In one county on California's North Coast, COVID is surging
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "California’s coronavirus case rates are approaching an all-time low, but in one county on the North Coast, the numbers are moving in the wrong direction.
Humboldt County, whose biggest city, Eureka, is 230 miles north of San Francisco, recorded 137 new cases last week. That was the most since early February. Over the weekend, the county health department reported 33 additional infections, bringing the total number of residents who have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic began to 3,885.
Humboldt’s seven-day average positivity rate of 3.1% is now more than three times the state average, according to data compiled by The Chronicle. County officials attribute the recent uptick to the spread of the transmissible coronavirus variant first discovered in the United Kingdom, known as B.1.1.7."
READ MORE COVID-19 NEWS --- California coronavirus cases plummet despite surges in Oregon, Washington -- LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY
Here's what UC says about the chances of being plucked from massive waitlists
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "Anika Madan, a senior at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton, had a loaded school resume when she applied to six University of California campuses for admission this fall: a 4.6 GPA, 11 college-level courses, student leadership positions and community service building robotic hands for people with disabilities.
She was accepted to UC campuses at Irvine, Riverside and Santa Barbara — but wait-listed at Berkeley, Davis and San Diego.
Once again she is on edge — along with tens of thousands of others — as yet another nail-biting phase of a record-breaking UC admission season begins this week. Campuses are diving into their massive waitlists, selecting students to fill the seats of those who turned down UC offers by the May 1 college decision day. For the waitlisted, this next round is sparking more anxiety, frustration and even defiance as they try to decide whether to hold out for an offer from a favored campus or just move on."
READ MORE EDUCATION NEWS --- OC professor on leave after berating student who calls police 'heroes' -- LA Times, LILA SEIDMAN
‘It’s shocking.’ How inaccurate California death records obscure pandemic’s true story
JASON POHL, RYAN SABALOW and PHILLIP REESE, Sac Bee: "When California looks back on the COVID-19 pandemic — the most significant health crisis in modern history, with tens of thousands of deaths so far — medical researchers will find some of the most basic details remarkably incomplete.
Overwhelmed public health departments and front-line workers have for months failed to record accurate health histories for COVID-19 victims, a Sacramento Bee review of the state’s internal pandemic death records found.
The records show a Fresno County man in his 60s died of COVID-19 with an otherwise clean medical history. But that’s not necessarily because he didn’t have underlying conditions that contributed to his death; more likely, no one bothered to enter those conditions into a state disease surveillance database."
BLM-Sacramento sued over racist posts using businesswoman's name
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "Karra Crowley doesn’t post much on Facebook, but she learned the power of social media last Monday when an assistant called her and told her she had a big problem.
Crowley, a Texas businesswoman who was in Sacramento at the time, logged on to find a series of comments on the Black Lives Matter Sacramento page attacking her as “VILE,” a racist and a Nazi.
The only problem, Crowley says, is she was being attacked for a deeply offensive post on the BLM page that didn’t come from her."
Fishing limits, choppy weather gets California salmon season off to slow--and expensive--start
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "The first glistening, coral-red fillets of California king salmon arrived in Bay Area stores Monday after the commercial season opened this weekend. But windy, choppy weather and regulations limiting where fishing can take place meant the season got off to a slow and expensive start.
“It’s decent fishing they’ve been doing,” said Hans Haveman, a fisherman and co-owner of H&H Fresh Fish in Santa Cruz Harbor, where he purchases salmon from fishermen and then sells it at a retail store and Bay Area farmers’ markets. But with winds at 30 or 40 knots, he said, “It’s been pushing people off the water.”
Right now, commercial fishing boats may only fish south from Pigeon Point on the San Mateo coast, instead of in the typical area open all the way to Mendocino County this time of year. Strict limits on this year’s salmon season were set by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council in consideration of what’s expected to be a smaller population of adult king, or chinook, salmon in the ocean this year."
What will Bill and Melinda Gates' divorce mean for their foundation?
LA Times, LAURENCE DARMIENTO: "Bill and Melinda Gates announced Monday that they are divorcing — immediately raising questions about how their split after 27 years of marriage could affect their status as two of the world’s greatest philanthropists.
The Microsoft Corp. co-founder and his wife, who operate the world’s largest private family charitable foundation, said they would continue their work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which said in a statement that the couple would remain as co-chairs and trustees.
“No changes to their roles or the organization are planned. They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction,” the statement said."
FDA expected to OK Pfizer vaccine for teens within week
AP, ZEKE MILLER/JONATHAN LEMIRE: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 12 to 15 by next week, according to a federal official and a person familiar with the process, setting up shots for many before the beginning of the next school year.
The announcement is set to come a month after the company found that its shot, which is already authorized for those age 16 and older, also provided protection for the younger group.
The federal official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the FDA’s action, said the agency was expected to expand its emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine by early next week, and perhaps even sooner. The person familiar with the process, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, confirmed the timeline and added that it is expected that the FDA will approve Pfizer’s use by even younger children sometime this fall."
READ MORE VACCINE NEWS --- LA COVID-19 vaccination pace plunges as officials work to expand access -- LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II; As thousands of vaccine slots go unfilled, Sacramento allows drive-ups without appointments -- Sac Bee, TONY BIZJAK
Sac. County eyes new health director from California social services agency
Sac Bee, MICHAEL FINCH II: "The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is expected to name Chevon Kothari as the next director of health services, a job with broad authority over programs from psychiatric services and public health to primary care and medical services delivered inside the county jails.
Kothari was most recently the chief deputy director in the California Department of Social Services, overseeing the agency’s community care licensing, legal, disaster services and state hearings divisions. She was sworn in for the position in July 2020.
If appointed by the supervisors Tuesday, Kothari would return to county leadership. She previously served as director of Mariposa County’s health and human services agency."
SF set to approve reparations task force
The Chronicle, SHWANIKA NARAYAN: "The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is slated to approve a 15-member African American Reparations Advisory Committee on Tuesday, which would make the city the first of its size to take such a concrete step to explore what reparations could look like for its Black residents.
Over the next two years, the committee plans to explore possible financial compensation and other recommendations for the descendants of enslaved people. It would examine how slavery, segregation, redlining, predatory financial practices, and other social and political ills contributed to the mistreatment and subsequent wealth gap and other disparities affecting Black people in the city.
In January 2020, District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton announced legislation calling for reparations for Black people whose ancestors were enslaved and those who were discriminated against under Jim Crow laws enacted at the state and local levels to enforce segregation."
The Chronicle, TAL KOPAN/JD MORRIS: "Now that Democrats have full control of Washington for the first time in a decade, Bay Area lawmakers want to make sure they don’t walk away empty-handed. For many of them, that means seeing green.
After several years of historically severe wildfires, heat waves and recurring drought conditions, bills related to climate change are at the top of the agenda for many lawmakers with local ties.
Some of the legislative proposals focus on energy issues, such as investing in electric vehicle charging stations and planning job transitions for fossil fuel workers. Others would address the threats of extreme weather by allocating more money to reduce wildfire risks, strengthen water infrastructure and upgrade the electric grid."
Council decides not to oust Livermore official who made 'ghetto' remarks about affordable housing
The Chronicle, EMMA TALLEY: "The Livermore City Council decided not to remove a planning commissioner Monday evening after he had made offensive remarks, suggesting that affordable housing would create a “ghetto” in the city’s downtown.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” said Vice Mayor Trish Munro before the 4-1 vote. “Those with integrity want a chance to fix those mistakes.”
Commissioner John Stein, who previously served on the City Council, came under fire after the remarks at an April 20 meeting."
Trans activists slam Caitlyn Jenner for opposing trans girls in women's sports
Sac Bee, SUMMER LIN: "Transgender reality TV star and former Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner is facing criticism from many members of the transgender community after she said she opposes trans women participating in women’s sports in schools.
“This is a question of fairness,” Jenner said in a TMZ video over the weekend amid a wave of legislation across the U.S. targeting the transgender community. “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school. It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”
Jenner, 71, won the gold in the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics. She came out as transgender on the July 2015 cover of “Vanity Fair.”"
Sacramento mayor, council members seek release of Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and city council members are taking up the cause of Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen, expressing “grave concern” that he remains in federal custody more than a week after a Sacramento judge refused to allow his extradition and ordered him released from jail.
In a letter Monday to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Steinberg and council members Katie Valenzuela, Eric Guerra, Mai Vang, Jay Schenirer and Sean Loloee claim that Ameen “was wrongly scapegoated by the Trump administration” when he was arrested in 2018 and subjected to extradition hearings to face trial in Iraq over allegations he was a terrorist leader who killed a police officer there.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund Brennan ruled April 21 that federal prosecutors’ evidence against Ameen was “dubious” and refused to recommend his extradition."
SF's pandemic exodus looks like it's almost over
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "San Francisco households fled the city during the pandemic’s first year, with many residents — particularly those living in the densest neighborhoods — seeking roomier homes in more affordable areas.
But now that the city is reopening for business, with consistently low numbers of new cases and climbing vaccination rates, the flood of move-outs has slowed to near pre-pandemic levels.
The Chronicle analyzed data from the U.S. Postal Service recording the number of households that changed their address from a San Francisco ZIP code to all other ZIP codes in the U.S."
