Newsom expected to cancel stay-at-home orders
LA Times's TARYN LUNA: "Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected on Monday to lift regional coronavirus stay-at-home orders across California, a change that could allow restaurants and gyms in many counties to reopen outdoor dining and services.
All counties will return to the colored tier system that assigns local risk levels based on case numbers and rates of positive test results for coronavirus infections, according to sources briefed on the plan by the governor’s office.
Most counties will go into the “widespread” risk tier, which permits hair salons to offer limited services indoors but restricts many other nonessential indoor business operations. The change is expected to take effect immediately after Newsom’s announcement on Monday."
'On the cusp of great things': Dozens of other COVID vaccines working their way to public
OC Register's TERI SFORZA: "Move over, Pfizer and Moderna. You won’t be the only games in town too much longer.
COVID-19 has existed for barely more than a year, but 64 vaccines are in clinical development and another 173 in preclinical development worldwide nonetheless, according to the World Health Organization. Dozens of hopefuls are in clinical trials in the U.S., including several by California researchers.
But the two inching closest to the finish line here — by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — could win emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as soon as this spring, which would instantly increase supply and deliver a much-needed jolt to the nation’s maddeningly sluggish mass vaccination campaign."
Eviction moratorium set to expire with rent coming due at end of month
The Chronicle's J.K. DINEEN: "For the first eight months of the pandemic, Mission District resident Antonia Lopez counted herself lucky. Her husband, a painter, was still employed.
They managed to cover the $2,000 monthly rent on their two-bedroom apartment on York Street, keeping a roof over the heads of their six children. It was crowded and the kids were attempting to learn remotely when not going stir crazy.
Then came Thanksgiving and her husband, along with his entire painting crew, fell ill with COVID-19. He was out of work for a month and, since recovering, jobs have become sporadic — some weeks he has only one or two days of work."
CW Podcast: An Economic Forecast
Capitol Weekly STAFF: "Why are California property values skyrocketing even as unemployment is at record numbers? How will the new Democratic administration in DC effect California? Could changes in tax policy better prepare the state for emergencies like COVID? And, what is a “K shaped” recovery?"
"Lenny Mendonca, the former head of GO-Biz (The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development)for Governor Gavin Newsom, joined John Howard and Tim Foster to talk about the economic outlook for California as the pandemic continues, and what to expect when the era of COVID is over."
Coronavirus death toll overwhelms 'last responders' in funeral home industry
The Daily Breeze's DAVID ROSENFELD: "For weeks now, Los Angeles County has been overwhelmed by the onslaught of death.
COVID-19 patients are dying at such an alarming rate — 1,500 over the past week alone, close to 2,000 the week prior — that hospitals, morgues and funeral homes are buckling under the volume of bodies. The pandemic has doubled the number of decedents they normally handle, and COVID-19 now accounts for more deaths than all other causes combined.
Refrigerated trailers have been pressed into duty at some hospitals because they have nowhere to send their deceased patients. Funeral homes, where most of them typically would be sent, are so backlogged that grieving families are turned away or wait up to weeks to bury or cremate their loved ones."
Critics of San Diego superintendent call on Biden to rescind her nomination to Education post
LA Times's KRISTEN TAKETA: "The recent announcement that San Diego Supt. Cindy Marten was tapped to become the next deputy U.S. Education secretary drew widespread praise among policymakers and educators, who say Marten has championed equity within schools.
But some local parents, community members and the NAACP San Diego are criticizing the choice, saying Marten has not reduced racial disparities in schools for Black and Latino children and that her failure to reopen schools for 98% of San Diego Unified students has caused students to fall behind.
The nomination of the former teacher and principal drew praise from Secretary of State Shirley Weber, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the San Diego Unified school board, the San Diego teachers union, the national Council of the Great City Schools, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, former Mayor Kevin Faulconer and San Diego County Dist. Atty. Summer Stephan, among others."
He sued President Donald Trump 123 times. Now he's joining Joe Biden's administration
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "By the time Donald Trump exited the White House on Wednesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had sued the former president’s administration 123 times.
Becerra filed nine alone on Trump’s final full day in office, bringing a climactic end to a four-year run in which California battled the White House on immigration, the Census, military spending and more.
Now the 62-year-old Sacramento native is preparing to head to Washington, D.C. to serve as President Joe Biden’s Health and Human Services secretary."
California's Padilla brings rare Senate perspective -- an immigrant family's struggle for dignity
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Sen. Alex Padilla began to choke up. He was talking about his father, Santos Padilla, an immigrant from Mexico.
The California Democrat was recalling the time he brought his father with him when he was seeking the endorsement of a labor organization during his first run for office. The elder Padilla wasn’t there to provide moral support — he was living evidence that the young politician came from a place where the fight for dignity wasn’t an abstract concept.
It was a moment of insight into how Padilla, the first Latino to represent California in the Senate, will bring a different life experience to Washington than most politicians — one that represents the many immigrants whose stories aren’t told enough in the nation’s capital."
Newest member of Sacramento's GOP leadership is member of far-right Proud Boys group
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON: A prominent member of the Proud Boys, who has participated in nationwide protests and marches, has been elected to the Sacramento County Republican Party’s Central Committee, but says his activities should not conflict with his new post.
Jeffrey Erik Perrine, who has been a member of the Sacramento Proud Boys but says he has since left that entity, is waiting to be sworn into his new position, to which he was elected in March.
Perrine, 37, of Citrus Heights has been a focus of online posts by antifa and other groups that refer to him as “a far-right extremist” who is “openly anti-immigrant, racist and transphobic.”
Next storm due Monday, with more to follow
LA Times's ALEX WIGGLESWORTH/ANDREW J CAMPA: "A string of winter storms will drop rain on the Los Angeles area and bring snow to the mountains this week, forecasters say, raising concerns about debris flows in recent burn areas.
The heaviest precipitation was expected Tuesday night into Thursday. That system will connect to an atmospheric river, a stream of high-moisture-content air that creates a sort of pipeline of water, and dump 2 to 3 inches of rain over much of L.A. County, said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
A weaker round of rain and snow was also forecast to hit Monday morning."
How UCSD has avoided COVID-19 outbreaks while housing thousands of students
EdSource's MICHAEL BURKE: "With a multilayered approach to detect and prevent the spread of Covid-19, campus leaders at the University of California, San Diego say they have created something rare in higher education this year: a safe on-campus experience for thousands of students.
Even with Covid-19 spreading rapidly in Southern California, about 10,000 students are living on UC San Diego’s La Jolla campus this year. After avoiding any significant Covid-19 outbreaks during the 11-week fall quarter, the university welcomed students back this month and resumed instruction for the winter quarter.
Colleges with that many students living on campus are an uncommon sight this academic year. This month, Stanford University abruptly reversed its plans to allow freshmen and sophomores to move into dorms this quarter. Most campuses in California’s two four-year university systems, the UC and California State University, are also housing very few students. "
Bay Area teachers face confusion over when they'll get vaccinated
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "Pushed to the front of the line, more than 1,000 Bay Area school workers received the coronavirus vaccine in recent days, but it could be weeks or months before additional teachers and staff get the shots, with the state now rethinking who should get them first.
The uncertainty of when teachers and school staff will get their turn is just one aspect of a confusing and chaotic vaccine rollout in California, plagued by a shortage of doses and the logistical challenge of saving shots for only those who are eligible.
Counties and medical providers have made their own decisions on how to prioritize immunizations within state guidelines, with many choosing in recent weeks to fast-track educators so schools can reopen. But federal and state authorities now say vaccines should be given to everyone older than 65, and the state is considering scrapping all the existing tiers in favor of an age-based priority system."
California banned indiscriminate fishing nets. Now those porpoises are on the rebound
LA Times's JENNIFER LU: "Around the world, fishermen use low-cost nets that sit like fences on coastal seafloors. Known as set gill nets, this type of gear is highly effective at catching fish when the mesh snags them by their gills.
But gill nets also catch a host of other species by mistake.
In California, decades of commercial sea bass and halibut fishing killed thousands of other coastal animals. Outraged by the deaths of sea otters and diving seabirds, voters in the state banned many of the nets from near-coastal waters starting in 1994."
Growing number of GOP senators oppose impeachment trial
AP: "A growing number of Republican senators say they oppose holding an impeachment trial, a sign of the dimming chances that former President Donald Trump will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol.
House Democrats, who will walk the impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate on Monday evening, are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan. 6 riot will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Trump from holding office again. But GOP passions appear to have cooled since the insurrection, and now that Trump’s presidency is over, Republican senators who will serve as jurors in the trial are rallying to his legal defense, as they did during his first impeachment trial last year.
“I think the trial is stupid, I think it’s counterproductive,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He said that “the first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I’ll do it” because he believes it would be bad for the country and further inflame partisan divisions."
