Ending DST

Mar 11, 2019

Year-round DST in California: It's time has come, lawmaker says

 

The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "This will be the last year California springs forward and falls back, if Kansen Chu gets his way."

 

"The Democratic assemblyman from San Jose, who has made it his legislative mission over the past three years to end the biannual changing of clocks in California, is pursuing a new bill to move the state to daylight-saving time all year instead of from March to November. The next switchover comes at 2 a.m. Sunday."

 

"Voters cleared the path for Chu in November when they overwhelmingly passed an initiative giving the Legislature power to try to change the period for daylight-saving time in California, with a two-thirds vote. Congress would still have to OK the switch. The campaign had the unusual, and perhaps unprecedented, distinction of attracting exactly zero dollars from either supporters or opponents."

 

Mothers' 26-year quest for justice takes them to state Supreme Court

 

From J. HARRY JONES, San Diego Union-Tribune: "It has been 26 years since the two mothers last saw their young sons, boyhood friends who hopped on their bikes one Saturday afternoon to enjoy burgers and candy and never came home."

 

"But on Wednesday, Milena (Sellers) Phillips and Maria Keever sat in the chambers of the California Supreme Court in San Francisco listening to a lawyer argue why the sexual predator who murdered their children should have his death penalty sentence overturned."

 

“As long as we’re alive, anything that has to do with our children, we’re going to be there,” Phillips said."

 

California's ambitious plan to stop deadly wildfires may not  be enough, experts say

 

The Chronicle's KURITS ALEXANDER: "As California fire officials roll out an ambitious plan to thin the state’s overgrown forests in an attempt to prevent another year of deadly wildfires, a growing body of research suggests their success may be limited."

 

"The foremost strategy, proposed in a 28-page report to the governor last week, is to clear trees and brush near vulnerable communities. Thirty-five areas, including about a half dozen in the Bay Area, are targeted in the safety blitz."

 

"But while fewer trees can mean less fuel for fires, researchers have found that it can also mean undermining a forest’s natural defenses and increase the fire risk. For example, thinning can let in sunlight that dries out the woodlands or create space for new, less fire-resistant vegetation to emerge."

 

READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: For these California fire survivors, hope grows amid the ashes of Paradise -- LA Times's LAURA NEWBERRY; After more than 140 years, a massive fig tree gracing the plaza where Los Angeles was founded collapses -- LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH

 

Harris, Sanders chart diverging courses to 2020 Democratic nomination

 

Sacramento Bee's KATIE GLUECK/ALEX ROARTY: "Kamala Harris sat onstage in a cavernous convention center room in North Charleston, S.C., on Saturday afternoon, extolling the importance of supporting small business owners to around 480 African-American entrepreneurs and their allies."

 

"Let’s be clear, this is not about a hand-out,” she said. “It’s about a lift up."

 

"A day later, Bernie Sanders returned as a conquering hero to New Hampshire — a state he won overwhelmingly in the 2016 presidential primary — to tell several thousand boisterous, mostly white supporters that the “political revolution” he started four years ago has since gone on to consume most of the Democratic Party."

 

READ MORE related to Electing POTUS46: Democratic debate on Fox News? Kirsten Gillibrand 'would not mind at all' -- The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI

 

$10 million to provide dozens of beds for homeless in Riverside County

 

From the P-E's DAVID DOWNEY: "Homeless people will have new places to stay across Riverside County as a result of $10 million allocated this week for programs across the region."

 

"Natalie Komuro, deputy county executive officer for homelessness solutions, said the dollars are coming from a new source of state funding."

 

"“It gives us the opportunity to accelerate the response to homelessness, particularly in areas that have historically had no homeless programs,” Komuro said in a news release."

 

Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney's son fatally shot

 

The Chronicle's KIMBERLY VEKLEROV/DOMINIC FRACASSA: "The son of Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney was fatally shot early Sunday in Los Angeles."

 

"Victor McElhaney, an Oakland native, was a student at the University of Southern California. The avid drummer and jazz musician had recently transferred to the university from a community college."

 

"McElhaney, 21, apparently was the victim of an attempted robbery off campus. Los Angeles-area media outlets reported that McElhaney was approached by several males at the corner of Maple Avenue and Adams Boulevard. One of them shot McElhaney before the group fled in a vehicle."

 

Did late SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi keep plea deals secret from clients?

 

The Chronicle's HEATHER KNIGHT: "In the two weeks since Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s shocking death,admirers of the larger-than-life attorney have praised his aggressiveness, his brashness and his never-give-up courtroom style."

 

"At his City Hall memorial on Monday, he was eulogized as, “Our sensei Superman ... fighting for truth, justice and the American way."

 

"During a Board of Supervisors commemoration the week before, Supervisor Hillary Ronen said Adachi told attorneys in the public defender’s office, including her husband, “to fight with everything they’ve got for every single client — to take risks, to push boundaries."

 

SF libraries as sanctuaries for the homeless -- Hollywood movie captures realities

 

The Chronicle's KEVIN FAGAN: "Francisco Martinez likes to read. The Bible, usually. And he likes to ditch his tent a few hours a day for somewhere inside, where it’s warm and out of the rain, the people are nice and he can snatch a nap in a chair."

 

"There’s one place that fills the bill for a homeless guy like Martinez, who at 78 moves more like someone who’s 88."

 

"The library."

 

READ MORE related to Housing & Homelessness: Aging onto the street -- The Chronicle's KEVIN FAGAN

 

Promises broken? City's handling of protester's called a 'breach of faith'

 

Sacramento Bee's BENJY EGEL/THERESA CLIFT:  "Two days before Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert announced she wouldn’t file criminal charges against the police officers who fatally shot Stephon Clark, Chief Daniel Hahn sat at a table with the Rev. Mary Westfall, a pastor with the Presbytery of Sacramento."

 

"Hahn and his officers had met with Westfall, other clergy and black community leaders for several months, bringing in speakers on transformational policing and discussing how both sides could help deescalate tense situations after Schubert’s inevitable announcement. The city wanted avoid another national black eye like the one it wore after Clark’s death, when protesters shut down Golden 1 Center and took over city council meetings; activists wanted a guarantee that they could peacefully express themselves without facing force."

 

"Many faith leaders had been working with law enforcement to say ‘when this day comes, we want to do it differently,’” Westphal said. “We worked hard with the communities who are most affected by this egregious injustice to really tell them, ‘trust for now. We are assured we won’t be met with violence. Demonstrate, grieve, express your anger and outrage.”

 

Charter schools soon will have open meetings and records. Gavin Newsom says that's just a 'start'

 

Sacramento Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California parents may soon be able to learn more about charter schools in their communities under a new law that forces those schools to hold open meetings and make records public."

 

"Charter backers say that’s a good thing in principle. The California Charter Schools Association stood behind Gov. Gavin Newsom as he signed the bill last week after it was fast-tracked through the Legislature with his support."

 

"But charter backers are warily eying other bills in the works at the Capitol. They include a plan to cap the number of charter schools in the state, as well as a proposal to let districts consider how much a charter will cost when deciding whether to approve one."

 

READ MORE related to Education: Your primer to the SCUSD budget crisis -- how did we get to now? -- Sacramento Bee's SAWSAN MORRAR; William J. Johnston, superintendent who led LAUSD for 10 turbulent years, dies at 92 -- LA Times's HOWARD BLUME

 

Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris' contrasts expose broader shift among Democrats

 

The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN: "They’re two of the most prominent women in the Senate and the Democratic Party. They both were born and made their careers in California, specifically the Bay Area. Nine times out of 10, they vote the same way."

 

"But they also exemplify a growing divide among Democrats over the direction the party should take."

 

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a barrier-breaking politician with a storied career and several substantial laws to her name. But she’s increasingly finding herself at odds with an activist wing of the party frustrated with her attachment to compromise and bipartisanship."

 

California police report almost no racial profiling

 

AP's DON THOMPSON: "California's first-in-the-nation attempt to track racial profiling complaints against police produced numbers so unrealistically small that the board overseeing the tally wants departments to make changes to encourage more people to come forward."

 

"The panel's most recent report found 17 percent of California's law enforcement agencies reported not a single complaint in 2017."

 

"And of 659 profiling complaints that were filed in a state of nearly 40 million people, just 10 were sustained. Three-quarters of the profiling complaints involve race or ethnicity, but they can also include age, gender, religion, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation."

 

READ MORE related to Prisons & Public Safety: Out in the Cold: Were 4 mentally disabled men set up to die in the California woods? -- Sacramento Bee's BENJY EGEL; Bill would help California's inmate firefighters pursue career after release -- The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY

 

After daughter's suicide, griefing parents denounce gaps in access to mental health care

 

The Chronicle's JOCELYN WIENER: "Elizabeth Brown’s bedroom in Santa Rosa holds a trove of evidence of her fight to save her own life. Preserved among “Twilight” novels, posters of Korean pop singers and cameras she used in her budding journalism career are clues about the teenager’s struggle with mental illness before her suicide last year at age 19."

 

"Next to her bed sits the lavender candle she lit to soothe herself. On her desk are the bunny slippers she wore when she was too depressed and anxious to leave the house. Taped to the wall are two plastic hospital bracelets from separate psychiatric admissions in 2017. Underneath them hang four sticky notes, on which she had printed:"

 

"channel all the anger, sadness, hurt into this one thing."

 

SFO traffic suffers from Uber and Lyft, so it entices riders to meet car in garage

 

The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "\Uber and Lyft made a whopping 10 million pickups and drop-offs at San Francisco International Airport last year, clogging the curbside spaces so badly that the airport started offering a $3 discount to ride-hail customers willing to walk across the street and meet their drivers at an adjacent garage."

 

"This offers their customers more value, while helping to keep our roadways moving smoothly and efficiently,” Airport Director Ivar C. Satero said in the news release announcing the change."

 

"The discount is the latest attempt by the airport to control the explosive growth of its ride-hail traffic. There are now more than 1,200 pickups and drop-offs an hour."

 

READ MORE related to Transportation: Fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plan raises hard questions about a mainstay Boeing jet -- LA Times's RALPH VARTABEDIAN

 

Arizona ranchers who supported Trump wall now have doubts about border plans

 

LA Times's MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE: "When Donald Trump was elected president, rancher John Ladd said smuggling traffic on his ranch immediately dipped, and he slept soundly for the first time in years."