Drinking water at 1 in 4 California child-care centers tests dangerously high for lead
LA Times, DORANY PINEDA: "In test results that suggest thousands of California infants, toddlers and children continue to be exposed to brain-damaging lead, data released by the state Department of Social Services has revealed that 1 in 4 of the state’s child-care centers has dangerously high levels of the metal in their drinking water.
Lead, a potent neurotoxin that poses a particularly grave threat to children, was discovered in the water systems of nearly 1,700 child-care centers licensed by the state. The highest results came from a facility in San Diego that recorded 11,300 parts per billion at the time of testing — well above the state’s limit of 5 ppb in child-care centers. One ppb is the equivalent of one drop of contaminant in 500 barrels of water.
“These findings show that California children who are spending the majority of their hours in licensed care are consuming water that has very high levels of lead, and this is very concerning,” said Susan Little, senior advocate for California government affairs for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group."
The Supreme Court appears poised to overturn a ruling cited in more than 19,000 cases
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Chevron, to most Americans, is just the brand name above the red-white-and-blue sign at the local gas station. But in the legal world, it signifies Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, a landmark 1984 Supreme Court ruling that required judges to accept government agencies’ interpretations of the laws they administer — a ruling that the court’s conservatives now appear prepared to overturn.
After denying repeated challenges to Chevron over the past three decades, the court has agreed to reconsider the ruling in an appeal by herring fish companies contesting a Biden administration agency’s regulations requiring them to pay for an on-board monitor to prevent overfishing. Five of the current justices have criticized the Chevron decision and three — Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — have expressly called for its repeal.
Marjorie Cohn, a retired law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild, said the court is likely to overrule the 1984 decision and give itself and lower-court judges a free hand to overturn federal regulations when it decides the case by mid-2024."
Sacramento County is closing two emergency shelters. 200 people might end up homeless – again
ARIANE LANGE, SacBee: "Britt Macias felt something unfamiliar in a dingy motel room two years ago: hope. She had been homeless for months, but on July 13, 2021, she and her two beloved dogs moved into the Vagabond Inn and slept inside.
She quickly got a job she could walk to, helping other homeless people; the hotel provided her meals, so she planned to save up her money.
Maybe she could scrape together enough to fix her car, even rent an apartment."
This law should reveal who’s paying for California legislators’ travel. It’s only been used twice
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF, JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "After years of controversy over state legislators taking trips paid by interest groups, California in 2015 adopted a law intended to bring more transparency to sponsored travel.
Senate Bill 21 requires trip organizers to annually disclose any major donors who travel alongside elected officials, taking aim at the secrecy that often surrounds these policy conferences and international study tours.
Yet in the seven years since the law took effect, disclosure forms have been filed for only two events — despite legislators reporting millions of dollars in sponsored travel and dozens of trips during that period. One form was filed last year and the second only after CalMatters made inquiries."
Injunction limits cash bail in L.A. County — for now
LA Times, CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ: "A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has granted a preliminary injunction barring the city and county from enforcing cash bail requirements for some people who have been arrested but not arraigned.
The practice of enforcing cash bail for those who cannot afford to pay “is a clear, pervasive and serious constitutional violation,” Judge Lawrence Riff wrote in his decision Tuesday.
The decision marks a major development in an ongoing lawsuit that seeks to permanently end cash bail in detention centers and jails operated by the Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles Police Department."
Rising Stars: Kimberly Sanchez, NextGen Policy
Capitol Weekly, LISA RENNER: "Though Kimberly Yareni Sanchez grew up amid poverty and gang violence, she managed to graduate from college at age 19.
Now just 21, she is an education policy analyst at NextGen, a nonprofit advocating for progressive policy.
“I like it because I feel like I can provide my lived experience and passion to help make policy and improve it for people who grew up like me,” she said."
Proposed state budget could make becoming a teacher easier
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT, ZAIDEE STAVELY: "California’s proposed state budget revision could make a dent in the state’s ongoing teacher shortage by reducing obstacles to earning teaching credentials, such as making it easier for members of the military and their spouses to earn teaching credentials, requiring that teacher residents are paid and preparing more bilingual teachers.
Despite a $2 billion cut to TK-12 and community colleges from the budget proposed in January, the budget revision adds funding for state programs that train teachers for hard-to-fill positions. The budget trailer bill also alters former legislation to remove impediments to becoming a teacher.
“In California, we are rising to the challenge and removing financial barriers to the profession in ways that are proven to not only recruit but retain quality educators,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in a statement. “It is estimated that California needs to recruit 27,000 teachers, including thousands of universal transitional kindergarten teachers, and we are stepping in to fill this gap and find solutions.”"
California performing arts fell a decade behind in job growth, study finds
LA Times, JESSICA GELT: "California’s performing arts sector lost a decade’s worth of jobs within a two-year period, with 2021 employment dropping to 2010 levels, according to a new study. More than 59,000 jobs disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic that arts leaders say are unlikely to return if drastic action is not immediately taken.
If current trends continue, and employment in the performing arts remains stagnant or achieves only minimal growth, “state and local governments could see a combined $4.1 billion loss in tax revenue over a four-year period,” the study found.
The report, titled “Center Stage: The Role of Live Performing Arts in Revitalizing California Communities,” was produced by CVL Economics — the firm behind the Otis College Report on the Creative Economy — and prepared for the Theatre Producers of Southern California, along with Actors’ Equity Assn. and Arts for L.A., with support from Californians for the Arts."
UC Berkeley spreads the gospel of data science with new college, free curriculum
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "They comb through troves of legal records and video evidence to challenge wrongful convictions. They organize medical data to help personalize health treatments for better care. They scrutinize school test scores to investigate inequities. Finding safe drinking water is easier thanks to an analysis tool they created.
UC Berkeley’s faculty and students are marshaling the vast power of data science across myriad fields to address tough problems. And now the university is set to accelerate those efforts with a new college, its first in more than 50 years — and is providing free curriculum to help spread the gospel of data science to California community colleges, California State University and institutions across the nation and world.
As data floods society faster than ever before, demand has surged for specialists who can organize and analyze it with coding skills, computing prowess and creative thinking. To meet the “insatiable demand,” as university officials put it, UC Berkeley will open a College of Computing, Data Science and Society. The University of California Board of Regents is expected to approve the plan Thursday, following approval by its Academic and Student Affairs Committee on Wednesday."
California inmates depended on community colleges. What happens when their prisons close?
CALMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN: "As California closes three more prisons and downsizes six others, some prisoners aren’t ready to go. They are worried about the future of their education.
For more than 1,500 prisoners who attend college in these closing facilities, closures mean they could transfer to a new prison where the courses may not line up, leaving some students a few credits short of a degree. Education can offer tangible, real-world benefits to prisoners: They can earn degrees and gain merit credits that chip off time from a sentence. Research shows that prison education also reduces recidivism.
California’s shrinking prison population — the state had 160,000 prisoners in 2011, down to just 96,000 as of May 10 — has also created an unexpected problem for the state’s community college system, which has developed special programs to help prisoners earn degrees. Palo Verde Community College in Blythe, for example, draws almost half of its students from the nearby prison."
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "San Francisco’s famously sinking Millennium Tower is preparing for a comeback.
Once the symbol of excess and arrogance in a booming pre-pandemic San Francisco, the 58-story tower is in the final stretch of a $100 million engineering fix aimed at arresting the building’s settlement and reversing the tilt that made it lean 24 inches to the west and 7.9 inches to the north.
To date, the construction team has installed 18 piles to underpin the building’s existing foundation and is now working to transfer the weight of the tower to the new piles. Each pile — concrete-filled steel pipes 24 inches in diameter — has been driven 270 feet to bedrock and is designed to support 1 million pounds of weight, taking a total of 18 million pounds off the tower’s original foundation."
This Bay Area city is no longer one of 10 biggest in U.S. — booted by cities in Florida and Texas
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI, ADRIANA REZA: "Both Austin, Texas, and Jacksonville, Fla., surpassed San Jose’s population during the pandemic as the Bay Area’s largest city fell two spots in national rankings.
With an estimated 971,233 residents as of July 2022, San Jose is now the 12th largest U.S. city, according to new U.S. census estimates released Wednesday. Since April 2020, the city has lost a net 42,000 people, or 4.1% of its 2020 population, a major reversal after years of tech-fueled growth.
In contrast, Texas and Florida have been two of the biggest pandemic population winners — with many California residents moving in for cheaper housing and no state income taxes. Experts have previously said that the Bay Area’s population drop reflects job losses during the pandemic and people seeking more affordable housing elsewhere, combined with the ability to work remotely."The top 10 California experiences you’ll recommend again and again
This is the most hated statue in San Francisco, city poll reveals
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "The results of a long-awaited survey by a new San Francisco commission are in, showing which historic monuments and memorials are most loved — and hated — by city residents.
San Francisco’s Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee, which was created after protestors toppled three bronze sculptures in Golden Gate Park that had been seen as symbols of oppression, commissioned the survey and plans to present its findings to the city’s Arts Commission on Wednesday."
Why the start of BART and Muni’s death spiral is ‘closer than we think’
The Chronicle, RICAADRD CANO: "Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sacramento lawmakers have one month left before they must pass a state budget, and it appears unlikely it’ll include a $5 billion bailout for BART, SFMTA and the state’s transit agencies.
That’s the amount agencies said they need to avoid “doomsday” service cuts after they exhaust what’s left of the $4.5 billion in federal aid they’ve used to operate trains, buses and ferries during the pandemic. About half of that $5 billion accounts for deficits in the Bay Area alone, where many agencies are struggling with steep ridership declines.
Newsom’s revised budget proposal didn’t include any transit bailout funds and kept a $2 billion cut to capital funds as California tries to plug its own $31.5 billion deficit."
Dozens of LASD deputies ordered to show suspected gang tattoos, reveal others who have them
LA Times, KERI BLAKINGER: "Nearly three dozen deputies have been ordered to come in for questioning, show their tattoos and give up the names of any other deputies similarly sporting ink connecting them to two of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s most notorious deputy gangs.
The demand came Friday in a letter sent by county Inspector General Max Huntsman to 35 deputies suspected of being members of either the Executioners, which operates out of the Compton station, or the Banditos, which operates out of the East L.A. station.
The names of the deputies have not been released to the public, but Huntsman said they were a subset of the 41 deputies he identified as suspected gang members last year."