A congressional seat disappears, setting the stage for fights
Capitol Weekly, CHUCK MCFADDEN: "California’s impending loss of a congressional seat may set off vicious intraparty fights not seen in California for nearly a decade.
The conflict may happen because the state’s congressional districts will be redrawn on the basis of population figures from the 2020 census.
The state’s new figures will not be enough to sustain California’s current 53 districts, meaning one district, somewhere in the state but most likely in Southern California, will have to go."
Most of the Bay Area is now in an 'extreme' drought. Here's what you need to know
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Much of the Bay Area is now enduring “extreme” drought weather, according to recent meteorological data.
And with little chance of any substantial rainfall in the coming months, conditions are unlikely to improve anytime soon.
The U.S. Drought Monitor this week showed that the Bay Area had slipped into the “extreme drought” category following two consecutive dry winters."
California hospital leaders seek legislative reprieve for industry 'broken' by COVID-19
Sac Bee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "The COVID-19 pandemic has “left a majority of California’s hospitals financially challenged, unstable and in some cases, broken,” while proposed and existing state regulations are pushing them further over the brink, said the CEO of California’s top hospital trade group.
Speaking to media in a conference call Wednesday, Carmela Coyle of the California Hospital Association said 58% of the state’s hospitals operated in the red in 2020, up from 40% a year earlier, according to a financial analysis released by health-care management consultant Kaufman Hall. Coyle cited statistics but also asked hospital chiefs from El Centro Regional Medical Center in Imperial County, Enloe Medical Center in Chico and UC San Diego Health to join the call and report on how the challenges of the past year affected each of their institutions.
Adolphe Edward, who leads El Centro, said 1 out of 7 Imperial County residents have tested positive for COVID-19, double the rate of New York City. The team at his small nonprofit hospital desperately scrambled for resources, he said, as they were overrun by patients."
Appointments for first dose of COVID-19 vaccine drop by half in LA County, alarming public health officials
LA Times, COLLEEN SHALBY/LUKE MONEY: "Appointments for the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine have decreased by about 50% in Los Angeles County, alarming public health officials who call it a worrisome trend that reflects the slowdown in vaccination rates across the state and country.
The slowing demand probably means that, for the first time, the county will not reach its goal of administering 95% of its weekly supply, officials said. The revelation follows the announcement from officials earlier this week that about 18% of residents have missed their second-dose appointments.
“I do know that across the county this past week we saw much fewer people coming in to get vaccinated. For the first time ever, we’ve had appointments at many vaccination sites that have not been filled,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a news briefing Thursday."
California gig workers are entitled to a new health care subsidy, but many go uninsured
Sac Bee, JEONG PARK: "California drivers for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other app-based companies are eligible for a health insurance stipend stemming from the ballot initiative voters approved last fall exempting those companies from a new state labor law.
But only 15% of the drivers polled have applied for the stipend, months after the ballot measure became law, according to a survey released Thursday and commissioned by SEIU 721.
The union was among the labor organizations last fill fighting the ballot initiative known as Proposition 22. SEIU also sued the state in February to overturn the initiative."
Voters in these California counties carried the Newsom recall to the ballot
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "Republican-leaning Northern California counties had the biggest turnout in signing the petition to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, state data shows.
The effort to recall the Democratic governor hit an important benchmark earlier this week when the Secretary of State confirmed the petition had more than 1.6 million valid signatures, just over the 1.5 million it needed to qualify for the ballot.
Organizers have touted the campaign as a nonpartisan movement, comprised of Californians across the political and geographical spectrum, but certain areas of the state played a more significant role in reaching the signature threshold than others."
How Kamala Harris is forging her own path as VP -- while not overshadowing Biden
Sac Bee, FRANCESCA CHAMBERS: "President Joe Biden was minutes into his first address to a joint session of Congress. His prepared remarks called for him to say that he was “asking the vice president to lead” the effort to pass his infrastructure plan.
But when Biden got to the line, he shifted to face Kamala Harris, who was sitting on the dais above him, and added the phrase “if she would.”
“Of course,” Harris replied, before Biden turned around and signaled his confidence in her by saying, “because I know it will get done.”"
Did US Census undercount Latinos? Here's how California found hard-to-reach residents
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."
Alison Collins and her husband violated SF building permit laws in addition to illegal merger, city says
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "San Francisco school board member Alison Collins and husband Chris Collins, a veteran real estate developer, illegally completed construction without proper building permits at their troubled Russian Hill property, the city said Thursday after finding new violations.
The Collinses also failed to have all building, electrical and plumbing work inspected, resulting in an “unsafe building,” according to a Department of Building Inspection notice reviewed by The Chronicle.
Thursday’s notice of violation is a new determination by the city. It comes a week after the Planning Department ruled that the Collinses illegally merged two apartments to create a larger home that they unsuccessfully tried to sell in 2019. The new Building Department findings are additional violations and subject to separate fines."
Out with Junipero Serra, in with Native Americans. plan calls for replacing Capitol Park statue
Sac Bee, KIM BOJORQUEZ: "A California Democrat is seeking to replace a former statue of a controversial 18th-century Spanish missionary located on the grounds of Sacramento’s Capitol Park with a new monument that recognizes regional tribes.
Assembly Bill 338, authored by Assemblyman James C. Ramos, D-Highland, would strike a decades-old requirement to keep and maintain a monument of Father Junípero Serra, who is dubbed “the father of the California missions.”
Instead, the bill would allow tribal nations in the Sacramento region, in coordination with the Department of General Services, to plan and construct a new monument."
Where are Asian American communities growing the fastest? Not California
LA Times, JAWEED KALEEM: "It was an unexpected twist that led the Rev. Yuanlai Zhang — a minister who lived among 13 million others in the hot and humid Chinese city of Shenzhen — to start a new life on the sparse and frigid prairie of North Dakota.
But Zhang has become a man of the plains. A Mandarin-language preacher who travels the state with a Bible and a pressed suit, he lives with his wife and toddler in suburban Fargo. He’s the first full-time pastor at the Red River Valley Chinese Christian Church, which was founded five years ago and whose 50-family congregation is the largest Chinese Christian flock in North Dakota.
“We all knew of New York, Texas and California in China,” said Zhang, 46, who worked for 16 years in his homeland before the burgeoning local Chinese American community recruited him two years ago with a promise that proselytizing — at times a struggle in authoritarian China — would be easier in the United States. “But North Dakota? That was new to us.”"
SF crypto billionaire funds controversial plan to create surveillance camera network in Castro
The Chronicle, STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "Dozens of additional security cameras could be installed in San Francisco’s Castro District as part of a controversial crime-fighting proposal that’s been castigated by several neighborhood groups on privacy grounds.
The proposal, financed by a $700,000 donation from tech millionaire and prolific political donor Chris Larsen, would install a linked network of video cameras in public areas.
The Castro Upper Market Community Benefit District, a business group, presented the plan — which has been discussed for about a year — once again at an online meeting this week, drawing renewed opposition from people concerned that the cameras constitute a perilous privacy invasion."
Jury awards family of Black man nearly $2.3M after death in Anaheim police custody
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "After a six-week trial in which jurors heard how Anaheim police officers put so much weight on a Black man that he could not breathe, a jury found they used excessive force and were mostly to blame for his death, and awarded his parents nearly $2.3 million in damages.
Christopher Eisinger, 35, died in an encounter with police March 12, 2018. Officers responding to reports of a person trying to break into cars at a mobile home park just after midnight spotted the man, who had a history of mental health struggles. He ran before several officers pinned him to the ground.
Attorneys representing Eisinger’s mother and father accused officers of ignoring his desperate cries that he could not breathe as they piled on. The lawyers also compared the case to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Three Anaheim officers’ body cameras captured much of the encounter with Eisinger."
READ MORE POLICE/PRISONS/PUBLIC SAFETY NEWS --- LAPD lifts ban on some hard-foam projectile weapons at protests after judge revises order -- LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR; SF judge says Asian jurors in attempted murder case were improperly excused because of their race -- The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY
SF celebrated turning hotel into permanent homeless housing. But transition has been 'bumpy'
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "After two decades of being homeless, James Hixson is grateful to have a door to lock.
Hixson, 59, moved from San Francisco’s streets into a city-funded hotel last year. In February, he got a permanent home in the Granada Hotel in Lower Nob Hill. It’s not perfect: He doesn’t like the food, his small room has a mouse, and he has to share a bathroom — while still struggling to pay 30% of his income in rent. But it’s better than being outside.
“These people have been a tremendous help,” he said outside his new home earlier this month."
Biden holds rally in Georgia to mark 100 days in office, promoting big plans ahead
LA Times, ELI STOKOLS: "President Biden marked the 100th day of his presidency at an outdoor rally Thursday evening in suburban Atlanta, the locale that not only propelled him to the White House last fall, but enabled his administration’s early success.
Taking the stage amid a din of honking horns and looking out on a vast blacktop of more than 300 parked cars, Biden stood before large banners that read “Getting Back On Track” as he celebrated the progress made against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden highlighted the doubling of his initial goal of administering 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days, and he touted the $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan he enacted in March that delivered $1,400 direct relief checks to millions of Americans."
