EDD says it will automatically add new federal unemployment benefits for most Californians
The Chronicle's CAROLYN SAID: "Congress cut it close with unemployment benefits when it passed the American Rescue Plan, which extended the benefits just days before their March 14 expiration date. President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package Thursday, ensuring that the benefits, which now include a $300-a-week supplement, will be extended until Labor Day.
Some jobless Californians who depend on that money can breathe a sigh of relief.
Although the state Employment Development Department had to revamp its systems with all the intricacies of the new regulations, it said Friday that people who have received benefits for less than a year should automatically get the extension."
Transit workers, homeless residents now prioritized for COVID vaccines in California
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "California is making more essential workers, as well as homeless residents and those living in congregate setting such as prisons, eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
The state has further defined who is considered to be working in the emergency services sector, explicitly allowing utility and social workers to be eligible for the vaccine. Public transit workers, such as bus drivers and those working in airports, are also now eligible.
“They are at high risk for occupational exposure, and maintaining continuity of transportation operations is critical,” California’s Department of Public Health said in its bulletin sent to local health departments Thursday."
In California’s deep-red ‘North State,’ a one-woman watchdog torments the far right
JAMES RAINEY, LA Times: "Only halfway into the endless plague year, the most outspoken journalist in one of California’s most conservative counties had already tangled with the sheriff, the local megachurch, a rodeo operator and other characters she later pegged as “the anti-maskers, religious zealots, science-deniers, strict Constitutionalists, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, militia members and State of Jefferson believers.”
Shasta County’s Doni Chamberlain took each to task in the frank and folksy column she publishes on her website, A News Cafe.
Then, in July, Chamberlain posted the column that unleashed a special fury."
California wildfire victims to get 'hundreds of millions' as PG&E payments ramp up
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "The trust distributing payments to PG&E Corp. wildfire victims is set to release another multimillion-dollar round of funds. The Fire Victim Trust said Friday it will make begin making payments Monday representing a 30% share of each verified claim.
So far, however, only a small fraction of the claims filed by more than 71,000 homeowners and businesses have been verified, and trust Administrator Cathy Yanni said about $30 million will go out the door Monday. The deadline for filing claims was in late February.
But the volume of claim verifications will grow substantially, and this round of payouts will be “certainly in the hundreds of millions,” Yanni said. The payments will likely take months, she said."
Survivors struggle as scientists race to solve COVID mystery
AP's LINDSEY TANNER: "There was no reason to celebrate on Rachel Van Lear’s anniversary. The same day a global pandemic was declared, she developed symptoms of COVID-19. A year later, she’s still waiting for them to disappear. And for experts to come up with some answers.
The Texas woman is one of thousands of self-described long-haulers, patients with symptoms that linger or develop out of the blue months after they first became infected with coronavirus. Hers first arrived March 11, 2020.
The condition affects an uncertain number of survivors in a baffling variety of ways."
Counting the Bay Area's lost lives during the coronavirus pandemic
The Chronicle's STAFF: "COVID-19 has claimed more than 2.6 million lives worldwide since the start of the pandemic with more than 5,500 of those deaths being Bay Area residents.
The first Bay Area virus-related death was reported March 9, 2020, more than a month after California’s first reported case. A later autopsy, however, linked the death of a Santa Clara County resident on Feb. 6 to the virus, which is believed to be the first virus-related death in the U.S.
While death counts remained low in the early stages of the pandemic, the winter surge brought overcrowded ICUs, unmanageable numbers of hospital patients and the loss of thousands of lives."
LA County coronavirus figures continue to decline on eve of reopening
LA Times's KEVIN RECTOR: "Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline in Los Angeles County as the hard-hit and heavily populated region prepared to reopen businesses — including indoor restaurants, gyms and movie theaters — for the first time in months.
With the caveat that the figures may be artificially low due to lags in weekend reporting, county health officials on Sunday reported 644 new coronavirus cases. There were 28 deaths in the county, compared with 250 deaths a day during the winter peak in January.
There were 951 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county Sunday; a third of those were in intensive care. On Saturday, 979 COVID-19 patients were in county hospitals, marking the first time in more than three months that the figure dropped below 1,000."
'Second Gentleman,' first in his role, hits the road with Kamala Harris
LA Times's NOAH BIERMAN: "A few weeks after his wife Kamala Harris was elected vice president, lawyer Doug Emhoff decided to embark on his own career change: He became a law school professor.
“It’s odd,” Emhoff told reporters recently, explaining the reaction of his students at Georgetown University. “The ‘second gentleman’ is their teacher.”
“But we kind of dispensed with that,” he added. “It was maybe five minutes in the first class.”"
Rain and snow as late winter storm descends on Northern California
Sac Bee's VINCENT MOLESKI: "The National Weather Service’s Sacramento office issued a winter storm warning, which will take effect at 5 p.m. and will last through Monday evening. Meteorologists warn that travel over the Sierra Nevada could be dangerous.
Forecasters say the heaviest snow is expected to fall Sunday night and early Monday morning, bringing up to a foot of snow at high elevations on highway passes.
Interstate 80 at Blue Canyon could see 8 to 12 inches of snow, while Echo Pass on Highway 50 may see up to 8 inches. Carson Pass further south might also get a foot’s worth of snow, along with Interstate 5 at Mount Shasta in the north. Lassen Peak is expected to receive the heaviest snowfall, anywhere from a foot and a half to 2 feet."
Distance learning changed California education. What's here to stay?
EdSource's SYDNEY JOHNSON: "As schools across California welcome back more students on campus, some distance learning practices look likely to survive the pandemic.
School closures exposed deeply embedded inequalities in California education, as well as the crucial lifelines that schools provide for their communities. But in nearly 12 months of distance learning, teachers pushed through difficult days to find new solutions that kept kids learning during an upended school year.
Now, hope is on the horizon: Teachers are getting vaccinated, case rates are significantly lower, and schools are being offered special funding to assist in reopening. With that, some parts of distance learning appear to be finding a long-term place in the classroom."
Bay Area must listen to families of color if it wants to reopen schools safely, equitably
The Chronicle's JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "Kev Choice said he wondered “where all of the Black and brown people were.”
Choice, a hip-hop artist, activist and music teacher at the Oakland School for the Arts, was referring to the “Schools Not Screens” rally held near Lake Merritt on Feb. 28. The grassroots group OUSD Parents for Safe Reopening organized the event to urge the Oakland Unified School District to quickly reopen schools for in-class instruction. Even Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf attended, and she told the crowd of about 200 that it was “time we get our kids back to school — or, as we say in Oakland, ‘hella time.’”
Choice hadn’t heard about the rally until he stumbled across it near the lake. The same goes for hip-hop journalist and radio personality Davey D. Both Black Oaklanders posted photos and videos online calling attention to the lack of Black and brown faces in the crowd."
When will you get your $1,400 stimulus check? IRS's 'Get My Pament' tool is now live
Sac Bee's BAILEY ALDRIDGE: "The Internal Revenue Service’s “Get My Payment” tool to track your $1,400 stimulus check is now live.
A third round of stimulus payments — this time of up to $1,400 — was included in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said some Americans could start seeing the payments hit their bank accounts this weekend. Payments will continue rolling out over the next several weeks.
The “Get My Payment” tool, which was updated Saturday, allows users to track the status of their payment. It can be found here on the IRS website"
California activist charged in DC Capitol Riot is honored by Sacramento GOP group
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON: "Jorge Aaron Riley, the Republican activist who is one of three Sacramento-area residents facing charges in the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, was honored this week by the Sacramento Republican Assembly for his long service on the group’s board.
Riley, who won his release from custody last month in Washington, D.C., is featured in a Facebook post saying he was “honored by the Sacramento Republican Assembly (SRA) for serving 11 years on the executive board including being elected to 6 terms as president!”
“Jorge is the first SRA president to tie the previous record set by SRA Founding President Greg Hardcastle,” the post states. “Local SRA and California Republican Assembly (CRA) leaders gathered to pay tribute to Jorge for both his service on the SRA as well as the CRA board of directors.”"
Leaving Afghanistan under Trump deal could spur chaos, US commanders say
LA Times's DAVID S CLOUD/STEFANIE GLINSKI: "Fighting in Afghanistan will intensify sharply and Taliban militants could threaten major cities unless a Biden administration diplomatic push to end the 20-year conflict yields results in the next two months, according to two senior U.S. commanders.
The tight time frame is driven by a May 1 deadline to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, as required under a deal with the Taliban that President Biden inherited from the Trump administration.
Biden has not decided whether to proceed with the withdrawal, U.S. officials said. The troop level, which was announced as 2,500, is temporarily as much as 1,000 higher, because of overlaps as units arrive before departing ones leave, officials said."
