Botched surgeries and death: How the California Medical Board keeps negligent doctors in business
LA Times, JACK DOLAN/KIM CHRISTENSEN/CAROLYN COLE: "Lenora Lewis hoped spinal surgery would relieve her chronic back pain. But when the mother of three from Lancaster awoke from the operation in 2013, she was paralyzed from the waist down, her feet numb but for the horrifying sensation of “a billion ants running through them.”
What she didn’t know then was that her surgeon, Dr. Mukesh Misra, had been publicly accused by the Medical Board of California of operating on the wrong side of another patient’s brain.
In March, after investigating Lewis’ case — and another in which a 46-year-old woman died of complications from a severed artery discovered minutes after Misra operated on her spine — the medical board revoked his license for gross negligence, but then it stayed the action and placed him on probation, allowing him to keep practicing, which he is doing today."
Longtime Contra Costa politician sentenced to jail for misusing campaign funds
ALEXEI KOSEFF, Chronicle: "A longtime Contra Costa County politician faces a year in jail for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds.
Joe Canciamilla, a former county clerk-recorder, county supervisor and state legislator from Pittsburg, pled guilty Monday to nine counts of perjury and grand theft, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
As part of his guilty plea, Canciamilla was sentenced to 365 days in county jail and two years of formal probation, though his lawyer said he has applied to serve his jail time on electronic home confinement instead. Due to his felony conviction, Canciamilla also must surrender his law license and loses his ability to hold public office."
FDA issues warning for Johnson & Johnson vaccine after cases of rare neurological disorder begin to surface
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Federal regulators Monday added a warning to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after a small number of people out of millions who received the one-dose shot developed a rare but serious neurological disorder.
The Food and Drug Administration has identified 100 cases of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause muscle weakness and paralysis, after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That’s a tiny fraction of the nearly 13 million Johnson & Johnson inoculations given so far.
FDA officials said they couldn’t know for sure that the vaccine caused the disorder in all cases, but patients should be alerted to the potential risk. The warning will be added to a fact sheet for patients and providers."
READ MORE VACCINATION NEWS --- Almost a quarter of young adults are holding off getting COVID shots. Here's why -- The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES; Tough tactics targeting the unvaccinated needed to stop new COVID-19 spike, experts say -- LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II
Firefighters gain ground against biggest NorCal blaze
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Firefighters gained ground Tuesday in the battle against California’s largest wildfire so far this season — the lightning-sparked Beckwourth Complex burning along the Nevada border northwest of Reno.
The 93,000-acre blaze, a fusion of the Sugar and Dotta fires in Plumas and Lassen counties, is burning in chaparral, pine and other timber in the Plumas National Forest. But after surging in size over the weekend and crossing Highway 395, the 2,745 firefighters assigned to the fire stopped the blaze from growing Tuesday and extended containment lines to 66%.
Some structures were destroyed in or near the town of Doyle, U.S. Forest Service officials said. Kimberly Kaschalk, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service, said damage assessment crews have not been able to enter the area to get an accurate count or determine how many of the structures were houses, barns, sheds or trailers."
Eligible Californians missing out on tax credits worth millions of dollars
Sac Bee, KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Hundreds of thousands of lower income Californians in 2017 did not claim a state tax credit designed to provide extra cash for households like theirs, according to a new report by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley.
That means those Californians missed out on a collective $76 million in unclaimed tax credits that year, the report found.
The study looked at Californians who received state-funded food assistance through the CalFresh program and assessed how many of them also could have claimed the California Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides hundreds of dollars to lower-income families."
READ MORE STIMULUS/TAX CREDIT NEWS --- State to send $600 stimulus payments to millions. When to expect your check -- Sac Bee, KIM BOJORQUEZ
Attack ads in Newsom recall race invoke dystopian California in decline
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "When voters turn on their TVs or scroll social media over the next nine weeks, they will be deluged with ads telling the story of two vastly different Californias: One is “roaring back” from the pandemic under Gov. Gavin Newsom; the other is a borderline dystopia where issues like homelessness and wildfires have never been worse.
Those starkly different tones are a reflection of the unique political calculus of a recall election where the incumbent is polling strong. Challengers hoping to oust Newsom must first convince voters that the governor is so awful that he should be removed before his first term in office ends in 2023.
Meanwhile, Newsom needs to project a sense of calm competence, convincing voters that life is improving as the crisis eases. He must persuade them to let him keep his job before even considering who could replace him."
Thousands of CalPERS members could get $30,000 or more in long-term care lawsuit settlement
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "CalPERS has agreed to pay up to $2.7 billion to settle a lawsuit over big price hikes the retirement system imposed on long-term care policyholders eight years ago, according to a Tuesday announcement.
The proposed agreement, which requires a judge’s approval, would settle a class-action lawsuit policyholders filed in 2013. Several policyholders filed the lawsuit after receiving notices that their premiums would rise 85% in two increases in 2015 and 2016.
The settlement agreement presents affected policyholders — those who paid extra for an “inflation protection” benefit — with a choice. To receive a full refund of their premiums, they must give up their long-term care insurance plans. The policies, which CalPERS started selling in 1995, cover costs for nursing homes and in-home care."
Bay Area shifting to normal in small and large ways
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID/JOHN KING/RYAN KOST/RICARDO CANO: "After more than a year of pervasive efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Bay Area has been stirring back to life in ways large and small.
Offices slowly are reopening, as are the constellation of restaurants and bars around them. Masks no longer are wardrobe staples. Roads are crowded once again. Public transit isn’t quite so empty.
But it’s impossible for a metropolitan region to simply push the reset button and return to how things were in early 2020, especially with the coronavirus continuing to mutate and spread. To monitor the ways our Bay Area is shuffling back toward a state of “normal,” four Chronicle reporters observed four spots in the region throughout the month of June. Each reporter spent a portion of the same day every week in one location to watch for changes in traffic, mood or behavior. They found a more nuanced reality, where gearing back up is no easy task, and even places that feel the same are touched by the tumult of the past 16 months."
Could tarantulas hold the secret to relieving chronic pain? UC Davis researchers think so
Sac Bee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "Using $1.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at University of California, Davis, are looking into whether venom from the widely feared tarantula spider could help relieve chronic pain.
“Spiders and scorpions have millions of years of evolution optimizing peptide, protein and small-molecule poisons in their venom, which we can take advantage of,” said Bruce Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology who is working on the new pain reliever. “The same venoms that can cause pain and neurological dysfunction can also help nerves work better and reduce pain.”
Hammock has decades of experience in developing a novel approach to relieving chronic pain. His Davis-based EicOsis earned a Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for development of an oral drug candidate, EC5026, which prevents the breakdown of compounds in the body that keep people from feeling pain out of proportion to their injury."
CA game wardens used DNA evidence to prove man illegally killed eight deer
Sac Bee, RYAN SABALOW: "In California, it’s almost always illegal to kill female deer. But that didn’t stop a Marysville man from shooting seven does and then allegedly lying to a game warden about the body count, wildlife officials said.
Last October, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife got a call to its poaching tip hotline from someone who saw a group of people cutting up a large number of deer carcasses at a Yuba County property.
During California’s short deer hunting seasons, a hunter in California is only allowed permits to kill up to two deer, and with rare exceptions, the hunter can only shoot bucks."
Chlorine shortage cancels swim lessons for California kids who need them most
LA Times, SONJA SHARP: "Swim instructor Symone Martin floated faceup in a backyard pool in Baldwin Hills one recent afternoon, the tang of wet concrete and chlorine perfuming the air as she modeled this summer’s most sought after skill in her flamingo pink one-piece.
“Head is what?” The instructor prompted.
“Looking up at the sun,” sisters Harmony and Melody Taylor, 10 and 8, sang back in chorus."
Safety inspectors keep leaving Cal-OSHA. Now it has a mandate to hire dozens more
Sac Bee, JEONG PARK: "With COVID-19 raging in the state, officials at California’s workplace safety agency in November vowed to fill as many vacancies as quickly as possible so it could carry out more inspections at hospitals, warehouses, factories and offices.
California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal-OSHA, at the time committed to filling nearly 120 vacancies by July 1, Department of Industrial Relations’ Director Katie Hagen who oversees Cal-OSHA told state legislators at a hearing that month.
Yet, since then, the agency has been bleeding inspectors."
Educators grapple with how to enforce California school mask mandate in the fall
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME/MELISSA GOMEZ/LAURA NEWBERRY: "California will embrace one of the nation’s most stringent school mask mandates next fall, but is leaving enforcement to local educators, who are proposing a range of consequences for students who don’t follow the rule — such as issuing warnings or barring them from campus. Some even suggested they may ignore the order because they don’t believe it’s needed.
The state’s hands-off position on enforcement comes after several days of rapidly evolving policy announcements at the state and federal level.
The movement was especially swift on Monday, when state officials mandated that students who refuse to wear masks be prohibited from campus. Hours later, the enforcement rule was deleted, and the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom said enforcement would be left to local education officials."
Popular Bay Area restaurateurs are flocking to an unexpected city: Walnut Creek
The Chronicle, JANELLE BITKER: "Not too long ago, Walnut Creek’s restaurant scene was dominated by lackluster chains, but that’s changing fast: Many Bay Area restaurateurs, from San Francisco to Oakland to Napa, are choosing the city as their next expansion spot, citing its vibrant downtown neighborhood, destination shopping and affluent residents eager to spend their money in town.
New and incoming restaurants show a move toward more global flavors. In the months leading up to the pandemic, Burma 2 debuted with Burmese curries and tea leaf salad and Manakish Oven & Grill opened with a variety of Arab flatbreads. They joined a new post of Napa’s popular barbecue spot Bounty Hunter, soon followed by Oakland’s German emporium, Bierhaus.
Now, customers are eagerly awaiting a new restaurant, Table at 7, by Singapore’s oldest cafe chain. It promises to present modern Singaporean and Indonesian flavors while highlighting produce from local farms. Walnut Creek is also getting a new matcha cafe by Berkeley’s wildly popular mochi outfit Third Culture Bakery later this summer. And the East Bay city’s first food hall, the Foundry, is in the works."
Senate Democrats announce $3.5T budget agreement for climate change, healthcare
LA Times, ALAN FRAM/LISA MASCARO: "Senate Democrats announced Tuesday that they have reached a budget agreement among themselves that envisions spending an enormous $3.5 trillion over the coming decade. The fiscal plan would pave the way for Democrats’ drive to direct a huge pool of federal resources at climate change, healthcare and family-service programs sought by President Biden.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the accord flanked by all 11 Democrats on the chamber’s budget committee after a two-hour evening meeting that capped weeks of bargaining among party leaders, progressives and moderates.
The agreement is a major step in Democrats’ drive to turn Biden’s effort to bolster an economy that was ravaged by the pandemic and set it on a course for long-term growth. Separately, bipartisan senators have been working toward another measure that would spend about $1 trillion on roads, water systems and other infrastructure projects."
