Delta coronavirus strain is growing fast in California, with risk for unvaccinated people
ERIN ALLDAY, Chronicle: "The highly infectious delta coronavirus variant is rising fast in California, with cases more than doubling in the past month and tripling in one Bay Area county, according to genomic sequencing results reported by state and local public health departments.
The first California cases of delta, a variant that emerged in India, were reported in early May. As of last week, 349 cases had been identified, and the variant made up about 5% of all coronavirus cases that underwent genomic sequencing for the week. The alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, continues to dominate statewide, making up just over half of all cases reported last week.
In the United States, the delta variant makes up roughly 10% of all cases that have been sequenced, according to federal authorities. Some models predict it will become the dominant strain by the end of the summer."
U.S. appeals court blocks judge’s decision to overturn state’s assault weapons ban
MAURA DOLAN, LA Times: "A federal appeals court decided Monday to put on hold a judge’s decision to overturn California’s 30-year-old ban on assault weapons, but the legal fight could continue for months and may be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Judge Roger T. Benitez’s June 4 decision, in which he likened an AR-15 semiautomatic to a Swiss Army knife and called it “good for both home and battle.”
Benitez’s decision overturning the California ban gave the state 30 days to challenge the decision. The 9th Circuit, acting on a June 10 appeal filed by Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, put Benitez’s ruling on hold pending decisions in other gun cases that are now before the court."
California school districts receive unprecedented windfall but lack teachers to help students catch up
DIANA LAMBERT, EdSource: "California schools collectively have billions of state and federal dollars to spend on programs to help students catch up on the learning they lost while school campuses were closed. But many districts do not have enough fully qualified teachers to fill regular classrooms, let alone to launch new academic programs this fall.
The state’s schools have struggled with teacher shortages for years, especially in the areas of special education, math, science and bilingual education, but the problem has worsened since the pandemic began. Research by the Learning Policy Institute, which consisted of interviews with district leaders from eight of the largest and nine of the smallest school districts in the state, found that the number of teacher candidates earning credentials declined during the pandemic.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS, reported a 26% increase in the number of teacher retirements in the second half of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019."
In world of stem cell research, ‘UC Caucus’ reigns supreme
DAVID JENSEN, Capitol Weekly: "They could be called the “UC Caucus,” although that may presume too much. Nonetheless, they come from an institution that has pulled down $1.2 billion from the California state stem cell agency, more than any other enterprise during the last 16 years.
Not to mention that their employer — the University of California — is likely to snag much, much more during the next decade or so.
The “caucus” is composed of the 13 persons with ties to the University of California (UC) who are also members of the governing board of the state’s $12 billion stem cell agency, known officially as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM)."
California wildfire victims face their toughest foe: Insurance companies
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "They held a potluck picnic on Sunnyside Road a few weeks ago. It was more like group therapy with a side of chicken wings.
The Sunday afternoon gathering in early April was a reunion for a Napa Valley neighborhood reduced to rubble by the Glass Fire last September. Amid a collection of tree stumps and lots that have been scrubbed clean, it was a chance to exchange notes about contractors and architects — and trade pep talks about the painful months ahead.
Ian MacMillan, a high school football coach, attended the get-together with others who’d lost their homes. “We’re kind of in this together, helping each other out,” he said “There’s no way I’d want to leave — no way.”
Real estate: Big San Jose affordable homes project emerges
GEORGE AVALOS, Mercury News: "More than 1,000 affordable homes could sprout at a site near a future BART station in a transit-oriented development east of downtown San Jose.
An increasingly active developer, Roygbiv Real Estate Development, has begun to float plans at San Jose City Hall for the first major component of the project.
The first phase, called Residencias Arianna, would consist of two large residential towers. One would be 12 stories high and the other 10 stories."
Israeli man formerly living in Corona indicted in scheme to export arms to Russia
QUINN WILSON, Press Enterprise: "An Israeli citizen who was living in Corona was among five people indicted on federal charges accusing them of illegally exporting thermal imaging scopes and night vision goggles to Russia in a four-year scheme, federal prosecutors announced Monday, June 21.
Igor Panchernikov, 39, and four other defendants were indicted on charges of exporting items that violate the Arms Export Control Act and conspiracy to commit a crime. They face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release. Panchernikov is not in federal custody and is believed to be outside of the U.S., said Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
The scheme allegedly went on throughout Los Angeles County and elsewhere from no later than Dec. 13, 2016, and continued until about Oct. 28, 2020, according to the DOJ’s indictment."
Bay Area sees post-COVID summer school enrollment boom after year of distance learning
KATE SELIG, Mercury News: "On the first day of summer school at Golden View Elementary in San Ramon, Madeline Pavon and her daughter, Kiana, were among a group of parents and children who showed up early hoping to get a last-minute spot inside a classroom.
Pavon thought her first-grader had already locked down a seat, only to be told Kiana had been waitlisted.
“I cried,” Pavon said, gesturing toward her dejected child. “She woke up at 5 a.m. because she was so excited to go into the real classroom. Now look at her like that — it breaks my heart.”"
NFL’s Frank Clark arrested in L.A. after submachine gun spotted in car, police say
AP, via LAT: "Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark was arrested in Los Angeles after police saw a submachine gun in his car, police said Monday.
The 28-year-old NFL player was pulled over for an alleged vehicle violation south of downtown about 9:20 p.m. Sunday, LAPD spokesman Tony Im said.
“Officers noticed a bag with an Uzi sticking out in plain sight in the car,” Im said."
Will coastal wind farms hurt California fishing industry? ‘We’re basically screwed’
MACKENZIE SHUMAN, SacBee: "Bill Blue has been commercially fishing Dungeness crab and black cod near the shores of Morro Bay for 47 years...
Blue’s business has survived in an industry that has faced growing regulations and shrinking territory during the nearly five decades he’s operated off the Central Coast.
Now, proposals to develop a massive floating offshore wind farm in the Pacific Ocean near Cambria may diminish Blue’s fishing grounds by 399 square miles — an area more than twice the size of Lake Tahoe."
This giant ‘inland ocean’ is Southern California’s last defense against drought
LOUIS SAHAGAN, LA Times: "Mechanical engineer Brent Yamasaki set out amid the recent blistering heat wave to take stock of the giant dams, pumps and pipes that support Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County, the largest storehouse of water in Southern California.
The reservoir, which he helped build 25 years ago, is 4½ miles long and 2 miles wide and holds back nearly 800,000 acre-feet of water — so much that it would take 20,000 years to fill it with a garden hose.
Stand in a pontoon boat throttling up across its glassy surface, and the reservoir’s jaw-dropping vastness takes hold."
Challenge to state law requiring women on corporate boards brought back to life
BOB EGELKO, Chonicle: "A challenge to a California law requiring corporations to include women on their governing boards was revived Monday by a federal appeals court, which said a corporate shareholder had plausibly claimed the law requires or at least encourages him to engage in sex discrimination.
The first-in-the-nation law, SB826, passed in 2018, required publicly traded corporations based in California to have at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019. By the end of 2021, companies with five board members must have at least two female directors, and those with six or more members must have at least three women. Violations are punishable by fines of $100,000 or more.
Supporters of the measure said corporations in the state had only 15.5% women on their governing boards, below the national average, and one-fourth of publicly traded companies had no female directors. A recent study found that female representation on the boards of California’s 678 publicly traded companies had nearly doubled, to 26.5%, since the law took effect."
Column: Many California kids can’t access Wi-Fi for schoolwork. Newsom wants the state to step up
GEORGE SKELTON, LA Times: "When private enterprise cannot — or will not — provide a vital public service, then it is government’s responsibility to step up.
In the last century, a growing California desperately needed reliable water deliveries, so state, federal and local governments responded with massive projects.
When we needed a freeway network to facilitate economic expansion and mobility, the federal and state governments poured pavement."
