Atmospheric river storm slams into Southern California amid evacuation and flood warnings
LAT/CLARA HARTER: "An atmospheric river hit Los Angeles in the early hours of Tuesday morning, bringing with it scattered downpours, powerful winds and fears of flooding.
Evacuation warnings have been issued in areas ravaged by January’s firestorm — including the burn scars from the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire in Altadena, the Hurst fire in Sylmar and the Sunset fire in the Hollywood Hills — which are at a high risk of debris flows."
READ MORE -- California’s first big storm of the season is just getting started — here’s what’s next -- Chronicle/GREG PORTER
California’s incarcerated firefighters to see ‘historic’ pay increase in laws Newsom signed
CALMatters/CAYLA MIHALOVICH: "Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed a set of bills meant to recognize incarcerated firefighters, including a historic measure to raise their pay to meet the federal minimum wage during active fires.
The wage increase, funded through the state budget, follows years of advocacy to improve pay and working conditions for incarcerated labor. That effort took on a new urgency after hundreds of incarcerated firefighters were deployed to battle deadly wildfires that hit Los Angeles in January."
‘Democracy is on the ballot,’ Obama says, urging Californians to pass Prop. 50 in new ad
LAT/SEEMA MEHTA: "As Californians start voting on Democrats’ effort to boost their ranks in Congress, former President Barack Obama warned that democracy is in peril as he urged voters to support Proposition 50 in a television ad that started airing Tuesday.
“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” Obama says in the 30-second ad, which the main pro-Proposition 50 campaign began broadcasting Tuesday across the state. The spot is part of a multimillion-dollar ad buy promoting the congressional redistricting ballot measure through the Nov. 4 election."
A well-known Sacramento Democrat is taking on this suddenly vulnerable California Republican
CALMatters/MAYA C. MILLER: "Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley’s newest Democratic challenger might be even more well known to Sacramento-area voters than the two-term congressman who has represented the area since 2023.
Dr. Richard Pan, a Harvard-trained pediatrician and former state senator who made national headlines for leading California’s effort to eliminate religious and “personal belief” exemptions to school vaccine mandates, announced his candidacy for California’s 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday."
A chat with California State Treasurer Fiona Ma (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly/STAFF: "We’re joined today by California State Treasurer Fiona Ma. The Treasurer is the state’s banker and manages $3 trillion per year, among many other things. Ma is a former San Francisco Supervisor, state legislator and member of the Board of Equalization, and a current candidate for Lieutenant Governor. She spoke with us about the Treasurer’s job, her path to that office, and about her mentor, the legendary John Burton."
Change Agent: Lindsey Horvath and the massive reform of LA County governance
Capitol Weekly/BRIAN JOSEPH: "When the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in early 2023 to commission a study on governance reform, Lindsey Horvath thought change was on the horizon.
The youngest and newest member of one of the most powerful governing bodies in America, Horvath was anxious to challenge the status quo despite her relatively thin political resume. A former West Hollywood City Council member, the then-40 year old had become an LA County supervisor only a few months prior. Her peers now included a former state legislator (Holly Mitchell), a former U.S. Representative (Janice Hahn) and a former U.S. secretary of labor (Hilda Solis)."
California ballot design prompts false conspiracy theories that the November election is rigged
LAT/SEEMA MEHTA: "California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Monday pushed back against a torrent of misinformation on social media sites claiming that mail-in ballots for the state’s Nov. 4 special election are purposefully designed to disclose how people voted.
Weber, the state’s top elections official, refuted claims by some Republicans and far-right partisans that holes on ballot envelopes allow election officials to see how Californians voted on Proposition 50, the ballot measure about redistricting that will be decided in a special election in a little over three weeks."
California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use
LAT/IAN JAMES: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use.
New data centers have been rapidly proliferating in California and other western states as the rise of artificial intelligence and growing investments in cloud computing drive a construction boom. The centers, full of equipment, generate lots of heat and can use large quantities of water to cool their servers and interiors. Many companies don’t reveal how much they use."
Energy Commission’s stall is costing drivers (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly/BILL MAGAVERN, COURTNEY GRIFFIN: "Delays at the California Energy Commission are costing drivers at the pump.
The Commission has been working in recent years to tackle an expensive problem: most replacement tires sold in California are surprisingly inefficient. A recent report revealed that these tires are costing California drivers an average of $184 on extra gasoline over the lifetime of a set."
New California law forces chatbots to protect kids’ mental health
CALMatters/COLIN LECHER: "Gov. Newsom today announced that he has signed Senate Bill 243, legislation that adds guardrails to AI-powered chatbots that operate in the state.
The legislation had divided tech industry representatives and child safety advocates. Newsom left unsigned another bill regulating such bots, Assembly Bill 1064, which child advocates argued better protected kids."
Letter to the editor: Governor Newsom prioritizes vaccine access for Californians
Capitol Weekly/CATHERINE FLORES: "Vaccines matter. As winter approaches, getting vaccinated against respiratory illnesses like flu, COVID-19, and RSV has never been more important. Cold weather drives people indoors, where viruses spread easily, and immune systems are less effective. Vaccination boosts protection before peak season, reducing severe illness, hospitalizations, and missed work or school. Staying up to date helps protect not just you, but also children, older adults, and others at higher risk.
Governor Newsom’s recent action ensures that California continues to follow science-based vaccine guidance. With the passage of Assembly Bill 144, vaccines recommended by the California Department of Public Health will remain covered by most insurance plans, including Medi-Cal. This step is critical for thousands of families who face barriers to care, helping make preventive health measures accessible to all."
Kaiser calls looming strike ‘unnecessary and disruptive’ as unions prepare historic walkout
Chronicle/AIDIN VAZIRI: "Kaiser Permanente on Monday criticized a looming five-day strike by tens of thousands of nurses and health professionals, calling the action “unnecessary and disruptive.”
In a statement, the company said “a generous offer is on the table” as members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals prepare for a historic walkout Tuesday across California, Oregon and Hawaii."
Uncertainty, shock amid mass staff reductions at federal education department
EdSource/BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Several offices within the U.S. Department of Education have been gutted after reduction-in-force notices were sent to 466 staff on Friday, according to court filings, leaving education leaders uncertain about the potential fallout from losing hundreds of staff.
With the exception of top officials, such as directors, all staff were laid off from the department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers funding and technical assistance to programs, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and the Migrant Education Program, among others. These programs primarily support children who make up some of the most vulnerable student groups, including those experiencing homelessness, migrant students and students with disabilities."
UC system wins five Nobel Prizes in one week — breaking a world record
EdSource/MALLIKA SESHADRI: "The UC system has broken a world record, with five of its faculty and alumni winning a Nobel Prize within one week — the most ever received by a single institution in a year — according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The awardees include:"
Protecting Jewish students or chilling speech? Inside California’s ‘hardest’ fight over antisemitism
CALMatters/YUE STELLA YU, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "Tears welling in her eyes, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan paused mid-sentence to calm herself on the Assembly floor.
Almost a century ago, the Nazis forced her grandmother to flee Austria, leaving behind her great-great-grandmother who died in the Holocaust, the Jewish Democrat from San Ramon told her fellow lawmakers. Last year, she said, her daughter told her that the bathrooms at her school had been vandalized with swastikas."
US stocks slip as trade tensions with China flare up again
AP/DAMIAN J. TROISE: "Stocks slumped in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday as trade tensions escalate again with China.
The S&P 500 fell 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 383 points, or 0.8%, as of 9:57 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite shed 1.5%."
Jobs of the rich: What the highest-earning Bay Area residents do for work
Chronicle/HANNAH ZAKHARENKO, ROLAND LI: "The Bay Area is known as one of the wealthiest places in the country. Turns out young professionals are some of the biggest beneficiaries of those riches, according to a Chronicle analysis of salary and jobs data.
The San Francisco metro area’s salary level was $240,000 for the top 10% percent of earners, and San Jose’s was $274,000. Those were the two highest among the biggest 10 cities in the U.S. by working population, according to census data from 2023, the last year with detailed job data available."
San Francisco’s homicide rate is on track to be the lowest since the 1950s
Chronicle/DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Even as President Donald Trump and even local magnate Marc Benioff have called on federal troops to quell disorder in the city, San Francisco is on track to have the lowest number of homicides in more than 70 years, the Chronicle found — potentially beating last year’s 60-year low.
By SFPD’s latest official count, there had been 19 homicides in the first nine months of the year, compared to 24 last year at the same time last year. Those numbers do not include the apparent murder-suicide of a family of four last week, which may raise the count of murders by three. SFPD has not made an official ruling on the incident, but even if those crimes are included, the city would be on track to have 27 — still the lowest since 1954, according to police data."
Newsom signs law to authorize Bay Area transit sales tax
Chronicle/RACHEL SWAN: "The economic life raft that Bay Area transit agencies so desperately need is on its way from Sacramento, now bearing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
On Monday, Newsom signed Senate Bill 63 by state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley, which will authorize leaders in five Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara — to put a sales tax measure for transit on the ballot next year."
Tech prankster sends 50 Waymo robotaxis to a San Francisco dead end street
Chronicle/AIDIN VAZIRI, RACHEL SWAN: "Fifty driverless cars converging on a single dead-end street sounds like a software glitch. In reality, it was a coordinated prank.
Over the summer, Riley Walz — a 23-year-old software engineer and self-described “tech prankster” — enlisted dozens of participants to order Waymo rides at the same moment on San Francisco’s longest dead-end street."