Calls for gun control, blame for Trump folow day of mass shootings
The Chronicle's JASON FAGONE/JOAQUIN PALOMINO: "
Political leaders across the Bay Area and California on Sunday condemned racist language used by President Trump and demanded action to prevent gun violence after massacres in Texas and Ohio left 30 dead. The attacks came just days after a gunman killed three, including two children, at the Gilroy Garlic Festival."
"In interviews, tweets and TV appearances, Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, Reps. Barbara Lee, Eric Swalwell and Anna Eshoo, Gov. Gavin Newsom and others expressed frustration over the failure of Congress to act on what they say are proven solutions to gun violence, including strengthened background checks and an assault-weapons ban."
READ MORE related to Gun Violence Pandemic: Trump says he'd look at 'strong background checks' for guns if tied to immigration reform -- LA Times's ELI STOKOLS; El Paso suspect 'held nothing back in police interrogation' -- LA Times's ADAM ELMAHREK/MELISSA ETEHAD/MATTHEW ORMSETH
SDSU presses active shooter training in wake of killings in El Paso, Dayton
From the U-T's GARY ROBBINS: "San Diego State University executives were meeting Sunday to figure out the best ways to gets their students, faculty and staff to watch an online training video they created to teach people how to deal with the sort of shooting incidents that occurred over the weekend in El Paso and Dayton."
“We have a campus-specific 11-minute video based on the Run, Hide, Fight program developed by the city of Houston,” said Raquel Herriott, head of community and media relations for the SDSU Police Department."
“We also have been talking about ways to tell people about the warning signs they might see in the case of an active shooter.”
Despite California's travel ban, lawmakers find ways to visit states with 'anti-LGBTQ' laws
LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "Three years after the California Legislature banned taxpayer-financed travel to states it saw as discriminating against LGBTQ people, lawmakers and university athletic teams are still visiting the boycotted states and finding other ways to pay for their trips."
"Signed in 2016 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, California’s law bars state-funded travel to 10 states and says the purpose of the restrictions is to “avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people."
"But California elected officials have tapped campaign contributions to continue visiting the targeted states, while state university sports teams and students participating in academic competitions have appealed for private donations to fund their travel."
What drug companies, hospitals are spending big at state Capitol -- and what it means for you
Sacramento Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Drug companies, hospitals and dialysis companies spent millions of dollars in the first half of the year fighting bills that would have hurt their bottom lines, according to lobbying reports filed last week."
"Hospitals successfully killed an effort to set out-of-network payment rates, an effort that sought to eliminate surprise bills. Pharmaceutical and dialysis companies are still fighting measures that aim to crack down on steering dialysis patients to private insurance and delaying low-cost generic drugs."
"All involved agree on what’s at stake: California drug prices, the cost of hospital care and the rules governing of dialysis care."
VA adds personnel, space at new outpatient clinic to serve 9,000 vets in Chico area
Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will officially open an outpatient clinic to serve veterans in the Chico area on Aug. 27, leaving a building about 5 miles away that is about half the size of the new facility."
"This clinic is a significant step forward in providing high-quality, compassionate care to the veterans of Butte, Glenn and Tehama counties,” said Ryan Schiel, the site manager for the Chico VA outpatient clinic. “We’re not only doubling our space, but adding critical staff and services, as well.”"
"The new clinic will have a staff of 150 people, an increase of 50 workers, according to VA spokesperson Will Martin, who noted that two of the new physicians at the facility lost their homes in the Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed 19,000 buildings. The Chico VA personnel serve roughly 9,000 veterans in the north state."
What is a 'California Indian Tribe'? How a proposed law unearthed a decades-old wound
Sacramento Bee's HANNAH WIL EY: "When ancestral remains found during building projects or held by government agencies are returned to a Redding-area tribe in a process called repatriation, members hold a formal ceremony to rebury the findings."
"The 126 members of the Winnemem Wintu then ask forgiveness from the ancestors, said Chief Caleen Sisk, for something so taboo as disturbing them in their graves."
"It is a hardship on us, to rebury them, to put them back,” Sisk said. “You don’t mess around in graveyards. You don’t dig them up, you don’t move them, you don’t touch them. We ask for forgiveness that we have to do this."
Deadly Encinitas cliff collapse is a warning sign for California coast
LA Times's SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA: "The deadly cliff collapse in Encinitas last week raised questions about the stability of large swaths of the state that are lined by bluffs, many of which support houses or offer enticing patches of shade for families relaxing on the beach."
"Friday’s collapse, which killed three people, was a tragic consequence of sea cliffs’ natural erosion process, experts say. Chunks of bluffs regularly fall off to create the beach below, so all beach bluffs should be considered unstable, said Brian Ketterer, coastal division chief for California State Parks."
“Any of our bluffs have the ability to fail, and people just need to be aware of that,” Ketterer said."
Harris wants answers about understaffed California prison. She isn't getting them
Sacramento Bee's KATE IRBY: " "California Sen. Kamala Harris sent a stern letter to the Department of Justice this summer raising questions about a hot and under-staffed federal prison in the San Joaquin Valley with a chronically broken air conditioning system."
"As you know, staffing shortages place inmates and staff alike at greater risk of harm. These shortages must be taken seriously and redressed as quickly as possible,” Harris wrote on July 9."
"She didn’t get a reply."
On the edge of SF's Presidio, restoring a watershed will benefit nature and humans
The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE: "There was a glint in Michael Boland’s eyes as he watched cars zooming along the Presidio Parkway over an ugly panorama of broken asphalt, weeds and construction debris behind a chain-link fence next to Crissy Field."
"The chief of park development and visitor engagement for the Presidio Trust was excited as he envisioned what the vacant lot was about to become — a picturesque lagoon surrounded by walking trails, vivid greenery and a spectacular view."
8chan, a site favored by suspected mass shooters, is losing its network home
LA Times's JEFF BERCOVICI: "8chan, a hate-filled forum site where multiple suspected mass murderers have posted manifestos to cheers from their anonymous fellow users, will no longer receive service from a crucial provider of web infrastructure."
"Cloudflare said late Sunday it will cease acting as 8chan’s content distribution network and cybersecurity provider, two days after a gunman killed 20 people and wounded 26 others in El Paso minutes after apparently publishing an essay railing against immigration from Latin America. The move will probably make it difficult for 8chan to repel crippling distributed denial of service attacks until it’s able to find a new provider."
"But Cloudfare Chief Executive Matthew Prince said the move by his San Francisco firm is unlikely to keep 8chan offline for long, as the forum site may find another service provider."
