Governor appoints Alex Padilla to U.S. Senate
JOHN HOWARD, Capitol Weekly: “Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections officer and a former state legislator and L.A. City Council president, was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The appointment is historic: Padilla, 47, becomes California’s first Latino U.S. senator, representing a state in which about 38 percent of the population is Latino. Newsom had been under heavy political pressure to replace Harris with a Latino, and had been lobbied heavily over the appointment.
“The son of Mexican immigrants — a cook and house cleaner — Alex Padilla worked his way from humble beginnings to the halls of MIT, the Los Angeles City Council and the state Senate, and has become a national defender of voting rights as California’s Secretary of State,” Newsom wrote in announcing Padilla’s appointment."
Who is Alex Padilla? California's new senator has broken ground in state politics for two decades
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "When he heads to Congress as California’s newest senator, it will be a full-circle moment for Secretary of State Alex Padilla. After launching his career as an aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Los Angeles Democrat will now serve alongside the woman who gave him his first job in politics.
Padilla has risen steadily through local and state elected office in the two decades since then, frequently breaking new political ground. He made history Tuesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to fill the seat being vacated by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Padilla will be the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate.
Entering Washington at a moment of transition, Padilla will need to quickly find a place and make a name for himself. Best known for his efforts to expand voting access, he has not enjoyed the sort of public tussles with outgoing President Trump that have made political stars of many other Democrats over the past four years. Ambitious colleagues, particularly from the party’s progressive wing, may be eager to run against Padilla in 2022, when he would face voters to seek a full six-year term."
Newsom names California's first Latino US senator to replace Kamala Harris
Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed Secretary of State Alex Padilla as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ successor in the U.S. Senate, making him the first Latino from California to fill the role in the state’s 170-year history.
Newsom’s historic appointment comes after a coalition of Latino progressive groups pressed for Newsom to appoint Padilla, or another Latino, to represent California, where Latinos make up 40% of the population.
“Through his tenacity, integrity, smarts and grit, California is gaining a tested fighter in their corner who will be a fierce ally in D.C., lifting up our state’s values and making sure we secure the critical resources to emerge stronger from this pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement. “He will be a Senator for all Californians.”"
Who will California vaccinate next? Bay Area teachers, grocery store workers could be next in line
The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO: "California teachers, firefighters, grocery store and restaurant employees could be next in line to receive coronavirus vaccines under a plan state vaccine advisers are slated to consider Wednesday.
Now that vaccinations are well under way for the 2.4 million Californians in the first group of high-priority recipients — health care workers and long-term care facility residents in what the state is calling “Phase 1a” — officials are getting close to deciding who should be next in line in “Phase 1b.”
The next wave of vaccinations will most likely target essential workers, potentially including 1.4 million people who work in education and child care, 3.4 million who work in food and agriculture jobs, and 1.1 million who work in non-health care roles in emergency services."
Overwhelmed hospitals beg families to avoid history gatherings
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "In an extraordinary plea, California’s major health care providers on Tuesday called on residents to resist the temptation to hold in-home family Christmas gatherings this week, saying those events will trigger yet another surge on top of an existing wave of new COVID-19 infections.
Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health, operators of major hospitals statewide, held a joint call to plead with residents to “take stringent, common sense precautions” in the coming days, warning that intensive care units and emergency rooms already are jammed with record numbers of patients and can’t handle much more.
They’re calling it a “Don’t Share Your Air” campaign for the Christmas and New Year’s period. State officials said the current record numbers of hospital patients stems in good part from family gatherings during Thanksgiving, in defiance of state mandates not to hold get-togethers in family homes."
Trump threatens to torpedo COVID relief with new demands
AP's KEVIN FREKING/ANDREW TAYLOR/LISA MASCARO: "President Donald Trump late Tuesday threatened to torpedo Congress’ massive COVID-19 relief package in the midst of a raging pandemic and deep economic uncertainty, suddenly demanding changes fellow Republicans have opposed.
Trump assailed the bipartisan $900 billion package in a video he tweeted out Tuesday night and suggested he may not sign the legislation. He called on lawmakers to increase direct payments for most Americans from $600 to $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for couples.
Railing against a range of provisions in the bill, including for foreign aid, he told lawmakers to "get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill.”"
Newsom names chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus as next secretary of state
Sac Bee's LARA KORTE/HANNAH WILEY: "Hours after appointing a replacement to Kamala Harris’ Senate seat, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday named Assemblywoman Shirley Weber as the next Secretary of State.
She will be the first Black person to hold that office in the state’s history.
“I thank Governor Newsom for the confidence he’s placed in me and his belief that I will stand strong for California,” Weber said in a statement. “Being the first African American woman in this position will be a monumental responsibility, but I know that I am up for the challenge.”"
New stimulus payments that may come to the Bay Area: What's changed, what hasn't
The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER: "Most adults who got a $1,200 stimulus payment earlier this year will receive one for $600 if President Trump signs the latest coronavirus relief bill Congress passed late Monday.
Parents will get a slightly bigger payment, $600 instead of $500, for each dependent younger than 17.
Trump was widely expected to sign the bill, but in a surprise video tweeted Tuesday night, he said it “really is a disgrace.” He complained that the bill, which is paired with a broader spending plan, provides billions in foreign aid, and help for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Smithsonian Institution, which are both closed. “It’s called the COVID relief bill but has almost nothing to do with COVID,” he said. Trump called on Congress to send him an amended bill that provides $2,000 per adult in stimulus, rather than $600."
Bay Area airports all but deserted amid pleas to avoid travel
The Chronicle's MICHAEL WILLIAMS: "For the past several weeks, even before Thanksgiving, public health officials pleaded with Americans to avoid traveling this holiday season, hoping to mitigate the explosive growth of coronavirus infections brought on by mingling households.
If the lines at the Oakland International Airport on Tuesday morning — three days before Christmas — were any indication, people listened.
The airport’s Terminal 1 was desolate just after 9 a.m. As airport announcements echoed through the nearly empty terminal, only about a dozen people lined up at the security checkpoint."
Sleighing it: SFFD revives holiday lights tradition
The Chronicle's PETER HARTLAUB: "After the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about a 70-year-old San Francisco fire station decoration contest earlier this month, the SF Fire Department decided to bring it back.
With just 12 days to decorate, firefighters from Ocean Beach to the Haight-Ashbury to Nob Hill to Embarcadero turned their stations into beacons of holiday spirit — to inspire some socially distant neighborhood cheer.
See the decorations using the map below, and (safely) visit your local stations. Winners will be announced by The Chronicle later this week, with $6,000 in prize money from San Francisco Fire Credit Union going to charities of the winners’ choice."
Trump pardons 15, commutes 5 sentences, including GOP allies
AP's COLLEEN LONG/KEVIN FREKING/ERIC TUCKER: "President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned 15 people, including a pair of congressional Republicans who were strong and early supporters, a 2016 campaign official ensnared in the Russia probe and former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad.
Trump's actions in his final weeks in office show a president who is wielding his executive power to reward loyalists and others who he believes have been wronged by a legal system he sees as biased against him and his allies. Trump issued the pardons — not an unusual act for an outgoing president — even as he refused to publicly acknowledge his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20.
Trump is likely to issue more pardons before then. He and his allies have discussed a range of other possibilities, including members of Trump's family and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani."
