California's high court walks high wire on initiatives, 2 ex-justices say
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "California voters will decide next year whether to keep requiring cash bail for release from jail before trial. Voters may also decide whether to ease the state’s restriction on local rent control and whether to impose a five-year limit on alimony payments."
"All three measures have been proposed under California’s far-reaching initiative and referendum laws, which allow some of the most significant and complex legislative decisions to be handed off to the public. Voters are then subjected to advertising campaigns with few limits on their spending or content."
"And unlike legislation, which can be amended at the next session to correct flaws, most ballot measures approved by the people are inscribed in stone, at least until the next round of initiatives."
Yosemite National Park: Rules, crackdown reduce bear problems
The Chronicle's TOM STIENSTRA: "Contrary to legend, rangers have found it possible to infuse brainpower in summer tourists in Yosemite National Park."
"The numbers this week show that bear incidents are down 99 percent in 20 years at Yosemite, from a peak of 1,500 in 1997 to a low this year of three. In 2018, they verified only 22 incidents for the year."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: California fishermen report the biggest salmon season in a decade -- The Chronicle's TARA DUGGAN
How a trip on magic mushrooms helped decriminalize psychedelic plants in a California city
LA Times's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "Carlos Plazola locked himself in a bedroom while his cousin stood guard."
"For five hours, he tripped on magic mushrooms, nibbling the fungi and sipping them in tea. He ingested 5 grams — a heady amount that connoisseurs call the “heroic dose."
Newsom unveils $24B plan to tackle wildfires, PG&E bankruptcy
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER/BRYAN ANDERSON: "Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed creating a $21 billion fund to pay for future wildfire costs Friday, with the costs split evenly between ratepayers and shareholders of PG&E Corp. and California’s two other major utilities."
"The three companies must also spend a combined $3 billion on wildfire safety measures to become eligible for the so-called “insurance fund,” putting the total package at $24 billion."
"Newsom called his long-awaited proposal the best and fairest way to deal with rising costs of future mega-fires. His advisers said customers of the big three utilities won’t face rate hikes. But they’ll contribute to the program anyway, through a $2.50 monthly charge they’ve been paying since the early 2000s. The surcharge was due to expire next year, but Newsom’s plan would extend it for 15 years."
Lawmakers advance vaccine exemption crackdown toward passage
The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER: "A state senator’s move to scale back a bill giving California officials more say over thousands of medical exemptions for childhood vaccinations did little to dispel opponents’ anger, as hundreds of people packed a Thursday hearing where lawmakers advanced the measure toward passage."
"State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, amended his SB276 this week to give the state Department of Public Health the power to revoke medical exemptions at schools with large numbers of unvaccinated children — including against measles and rubella — and also exemptions issued by doctors who grant more than five a year."
"That won over Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had said he was concerned that Pan’s original proposal — giving the state the power to review all such exemptions — went too far."
Who is Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris?
Sacramento Bee's EMILY CADEI: "Kamala Harris has made a career of upending conventional political wisdom."
"Harris is the biracial daughter of immigrants who met at the University of California, Berkeley, and were active in the civil rights movement. “I was raised by parents who spent full time marching and shouting about this thing called justice and fighting for equality,” she said at a recent forum on poverty in Washington, D.C."
"Harris and her younger sister were primarily raised by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher who immigrated from India, and Harris often speaks of her influence on the campaign trail. Gopalan and Harris’ father, Jamaican-American economist Donald Harris, divorced when Harris was 7 years old."
Newsom to critics: State is 'still the envy of the world'
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "California is getting a bad rap from businesses and the national media, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, and he’s getting mighty tired of it."
“Every year, the (business) executive magazines come out and say, ‘California is the worst place to do business, No. 50 in the nation,’” the governor told The Chronicle’s editorial board Friday. “They say the best places are Tennessee and Texas ... but if it’s all about (gross domestic product), we outperform everyone.”
"California “is still the envy of the world,” Newsom said."
"Cárdenas, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, was re-elected in November with 81% of the vote."
Support impeachment, lose a seat: Why some California Dems go easy on Trump
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "For California’s congressional Democrats, it’s easy to stand strong for impeaching President Trump when there’s no chance they will have to pay a political price."
“This is not about party politics — it is about what is right for American people and our democracy,” Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Pacoima (Los Angeles County), said in a statement Thursday. “It is time to begin an impeachment inquiry into this president and get to the truth."
'She can lead. She can live.' Black Women's March draws hundreds to state Capitol
Sacramento Bee's PANCHALAY CHALERMKRAIVUTH: "On Saturday, hundreds rallied in a march to the west steps of the state Capitol in celebration of African American women and in a call to action for their empowerment."
"About 800 people participated in the third annual Black Women’s March from Crocker Park to the Capitol, placards displaying the faces of Sojourner Truth, Marsha P. Johnson and Mae Jemison hoisted high. Plenty stuck around for performances, live music and speeches from prominent community members, all organized by the Sacramento chapter of Black Women United."
"Host Courtney Dempsey, a reporter for “Good Day Sacramento” station CW31, opened the morning events with a rallying call. “Fifty-seven years ago, Malcolm X said the most disrespected person in America is who?"
Trump postpones immigration raids, calls for bipartisan solution
The Chronicle's LAUREN HERNANDEZ/GWENDOLYN WU: "President Trump has delayed the nationwide raids scheduled to detain roughly 2,000 recently arrived immigrant families living in the country illegally."
"Trump announced Saturday afternoon on Twitter that “At the request of Democrats,” he has decided to delay the mass deportation order for two weeks to give both Republicans and Democrats an opportunity to come to a bipartisan “solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border.”
“If not, Deportations start!” he warned."
How DNA tech used in GSK case could help ID last two Camp Fire victims
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER: "Their bones lie in a refrigerated morgue in Sacramento, waiting to be identified."
"Seven months after California’s deadliest wildfire devoured most of Paradise, the names of two of the Camp Fire’s 85 victims remain a confounding mystery."
"No relatives or friends have shown up to offer clues. There are no fingerprints to cross-check, no hip implants or other tell-tale signs."
azola’s first time using the mushrooms, which contain the naturally occurring hallucinogen psilocybin. He started having epiphanies, one right after the other, like lightning bolts."
50 years after Stonewall, is the LGBTQ community fully liberated?
The Chronicle Datebook's TONY BRAVO: "There’s a slogan that has been making the rounds in meme and T-shirt form in the LGBTQ community this year: “The first Pride was a riot.”"
"Yaas, queen, it was."
"On June 28, 1969, a spontaneous act of resistance by queer patrons against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn bar in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood sparked the gay liberation movement. After generations of legal and social persecution, the queers had simply had enough. The two-night Stonewall Riots continue to be seen as one of the seminal events in LGBTQ history in the United States and beyond: The event’s impact is so major that most chroniclers of LGBTQ history view queer life in pre- and post-Stonewall contexts. Now, 50 years later, we can examine how far the LGBTQ community has advanced not just socially and politically, but also in mainstream culture."
Kaiser's partnership deal for Warriors arena plaza could hit $295M
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "Kaiser Permanente isn’t saying how much it’s paying the Golden State Warriors to call the area around the team’s new San Francisco arena Thrive City for the next 20 years — but according to an internal document obtained by The Chronicle, the total for the naming rights and other costs could hit $295 million."
"In addition to the naming rights for the plaza and park adjacent to Chase Center in Mission Bay, the deal calls for the nonprofit health care giant to become the team’s official health care provider and jointly engage in community projects."
Nipsey Hussle's death unified Crips and Bloods in grief. Now, peace talks carry on in his call
LA Times's NICOLE SANTA CRUZ/CINDY CHANG: "The men arrived in twos and threes, Crips and Bloods, young and middle-aged, gathering around a picnic table in a Compton park to confront their sworn enemies."
"After two hours of negotiations on a chilly, overcast Saturday in April, they came to an agreement — not a truce, exactly, but a tentative cease-fire."
"The losses had been heavy, with nearly a dozen dead on each side. It was too soon to talk friendship."
Trump says he's open to Iran talks without preconditions
LA Times's LAURA KING: "President Trump, who says he made an eleventh-hour decision last week to call off a retaliatory military strike against Iran, declared in an interview aired Sunday that war would mean “obliteration” for the Islamic Republic. But he also said he was open to talks without preconditions with Tehran."
"In a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump also said he did not want to be impeached, but believed that if proceedings were opened in the House, it would help him politically in 2020."
"And he said he “may” warn Russian President Vladimir Putin against interfering in the U.S. election when the two leaders meet this week on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan."
