Sen. Dianne Feinstein will leave key Senate committee amid calls for her resignation
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that he will temporarily remove Sen. Dianne Feinstein from the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee as she continues to recover from an illness that has kept her away from Washington, unable to vote.
Feinstein requested the move amid growing calls to step down from her Senate seat Wednesday."
Feinstein, facing calls to resign, vows to return to Senate but asks to step away from committee
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI: "Weeks after announcing she had been diagnosed with shingles, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s extended absence from the Senate has left Democrats in a tight spot given the party’s slim majority in the chamber, spurring some high-profile calls for her resignation.
Without Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting senator, the confirmation of President Biden’s judicial and administrative nominees has been complicated.
Late Wednesday, Feinstein’s office released a statement acknowledging the delays at the Judiciary Committee and announcing that she has asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.”"
PG&E monthly bills could jump for many customers due to new state law
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Customers for California’s three major power companies — including PG&E ratepayers — can expect to see some big changes in their monthly electricity bills in the coming years as compliance with a new state law begins to unfold.
PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, the three major California utilities whose services include electricity, have filed a joint proposal with the state Public Utilities Commission that sketches out proposed changes in monthly bills.
At present, those bills are primarily based on how much electricity and gas customers consume."
CHP arrests state controller employee on suspicion of grand theft
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: "The California Highway Patrol arrested a state controller employee Wednesday for suspected grand theft, according to State Controller Malia Cohen.
Miguel Espinosa, 58, was arrested by officers with the CHP’s Protective Services Division, according to Cohen."
Young activists helped elect Kenneth Mejia. Now some say he’s a ‘toxic’ boss
LA Times, JULIA WICK: "While he was a Pikachu-costume-wearing, corgi-toting leftist candidate, Kenneth Mejia’s unorthodox style helped fuel his insurgent campaign for Los Angeles city controller.
But less than six months after Mejia, 32, trounced a career politician to win the job, two former employees allege that he created an uncomfortable work environment where personal boundaries were often blurred both in the controller’s office and on the campaign.
They say Mejia frequently made comments about the sex lives of two young campaign workers before his election and pressured employees and former campaign staffers to move into his apartment building after the election."
Following California’s lead, EPA proposes national standards to ramp up electric cars
CALMatters, NADIA LOPEZ: "Closely mirroring California’s landmark mandate, the Biden administration today proposed new greenhouse gas emission standards that will scale up sales of electric cars and trucks nationwide.
If enacted, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed standards would be among the most stringent and aggressive measures the federal agency has ever taken to slash planet-warming tailpipe pollution, clean up dirty air and tackle climate change.
“We have reestablished the United States as a leader in the clean transportation future,” Ali Zaidi, deputy national climate advisor to President Joe Biden, said Tuesday. “This is a moment of transformation.”"
When fires create floods: Is California ready for a cascade of disasters?
The Chronicle, HANNAH HAGEMANN, YOOHYUN JUNG: "Last summer, Clinton Lower got a call.Officials needed more crews on the McKinney Fire, which was burning rapidly through Klamath National Forest near the California-Oregon border. Lower was a trucker turned contractor, trained to haul tons of water to firefighters. He had never worked a wildfire before. But 2½ hours later Lower was in Yreka, north of Mount Shasta in Siskiyou County, where hundreds of firefighters and contractors gathered at a base camp.
By then it had been four days since the blaze ignited — burning more than 55,000 acres and killing four. On Aug. 2, 2022, Lower was deployed with two other water tenders to soak embers on the west side of the fire. Lower had been told to head up the road, away from low ground, but another person on the crew led the men down into a gully. It was only then Lower learned a flash flood warning had been issued.
Quickly, thunder cells coalesced and rain pummeled the denuded, still-smoldering hillsides. Sheets of water funneled toward Humbug Creek, where Lower was pinned. “If there was ever a worst place to be … you could hear it coming right down the ravine, see the trees buckling,” Lower said."
California condor deaths rise sharply as major new threat emerges
The Chronicle, CLAIRE HAO: "Eighteen California condors in Arizona are suspected to have died from a highly contagious strain of the bird flu, sparking concern among California caretakers of the endangered birds that are still returning from the brink of extinction.
Six California condors in the Arizona-Utah population are confirmed to have died of highly pathogenic avian influenza, and 12 from the same flock have died of what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suspects to be the disease, according to a Wednesday update. Five other condors in the Southwest flock are currently in treatment and undergoing testing, according to the service."
Here’s when Wednesday’s coldest and windiest conditions will arrive in the Bay Area
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "Winter and spring continue to clash over the Bay Area this week as the region’s fog quickly gets stomped out by Wednesday’s low-pressure system. This system’s winds are set to kick up a coastal jet similar to the one from Tuesday, only this time it’s looking to draw in drier air from Oregon. This weather setup will lead to cooler temperatures across the region, despite sunny skies overhead.
The system — also known as a dry Pacific storm — will have all the qualities of storms that slammed Northern California back in the winter, including a cold front and strong winds. The one thing it will be missing is an atmospheric river. But even without the moisture, this system will likely raise some hazardous winds across portions of the Bay Area as the day goes on."
Free COVID testing is going away for many Americans. Here’s why California stands out
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "With the federal COVID-19 public health emergency set to expire next month, many Americans are facing the prospect of losing easy access to one of the essential tools in navigating the pandemic: free coronavirus testing.
Although at-home rapid tests and PCR laboratory tests will still be readily available at pharmacies and doctors’ offices, most individuals will have to foot the bill for them after May 11, as public health departments and insurance companies will no longer cover the costs."
Judge orders San Jose church to pay $1.2m in COVID fines
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "A Santa Clara County judge has ordered a San Jose church that flouted COVID public health rules at the height of the pandemic to pay $1.2 million in fines.
The ruling by Superior Court Judge Evette D. Pennypacker is the latest turn in a yearslong legal battle between Calvary Chapel and Santa Clara County, which has been seeking millions of dollars in fines from the church after it flagrantly violated mask-wearing and social distancing rules.
In her ruling, Pennypacker reduced the fine to a specific period between November 2020 and June 2021 when Calvary Chapel did not follow the county’s mask-wearing policy — and added 10 percent interest to the fines during that time period."
UC San Diego chancellor to make $1.14 million a year after $500,000 pay raise
LA Times, GARY ROBBINS: "UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla has been given a $500,000 pay raise by the University of California Board of Regents, which said it made the move last week to prevent him from accepting the presidency of an unnamed, private out-of-state school.
Khosla, who is drawing high praise for guiding an unprecedented $8.5-billion expansion of the campus, will begin earning $1.14 million a year in base pay beginning May 1. Only four other public university presidents and chancellors received more in base pay in 2021, the last year for which data is available, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
All of Khosla’s new raise will be paid for with private money. Rich Leib, the San Diego businessman who serves as chair of the Board of Regents, said private donors in the San Diego area collectively gave about $13 million to endow a chair whose interest income will cover the added expenses."
LAUSD pitched students an expensive experiment to get higher grades. Most turned it down
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "Despite failing every class — or because of it — Rebbeca Avelino, a 14-year-old eighth grader, wanted time off from school during spring break. But history teacher Lorraine Escalante pressed her to attend two “acceleration days” in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“She knew that I was doing bad,” Rebbeca said. “And she wanted to encourage me and she’s like: ‘You could do it. Don’t let anybody stop you. You can do it. You can reach those goals if you try, and you should come.’”
Rebbeca became part of an expensive, massive and controversial experiment in the nation’s second-largest school system — a key initiative, made possible by COVID-relief money, to fill gaps in student learning exacerbated by the pandemic. The money has to be spent by September 2024."
What parents should know about transitional kindergarten
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Declining school enrollment seems to be a fact of life in California’s TK-12 system. However, one of the few bright spots in the picture is kindergarten enrollment, including TK, or transitional kindergarten, which altogether rose nearly 26,000 to 496,000 students over the past year. It is now the biggest cohort among all the grades.
And yet even there, the numbers fall short of projections. State officials had predicted the average daily attendance of students in TK would be 120,000 but as of the first half of the year, it was only 91,000, according to reports filed at the California Department of Education.
That’s about 29,000 less than projected in TK. It used to serve only the children who just missed the kindergarten cutoff, but transitional kindergarten now is being gradually expanded to reach all the state’s 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year."
Calbright’s star is rising: California’s online community college is adding, keeping more students
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "In California’s constellation of community colleges, Calbright College is shifting from a dying star to something less nebulous.
California’s only fully online community college is no longer struggling for students as the state’s tiniest. Calbright now educates 2,300 Californians, up from about 1,000 a year ago, exceeding enrollment of four brick-and-mortar community colleges and growing at a considerable clip even as more than 40 other campuses continue to shed students and the system as a whole is just now rebounding from an enrollment collapse.
The campus’s enrollment is growing by about 8% monthly. At that pace, it’ll hit 3,000 students by early summer."
L.A. City Council members propose $30-an-hour wage by 2028 for hotel and LAX workers
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH: "The minimum wages of workers at larger hotels and Los Angeles International Airport would rise to $30 an hour by 2028 under a proposal put forth Wednesday by several L.A. City Council members.
Councilmembers Curren Price and Katy Yaroslavsky introduced a motion for a law that would boost the pay of workers at hotels with more than 60 guest rooms. Certain categories of LAX workers, including security officers and janitors, would also be covered.
The motion was seconded by Councilmembers Heather Hutt, Tim McOsker, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Hugo Soto-Martinez."
California announces multi-state settlement with Juul over marketing vaping to kids
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "California and five other states announced a nearly half-billion-dollar settlement Wednesday with e-cigarette giant Juul Labs to resolve accusations that the company founded by Stanford graduate students promoted addictive nicotine vaping to teens.
The Golden State will receive a total of $175.8 million — the highest amount of any state settlement yet reached with Juul — of the $462 million total settlement amount, Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said. The money will help the state pay for e-cigarette research, education and enforcement efforts. Under the terms of the deal, Juul will be barred from targeting youths in its advertising and promotions.
“Today is another step forward in our fight to protect our kids from getting hooked on vaping and nicotine,” Bonta said. “By using advertising and marketing strategies to lure young people to its products, JUUL put the health and safety of its vulnerable targets and the California public at risk. Today’s settlement holds JUUL accountable for its actions and puts a stop to its harmful business practices.”"
In a blow to Fox News, judge rules network withheld evidence in Dominion case
LA Times, STEPHEN BATTAGLIO: "Fox News was cited for “discovery misconduct” by the judge in the $1.6-billion defamation case filed by Dominion Voting Systems after he learned that recorded conversations with former President Donald Trump’s attorneys were not turned over as evidence.
The potentially significant revelation that such tapes exist — which could affect the upcoming trial — came to light in a revised legal complaint filed Tuesday by Abby Grossberg, who worked as a producer for Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo.
Grossberg is suing the network for discrimination and wrongful termination."
A big question remains amid LAPD photo scandal: Just who is an undercover officer?
LA Times, LIBOR JANY, RICHARD WINTON: "As fallout continues around the Los Angeles Police Department’s release of undercover officers’ pictures, the question of who actually works undercover is far from settled.
Should it only be officers involved in the most sensitive assignments — embedded with drug cartels, terrorists and other criminal networks — who grow beards, dye hair, shed their identities?
Or should it also include those who only go undercover part time, busting johns who solicit sex or bartenders who sell alcohol to minors? And what about officers with fake online profiles?"
Antioch leaders express outrage, dismay over racist police officer texting group
BANG*Mercury News, JAKOB RODGERS, JUDITH PRIEVE: "Emotions boiled over across this city following the release of a report detailing years of racist and homophobic text messages by more than a dozen police officers as the mayor angrily decried “dog-whistle racism” and defense attorneys moved to challenge criminal cases involving the officers.
Residents and some city leaders expressed outrage at the police department during a tense City Council meeting Tuesday evening, hours after this news organization published material from a 21-page report quoting by name officers who shared the deeply racist and homophobic messages, boasted about falsifying arrest reports and made light of violence against residents.
Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe called for an audit of the department and the firing of anyone involved in the sending of racist or homophobic texts. One of the texts sent among officers targeted the mayor, who is Black, offering a “prime rib” dinner to anyone who would shoot Thorpe with a rubber bullet."