Risk of new fires is ‘around 100%’ as blazes rage across Northern California
The Chronicle's LAURA WAXMANN: "The fast-growing Sites wildfire that has engulfed some 15,656 acres in Colusa County since Monday afternoon remained just 5% contained on Wednesday afternoon as fire crews worked through the night to construct control lines around the blaze.
Officials warned that the risk of new fires erupting in Northern California remained high."
READ MORE -- Wildfire risks in California heightened by upcoming heat dome -- LA Times's GRACE TOOHEY
Could AI reject your resume? California tries to prevent a new kin d of discrimination
CALMatters's KHARI JOHNSON: "California regulators are moving to restrict how employers can use artificial intelligence to screen workers and job applicants — warning that using AI to measure tone of voice, facial expressions and reaction times may run afoul of the law.
The draft regulations say that if companies use automated systems to limit or prioritize applicants based on pregnancy, national origin, religion or criminal history, that’s discrimination."
The Chronicle's IDA MOJADAD: "California’s Civil Rights Department reached a $15 million settlement with Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., over alleged mistreatment of female employees.
The settlement, which must be approved by the court, stems from a three-year investigation into claims of equal pay violations, sexual harassment, employment discrimination and retaliation at Snap Inc."
State probes S.F. contractor after Chronicle highlights claims of shoddy work, permitting problems
The Chronicl e's ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "The state of California is investigating a longtime San Francisco building contractor after a San Francisco Chronicle story revealed numerous complaints that he performed shoddy work and flouted building codes.
John Pollard and his business, S.F. Garage Co., specialized in seismic retrofits to make buildings more resistant to earthquakes. Over two decades, he became one of San Francisco’s most prolific builders. He wooed clients with promises that he could handle all aspects of the city’s notoriously difficult building process."
Lack of reliable education data hamstrings California lawmakers and the public
EdSource's DIANA LAMBERT: "Public data posted by the California Department of Education has been incomplete, often outdated and occasionally inaccurate, forcing legislators to pass laws based on old data, researchers to delay inquiries and journalists to grapple with inaccurate information.
Californians, living in a state known globally as a center of innovation and California’s new health care minimum wage is changing. Here are answers to your questionstechnology, have had to cope with a state education agency that has admittedly lacked the staffing and the policies to provide much-needed data, EdSource reporting has found"
A USC student with a knife, a suspected car burglar and a deadly confrontation on fraternity row
LAT's RICHARD WINTON, ANGIE ORELLANA HERNANDEZ, NATHAN SOLIS, NOAH GOLDBERG: "USC student Ivan Gallegos and two friends were walking down 28th Street in the heart of Greek Row when they came across Xavier Cerf."
Cerf, a 27-year-old man whose mother said he had just been released from a mental health facility and who police said was homeless, had allegedly broken into a car on the street. Gallegos and his group confronted him."
California’s new health care minimum wage is changing. Here are answers to your questions
CALMatters's ANA B. IBARRA: "It’s no surprise that California health care workers have questions about a new state law that will give them a higher minimum wage. It has different pay scales based on where they work and who they work for.
And, Gov. Gavin Newsom has turned its start date into a moving target, confusing both workers and employers."
This giant freshwater fish — North America’s largest — gains California protection
CALMatters's RACHEL BECKER: "Killed by algae blooms and dwindling from dams and droughts, the largest freshwater fish in North America is at risk in California. Today, wildlife officials took the first major step toward protecting it under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
White sturgeon, which can live longer than 100 years, historically reached more than 20 feet long and weighing almost a ton. Facing an array of threats, this shark-like, bottom-feeding fish with rows of bony plates, whisker-like sensors and no teeth has declined — and their numbers will likely keep dropping."
California State Fair to allow marijuana sale and on-site consumption for the first time
Sacramento Bee's ESTHER SUN: "The California State Fair will allow marijuana sales and on-site consumption for the first time this summer.
The fair, taking place July 12 to 28 at Cal Expo in Sacramento, has moved in recent years to include marijuana to a greater extent. The fair hosted its first cannabis competition in 2022, inviting vendors to participate in a marijuana exhibit."
Downtown L.A.’s graffiti-covered Oceanwide Plaza is a real estate disaster. Can it be saved?
LAT's ROGER VINCENT: "It was the graffiti that made the abandoned skyscrapers of Oceanwide Plaza in downtown Los Angeles infamous.
But the illicit work is low on the list of problems facing the bankrupt, billion-dollar development. With a potential fire sale of the residential, hotel and retail project approaching, a far more complex and expensive question looms over one of the region’s all-time real estate catastrophes: Can it be saved from the wrecking ball?"v
In test case between state climate goals and freeway expansions, new lanes win
LAT's RACHEL URANGA: "Underneath the Yolo Causeway near Sacramento, where a nearly half-billion-dollar effort is underway to add toll lanes to Interstate 80 and ease congestion, swollen rivers fill wetlands in the winter season and bat colonies roost in the bridge’s grooves in warm months.
More than a century old, the road that connects the Bay Area to the state capital has become a symbol and a test of both the future of highway expansion in California and the climate change policies that seek to restrict it."
Are California bridges safe? Here’s how many are in ‘poor’ condition, government says
Sacramento Bee's DE VON MILLEY, SARAH LINN: "In the early hours of March 26, a 985-foot container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, bringing a portion of the 1.6-mile-long bridge down in less than 40 seconds.
Although the Key Bridge might have fallen no matter its condition, the high-profile accident focused attention on bridge safety across the nation."