First PG&E standalone solar grid near Yosemite is attempt to stop sparking California fires
Sac Bee's CARMEN GEORGE: "A new standalone power system that produces energy with solar panels, batteries and generators will be operational near Yosemite National Park soon – the first of its kind owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company with the aim of reducing wildfires.
It comes after PG&E was ordered to make changes after its equipment sparked wildfires that killed people. The latest: PG&E equipment ignited the deadly Zogg Fire in Northern California six months ago when a tree fell on a transmission line, state investigators announced last week.
The new power grid – a network that delivers electricity from a centralized hybrid source – is being constructed in Briceburg, a small community along the Merced River and Highway 140 in a steep canyon leading to Yosemite."
Jill Biden visits Delano to meet UFW farmworkers and renew a family history
DIANA MARCUM, LA Times: "Alicia Zavala, who worked in the fields until she started a cleaning company with her husband, believes that sometimes God sends signs to say ‘Don’t give up.”
To Zavala, First Lady Jill Biden’s visit to Forty Acres in Delano, the historic birthplace of the United Farmworkers, on Wednesday was the second recent sign of renewed hope for farmworkers.
The first was on Inauguration Day, when Zavala saw a bust of César Chávez in the Oval Office as President Biden sat behind the desk. It was the bust of Chávez she had dusted daily at the National Monument in Keene, southeast of Bakersfield."
Sac Bee's JASON POHL/MICHAEL FINCH II: "Emerging from solitary confinement after two months, the man with schizophrenia walked from cell to cell, kicked at doors and demanded birthday presents. He stripped naked, stood on a table and put his hands on his hips.
It was not his birthday. But for the mentally ill inmate in Sacramento’s downtown jail, breaking free of his isolation for a brief moment in January may have felt like a gift. He’d been there since October, locked in the most restrictive “total separation” cells of the jail.
Even though a federal judge in 2019 ordered the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office to stop using such extreme isolation on people with serious mental illnesses, an extreme isolation cell is where staff locked the unkempt, delusional man."
Newsom to get Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday as eligibility widens to people 50 and over
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC: "Gov. Gavin Newsom will receive his coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, the first day that Californians in his age group will be eligible for vaccine appointments, his office said.
Newsom, 53, is set to get his first and only jab of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a Los Angeles clinic around 9:20 a.m., his office announced in a statement Wednesday evening.
The governor’s vaccination will coincide with the expansion of vaccine eligibility to the more than 5.5 million Californians between the ages of 50 and 64 who have not yet received a shot. It’s the first step in the state’s plan to make vaccines available to all adults by the middle of April, though officials warn that supply shortages are likely to persist."
80% of LA County residents 16 or older could be vaccinated by June -- if supplies hold up
LA Times's LUKE MONEY: "Four out of five eligible Angelenos could be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of June, assuming a sufficient number of doses flows into Los Angeles County, a top health official said this week.
“Reaching such a milestone is possible with increased allocations, and it would dramatically change the trajectory of the pandemic here in L.A. County,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a briefing Wednesday.
And officials do project supplies will swell significantly over the next month.
Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine batch can't be used after failing quality check
AP's LINDA A JOHNSON: "A batch of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine failed quality standards and can’t be used, the drug giant said late Wednesday.
The drugmaker didn’t say how many doses were lost, and it wasn’t clear how the problem would impact future deliveries.
A vaccine ingredient made by Emergent BioSolutions — one of about 10 companies that Johnson & Johnson is using to speed up manufacturing of its recently approved vaccine — did not meet quality standards, J&J said."
No-fee debit card? California Democrats pitch a state-backed banking program
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "Nearly 20 Democratic legislators on Tuesday introduced a bill to establish a statewide public banking program, which would partner with private sector financial institutions to provide low-income workers with access to no-fee money transactions and debit cards.
Labor advocates said the program could save hundreds of dollars annually for households who do not have bank accounts or rely on alternative services such as money orders and payday loans,
“For an equitable recovery, we cannot look to the same institutions, the Wall Street banks that have long seeded the problems laid bare at this time,” said Jyotswaroop Bawa, organizing and campaigns director for the California Reinvestment Coalition."
Kamala Harris returning to Oakland for the first time as VP
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Kamala Harris will return to Oakland on Monday for the first time as vice president, her office says.
Harris is is scheduled to talk about a range of topics during her stop, including water infrastructure and small business. No other details about her appearances have been released. In March, President Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration’s response on border and migration issues.
Harris was born in Oakland and kicked off her presidential campaign there in January 2019. She began her career as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office."
SF school board member Alison Collins sues district, colleagues over response to her tweets
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER/BOB EGELKO: "A San Francisco school board member accused her colleagues and the school district in a suit Wednesday of retaliation, saying they violated her free speech rights by stripping her of her position as vice president and removing her from committees over tweets she posted in 2016 about Asian Americans.
In the lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, Alison Collins seeks $72 million in general damages from the school district and the five board members who supported a no-confidence vote against her, plus $3 million in punitive damages from each of those same board members.
Collins, who declined comment about the lawsuit Wednesday, also seeks an injunction restoring her as vice president and to her committee positions. She claims in her lawsuit that board members retaliated against her because she, in her tweets as a private citizen in 2016, spoke out against the “racist harassment and racist bullying” of Black and brown students in the district. She was elected to the school board two years later."
New committee, fund created to combat SFDA Boudin recall effort
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "A group of criminal justice reform advocates has created a committee to beat back a well-heeled effort to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, setting the stage for a financial showdown over one of the nation’s foremost progressive prosecutors.
The committee, San Franciscans Against the Recall of Chesa Boudin, has already won the backing of several high-ranking city officials, including current and former supervisors, BART board directors and various leaders of civil-rights organizations. The committee was created by Real Justice PAC, a national organization dedicated to electing reform-minded prosecutors.
The anti-recall effort comes weeks after the Committee Supporting the Recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin officially began collecting signatures as well as major donations."
California rushed to vaccinate poor people. But what about transgender people?
LA Times's ERIKA D SMITH: "Sitting on the sprawling Mid-City porch of Casa Zulma, an interim housing facility for formerly homeless transgender women, Coral Dawn casually ticked off the many reasons she has no intention of getting vaccinated for COVID-19.
She hates shots. She’s 53 years old and healthy. She doesn’t go out much. She’s skeptical because the coronavirus keeps mutating.
Then came a mirthless laugh."
Little snow and rain mean drought - dry, difficult months lie ahead for California
The Chronicle's KURTIS ALEXANDER: "California’s wet season is coming to a close without a much-sought “March miracle” storm, setting the stage for a painful escalation of drought in the coming months.
The April 1 snow survey, which measures the peak accumulation of snow in the Sierra and southern Cascades just before it melts, will show only about 60% of average snowpack. California relies on this snow to fill its rivers and streams, to help keep forests and grasslands from burning catastrophically, and to provide up to a third of the state’s water.
The grim survey results expected Thursday, which mark a second straight year of significantly dry conditions, reinforce concerns about a difficult fire season ahead and bolster the expanding calls for water conservation."
No sunlight. No human contact. Why Sacramento still uses extreme isolation in jail
A wave of crimes against SF's AAPI community are winding through the courts. Here's where they stand
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "A rash of anti-Asian violence has shaken the Bay Area and the nation over the past several weeks, with San Francisco witnessing a series of attacks that have inspired heightened awareness of xenophobia, hate and violence levied at the city’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
In San Francisco, several of the suspects in these cases have been arrested by police, charged by District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s office and are now making their way through the court system. Some are being treated as hate crimes, some are not and still others are still being investigated. Prosecutors say it’s notoriously difficult for them to prove an incident was a hate crime since it requires evidence that the crime was motivated by racial bias.
Here’s a roundup of some recent crimes against San Francisco’s AAPI community, and where they stand in the criminal justice system."
