California has a new Assembly speaker. Here’s how he can help Democrats get their act together
The Chroinicle, EMILY HOEVEN: "For the first time in seven years, the California Assembly has a new leader. On June 30, after a protracted and bitter power struggle, Democrat Robert Rivas of Hollister (San Benito County) replaced Democrat Anthony Rendon of Lakewood (Los Angeles County) as speaker, becoming one of the state’s most influential politicians.
The Assembly speaker helps determine not only the composition of California’s budget — which clocked in at $310 billion this fiscal year — but also which policy proposals stand a chance of making it to the governor’s desk."
California voters made public records a right, will they give it more teeth?
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Nearly 20 years after California voters made access to government records a constitutional right, requests are being met with interminable delays, exorbitant fees and a host of exemption claims, consumer and open-government advocates say.
Those advocates are behind a new effort to sharpen open records laws with a proposed 2024 voter initiative designed to end abuses that keep the public’s business from public view."
This S.F. supervisor wants Mayor Breed to shift drug overdose prevention funds to jails
The Chronicle, LAYA NEELAKANDAN: "Supervisor Matt Dorsey is urging San Francisco Mayor London Breed to reallocate 100% of the $18.9 million in funds budgeted for “wellness hubs” into services for people jailed on drug charges.
In a letter addressed to the mayor, Dorsey said he withdrew his support for a wellness hub in his district after it dropped supervised cCalifornia’s iconic sequoias are being incinerated by wildfires. Should we save them?California’s iconic sequoias are being incinerated by wildfires. Should we save them?California’s iconic sequoias are being incinerated by wildfires. Should we save them?onsumption services from its core mission."
3 reported dead after firefighting helicopters collide over Cabazon
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "All three people aboard a firefighting helicopter were killed when it collided with another chopper in midair while the two craft fought a blaze in Riverside County, emergency officials and media reports said Monday.
The second chopper landed safely after the collision Sunday, Cal Fire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher told a news conference early Monday."
California’s iconic sequoias are being incinerated by wildfires. Should we save them?
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "On the badly burned slopes of California’s southern Sierra Nevada, the National Park Service is about to launch one of the most ambitious efforts ever to piece back the wreckage of wildfire: rebuild six groves of giant sequoia trees.
Officials at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks say that with nearly a fifth of the world’s sequoias wiped out by flames since 2020, planting tens of thousands of sequoia seedlings is necessary to ensure a future for the planet’s largest, and now threatened, trees.
PG&E faces questions amid wildfire prevention strategy shift from tree trimming to grid tech
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Heading into California’s peak wildfire season, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has shifted its strategy to avoid sparking another devastating blaze: It’s focusing less aggressively on trimming trees that pose hazards near electrical wires and relying more on technology to quickly de-energize damaged lines.
The pivot at Northern California’s beleaguered utility giant has raised questions among regulators, who have given PG&E until Monday to respond. The shift has been in the works for more than a year, but began in earnest in January when PG&E ended its “Enhanced Vegetation Management” program of stepped-up vegetation removal around power lines."
California has billions to spend on mental health. Where should the money go?
LA Times, JACLYN COSGROVE: "It was a ballot initiative born out of a lack of hope from advocates that Sacramento would ever fund the public mental health system.
Proposition 63, passed by voters in 2004, created California’s “millionaires’ tax,” a 1% income tax on the state’s wealthiest, sent directly into the county coffers to spend on their mental health systems."
How much does it cost to have a baby in California? Here’s what hospitals charge for birth
Sac Bee, JACQUELINE PINEDO: "California is one of the most expensive states to have a child in the country. As of 2022, it topped the list for out-of-network cesarean section costs reaching almost $50,000 per delivery.
The national median cost for a natural child birth ranges from $12,000 to $27,000, according to Fair Health, an independent non-profit that “collects data for and manages the nation’s largest database of privately billed health insurance claims.” However, premiums are largely determined by a persons insurance status."
6 ways COVID-19 dramatically changed the Bay Area commute
BANG*Mercury News, SCOOTY NICKERSON, HARRIET BLAIR ROWAN: "Here’s how the pandemic radically changed commuting for all of us.
Nearly a million Bay Area workers switched to working from home. Commute times dropped by 10 minutes or more in many portions of the Bay Area. Our commuter trains are less than half as crowded as they used to be. But beware: There are signs the congestion on our freeways is creeping back, just at different times and certain days of the week when many of us do choose to head into the office."
College attendance: How family income impacts who goes to Stanford vs. UCLA and UC Berkeley"
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "Students from wealthy families have long been overrepresented at elite colleges. At Stanford University, for instance, more than half of its undergraduates come from families in the top 10% of the U.S.’ income distribution.
But new research finds that the reason wealthier students are more likely to attend elite universities is not just because they have better academic credentials, like higher GPAs or better test scores. Even among students with the same academic credentials, the study found gaps in attendance rates between wealthy and lower-income students at elite institutions like Stanford and the Ivy League schools.
Potty training, ‘accidents,’ wiping issues complicate 4-year-olds’ start at public schools"
LA Times, JENNY GOLD: "With just weeks left to prepare her 4-year-old son for his first day in public school, Andrea Gallegos still has a few things to check off on her to-do list. Buy him a new backpack. Wean him off his daily nap. And achieve a major developmental milestone — using the toilet completely on his own.
Her son has been out of diapers for nearly two years. But in preschool, the teachers would supervise him in the bathroom, help him wipe if he needed assistance, remind him to wash his hands, and change his clothing after the occasional accident. When he starts transitional kindergarten in Lakeside, a suburb of San Diego, he’ll have to manage everything on his own.
College students with Hollywood dreams see industry strikes as key to livable careers
CALMatters, RYAN LOYOLA: "When the Writers Guild of America strike started May 2, midway through Teddy Alvarez-Nissen’s internship for a production company in Burbank, fewer scripts started coming in and his work as a reader slowed considerably. As the strike went on, the third-year film student at the University of Southern California became curious about the specific terms that were being negotiated. When he looked at the fine print, he discovered the union was fighting for what was, in his mind, the bare minimum — standards he thought were already in place.
“That does scare me as somebody going into the industry,” said Alvarez-Nissen, who’s graduating in 2025. “I think we’ve all known about the stereotype of the studio that takes advantage of people or the producers that just want to get as much money as possible. It’s an illustration of how much worse the problem is than we thought it was and why it is important to be striking.”"
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "In its first public statement on the issue, the California Department of Education last week defended its right to pursue a breach of a data partnership agreement against a Stanford University education professor for participating in a lawsuit against it.
CDE’s rationale failed to persuade numerous critics and attorneys who are challenging the agency’s action in court; they say the department’s defense ignored the harm to the public by restricting independent researchers’ use of state data."
Actors and writers aren’t the only ones worried about AI, new polling shows"
LA Times, BRIAN CONTRERAS: "With Hollywood’s actors and writers currently striking in part over concerns about AI, what was once a movie premise now has come to define the film industry.
But automation isn’t just a showbiz concern, new polling for the Los Angeles Times shows.