California becomes first state to offer health insurance to all eligible undocumented adults
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Perla Lopez hands a stack of papers to Baudeilio, a 44-year-old undocumented immigrant and day laborer. She has just helped him apply for Medi-Cal at the benefits center at St. John’s Community Health’s in South Los Angeles.
“If you see anything you don’t understand from the county, come back here,” Lopez tells Baudeilio in Spanish."
Election 2024: Watch these California races that experts say could decide House majority
Sacramento Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "Questions surround who will succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a prolific fundraiser and advocate for California Republican candidates, in his red San Joaquin Valley seat.
The broader impact of McCarthy’s retirement could be on vulnerable GOP incumbents and the U.S. House majority."
Massive, dangerous waves are hitting California. Here’s why
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "The first huge swell of the winter has arrived in California, and with it comes dangerous surf set to rival some of the biggest waves this year.
Waves up to 40 feet are possible Thursday and high surf warnings and advisories are in effect up and down the California coast. It’s the first high surf warning issued by the Bay Area National Weather Service office since January, when big waves caused serious damage along Santa Cruz’s iconic West Cliff Drive that’s still being repaired."
PG&E outages in S.F. leave thousands without power
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "A Pacific Gas & Electric Co. outage left about 7,050 customers in San Francisco without power Wednesday morning.
The outage was centered on the Castro neighborhood, spanning the hilly areas around Twin Peaks to the edge of the Mission District."
Water increasingly at the center of conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "Six months ago, an explosion ripped apart Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, unleashing floods that killed 58 people, devastated the landscape along the Dnipro River and cut off water to productive farmland.
The destruction of the dam — which Ukrainian officials and the European Parliament blame on Russia, even though the structure was under Russian control — was one in a series of attacks on water infrastructure that have occurred during the Russia-Ukraine war."
Outgoing Silicon Valley lawmaker says big tech needs immigration reform
Politico, KELLY GARRITY: "Outgoing California Rep. Anna Eshoo’s biggest tech regret isn’t what you’d expect: It’s immigration reform.
“We would not be the nation that we are without being an immigrant nation. And immigrants play a very important role in the technology industry. So many come to the United States to be educated here,” Eshoo, whose district covers Silicon Valley, said Sunday during an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”"
Smartphone giant targets Tesla and Porsche with huge new unveiling
The Street, IAN KRIETZBERG: "Chinese consumer electronics and smartphone giant Xiaomi (XIACF) - Get Free Report Thursday unveiled its first foray into the electric-vehicle market:
the Xiaomi SU7. During the event Founder and CEO Lei Jun revealed the company's ambition to grow Xiaomi into one of the world's most prominent automakers."
Crash, bang, ow! Virtual-reality injuries rise amid jump in popularity of VR gaming headsets
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN BARON: "The 20-something man walked into Stanford Health Care’s emergency department suffering from a common injury with an uncommon — but growing — cause: He broke his hand while flailing around in a virtual world.
Wearing a virtual-reality headset that immersed him in a computer-generated environment, the man had “gotten a little too enthusiastic” and punched a wall, said Dr. Ryan Ribeira, assistant medical director of the Stanford Emergency Department, who treated the patient."
Record deals and tax-avoidance maneuvers: Southern California’s priciest sales of 2023
LA Times, JACK FLEMMING: "Southern California’s luxury real estate market never sleeps. But this past year, it collectively caught its breath.
Luxury sales slowed down in 2023 — a combination of soaring interest rates, a newly introduced “mansion tax” and an inevitable drop-off from a pandemic market when megamansions flipped like hotcakes."
The Last Working Orange Grove in the San Fernando Valley to Give Way to Homes
WSJ, JIM CARLTON: "Part of what sold Setmir and Aida Qose on the World War II-era home they bought last April was something even older: a century-old orange grove across the street.
“Summertime, you can smell the oranges,” said Aida Qose, 49 years old. “It feels like you are living in the middle of the country.”"
L.A. eviction cases rose significantly this year. But it’s not all bad news for renters
LA Times, PALOMA ESQUIVEL: "The eviction courtrooms on the sixth floor of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown were bustling this month, as they have been all year. In one, a woman and her children said they were fighting to hold on to their $750-per-month rent-stabilized apartment near SoFi Stadium, worried that their housing costs could triple if they had to leave. In another, an elderly woman facing eviction was accompanied by her son-in-law, who was also, separately, being evicted from his home.
Eviction cases across Los Angeles County increased by thousands in 2023 after the expiration of pandemic-era moratoriums early in the year. There were about 43,000 eviction filings through November, putting the county on track to end the year with more than 46,000, according to court data compiled by Kyle Nelson, senior policy and research analyst for the nonprofit advocacy group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy."
S.F. tax on empty homes faces legal challenge
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A tax approved last year by San Francisco voters on thousands of vacant homes in the city now faces a legal challenge by real estate groups after a judge declined to dismiss their lawsuit.
The Empty Homes Tax, Proposition M in November 2022, is intended to encourage owners to make apartments available to would-be tenants while raising funds for the city to provide affordable housing. The measure passed with 54% of the vote."
How problems at two of Skid Row’s largest landlords threaten to worsen L.A.’s homelessness crisis
LA Times, LIAM DILLON, DOUG SMITH: "One of the most vexing factors contributing to Los Angeles’ homelessness problem is the lack of affordable places for people coming off the streets.
Part of the solution is supposed to be housing that’s been in Skid Row for more than a century. Single-room occupancy hotels, or SROs, are made up of small rooms with shared bathrooms. With monthly rents often measured in hundreds of dollars rather than thousands, SROs are considered the first rung of housing above homelessness, tailored to help the 4,400 people now estimated to be living on the streets or in shelters in Skid Row."
Oakland mayor rejects all three police chief candidates — including one she fired
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI, DAVID HERNANDEZ: "Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has rejected the Police Commission’s list of nominees for the next police chief, one of whom she previously fired and another who’s on leave and under investigation in his current chief job.
Francis Zamora, Thao’s spokesperson, said in a statement to the Chronicle that Thao has requested a new list from the commission."
He made a ‘diss track’ about Mayor Breed and S.F. crime. Now he’s apologizing — with a catch
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS: "A San Francisco rapper and restaurant owner has publicly apologized to Mayor London Breed for a song and music video he recently released slamming her over the state of crime in the city.
But Chino Yang, the rapper and restaurateur whose business was repeatedly burglarized, also stressed in a social media post on Tuesday that he was apologizing to Breed only after he received threats from an unnamed “extremely powerful” person who he said “has the connection to presidents, senators, all the top elites.”"
New BART fare gates are meant to reduce ‘mayhem.’ Here’s how and when they’ll be installed
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "BART riders have long been accustomed to seeing people casually jump over, crawl under, or force their way through the rail system’s orange, fin-like gates without paying a fare.
That might end soon."