Who wants to recall Newsom? Signatures point to Trump's California
LA Times, SWETHA KANNAN/SANDHYA KAMBHAMPATI: "Recall backers have gathered more than 1.6 million valid voter signatures, enough to place a proposed ouster of Gov. Gavin Newsom on the ballot. For the second time in California's history, voters will decide if a sitting governor should be removed before a regularly scheduled election.
A Times analysis of data released by Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber shows where support was the strongest. Though petitions were signed all across the state, the highest concentrations of signatures were found in the rural northeast, areas with low coronavirus case counts and where voters heavily favored former President Donald Trump."
The Times analysis studied the 1,626,042 voter signatures verified by local election officials and reported Monday by the secretary of state's office. Not included are about 400,575 signatures that officials rejected.
Whose recall is it anyway? Newsom's Goldenstate critics spar over money, credit
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "The effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of the biggest political stories in the nation this year, and an uncommon chance for Republicans to regain power in a state that has operated under Democrats for over a decade.
Everyone wants a slice of the action.
After working for more than a year to qualify the recall for the ballot, the lead organizers of the Recall Gavin 2020 campaign are feuding with groups eager to raise money and send their own messages about getting rid of the governor."
Biden seeks shift in how the nation serves its people
PETER BAKER, NY Times: "President Biden laid out an ambitious agenda on Wednesday night to rewrite the American social compact by vastly expanding family leave, child care, health care, preschool and college education for millions of people to be financed with increased taxes on the wealthiest earners.
Invoking the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mr. Biden unveiled a $1.8 trillion social spending plan to accompany previous proposals to build roads and bridges, expand other social programs and combat climate change, representing a fundamental reorientation of the role of government not seen since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society and Roosevelt’s New Deal.
“We have to prove democracy still works, that our government still works and we can deliver for our people,” Mr. Biden said in his first nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress."
LA's remarkable achievement: Rapid economic reopening as COVID-19 fades fast
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "Los Angeles County is poised to potentially reopen its economy to an extent that would have been unthinkable in the not-too-distant past.
The possible move to the yellow tier — the most lenient of California’s four-category color-coded reopening system — could happen next week as the coronavirus continues to recede throughout the region.
It’s a remarkable achievement for a county that just three months ago was considered in some corners to be the national epicenter of COVID-19, with hundreds dying each week and hospitals pushed to the brink. It was only about six weeks ago that the county moved out of the state’s most restrictive purple tier, in which indoor operations are suspended or severely limited across a host of business sectors.
California justice dept to release gun violence data it withheld from UC researchers
Sac Bee, HANNAH WILEY: "The California Department of Justice announced this week that it will expand access to and begin releasing certain gun violence prevention data that it had withheld from a state-funded University of California research center.
Less than a week into the job, Attorney General Rob Bonta committed to releasing data that track gun sales, restraining orders and other ownership information to a team at the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center.
The announcement comes weeks after researchers raised concerns that the agency was denying them certain records that rendered some studies impossible to complete."
California could have lost 2 congressional seats. Here's how it found hard-to-reach residents
SUSIE NEILSON, Chronicle: "This year, California will lose a congressional representative for the first time in its 170-year-plus history. The state’s loss of one of its seats — which Congress allocates proportionally every 10 years based on U.S. Census counts — is a result of its relatively weak growth rate of 6.1% since 2010, compared to the national gain of 7.4%.
California’s growth was so sluggish, in fact, that it would have needed nearly half a million more people to keep the representative it lost, and it would have lost a second one had it grown by 284,400 fewer people.
This number happens to be very close to the 260,000-plus people that immigrated into California from other countries in 2019, the most recent year for which statistics are currently available. In other words, without California’s yearly influx of immigrants, the state probably would have lost far more representation than it did."
Sac Bee, KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Preliminary findings released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau show that states with large Latino populations like Texas, Florida and Arizona did not gain the congressional representation that demographers expected, raising questions about a possible undercount among Latinos.
California, another state with a large Latino population, was among seven to lose a congressional seat. It marks the first time in the state’s history that its congressional delegation will shrink.
Before this week, demographers had expected Texas to gain three congressional seats and Florida to pick up two. Independent projections also suggested Arizona would gain a seat."
California follows CDC in relaxing outdoors mask guidance for vaccinated peopke
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Federal health officials relaxed mask guidance for fully vaccinated people on Tuesday, saying they no longer have to wear face coverings outside unless they are around large crowds — and California quickly adopted the new standards.
“We do know if you are fully vaccinated it is safe to be outdoors without a mask,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a White House briefing.
The CDC detailed a list of activities that vaccinated people can safely resume without wearing a face covering. They include walking, running or bicycling outdoors with members of your household; attending small outdoor gatherings; and dining at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households."
'No-strike' clause becomes election issue for SEIU Local 1000 amid pay cut frustration
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "Two candidates running for president of SEIU Local 1000 are promoting a long-shot contract change that would give workers more flexibility to strike but would likely carry big implications for other employment protections.
Tony Owens, a CalPERS IT specialist and elected vice president of the union, and Richard Louis Brown, an analyst with an advisory committee at the State Treasurer’s Office, said in interviews that they would push to remove the “no strike” clause from the union’s employment contract.
The two candidates are campaigning for president of the state’s largest union against incumbent Yvonne Walker and challengers Sophia Perkins and Miguel Cordova. Mail ballots are due May 20."
87% of additional California deaths in 2020 pandemic were workers, UC Merced report shows
Sac Bee, NADIA LOPEZ: "The state’s essential laborers continued showing up to work throughout the pandemic. But for many, those low-wage jobs on the frontlines came at a high cost.
Deaths among Californians between ages 18 and 65 increased by 25% during the first ten months of the pandemic, with the state’s workers making up 12,500 of 14,370 additional deaths compared to the previous year — or 87% of additional deaths in 2020, according to an analysis of state public health data by the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.
“The pandemic has taken a terrible toll on these workers,” said Ruth Lopez, executive director of the Kings County-based nonprofit Valley Voices. She spoke during an event Wednesday evening in Hanford commemorating the lives of laborers who suffered an injury, got sick or died as a result of their jobs during the pandemic. “We cannot forget the sacrifices that they have made.”
This mom protested vaccines then started a 'militia.' How California extremism is changing
Sac Bee, HANNAH WILEY/RYAN SABALOW/JASON POHL: "In the spring of 2019, a trio of women set out to block new vaccine rules for California’s public school kids. Fueled by online conspiracy theories and misinformation, they disrupted legislative hearings and enlisted their friends to barricade the state Capitol entrance.
The group, dubbed the Freedom Angels, had by the spring of 2020 turned its attention to the COVID-19 pandemic and statewide shutdown orders. Some of them joined a crush of far-right protesters pushing against a phalanx of California Highway Patrol officers in a failed attempt to gain access to the Capitol. It led to one of the most striking images of that fractious day."
How a photo and a Long Beach book drive led to a false story and attacks on Kamala Harris
LA Times, ERIN B LOGAN: "Last week, Long Beach announced it would repurpose its convention center to temporarily house up to 1,000 unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Officials knew that wrangling that many children would be a tall order, so they launched a drive to fill a library with books for the children to read. Someone donated Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2019 children’s book “Superheroes Are Everywhere.”
That book was laid on a cot last Thursday and a news service photographer, who declined to comment to The Times, took a photo of it."
SF City Attorney Herrera dishes on City Hall scandal, schools lawsuit, Tenderloin drug dealers and more
The Chronicle, HEATHER KNIGHT: "City Attorney Dennis Herrera has fought for gun control, same-sex marriage rights, universal health care and climate change protections. He’s taken on everyone from President Trump to bad landlords.
But after 20 busy years, Herrera is leaving his job — if Mayor London Breed’s nomination of him to lead the city’s troubled Public Utilities Commission wins approval. The FBI in November charged the agency’s previous general manager, Harlan Kelly, with accepting bribes from a city contractor and permit consultant.
In a wide-ranging interview, Herrera said he was ready to leave his current gig because he doesn’t want to be defined “simply by having a title.” He and Breed meet a few times a month, and both agreed there was a void at the top of the PUC, an agency that often flies under-the-radar but is essential in the lives of San Franciscans who value fresh drinking water, sewage treatment and clean power."
Biden announces another batch of diverse judiciary nominees
AP, COLLEEN LONG: "President Biden is announcing another diverse group of candidates for his second batch of judicial nominations, a day after some in his first slate appeared before a Senate committee.
The new batch of nominees, released Thursday, includes a woman who would be the first Asian American appointed as a federal judge to the Western District of Washington; a Latino who is currently the presiding judge of the Grant County Superior Court in Ephrata, Washington; and a woman who is a longtime labor and employment litigation attorney in New Jersey, according to a draft of the list obtained by the Associated Press.
Democrats, who narrowly control the Senate for the first time in eight years, are eager to turn the page from the Trump administration, especially when it comes to judges. More than one-quarter of the federal judiciary is made up of former President Trump’s appointees. Most notably, Biden’s Republican predecessor named three conservative justices to the Supreme Court."
SF schools seek reopening consultant a year after the board shot down the idea
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Wanted: A reopening consultant who can help get San Francisco public school students back to full-time, in-person learning in the fall.
San Francisco schools are looking for outside experts to help guide the process to reopen schools in August, which will include navigating changing health guidelines, parent feedback and labor negotiations.
If the job description sounds familiar, it is."
Domestic violence is on the rise in Sacramento. How to spot it and where to go for help
Sac Bee, ORIZO HAJIGURBAN: "According to authorities, homicides increased from two incidents in 2019, to eight incidents in 2020. The region has also seen a rise in attempted strangulations by 58%, which increases the likelihood that abuse in a relationship will one day turn lethal.
Being informed about domestic violence, recognizing the signs and having the proper resources can be the lifeline to save someone in an abusive relationship.
In an interview with WEAVE’s Chief Program Officer Jaime Gerigk, The Sacramento Bee asked how to identify physical and sexual abuse, understand financial and technological abuse, and how to find critical resources in the region."
A famed SF pizza chef was called an Italian ethnic slur. Now he's naming his new bagel shop after it
The Chronicle, ELENA KADVANY: "Pizza pro Tony Gemignani is getting into the hotly contested Bay Area bagel game, and he’s picked a potentially controversial name for the operation.
Gemignani’s Dago Bagel will be located inside his new Italian bakery, Toscano Brothers. He said he chose the brand’s name, an ethnic slur sometimes aimed at people of Italian or Spanish descent, in defiance after a recent altercation outside one of his North Beach restaurants.
He alleged a man had been harassing him about the restaurant’s operations and yelled the slur at him. He filed a police report, then went back into the kitchen and decided to reclaim the derogatory term."
President Biden's speech to Congress offers a dose of left-leaning economic populism
AP, DAVID LAUTER: "After four years of conservative populism focused on cultural grievances, President Biden’s first speech to a joint session of Congress delivered a dose of left-leaning economic populism on Wednesday, redoubling his wager that Democrats can build a lasting majority by using the power of government to deliver tangible benefits to working- and middle-class voters.
Instead of former President Trump’s denunciations of out-of-touch elites selling out American interests to foreigners, Biden demanded that the rich pay more taxes and proposed to use that money to provide benefits to families.
“It’s time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1% of Americans to just begin to pay their fair share — just their fair share,” he said."
