California COVID surge confirmed by 48.3% positivity rate in Walgreens tests
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The recent resurgence of COVID-19 in California is confirmed by a significant upswing in positive test results at Walgreens locations across the state.
Data from the pharmacy chain reveal that the positivity rate of coronavirus tests conducted at its stores around California has reached 48.3% — the highest figure since January and nearly double the 27% figure recorded in June."
COVID-19 is ‘heating up all around’ this summer. Should we be wearing masks again?
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II: "The uptick in coronavirus transmission this summer has not brought major alarm from health experts.
But it is raising questions about whether the risks are high enough to go back to safety measures that many have abandoned."
California water agency under investigation for discriminating against tribes, people of color
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "The Biden administration’s environmental justice office is investigating whether California’s water agency has discriminated against Native Americans and other people of color by failing to protect the water quality of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by tribes and environmental justice organizations that says the the water board for over a decade “has failed to uphold its statutory duty” to review and update water quality standards in the Bay-Delta."
California, facing another wet winter, races to prevent more flooding with levee repairs
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH, IAN JAMES, SUSANNE RUST: "As forecasters sound the alarm about another potentially wet California winter fueled by El Niño, Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking urgent but controversial measures to prevent a repeat of the devastating floods that befell the state this year.
An executive order signed by the governor this month will streamline levee repairs and debris removal to help protect and prepare communities for another inundation. Last winter, dozens of levee breaches around the state sent stormwater rushing into communities — killing several people and causing considerable damage."
Wildfire on Maui kills at least 6, damages over 270 structures as it sweeps through historic town
AP, AUDREY MCAVOY, JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER, CHRISTOPHER WEBER: "A wildfire tore through the heart of the Hawaiian island of Maui in total darkness Wednesday, reducing much of a historic town to ash and forcing people to jump into the ocean to flee the flames. At least six people died, dozens were wounded and 271 structures were damaged or destroyed.
The fires continued to burn Wednesday afternoon, fueled by strong winds from Hurricane Dora as it passed well south of the Hawaiian islands. Officials feared the death toll could rise."
Devastating Maui fire kills at least 6, wipes out historic town Lahaina
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Wildfires fueled by powerful winds raked across Hawaii’s Big Island and Maui Wednesday, killing at least six people, devastating the town of Lahaina and prompting a slew of evacuations and harrowing rescue efforts.
Hurricane-force winds billowing from Hurricane Dora fanned the flames of multiple brush fires Tuesday in the counties of Hawaii and Maui, including in the North Kohala, South Kohala, Kula and Lahaina areas, according to Hawaii officials. More than 271 structures were damaged, Maui County officials said."
Dianne Feinstein hospitalized after fall in S.F. home
The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein was briefly hospitalized Tuesday evening after a minor fall in her San Francisco home, her spokesperson Adam Russell told The Chronicle.
Feinstein went to the hospital as a precaution and was there for an hour or two. Her scans were clear, and she has returned home, he said."
Fentanyl crisis: California teen overdose deaths plunged in 2022
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "The fentanyl epidemic eased its grip on California teens last year as the number of fatal overdoses plummeted among the age group, a decline welcomed by health officials and community activists who had feared the state would continue to see hundreds of young people dying from the drug each year.
Newly released state data showed 151 teens ages 15 to 19 died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022, down from 230 the year before and 250 in 2020 — a 40% decline in two years, according to preliminary state data updated late last week."
Air quality advisory issued as fire burns at Schnitzer Steel in Oakland
BANG*Mercury News, JASON GREEN: "As crews continued to battle a blaze at Schnitzer Steel in West Oakland on Wednesday night, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District warned that heavy smoke from the fire could impact several East Bay cities and possibly even reach San Jose.
In an advisory, the air district said winds were expected to push the smoke south and east into Alameda, Fremont, Oakland and San Leandro. There were additional reports of smoke in Newark and Contra Costa County."
Students harmed by remote learning inequities can take California to trial, judge rules
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A judge says a group of low-income students of color in California can go to trial in a lawsuit accusing state education officials of failing to provide the neediest students with adequate equipment and services to learn remotely during the eight months in 2020 when schoolhouse doors were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Studies that the state does not dispute show that “educational inequality increased from 2019 to 2022 and achievement gaps widened” between public school students of different races and income levels in California, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman said Tuesday."
Harvard Law's First Amendment experts rally to Stanford professor’s defense
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Two of the nation’s best-known legal scholars and authorities on the First Amendment joined in the defense this week of embattled Stanford University professor of education Thomas Dee.
Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard University and author of an influential text on constitutional law, and Martha Minow, a professor and former dean of Harvard Law School, both signed a friend-of-the-court brief that asks an Alameda County Superior Court judge to protect Dee’s free speech rights from penalties that the California Department of Education has threatened over an alleged breach of a research agreement."
UC Regents take no action as Cal mulls the future of its athletics
The Chronicle, STEVE KRONER: "Tuesday’s closed meeting of the UC Regents talking with Cal Chancellor Carol Christ and UC President Michael Drake about the future of Cal Athletics was a how-we-got-here and what-the-options-are-going-forward discussion, a source confirmed to The Chronicle on Wednesday.
The teleconference lasted approximately an hour. No actions were taken as Cal tries to find a conference home beginning with the 2024-25 school year. Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State are the lone Pac-12 schools that don’t have a conference affiliation set for next year."
LA Times, JOSH ROTTENBERG: "Of the thousands of striking film and television actors who are members of SAG-AFTRA, vanishingly few will ever see their name on the marquee of a multiplex or listed at #1 on a call sheet.
While stars may give Hollywood its glitter, it is the wider acting ecosystem around them that keeps the business running, from character actors whose faces may be familiar even if their names are not, to unknown day players, stand-ins and background performers."
Walking tour of S.F.’s downtown ‘doom loop’ promoted by anonymous city commissioner. Is it real?
The Chronicle, ALDO TOLEDO: "A downtown walking tour purportedly hosted by a city commissioner is offering to show tourists the worst of the city’s “doom and squalor,” incensing local neighbors who call it “a bad publicity stunt” — but it’s unknown who is organizing the event or even whether it is real.
Hosted by “SF Anonymous Insider,” the $30 tour, set for Aug. 26, will guide attendees through Mid-Market, the Tenderloin and Union Square. The tour will highlight the city’s “urban decay” and offer people a view of the “open-air drug markets, the abandoned tech offices, the outposts of the nonprofit industrial complex and the deserted department stores.”"
Ex-Berkeley mayor died from injuries suffered during transport van ride, family claims
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "Former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport died after suffering a broken neck while in the care of a van transport company driving him to a medical appointment, his family alleges in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Newport’s death, on June 17 at age 88, was originally believed by the family to have been due to cardiac arrest suffered while in transit from his home in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland to the VA Medical Center in San Francisco for a routine exam. Newport had lost a leg due to vascular disease and was confined to a wheelchair but was otherwise in good health, according to his widow Kathryn Kasch. He died at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital five days after the accident."
Female commander fired after drunken incident calls out LAPD ‘double standard’
LA Times, LIBOR JANY, RICHARD WINTON: "When LAPD Cmdr. Nicole Mehringer was caught drunk in an unmarked police car with a male subordinate with whom she was romantically involved, her actions drew a rare public rebuke from the chief of police.
The 2018 allegations against Mehringer and Sgt. James Kelly amounted to “a severe breach of their duties as police officers not only to obey the law, but to be an example,” then-chief Charlie Beck told a TV news reporter."
DA blasts Sacramento leaders for failing to enforce ban on homeless blocking sidewalks
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "The dispute between Sacramento city officials and District Attorney Thien Ho over the homeless crisis continued to escalate Wednesday, with Ho accusing the city of failing to enforce its year-old ordinance against tent camps blocking sidewalks.
In an interview with The Sacramento Bee, Ho said he had evidence from the city that police are not enforcing the ordinance at all, despite a unanimous City Council vote last August to prohibit homeless camps from blocking sidewalks."
S.F. can’t sweep homeless encampments. Business owners in this neighborhood blame one man
The Chronicle, ALDO TOLEDO: "Outside an empty storefront, Toro Castaño stands barefoot, sweeping up debris near his tent and chatting with his neighbor. With dirt-covered, calloused hands, he picks up the corner of a gray, duct-taped tarp and enters his tent just feet away from a truck loudly whizzing by on Market Street.
Castaño, a former art teacher, isn’t camping out in the fentanyl-ravaged Tenderloin or the languishing Financial District: The 52-year-old man lives on the street in the heart of the affluent Castro. Police have assured him they won’t remove him from his spot, as they have from other places he’s pitched his tent, usually because he’s blocking access to city or private property."
Ecuadorian presidential candidate killed at campaign event
AP: "Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot and killed Wednesday by unidentified gunman while at a political rally in the country’s capital of Quito, President Guillermo Lasso said.
The killing comes amid a startling wave of violence in the South American nation, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise."