State can seize hotels, waive civil service rules in Newsom's new COVID-19 order
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed an executive order that expands the state’s power to seize property in a public health emergency and waives some civil service hiring restrictions in the interest of keeping services running as the new coronavirus spreads in the state.
The new order follows an emergency declaration he signed on March 4 that waived some government contracting regulations to speed purchasing.
Since then, the number of confirmed cases in California has increased to nearly 200 and four people have died from the virus dubbed COVID-19. Another 11,100 people in California who have returned from the United States from traveling are “self-monitoring."
READ MORE related to COVID-19 Pandemic: Newsom ramps up state's response to COVID-19 -- The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF; Public life slows to a near halt as California hunkers down in the face of COVID-19 -- LA Times's JAMES RAINEY/HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS/ANITA CHABRIA; Tests free for 1.5M people with CalPERS health insurance -- Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER; State considering temp ban on evictions as virus ravages economy -- Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY; We have thousands of virus tests, but can't use them all. Here's why -- Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG/ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS; No positive COVID-19 cases at State Capitol. It's business as usual for now -- Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY; Virus expected to cripple housing market -- The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER; Bay Area school districts announce closures affecting tens of thousands of students -- The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER/KEVIN FAGAN; Why will it take so long to make a coronavirus vaccine that can prevent COVID-19 ? -- LA Times's AMINA KHAN; LA County reports new community-spread cases as state total hits 198 -- LA Times's STAFF
Fed judge rules California-Quebec cap-and-trade agreement is valid
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "California’s agreement with Quebec to share cap-and-trade markets to reduce greenhouse gases, which was challenged by the Trump administration in its campaign against efforts to combat global warming, survived its first federal court test Thursday.
The first-of-its-kind agreement, which took effect in 2014, did not amount to a treaty or international compact in violation of the federal government’s exclusive constitutional authority, said U.S. District Judge William Shubb of Sacramento. He said the agreement doesn’t expand California’s regulatory powers and noted that the state is free to withdraw from the deal or modify its terms at any time.
Shubb deferred consideration of additional claims by the Trump administration that the California-Quebec program interfered with federal authority over international affairs and foreign commerce. But the claims he dismissed Thursday were the administration’s chief arguments to scuttle the agreement: that California had entered into a treaty or compact with a foreign state, powers the Constitution reserves to the federal government."
California instructors scramble to adapt as classes move online to slow coronavirus spread
From EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH: "Thousands of professors and instructors across California this week quickly found themselves in the role of student — having to quickly learn how to conduct in-person classes online as colleges and universities begin to close campuses to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Mia McIver’s writing and literature classes at the University of California, Los Angeles, depend on face-to-face conversations and discussions between herself and students.
In her undergraduate classes, she will sometimes ask students to collaborate in small groups to study terms and word definitions."
New state bill aims to soften closures of homes for mentally ill, homeless and drug addicted
The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI: "As San Francisco and the rest of California rapidly lose their board-and-care homes, a new state bill aims to lessen the blow of closing these long-term facilities for the homeless, mentally ill and drug-addicted.
The bill, written by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and sponsored by Mayor London Breed, outlines a protocol that adult residential facilities must follow when they decide to shut their doors. The hope is that the new requirements will increase transparency and give residents ample notice that they are going to have to move.
“Most operators are operating on a shoestring budget with very little funding and soaring costs,” Chiu said. “This (legislation) addresses one aspect of the challenge, but the broader challenge is how do we ensure that operators are able to stabilize?"
Trump has big plans for California highway repair, but no plan to pay for it
Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "No federal gasoline tax increase this year. A new Trump administration plan for $810 billion to fix crumbling roads and bridges.
That’s the latest pitch from the White House as it promotes its election-year ideas for helping the nation’s transportation system.
But it’s offering no details yet and no way to pay."
Days of rain on tap for SoCal as storm system returns
LA Times's HANNAH FRY: "After a mostly dry start to the year, March is shaping up to be somewhat of a white knight for Southern California’s rainy season.
A slow-moving storm that sprinkled the region with rain for a day earlier in the week barreled back into the area Thursday morning, bringing heavy rain and a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms.
The system’s final tour through the area is expected to bring up to 2 inches of rain to the coasts and valleys and up to 3 inches in the San Gabriel Mountains. Thunderstorms also could produce brief heavy downpours, hail and waterspouts, said Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard."
Pregnant 19-year-old dies trying to climb US border wall
AP: "A 19-year-old pregnant woman from Guatemala died this week from injuries suffered when she fell trying to climb the U.S. border wall near El Paso, U.S. and Guatemalan authorities said Thursday.
Guatemala identified the woman as Mirian Stephany Girón Luna. Medical personnel tried to deliver her baby, but were unsuccessful, both governments said. The U.S. said Girón was eight months pregnant, while Guatemalan authorities said she was at seven months.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection blamed Girón’s death on human smugglers who encouraged her to try to climb the wall. In a statement, Gloria Chavez, the chief for the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, said the authorities would work with Mexico “to find those responsible for placing these lives in danger."
GSK appears gaunt, tired as he's ordered to gived up more DNA
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON: "As Joseph James DeAngelo stood silently in a downtown Sacramento courtroom Thursday — sometimes appearing to nod off to sleep on his feet — a judge gave prosecutors permission to obtain four new DNA samples from the 74-year-old former police officer suspected of being the Golden State Killer and East Area Rapist.
DeAngelo, whose physical appearance has changed markedly since his April 2018 arrest, appeared frail, pale, gaunt and barely attuned to the events transpiring around him during a 50-minute hearing in Sacramento Superior Court.
Judge Steve White gave prosecutors permission to swab the suspect’s cheek for additional DNA evidence to be used in crimes in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Orange and Contra Costa counties, but he rejected, for now, a request that a fifth sample be taken to be given to prosecutors in Sacramento, where his trial on 13 murder and 13 rape-related charges is expected to be held."
Robert Durst murder trial: Witnesses testify to abuse of first wife
LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH: "More than 40 years ago, in a tavern on the east side of Manhattan, James McCormack met his little sister’s boyfriend.
Even then, Robert Durst seemed odd, McCormack recalled on the witness stand Thursday. Intelligent, if disengaged. A dry, almost cruel sense of humor. “If someone tripped,” McCormack said, “he would laugh.”
Beginning with her childhood on Long Island and ending with her disappearance in 1982, McCormack led the jury through the life of his youngest sister, Kathleen, who married Durst in 1973 and vanished nine years later. But in this murder trial, McCormack’s sister is not the victim."
SCUSD schools to close due to virus concerns
Sac Bee's MARCOS BRETON/SAWSAN MORRAR: "The Sacramento City Unified School District is closing all of its schools starting Monday through Wednesday, district officials announced Thursday night.
The news came when a substitute teacher tested positive for COVID-19 less than two weeks after teaching for a day at Sutterville Elementary School.
District officials are encouraging medically fragile students and staff to stay home Friday. Attendance is voluntary for everyone else."
COVID-19 sends sports world spiraling into the unknown. What's next?
The Chronicle's ANN KILLION: "Life continued to be upended in America and around the globe Thursday.
And if you had hoped to escape the uneasiness of a global pandemic or the nausea of watching your 401K vanish, through the comfort of sports, you’re out of luck.
Please binge watch some comforting television shows or movies. Please pick up a book. Walk your dog. Have a drink with a friend — while sitting 6 feet apart, of course."
US Soccer president resigns amid uproar over gender discrimination suit
LA Times's KEVIN BAXTER: "Carlos Cordeiro, who successfully spearheaded a complicated three-country bid to bring the World Cup back to North America in 2026, resigned as president of the U.S. Soccer Federation late Thursday after failing to quell a furor over arguments made in legal filings for a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by the world champion women’s national team.
In the documents released Monday, lawyers for U.S. Soccer argued that “indisputable science” proved that the women players were inferior to men and that playing for the men’s team required a “higher level of skill” and “more responsibility” than playing for the women’s team.
The U.S. women have won the last two Women’s World Cup tournaments while the men failed to qualify for their most recent tournament."
BART to pay family $6M over fatal police shooting in West Oakland
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "BART must pay nearly $6 million to the family of an Oakland man shot to death by a BART police officer who was running toward a violent confrontation in January 2018 near the West Oakland Station, a federal court jury ruled Wednesday.
Officer Joseph Mateu shot Sahleem Tindle, 28, three times in the back on Jan. 3, 2018, as Tindle and another man struggled over a handgun during a confrontation on a sidewalk at Seventh and Chester streets across from the BART station. Alameda County prosecutors decided nine months later not to file charges against Mateu in the shooting.
Following a two-week trial, the jury awarded Tindle’s estate $5.3 million, and $600,000 specifically to his two young children."
Trump says travel restrictions to Washington, California possible due to COVID-19
Sac Bee's DEBBIE COCKRELL: "President Donald Trump on Thursday said domestic travel restrictions affecting areas where the coronavirus has hit hardest could become a possibility.
According to a report in The New York Times, Trump said he could restrict domestic travel to hard-hit states such as Washington or California.
Trump reportedly said the issue had not yet been discussed but added, “Is it a possibility? Yes, if somebody gets a little bit out of control, if an area gets too hot,” according to the Times report."
READ MORE related to POTUS45: Brazilian who met Trump has COVID-19 and Trump doesn't plan to be tested -- AP; Trump's Europe ban slams Bay Area airports, stocks, travelers -- The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH/TATIANA SANCHEZ
Pentagon: US strikes Iran-backed group that hit Iraq base
AP's LOLITA C BALDOR: "The U.S. launched airstrikes in Iraq, targeting the Iranian-backed Shiite militia members believed responsible for the rocket attack that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad, the Pentagon said.
U.S. officials said multiple strikes by U.S. fighter jets on Thursday hit five locations and mainly targeted Kataib Hezbollah weapons facilities inside Iraq. A Defense Department statement said the strikes targeted five weapons storage facilities “to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks.”
The strikes marked a rapid escalation in tensions with Tehran and its proxy groups in Iraq, just two months after Iran carried out a massive ballistic missile attack against American troops at a base in Iraq. They came just hours after top U.S. defense leaders threatened retaliation for the Wednesday rocket attack, making clear that they knew who did it and that the attackers would be held accountable."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife tests positive for COVID-19
AP: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife has tested positive for the new coronavirus, his office announced Thursday night.
It said Sophie Grégoire Trudeau was feeling well and would remain in isolation.
“The prime minister is in good health with no symptoms. As a precautionary measure and following the advice of doctors, he will be in isolation for a planned period of 14 days,” the statement added."
