Elon Musk defies coronavirus orders, opens his California Tesla factory
Sac Bee's DON SWEENEY: "Elon Musk says Tesla has reopened its Fremont, California, factory in a showdown with local health officials over coronavirus lockdown rules.
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post Monday afternoon. “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
The parking lot at the factory began filling up with vehicles Monday morning, KTVU reported, prompting speculation that Tesla had reopened against county orders."
California considers unprecedented $25B economy recovery fund, rental relief
LA Times's JOHN MYERS: "Two unprecedented proposals to help Californians weather the fiscal storm unleashed by the coronavirus crisis are expected to be unveiled Tuesday by Democrats in the state Senate — one to help struggling renters, the other to create a $25-billion economic recovery fund by issuing long-term vouchers to those willing to prepay their future state income taxes.
Taken together, the ideas suggest lawmakers are willing to launch never-before-tried experiments to avoid the unpaid debts and deep cuts to government services that resulted from the Great Recession more than a decade ago.
“We need some short-term assistance,” said Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) in an interview with The Times on Monday. “But we’ve got to be thinking long term on how to do this in a very strategic way."
READ MORE related to Economy: People want beef. Ranchers have cows. Here's what's going wrong -- LA Times's SAMANTHA MASUNAGA/SARAH PARINI/SUSANNE RUST
Amid COVID-19, graduation ceremonies go online
LISA RENNER in Capitol Weekly: "Graduations across the state are moving online as COVID-19 continues to upend everyone’s lives.
Several universities have committed to having an in-person graduation at a later date but in the meantime, they are doing the best they can by staging virtual celebrations.
The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, as one example, is having a watch party on Facebook Live May 22 for the nearly 150 students who are graduating. The event will include recorded speeches and pictures of the graduates with their pets."
NorCal counties scramble to reopen. Some are confused by Newsom's demands
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK/DALE KASLER/ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "At least eight Northern California counties rushed Monday to persuade state health officials they are ready to reopen key segments of their local economies on a fast-track basis – perhaps as soon as Tuesday.
But the process for what Gov. Gavin Newsom calls a region-based economic reopening remained mired in uncertainty and confusion, with some counties saying they believe they can open businesses without a formal state approval and others saying they believe they need some affirmative state backing.
Newsom may clear up some confusion when he offers more details on his Phase 2 reopening plan at a noon press conference on Tuesday. The governor is expected to list the restrictions and conditions for reopening restaurants for on-site dining. He may also discussing reopenings for other businesses, including offices for those where teleworking is not possible and retail for in-store shopping."
READ MORE related to Reopening the Economy: California still in danger zone as coronavirus deaths mount, slowing reopenings -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/IRIS LEE/COLLEEN SHALBY; Californians wary of returning to restaurants, gyms, poll finds -- The Chronicle's ALEJANDRO SERRANO/RITA BEAMISH; Sports after coronavirus -- The Chronicle's ANNA KILLION; Slammed economically by the pandemic, Santa Monica offers grim preview ofn crisis to come -- LA Times's JOE MOZINGO
Neon blue flash gives way to rotting stench as red tide sweeps California coast
LA Times's DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN: "As if to celebrate the reopening of Southern California beaches, the Pacific Ocean threw a party, complete with a light show.
Then it left behind a smelly mess of dying algae.
The microorganisms produce stunning bioluminescence that has illuminated the surf up and down the coast for several weeks. Red tides occur when they reproduce en masse, staining seawater rusty brown with as many as 20 million cells per liter."
California Democrats hoping to flip Arizona blue must now switch gears
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "This was the year Arizona was poised to become the new Nevada — a nearby state for California Democrats looking for a place to flip from red to blue.
Caravans from California — in particular from the Bay Area — had already started. Arizona Democrats were looking forward to the extra canvassers to help capture a battleground state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016, where first-term GOP Sen. Martha McSally looks vulnerable and where Republicans have a narrow hold on the state legislature.
But the coronavirus pandemic dashed those plans, sidelining an army of supporters who could provide Arizona Democrats with one of the most powerful ways to convince voters to support them: face-to-face campaigning."
Trump says Dems are rigging California race where GOP hopes to turn blue district red
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "With a flood of tweets, President Trump has jumped into Tuesday’s runoff election for a California congressional seat, accusing Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of trying to rig the election by allowing more in-person voting.
“Dems are trying to steal the Mike Garcia Congressional Race in California,” Trump tweeted early Monday, the latest in a string of presidential outbursts that began Friday dealing with a special election for a seat representing parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Trump’s involvement shows the level of GOP interest in a contest where the party has hopes of doing something it hasn’t pulled off since 1998 — flipping a blue congressional seat in California to red. It would be a morale booster for a party that has been on a long losing streak in California and may be on the defensive nationally in the November elections."
Here are the California counties with zero deaths from COVID-19 in the past two weeks
Sac Bee's PHILLIP REESE: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration laid out preliminary criteria for counties to start reopening their economies early, they included two tough requirements:
▪ Having no more than one new case of coronavirus per 10,000 people in the last two weeks.
▪ Having no COVID-19-related deaths in the previous two weeks."
Federal loans help Bay Arean businesses survive, for now
The Chronicle's ROLAND LI/SHWANIKA NARAYAN: "Two rounds of federal loans are helping Bay Area small businesses rehire workers and survive the coronavirus fallout. But owners say it’s a temporary fix amid the worst job losses since the Great Depression.
The Paycheck Protection Program, which included a $349 billion first round and an ongoing $310 billion second round in forgivable loans, helps businesses pay workers during widespread shutdowns.
As of Friday, the government had issued second-round loans totaling $188 billion, with $35.8 billion going to California, the highest amount for any state. There was $122 billion that hadn’t been allocated."
Avoid weekend trips and summer vacations for now, California health officials say
LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/COLLEEN SHALBY/MAURA DOLAN: "As Americans start planning summer vacations, health officials in California urged the public to not take leisure trips, including weekend trips, in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.
“We are, in fact, asking people in our health officer order to avoid nonessential travel and we would ask that our neighbors across the state and across the country do the same,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “There’s probably very few places in the world right now that would like to see travel into their communities.”
There is no mandatory 14-day mandatory quarantine for visitors coming to California, as is the case in Hawaii, which is punishable by a $5,000 fine and a year in imprisonment."
UC President Napolitano recommends dropping thje SAT, ACT tests
The Chronicle's ANNA BAUMAN: "University of California President Janet Napolitano is recommending that the 10-campus system drop the SAT and ACT testing requirement and replace those standardized tests with a newly created admissions test in a move that could swiftly reshape the contentious college admissions process nationwide.
Napolitano’s plan, released Monday in a Board of Regents’ agenda, calls on university officials to create a new University of California-specific entrance exam by 2025 or ditch standardized testing for good. Either way, if regents adopt the recommendation at their May 21 meeting, high school juniors applying to University of California schools would never again need to take the SAT or ACT.
The recommendation follows years of debate surrounding the college admissions process, with pressure building from critics who say standardized tests put low-income and minority students at an inherent disadvantage."
California is ramping up antibody tests. The technology is promising, but big questions remain
The Chronicle's CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "California public health officials have begun distributing tens of thousands of coronavirus antibody tests from Abbott Laboratories to more than a dozen labs across the state as counties prepare to reopen and allow people to return to work, school and recreation. Other testing and health service companies are promoting antibody testing as a way to help people feel safer, get back to work and establish “a path toward normalcy for Americans.”
But in small print, a disclaimer required by the Food and Drug Administration on some of these tests is stark: Negative results do not rule out SARS-CoV-2 and positive results may be false. State public health officials also have cautioned that it is still unknown whether accurate positive results mean protection from future infection.
The warnings show the challenge facing Gov. Gavin Newsom and other leaders as they attempt to lift restrictions and rekindle economic activity amid the COVID-19 pandemic: The technology needed for one of the most critical elements of their plan is still largely unproved."
UCSF team combats coronavirus surge in Navajo Nation
The Chronicle's SARAH FELDBERG: "As San Francisco flattened the curve of coronavirus infection last month, and New York City reached and fell from the peak of its surge, in Navajo Nation, the pandemic’s grim statistics were climbing.
The sovereign American Indian nation reported its first confirmed case on March 17, a 46-year-old tribal member near Kayenta, Ariz., about 250 miles north of Phoenix. The same day a second person tested positive, and four days later there were 26 cases of the novel coronavirus spread across four different regions of tribal land.
On March 29, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez issued an emergency order that warned that the reservation was “beyond containment and mitigation of risk” and the health care system was “rapidly exhausting available resources, including supplies and personnel.” In the weeks since, cases and deaths have continued to grow. As of May 10, the Navajo Nation has the second-highest infection rate per capita in the United States."
Fauci warns of 'suffering and death' if US reopens too soon
AP: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, is warning Congress that if the country reopens too soon during the coronavirus pandemic, it will result in “needless suffering and death.”
Fauci is among the health experts testifying Tuesday to a Senate panel. His testimony comes as President Donald Trump is praising states that are reopening after the prolonged lock-down aimed at controlling the virus’ spread.
Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force charged with shaping the response to COVID-19, which has killed tens of thousands of people in the U.S., is testifying via video conference after self-quarantining as a White House staffer tested positive for the virus."
Supreme Court to hear clash over Trump tax and bank records
AP: "The Supreme Court is taking up President Trump’s bid to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major clash over presidential accountability that could affect the 2020 presidential campaign.
The justices are to hear arguments by telephone Tuesday morning in two cases about subpoenas from congressional committees and the Manhattan district attorney. The court, where six justices are age 65 or older, has been meeting by phone because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Rulings against the president could lead to the campaign season release of personal financial information that Trump has kept shielded from investigators and the public."
