Storm of the season pounds Southern California as burn areas brace for mudslides, flooding
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II, GAVIN J. QUINTON, CLARA HARTER and JASMINE MENDEZ: "The most powerful band of a large atmospheric river storm slammed into Southern California on Saturday, dumping much-needed rain across the region but also bringing mudslide dangers to communities still reeling from January’s firestorms.
The storm flooded some streets and highways, sent mud and rocks sliding onto some canyon roads and made for treacherous driving conditions."
The Bay Area’s wet pattern isn’t done yet. Here’s what arrives midweek
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "Last week’s storm finally cleared California, and the atmosphere immediately filled the vacancy. A small system slipped through before sunrise Monday, almost as if it had been waiting its turn in line.
Monday isn’t going to feel great. Temperatures stay pinned in the upper 50s to low 60s under a cold pool of air in the upper atmosphere. That setup is classic for pop-up rain showers, especially across the interior North and East Bay. Ironically, the best shot at sun comes from west to east, with San Francisco and the Peninsula probably clearing before inland areas do."
Less water, more problems – California, 6 states miss key Colorado River deadline
CalMatters via Times of San Diego: RACHEL BECKER: "After two fraught years of negotiations amid dire projections for the Colorado River’s reservoirs, California and six other states that rely on the river’s water have yet again failed to reach a deal — despite a federal deadline.
“While more work needs to be done, collective progress has been made that warrants continued efforts to define and approve details for a finalized agreement,” the states said. The written statement released Tuesday included no details about how they plan to manage the river after the current rulebook expires at the end of next year."
‘A flood on steroids’: What to know as storm, debris flows threaten LA
CalMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "An unusually strong storm system has reached Southern California, raising fears that the rain could unleash a threat that has been lingering in the burn scars of wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles communities in recent years.
Called debris flows, these fast-moving slurries of floodwater and sediment can hurtle down slopes carrying cars, trees and even boulders with them. They’re like “a flood on steroids,” said Jason Kean, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s landslide hazards program. “It’s really hard to stop these things. The best thing to do is get out of the way.”
Food stamps are back, but millions will soon lose benefits permanently
POLITICO, MARCIA BROWN: "Millions of Americans greeted the end of the government shutdown — and the resumption of food stamp benefits — with relief. But others are learning they could soon lose federal food aid permanently.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins directed USDA staff during the record-setting 43-day shutdown to continue ushering states toward compliance with Republicans’ signature tax and spending law, which is projected to kick millions out of the nation’s largest anti-hunger program in the next few months."
Feds: Ex-Newsom aide used job to pressure CA into settling suit with former client
SacBee, LIA RUSSEL: "Federal officials said Dana Williamson, the Sacramento political power broker who was indicted last week, used her position while she was Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief of staff to pressure state attorneys to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit with one of her former clients, gaming company Activision Blizzard. According to the 23-count indictment, which The Sacramento Bee first reported Wednesday,
Williamson was working in the governor’s mansion when she “pass(ed) California State government information” in spring 2023 about “Corporation 1” to her fellow co-conspirator and friend, lobbyist Alexis Podesta. Williamson served as Newsom’s chief of staff from December 2022 to November 2024, when his office put her on leave when she informed them she was under federal investigation."
LA Times, JESSICA GARRISON and SONJA SHARP: "Authorities have not revealed any targets beyond Dana Williamson and two other influential political operatives associated with the state’s most powerful Democrats, all of whom are accused of fraud and siphoning campaign funds for personal use.
But details contained in the indictment and other public records indicate that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice had a keen interest in Williamson and other operatives’ involvement in the handling of a legal case involving “Corporation 1.” The facts revealed about “Corporation 1” match details of a controversial sex discrimination investigation that the state of California led into one of the world’s largest video game companies, Santa-Monica based Activision Blizzard Inc."
‘Shameful. It’s a disgrace.’ O.C. Vietnam vets memorial overshadowed by corruption, shoddy work
LA Times, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "It was announced with great fanfare and hope: a memorial in the center of Orange County to honor veterans of the Vietnam War.
But two years and more than $1 million later, the memorial stands as an unlikely symbol of corruption and broken promises. The memorial project is plagued by shoddy construction and, according to Orange County Supt. Janet Nguyen, mired in fraud."
A major California highway is sliding toward the sea. There is no quick fix
Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Rattled by earthquakes. Pummeled by wind and rain. Buried in landslides.
This 3-mile stretch of Highway 101 atop a cliff in California’s far north careens through old growth redwood forests and across an earthen river of dirt and rock that is constantly shifting downslope toward crashing waves. For more than a century, Del Norte County residents have called it Last Chance Grade, though no one recalls who coined the foreboding name."
UC nurses cancel planned strike after reaching tentative deal with university
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR: "A planned labor strike by University of California nurses has been called off after the university system and the nurses’ union reached a tentative deal on pay and benefits, both groups announced Sunday.
The four-year deal, between UC and the California Nurses Assn., covers some 25,000 registered nurses working across 19 UC facilities. The two groups had been bargaining over a new contract since June.
Trump Backs Vote to Release Epstein Files in Sharp Reversal
Wall Street Journal, ALEX LEARY, SCOTT PATTERSON and SIOBHAN HUGHES: "President Trump threw in the towel on dissuading House Republicans from backing a measure to release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying Sunday night that GOP lawmakers should instead embrace the vote.
The vote set for this week had been shaping up as a major test of GOP loyalty to the president, who has kept an iron grip over the party since starting his second term in January. Dozens of Republicans were expected to potentially break with the president when the measure hit the House floor, and Trump’s announcement avoids a potential embarrassment for the White House."
Sprinkler shock: Owners of S.F. high-rise condos stunned by $300K mandate
Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "Thousands of condo owners in 126 pre-1975 San Francisco high-rises will have to pay $300,000 or more — and face potentially lengthy displacements — under an ordinance requiring towers built before 1975 to install automatic fire sprinklers in every room of every unit.
While the sprinkler installation doesn’t have to be completed until the start of 2035, the homeowners associations say they will have to start assessing owners upward of $2,500 a month now to build up reserves to pay for the work, which in many cases will involve extensive demolition, along with the installation of the tanks, generators and new piping needed to pump water through the sprinkler system."
How a tech billionaire philanthropist got caught between Trump and San Francisco
Washington Post, LISA BONOS: "While tech moguls such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat center stage at President Donald Trump’s January inauguration, Marc Benioff, CEO of cloud software company Salesforce, was 4,000 miles away at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Benioff, an influential philanthropist and political voice in San Francisco, appeared set on making clear he wasn’t moving toward Trump. He said at one Davos event that the new administration would not change his or Salesforce’s core values, which include equality and sustainability. “Presidents change." Administrations change. We don’t change,” Benioff said in an onstage interview at a slick event space hosted by Axios, according to video of the event.
This city has the Bay Area’s worst streets. It’s not S.F. or Oakland
Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Drivers in the charming Marin County town of Larkspur enjoy the Bay Area’s smoothest streets, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Meanwhile, motorists making their way through Vallejo experience the region’s bumpiest, most worn-out roads.
The annual report ranks each Bay Area city by its Pavement Condition Index, a measure of each road’s wear and tear. The scores range from 0 to 100 — 100 being a brand new or newly repaved road, and 0 being a street in complete disrepair. Each city’s score in the report is the three-year moving average ending in 2024. San Francisco actually scores better than the regional average on this metric."
Sacramento Planned Parenthood leader announces bid in new congressional district
SacBee, NICOLE NIXON: "A regional Planned Parenthood VP and new mom announced Monday she will run in California’s 6th Congressional District, which currently does not have an incumbent after voters approved a redrawn map.
In an exclusive interview ahead of her campaign launch, Democrat Lauren Babb Tomlinson told The Sacramento Bee that she wants to push back on Republican-led attacks on reproductive health care in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision and funding cuts in a major tax bill signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year."