In northern Israel, fears grow of a war that engulfs ‘all the Middle East’
LA Times, NABIH BULOS: "From his mountaintop perch above a valley straddling Israel and Lebanon, Mohammad Mgheis has watched no fewer than four wars unfold.
There was the 1967 Middle East War, when he was a small boy and his family scuttled from one place to another to avoid the bombs. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, a pair of Israeli Phantom warplanes, their tails aflame, streaked above his head one night like shooting stars before crashing into the valley."
California sees no credible threat after ex-Hamas leader's call for mass protests Friday
The Chronicle, MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "California’s director of emergency services said Thursday that state officials are aware of statements made about potential threats Friday related to the “situation in Israel and Gaza” and that though no threats are credible or specific to California, the state will remain on alert.
“The (Middle East) situation remains dynamic and evolving,” Nancy Ward, director of the California Office of Emergency Services said in a statement. “I continue to actively brief the Governor on the current situation and state intelligence and law enforcement officials are working around the clock to safeguard the safety and security of all Californians.”"
Hamas practiced in plain sight, posting video of mock attack weeks before real assault
AP, MICHAEL BISECKER, SARAH EL DEEB: "Less than a month before Hamas fighters blew through Israel’s high-tech “Iron Wall” and launched an attack that would leave more than 1,200 Israelis dead, they practiced in a very public dress rehearsal.
A slickly produced two-minute propaganda video posted on social media by Hamas on Sept. 12 shows fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the Israel-Gaza border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets."
Palestinians flee northern Gaza after Israel orders 1 million to evacuate
AP, ISABEL DEBRE, EDITH M. LEDERER, WAFAA SHURAFA: "Palestinians began a mass exodus from northern Gaza on Friday after Israel’s military told some 1 million people to evacuate toward the southern part of the besieged territory, an unprecedented order ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group.
The United Nations warned that so many people fleeing en masse — with just a 24-hour deadline — would be calamitous. Hamas, which staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since, dismissed it as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes."
‘I Will Do What’s Necessary’: Israeli Reservists Journey from U.S. to Fight Hamas
WSJ, ERIN AILWORTH: "The email from the Israel Defense Forces came Sunday, a day after Las Vegas native Ariel Sally’s 28th birthday. Sally, a dual American-Israeli citizen who had previously served in the IDF as a sniper, was needed in Israel to fight Hamas.
Everything Sally had to do to prepare ran through his head: tell his girlfriend; notify his boss; arrange for someone to watch his house and his rescue pitbull, Athena; connect with his commanding officer in Israel; procure the appropriate gear; and, perhaps most daunting, find a way to get from the bright lights of Sin City to a war zone in the Middle East."
BANG*Mercury News, JAKOB RODGERS: "Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, arrived in the Middle East last week with grand ambitions of helping Israel and Saudi Arabia inch one step closer to a peace deal that — just years ago — would have seemed inconceivable.
He returned stateside Wednesday having watched all of those plans crumble in a single day."
What Is the IDF? What to Know About the Israel Defense Forces
WSJ, ROBERT P. WALZER: "What are the Israel Defense Forces?
The Israel Defense Forces, consisting of an army, navy and air force, were established in 1948 following Israel’s declaration of independence. The IDF is Israel’s most-revered institution, according to polls. “The purpose of the IDF is to preserve the state of Israel, to protect its independence, and to foil attempts by its enemies to disrupt the normal life within it," says the IDF’s website."
Rating Newsom’s U.S. Senate picks
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "With the selection of Laphonza Butler, Gov. Gavin Newsom has now appointed both of California’s sitting U.S. Senators. It has hardly been a process without controversy, and so we asked our panel of experts this simple question: On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best, 1 the worst) rate how the governor has handled making these picks.
“5 – 10 on the first, 0 on the second.”"
After Trump’s 2020 lies, California lost more than 2 centuries of election experience
Sacramento Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "A new report says that election officials have been leaving their posts in large numbers, resulting in a loss of institutional knowledge and increased costs in recruiting and training replacements.
IssueOne, a Washington, D.C cross-partisan political reform group, surveyed 11 western states, including California. It found that more than 160 chief election officials have left since November 2020. That represents about 40% of the leadership in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming."
New solutions to old problems warrant smarter regulations (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, DENISE DIAZ: "Picture this: hardworking Californians clocking out after a long day’s work. They come home to an unexpected bill or news of an unplanned financial emergency. These Californians have put in hours on the job, but their paycheck is days, sometimes a week or more away.
In the not so distant past, these workers’ only option may have been a payday loan or to pay a bill late. Today, thanks to Earned Wage Access (EWA) products, workers have another option. They can tap into their accrued wages to cover an expense."
Hey, Bay Area: Here’s where to watch the partial “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse on Saturday
BANG*Mercury News, LISA M. KRIEGER: "If you’re far enough north, the skies will darken ominously on early Saturday morning as the moon slides across the face of the sun and creates a rare and hauntingly beautiful “ring of fire” eclipse.
But even in the Bay Area, we may detect a subtle dimming, evidence of the clockwork of the universe as the sun and moon appear to cross paths."
San Joaquin Valley growers may face probation for failing to protect groundwater
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "California water officials today recommended putting several San Joaquin Valley groundwater agencies on probation for failing to develop an adequate plan to stop over pumping their severely overdrafted aquifers.
The Tulare Lake groundwater basin — which provides well water to residents and hundreds of square miles of dairies and farms, including land owned by agricultural giant J.G. Boswell Company — is designated as critically overdrafted, which dries up wells and causes land to subside."
Strong El Niño chances have gone up. Here’s what it means for California
The Chronicle, JACK LEE, GERRY DIAZ: "The Climate Prediction Center forecasts El Niño conditions to continue through the spring, with a 75% to 85% chance of a strong event developing, according to a report released Thursday.
El Niño typically brings wetter-than-average conditions to Central and Southern California in the winter. But data shows that individual El Niño seasons can vary widely across the state because many factors drive precipitation patterns."
WOMEN’S HEALTH: Women in the Health Care Workforce (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s Conference on Women’s Health which was held on Thursday, September 28, 2023
This is Panel 3 – WOMEN IN THE HEALTH CARE WORKFORCE
PANELISTS: Melissa D. Bauman, Ph.D., UC Davis Health Women in Medicine and Health Sciences; Beth Malinowski, SEIU California; Sunita Mutha, M.D., Healthforce Center at UCSF; Tanya W. Spirtos, M.D., California Medical Association"
Families fume over Newsom’s veto of children’s hearing aid bill, call his plan ‘a nightmare’
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Two of Johanna Wonderly’s four children depend on hearing aids, and the other two will probably need them in the future. At roughly $6,000 per child, the cost adds up quickly.
But the Roseville family can only afford them when Wonderly’s husband, Paul, is called to active duty for the California Army National Guard, because that’s when federal coverage kicks in. The family’s standard insurance does not cover hearing aids."
Kaiser strike to end as unions reach tentative deal with California health care giant
The Chronicle, DOMINIC FRACASSA: "Kaiser Permanente reached a tentative agreement with unions representing some 75,000 of its employees, putting an end to what was considered the largest strike of health care workers in U.S. history.
Oakland-based Kaiser and the coalition of unions representing the workers released similar, brief statements on social media Friday morning announcing the tentative deal."
Kaiser agrees to $200 million settlement over California mental health delays
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "Health care giant Kaiser Permanente agreed to a $200 million settlement with the state of California to resolve investigations into its behavioral health system that showed patients experienced delays in care.
The deal announced today includes a $50 million fine and requires Kaiser Permanente to fix major problems in its behavioral health services, such as providing patients with timely access to care. Kaiser Permanente also agreed to invest $150 million over five years to improve its programs."
Stanford students say lecturer called Jews in class ‘colonizers,’ minimized Holocaust
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "As Stanford University investigates reports that a lecturer discussing the war between Hamas and Israel “called out individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities,” Jewish student leaders on Thursday shared details with the Chronicle of what they said happened in two freshman classrooms this week.
Senior Nourya Cohen and junior Andrei Mandelshtam, co-presidents of Stanford’s Israeli Student Association, interviewed some of the students enrolled in College 101, a required course for first-year students on campus."
Whose stories do we tell? Israeli-Palestinian tensions polarize an Orange County school district
LA Times, GABRIEL SAN ROMAN: "Robin Gurien was a lone voice at the start of the discord.
Gurien, a communications professor at Cal State Fullerton, stood before Santa Ana Unified school board members last April to share concerns about the district’s plans to adopt two new ethnic study courses for high school students. One, under the rubric of world geography, featured lessons on the decades-long struggle between Israelis and Palestinians over land and autonomy."
Tech, non-tech firms slash hundreds more Bay Area jobs in fresh layoffs
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Tech and non-tech companies have revealed plans to slash hundreds of Bay Area jobs, with one local company telling state officials that it’s having trouble raising cash for ongoing operations.
All told, the latest rounds of layoffs have heralded the elimination of 211 jobs in the Bay Area, according to official notices filed with the state’s labor agency."
Exclusive: OpenAI close to signing S.F.’s biggest office lease since 2018
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI, LAURA WAXMANN: "OpenAI, poster child for the global artificial intelligence boom, is nearing a massive office lease of around 445,000 square feet that would be San Francisco’s largest such deal since 2018.
The maker of ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 could sign a sublease with Uber at the ride-hailing company’s Mission Bay headquarters within weeks, said three real estate sources tracking the potential deal."
California’s fastest-growing city is booming with new restaurants
The Chronicle, MARIO CORTEZ: "Visitors to the Ulferts Center in Dublin are hungry. Couples and families scope out the growing array of lunch options at the two-level shopping complex: Chinese, Indian, Thai and Japanese food, as well as a bakery and bubble tea shop.
From the strip malls on central avenues to recently developed shopping centers, new restaurants are popping up throughout Dublin like they haven’t for a decade. A total of 22 new restaurants opened last year, according to city data, the most in 10 years. In 2020 and 2021, the city recorded just five new restaurant openings each year."
Permit nightmare: How San Francisco rules turned one home remodel into a 6-year ordeal
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "Since 2018, Hiten Madhani has been trying to expand his modest Bernal Heights home to make more room for his aging parents and his wife and daughter. But six years in, he’s spent $70,000 on the proposed remodel and still doesn’t have the permits he needs.
In most other cities, his remodel would have been straightforward. His architect came up with plans that met the city’s many requirements. But in San Francisco, the project’s permitting process took so long that it stretched Madhani’s patience and finances past their limits. His story shows how the city’s Byzantine permitting process can turn a simple project into a multi-year, “heartburn”-inducing ordeal."
And from the laugh bin...
Don’t mess with this mama bear: Grazer easily wins popular Fat Bear Contest at Alaska national park
AP, MARK THIESSEN: "When it comes to packing on the pounds to survive an Alaska winter, this year’s undisputed champ is Grazer.
Grazer, also known as Bear 128 to the fans of Fat Bear Week at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, won this year’s contest, handily defeating Chunk 108,321 to 23,134 in the finals."