‘Too many fingers in the mix,’ state workers on how to make CA more efficient
SACBEE, WILLIAM MELHADO: "Better communication, less bureaucracy and telework. Those are some biggest ways state workers think California’s government could run more efficiently.
Those ideas, and thousands more, came from a recent survey conducted by the Office of Data and Innovation. Nearly 1,500 state employees participated over a 10-week period last year."
Newsom takes aim at veterans ‘claim sharks’ as he signs law banning fees for help with VA
LAT, ADAM ASHTON: "A booming industry that charges veterans for help in obtaining the benefits they earned through military service must shut down or dramatically change its business model in California by the end of the year under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed today.
The law prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their Department of Veterans Affairs claims."
Rampant post-fire price gouging went unpunished, report alleges
LAT, JACK FLEMMING: "When the Palisades and Eaton fires displaced thousands of tenants last year, landlords across L.A. jacked up rental prices while the flames were still burning. Officials were quick to respond, vowing crackdowns on price gouging.
A new report asserts that many of those threats were toothless."
Ballot proposal may change how pay is set for L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, firefighters
LAT, REBECCA ELLIS: "Los Angeles County leaders are pushing forward a measure for the November ballot that would remove their ability to have final say on one of the costliest decisions they make: How much to pay firefighters and sheriff’s deputies.
The supervisors voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday to have their lawyers draft a ballot measure that would give final decision-making power in contract disputes regarding pay and working conditions for public safety workers to a three-person panel, a practice known as binding arbitration."
Person detained for questioning in Nancy Guthrie investigation is released
LAT, RICHARD WINTON/HANNAH FRY/CLARA HARTER: "A person detained for questioning in the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping case said he was released from custody early Wednesday.
The brief detention came hours after FBI officials released surveillance footage showing a masked individual approaching the 84-year-old’s front door the morning she was abducted."
This data shows just how bad BART’s doomsday scenario would be for riders
CHRONICLE, RACHEL SWAN/DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "One in eight BART rides ended last year at stations that would close under the transit agency’s “Phase 2” cost-cutting scenario.
That share represents well over 6 million trips, ranging from harried commutes to bleary-eyed rides home from the airport. It’s the human toll of a doomsday plan that BART staff laid out, if voters reject a transit sales tax in November. BART is confronting an annual deficit of up to $400 million, and service could deteriorate rapidly without an economic life raft."
Six L.A. power players who found themselves in the Epstein files
LAT, CLARA HARTER/STEPHANIE BREIJO/STACY PERMAN: "The head of the L.A. 2028 Olympics committee.
A director of big Hollywood hits.
An NFL owner."
Why the Fed's balance sheet could move mortgage rates sooner
THESTREET, MARY HELEN GILLESPIE: "Mortgage rates could move sooner than many homebuyers expect but not because of interest-rate cuts - rather because of how the Federal Reserve manages itsbalance sheet.
Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said Feb. 10 that the central bank's $6.6 trillion balance sheet needs to be smaller to reduce its footprint in financial markets and give monetary policymakers options in the event of a future economic crisis."
Stubborn offshore storm keeps Bay Area unsettled with showers, isolated thunderstorms
CHRONICLE, GREG PORTER: "A small but influential low-pressure system spinning off the California coast is set to shape Bay Area weather on Wednesday. Thunderstorms, small hail, gusty winds and even an isolated waterspout are all on the table.
But whether Wednesday turns into an unusually active weather day or simply a cool, cloudy and intermittently wet one hinges on a key detail that remains unresolved: just how close, and how strong, that low becomes as it meanders offshore of the Bay Area."
Understanding SFUSD’s $1.4B budget: How teachers and the district come up with different numbers
CHRONICLE, JILL TUCKER: "The San Francisco teachers strike has left a trail of fiscal confusion in its wake as the union and district negotiate terms of the labor contract, a complicated document detailing the compensation and working conditions of nearly 6,000 teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, paraeducators, security workers and other members.
They have traded claims about the district’s $1.4 billion budget, with arguments based on complicated calculations, misinformation spread across social media and confusing explanations about fiscal this and outsourcing that with a range of education gobbledygook in between."
Here’s why S.F. apartment rents keep surging but L.A. is in a slump
CHRONICLE, ROLAND LI: "San Francisco and Los Angeles apartment rents are diverging.
The city of Los Angeles’ median rent was down 1.8% in January to $2,033 for one- and two-bedrooms compared to the prior year, the lowest rate since 2021, according to Apartment List."
Mental health advocate for California tribes dies in murder-suicide
CALMATTERS, NIGEL DUARA: "A member of the Yurok tribe who advocated for better mental health treatment and suicide intervention in rural Northern Californian has died in an apparent murder-suicide.
Celinda Gonzales was 59."
9 inmate deaths already this year bring renewed scrutiny of L.A. County jail conditions
LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "Nine people have died inside L.A. County jails so far this year, an alarming number for the Sheriff’s Department as it continues to face a lawsuit from the state over the conditions in local lockups.
Sheriff’s Department officials said they are continuing to make changes, hoping to reduce the number of in-custody deaths and care for an inmate population that is increasingly struggling with medical and mental health issues."
Housing advocates still waiting for state-ordered stair report
CALMATTERS, BEN CHRISTOPHER: "In the fall of 2023, the California Legislature tasked the state’s fire safety regulators with writing a report that some housing affordability advocates say could make it easier to build bigger, airier and better lit apartment buildings in California’s housing-strapped cities.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal was given until Jan. 1, 2026 to come up with a report on single-stair apartment buildings — a type of mid-sized multifamily development legal in much of the world, but effectively banned across most of North America."