California debates solitary confinement in local jails — and whether it’s really possible to end it
LA Times, HANNAH WILEY, KERI BLAKINGER: "In Sacramento, county inmates sometimes go weeks without feeling an outside breeze on their faces. In San Francisco, some haven’t seen sunlight in years. And in Los Angeles, detained people complain of cells covered in blood or feces.
Across more than 120 jails in California’s 58 counties, conditions behind bars can vary wildly, from the sprawling campus of San Diego’s women’s jail to the 60-year-old “dungeon” known as Men’s Central jail in Los Angeles."
Gov. Newsom plans to transform San Quentin. Lawmakers and the public have had little input
AP, TRÂN NGUYỄNdddd: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ambitious and expensive plans for a dilapidated factory at San Quentin State Prison where inmates of one of the nation’s most notorious lockups once built furniture, and lawmakers have given him the greenlight to start with little input or oversight.
He wants to spend $360 million demolishing the building and replacing it with one more reminiscent of a college campus, with a student union, classrooms and possibly a coffee shop. It’s part of his desire to make San Quentin, once home to the nation’s largest death row and where the state performed executions, a model for preparing people for life on the outside — a shift from the state’s decades-long focus on punishment."
Anti-caste discrimination bill, with changes, passes California Assembly
Sacramento Bee, SHAANTH KODIALAM: "A bill strengthening civil rights protections against caste discrimination earned approval from the California Assembly Monday, placing the measure one step closer to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature.
Senate Bill 403 passed the Assembly by an overwhelming 55-3 margin. Previous changes in committee de-emphasized “caste” in the bill’s language, but the measure withstood months of campaigning by critics who called on lawmakers to remove the word or kill the bill in its entirety."
Auditor slams California unemployment agency, calls it ‘high-risk’ due to pandemic-era fraud
Sacramento Bee, MAYA MILLER: "The embattled California agency that provides employment services and unemployment insurance has been designated as a “high-risk” agency in a new report from the state auditor’s office.
The Employment Development Department’s mishandling of the state’s unemployment insurance program and its failure to issue accurate eligibility rulings poses a “substantial risk of serious detriment” to California and its residents, according to the Aug. 24 report. The department’s inability to estimate how much money was lost to fraud also significantly delayed state accounting reports for fiscal years 2019-20 and 2020-21."
The world’s largest dam demolition has begun. Can the dammed Klamath River finally find salvation?
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "Oshun O’Rourke waded into the dark green water, splashing toward a net that her colleagues gently closed around a cluster of finger-length fish.
The Klamath River is wide and still here, making its final turn north to the coast as it winds through the Yurok reservation in Humboldt County. About 150 baby chinook salmon, on their long journey to the Pacific, were resting in cool waters that poured down from the forest."
California sees big drop in number of registered lobbyists.
Capitol Weekly, BRIAN JOSEPH: "A dozen years ago, the number of individuals registered to lobby in California skyrocketed suddenly.
During the 2009-10 legislative cycle, 1,200 people were registered as lobbyists, according to the California Secretary of States’ online disclosure system, Cal-Access. That was about the same number of individuals registered to lobby for each of the previous five cycles: 1,248 in 1999-2000; 1,262 in 2001-02; 1,228 in 2003-04; 1,231 in 2005-06; and 1,238 in 2007-08."
DA Brooke Jenkins committed misconduct in case that launched her recall efforts, court finds
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Brooke Jenkins says she left the San Francisco district attorney’s office and later joined a recall campaign against Chesa Boudin, after Boudin reached a plea agreement in a murder case she was prosecuting two years ago. A state appeals court says Jenkins committed misconduct in that case by disparaging the defense lawyer, though it was not enough to overturn the jury’s verdict.
Daniel Gudino, who suffered from delusions and bipolar disorder, fatally assaulted his mother, 56-year-old Beatriz Mero Gudino, in their San Francisco home in April 2020, saying later he thought she was about to poison him. A jury convicted him of second-degree murder and deadlocked 7-5 on his claim of insanity. District Attorney Boudin then agreed to find him not guilty by reason of insanity and he was committed to a state hospital for 15 years to life."
Wildfire prompts evacuations near Santa Cruz
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC, RACHEL SWAN: "A wildfire that burned through tinder-dry brush and eucalyptus prompted evacuation warnings in Aromas, an unincorporated community of southern Santa Cruz County on Wednesday, according to Cal Fire officials.
Firefighters warned residents to evacuate from homes on Vega Road southeast of Watsonville on the border of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties after a vegetation fire broke out in the rural agricultural area around 2:20 p.m., the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office announced on social media."
CALMatters, ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE, NICOLE FOY: "Before dawn on a recent morning, as the mud coating Coachella Valley farm fields began to crisp, Entrika Zacarias made her first attempt to drive back to work at a Thermal peach field after four days of no work.
With some roads still blocked, muddy or flooded, driving was risky after Tropical Storm Hilary dumped nearly a year’s worth of rain on the desert town two weekends ago."
Bay Area air quality: Here’s where conditions are the most ‘unhealthy’
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Parts of the Bay Area woke up to hazy skies and poor air quality Wednesday due to smoke from wildfires amid critical fire weather in Northern California, with conditions deteriorating throughout the morning.
A Spare the Air alert was in effect Wednesday, as well as a red flag warning for portions of the North Bay until 11 p.m., according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the National Weather Service. The region is also expected to see temperatures 5 to 15 degrees above normal Wednesday."
Bay Area weather: Here's when the smoky air is expected to clear
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "After a hot and smoky Wednesday, relief is expected for the Bay Area by Thursday evening.
An approaching area of low pressure will begin to push out the heat and lower daily highs 5-10 degrees compared with Wednesday. The afternoon and evening sea breeze will bring in cleaner ocean air, sweeping out the smoke and replacing it with clouds. Friday’s temperatures will be even cooler, with 60s at the coast and 70s inland."
Blue moon rose Wednesday over Bay Area. What to know about the bonus August supermoon
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "A blue moon rose over the Bay Area on Wednesday — the second of two August supermoons, wrapping up a “very unusual” month featuring two full moons at their closest distance to Earth along their orbit, according to astronomers.
Called a blue moon because it occurs in the same calendar month as another full moon, the Aug. 30 supermoon was the closest of the year."
Psychedelic therapies show promise. Is California ready to bring them into the mainstream?
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "Psychedelics are having a moment. A nationwide push to bring magic mushrooms and other psychedelics into the mainstream is gaining traction, and some Californians want in.
While hallucinogens are often associated with the drug culture of the 1960s, today’s movement on psychedelics is largely about using them to help treat the nations’ ballooning mental health crisis. Growing research portrays the drugs as a promising tool in helping people heal from various mental illnesses, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder."
New variants linked to swell in California COVID cases. Here’s when to get next booster
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The late summer COVID-19 wave is gaining momentum in California.
Over the past month, hospitalizations jumped by nearly 81%, rising from a daily average of 186 admissions to 336, according to state health department data published Friday. The state’s test positivity rate is also up to 13.2% after falling as low as 3.4% at the beginning of the summer. Wastewater samples from Bay Area sewersheds indicated a doubling of the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 virus since July, underscoring a steady upward trajectory that is expected to extend into the fall and winter."
Jury awards $30 million to mother of boy killed by ex-LAUSD employee
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "A jury has awarded $30 million in damages to a mother whose 6-year-old son was murdered in 2019 by a man who had worked for an after-school program operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In a verdict handed down Aug. 10, the jury said the school district was negligent in hiring, retaining and supervising Tyler D’Shaun Martin Brand, an after-school coach who killed Dayvon Taylor the day after Christmas in 2019. The school district had allowed Brand to solicit parents to look after their children, and Taylor was inside Brand’s Downey apartment when he was fatally beaten."
Caltech’s new admissions path: No calculus, chemistry, physics class requirements for some
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "Kimberly Miranda is the brainy daughter of Guatemalan immigrants and the first in her family to attend college. But she almost didn’t make it to the California Institute of Technology.
Her Redwood City school didn’t offer algebra in eighth grade, which threw her off the progression of high school math classes leading to calculus — a long-standing Caltech admission requirement. Miranda managed to double up on math courses in sophomore year to reach calculus as a senior, but not all students have the wherewithal — or support — to take that path."
Why new UC Berkeley housing law, if approved, won’t clear the way to build dorms yet
The Chronicle, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "Yes, a bill meant to help UC Berkeley build dorms for 1,100 students passed the Legislature this week, but the campus said it cannot begin construction until the state’s judicial system gives the green light.
The Legislature’s goal with AB 1307 is to reverse a state court decision that in effect blocked UC Berkeley from building dorms on the grounds of the storied People’s Park in Berkeley. A key part of that decision was that human noise caused by housing development is a kind of pollution in California, a new legal standard that the bill seeks to refute. But for UC Berkeley, the bill’s impact will take time, as the issue must still play out in courts, even if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill as many expect."
Real estate shakeup: Buyer found for nearly $1 billion in mortgages tied to S.F.’s largest landlord
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "A buyer has been selected for the huge $940 million mortgage portfolio tied to 2,149 San Francisco apartments controlled by Veritas Investments, the city’s largest residential landlord, and its partners.
Ballast Investments is poised to take over ownership of 75 apartment buildings and become one of the city’s biggest real estate players, according to a person with direct knowledge of the pending deal who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. The sale has not closed and the price of the mortgages isn’t clear."
Tech billionaires’ secretive plan to build a California city from scratch
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS: "For years, residents in Solano County heard about a mysterious group buying up thousands of acres of farmland and making millionaires out of property owners. The agricultural land had been owned by the same families for decades — some of it for more than a century.
But the company, Flannery Associates, did not say what its plans were for the land, dotted with towering wind turbines and sheep grazing on pastureland. It paid several times market value and made offers on properties that were not for sale, according to officials familiar with the land purchases."
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "California regulators say San Jose’s proposal to add more than 60,000 new homes over the next decade isn’t up to snuff, leaving the city as still the last of the Bay Area’s three largest metropolises without a finalized state-mandated housing plan.
Until San Jose can persuade state officials to sign off on the plan, it risks missing out on valuable affordable housing and transportation funds as well as losing control over the approval process for many new housing projects."
‘Barbie’ is being censored. The film’s rollout in the Arab world hits a snag
LA Times, NABIH BULOS: "The plan for the “Barbie” movie’s debut across the Arab world was to go big. Anticipating a deluge of moviegoers, promoters prepped pink popcorn boxes, pink slushy drinks, a human-sized Barbie-toy box and even pink abayas for female fans in Saudi Arabia.
Then came the delays."