New California rules will let more counties reopen, Newsom says
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California is loosening its criteria for counties that want to reopen faster than the rest of the state.
Counties will have to demonstrate that their hospitalization rates are stable and their rate of positive cases are low, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday. They will no longer have to meet the requirement that they have no deaths in the last 14 days.
“We are empowering our local health directors and county officials that understand their local communities and conditions better than any of us,” Newsom said during a press conference at a restaurant in Napa. “This is a dynamic period that we’re in.”"
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UC Pres. Napolitano announces pay freeze for some staff, takes 10% cut in salary
Daily Californian's KATE FINMAN: "UC President Janet Napolitano issued a freeze on salaries for certain staff employees and on salary scales for non-student academic appointees Monday in an email to staff and faculty.
She added the freeze was made in response to COVID-19-related economic shortfalls, including an estimated $1.2 billion loss between mid-March and April and a proposed $372 million dollar reduction in state funding. The email also states that Napolitano and the 10 current chancellors in the UC system will be taking a voluntary pay cut of 10%.
“Needless to say, this significant loss of revenue is having an enormous negative effect on our budgets,” Napolitano said in the email. “We are a strong organization and will work over time to address our losses and recover."
Six urban California districts say proposed budget cuts will set back restarting school
EdSource's JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Los Angeles Unified and five other urban California school districts collectively enrolling about 1 million students warned Monday that “unrealistic” funding cuts proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in his revised budget would force them to delay reopening of schools this fall.
“Reopening our school campuses will require more — not fewer — resources to ensure and sustain proper implementation of public health guidance and the safety of all of those involved. Cuts will mean that the reopening of schools will be delayed even after State guidance and clearance from public health officials is given,” superintendents of the districts wrote in a three-page letter, dated May 18, to legislative leaders."
The letter comes less than a week after Newsom released his May budget revision that would cut funding for school districts by about $7 billion. That proposal includes a cut of $6.5 billion in general funding through the Local Control Funding Formula, which directs additional funding to high-needs students — low-income, foster and homeless students and English learners. That 10% reduction would be the first cut in the formula since its passage seven years ago. Signing the letter were superintendents of the state’s three largest districts, Austin Beutner, L.A. Unified; Cindy Marten, San Diego Unified and Christopher Steinhauser, Long Beach Unified, as well as Vincent Matthews, San Francisco Unified; Kyla Johnson-Trammel, Oakland Unified; and Jorge Aguilar, Sacramento City Unified."
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Rep. Speier dons pajamas to protest lawmakers sleeping in offices
The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN: "Rep. Jackie Speier wants you to see her in her pajamas — in the hopes of exposing the “dirty little secret” of members of Congress sleeping in their workplaces.
It’s a practice she argues should be banned.
The San Mateo Democrat posted a video Monday that features her at first in work attire, showing off her office as a place where she meets with constituents and does the business of her district."
Judge OKs suit by California, other states over lessened protections for endangered species
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "California and 16 other states can sue the Trump administration for rolling back enforcement of the Endangered Species Act by allowing consideration of economic impacts, disregarding climate change and allegedly weakening protections for many imperiled creatures, a federal judge ruled Monday.
In denying administration officials’ request to dismiss the suit, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of Oakland said the states had shown they could suffer biological and economic harm if the law were weakened.
The Endangered Species Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, protects the existence and habitat of more than 1,600 plants and animals threatened with extinction. More than 300 of the species live in California’s lands and waters, including bighorn sheep, gray wolves, humpback whales and bald eagles."
'A good measure of protection': Researchers find universal masking policies lead to suppressed spread of COVID-19
Daily Californian's KATE FINMAN: "If 80% of people wore masks when leaving their homes, COVID-19 transmission rates would be better contained, a UC Berkeley researcher and his team found in a study released April 21.
Dekai Wu, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute and a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, first came up with the idea for the study in February, when he noticed the difference in COVID-19 response between California and Hong Kong, especially in mask use. His research group — an interdisciplinary team of global researchers — found there is almost a 100% correlation between countries that have implemented early universal masking policies and those that have suppressed the spread of the coronavirus.
“Ninety-nine percent of people are walking around wearing masks in Hong Kong,” said De Kai, as he is more commonly known. “In Hong Kong, we’ve actually never had to have shelter in place because we’ve done the other things right."
Never mind big California election win -- GOP doubles down on fight against mail voting
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Republican Mike Garcia may have won a nearly all-mail congressional runoff election in California last week, but that’s not stopping GOP leaders from fighting efforts to expand voting by mail in states across the country.
In a telephone news conference Monday, Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, accused Democrats of using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to file lawsuits that would “destroy the integrity of our elections.”
Some of the suits would require states to send mail ballots to every voter, eliminate long-standing restrictions on absentee ballots and remove restrictions on “ballot harvesting.” They’re little more than a Democratic wish list that has nothing to do with concerns raised by in-person elections during a pandemic, she said."
California wildfire victims approve $13.5B payout by 'overwhelming' margin, PG&E says
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "PG&E Corp. said Monday it believes thousands of Northern California wildfire victims have approved the utility’s $13.5 billion payout plan, clearing the way for PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy.
Based on preliminary results, the company said the plan has won “overwhelming acceptance” from the approximately 70,000 victims who were eligible to vote.
The $13.5 billion is designed to compensate victims for their uninsured losses from a series of major wildfires blamed on PG&E’s faulty equipment. That includes the 2017 wine country fires and the November 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed more than 10,000 homes in Paradise."
Immigration courts in 'chaos,' with pandemic effects to last years
The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN: "Raquel and her sons fled gang threats in El Salvador, survived the weeks-long journey to the U.S., and then endured the Trump administration’s 2018 separations at the southern border.
This month, she was finally going to get her chance to convince an immigration judge in San Francisco that she should be granted permanent asylum in the U.S., ending the agony of having to prepare for her court date by reliving the danger in her native country and her weeks of detention at the border.
Thanks to the coronavirus, she will have to endure the wait for three more years."
Undocumented workers rush to apply for coronavirus aid, overwhelming California system
Sac Bee's YESENIA AMARO: "Undocumented workers flooded California’s coronavirus disaster relief website Monday, causing the site to crash for several hours, a state official said.
Additionally, the hotlines for the nonprofits distributing the funding were “jammed,” and many people struggled to get through, an attorney told The Bee.
Monday marked the first day undocumented workers could apply for the one-time payment of $500 per individual or $1,000 per household."
Bay Area goes two straight days without a pandemic death for the first time since start of March
The Chronicle's MATT KAWAHARA: "The Bay Area has reported zero deaths from COVID-19 for two consecutive days - the first time that has happened since March.
Health officials in the nine Bay Area counties recorded no new deaths due to the coronavirus on Sunday or Monday, as the area’s death toll remained at 390.
Prior to Sunday, the last day without a reported virus-related death in the Bay Area was March 21. The last consecutive days without one were March 10-12, days before the shelter-in-place was ordered in the region and state.."
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Uber cuts 3k more jobs as pandemic devastates ride-hailing
The Chronicle's CAROLYN SAID: "Uber has lurched from existential crisis to existential crisis in its 11-year corporate history.
Now it confronts the biggest one yet. With people sheltering at home, demand for rides has plunged 80%. At the same time, it’s battling a California law that could reshape how it does business in its home state. Once a darling of investors, Uber now faces harsh scrutiny from Wall Street after a disappointing initial public offering last year.
On Monday the ride-hailing company laid off 3,000 staff members, on top of 3,700 positions it cut earlier this month. It has now axed 25% of its worldwide staff in less than two weeks."
Feds urge extreme caution for reopening nursing homes
AP: "Federal authorities are urging governors to use “extreme caution” in deciding when to allow visits to resume at nursing homes, saying such a move shouldn’t come before all residents and staff have tested negative for the novel coronavirus for at least 28 days.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ criteria for relaxing restrictions at nursing homes come more than two months after the agency ordered homes to ban visitors. Instead of firm dates, the agency lists a variety of factors that state and local officials should consider, such as adequate staffing levels at homes and the ability to regularly test all residents and workers.
“We’re urging governors to proceed with extreme caution because these are the most vulnerable citizens. We know that nursing homes have struggled,” Seema Verma, head of CMS, told the Associated Press."
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Stevante Clark arrested on suspicion of felony assault
Sac Bee's MOLLY SULLIVAN: "Stevante Clark – the older brother of Stephon Clark, who was shot and killed by Sacramento police in 2018 – was arrested Monday on suspicion of felony assault and battery, according to jail records.
Clark, 27, was arrested by Sacramento police shortly after 3 p.m. Monday on a warrant and is being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond, jail records show.
Officer Karl Chan, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department, said Clark was arrested without incident on an active warrant stemming from a domestic violence incident last month. Chan said the incident was investigated and the report was forwarded to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office."
Celebrity law firm won't pay ransom to hackers claiming to have 'dirty laundry' on Trump
LA Times's STEPHEN BATTAGLIO: "A $42-million ransom demand for hacked files that purportedly threaten to incriminate President Trump is hanging over a New York law firm representing some of the top acts in the entertainment business.
A criminal group that uses ransomware called REvil stole 756 gigabytes of data from the systems of Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sachs and has threatened to release damaging documents involving the president if the ransom is not paid, a representative for the law firm said.
The hackers have claimed that the data include contracts, emails and nondisclosure agreements involving a number of prominent music and entertainment figures."
Trump lashes out with disinformation and distractions
LA Times's CHRIS MEGERIAN/NOAH BIERMAN/ELI STOKOLS: "President Trump has accelerated his attacks on government watchdogs, judges, reporters and other independent voices as he runs for reelection, escalating his spread of disinformation about perceived enemies and his administration’s record during the COVID-19 crisis.
Trump fired yet another inspector general, raged against a government whistleblower and repeatedly retweeted video of a local TV reporter being harassed in New York — all since Friday. He also amplified a sinister conspiracy theory he dubbed “Obamagate” in which he alleges, but never specifies, crimes by his predecessor.
On Monday, Trump abruptly said he has been taking hydroxychloroquine pills daily for “about a week and a half” as a preventative against the novel coronavirus, dramatically intensifying his efforts to promote an unproved anti-malaria drug that he has touted as a potential “game changer” for dealing with the pandemic."
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