Californians paying price for chaotic rollout of coronavirus vaccine, experts say
LA Times's MAURA DOLAN: "As roughly 4,000 Americans die each day from COVID-19, public health and medical experts are aghast that the vaccines that could save them remain beyond reach — due to multiple governmental failures involving planning, coordination and public communication.
“Many people are eager to get the vaccine, and they want to know when and where they are going to get it,” said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “For the most part, people at the local level don’t know, and people at the state level are still trying to figure it out.”
Calls to doctor offices and pharmacies about vaccines yield no answers, leaving people frustrated and anxious. Emails from doctors’ offices lack specifics. County public health websites may offer the best information, and people in some places can use them to sign up for vaccinations."
House Dems impeached Trump again. This time 10 Republicans joined them.
Sac Bee's ADAM WOLLNER: "President Donald Trump became the first president in the country’s history to be impeached twice. And this time, members of his own party broke ranks to rebuke him.
Ten Republicans joined 222 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday to vote in favor of an article of impeachment charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection” following last week’s Capitol riot that left five people dead. It was the most bipartisan impeachment effort ever in the United States, and a sign that Trump’s grip on the GOP may be loosening as he enters his final week in office.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, was the highest-ranking member of the party and only member of House GOP leadership to vote to impeach Trump."
READ MORE related to Impeachment Redux: Rep. David Valadao only California Republican to break party lines and vote to impeach Trump -- Sac Bee's KATE IRBY; Eric Swalwell gets prominent role as Trump impeached a second time -- The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN
CA fighting endless war with COVID benefit fraud. Why state is a prime target
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "Criminals are still brazenly attempting to steal millions in COVID-19 benefits from California’s beleaguered unemployment agency, but now they’re operating from the four corners of the globe and targeting the state with cyber-weapons.
Months after district attorneys unveiled a prison fraud ring that conned the California Employment Development Department out of an estimated $2 billion or more, the head of an identity-security firm working for the state says global cyber-criminals are bombarding EDD with fraudulent unemployment claims at a stunning clip.
Blake Hall, chief executive of ID.me, said in an interview this week that systems deployed by his company are flagging $750 million worth of bogus claims each week."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Biden to unveil coronavirus action plan, doubling down on masks and social distancing -- AP; Charts show why lockdown is ending is ending in the Sacramento region, but not the Bay Area -- The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN; Death among LAtinos in LA County from COVID-19 rising at astonishing levels -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY
Pro-Trump protest organizer in Sacramento calls off rally after permit is denied
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "It’s unclear whether supporters of President Trump will gather at the state Capitol this weekend to protest Joe Biden’s election victory after the organizer of the only known demonstration canceled her event because the California Highway Patrol denied her a permit.
Chris Bish, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for the Sacramento congressional seat in November, had sought to hold an event Sunday on the Capitol grounds “to peacefully protest our compromised election,” register voters, collect signatures to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom and promote her 2022 campaign. She said she expected as many as 3,000 people to attend, far more than the limit of 200 that CHP has set during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bish said Wednesday that she would not move forward with the event because, without a permit, attendees would not be granted access to the Capitol steps and lawn, which have been largely sealed off to the public with barricades since May."
Scant COVID testing for CA's arrested children
RAHEEM HOSSEINI in Capitol Weekly: "Rasjan sat with his hands folded at a metal table inside a white-walled tank of the Sacramento County Youth Detention Facility. A mask hung around his neck as he peered into a webcam and listened to three adult voices — belonging to a judge and two attorneys — discuss whether he should be released into his grandmother’s care.
On Dec. 30, 2020, the answer was no.
Rasjan was arrested two weeks earlier for allegedly causing a hit and run and possessing a loaded gun, and he would spend at least two more weeks in a juvenile hall that tests every arrested youth for COVID-19."
State wildfires could upend years of progress fighting air pollution
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "Wildfires in the western United States have exacerbated pollution enough to threaten decades of progress toward sustaining cleaner skies, according to new research underscoring one of the alarming ways that climate change can harm public health.
The findings from researchers at Stanford University and UC San Diego show that wildfire smoke is now responsible for as much as half of the fine-particulate air pollution in western states. That’s about double the level that smoke accounted for in the mid-2000s, according to the paper published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
While the country took large strides to improve air quality after passage of the federal Clean Air Act decades ago, the latest research suggests that smoky skies are frustrating the trend, particularly in western states such as California."
Dems want to raise taxes on corporations to pay for homeless programs
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "California Democrats on Wednesday unveiled legislation to increase tax rates on larger corporations in order to establish a permanent funding stream for solutions to the state’s homelessness crisis.
Assembly Bill 71 would increase tax rates on multinational corporations worth more than $5 million, from 8.84% to at least 9.6%, a rate from 1986. The proposal, Democrats said during a press conference, would raise up to $2.4 billion annually for homeless programs.
The money would help support nonprofit organizations and create more affordable housing, according to the coalition sponsoring the bill, which includes city leaders and advocacy groups."
After abuse reports, CA approves $8M for youth returning from troubled treatment programs
The Chronicle's JOAQUIN PALOMINO/CYNTHIA DIZIKES/SARA TIANO: "California will spend more than $8 million to find safer homes for children returning from troubled out-of-state residential programs, in response to a Chronicle and Imprint investigation into rampant reports of abuse at the facilities.
Officials in counties across the state are now spending the money, approved by the state Legislature in December, to recruit foster families and bolster mental health and behavioral support services for the 131 young people California is calling back from treatment programs across the country.
But despite a fast-approaching deadline of Jan. 23 to bring the children home, 64 youth remain in these faraway programs that officials deemed unsafe more than a month ago. County child welfare and probation officials say they are working as fast as possible to bring the children back to California, but some have challenging mental and behavioral health needs that make treatment difficult. Arranging travel during the pandemic has also posed logistical challenges."
What happens if you lose your COVID vaccine record card? CDC offers other options
Sac Bee's KATIE CAMERO: "Everyone who gets a COVID-19 vaccine will be given what health officials call “second-dose reminder” cards.
Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots require two injections separated by about a month in order to gain full protection from infection with the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the card also serves as a record-keeper in case vaccine registries or other systems are not available when people return for their second dose."
READ MORE related to Vaccine: Is the COVID vaccine less effective in older adults, and should I worry about which one I get? -- The Chronicle's ADVICE TEAM
Some CA jobs lost to COVID will never be the same. Here's what experts say
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "A woman in South Lake Tahoe who had worked as a sales and marketing director at a hotel. A Modesto woman who worked selling motor homes and trailers. A woman in Sacramento who lost her three-decade job as a server at the Sacramento International Airport.
Those are just a few of the 1.4 million Californians who have lost their jobs since the coronavirus pandemic reached the state in February. Hundreds of thousands remain out of work.
When they come back to work, they could see a different job market."
An LA councilman lied to the FBI. Probation officials say he deserves no jail time
LA Times's DAVID ZAHNISER/MICHAEL FINNEGAN: "It was the first blockbuster case to surface in the federal corruption probe of Los Angeles City Hall — a multi-count indictment accusing former Councilman Mitchell Englander of taking envelopes of cash, lying to the FBI about that money and obstructing its investigation.
Englander, while serving in office, made false statements to FBI agents during three separate interviews, prosecutors said, providing untrue information about his dealings with a businessman who gave him $15,000 in two casino bathrooms.
The case was resolved quickly, with Englander pleading guilty to a single count of scheming to falsify material facts. But now, prosecutors are voicing objections to the sentence recommended by federal probation officials: three years’ probation, a $9,500 fine and no jail time or community service."
Twitter CEO on Trump ban: 'right decision' but broader bans could be 'destructive' to internet
The Chronicle's ROLAND LI: "Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday that the company’s ban of President Trump was the “right decision” with ongoing risk of violence resulting from online speech and admitted the company had previously fallen short.
“While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation,” Dorsey said in a series of Twitter posts.
Dorsey said bans “fragment the public conversation” and “sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.”"
Illusionist Siegfried Fischbacher, last surviving member of the duo Siegfried & Roy, dies from cancer in Las Vegas at 81
AP: "German news agency dpa is reporting that illusionist Siegfried Fischbacher, the surviving member of the duo Siegfried & Roy, has died in Las Vegas at age 81.
The news agency said Thursday that Fischbacher’s sister, a nun who lives in Munich, confirmed his death from cancer.
“He was at home in Las Vegas,” Sister Dolore told dpa. She said she talked to her brother on the phone before he died and they prayed together."
Biden to forego Amtrak trip to Washington for inauguration out of security fears
AP: "President-elect Joe Biden is abandoning plans to take his signature Delaware-to-Washington train ride for his inauguration next week because of security concerns, a person briefed on the decision said Wednesday.
The move reflects growing worries over potential threats in the Capitol and across the U.S. in the lead-up to the inauguration. The decision to forgo the 90-minute Amtrak ride from Wilmington to Washington was likely not easy for Biden, whose preference for taking the train during his 36-year Senate career was such a central part of his public persona that he rode it home on his final day as vice president in 2017. He also used a train tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania during the presidential campaign as part of an effort to appeal to blue-collar workers.
Security in Washington has ramped up considerably in preparation for the inauguration after the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week by supporters of President Trump, and the FBI has warned of plans for armed protests in all 50 state capitals and Washington in the days leading up to the event."
