California got millions to train workers in disaster relief, but it’s leaving money on table
CALMatters's ADAM ECHELMAN: "In January 2023, and continuing throughout the spring, rain swelled many of California’s reservoirs and creeks, engulfing homes and businesses and killing 21 people. One federal estimate says it cost the state nearly $5 billion.
Now, nearly two years later, it’s Alexis Ramirez’s job to help pick up the pieces, clearing debris from a damaged park. For him, and hundreds of others across the state, the disaster isn’t just about loss — it’s also an opportunity for temporary work. But these cleanup jobs are precarious and difficult, often requiring physical, back-breaking labor in remote areas under extreme conditions. Some government agencies struggle to manage these workers because of administrative hurdles, shifts in the weather that complicate disaster relief, and delays in the grant awards that make this cleanup possible, according to a CalMatters analysis of eight federal grants and interviews with agencies across the state."
Experts Expound: Affordability
Capitol Weekly STAFF: "Both legislative leaders have said their primary goal this year is to advance legislation to make California more affordable. With that in mind, we asked our expert panel this question:
What one suggestion would you make to help them achieve that goal?
I’m not an expert on cost-of-living issues, but I would think one of the easiest ways would be to lower the state tax on gasoline. Let’s face it, there are just limited ways the Legislature and governor can impact the price of things."
Sources: San Francisco police identified Luigi Mangione 4 days before arrest in McDonald’s
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY, MICHAEL BARBA: "San Francisco police recognized the man suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan as possibly being Luigi Mangione and contacted the FBI four days before his high-profile arrest, two sources familiar with the matter told the Chronicle.
Authorities have said that when Mangione was arrested Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pa., he had not previously been on law enforcement’s radar. “This was not a name that was called into us,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told NBC on Tuesday."
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, a sprint to rescue refugees
The Chronicle's RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "Two Afghan families float down parallel escalators into the unbusy baggage claim area of Sacramento International Airport, greeted by Christmas jingles from the speakers and a small welcoming party underneath the airport’s 10,000-pound rabbit sculpture.
The fathers and husbands wear their prized visas — a full-page government document — in clear plastic sleeves clipped to lanyards around their necks. Their wives and children wear searching, dazed expressions."
Blue Lake’s City Council election ended in a tie. How would the town break it?
LAT's DANIEL MILLER: "The city official held a box aloft and the packed room fell silent under the fluorescent lights of Blue Lake’s community resource center.
A longtime resident reached inside and rooted around for a manila envelope."
Daniel Lurie wants to declare a fentanyl emergency. Here’s why that might not be possible
The Chronicle's MAGGIE ANGST: "Incoming mayor Daniel Lurie announced a series of ambitious proposals to address the city’s drug crisis while on the campaign trail, but those plans will bump up against legal and fiscal constraints that will make them difficult to realize.
Lurie laid out two separate plans to deal with the city’s open-air drug markets — one to stem the supply and another to address demand. To quickly implement those plans and “bypass the bureaucracy,” Lurie said he would declare an emergency on day 1 for fentanyl, the powerful opioid responsible for about three in every four of the city’s overdose deaths."
After losing reelection, San Francisco mayor says she leaves office ‘a winner’
LAT's HANNAH WILEY: "Mayor London Breed may have lost reelection, but after more than six years at the helm of one of America’s most iconic cities, she says she will leave office next month as a champion.
“No matter what the results said, I’m still a winner,” Breed said in an interview this week. “The fact that I have come out of the most problematic circumstances of San Francisco to be mayor, and I’m here, and I have been able to serve, it is an absolute privilege.”"
Higher education inflation index rose 3.4%
EdSource's AMY DIPIERRO: "Costs for colleges and universities rose 3.4% last year, according to an index designed for higher education institutions, a slight decrease from the previous year that nonetheless remains elevated compared with the recent past.
The higher education price index, or HEPI, measures the relative price levels of goods and services typically purchased by colleges and universities as an alternative to the consumer price index, which is more useful for measuring household purchasing power. HEPI was up more than 3% between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, down from 4% the previous year. The index remains above its annual average between 2010 and 2019, which was 2.2%."
Community colleges loosen STEM math placement rules, calming some critics
EdSource's MICHAEL BURKE, AMY DIPIERRO: "California math educators this fall have been locked in a vigorous debate: Will the implementation of a new law help more community college STEM students by skipping prerequisites and placing them directly into calculus, or will it set up the state’s least-prepared students for failure?
This week, critics scored something of a victory. In a move that already faces legal scrutiny, the chancellor’s office for the state’s community colleges issued a memo making clear that, when the law takes effect next fall, students in science, technology, engineering and math majors who haven’t passed courses like trigonometry in high school will still have the option to start college math with up to two semesters of courses that are considered preparation for calculus. Previous guidance instructed colleges to enroll those students directly into calculus — sometimes with a simultaneous 1- or 2-unit support class — or place them in new semester-long preparatory classes offered on a trial basis."
First-year performance among top predictors of timely college graduation
EdSource's AMY DIPIERRO: "First-year grade point average, the number of credits earned and whether students re-enroll at the same institution for a second year are among the strongest predictors of whether college and university students will graduate in a timely manner, according to a study released by the National Student Clearinghouse.
What students chose as their major also had an impact on completion rates, researchers found. Race, ethnicity, gender and age were significant factors, too."
Oakland schools in crisis as district gets closer to running out of money: 'Dangerous path'
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "By the end of the Oakland school board meeting Wednesday night, officials made it clear: The district is currently headed for insolvency and the political will to address overspending and declining enrollment has yet to materialize.
The board acknowledged during the meeting that without significant action the district will not be able to pay its bills after this school year. That means the county or state will have to step up oversight to prevent a state takeover."
With bone-dry conditions, Southern California high fire danger could linger into the new year
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY: "By this time of year, Southern California has usually recorded some measurable rainfall. Santa Ana winds, meanwhile, are typically dying down.
But this December, neither is the case."
Atmospheric river to power dynamic Bay Area storm. Here’s a timeline and key risks
The Chronicle's GREG PORTER: "A dynamic storm system is set to bring heavy rain, strong winds, large waves and coastal flooding to the Bay Area, starting Friday and peaking early Saturday morning.
The wide range of hazards will be spawned by a strong low-pressure system off the coast of the Pacific Northwest on Friday. As the system intensifies, its forward progress will slow. A cold front will then swing around the southern edge of the storm center and crash into California during the early morning hours Saturday."
Tech company secures $225 million for Northern California chip plant, generating 700 jobs
The Chronicle's ROLAND LI: "German tech company Bosch has signed a preliminary agreement with the federal government for $225 million in funding to upgrade a Roseville (Sacramento County) computer chip plant.
The money from the CHIPS and Science Act would contribute to Bosch’s $1.9 billion investment to enable production of silicon carbide power semiconductor chips for electric cars. Up to 700 manufacturing and tech jobs are expected to be created, along with 1,000 temporary construction jobs, according to the U.S. Commerce Department."
Fire wipes out two Northern California landmarks, one wanted, the other not. What’s next?
Sacramento Bee's JAKE GOODRICK, DARRELL SMITH: "The faces changed throughout the day but the size of the gathering behind the yellow police tape held steady on the path beside the Bidwell Mansion where smoke drifted Wednesday from the historic building.
Those from the community — residents, students and onlookers — watched the smoldering remains of the historic Chico landmark, which was destroyed by fire early that morning and continued burning into the night while firefighters kept watch."
LAT's ROGER VINCENT: "With the ink dry on the County of Los Angeles’ $200-million purchase of the Gas Company Tower office building downtown, a fight is brewing over what to do with the 1960s-vintage headquarters it plans to leave behind.
Supervisor Janice Hahn and preservationists are pushing back against a plan to move workers into the newly purchased skyscraper on Bunker Hill and raze the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, which was renamed after Hahn’s father and is a centerpiece of the government-oriented Civic Center neighborhood."
Venice homeless housing development continues in limbo as councilmember declares the project dead
LAT's LIAM DILLON: "The fate of a large proposed affordable-housing development along Venice’s famed canals remains murky this week after one regulatory decision cleared the way for final approval just as another left it all but dead.
The continued uncertainty adds to the eight years of public debate over the Venice Dell project, which aims to provide 120 apartments for formerly homeless and low-income residents on a city-owned parking lot in the once working-class and now wealthy beach community."
S.F. police overtime skyrockets. Here’s why that’s dangerous
The Chronicle's MICHAEL BARBA: "A newly released audit on the San Francisco Police Department’s massive overtime budget has found that some officers are working dangerously high amounts of overtime — and potentially abusing sick leave to do so.
The audit, released Thursday by the city’s Budget and Legislative Analyst at the request of Supervisor Dean Preston, examined the SFPD’s overtime spending over a five-year period ending in fiscal year 2022-23. That spending more than doubled from $52.9 million in the first year examined by auditors to $108.4 million in the final year of the review, according to the audit."
L.A. promised $30 million to people wronged by gang curfews. Why has only half been spent?
LAT's LIBOR JANY: "He had plans for reassembling his life after 10 years in prison. Big plans.
Step one was opening a party-supply company, an idea that came to him while he was locked up. He’d start small — stick to quinceañeras and graduation parties at first. Then someday, maybe, level up to bigger corporate events, whose organizers wouldn’t mind splurging for large tables, inflatable bounce houses and those fancy satin-covered chairs from home design magazines."
Controversial Muni transportation chief Jeffrey Tumlin stepping down
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "Jeffrey Tumlin, the San Francisco transportation chief who envisioned a version of the city where cars don’t rule the road, is set to step down at the end of the year.
He will appoint Julie Kirschbaum, now the director of transit at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, to take over as the agency’s acting director. It will be up to Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie and the SFMTA board to name a permanent successor."
DMV apologizes for license plate that mocks Oct. 7 attack on Israel
LAT's KAREN GARCIA: "The California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an apology for an “unacceptable and disturbing” personalized license plate that the agency said displayed hate speech related to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
The watchdog organization StopAntisemitism posted a photo on X of the license plate on a Cybertruck that celebrated “terrorism against the Jewish people.”"