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Suspending gas tax, reducing refinery regulations pushed by two Democrats running for governor
LAT, NICOLE NIXON: "As gas prices surge in California and nationally due to the war in Iran, two Democrats running for California governor are calling for the state to temporarily suspend its fuel tax or ease refinery regulations in an effort to lower costs.
Standing in front of a gas pump in a video posted to social media, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the costs are “becoming an emergency for working families, and I think we ought to act like it.”"
California trial attorneys push bills to rein in ‘bad actors’ in legal industry
LAT, REBECCA ELLIS: "A group of California trial lawyers is backing a package of bills aimed at policing their industry by ramping up the penalties for attorneys who recruit clients illegally or prioritize the desires of hedge fund investors.
The Consumer Attorneys of California, a prominent trade group, said it is supporting two bills this session meant to crack down on the “small number of bad actors engaged in illegal conduct that threatens to undermine public trust” in the state’s legal bar."
Israel says Iran’s top security official killed in airstrike in blow to Tehran leadership
LAT, JON GAMBRELL, DAVID RISING, SAMY MAGDY: "Iran’s top security official and the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij militia were both killed in overnight strikes in a blow to the country’s leadership, Israel’s defense minister said Tuesday, while Tehran defiantly fired new salvos of missiles and drones at its Gulf Arab neighbors and Israel.
Both security official Ali Larijani and Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani were “eliminated last night,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died in an airstrike Feb. 28, the first day of the war launched by the United States and Israel, and other top leaders from the Iranian theocracy have been killed since then."
Even as he ponders a new war with Cuba, Trump can’t stop insulting the U.S. military
CHRONICLE, JOE GAROFOLI:: "The first six days of President Donald Trump’s war in Iran cost American taxpayers $11.3 billion, spiked gasoline prices an average of 38 cents a gallon nationally, killed eight (now 13) Americans, wounded 140 (now 200) others and slaughtered thousands of Iranians, including 175 at an elementary school, most of them children.
On Monday, the man who promised during his inauguration that he was “not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars” set his sights on invading Cuba. “Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. “They’re a very weakened nation right now.”"
S.F. judge just released man charged with assault on mayor’s bodyguard. He’s now back in jail
CHRONICLE, DAVID HERNANDEZ: "The man charged with assaulting Mayor Daniel Lurie’s bodyguard was arrested and booked into San Francisco County Jail on Monday morning, accused of violating a court order, according to jail records.
Around 9:45 a.m. Monday, San Francisco police officers on a team that addresses homelessness were checking out encampments when they came across Tony Phillips at Larkin and Cedar streets, according to SFPD. The officers arrested him for the alleged violation of a court order: Phillips, 44, was released from custody last week, with an order to stay away from the intersection, where an encounter with Lurie and an officer in his security detail escalated into a fight."
NEWSWELL wants to transform journalism. Can they help solve the local news crisis?
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "Local journalism in the United States is in crisis. Almost 40% of all local newspapers in the US have vanished since 2005, leaving “news deserts,” areas that lack consistent local reporting. Many of these areas now have no local reporting; in others, legitimate news outlets have been replaced by “Pink Slime” – partisan “fake news” websites masquerading as independent local news. What can be done to stop the collapse of local news?
Two years ago, Arizona State University launched NEWSWELL, a nonprofit organization that offers comprehensive wraparound services – including fundraising – to their newsroom partners, helping them build sustainable business models. NEWSWELL now has a string of 15 news outlets, including 11 in California. We’re joined by Nicole Carroll, Executive Director of NEWSWELL and a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She shares the vision behind NEWSWELL, explains the ASU connection and looks at what indie news needs to survive."
Once given out at USC, this banned, opioid-like product is still cropping up in California
CALMATTERS, PHOEBE HUSS: "California legislators are attempting to regulate products containing an addictive, opioid-like plant — one that, until recently, several universities including the University of Southern California marketed in a beverage as a wellness tonic and distributed at no cost.
A
Feel Free is a psychoactive tonic drink that can be consumed like a shot of tequila or Nyquil. The small, two-ounce blue bottles are available in places from smoke shops to health food stores in California. It is made from plants, kava root and kratom leaf, the latter of which contains organic compounds called alkaloids that act like drugs in the human body. These alkaloids — 7-hydroxymitragynine and mitragynine — are not technically opioids, but they interact with the same brain receptors as opioids to produce pleasure and relieve pain."
Teens walked out of school to protest ICE. Police are investigating the adults who helped them
CALMATTERS, NIGEL DUARA: "As Fresno Resistance co-founder Alfred Aldrete awoke from uneasy dreams one morning last month, he found himself the focus of community gossip and, he believes, a target of the local police department.
Aldrete and a small group of volunteers escorted about 50 high school students on a walkout in protest of immigration enforcement last month in the city of Clovis, population 128,000, where Donald Trump won every precinct in the 2024 presidential election – some with more than 70% of the vote."
UC Jewish community paints disparate pictures of campus antisemitism
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "Jewish faculty, students and others are calling on UC leaders to improve how they handle complaints of antisemitism — saying university response has been inadequate — but their viewpoints paint widely differing pictures of the campus climate for Jews.
One letter originated from a national group that works to combat antisemitism at colleges and cited its own research to conclude that Jewish UC students have faced “unprecedented harassment, intimidation, and exclusion” since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza spurred widespread anti-Israel campus protests."
A UC professor won criminology’s highest honor. Americans still don’t believe her research
CHRONICLE, RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "Charis E. Kubrin thought it could be a prank.
The UC Irvine professor had gotten an email telling her she was nominated for the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, an accolade that amounts to her field’s version of a Nobel Prize. After 20 years of studying and writing about immigration and crime — and specifically how immigration does not make crime go up — Kubrin was used to seeing dismissive, sneering and even misogynistic takes in her inbox. This was different."
In rural America, a pipeline of teachers from abroad starts to dry up
LAT, MICHAEL MELIA: "Like many school systems facing teacher shortages, South Carolina’s Allendale County has looked overseas for help. A quarter of the teachers in the rural, high-poverty district come from other countries.
The superintendent praises the international educators — mostly from Jamaica and the Philippines — for their skill and dedication. But she is preparing to lose some of them as the Trump administration reshapes visa programs."
California sues Oakland Unified, alleging it has failed to address antisemitism
LAT, VANI SANGANERIA: "The California Department of Education has sued the Oakland Unified School District over an alleged failure to address multiple complaints of antisemitism across its campuses.
The lawsuit follows a series of complaints filed by Jewish advocacy groups over Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian posters being hung on campuses, educators teaching pro-Palestinian curricula and other issues."
Epic L.A. heat wave poses deadly health threat — and a test for California
LAT, HANNAH FRY: "The unusual early heat wave set to hit Southern California this week is heightening concerns about public safety and will mark a test of the state’s efforts to combat heat-related deaths in a time of rising temperatures.
The sweltering temperatures are arriving months earlier than typical and communities have not had time to acclimate, making the early-season heat particularly dangerous, experts say. Climate scientist Daniel Swain described it as “a full-on summer heat wave in March” in a post on X."
S.F. could hit 90 degrees for first time ever in March
CHRONICLE, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Tuesday will likely be San Francisco’s hottest March day since modern weather measurements began 152 years ago.
Temperatures are forecast to skyrocket into the 80s, even threatening the 90-degree mark at the city’s official weather station outside the U.S. Mint near Duboce Triangle. The city’s current March high temperature record is 87 degrees, set on March 11, 2005."
Drivers are watching YouTube and TikTok behind the wheel. Experts say it’s getting worse
CHRONICLE, RACHEL SWAN: "Had the crash video not been so terrifying, it might have passed for low comedy.
A white pickup truck slammed into a California Highway Patrol cruiser that was parked at the scene of a prior accident. The driver told officers he had been watching YouTube videos on his phone and didn’t see the flares or the stationary patrol car. He didn’t even glimpse the officer who was waving a strobe flashlight, and who had to jump out of the way when the truck barreled in."
He wrote S.F.’s condo sprinkler mandate. Now he’s consulting on how to get exemptions
CHRONICLE, J.K. DINEEN: "In 2022 Kenneth Cofflin had a big job to do.
At the time he was the San Francisco fire marshal in charge of updating the city’s fire code, an 800-page document that included a controversial requirement that residential high-rises built before 1974 have sprinklers installed in every room. He ushered the legislation through the fire commission and the board of supervisors before former Mayor London Breed signed it into law.
Marin home where Francis Ford Coppola began ‘The Godfather’ hits market for $6.75M
CHRONICLE, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Long before “The Godfather” became one of the most celebrated films in American cinema, Francis Ford Coppola was working out its opening scenes in a small cottage in Mill Valley.
Now that property, at 8 Laurel St. on a prominent corner at Throckmorton Avenue near downtown Mill Valley, is on the market for $6.75 million."
LAPD captain avoids firing after complaint of racist and sexist comments within unit she led
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "A Los Angeles police captain whose officers were recorded making racist, sexist and homophobic comments has avoided termination and will be reassigned to another position in the department, according to a transfer order and three sources who requested anonymity to discuss the confidential personnel matter.
The captain, Robin Petillo, saw her case before a disciplinary panel dismissed over an apparent statutory issue before a hearing that was scheduled for March 4, according to the sources."