California could require car ‘governors’ that limit speeding to 10 mph over posted limits
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "California would become the first state to require new vehicles be equipped with speed governors — technology that limits how fast they can be driven — under legislation by San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener.
The bill, introduced Wednesday, would require cars and trucks of the 2027 model year or later that are built or sold in California to include speed governors that would prohibit motorists from driving more than 10 mph over posted speed limits."
READ MORE -- Broken chargers, lax oversight: How California’s troubled EV charging stations threaten emission goals
LA Times, RUSS MITCHELL
What a GOP fight over undocumented health care says about California’s changing politics
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "Two California lawmakers publicly blew up at each other earlier this month, hitting a nerve on an issue that has long-divided the state’s elected leaders: Whether and how much to offer government-subsidized health benefits to undocumented residents.
In one corner, Corona Assemblymember Bill Essayli declared that he wanted to unravel a new law that offers subsidized health coverage to undocumented immigrants."
L.A. officials had been hoping to fill vacant city jobs. The new plan? Eliminate them
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER: "For more than a year, Los Angeles’ political leaders have voiced alarm over the large number of vacant positions in city government, saying the situation has seriously hampered their ability to provide services to their constituents.
At one point, with the labor shortage affecting about a fifth of the city’s positions, some on the City Council began exploring the idea of providing hiring bonuses to every new employee."
Still deciding who wins your vote to be the next Sacramento mayor? Tune in to our forum
Sacramento Bee, STAFF: "Sacramento voters have the opportunity to select the replacement for Mayor Darrell Steinberg when his term ends in late 2024.
The Sacramento Bee along with PBS-affiliate KVIE is sponsoring a forum with the four leading mayoral candidates from 2 to 3 p.m. Jan. 31. The forum will be held in advance of the March 5 primary. Ballots will be mailed to voters on Feb. 5."
California made it legal for DACA immigrants to work as police. Which departments are using new law?
CALMatters, JUSTO ROBLES: "Dressed in a pristine dark blue uniform, Ernesto Moron raised his right hand and swore to defend the constitution of a state he wasn’t born in but that he has called home for more than two decades.
That December afternoon, the 26-year-old Mexican-born man became the first officer hired by the UC Davis Police Department under a 1-year-old California law that repealed the U.S. citizenship requirement to become a peace officer in the state."
Appeals court finds FBI did violate rights of some Beverly Hills safe-deposit box holders
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR: "The FBI violated people’s constitutional rights when it opened and “inventoried” the contents of hundreds of safe-deposit boxes during a raid on a Beverly Hills vault in 2021, a federal appellate court ruled Tuesday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a lower court decision in favor of the FBI. The panel found that the agency’s cataloging of the contents of the privately rented boxes, without individual criminal warrants for each, violated the box holders’ 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures."
‘Thousand-year storm’ leaves San Diego reeling from punishing rainfall, floods
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY: "In a matter of minutes Monday morning, communities across southeastern San Diego were transformed into disaster zones: Families fled their homes in chest-deep floodwaters; vehicles were swept downstream as roads became rivers; residents cried for help from their rooftops.
A deluge of rainfall from what city officials are calling a “thousand-year storm” forced hundreds of rescues, flooded an untold number of homes and businesses and caused millions of dollars in estimated damage. The floodwaters had mostly receded by Tuesday afternoon, revealing the devastating aftermath of California’s latest climate emergency — and leaving hundreds without housing and transportation, and with ruined valuables and personal belongings."
Newsom’s $8 billion fix to spare cuts to schools, community colleges may face tough sell
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Gov. Gavin Newsom buoyed the hopes of school district and community college educators this month when, despite a sizable three-year decline in state revenue, he promised to protect schools and colleges from cuts and to uphold future spending commitments.
They might want to hold their applause until after the last act, when the Legislature passes the 2024-25 budget in June."
Cal State and faculty union reach tentative pact with lightning speed, and not all are happy
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE, COLLEEN SHALBY, HOWARD BLUME: "A tentative labor agreement between California State University and its faculty, reached with lightning speed after a one-day strike, drew mixed early reviews — but union leaders said Tuesday it provides major gains for the most underpaid instructors and other benefits.
The abrupt end to Monday’s strike among faculty at the nation’s largest four-year university system confused and disappointed some union members who were prepared for a one-week walkout intended to “shut down” campuses as they held out for better pay and benefits. The Monday-night agreement avoided a five-day disruption to the system’s 23 campuses during what was for most the first week of the new term. Faculty were to return to their classes Wednesday."
Berkeley schools use a discredited reading curriculum. Why is it still in classrooms?
EdSource, ALLY MARKOVICH: "How kids are taught to read in Berkeley is slowly starting to shift.
Teachers are studying the science of reading. More students are learning phonics, sounding out words by letters and syllables. And the school district is screening every student to flag those who may have dyslexia, a learning disorder that causes difficulty with reading, writing and spelling."
UCSF doctors fed a lower back MRI to an AI program. This is what it told them
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "Artificial intelligence can already answer questions and produce fantastical images from a few short words. Now, increasingly, it is helping doctors analyze images from inside patients’ bodies to identify disease in new ways.
Researchers at UCSF are harnessing AI to read medical scans such as MRIs and help spot nuances or connections that even the most highly trained clinical professionals might miss. The software can more exactly quantify degradation, identify links between disparate symptoms, collect higher quality data, and even reduce the time patients have to spend inside claustrophobic scanners."
Can every Sacramento County school offer professional mental health help? Here’s the plan
Sacramento Bee, ISHANI DESAI: "The dreams of Ethel I. Baker Elementary School fourth-grade students ranged in depth and complexity when shared aloud during a Thursday morning discussion: One boy sought to end world violence, while another simply wished his mother could get more work.
In a neighboring fifth-grade class, a slide projected emojis depicting different emotions, and children discussed what activities wasted their time in a roundtable conversation."
Tech company layoffs surge in Bay Area with 1,000-plus additional cuts
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Tech companies have disclosed plans to slash more than 1,000 additional jobs in the Bay Area, cutbacks that suggest the high-tech sector in the region is off to an ominous start in 2024, official state notices show."
Will S.F.’s population grow in the future? New study predicts city may follow a different trend than others
The Chronicle, SRIHARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "San Francisco’s population declined dramatically during the first part of the pandemic, spurring worries that the city is headed for a “doom loop” scenario, in which the negative impacts of a decreasing population cascade. But since then, the city's population has been rising slowly, and according to new research, San Francisco is among the large U.S. cities poised to see population growth by the year 2100, even as other cities lose population. That positive projection is in part a result of the city's density and relative resilience to climate change.
Researchers from University of Illinois Chicago found that over half of all cities in America could see declines in population by the end of the century, leading to disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, and electricity. Except for D.C. and Hawaii, all states are expected to undergo some level of depopulation, with the Northeast and Midwest facing the largest losses, according to study authors Uttara Sutradhar and Sybill Derrible. The authors anticipate that by 2100, most places that are experiencing population growth will be urban areas located in the South or the West."
As California closes prisons, the cost of locking someone up hits new record at $132,860
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG, NIGEL DUARA: "The cost of imprisoning one person in California has increased by more than 90% in the past decade, reaching a record-breaking $132,860 annually, according to state finance documents.
That’s nearly twice as expensive as the annual undergraduate tuition — $66,640 — at the University of Southern California, the most costly private university in the state."
Alameda went far beyond what other cities were willing to pay to recruit officers. Did it pay off?
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "During the pandemic, California lost thousands of police officers, falling between 2020 and 2022 to the lowest number of patrol officers per capita since at least 1991, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Alameda was no exception. But in its rebuilding effort, its police department was willing to go further with financial incentives than any other city in the country, offering $75,000 in signing bonuses to new officers last year. Ten months later, the recruitment plan has worked, but it has yet to be reflected in the city’s crime statistics."
First look inside California’s bullet trains: Designs feature bars, play areas, airplane-like seats
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "California’s bullet trains could feature dining cars with bars, play areas for families with children, and tiered seating like airlines when they begin zipping through the Central Valley early next decade.
Those are some of the features the state’s High-Speed Rail Authority is considering as it finalizes designs later this year. The project, which can sometimes feel abstract to Bay Area residents, is still at least six years away from becoming a reality in the Central Valley. The preliminary designs recently released by the authority, however, show for the first time what people might see once they board their first bullet train."
A record 250 homeless people died in Sacramento in 2022. The trend will likely continue.
Sacramento Bee, THERESA CLIFT: "Two hundred and fifty homeless people died in Sacramento in 2022, according to new coroner data — more than ever before.
The list for 2023, which is still being finalized, is currently at 227, and is expected to surpass 250. The number has been climbing steadily since 2020, when there were 137 deaths. In 2013, there were a fraction of the deaths, 60, according to an annual report from the Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness."
