Losing ground

For decades, that was the unofficial theme song of the Democratic Party. A band played the song at the 1932 Democratic National Convention that nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. Then FDR made it his campaign song.

As a young man I loved the song — until the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Starting then, I abhorred it for 52 years.

I was a newspaper reporter, sitting in the convention hall during the joyless meeting’s final night when the band struck up “Happy Days.” Outside, the cops were beating up thousands of kids who were protesting the Vietnam War. Inside, pro-war and antiwar factions had ripped apart the party."

Column: Sacramento again refuses to grow up

DAN WALTERS, CalMatters: "Sacramento is the Peter Pan of California’s larger cities — never willing to grow up.

That became evident again last week when the city’s voters soundly rejected the latest attempt at creating a big city governance structure, this time shooting down a second proposal to make Sacramento’s mayor a real executive, rather than a largely powerless figurehead.

It was a personal defeat for Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a one-time president pro tem of the state Senate, who argued in vain that he and his successors need real authority to deal with Sacramento’s big city problems.'

President-elect Joe Biden’s expansive education agenda expected to draw greater scrutiny

LOUIS FREEDBERG, EdSource: "As education institutions — and young people’s lives — continue to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden’s proposals will raise hopes for longer-term reforms of the nation’s schools and colleges.

Many Americans — including many educators — will no doubt be looking at Biden’s expansive and heavily pro-teacher platform for the first time.

That’s because beyond the impact of the pandemic on schools, there has been virtually no discussion, at least during the general election portion of the campaign, about substantive education reforms, like the crisis of college affordability and what must be done to close achievement gaps to ensure all students reach their full potential."

Coronavirus is again stalking California, but there is still time to prevent a third wave

From LA Times' RONG-GONG LIN II, IRIS LEE and SEAN GREENE: "Although California has started to see a rise in coronavirus cases, the pace of increase is slower than that seen in the rest of the United States, and experts said there is still time to prevent a third wave.

There are clear warning signs, including a troubling increase in daily cases in Los Angeles County. But statewide, the uptick — for the moment — is proceeding at a pace considered relatively slow, and health officials say there’s no conclusive sign of the kind of surge that roiled California this summer.

“We are fortunate in the sense that we have a much more muted uptick that’s beginning to occur,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “And I think it’s because we are still adhering, for the most part, to this tiered approach of gradual opening of the economy and schools.”

Coronavirus continues to spread in Los Angeles County at summer levels

KIERA FELDMAN, LA Times: "Coronavirus infections continued to rise in Los Angeles County on Sunday at levels seen during the summer surge, and public health officials warned that the street celebrations that greeted the election news over the weekend could easily increase the spread.

Officials on Sunday announced more than 2,200 new COVID-19 cases, marking the fourth consecutive day with more than 2,000 confirmed infections. Officials also confirmed two more deaths from the disease, a number that was probably lowered by weekend reporting delays.

There were 23 deaths reported on Friday and 15 on Saturday; Sunday’s numbers bring the total to 7,172 COVID-19 deaths to date, according to a news release from the county Department of Public Health. Across L.A. County, 322,207 COVID-19 cases overall have been recorded."

Here’s how Joe Biden’s victory will change coronavirus strategy

ERIN ALLDAY, Chronicle: "There’s not a lot that President-elect Joe Biden can do to quell the rising swell of coronavirus cases now crashing across much of the United States, but he is already planning his response for what will surely be a tough winter.

In his victory speech on Saturday, Biden pledged to name a coronavirus advisory group on Monday. The group, he said, would consist of scientists and other experts, and would take a COVID plan formulated during the campaign and convert it into a “blueprint” that can be immediately implemented when he takes office Jan. 20.

“Our work begins with getting COVID under control,” Biden told the cheering crowd in Wilmington, Del."

L.A. megachurch pastor mocks pandemic health orders, even as church members fall ill

JACLYN COSGROVE, LA Times: "“There is no pandemic.”

The words from the white-haired pastor echoed inside the cavernous megachurch in Los Angeles.

It was Aug. 30, only 18 days after L.A. County public health officials had demanded that Grace Community Church stop holding indoor services.

But the pastor, 81-year-old John MacArthur, had kept the doors open, delivering defiance from his pulpit every Sunday."

Here are the GOP and Trump campaign’s allegations of election irregularities. So far, none has been proved.

DAVID A. FARENTHOLD, ELISE VIEBECK, EMMA BROWN and ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN: "Republicans have made claims of election irregularities in five states where President-elect Joe Biden leads in the vote count, alleging in lawsuits and public statements that election officials did not follow proper procedures while counting ballots in Tuesday’s election.