From decarbonization to electric cars, California hopes to showcase climate leadership at COP28
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "World leaders are gearing up for COP28, an annual U.N. climate conference that will begin this week in Dubai, and California is expected to play a sizable role in the proceedings.
Representatives from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration will attend and speak on the Golden State’s progress toward clean energy goals, zero-emission vehicles and nature-based solutions, officials said. California will also engage in continued diplomacy at the subnational level after Newsom’s recent trip to China, where he engaged in climate talks with local leaders."
Hamas and Israel exchange more hostages for prisoners on fifth day of temporary truce
WAFAA SHURAFA, JACK JEFFERY, LEE KEATH, Associated Press: "Hamas and Israel released more hostages and prisoners under terms of a fragile cease-fire that held for a fifth day Tuesday as international mediators in Qatar worked to extend the truce and the U.S. urged Israel to better protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza if it follows through on its promise to resume the war.
In the latest swap since the cease-fire began Friday, Israel said 10 of its citizens and two Thai nationals were freed by the militant group Hamas and had been returned to Israel. Soon after, Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners. The truce is due to end after one more exchange Wednesday night."
A California dry farmer’s juicy apples show how agriculture can be done with less water
IAN JAMES, LA Times: "Leaves rustled as Mike Cirone reached into a tree and gently picked an apple. The orchard was filled with a profusion of ripe fruit in shades from golden-green to pinkish red.
But unlike other crops that guzzle water from canals and wells, this bounty of apples grew on its own without irrigation."
Kaiser Permanente grabs empty San Jose land site in expansion quest
GEORGE AVALOS, BANG*Mercury News: "Kaiser has bought a big chunk of San Jose land, paving the way for a possible expansion by the health care titan in a deal that also jolts prior plans for an office project on the choice site.
The land is located at 1601 Technology Drive, a short distance from the interchange of State Route 87 and Skyport Drive."
Lawsuit accuses UC Berkeley Law School of ‘unchecked spread of anti-Semitism’
BOB EGELKO, The Chronicle: "A Zionist organization sued the University of California on Tuesday, accusing the UC Berkeley Law School of promoting anti-Semitism and discriminating against Jews by allowing student groups to bar Zionists as speakers at their meetings.
“Zionism is an integral component of Jewish identity,” attorneys for the Louis D. Brandeis Foundation said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. “Anti-Zionism is discrimination against those who recognize the Jews’ ancestral heritage — in particular the Jews’ historic connection to the land of Israel.”"
This lawsuit has the NCAA staring down extinction. Is that a bad thing? (COLUMN)
MICHAEL HILTZIK, LA Times: "There can be few American public institutions more widely destested than the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.
The NCAA spent decades promoting the ideal of the amateur “student-athlete,” barring football and basketball players from compensation while their coaches and university athletic directors collected millions of dollars a year. Its disciplinary system, rife with favoritism and inconsistencies, is honored by member universities more in the breach than the observance."
UC professors push back on plan to teach ‘viewpoint-neutral’ Middle Eastern history
NANETTE ASIMOV, The Chronicle: "A plan to teach a “viewpoint-neutral” history of the Middle East at University of California campuses has roused controversy, judging by a letter sent Tuesday to UC President Michael Drake from 150 professors who object to his effort to navigate the raw tensions between Palestinian and Israeli sympathizers up and down the state.
Amid persistent campus conflicts between the groups following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and Israel’s huge military retaliation against Palestinians in Gaza, Drake announced a series of measures on Nov. 15 intended to tamp down anger and improve relations between the groups."
Frustrated S.F. State students walk out over class cuts, rising tuition and executive pay hikes
NANETTE ASIMOV, The Chronicle: "Malcolm X Plaza at San Francisco State University echoed Tuesday with the ire and indignation of a large crowd of students.
“We’re raising our voices against the alarming decline in the quality of education,” senior Yousef Alghethy told the throng from the stage outside of the student union."
Allegations of sexual violence at Fresno State resurface at nearby City College
THOMAS PEELE, LASHERICA THORNTON, EdSource: "A Fresno City College communication instructor and president of the school’s academic senate was found to have committed an “act of sexual violence” against a professor and former colleague at nearby Fresno State University, where he taught for years until he resigned under pressure last year, documents show.
The allegations against Tom Boroujeni stayed hidden from public view, EdSource found, before surfacing in 2020, when Fresno State opened an investigation based on the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, records show."
What day laborers are hired to do: the dangerous, the gross, the sometimes illegal
BRITTNY MEJIA, LA Times: "They were not what you’d call the usual day laborer gigs.
No yard work. No installing doors. No laying down roof tiles on a hot summer day."
California vs. Florida: Why are people moving from one state to the other?
HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "After 15 years in Florida, Valsin Marmillion decided it was time to get out.
Marmillion, a longtime campaign strategist, had been working as an adjunct journalism instructor at the University of Florida. He taught global activism and social change communication, discussing hot-button topics such as fake news and the Black Lives Matter movement."
S.F. pulls the plug on new homelessness committee after less than a year
MAGGIE ANGST, The Chronicle: "The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday terminated a committee centered on the city’s homelessness, mental health and addiction treatment efforts less than a year after it was formed.
“Scheduling for the committee was a nightmare,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, the committee chair. “It really came down to logistics.”"
A mysterious pneumonia outbreak is sweeping China. Here’s how it compares to COVID
AIDIN VAZIRI, The Chronicle: "A worrisome spike in mysterious respiratory illnesses among children across northern China is drawing parallels to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Chinese officials say there’s no need to panic. They attribute the surge of pneumonia-like cases to a convergence of common pathogens during the nation’s first winter without stringent COVID-19 restrictions, rather than to a previously unseen pathogen."