House GOP taps Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as Speaker. Is the California delegation happy?
Sacramento Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "Three weeks and four nominees later, House Republicans settled on a new Speaker Wednesday, a low-profile architect of the legal argument to overturn the results of the 2020 election for former President Donald Trump.
Rep. Mike Johnson, a four-term Louisiana Republican, gathered 220 votes from the slender GOP majority, just above the 217 needed for victory. His selection allows the House of Representatives to resume legislative work for the first time since eight GOP hardliners and all Democrats voted Oct. 3 to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield."
Western States’ planned water cuts are enough to avert a Colorado River crisis, for now
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "California, Nevada and Arizona’s historic pact to cut their use of the Colorado River’s overtapped supplies should be enough to keep the basin’s massive reservoirs from hitting dangerously low levels — for now, a federal analysis reported today.
With the release of its revised environmental assessment today, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is poised to move forward with the three-state plan to give up about 13% of water they receive from the Colorado River through the end of 2026. Next comes 45 days of public comment on the assessment, which is expected to be finalized in early 2024."
Newsom’s visit underscores electric car reality: China holds the keys to battery industry
CALMatters, ALEJANDRO LAZO: "When it comes to California’s efforts to tackle climate change, China and California are linked in a critical way: The world’s most populous country processes the vast majority of rare metals needed for electric car batteries.
This week Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is touring China with an emphasis on the environment, namely on how California and China can cooperate on climate."
LA Times, SUMMER LIN: "A stretch of land that is expected to be designated as a national marine sanctuary by next year would preserve more than 5,000 square miles of ocean off California’s Central Coast.
It was the dream of a Native American tribal leader who died before he could see it come to fruition."
U.S. senator wants to close S.F. Nancy Pelosi Federal Building, comparing it to a 'haunted house'
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "A Republican Senator from Iowa called for the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco to be closed, comparing the complex to a “Halloween haunted house.”
In a letter to the U.S. General Services Administration on Wednesday morning, Sen. Joni Ernst said she had become “extremely concerned” after learning of the conditions surrounding the building, saying “the city’s inability to control crime is endangering civil servants, children, and visitors.”"
At least 16 dead in Maine mass killing and police hunt for the shooter as residents take shelter
AP, DAVID SHARP: "A man shot and killed at least 16 people at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents in multiple communities stayed locked in their homes Thursday under a shelter-in-place advisory.
A police bulletin identifiA Republican Senator from Iowa called for the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco to be closed, comparing the complex to a “Halloween haunted house.”
Richmond becomes first U.S. city to declare support for Palestinians amid Israel-Hamas war
BANG*Mercury News, KATIE LAUER: "When officials in this city of only 115,000 people announced they would be voting on a resolution to support Palestinians living in Gaza amid the worst outbreak of violence between Israel and Hamas in decades, it drew hundreds of people to Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The Richmond City Council cleared its entire Tuesday night schedule to discuss the controversial stance, which protests what the resolution characterizes as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and war crimes by the state of Israel. A vote approving the lengthy resolution wasn’t tallied until just after 1 a.m. Wednesday — establishing what appears to be the first of its kind in the nation."
More working Californians slipped into poverty as pandemic aid expired
CALMatters, ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE: "California’s poverty rate climbed in the first quarter of 2023, the latest quarter measured by the Public Policy Institute of California. Poverty increased from 11.7% in 2021 to 13.2%, the institute said, with 5 million people living in poverty.
Safety net programs played a major role in recent shifts in the state’s poverty rate."
UC Berkeley students walk out of class, call for cease-fire in Gaza
The Chronicle, KEVIN FAGAN: "Waving placards and filling the air with cheers, hundreds of students walked out of their classes at UC Berkeley on Wednesday to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to military support for Israel.
Amid chants of “Free Palestine” and “Occupation no more,” dozens of speakers exhorted the crowd in English and Arabic to urge the university to divest itself from companies such as Lockheed Martin that manufacture arms they said wind up in Israel. They lamented the thousands of civilians who have died in Israel’s bombing of Gaza and said anyone who backs Israel is supporting genocide."
How two candidates would break the Oakland school board’s deadlock over labor issues
BANG*Mercury News, SHOMIK MUKHERJEE: "The immediate future of the Oakland Unified School District could be heavily influenced by a special election in November for a crucial swing seat on the divided school board.
The two candidates, Jorge Lerma and Sasha Ritzie-Hernandez, have strongly differing views on the key question that has led the board into all kinds of political strife: how to tackle the district’s deficit."
It was a quiet Bay Area town. A Pride flag vote divided it
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "At the start of the year, when atmospheric rivers were dumping record-breaking rain across the Bay Area, water rushed down Kilkare Canyon, overflowing the banks of Sinbad Creek until finally flooding the Sunol Glen School.
Residents rallied, packing sandbags around vulnerable buildings and later shoveling out the sludge and rock and other detritus that had been deposited around the nearly century-old schoolhouse."
Will 732,000 letters get Newsom to back California rent control? Critics call them political ads
Sacramento Bee, LINDSEY HOLDEN: "The campaign for a California rent control ballot measure has hundreds of thousands of letters calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s support. But opponents say they represent a form of political advertising.
The Justice for Renters Coalition appeared at the Capitol Wednesday with hundreds of boxes filled with more than 732,000 letters pushing Newsom to back an AIDS Healthcare Foundation initiative that would expand cities’ ability to enact rent contro?"
New website seeks to create unified list of Bay Area resources to keep people housed
The Chronicle, KEVIN FAGAN: "A new website slated to launch Thursday seeks to help people on the brink of homelessness access a wide range of resources meant to keep them housed.
Called Stay Housed Bay Area, the site is operated by the nonprofit All Home in an effort to break down barriers for finding aid across the Bay Area — making it the first comprehensive guide of its kind in the region. People looking for help with rent payments, food and other needs are typically limited by what a particular city or county offers."
A severe S.F. crash raised safety concerns about robotaxis. Why wasn’t the incident reported to DMV?
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "A severe crash on Oct. 2 involving a Cruise robotaxi led to the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ immediate suspension of the company’s driverless vehicles in San Francisco. However, the incident is noticeably missing from the list of autonomous vehicle collisions reported to the state regulator.
Why?"
Sacramento reports big drop in violent crime. City leaders credit police-community partnership
Sacramento Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA: "A year and a half after implementing a plan to turn back a rising surge in violence in Sacramento, Police Chief Kathy Lester announced this week that the city has experienced an 18% drop in the overall number of violent crimes.
From January through September this year, the city has recorded a 40% drop in homicides, 40% fewer rape cases, a 21% decline in aggravated assaults and robberies are down 6.1%, all in comparison to the first nine months of 2022."
Prosecutors are focused on a rural Georgia county in Trump’s 2020 election case. Here’s why
LA Times, SARAH D. W IRE: "They were running out of time and needed a Hail Mary.
Joe Biden had won the electoral college vote in the 2020 presidential election. And with less than three weeks before Congress was set to certify the results on Jan. 6, 2021, allies of then-President Trump met with him in the Oval Office to discuss taking desperate measures."