As Earth warms, California gets federal funding to train climate-ready workforce
LAT's HAYLEY SMITH: "California is among nine U.S. states and territories selected to receive $60 million in federal funding as part of a significant effort to build a nationwide climate-ready workforce.
The investment from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will support job development efforts in coastal and Great Lakes communities around the country, including $9.5 million to establish the Los Angeles County Climate Ready Employment Council at Long Beach City College."
Federal court upholds California’s ban on gun sales on state property
CALMatters's NIGEL DUARA: "You can talk about guns at California state fairgrounds. You can advertise guns there, too. You can even, in the words of a gun rights group, host “a celebration of America’s gun culture.”
What you cannot do, according to a ruling today by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is buy or sell a firearm on property owned by the state."
California voters may decide whether to roll back Prop 47 crime measure
The Chronicle's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Californians may have the chance to roll back parts of a law they approved in 2014 that downgraded drug possession and thefts worth less than $950 to misdemeanors, after a measure to reimpose felony punishments for those offenses qualified Tuesday for the November ballot.
The 2014 law, Proposition 47, aimed to reduce jail populations, but critics say it has emboldened thieves. The ballot measure to change it would eliminate the $950 threshold for a third theft, meaning someone caught stealing three times could be charged with a felony, regardless of the value of the merchandise stolen. It would do the same for a third drug possession charge. It would also increase jail time for repeat thefts and organized retail theft and includes provisions to compel people with multiple drug possession convictions into treatment."
California Dems want to keep a high-profile crime measure off your ballot — and it’s shady (OP-ED)
The Chronicle's EMILY HOEVEN: "Democratic state lawmakers have arguably done more this year to address Californians’ mounting concerns about crime than they have in a long time.
With new leaders at the helm of the state Assembly and Senate, and obvious voter discontent ahead of the 2024 elections, the Democrats’ appetite has grown to crack down on viral smash-and-grab robberies and open-air drug markets."
Find out which lobbying groups get their way most often in the California Legislature
CALMatters's RYAN SABALOW: "Los Angeles and the Bay Area tend to get their way in the California Legislature. So do labor unions, social justice organizations and defense attorneys. On the flip side, anti-tax, police and business groups are much less successful.
Those are the key findings from a data analysis of the organizations that have been most successful in passing their agendas during the current legislative session, according to CalMatters Digital Democracy project."
Special Episode: Covering California, Panel 1 – A Crisis in Local News (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly: "This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s conference COVERING CALIFORNIA: The Future of Journalism in the Golden State, which was held in Sacramento on Thursday, May 30, 2024
This is PANEL 1 – A CRISIS IN LOCAL NEWS
Panelists: Danielle Bergstrom, Fresnoland; Larry Lee, The Sacramento Observer; Colleen McCain Nelson, Sacramento Bee; Christa Scharfenberg, California Local News Fellowship Program UC Berkeley
Moderated by Pamela Wu, University of California"
MAGA figures say far-right wins in Europe are good news for Trump. Are they right?
LAT's NOAH BIERMAN: "The elections were overseas, but for members of the MAGA movement, the rightward tilt in the European Parliament was still a chance to declare victory.
Steven K. Bannon, who led former President Trump’s 2016 campaign and served as a chief advisor in the White House, compared this week’s election results to the decision by British voters in June 2016 to leave the European Union — a historic move that preceded Trump’s surprise victory by five months."
A workplace safety board bucked Gavin Newsom. Now he’s shaking it up
CALMatters's JEANNE KUANG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has removed one member and demoted the chairperson of a state workplace safety board who criticized his administration’s handling of a proposed heat protection rule this year.
The shakeup comes less than two weeks before the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board is expected to approve the rule, requiring businesses to shield their indoor workers from the risks of extreme heat. The state spent years developing the proposal, only for its approval to be further delayed in March when Newsom’s administration withdrew its support the day before a scheduled vote over cost concerns."
LAT's HANNAH WILEY/DAKOTA SMITH/ANABEL SOSA: "Karen Bass and London Breed each made history when they were elected, shattering glass ceilings in their respective cities as the first female mayor of Los Angeles and first Black woman to lead San Francisco.
They share many other similarities as powerful Democrats leading California’s marquee cities: a promise to reduce homelessness; plans to mitigate an opioid overdose crisis; an electorate concerned about crime."
Of these 2 vulnerable Republicans in Central Valley districts, only 1 is firmly behind Trump
Sacramento Bee's GILLIAN BRASSIL: "Central Valley Republican incumbents in two toss-up U.S. House of Representatives races are split in their responses to former President Donald Trump’s conviction last week.
Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, has decided against commenting on his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, who was convicted last week on 34 felony counts in a New York hush-money trial, while Rep. John Duarte, R-Modesto, has called the verdict a miscarriage of justice, more closely mirroring the national GOP response."
‘I’m going to keep succeeding’: Huntington Beach’s Latina MAGA mayor speaks (COLUMN)
LAT's GUSTAVO ARELLANO: "Critics of Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark have called her many things during her short but chaotic political career.
She has been accused of antisemitism because she once created a YouTube playlist titled “Holocaust hoax?” that featured videos questioning the Shoah."
How rich are S.F.’s five leading mayoral candidates? New documents offer clues
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS/CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "San Francisco voters now have a clearer picture of the financial backgrounds of the five leading mayoral candidates after two of them recently filed their required economic disclosure forms with the city.
Daniel Lurie and Mark Farrell, two of the wealthiest people running for mayor, had a later deadline to file their statements of economic interest because they do not currently hold elected office. The other three major candidates — Mayor London Breed and Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí — had to make their disclosures months ago."
As COVID cases start to climb again in California, a look at symptoms and testing
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "COVID-19 markers in California have begun their expected summer uptick, driven by increased travel, indoor activities due to the heat and new coronavirus variants collectively known as FLiRT.
These factors prompted a nearly 30% rise in COVID-19 related emergency room visits in California in the last week of May — the most recent reported time period — according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s test positivity rate has risen to 5.3% as of a week ago, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous week, according to the California Department of Public Health. A rate above 5% suggests the virus may be spreading."
Thousands of out-of-state abortion seekers rely on two dozen doctors from telehealth shield states
The Chronicle's SHIRA STEIN: "Like any other virtual visit, doctors in a handful of states log onto their computers, call patients and prescribe medication. Except their patients live in other states — and in some ways, another world.
The medical providers — fewer than two dozen of them, only two of whom live in California — prescribe medication abortions for people who live in states that restrict or ban it."
Antibiotics wreak havoc on the gut. Can we kill the bad bugs and spare the good ones?
LAT's CORINNE PURTILL: "Inside every human is a thriving zoo of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microscopic organisms collectively known as the microbiome. Trillions of microbes live in the digestive tract alone, a menagerie estimated to contain more than 1,000 species.
This ecosystem of tiny stuff affects our health in ways science is only beginning to understand, facilitating digestion, metabolism, the immune response and more. But when serious infection sets in, the most powerful antibiotics take a merciless approach, wiping out colonies of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract and often prompting secondary health problems."
Health care affordability efforts must include everyone (OP-ED)
CHARLES BACCHI in Capitol Weekly: "California’s Office of Healthcare Affordability (OHCA) recently adopted spending targets to slow healthcare spending growth and make it more affordable for Californians. The targets are ambitious and will be difficult to meet. California’s health plans are the first group to undergo this scrutiny and will be the first in line for penalties. Yet we know that we have a responsibility to maintain health care affordability and ensure Californians can access high quality health coverage. However, health care affordability cannot be fully addressed without also addressing the largest cost driver in the health care system – hospital costs.
For those keeping score at home the California Hospital Association (CHA) opposed OHCA’s spending targets, while California’s health plans stood alongside consumer advocates, workers, and purchasers in support."
Sacramento State was asked to improve how it handles Title IX, sexual misconduct. Did it?
Sacramento Bee's EMMA HALL: "In the summer of 2023, Sacramento State was given recommendations to improve its handling of sexual misconduct and Title IX gender-based issues.
Sacramento State was told to improve resourcing strategies campus wide after an uptick in Title IX reports in fall 2022. The university was instructed to increase awareness of its Title IX office, improve coordination with other campus entities and refine documentation and record keeping."
How pro-Palestinian protesters at one UC campus got a deal
EdSource's MICHAEL BURKE: "Sitting across from UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox inside a conference room on the campus, Samia Alkam presented him with her Palestinian identification card.
A doctoral student at Riverside, Alkam’s identification limits her to the West Bank in Palestine. She explained to Wilcox that even though she also has American citizenship, Israel bars West Bank residents like her from traveling to places such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem without a special permit or visa."
USC’s graduate acting and dramatic writing programs are now tuition-free
LAT's ASHLEY LEE: "USC’s School of Dramatic Arts announced Wednesday that its three-year master’s in fine arts programs will now be tuition-free.
Starting with the 2024-25 academic year, incoming graduate students, as well as continuing MFA students studying acting and dramatic writing, will shoulder no tuition cost. The tuition-free initiative was made possible because of the steady support of scholarship donors and the leadership of the school’s board of councilors, an advisory group composed of notable professionals, alumni and community leaders that help stimulate the philanthropy that will continue to expand the school’s endowment, school officials said."
How do California college students qualify for CalFresh? Here’s how to know, how to apply
Sacramento Bee's EMMA HALL: "A majority of California college students who are eligible for CalFresh don’t receive benefits, a study from the California Policy Lab found.
Seventeen percent of all California community college students are eligible for CalFresh. Thirty one percent of University of California students a arelso identified as possible CalFresh recipients. When combining both groups, the lab found fewer than one in three students take advantage of the benefits."
California summer forecast: New data shows how hot it might get
The Chronicle's GREG PORTER: "June is only two weeks old, but for the second time this month, large parts of California are under some type of heat advisory on Tuesday, as temperatures soared into the 90s and triple digits across the interior.
This heat spell will be short lived though, coming to an end for the Bay Area today as temperatures will be upwards of 10 to 15 degrees cooler than yesterday in the valleys of Solano, Sonoma and Santa Clara counties."
California’s newest state park opens Wednesday. It still needs a name
The Chronicle's GREGORY THOMAS: "After a decade in the works, California’s newest state park is opening Wednesday.
Dos Rios Ranch, a 1,600-acre plot west of Modesto where the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers converge, has long been slated to become the next state park. Its location in the San Joaquin Valley makes it a stand-out property among the 280 park units in the state parks system, most of which are along the coast and in the mountains and foothills. Department of Parks and Recreation Director Armando Quintero has characterized Dos Rios as a needed public investment in “a park-poor region.”"
California beach is nation’s most polluted, study says. People are ‘getting sick left and right’
LA Times's ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "California is home to one of the most polluted beaches in the country, according to a new study — a stretch of surf so toxic officials have made repeated calls for a state of emergency.
Last year, the Surfrider Foundation tested thousands of water samples across the nation, as well as in Puerto Rico, Vancouver and Costa Rica, and found that 64% of the 567 sites tested had at least one sample with unsafe bacteria levels. Each location was tested multiple times, said Mara Dias, the foundation’s senior manager for the Clean Water Initiative."
Is California’s film and TV tax credit in danger? Unions say so
LAT's TARYN LUNA/CHRISTI CARRAS: "Eager to negotiate off the 2024 ballot a measure that would make it harder to raise taxes, unions are alleging that the initiative would end a California program that awards hundreds of millions of dollars annually in tax credits to television and film studios.
The claims are part of an effort by unions to increase pressure on business interests backing the measure to strike a deal to remove it from the November ballot, which remains possible amid an intense negotiation period at the state Capitol. If the concerns about the tax credits catch on, movie studio executives could be a powerful addition to the opposition campaign."
S.F. declares itself sanctuary city for transgender people, among first in U.S. to do so
The Chronicle's ALDO TOLEDO: "San Francisco leaders declared the city a sanctuary for transgender people Tuesday, becoming one of the first in the nation to do so amid a push by some conservative states to limit trans rights.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to declare San Francisco a sanctuary city for transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary and Two-Spirit people — a Pan-Indian term that describes those who are neither male nor female — to provide a place of safety for that community and providers of gender affirming care."
Solano County: California Forever has signatures to qualify for November ballot
The Chronicle's JORDAN PARKER: "The campaign by a billionaire-backed developer to build a new city in Solano County has collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, according to the county’s registrar of voters.
In April, the developer known as “California Forever” submitted 20,472 signatures to the Solano County Registrar of Voters for review. It needed 13,062 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. On Tuesday, the registrar said that after examining a sample of the signatures, it could project that there were 14,832 valid signatures, enough to exceed the 110% threshold needed for county ballot initiatives."
READ MORE -- Billionaire-backed plan to erect a model California city qualifies for the ballot -- LAT's JESSICA GARRISON
New data suggests it could take nearly 20 years for S.F.’s struggling office market to recover
The Chronicle's LAURA WAXMAN: "Perennially optimistic and boosterish, San Francisco’s commercial real estate brokers make a living selling the city’s landmarks and views, its restaurants and innovation. For them, the view is always bright and clear from the top of buildings like Salesforce Tower.
But, these days, some of the city’s leading brokerages see a future that is so murky and difficult to decipher they are not confident saying what will happen next year — let alone a decade from now."
SFPD ‘making arrests every day’ with help of new license plate readers
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "A new network of high-tech cameras has begun photographing thousands of vehicle license plates as drivers zip through San Francisco intersections, building a vast database of information that police say is already leading to arrests on a daily basis.
About 100 of San Francisco’s new automated license plate readers are now live, with another 300 to be installed by July. While police say the technology, which is contracted through the company Flock Safety, has fast become a valuable tool in crime fighting, privacy advocates are wary of its dragnet approach and warn about risks for abuse."