Mystery among the vines: Why is the FBI probing some of Napa Valley’s fanciest wineries?
LAT's JESSICA GARRISON: "Highway 29 winds along the floor of the Napa Valley through Yountville and St. Helena and up into Calistoga, passing by vineyards that produce some of the most celebrated and expensive wines in the world.
The road, lined with rows of grapevines planted along sun-dappled hills, is justly famous for its stunning beauty — and the stunning number of Michelin-rated restaurants, spas and boutique inns that have popped up among the vineyards."
Column: More than 30 states have elected female governors. Will California finally join them? (COLUMN)
LAT's MARK Z. BARABAK: "In 173 years as a state, California has had 40 governors.
Democrats, Republicans, members of the Unionist and Know-Nothing parties.""
12 arrested as Sacramento council OKs cease-fire resolution backed by local Jewish, Muslim leaders
Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "The Sacramento City Council late Tuesday night approved a Gaza cease-fire resolution proposed by leaders in the region’s Jewish and Muslim communities.
“This resolution is not about the Middle East so much this resolution is about Sacramento,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said ahead of the vote, flanked by local leaders of Sacramento’s Jewish and Muslim communities. “We are not at war with each other here in Sacramento. We have a long history of strong interfaith relationships ... these bonds have been tested and in some ways they have been damaged over these past months. Only we together can change that."
L.A. looks at eliminating up to 2,000 vacant positions as the city’s budget outlook worsens
LAT's DAVID ZAHNISER: "Faced with a steadily worsening financial picture, Los Angeles officials are moving forward with a plan to eliminate up to 2,000 vacant positions, or about 5% of the total.
To balance the city budget, Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council will need to consider removing those unfilled positions from the books, while also hiking city fees, delaying public works projects and cutting back on consulting work, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said in a 136-page report released Monday."
Rain is set to return to California — and it could stick around
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "The past week of sunshine has provided the Bay Area with its longest rain-free stretch of weather in months, but the quiet conditions are only expected to continue for two more days.
A high-pressure system over the West Coast has steered storms far away from California for the past week, but it is expected to gradually break down over the next few days, opening the door for wet weather to return to the Bay Area on Friday. Around a half-inch of rain is possible in San Francisco from Friday through Sunday, while up to 2 feet of snow is forecast in parts of the Sierra Nevada."
Appeals court again blocks controversial Texas immigration law
LAT's LINDSAY WHITEHURST: "A federal appeals court late Tuesday issued an order that again prevents Texas from arresting migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes weeks after a panel on the same court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the law by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction."
DA accuses Rebecca Grossman of ‘illegal conduct’ from jail, her legal team of jury tampering
LAT's RICHARD WINTON: "Prosecutors want Rebecca Grossman’s access to jailhouse phones cut off after they say she encouraged illegal conduct and her team attempted to tamper with jurors who convicted her of double murder.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould and his colleague Jamie Castro filed a motion Monday that detailed several jailhouse calls Grossman had with her daughter and husband since her Feb. 23 conviction for killing two young brothers in a crosswalk while speeding on a residential Westlake Village street."
California offers health insurance for as little as $10 a month. Some pay more in tax penalties
CALMatters's ANA B. IBARRA: "Californians without health insurance are again facing tax penalties this year, and some may pay more in fines than they’d spend buying coverage, state officials say.
That’s because some of them may qualify for heavily subsidized insurance and not know it. California’s insurance marketplace, Covered California, offers health insurance for as little as $10 a month, with rates depending on household income and size, as well as location and age."
What’s behind that pesky lingering cough? California doctors weigh in
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "You tested negative for COVID, or perhaps didn’t test at all. Any mild fever or body aches you had weeks ago have long since faded, but a lingering cough — be it from COVID, the flu, or a bug of unknown provenance — just won’t go away.
The remnants of a pesky virus seem to be plaguing many people right now, as March brings the tail end of the winter respiratory virus season."
What GPA is needed to get into UCLA and UC Berkeley? Here’s the data, explained
The Chronicle's DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "A Chronicle data tool shows the average grade-point average that got students into each University of California campus by every high school — public and private — in California for the fall of 2023, the current freshman class.
At first glance, the numbers might look intimidating — for many high schools, admitted students on average had above a 4.0 GPA for many of the nine UC schools, with UCLA and UC Berkeley typically drawing the highest numbers."
California spends more on schools with the neediest kids. Here’s how it’s succeeded, and failed.
CALMatters's CAROLYN JONES: "A decade after California revolutionized the way it funds schools, nearly everyone agrees the initiative has done what it was meant to do: improved math and reading scores and brought more resources to students who struggle the most.
And nearly everyone also agrees that the Local Control Funding Formula, as it’s known, could use a tune-up. Black and Latino students’ test scores have improved but still lag behind their white and Asian peers, and schools in affluent areas still spend far more per student than schools in poorer neighborhoods."
Intel gets $20 billion in US grants, loans for chip plants
BLOOMBERG's MACKENZIE HAWKINS: "The US will award Intel Corp. $8.5 billion in grants and as much as $11 billion in loans to help fund an expansion of its semiconductor factories, marking the largest award from a program designed to reinvigorate the domestic chip industry.
The package will support more than $100 billion in US investments from Intel, including efforts to produce cutting-edge semiconductors at large-scale plants in Arizona and Ohio, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday. The money also will help pay for equipment research and development and advanced packaging projects at smaller facilities in Oregon and New Mexico."
The 6% commission on home sales is likely ending. How much could Bay Area buyers and sellers save?
BANG*Mercury News's ETHAN VARIAN: "The standard 5% to 6% broker commission on home sales may soon become a thing of the past, which could mean big savings for Bay Area home buyers and sellers.
The change in how commissions are priced, set to take effect nationwide in mid-July, is the result of a recent landmark settlement by the real estate industry’s largest trade group to level the playing field for buyers and sellers to negotiate lower rates. According to some analysts, it could slash fees by almost a third."
Homeless youth advocates call for dedicated state funding, local flexibility
EdSource's BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Advocates are calling for $13 million in dedicated state funding and for the adoption of a bill that would support homeless students and youth exiting foster care as schools face the expiration of significant pandemic-era federal funding this year.
The call comes from the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law, which is also co-sponsoring Assembly Bill 2137."
Fresh batch of YIMBY housing bills clash with California’s coastal protections
CALMatters's BEN CHRISTOPHER: "Last year, state lawmakers broke from tradition by not including an exception for the California coast in a major housing law.
That deliberate omission came despite opposition from the California Coastal Commission — the voter-created state agency tasked since 1976 with scrutinizing anything that gets built, demolished, dug, divvied up, fixed, tamped down or clear cut within the California Coastal Zone. A stretch of land that grazes the entirety of California’s 840-mile coast, the zone reaches inland from high tide, 1,000 feet at its narrowest and five miles at its thickest."
Why are Taiwan’s 7-Elevens so much better than ours? (COLUMN)
LAT's FRANK SHYONG: "When I visit my family in Taichung, Taiwan, I’ve learned to never ask where we are going, because the answer is always the same: first, 7-Eleven.
Going to Taiwan has always meant going to 7-Eleven. My uncle runs a few stores in Taichung, Taiwan’s second-largest city, and it’s often our first stop after the airport."
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "Nature is not what comes to mind when an outsider drives into Bel Marin Keys, a tiny community that begins 1½ miles east of Highway 101 in Marin County, reached by a single road that passes a shopping center and small industrial buildings along the way.
The wide streets are monotonous, often lined with homes that resemble those of countless 1960s subdivisions. On some blocks, the only hint that creeks and wetlands might be nearby are the red-winged blackbirds that touch down on utility poles. Where you meet open water, the shore tends to consist of little more than ice plants covering the ground, and a bench or two along a gravel path."