A near-catastrophe at the Oroville Dam this past month has prompted officials to more closely examine and plan improvents for California's network of aging dams.
NY Times' HENRY FOUNTAIN: "Until a few weeks ago, the McCormack-Williamson Tract in the California Delta was an island of low-lying farmland, more than two square miles protected from the surrounding rivers and sloughs by earthen levees."
"Today the tract is an immense lake, up to 15 feet deep, with fish prowling the water and ducks skimming the surface. The adjacent Mokelumne River, swollen by the intense storms that have drenched the state this winter, caused a levee to break, allowing the water to rush in."
"Those same storms led to the recent near disaster at the Oroville Dam100 miles north of here, which cast an uncomfortable light on the elaborate and aging network of reservoirs, aqueducts, levees and pumps that funnel water to the state’s 39 million people and its $50 billion agricultural industry."
READ MORE related to Environment: California snowpack could bring 5-year drought to its knees -- AP; A road trip to Death Valley: Salt Flats, chilly nights and Kitsch -- NY Times' LUCAS PETERSON; DWR takes on debris removal, fish rescue -- Chico ER's RISA JOHNSON; Cal Fire releases cause of deadly 2016 mobile home fire in Chico -- Chico ER's ANDRE BYIK
President Trump called upon the memories of two fallen Placer and Sacramento County law enforcement officers during his Congressional speech yesterday.
Sacramento Bee's TARYN LUNA: "The guest list isn’t limited to lawmakers for President Donald Trump’s first address before a joint Congress Tuesday night in Washington."
"It’s a tradition for members of Congress to extend a special invitation to someone of their choosing. The guests typically embody issues that are important to each politician."
"Trump, who promised to secure the nation’s borders on the campaign trail, is bringing along Jessica Davis and Susan Oliver, the wives of the late Placer County Deputy Michael Davis Jr. and Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver. The officers were allegedly killed by an undocumented immigrant in a daylong rampage that shook the region in 2014."
READ MORE related to Public Safety: Judge rejects effort to withdraw guilty plea in massive Ponzi scheme -- Sacramento Bee's SAM STANTON; Sacramento transgender performer killed in New Orleans -- Sacramento Bee's NASHELLY CHAVEZ; In emotional moment, Trump salutes slain SEAL's wife -- AP's JONATHAN LEMIRE; 'Willpower defeated firepower': LAPD honors heroes of North Hollywood shootout -- Daily News' DANA BARTHOLOMEW; Man in stolen 'Epic Tacos' van leads police on chase in Granada Hills -- Daily News
Speaking of Trump, his speech to Congress didn't contain specifics on how he plans to carry out campaign promises. But analysts gave the speech credit for employing a unifying tone.
L.A. Times' CATHLEEN DECKER: "President Trump’s well-delivered speech to Congress on Tuesday night answered one major question — whether he could offer the country a less divisive tone — but provided almost no clarity about how he hopes to fulfill the promises that he made in his campaign."
"In addition to “massive” tax cuts and additional write-offs, Trump talked of spending tens of billions more on the military and $1trillion on infrastructure projects, with no explanation of how to achieve that without expanding the debt, which he criticized his predecessor, President Obama, for having increased."
"Similarly, he made promises to come up with a health plan that would simultaneously expand choice, lower costs and improve access. But he said nothing about how that would happen."
READ MORE related to Beltway: Donald Trump's Congress Speech (full text) -- CNN; Jewish groups criticize Trump after he reportedly says bomb threats were made to 'make others look bad' -- L.A. Times' JAWEED KALEEM; CPAC is just another hunting ground for Daryle Jenkins, the man who spies on the fringe -- L.A. Times' MATT PEARCE; FBI once planned to pay former British spy who authored controversial Trump dossier -- WaPo's TOM HAMBURGER/ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN; Jesse Jackson's take on Trump from Tenderloin shelter -- The Chronicle's MICHAEL BODLEY; Trump sounds softer but proposals are same -- and just as vague -- The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI; Zinke heads toward confirmation as Interior secretary -- AP
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti is a glass-half-full kind of guy: He believes homelessness is an epidemic California can cure.
NY Times' MIKE MCPHATE: "It was a warm February morning and Mayor Eric Garcetti had what seemed to be a good idea: to sit outside at a cafe for an interview about his re-election campaign."
"What Mr. Garcetti got was a real-time reminder of what he would list as one of his first-term regrets: the rising homeless population here. Within moments after he settled in, accompanied by two aides and one security officer, two homeless men came by and asked for money. (He politely declined.)"
"The first one moved on; the second did not, pacing back and forth and talking loudly for the remainder of Mr. Garcetti’s visit. At one point, a member of the mayor’s security detail tried to lure the man away, but he returned. Mr. Garcetti was unflustered, talking with the focus and discipline of a politician."
Press secretaries for California's governors past and present talk themselves into a stupor trying to explain Sean Spicer.
L.A. Times' ROBIN ABCARIAN: "A bipartisan gathering of former press secretaries is generally not the hottest ticket in town."
"But in an era when daily White House press briefings are getting better ratings than many daytime soap operas, and the high point of any new “Saturday Night Live” is Melissa McCarthy’s spot-on impression of White House Press Secretary Sean “Spicy” Spicer, I figured it might be fun to listen in."
"Monday, I took myself to the state capital, where five former press secretaries who served Republican Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Democrats Gray Davis and Jerry Brown headlined a Sacramento Press Club lunch."
READ MORE related to Local: Eric Garcetti makes his case as mayor of Los Angeles -- NY Times' ADAM NAGOURNEY
Many Canadians express discontent at the reality of a Trump Tower in the Vancouver Skyline.
L.A. Times' RICK ANDERSON: "The grand opening of this city’s newest skyscraper, 69 stories of twisting glass, five-star hotel rooms and multimillion-dollar condominiums, seems to have left some Canadians embarrassed by its excesses."
“I couldn’t afford to go in there,” red-haired Max Baker, a cook from nearby Surrey, said Tuesday as he and his girlfriend stood outside and craned their necks to study the curving edges of the $360-million tower. “I wouldn’t if I could, anyway. I’d feel like a traitor to Canada.”
"No problem, Max. The mayor didn’t show, either. Neither did a number of top city officials despite the developer’s deep-pocket investment that produced the city’s second-tallest building, its first new hotel in almost three years, and 300 new jobs."
The 2017 Oscars was a notable experience filled with gaffes, celebrity feuds, and everyday Americans getting a cinematic taste of Hollywood.
"A trip to the Oscars would be cool almost any day of the week. But doing that days after being released from decades in prison? That’s what happened to the Oscars’ newest viral sensation, Gary Alan Coe, better known as “Gary From Chicago.”
"Coe, 59, and his fiancee, Vickie Vines, were the first of a dozen or so unsuspecting tourists to enter the Dolby Theatre while the Oscars were in progress."
“I spent this afternoon laughing and crying with Gary and Vicky,” public defender Karen Nash posted Monday on Facebook. “For those of you who missed it, I spent years working on Gary’s case. He got a life sentence for stealing perfume in 1997, and we finally won release this year. He got out on Friday, and was sight seeing with his lovely fiancé Vicky. If you watched the Oscars, you know the rest.”
READ MORE related to Economy: Study: California toughest U.S. market for first-time homebuyers -- Sacramento Bee's MARK GLOVER; Plan for shop on SF waterfront draws opposition -- The Chronicle's JK DINEEN; Hershey expects to cut 15 percent of global workforce -- AP; Trump's military boost means jobs, says ex-Inland defense official -- The Press-Enterprise's DAVID DOWNEY
Recent revelations have exposed a drastic spike in sexual misconduct running rampant across the UC system in just three years.
East Bay Times' THOMAS PEELE/MATTHIAS GAFNI/KATY MURPHY: "The University of California disciplined more than 100 employees for sexual misconduct, about a quarter of them faculty members, at campuses across the state in the nearly three years before a scandal blew up at UC Berkeley, according to documents released Tuesday after a public records request from the Bay Area News Group."
"The cases covered a period from January 2013 to April 2016, just as a series of sex harassment cases were unearthed at Berkeley that brought down prominent researchers, deans and coaches. In all, campuses across the state released details Tuesday on 124 cases."
"The documents show for the first time how widespread sexual harassment was across the 10-campus UC system beyond Berkeley and which schools had the biggest problems:"
READ MORE related to Education: New Uc Davis Chancellor GARY MAY earns $325,780 a year from outside board seats -- Sacramento Bee's DIANA LAMBERT; Two California schools among hundreds in U.S. taking international test to compare themselves globally -- EdSource's THERESA HARRINGTON; How does California rank in per-pupil spending? It all depends -- EdSource's JOHN FENSTERWALD; Chico Unified school board to discuss construction, budgets -- Chico ER's STAFF
Trump's election has galvanized a more timid bloc of voters: 'slacktivists.'
Sacramento Bee's ANGELA HART: "The Sunday after America elected Donald Trump, Placerville resident and small-business owner Sean Frame decided to do something about the anxiety he was feeling. Though he’s on a local school board, he never really considered himself a politically active person."
"There’s a term – slacktivist,” Frame said. “I was very good at posting things on Facebook, but I didn’t really ever take that out into the world. Especially living in this very conservative community, I thought sharing my political views would just make my friends and neighbors angry.”
"Trump’s victory changed things."
The blows to Uber just keep rolling: CEO recently caught on video berating an employee who had some complaints.
The Chronicle's ERIC NEWCOMER: "When Uber CEO Travis Kalanick takes an Uber, he prefers a black car, the high-end service his company introduced in 2010. On this particular night in early February — Super Bowl Sunday — Kalanick is perched in the middle seat, flanked by two female friends. Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know” plays, and Kalanick shimmies."
"One of his companions appears to say, somewhat inaudibly, that she’s heard that Uber is having a hard year. Kalanick retorts, “I make sure every year is a hard year.” He continues, “That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy, I’m not pushing hard enough.”
"There’s no question that it’s been a hard year for Kalanick and Uber — or really, a bad year compressed down into an awful three months. And it keeps getting worse. That pleasant conversation between Kalanick and his friends in the back of an Uber Black? It devolved into a heated argument over fares between the CEO and his driver, Fawzi Kamel, who turned over a dashboard recording of the conversation to Bloomberg."
Recent studies show that a drop in cancer rates accompanied the economic recession of 2008 -- but experts say this isn't a sign of a positive trend.
California Healthline's JOCELYN WIENER: "As the country plunged into recession between 2008 and 2012, something unexpected happened: An earlier small decline in the number of new cancer cases became a much bigger one."
"The authors of a study published last month by the Cancer Prevention Institute of California believe they have a plausible explanation for the trend: People who lost their incomes or health insurance during that time were less likely to get routine screenings or visit the doctor."
"The researchers’ analysis of data from the California Cancer Registry, published in the journal Cancer Causes & Control, shows that in the state’s 30 largest counties, cancer diagnosis rates during the recession and subsequent recovery dropped by 3.3 percent annually for males and 1.4 percent for females — much faster than the average decline of 0.7 percent for males and 0.5 percent for females documented over the previous decade."
READ MORE related to Health: Instead of trashing a $600 EpiPen, some patients get a refill -- California Healthline's SHEFALI LUTHRA; LA County Health Chief wants to 'catch' people dropped from coverage -- California Healthline's EMILY BAZAR
Trump's revised travel ban alludes to compromise after it was made public that Iraq had been removed from the banned countries list.
AP: "President Donald Trump’s new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary U.S. travel ban, U.S. officials say, citing the latest draft in circulation. Trump is expected to sign the executive order in the coming days."
"Four officials told The Associated Press that the decision followed pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, which had urged the White House to reconsider Iraq’s inclusion on the list given its key role in fighting the Islamic State group."
"Citizens of six other predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — will remain on the travel ban list, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the order before it is signed. Those bans are effective for 90 days."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Trump hints at immigration compromise -- AP
