Earthquake early warning system expands to entire West Coast
The Chronicle, VANESSA ARREDONDO: "An earthquake early warning system that’s been 15 years in the making is now available to more than 50 million people along the entire West Coast, the most earthquake-prone region in the U.S., the United States Geological Survey announced Tuesday.
The ShakeAlert system, which allows residents to receive earthquake warnings online and on their cellphones seconds before they feel any shaking, went live in Washington state Tuesday. The system was already active in California and Oregon.
The system’s debut in Washington completes the USGS’ West Coast alert program rollout, which began with California in 2019 and expanded to Oregon in March, officials said. People in these states can now receive FEMA alerts through third-party phone apps — such as California’s MyShake app — or through mobile text messages."ac
READ MORE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS --- Burst of high temps to scorch SF Bay Area this week. Here's what to expect -- The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN; Drones show California's great white sharks are closer--and more common--than you think -- LA Times, JOE MOZINGO/AL SEIB
Record-low US birth rate fell another 4% in 2020, CDC says
LA Times, KAREN KAPLAN: "2020 was a grueling year, but at least the number of Americans born into it was lower than it had been in more than four decades.
A total of 3,604,201 babies were born last year in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s 4% lower than in 2019 and the sixth year in a row that the number of births declined.
In fact, the figure is so low that you have to go all the way back to 1979 to beat it. Back then, the U.S. population was 224,567,241, according to the Census Bureau. On Dec. 31, 2020, it was 330,034,257."
LA, SF downgrade to loosest COVID tier. Sacramento, Placer stay red.
Sac Bee, MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "California health officials promoted four counties into looser levels of COVID-19 restrictions Tuesday morning due to vast improvement in infection numbers, including two of the state’s major urban hubs.
Los Angeles and San Francisco along with Trinity County advanced from the orange tier into yellow. Inyo County also advanced from red to orange.
Marin County, which had entered this week eligible to join the yellow tier, instead saw its case rate spike too high and will remain in orange. Yuba County, the only other county that had been in position for a promotion, also fell short and will stay in the red tier for at least two more weeks."
READ MORE on REOPENINGS: LA, San Francisco lead California business reopening pace -- BRIAN MELLEY and JAMIE HAR, AP; S.F. and Los Angeles enter the yellow tier together. How did that happen? -- Erin Allday, Chronicle
Who should police California's troubled jails? State wants more inspectors -- with power
Sac Bee, JASON POHL: "California is moving to strengthen its power over how county sheriffs are running their local jails, amid a national debate over accountability for law enforcement and ending ‘inhumane’ conditions in lockups around the state.
Officials with the Board of State and Community Corrections, the state’s jail oversight agency that has been accused of weak oversight of the state’s 56 counties with jails, this week asked the state Legislature for an additional $3.1 million to pay for 14 new positions, including eight more field inspectors — more than double the existing number on staff.
They also unveiled an enhanced oversight program that calls for jail walk-throughs annually instead of every other year, and they would make information about their visits more timely and accessible to the public. The board’s new inspections could also bring sheriffs before state officials when they fail to correct violations."
Report: Mayor Garcetti being considered for India ambassador post
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH: "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s name has surfaced again as a possible nominee for a position in the administration of President Biden, five months after he said he had turned down a federal post.
Garcetti is one of several candidates under consideration for the position of U.S. ambassador to India, the political news site Axios reported on Tuesday.
In December, the mayor said he had turned down an unspecified job with the Biden administration and would stay in Los Angeles to lead pandemic relief efforts. However, Garcetti hasn’t publicly ruled out leaving before his second term ends in December 2022."
Windsor electing new council member amid Mayor Dominic Foppoli sexual assault allegations
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "As a movement to oust Mayor Dominic Foppoli over sexual assault allegations gets under way, Windsor residents cast their final ballots Tuesday for a new Town Council member in a special election that, in recent weeks, had become a public rebuke of the mayor.
Early returns showed Rosa Reynoza, an administrative assistant with Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland and a four-time council candidate, far outpaced four other candidates with 47% of the 5,738 ballots counted.
Five candidates vied for the seat in an election called months before the allegations against Foppoli first came to light in an April 8 Chronicle investigation. Four of the candidates, including Reynoza, have demanded the resignation of Foppoli, once praised as bringing visibility and business opportunities to the central Sonoma County town of about 27,000 people."
Biden aims to vaccinate 70% of American adults by July 4
AP, ZEKE MILLER/JONATHAN LEMIRE: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one shot to 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth as he tackles the vexing problem of winning over the “doubters” and those unmotivated to get inoculated.
Demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their available doses unordered. Aiming to make it easier to get shots, Biden called for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and he will direct many pharmacies to do likewise.
His administration for the first time also is moving to shift doses from states with weaker demand to areas with stronger interest in the shots."
SF wants to ban gas in all buildings. But moving to electric could cost up to $5.9B
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "San Francisco wants to ban gas appliances and electrify buildings to make a difference in fighting climate change. There’s just one catch — with nine zeroes.
Electrifying more than 240,000 gas-powered housing units in San Francisco could cost between $3.5 billion and $5.9 billion, the city estimated in a new report. The report said a “key barrier” to electrical retrofits is the “financial burden” that would fall on property owners, city government or both.
Supervisor Gordon Mar, who commissioned the report issued on Earth Day, called for a hearing to come up with solutions."
Home of first same-sex couple to legally wed in SF gets landmark status
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "In front of a hilltop cottage at the very southern rim of Noe Valley are the initials “P.L.” and “D.M.” scratched into the cement.
Until Tuesday, the letters carved into the sidewalk were the only indication that the low-slung wooden house behind them once belonged to the late lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who became the first same-sex couple to be legally married in San Francisco in 2004, and 2008 when they had to do it all over again after a court ruling.
But that changed after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to make the 651 Duncan St. home of “DelandPhil” — the portmanteau the couple is known by — a city landmark. After a second, ceremonial vote next week, the home is expected to become the first lesbian landmark in the western United States. And those initials in cement would be upgraded to a bronze plaque."
A mother and son separated by the Trump administration meet again -- finally
LA Times, KATE MORRISSEY/CINDY CARCAMO/MOLLY O'TOOLE: "More than three years ago, Bryan Chavez hugged his mother inside a U.S. immigration office, terrified that he would never see her again.
“You are not going to see her anymore,” the female U.S. immigration officer told Chavez, according to his account. Then the officer turned to his mother Sandra Ortiz. “And you will go to prison.”
Mother and son were separated. Chavez went to an immigration facility in California. His mother, who didn’t pass an initial asylum screening, was deported to Mexico."
Recall candidate John Cox throws shade at Governor Gavin Newsom while kicking off 3 day campaign with Tag, a one-half ton California brown bear
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "Hoping to convince voters that he can bring “beastly” solutions to California’s problems, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox kicked off a three day tour in Sacramento on Tuesday, appearing alongside a live, 1,000-pound California brown bear named Tag.
“My background – growing up without a father, working my way up – gives me the toughness, the beastliness, if you want to put it that way, to address these problems and call it like it is,” Cox told reporters at Miller Regional Park, while trainers tossed shredded chicken to the bear behind him.
Newsom is a “pretty boy” who has spent his career climbing the political ladder, Cox said."
