Gov. Newsom warns Californians should consider wearing dual masks
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "New state health guidelines announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday recommend that Californians wear two cloth masks or one filtered mask when going out in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
That’s a more rigorous safety precaution than the Newsom administration announced in June when it handed down a statewide order directing people to wear face coverings in indoor public settings.
“We are encouraging people basically to double down on mask wearing, particularly in light of all what I would argue is bad information coming from at least four states in this country. We will not be walking down their path, we’re mindful of your health and our future,” Newsom said."
California thinks it can stop COVID by flooding poor areas with vaccine. Will it work?
LA Times's LUKE MONEY/SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA/MELISSA HEALY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "Months into a vaccine rollout that has been stymied by shortages and marred by persistent inequities, California is now going all in on a new strategy: flooding those communities hardest hit by COVID-19 with doses.
Officials say they hope the radical shift unveiled this week will not only slow the spread of the disease and tackle glaring inequities in who is receiving vaccines, but also speed up reopening of the economy by inoculating essential workers who are putting themselves at greater risk.
Under the new approach, the state will now provide 40% of its available supplies to underserved areas, such as in South L.A., the Eastside, Santa Ana and the heavily Latino communities along the Interstate 10 corridor between Pomona and San Bernardino — places that have experienced a disproportionate share of the pandemic’s pain, yet still lag behind more affluent neighborhoods when it comes to getting vaccines."
10% of California adults fully vaccinated; plan to boost disadvantaged groups
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "California continues to inch toward 10 million total doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered, as the state’s priority and eligibility rules continue to shift.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Thursday providers have administered 9,673,787 doses to date.
The total increased by 215,065 compared to Wednesday. CDPH noted Thursday’s total includes some figures missed from Wednesday’s report due to a technical issue."
A UBI program like the pilot program in Stockton could be coming to Sacramento
Sac Bee's ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "The premise was simple — $500 a month to 125 Stockton residents, no strings attached, no work requirements.
Officials with the pilot program touted the payments as a hand up, not a handout, in a city, battered by the recession and once dubbed “America’s foreclosure capital,” where about one in six residents live below the poverty line.
Now, newly released results from the first year of the guaranteed income experiment that began February 2019 reveal that those who received payments were employed at a higher rate, were happier, were healthier, and were more able to weather sudden expenses compared to non-recipients in the control group."
Dispute simmers over north state ‘demonstration forest’
ROBIN EPLEY, Capitol Weekly: "Driving the 25-mile, winding pass known as California Highway 20, you could be excused for missing the weather-worn, wooden sign welcoming you into — and through — Jackson Demonstration State Forest.
After all, the towering redwood trees dappling the sunlight over the road and the misty fog that clings to every curve is what most drivers are there for, as they head toward the craggy cliffs of the Mendocino coastline.
JDSF — or just “Jackson,” as it is known locally — extends for a staggering 48,000 acres beyond that stretch of road. Nestled between the small mountain town of Willits and the coastal city of Fort Bragg, it is home to innumerable second-growth and old-growth redwoods, rare species of animals and birds, several dozen campsites, waterfalls and mossy paths to hike, cycle, ride and motor through."
What expers say you should and shouldn't do after getting vaccinated
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "Carl Kerwick doesn’t expect his life to change overnight once he’s fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but he’s anticipating a few small steps toward resuming pre-pandemic life: sharing meals with neighbors, riding public transit, giving a friend a hug.
“I might actually put my hand on someone’s shoulder and say, ‘Hey, how are you doing today?’” said Kerwick, who is a resident of Rhoda Goldman Plaza, an assisted living facility in San Francisco where most residents have received their first dose of vaccine.
“Once we’re all vaccinated it will open that door of reestablishing humanity,” said Kerwick, who at 60 is among the youngest residents. “But there are still enough unknowns about the virus that opening the door completely — I’m not quite there yet.”"
Gov. Newsom warns Californians should consider wearing dual masks
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "New state health guidelines announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday recommend that Californians wear two cloth masks or one filtered mask when going out in public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
That’s a more rigorous safety precaution than the Newsom administration announced in June when it handed down a statewide order directing people to wear face coverings in indoor public settings.
“We are encouraging people basically to double down on mask wearing, particularly in light of all what I would argue is bad information coming from at least four states in this country. We will not be walking down their path, we’re mindful of your health and our future,” Newsom said."
Kamala Harris is emerging as magnet for progressive pressure on White House
LA Times's NOAH BIERMAN: "Rev. William Barber II, one of the nation’s leading civil rights activists, defines the brewing fight over raising the national minimum wage as Kamala Harris’ first fork-in-the-road moment since she became vice president.
“She’s going to make history one way or another,” he said, for either standing alongside Rosa Parks, Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer or letting down millions of poor people who depended on her campaign promise to guarantee $15 an hour for workers.
Harris’ defenders note that the minimum wage hike, though unlikely to be included in the Biden administration’s final $1.9-trillion COVID-19 relief plan, is a fight that is only in its first round. And they point out that Harris was hardly the only person deciding what path the administration would take as it seeks to push a relief bill through the Senate that is loaded with liberal priorities, including money for schools and direct checks for many Americans."
Data keeps piling up: No 'Californian mass exodus' during the pandemic
The Chronicle's SUSIE NEILSON: "Adding to the evidence suggesting that the much-discussed “California exodus” during the pandemic is mostly hype, new research by the California Policy Lab shows that most Californians who moved in 2020 moved to other regions within the state.
The nonpartisan think tank examined a data set from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel that contained residential locations for all California residents with credit history. The data set was able to track how many state residents moved from one place to another each financial quarter.
Overall, the data showed that the share of California movers leaving the state did not measurably increase in 2020, though that share has increased slightly since 2015, from 16% to about 18%. And in the fourth quarter of 2020, the state saw a decrease in the number of people moving in, which led to a larger net loss of people than normal."
SF City Hall Corruption: Recology to repay customers $94.5M for rates Mohammed Nuru helped set
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "San Franciscans will recoup nearly $100 million in overpaid trash-collection fees after a probe by the City Attorney’s Office detailed how the waste management company Recology improperly hiked its prices over the last four years, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Thursday.
The settlement between the city and Recology represents the latest twist in the sprawling City Hall corruption saga centered around former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru, other city officials, contractors and nonprofit groups.
Nuru played a key role in the rate-setting process for Recology. The results of Herrera’s investigation and a separate federal probe allege that Nuru accepted bribes from Recology in exchange for allowing the company to inflate its rates. A former Recology executive was fired and arrested in November in light of those allegations."
US adds strong tally of 379K jobs in hopeful sign for economy
AP's CHRISTOPHER RUGABER: "U.S. employers added a robust 379,000 jobs last month, the most since October and a sign that the economy is strengthening as confirmed coronavirus cases drop, consumers spend more, and states and cities ease business restrictions.
The February gain marked a sharp pickup from the 166,000 jobs that were added in January and a loss of 306,000 in December. Yet it represents just a fraction of the roughly 10 million jobs that were lost in the pandemic.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.2%, the Labor Department said Friday in its monthly jobs report."
Despite large income report, Sutter Health's financial report is still bleak. Why?
Sac Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "Sutter Heath reported Thursday that it earned income of $134 million in 2020 as its investments surged in value, but the health-care giant suffered losses from its business operations for a second consecutive year.
Last year’s operating loss totaled $321 million as the company made investments to care for thousands of patients who had COVID-19. Around California and the nation, hospital providers have said this viral pandemic has dealt them crushing financial blows.
Sutter Health CEO Sarah Krevans noted in a news release: “We invested heavily to respond to the pandemic because it was the right thing to do, but it came at a cost as we experienced one of the toughest financial years in Sutter’s 100-year history. It will take several years to fully recover.”"
New satellite imagery shows a devastated kelp forest in California. Here's why
The Chronicle's TARA DUGGAN: "The kelp forest that only eight years ago formed a leafy ocean canopy along the Northern California coast has almost completely disappeared, and scientists who study kelp and the species that depend on it are worried about its inability to bounce back.
A new study from UC Santa Cruz found that the kelp forest on the Sonoma and Mendocino coast has declined by an average of 95% since 2013. It analyzed satellite imagery going back to 1985 to investigate how a series of factors led to the kelp forest’s abrupt decline, including an explosion in the population of purple sea urchin, which eats it, and two marine heat waves. The research shows the unprecedented destruction was related to unusual ocean warming and that the kelp forest likely won’t recover any time soon, partly because removing the urchins is so difficult.
“They can actually survive under starvation conditions,” said Meredith McPherson, a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz’s Ocean Sciences department and coauthor of the study. “The impact has been that basically there is no kelp forest at all left, really.”"
Here's where each Bay Area region stands on reopening
The Chronicle's MICHAEL WILLIAMS: "With California continuing to move toward a reopening of its economy, four Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Sonoma — remain in the purple, the most restrictive tier of the state’s blueprint.
While two of those counties, Alameda and Solano, could move into the red tier as soon as next week, the future is more murky for the other two.
Two main metrics are used to determine which tier a county can be in: a seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, and a seven-day average of all positive coronavirus tests in each county. Counties also must meet certain metrics that determine whether test positivity rates in disadvantaged neighborhoods are on par with overall positivity rates."
Animal rights activists shut down a day of horse racing at GGF
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Animal rights protesters, intent on permanently shutting down Golden Gate Fields, the Bay Area’s only horse racing track, successfully stopped an afternoon of racing Thursday but inadvertently caused the closure of a vaccination clinic in the track’s parking lot for about three hours as well.
Four members of Direct Action Everywhere, a global animal rights group, climbed over a fence and onto the backstretch of the track, where they chained their arms together inside PVC tubes and ignited purple smoke flares to announce their presence. Another 15 to 20 protesters, waving bright “Shut down Golden Gate Fields” signs, gathered outside the Gilman Street entrance to the track in Albany. The track has been holding races without spectators allowed.
Although the bulk of the protesters were far from a vaccination clinic in a sprawling Golden Gate Fields parking lot off Buchanan Street on the north end of the track in Albany, police and Berkeley health officials temporarily stopped giving shots for about three hours because of the protest."
