Californians can now carry driver’s licenses on their phone as part of pilot program
LA Times, DEBBIE TRUONG: "California is experimenting with digital driver’s licenses.
Residents can download the CA DMV Wallet app on their smartphone and follow the instructions to scan their driver’s license, or ID. The mobile driver’s license program is in a pilot phase, limiting participation to 1.5 million people, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles."
California lawmakers kill dozens of bills. Child trafficking penalties, Newsom bonds survive
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Friday was the California Legislature’s make-or-break day for bills that will cost the state money.
Bills of this nature are placed in the “suspense file,” and members of the Senate and Assembly Appropriations committees vote twice per year to pass them to their chamber’s floors or hold onto them. Suspense hearings are held ahead of deadlines for bills to make it out of fiscal committees."
Ending the suspense: Child trafficking, fentanyl bills can still become law
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF, SAMEEA KAMAL: "Democratic lawmakers advanced a contentious proposal by one of their Republican colleagues to increase penalties for child sex trafficking, but held a series of borrowing measures for housing and school infrastructure during dual hearings today to cull the legislative agenda before the end of session in two weeks.
The biannual rite of passage, known as the suspense file, allows leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature to consider the potential cost of hundreds of pending bills — and kill some without as much public scrutiny — ahead of looming deadlines for members to take them up on the floor."
California’s labor movement has been championed by Latinos. Here is a notable example
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "Roberto Bustos’ first thought was that Cesar Chavez had gone crazy.
It was the winter of 1965, and the two men were in a meeting with about 20 others to discuss pursuit of farmworkers’ rights. The meetings were held every night in secret to organize the following day’s activities, including strikes and boycotts."
As more Californians allege on-the-job violations, labor groups say bosses retaliate
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG, ALEJANDRE REYES-VELARDE: "In June 2020, as California was deep in the throes of the COVID pandemic, Lizzet Aguilar raised the alarm about working conditions at the Los Angeles McDonald’s where she worked.
Joined at times by her coworkers, Aguilar filed three safety complaints with the state and the county alleging that workers were forced to work without masks and that managers failed to notify them when they were exposed to the virus. The workers staged strikes over the summer outside the Boyle Heights restaurant, demanding improvements."
Workers ‘can still win really big.’ How labor can demand more
LA Times, SUHAUNA HUSSAIN: "Longtime labor organizer Jane McAlevey has some advice for what workers should demand of employers and union leaders: Don’t sign gag orders and commit to transparency.
That’s what McAlevey, the author of several books on union organizing and negotiating contracts, recently told a room of union staff and members at the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 770’s home base in downtown Los Angeles. She was discussing her new book, “Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations,” published in March, just in time for L.A.’s summer of strikes."
Submerged tugboat leaks oil, diesel fuel in San Joaquin Delta
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS, JIM HARRINGTON: "Emergency and cleanup crews were dispatched to the scene of a sunken boat that was leaking fuel and oil into the San Joaquin Delta on Monday.
“A submerged tug boat in the Empire Tract area, near Herman and Helen’s, is currently leaking diesel fuel and oil into the Delta Waterway,” the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office reported in a social media post."
Fires continue to blaze across Northern California. More than 135,000 acres burn
Sac Bee, ALEX MUEGGE: "East of Crescent City and Eureka, fires that started roughly three weeks ago continue to sear Northern California into September, authorities said.
Five of the largest fires vary in size from around 84,000 acres down to 4,000 acres."
Hilary ‘reshaped the landscape’ of Death Valley; storm damage closes park, maybe for months
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "Clouds of thick white dust billowed through Death Valley National Park this week as crews maneuvered bulldozers and Big Cats to clear the remnants of a rare and record-breaking tropical storm.
On Aug. 20, Tropical Storm Hilary tore through the park near the border of Nevada, dropping more than a year’s worth of rain — 2.2 inches — in one day, forever transforming one of the hottest and driest places on Earth."
After Bay Area’s cloudy, drizzly weekend, will Labor Day bring relief?
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "A cool start to September for the Bay Area is expected to continue for Labor Day, with temperatures about 5 degrees below normal inland and near-normal conditions at the coast. After Saturday and Sunday brought partly cloudy skies and isolated rain showers, drier weather will return Monday. Highs will be in the 60s coastside and upper 70s to lower 80s inland.
Temperatures will gradually increase throughout the week. Warm weather is expected by Saturday and Sunday, with highs in the 70s on the coast and 80s to 90s inland."
California COVID cases are increasing, again. Here’s the latest on boosters and more
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Another COVID-19 wave is hitting California as the summer ends and kids head back to school.
It’s a familiar story by now, but one that has become perhaps more confusing with time because of changing public health recommendations, new vaccine boosters and our evolving understanding of the virus."
Research finds California's funding overhaul worked as designed for those getting the most money
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "A UC Berkeley labor economist this week offered a California answer to the persistent question of whether more money matters for K-12 education.
Rucker Johnson, who researched the state’s decade-old school finance overhaul known as the Local Control Funding Formula, concluded it does matter, especially for the highest needs students targeted for help by the equity-based funding."
Beware of ‘bank jugging,’ California authorities warn. What is it?
Sac Bee, DON SWEENEY: "Police in California are warning residents to be wary of a rash of “bank jugging” crimes. “
In this type of crime, suspects observe victims as they leave a bank, credit union, ATM, or check-cashing facility, visibly holding cash, and proceed to follow them to their next destination,” Fontana police said on Instagram."
Here’s what ChatGPT gets wrong about the S.F. Bay Area — and why it matters
The Chronicle, RYAN SERPICO: "If you ask ChatGPT, “Who is the CEO of X?” you might assume you’d get the correct answer from this tool powered by artificial intelligence. After all, a simple Google search will easily surface that information. But if you are using the chatbot, it won't tell you that the X CEO is Linda Yaccarino, or even mention Elon Musk. ChatGPT also won’t know that X is the company formerly known as Twitter — and the reasons why are hugely important for anyone using tools like ChatGPT to understand.
When San Francisco’s OpenAI released the first version of the chatbot to the public late last year, it took the world by storm. Two months after ChatGPT launched in November 2022, it reportedly had a user base of over 100 millions users, outpacing TikTok’s rise."
Starbucks got rid of disposable cups in part of Bay Area. Here’s how it’s going
The Chronicle, MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "On the 20th anniversary of the Pumpkin Spice Latte, there’s something missing in northern Bay Area Starbucks locations: disposable cups.
For more than two weeks, Starbucks locations in Napa and Petaluma have only been serving drinks in reusable cups — ones that customers bring in themselves, or ones that the chain is providing. It’s the latest step in Starbucks’ goal to eventually make all of its customer packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable, according to the company."
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "In a state scorched by a series of devastating wildfires, Californians have seen the costs of insuring their homes soar and coverage options evaporate — if they can find a company to issue a policy at all.
Now, consumer advocates say lawmakers and the state’s insurance commissioner are secretly working on a deal to free up more coverage in the Golden State — but at the cost of caving to insurers’ demands to loosen regulations and let them charge higher rates."
Column: How a racist housing policy caused the biggest, bitterest brawl in California’s Capitol
LA Times, GEORGE SKELTON: "Nationally, we just observed the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. In California, there wasn’t a peep about the 60th anniversary of a historic civil rights triumph in this state.
That’s understandable. There are probably few people still around who know much about the Rumford Fair Housing Act, which produced arguably the biggest, bitterest brawl ever in California’s Capitol."
These are the Bay Area cities where homes sell the fastest
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Eight days. That’s all the time it usually takes for the for-sale sign on homes in Dublin and Livermore to come down.
It’s also one of the fewest typical median number of days for homes in any California city to find a buyer. And it’s several times shorter than the turnaround in the nation overall, according to data from the real estate brokerage site Redfin, which tracks the median number of days homes spend on the market before their sellers accept an offer."
San Francisco and L.A. failed to reduce pedestrian deaths. One girl’s killing shows why
LA Times, VANESSA ARREDONDO: "The sounds will haunt Michelle Svelti forever.
She and her boyfriend were talking in her San Francisco apartment when they heard a loud bang outside. Then came the screams."