UC approves new less-lethal arms for its police force amid protest
CALMatters's MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "Minutes after a UC regents committee began debating the purchase of additional less-lethal weapons and ammunition this afternoon, pro-Palestinian students in the UCLA meeting room drowned them out.
“Why did you shoot us?” one shouted — a reference to the less lethal rounds used at last spring’s campus unrest."
Formal roles of Governor and Lt. Governor in lawmaking
Capitol Weekly's CHRIS MICHELI: "Both the California Governor and the Lieutenant Governor have formal roles in the lawmaking process, despite the fact that this authority is granted to the legislative branch of state government pursuant to Article IV of the California Constitution. Article IV, Section 1 provides: “The legislative power of this State is vested in the California Legislature which consists of the Senate and Assembly, but the people reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum.”
On the other hand, Article V, Section provides: “The supreme executive power of this State is vested in the Governor. The Governor shall see that the law is faithfully executed.” Nonetheless, Article IV has several provisions that specify the role of the Governor in the lawmaking process."
Gavin Newsom said he doesn’t have the ‘bandwidth’ to campaign against Proposition 36
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom is an outspoken critic of Proposition 36, which would restore felony penalties for certain theft- and drug-related offenses. But don’t expect to see him campaigning on it between now and the election in November.
In a Thursday press conference, the governor said that “it’s a question of bandwidth.”"
California voters overwhelmingly support Proposition 36, new survey says
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "As Election Day looms ever larger, the Public Policy Institute of California Wednesday evening released the latest snapshot of voter sentiment. And that snapshot contains good news for supporters of Proposition 36, the ballot measure to restore felony penalties for certain drug- and theft-related offenses.
A strong majority, 71% of all likely voters, said they would vote yes on Prop. 36. That includes majorities of Democrats (63%), Republicans (85%) and independents (73%)."
8 O.C. firefighters returning from front lines seriously hurt when truck crashes on Irvine freeway
LAT's CLARA HARTER: "Eight firefighters with the Orange County Fire Authority’s Santiago hand crew, who had been fighting the Airport fire, were injured Thursday — six of them seriously — after their vehicle crashed and flipped on State Route 241, officials said.
The crash took place at around 6:45 p.m. when the vehicle swerved to avoid a ladder on the freeway just north of Portola Parkway in Irvine, California Highway Patrol spokesperson Jeremy Tolen told OnScene.TV."
Mayor Breed pushes back at fierce attacks during Chronicle-KQED S.F. mayoral debate
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "San Francisco Mayor London Breed fought back against stinging attacks from her four leading challengers Thursday during a heated debate as the race to lead the city enters its final and most intense period.
Breed faced off against challengers Mark Farrell, Daniel Lurie, Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí in the televised debate hosted by the Chronicle and KQED. Breed sought to defend her record against harsh attacks from the rest of the field while issuing her own critiques at Farrell, a former interim mayor and supervisor, and Lurie, an antipoverty nonprofit founder."
California Bible college students claim they were confined, surveilled and made to do unpaid labor
LAT's COLLEEN SHALBY: "In 2018, emergency dispatchers received a strange call from a remote valley in Riverside County. The caller was a 22-year-old student who said that she had been unable to leave her rural college campus for months while she was forced to work without compensation. She said she lived there with 300 others, dispatch records show, and that barbed wire surrounded the school.
The location she called from matched the address of Olivet University — a Christian Bible school set against the San Jacinto Mountains near the high desert town of Anza. Its entrance is marked by a grove of olive trees, but the more than 900-acre gated campus isn’t visible from the street; visitors must make an appointment to enter."
Time for California to act: save community pharmacy and sign SB 966 (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly's CLINT HOPKINS: "My patients don’t know what a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) is or how much control they have over their healthcare. What they do know is that I am here to help them manage their illnesses . . . but, for how long?
PBMs are the middlemen between health insurance companies, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. They manage prescription drug benefits on behalf of insurers, employers, and government programs. Their main roles include negotiating drug prices, processing claims, developing formularies, and providing clinical management services under the guise of controlling costs."
Free at-home COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order yours
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "Americans will once again have the opportunity to request free coronavirus tests by mail, as authorities brace for a potential resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
The federal program, offering each U.S. household four at-home test kits via the Postal Service since 2022, has distributed more than 1.8 billion tests nationwide. Despite previous pauses due to funding shortages, the Biden administration has revived the initiative multiple times, most recently ahead of last year’s respiratory virus season."
Career education is redundant and convoluted. Gavin Newsom says he’ll fix it
CALMatters's ADAM ECHELMAN: "The town of Reedley has about 25,000 people — and five different public institutions that offer career education to its residents. There’s the high school, the adult school, the community college, the job center and the regional occupational program. In some cases, they work together to teach skills, such as welding.
Other times, they compete for the same students."
Undocumented student enrollment at California colleges declined by half since 2016. Here’s why
Sacramento Bee's MATHEW MIRANDA: "A new study reveals a sharp decline in the enrollment of low-income, undocumented students at California’s public universities.
From 2016 to 2023, undocumented student enrollment at the University of California and California State University campuses dropped by about 50%, according to the report from the UCLA Civil Rights Project and UC Davis School of Law. The decline is linked to gradual restrictions on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which began under former President Barack Obama and provides work permits to eligible youths who were brought to the United States as children."
UC chancellors get big raises, putting them between $785,000 and nearly $1.2 million
LAT's TERESA WATANABE: "University of California chancellors will get big salary boosts — near or exceeding 30% in most cases — as the Board of Regents agreed Thursday that higher pay was needed to bring leaders of the nation’s top public university system closer to what their peers earn.
The increases, which will be paid through private sources rather than tuition dollars or state funding, are effective this month and will vary by campus. They will bring annual chancellor salaries to: $785,000 at Merced; $795,000 at Santa Cruz; $810,000 at Riverside; $820,000 at Santa Barbara; $895,000 at Davis and Irvine; and nearly $1.2 million at San Francisco. Private funds already subsidize some of the chancellors’ pay at San Francisco and Davis."
A Rocklin man stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Now he’s teaching art in Placer County
Sacramento Bee's JENAVIEVE HATCH: "Tommy Frederick Allan, a Rocklin man convicted of one felony count of obstructing an official proceeding for his participation in the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is now an instructor at Liberty Learning Ministries, a Christian education program run through The Family Church in Roseville.
Allan was one of thousands of protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in support of former President Donald Trump, who believed the 2020 election was “stolen” from him when he lost to President Joe Biden. Allan climbed a wall to enter the Capitol and was one of the few insurrectionists to enter the Senate chambers, where he stood at the dais with a stolen American flag and other protesters, including the so-called “QAnon Shaman.” According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was released in May of this year."
Rare September rain due in Southern California, with some areas under flood watch
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY: "An unseasonable shift in weather is bringing the chance of showers and thunderstorms across Southern California, prompting some concerns about flooding as temperatures also drop well below average for mid-September.
In much of the Los Angeles area, the system is expected to bring only light rain or drizzling Thursday and Friday, but there is a possibility for pockets of thunderstorms that could bring heavier rain."
What happens to homeless people after encampment sweeps? That’s on cities, Gavin Newsom says
CALMatters's MARISA KENDALL: "Whose fault is the California homelessness crisis?
According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, cities and counties are to blame for failing to get people off the street — despite all the money he’s given them to do so."
California drivers can get mobile licenses on their iPhones — but they need physical ones too
CALMatters's KHARI JOHNSON: "Apple launched California identity cards and driver’s licenses for iPhones today, making the digital IDs easier to present — but for now they are only accepted at select airports and a small number of businesses selling age-restricted items such as alcohol, tobacco, fireworks, or guns.
Drivers are still legally required to carry their physical licenses, even if they get a digital one. And they cannot use digital licenses at offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which issues them, since the agency only accepts them online, through an app."
How a horrifying shipwreck spurred the creation of San Francisco’s first foghorn
The Chronicle's PETER HARTLAUB: " The biggest shipwreck in San Francisco history occurred on Feb. 22, 1901, and was marked by its silence.
No one on the mainland knew that the City of Rio de Janeiro steamship had sunk quickly off the rocks at Fort Point — dragging 129 of its 210 passengers into the deep — until the first lifeboat emerged through the thick veil of fog near shore. The Italian fishermen who led the subsequent rescue were greeted not by screams for help but the eerie quiet of lapping waves."
San Francisco is on pace for its lowest number of homicides since 1960
The Chronicle's DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "San Francisco is on track to have its lowest number of homicides in more than six decades.
So far this year, San Francisco has had 24 killings — a 37% decrease compared with the same time period last year, according to SFPD data. Though circumstances could change in the next three months, San Francisco would see just 34 total homicides by the end of the year at the current pace. That would be the city’s lowest number since 1960, which saw 30 homicides, though the city had about 100,000 fewer people at that time. This decline in homicides is part of a national trend in 2024 but is unusually pronounced in San Francisco."
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs placed on suicide watch at N.Y. jail; sources call it routine
LAT's RICHARD WINTON: "Sean “Diddy” Combs, in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., as he awaits trial on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges, was placed on suicide watch by officials, according to sources.
The sources said the suicide watch was routine in high-profile cases and meant to protect Combs."
