Iran’s president, foreign minister and others found dead at helicopter crash site, state media says
LA Times's JON GAMBRELL: "Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and others have been found dead at the site of a helicopter crash Monday after an hours-long search through a foggy, mountainous region of the country’s northwest, state media reported. Raisi was 63.
The crash comes as the Middle East remains unsettled by the Israel-Hamas war, during which Raisi under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month. Under Raisi, Iran enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and armed militia groups across the region."
Trump is mainstreaming Christian nationalism. If elected, that agenda could greatly impact California
The Chronicle's RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "When Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account in March promoting a $59.99 Bible packaged with founding American documents and lyrics to a country song, reactions noted the jarring fusion of faith and commerce.
Here was the once and aspiring president — facing four criminal prosecutions, owing more than $800 million in civil fines and famously at sea discussing Christian scripture — selling the King James translation appended with the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and the chorus to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”"
California Republicans look beyond Steve Garvey to lure voters. Their idea: Tap into crime fears
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey didn’t show up this weekend to the biggest Republican gig of the year, the three-day California Republican Party convention in Burlingame that ended Sunday.
And the reaction among the 800 top grassroots activists and party leaders: Meh."
How Kevin McCarthy is influencing this congressional race — without being on the ballot
LA Times's LAURA J. NELSON: "As he stood on a sun-dappled patio overlooking the Visalia Country Club, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux didn’t mince words about his chances in his run for Congress.
“I am the underdog,” Boudreaux told a crowd of supporters. “I am pushing back against a machine that is so powerful that it’s very challenging, to say the least.”"
The Micheli Minute for May 20, 2024
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "Lobbyist and McGeorge law professor Chris Micheli offers a quick look at what’s coming up this week under the Capitol Dome."
Paul Pelosi attack: ‘Error’ forces judge to order redo of David DePape’s sentencing
The Chronicle's DAVID HERNANDEZ: "A day after David DePape was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a break-in at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and an attack on her husband, a federal judge ordered a redo of the sentencing because DePape wasn’t given an opportunity to speak during the hearing.
In court filings Saturday, District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley called it an error on her part. She scheduled the do-over for May 28 to give DePape, 44, the chance to make a statement. Before defendants are sentenced, they are entitled to speak in court to attempt to influence the outcome."
A UCLA doctor is on a quest to free modern medicine from a Nazi-tainted anatomy book
LA Times's EMILY ALPERT REYES: "As Dr. Kalyanam Shivkumar pondered how to fix the human heart, he was given a gift laced with horror.
Shivkumar, a cardiac electrophysiologist known as “Shiv” to friends and co-workers at UCLA, was trying to better understand the intricate details of nerves in the chest. He hoped doing so might help him improve treatments for cardiac arrhythmias — aberrant rhythms of the heart — that can prove dangerous and even deadly."
These districts and charters were fined for violating TK requirements
EdSource's LASHERICA THORNTON: "Several California school districts and charter schools have been fined for violating state guidelines on average class size and/or staffing ratios in transitional kindergarten, a grade level that has been expanding to include all 4-year-olds by 2025.
Through its universal pre-kindergarten initiative, the state intends to offer high-quality instruction to all 4-year-olds through TK, an additional year of public education prior to kindergarten. To do so, California has implemented legislation placing requirements on transitional kindergarten and adding fiscal penalties for noncompliance. State-set TK guidelines require classes to maintain an average student enrollment of 24 kids and to use a 1:12 adult-to-student ratio."
What happened to Silicon Beach? Why L.A.’s tech sector hasn’t lived up to the hype
LA Times's SAMANTHA MASUNAGA, WENDY LEE and THOMAS SUH LAUDER: "High atop a Century City tower with floor-to-ceiling views of the Westside, a group of venture capitalists, other investors and startup founders picked at charcuterie boards, sipped drinks and debated the future of tech ventures in the Los Angeles area.
The mood was upbeat. L.A. is a sleeping tech giant, they said, home to a diverse range of successful companies, including dating app Tinder, Riot Games and Hawthorne-based SpaceX."
California commission approved new I-80 toll lanes. Could you be charged $1 per mile?
Sacramento Bee's ARIANE LANGE: "New toll lanes moved one step closer to hitting capital-region commuters in the wallet last week when the California Transportation Commission approved one east- and one westbound lane with fluctuating tolls for vehicles with one or two occupants on I-80 through Yolo County.
Autumn Bernstein, the executive director of the Yolo Transportation District, told KDRT’s Bill Buchanan in December that the actual prices had not yet been determined, but similar lanes in the Bay Area charge around $1 a mile at peak traffic times."
Catholic pilgrims cross Golden Gate Bridge to start two-month national walk of faith
The Chronicle's SAM WHITING: "On Sunday afternoon, Charles East came out of St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco and walked toward the Golden Gate Bridge while reciting the rosary. That was just the start.
After crossing the bridge, East kept walking — on the first leg of a 2,200-mile journey of faith. He is one of about two dozen lay pilgrims selected to walk from the four corners of the country in a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, converging at a Catholic conclave in Indianapolis that begins two months from now and is expected to draw 50,000 people."
She headed logistics for the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. Now she’s accused of stealing $600K
The Chronicle's DEMIAN BULWA: "The former director of logistics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey has been accused of a massive embezzlement scheme.
Federal prosecutors say Zelene Charles, 42, spent upward of three years stealing more than $600,000 from the school and the nearby Defense Language Institute, plus a cache of Apple MacBooks and iPads."
