug. “To have an international drug circle for nearly a decade, right across the street from police — what is the larger ecosystem that would allow that to occur?”"
Court OKs extradition of former Peruvian president from Bay Area
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A federal appeals court refused Wednesday to block the extradition of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo Manrique from his home in the Bay Area to Peru, where he faces charges of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from a construction company.
Toledo, now in his late 70s, was born in Peru but has spent most of his life in the Bay Area. He arrived as a penniless student at age 19 and attended the University of San Francisco and Stanford University, where he earned a doctoral degree and later became a professor."
Manhattan Beach formally apologizes for taking Bruce’s Beach, other Black-owned land
SCNG, TYLER SHAUN EVAINS: "Manhattan Beach has formally apologized to the Bruces and other Black families who had their land taken from them in the 1920s by previous city leadership that, at the time, wanted to preserve the town as a White community.
The formal apology, which the City Council approved this week, came two years after the panel stopped short of doing so, instead condemning and acknowledging the actions of their early 20th centure predecessors.
Black entrepreneurs Willa and Charles Bruce ran a seaside resort for Black beachgoers in Manhattan Beach in the early 20th century — between 26th and 27th streets by what’s now the Strand. The resort, Bruce’s Beach Lodge, was also near where several other Black families owned cottages on land that is now a city-owned park."
They became friends protesting China in the U.S. They still don’t know one another’s names
LA Times, STEPHANIE YANG, DAVID SHEN: "On an overcast December afternoon in Boston, 11 Chinese citizens arrived one by one at an underground parking garage — their clandestine meeting spot.
As planned, they wore all black, with hats and masks obscuring their faces. They had hoped their outfits would make them less visible. But the curious looks they drew made them feel like criminals.
That might have been the case if they had tried this in China. They had gathered to demonstrate against the Chinese government, the kind of act that could land them in prison back home."
Kari Lake, Marjorie Taylor Greene bank on defending Trump to boost their political fortunes
LA Times, ERIN B. LOGAN, ARIT JOHN: "As supporters awaited former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago after his Tuesday arraignment, Kari Lake walked into a ballroom of people cheering and chanting her name.
The defeated Arizona gubernatorial candidate’s appearance at Trump’s Florida estate came as no surprise. Lake has emerged as one of the biggest political stars of Trump’s Republican Party and one of the loudest voices of the election denialism movement, which was sparked by the former president’s failed 2020 bid.
But since Trump’s indictment by a New York grand jury on charges related to the alleged cover-up of a 2016 hush money payment, far-right figures like Lake appear to be treating the moment as a clarion call to action for GOP politicians with ambitions for higher office."