Snowbirds flock south in the winter for warmer weather, using up COVID-19 vaccines in this Arizona desert town
KURTIS LEE, LA Times: "John Lane can’t wait for the snowbirds to leave town this year.
In search of warmer weather and wide-open spaces, the seasonal visitors flock south and west each winter in their RVs and camper vans, quadrupling the population of this Arizona desert town.
They are usually greeted warmly as they fill their ample free time — and boost the local economy — zipping around town in golf carts to take in gem shows, dine in restaurants or patronize the shuffleboard courts. But in the midst of the pandemic, many of the part-time visitors have focused on a more high-stakes activity: seeking out doses of COVID-19 vaccine."
Biden signs voting rights order on 'Bloody Sunday' anniversary
Sac Bee's BAILEY ALDRIDGE: "President Joe Biden on Sunday signed an executive order aimed at expanding voting access — marking the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama.
The order, which Biden discussed at the Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast, will work to expand access to voter registration and information, aim to increase access to voting and analyze barriers to voting, among other things, according to a news release from the White House.
On March 7, 1965, known as “Bloody Sunday,” civil rights activists organized a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery. The group of about 600 people, led by the late Rep. John Lewis, were met by state troopers, who beat and tear-gassed protesters."
Column: Newsom hits home run as the effort to recall him gets closer to making the ballot
GEORGE SKELTON, LA Times: "It doesn’t get much better for a politician during a pandemic than to announce that fans can probably return to ballparks when the Major League Baseball season opens.
Especially if you’re a governor threatened with being recalled from office.
Helping to unlock baseball stadiums as season openers approach is guaranteed to be popular and bipartisan. Forget the polarization plague. This gives baseball fans and their families in every demographic group — whether they live in East or West L.A. — something normal to look forward to."
Newsom recall leaders say they have enough signatures to trigger an election
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Leaders of the effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday they’ve collected 1.95 million signatures a little more than a week before the deadline, a number they believe will be more than enough to trigger a special recall election.
County and state elections officials still need to verify that nearly 1.5 million are valid signatures from registered California voters before the recall can qualify for the ballot. But recall supporters said Sunday that they’re confident they’ve collected enough.
The most recent signature verification numbers from the Secretary of State’s Office found that about 83% of the signatures counted by early February were valid. There’s no guarantee that validity rate will hold for the remaining signatures, but if it does, proponents would reach the threshold needed to trigger a special recall election."
Half-a-century later, San Rafael man reveals role in FBI office break-in that paved way for Pentagon Papers, WikiLeaks
The Chronicle's MATTHIAS GAFNI: "Ralph Daniel squeezed himself through the door and looked around the dark room. They had cased this small FBI office in the Philadelphia suburb of Media for months.
Now he was inside.
Rows of file cabinets beckoned. This was the moment the group of eight had planned. They had long suspected FBI malfeasance and were convinced these records would prove it."
Bay Area school district among first to announce plans for summer school
ALI TADAYON, EdSource: "West Contra Costa Unified plans to confront widespread learning loss and prepare students of all grades for the “new normal” of returning to the classroom by enhancing its summer school, which will mostly be in-person.
District officials presented their plans for summer school at a school board meeting Feb. 24. West Contra Costa appears to be one of the first large districts in the state to announce in-person summer school, which is slated to begin June 14 — the Monday after the traditional school year ends. The program goes beyond the district’s typical summer offerings and includes credit recovery opportunities at every high school, “bridge programming” to get students ready for the next grade, college preparedness and special education programs.
This could be the first time some students have been in a classroom since the pandemic began, though West Contra Costa Unified announced Thursday it plans to begin negotiating the option of spring in-person instruction with its labor unions."
For people mulling a California exodus, what home does $1.2M get you?
The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "The California exodus may be overhyped, as a recent Chronicle analysis of U.S. Postal Service data shows. But for the minority of people moving out of the Bay Area who are also leaving California, one of the top destinations for those who did leave was King County in Washington, which includes Seattle.
Home prices in Seattle tend to be more affordable than in many parts of the Bay Area, making it a popular choice for relocators looking for a similar climate and job opportunities in the tech industry. The median sales price for single-family homes in San Francisco was $1.75 million as of January 2021, according to a report from the California Association of Realtors. Seattle’s median price reached $1 million in 2021, according to data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
Last week, a Chronicle analysis looked at another region in-state that has become popular for Bay Area residents looking to move out and buy elsewhere: Sacramento. In our look at homes under $1 million in San Francisco and Sacramento, a theme emerged: not a lot of inventory, lots of interested buyers and a highly competitive market."
Hundreds walk Golden Gate Bridge in solidarity with people of Myanmar
The Chronicle's JESSICA FLORES: "Zar Ni Maung fled Myanmar in 1989 for the Bay Area after the country, formerly called Burma, had a nationwide uprising against military power in 1988.
On Sunday, he was one of hundreds in San Francisco who walked the Golden Gate Bridge in solidarity with the people of Myanmar who have been protesting since the military seized power in a coup there on Feb. 1.
Zar Ni Maung said videos on social media that show military officers attacking peaceful protesters reminded him of what it was like 33 years ago when he was a first-year college student during the student-led movement in the summer of 1988."
L.A. County reports 1,313 new coronavirus cases as positivity rate continues to decline
NINA AGRAWAL, LA Times: "The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Sunday reported 1,313 new coronavirus cases, even as the rate of positive tests continues to decline.
Over the last seven days, 1.8% of people who were tested for the coronavirus were positive, down from more than 20% at the beginning of the year.
The county also reported 22 deaths — probably an undercount due to a lag in reporting over the weekend."
Should SF City Hall control the school board? Two parents have a plan to shake up the district
The Chronicle's HEATHER KNIGHT: "A year of brutal distance learning. Growing learning loss and a widening achievement gap. A miserable budget outlook. Families fleeing. Students’ mental health tanking. A host of meandering, unrelated discussions, such as why it’s important to put new names on 44 schools, none of which is open. National mockery.
The shocking situation at San Francisco’s Board of Education has left many parents wondering how the city wound up with these seven members. And it’s given two public school parents in particular the motivation to push for a new way of selecting the group tasked with steering the education of more than 52,000 children.
They intend to gather enough signatures to place a Charter amendment on the June 2022 ballot asking voters to give up their right to choose school board members. Instead, the seven would be appointed by City Hall officials — though whether they’d all be appointed by the mayor or split between various officials is still under consideration."
What SF parents think about the deal to bring some students back to the classroom in April
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV/MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Parents’ excitement about San Francisco schools finally reopening in April turned glum Saturday as most realized that their children were not included in the latest plan.
“It was initial excitement and overjoyed feelings of — is this really happening?” said Meredith Dodson, whose son is in preschool at Rooftop Elementary in the Twin Peaks neighborhood. “Now it’s skepticism and concern about what this means for the spring.”
Dodson said she doesn’t know whether her child’s school is among those set to reopen in April. (It’s not.) Although school officials announced Friday night that they had at last reached a tentative deal with teachers to return to the classroom, she and other parents soon realized that 24 elementary schools of 64 will reopen in April. It’s not clear when the remaining elementary schools will reopen. The agreement opens preschool and elementary grades, but not middle or high schools."
Biden, Dems prevail as Senate OKs $1.9T relief bill
AP's ALAN FRAM: "An exhausted Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill Saturday as President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies notched a victory they called crucial for hoisting the country out of the pandemic and economic doldrums.
After laboring all night on a mountain of amendments — nearly all from Republicans and rejected — bleary-eyed senators approved the sprawling package on a 50-49 party-line vote. That sets up final congressional approval by the House next week so lawmakers can whisk it to Biden for his signature.
The huge measure — its cost is nearly one-tenth the size of the entire U.S. economy — is Biden’s biggest early priority. It stands as his formula for addressing the deadly virus and a limping economy, twin crises that have afflicted the country for a year."
