California's bullet train project seeking additional $4.1B to complete Merced-Bakersfield starter system
LA Times's RALPH VARTABEDIAN: "The California bullet train authority will seek a $4.1-billion appropriation to complete construction in the Central Valley, as costs and schedules continue to grow.
The massive appropriation, which would come out of a 2008 bond fund that voters approved, would provide enough money to complete Gov. Gavin Newsom’s starter system from Merced to Bakersfield, the authority said in newly released documents. The 171-mile rail link would not connect to Los Angeles for more than a decade and not until tens of billions of dollars can be obtained for tunneling through mountains.
The Legislature last appropriated money from the bond fund in 2012, when the measure passed the Senate by a single vote. Since then, the Legislature has grown increasingly skeptical about the slow pace of the project."
Newsom recall ads to hit airwaves amid encroaching signature deadline
Sac Bee's LARA KORTE: "The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t yet qualified for the ballot, but one of his opponents is already launching ads.
Republican businessman John Cox, who ran for and lost the governorship to Newsom in 2018, launched a statewide ad campaign on Monday taking aim at both Newsom and Republican candidate Kevin Faulconer.
The 30-second ad, titled “Gavin Faulconer” depicts both the governor and former San Diego Mayor Faulconer as corrupt politicians."
California proposes legislation banning 'secret settlements' in discrimination lawsuits
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "Three years after California outlawed sexual misconduct non-disclosure agreements, a Democratic state lawmaker introduced new legislation on Monday that would expand the law to include all workplace harassment and discrimination settlements.
Dubbed the “Silenced No More Act,” Senate Bill 331 would include discrimination against race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, disability and religion in the 2018 law that currently applies to instances of gender-based mistreatment and sexual offenses.
Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, who also wrote the 2018 bill, introduced this year’s proposal as the next chapter in the #MeToo movement that began in 2017 to raise awareness on and help end sexual violence."
LA Latino, Black seniors fall behind in vaccine access compared with Whites
LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY/JACLYN COSGROVE: "Black, Latino and Native American seniors in Los Angeles County are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations at a lower rate than white, Asian American and Pacific Islander seniors, according to data released Monday.
The findings raised new concerns about inequity in the troubled rollout of vaccines for those 65 and older and added pressure on county leaders to do a better job of getting communities of color immunized.
Only 7% of Black residents age 65 and over have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the lowest percentage of any racial and ethnic group and less than half the comparable figure for white senior residents. About 9% of Native American seniors and 14% of Latino seniors have received at least one dose."
First B.1.1.7 case confirmed in Sacramento area
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "A genetic variant of the coronavirus believed by scientists to be much more contagious than others has been detected for the first time in the Sacramento area, local officials announced Monday.
The city of Davis, the University of California, Davis, and Yolo County in a joint statement announced that the COVID-19 variant known as B.1.1.7, first located in the United Kingdom last fall, has been detected in Yolo County.
“This individual is an adult and may have acquired the variant through travel outside of the community,” the news release said, though the statement didn’t clarify where the person may have traveled. The infected person has been notified and is in isolation."
California teachers grapple with grading nearly a year after initial school closures
EdSource's SYDNEY JOHNSON: "As schools grow more familiar with distance learning, one key element continues to baffle even expert teachers: assigning grades in an online classroom.
Many California school districts altered grading policies when schools abruptly closed last spring so that students’ grades could only improve from where they were at just before the sudden stay-at-home order. In those districts, teachers did not lower students’ grades if they were struggling academically. Other districts switched to pass/fail systems. But this school year, most schools are back to traditional A-F grading scales, creating an all-new learning curve for teachers who must now grade students from behind a computer screen.
The issue is even more pressing for districts that have seen an uptick in Fs and Ds during distance learning. In Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest district with more than 600,000 students, the number of Ds and Fs in grades 9-12 increased by 8.7 percentage points in the fall compared to the same time period last year, according to data included in a district directive to give students more time to pull their grades up."
Beutner: With 25K vaccines, LA elementary schools could reopen ASAP
LA Times's HOWARD BLUME: "Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday that vaccinating 25,000 teachers and staff could lead to the reopening of elementary schools for a quarter of a million students as soon as state guidelines allowed, as the L.A. schools chief renewed his request for immediate access to the immunizations for educators.
Beutner stopped short of saying vaccines were a precondition for reopening, instead calling them “a critical piece to this reopening puzzle.” The L.A. teachers union, which is currently negotiating with the district on reopening issues, has said that vaccines are a prerequisite to their return.
“There are about a quarter-million students in preschool and elementary schools throughout Los Angeles Unified,” Beutner said in his weekly broadcast. “To vaccinate all who work in these schools who are not otherwise already eligible, we would need to vaccinate about 25,000 people. You heard that right — vaccinating 25,000 people will allow us to reopen elementary school classrooms for 250,000 children and help their half-million-plus family members start on the path to recovery and allow many of them to go back to work.”"
Senate confirms Denis McDonough for Biden VA Sec
Bloomberg's ANNA EDGERTON: "The U.S. Senate confirmed Denis McDonough as the secretary of Veterans Affairs on Monday, making the former Obama chief of staff the second non-veteran to lead the department.
The VA, which has faced scandals under both Republican and Democratic administrations, is the second-largest federal agency behind the Department of Defense.
The 87-7 vote for McDonough will probably be the last confirmation of President Biden’s nominees before the Senate begins former President Trump’s impeachment trial on Tuesday. Only six of Biden’s other Cabinet-level nominees have been confirmed."
Trump impeachment lawyer continues complaining
LA Times's SARAH D WIRE: "Lawyers for former President Trump criticized the impeachment case against him as “political theater” in their final brief before the beginning of the Senate trial Tuesday.
In the 78-page brief filed Monday, Trump’s lawyers David Schoen and Bruce Castor argued that the case is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, and therefore, it must be dismissed.
“The article of impeachment presented by the House is unconstitutional for a variety of reasons, any of which alone would be grounds for immediate dismissal,” the attorneys wrote in the brief. “Taken together, they demonstrate conclusively that indulging House Democrats hunger for this political theater is a danger to our republic democracy and the rights that we hold dear.”"
Man charged in US Capitol riot worked for FBI
AP's ALANNA DURKIN RICHER/MICHAEL BALSAMO: "A man who authorities say is a leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group and helped to organize a ring of other extremists and led them in the attack last month at the U.S. Capitol has held a top-secret security clearance for decades and previously worked for the FBI, his attorney said Monday.
Thomas Caldwell, who authorities believe holds a leadership role in the extremist group, worked as section chief for the FBI from 2009 to 2010 after retiring from the Navy, his lawyer, Thomas Plofchan, wrote in a motion urging the judge to release him from jail while he awaits trial.
The defense said Caldwell, who has denied being part of the Oath Keepers, has held a top-secret security clearance since 1979, which required multiple special background investigations, Plofchan said. Caldwell also ran a consulting firm that did classified work for the U.S. government, the lawyer said."
Some California cities healthiest in nation, report states
Sac Bee's BROOKE WOLFORD/DAWSON WHITE: "A city in California landed the top spot on a list of the country’s healthiest cities, according to a new report.
San Francisco ranked first on WalletHub’s list of the healthiest cities in the U.S., which was released Monday.
Rounding out the top five were Seattle, Portland, San Diego and Honolulu."
