Voter Guide 2024: California and S.F. Bay Area primary election
The Chronicle, STAFF: "Election season is here, as Californians prepare to cast their votes in the March 2024 primary. Beyond the presidential primary, which may not present too many surprises for California, there are numerous state and local races down the ballot on which voters will need to read up and make a decision.
California is facing a once-in-a-generation U.S. Senate race, with several prominent candidates."
READ MORE -- Your guide to the March 2024 primary election: The candidates vying for Sacramento-area votes -- Sac Bee, STAFF; When do California ballots go out? Can I vote in person? Your guide to the primary election -- Sac Bee, HANH TRUONG
California Prop. 1: What to know about Newsom's mental health bond
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Proposition 1 would enact a key part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to get people with severe mental illness off the streets and into treatment.
It would authorize $6.38 billion in bond money to build residential treatment facilities for people with mental illness, and would divert some existing mental health tax revenue to cover addiction treatment and housing."
Sacramento voters will pick a new Assembly member this year
Sac Bee, LINDSEY HOLDEN: "Sacramento voters will select a new Assembly member for the first time in a decade — and 10 candidates are competing for the seat.
The large field of contenders is vying to succeed Kevin McCarty, who was elected to represent the city in the Assembly’s District 6 in 2014 and is now running for mayor."
Stunning rainfall, mudslides, flooding thrash SoCal, but dangerous storm isn’t done yet
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH, RONG-GONG LIN II, GRACE TOOHEY: "A large and dangerous storm system continued its push through Southern California on Monday, bringing life-threatening flooding, damaging winds and record rainfall — with no signs of stopping anytime soon.
The slow-moving atmospheric river parked itself over the Los Angeles metropolitan area late Sunday afternoon, jump-starting what the National Weather Service called “one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.” By Monday morning, the storm was straddling Los Angeles and Orange counties, where an “extremely dangerous situation” was unfolding including rushing rivers, downed trees, flooded streets and power outages, as well as landslides in the Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica Mountains."
Bay Area storm: 230,000 PG&E customers still without power
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "More than 235,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers across the Bay Area remained without power Monday in the wake of a powerful atmospheric river-fueled storm Sunday that led to street closures, landslides and downed trees.
The largest concentration of the outages is in the North Bay, with about 73,000 customers without power as of 8:15 a.m.; about 72,000 in the South Bay; 56,000 on the Peninsula; 29,000 in the East Bay; and 4,800 in San Francisco, according to PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith."
The vast majority of California flood victims’ losses won’t be covered by insurance
CNN, CHRIS ISIDORE: "Many victims of the massive storms now battering California about are to be hit with another heartbreak – discovering their insurance won’t cover the damage.
The typical homeowners’ policy won’t cover loss from flood damage. That is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program, a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But in California, where drought, not flooding, had been the more common problem until recently, homeowners are about as prepared for flood damage as hurricane-prone Florida residents are for earthquakes."
Kaufman case and cognizable legislative history documents
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "In the key case to discuss the use of legislative intent materials, we find clear guidance provided by the decision. The appellate court issued its written decision on August 30, 2005 and, since then, it has been cited affirmatively more than 80 times.
The case is Kaufman & Broad Communities, Inc., et al. v. Performance Plastering, Inc. (2005) 33 Cal.Rptr.3d 362. The written decision was issued by the Third District Court of Appeal and involved an opinion ruling on a motion for judicial notice of legislative history documents."
CPUC should jumpstart offshore wind to meet climate goals (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, MOLLY CROLL: "The fifth largest economy in the world, California is a climate trailblazer and the first large state to set a 100% renewable energy target. Now, stakeholders and policymakers in the state must maintain our ambition and momentum to meet this target by staying on course to bring offshore wind online in the next seven to 12 years.
Scientists have confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record and slowing climate change is a global imperative. But we are approaching an inflection point where making incremental changes to our clean energy mix won’t be enough to meet growing electricity demand from California’s residents and small businesses for renewable sources of power."
UCLA doubles down on ethnic studies expansion amid fraught national politics
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "More than five decades ago, Morgan Chu was taught a version of American history that all but ignored the experiences of Asian Americans like him.
Chu, an attorney who grew up in New York and moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, never learned that the U.S. government barred Chinese people from immigrating to the United States in the 19th century and incarcerated tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry without charges during World War II."
LAUSD, other districts keep campuses open; schools closed in Malibu and many CSUs go online
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME: "Los Angeles public schools, with two exceptions, will be open Monday, officials have announced, reaffirming an earlier decision Supt. Alberto Carvalho made in concert with city and county officials.
Parents and school staff were urged to check social media and texts, phone messages and emails for further alerts."
Aspiring bilingual teachers gain new perspectives by crossing the border
EdSource, ZAIDEE STAVELY: "The U.S.-Mexico border is a fraught topic in political debate in Congress and between presidential candidates. But crossing it is a key part of training for some prospective bilingual teachers in California to get insight into their future students’ lives.
The dual language and English learner education department at San Diego State University has taken student teachers on four-day trips to visit schools in Tijuana for about 10 years. The goal is for the prospective teachers to learn about some of the experiences that students from Mexico and other countries in Central and South America face and how those experiences might affect students in the classroom."
Last chance to apply for this high-speed internet subsidy
CALMatters, KHARI JOHNSON: "Time is running out to apply for an affordable internet subsidy. The Federal Communications Commission predicts the Affordable Connectivity Program, which gives people $30 to $75 a month for high-speed internet and a one-time $100 credit for a computer or tablet, will run out of money in April.
Barring Congressional action in the next few days, your last chance to apply for the program is Wednesday at 8:59 pm."
‘Like you’re getting punished’: Californians stunned by skyrocketing PG&E bills
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Tucked under an electric blanket in a cozy recliner, 90-year-old Dorothy Lovell still struggled to keep her tiny frame warm in her Santa Rosa living room. So her family turned up the heat.
They’re paying dearly for it."
Why older homes are losing coverage amid California’s insurance crisis
The Chronicle, CLARE FONSTEIN: "After 26 years with the same insurance provider, Ruby Rich’s San Francisco home was dropped because of its age.
The three-unit, 1904 building — which survived two major earthquakes and was in great shape, according to Rich — was cut last year after Farmers Insurance changed its policies to exclude multi-unit homes built before 1925."
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "When a three-bedroom, two-bath home in a small Fremont neighborhood sold in 2016, it went for $821,000, or about $1.04 million in 2023 dollars. It resold in 2023 for almost $1.53 million, according to real estate listing site Zillow.
That huge jump in price isn’t uncommon for Fremont’s 28 Palms neighborhood, a quiet locale of single-story houses and cul-de-sacs lined, fittingly, with palm trees. In fact, home values in the community saw the fastest growth of any in the San Francisco metropolitan area from 2019 to 2023, Zillow data shows."
LA Times, RACHEL URANGA: "Express lanes on eight miles of the truck-choked Interstate 15 will break ground this year and, officials promise, speed up commuters’ slog through the Inland Empire’s ever-growing sprawl of warehouses, subdivisions and polluted air.
But its contentious approval by the California Transportation Commission last month exposed a deepening rift in the state between its climate goals and the list of freeway widening projects that some say are gliding through without scrutiny and threatening the health of the people who live near them."