California and West suffering worst 'megadrought' in centuries, study of tree rings shows
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "Officially, California’s most recent drought lasted five painful years and ended in 2017. But a new study released Thursday says California and the rest of the West are enduring a continuing megadrought that ranks among the worst on record.
Despite the occasional wet year, researchers at Columbia University said the period starting in 2000 has been about as bad as any of four lengthy droughts recorded since the late 800s. While the study period ended in 2018, researchers said the West remains trapped in what they called a historic megadrought.
“We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we’re on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts,” said Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in a prepared statement."
Coronavirus strikes California hospital workers hard, including 175 cases at UCLA alone
LA Times's ANITA CHABRIA/HARRIET RYAN/SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA/MATT STILES: "The coronavirus has infected California medical workers with much greater intensity than has been publicly revealed, including more than 175 cases at UCLA, according to records reviewed by The Times and a source with knowledge of the situation.
The virus has spread in UCLA’s outpatient clinics, geriatric and labor and delivery units, and in the pediatric intensive care unit, the source said.
The infections at healthcare facilities include at least eight cases involving medical workers at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica; 30 at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in San Pedro who are positive or awaiting results; six at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in Silicon Valley, including one death; 10 at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento; five at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; and hundreds scattered among numerous elder care and assisted living sites throughout the state."
Best protection from virus for a homeless person? In SF, it seems to be a tent
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "Despite repeated concerns about the spread of the coronavirus among the homeless, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has yet to order any of the tent camps that have sprung up across the city to abide by the 6-foot separation rule required by social distancing.
“Outreach workers are talking to people about it every day, but no one has been ordered to move yet,” health department spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said. “We are following the Centers for Disease Control guidelines regarding encampments during pandemics, which state that they should not be cleared because dispersing is too great a health crisis.
“Environmental health inspectors will still respond to complaints, as they always have, if additional health and safety issues arise at the encampments,” she added."
California is now in a deep recession that could last years, according to experts
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "The coronavirus has officially launched California into a recession, and a potentially severe one that could last for several budget cycles, state lawmakers and financial experts say.
“We are embarking on difficult fiscal times,” said Sen. Holly Mitchell, an L.A. Democrat and chair of the Senate Special Budget Subcommittee on COVID-19 Response.
Mitchell said California enters the economic downturn in a better position than during the Great Recession, which left the state with a $60 billion deficit and a slashed budget."
READ MORE related to Economy: 900,000 more file for unemployment -- Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH; California business owners groan as SBA coronavirus loans run dry. Is more money coming? -- Sac Bee's DALE KASLER/DAVID LIGHTMAN; Bay Area home prices jumped in March, mostly before coronavirus lockdown -- The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER; LA, other counties plan to reopen some businesses in May. Retail might be among the first -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II
California deaths surge as national fatality toll passes 30,000
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "With economies virtually shut down during the coronavirus crisis, unemployment claims have skyrocketed in recent weeks to record highs across the U.S. and within California, where the stay-at-home mandate issued by Newsom on March 19 has stilted the state’s economy.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday said 5.25 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week that ended April 11. That figure, which is seasonally adjusted, was lower than the two prior weeks. In the last four weeks, 22 million people have filed for unemployment.
About 919,000 Californians filed initial claims last week, according to the Department of Labor report, compared with more than 1 million the previous week and another 900,000 the week before that. Those numbers are not seasonally adjusted."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: See how California's battle against the pandemic is progressing -- in 8 charts -- Sac Bee's JAYSON CHESLER/PHILLIP REESE; 'Wasting this precious commodity': Hundreds of no-shows for Sacramento coronavirus testing -- Sac Bee's ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS; 1 worker dead, 51 infected with coronavirus at Safeway distribution center in N. California -- Sac Bee's DANIEL HUNT; Coronavirus appears twice as deadly for blacks as whites in California -- The Chronicle's KURTIS ALEXANDER; Bay Area's most vulnerable -- The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY; 'The problem is getting worse': SF's troubled Tenderloin buckles under weight of pandemic -- The Chronicle's HEATHER KNIGHT; Several Bay Area counties will require face masks starting next week to fight pandemic, official says -- The Chronicle's LAUREN HERNANDEZ; Dozens of sailors from aircraft carrier Roosevelt test newly positive for coronavirus, Navy says -- The Chronicle's MATTHIAS GAFNI; Shortage of hydroxychloroquine, unproven coronavirus drug, worries Californians who need it -- The Chronicle's JD MORRIS; LA County suffering disproportionate share of coronavirus deaths amid a grim week -- LA Times's SEAN GREENE/RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY/PRISCELLA VEGA
-- THE PANDEMIC'S TOLL: LIVES LOST IN CALIFORNIA (LA TIMES) --
Coronavirus just made census counting harder in Bay Area
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Graciela Carrillo has lived in the U.S. for nine years and shares a common feeling with many immigrants from western Guatemala about living in their adopted homeland.
“We are invisible,” she said.
Carrillo identifies as Mam, an indigenous ethnic group that would be hard to count in the federal census even during optimal times. They’re even harder to count during a pandemic."
Bay Area progressive group spending $5M to boost turnout among voters of color
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Joe Biden won big endorsements this week from former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, but what he really needs is more support from the people of color and young voters who backed Obama and Sanders.
Way To Win, a progressive donor group launched in San Francisco, is trying to help by spending $5 million on organizations aimed not only at turning out voters of color, but at dispelling what it calls “disinformation” about Biden in their communities, The Chronicle has learned.
The expenditure from Way to Win, which already has dropped $37 million on key congressional and legislative races, is focused on boosting digital operations and thwarting online disinformation — a nod to how the coronavirus is limiting face-to-face campaigning."
Pelosi's negotiating skills tested amid pandemic
The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN: "With coronavirus relief money already running out and more expected to be needed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s negotiating prowess is being tested as she represents Democrats in a largely shut-down nation’s capital.
The San Francisco Democrat has built a reputation as a master political tactician, leading her party in the House under three presidents. With a key coronavirus stimulus fund now out of money, Americans facing a pandemic and economic collapse and Congress on hold until it’s safe to meet again, Pelosi is more on the spot than ever.
Republicans have been pressuring Democrats to act swiftly to replenish a loan program created to help small businesses through the nation’s stay-at-home orders. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to add $250 billion to the program in the Senate last week, hoping to jam Democrats into moving it forward without adding spending on any other programs."
Newsom order allows CSU to relax admission reqs for 2021
The Chronicle's MATT KAWAHARA: "Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday allowing the California State University system to adjust admissions criteria for applicants affected by the coronavirus crisis.
The order waives certain requirements for changing the CSU admissions criteria through June 2021 and would impact students applying later this year to enroll as freshmen in fall 2021.
It notes that “the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school closures has disrupted the lives and educational progress of K-12 students, impacting their ability to meet existing admissions prerequisites” for the CSU system."
READ MORE related to Education: UC reeling under staggering coronavirus costs; 'the worst impacts ... all at once' -- LA Times's TERESA WATANABE; SF teachers can work four-hour days, receive full-time pay during coronavirus closures -- The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER; California should push harder for special education during school closures, disability rights groups say -- EdSource's CAROLYN JONES; California moves to close digital divide as schools shift online -- EdSource's SYDNEY JOHNSON
On the bright side: UC Berkeley lab cranking out home-brewed hand sanitizer
The Chronicle's STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "Hundreds of gallons of home-brewed hand sanitizer are bubbling out of the UC Berkeley biology labs, the same pungent, test-tube-filled rooms where students usually focus on good grades instead of good deeds.
With classes canceled and the teaching labs eerily empty, two Cal students decided to do what a handful of whiskey distillers and beer brewers have already done — use idled facilities to produce badly needed hand sanitizer.
Grad student Abrar Abidi gathered up ethanol, a fluid that never seems in short supply on a college campus, and mixed up 900 bottles for inmates and staff at the San Francisco County Jail, which was running low."
With courthouses closed, inmates use video, phones to seek release over coronavirus
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON: "In a federal court hearing in Sacramento that was conducted by telephone on Wednesday because of COVID-19, the latest in a steady stream of requests was made for the release of an inmate from the Sacramento County Jail over fears of the pandemic spreading through the lockup.
This time, the motion concerned inmate Myron Armstrong, a 53-year-old native Sacramentan and father of two who has been in custody since July 2018 on drug and firearms charges.
Armstrong’s lawyer, Jan David Karowsky, first asked the court on April 8 to grant Armstrong’s release to home arrest pending trial, arguing that his client’s health problems — high blood pressure, phosphate in his urine, a diagnosis of being ‘pre-diabetic’ — make him especially vulnerable to the coronavirus."
BART's parking lots may be empty, but those spots will still cost you
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "BART’s parking lots are even emptier than its trains while nearly all Bay Area residents shelter in place during the coronavirus outbreak. Instead of being fully packed — often before dawn — the lots are sometimes occupied by as few as four or five cars.
And yet, BART continues to charge weekday parking fees: $2.50 or $3 at most stations, except West Oakland, where the daily charge is $10.50. BART charges for parking in a variety of ways, including daily fees as well as reserved and monthly fees.
BART spokesman Jim Allison said the charges have remained in place because BART — whose ridership has dropped by as much as 97% — still has to maintain and operate parking garages and lots at 36 of the 48 stations where passengers can leave their cars. Monthly reserved parking permit-holders who have not parked at BART may request a refund for April by emailing support@select-a-spot.com by May 8."
