Medi-Cal expansion

California prepares to spend billions on Medi-Cal services for homeless people and others

ANGELA HART, LA Times: "Living unmedicated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Eugenia Hunter has a hard time recalling how long she’s been staying in the tent she calls home at the bustling intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland’s hip Uptown neighborhood. Craft coffee shops and weed dispensaries are plentiful here, and one-bedroom apartments push $3,000 per month.

“At least the rats aren’t all over me in here,” the 59-year-old Oakland native said on a bright August afternoon, stretching her arm to grab the zipper to her front door. It was hot inside, and the stench of wildfire smoke hung in the air. Still, after sleeping on a nearby bench for the better part of a year, she felt safer here, Hunter explained as she rolled a joint she’d use to ease the pain from living with what she said was untreated pancreatic cancer.

Hunter has been hospitalized repeatedly, including once last summer after she overdosed on alcohol and lay unconscious on a sidewalk until someone stopped to help. But she is reluctant to see a doctor or use Medi-Cal, California’s health insurance program for low-income and disabled people, largely because it would force her to leave her tent."

Latinos, disproportionately stricken by COVID, hold voting power in California recall

Sacramento Bee, ANDREA BRISENO: "Latinos could make the difference in the Sept. 14 recall election that decides whether Gavin Newsom stays or goes as California’s governor.

But how many will turn out and how they will vote are still in question.

Organizers of the recall give a number of reasons for dumping Newsom, a big one being his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And as Cal Matters reported last month, Latinos are the largest ethnic group in California, make up about 28% of registered voters and have been “disproportionately sickened and hurt financially by the coronavirus pandemic ... .”

READ MORE RECALL NEWS --- Recall candidate Larry elder says sex ed 'has no role in school' in message to Rocklin church -- Sacramento Bee, LARA KORTE; Are young voters the key to Newsom surviving the recall? -- The Chronicle, MATTHEW REAGAN

ICU beds filling up in San Joaquin Valley, triggering hospital surge order

LUKE MONEY, LA Times: "The share of available intensive care beds has dropped to concerningly low levels in the San Joaquin Valley, prompting state health officials to implement COVID-19 hospital surge protocols aimed at alleviating the strain on healthcare facilities.

Under a state health order issued last month, additional measures are imposed when a region’s hospitals report having less than 10% of their cumulative staffed adult ICU beds available for three straight days.

The San Joaquin Valley is the first to meet that threshold. As of Thursday, only 8.6% of such beds were available across the region — which the state defines as Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare and Tuolumne counties."

Column: The math is simple — California Republicans probably won’t pull off Newsom recall

GEORGE SKELTON, LA Times: "Politics is about math. And if you’re outnumbered 2 to 1, you invariably lose. That’s how Republicans started their recall fight and the way they’re ending it — apparent losers again.

Voting won’t be over until Sept. 14. We could be surprised. The polls may be wrong and the initial pace of ballot returns perhaps is misleading.

But the signs point so far to a wasteful GOP misadventure and political survival for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom."

California voters rejected ‘zero bail.’ Now lawmakers weigh new overhaul of system

PATRICK McGREEVY, L A Times: "Ten months after California voters rejected a state law to eliminate cash bail for many offenses, a new fight is brewing in the Legislature over an alternative plan by lawmakers that would slash the amount arrestees must pay to get out of jail.

The national bail industry that spent $10 million to defeat a “zero bail” measure on last November’s ballot is lobbying hard against the new proposed legislation and warns it will sue if the bill passes because it would put them out of business.

The threat comes after state Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) recently amended his bill to remove a zero bail requirement for many less serious offenses."

L.A. teachers union drops demand for student vaccine mandate, but wants strict quarantines

HOWARD BLUME, LA Times: "The Los Angeles teachers union has dropped its demand for mandating that eligible students receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but the move appears to be more about bargaining strategy rather than a lack of support for the move.

The latest contract proposal, dated Sept. 2, also lays out a plan that would lead to additional and possibly longer coronavirus-related quarantines for students and staff.

“We continue to support a vaccine requirement for all eligible students to keep our schools safer and to help protect the most vulnerable among us, including children too young to be vaccinated,” union President Cecily Myart-Cruz said Friday."

As Tahoe residents fled the Caldor Fire, the bears moved in -- and pigged out

The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI: "As residents frantically evacuated a week ago from the approaching Caldor Fire, the last thing many South Lake Tahoe residents did was to pull their garbage cans to the curb.

The problem: Garbage pickup wasn’t scheduled for four to five days, and refuse employees were also fleeing town.

So bears helped themselves to a rare feast.

Unemployment benefits end for millions. California leaders say state can't extend them

Sacramento Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/JEONG PARK/HANNAH WILEY: "The unemployment benefits that ended Saturday won’t be revived anytime soon in California.

In Sacramento, as in Washington, the message is the same: The economy is recovering, jobs are plentiful and lots of other help is available if needed.

“What we’ve seen is there just has been no conversation or political will to extend these benefits,” said Jenna Gerry, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Center, which follows unemployment issues."

What will the planet look like in 50 years? Here's how climate scientists figure it out

Sacramento Bee, MARGO ROSENBAUM: "Climate change scientists don’t like to use the term “prediction.” Rather, they’re making “projections” about the future of the planet as sea levels rise, wildfires sweep the

West and hurricanes become more ferocious.

There’s a good reason for that.

In a world awash in misinformation — about medicine, politics and climate, and pretty much everything else — part of a scientist’s job now involves teaching the public about how science works. Convincing the public to have faith in science means making precise, measured projects about the future."

Call 988: How will California pay for the new crisis hotline?

The Chronicle, JOCELYN WIENER: "Soon, Californians will be able to dial a new three-digit number when seeking help for a mental health crisis.

While 988 will premiere nationwide by July, the funding California needs to make the help line work successfully remains uncertain.

Masks. School lunch. Sleepovers. Here's how Bay Area experts recommend keeping kids safe in the delta era

The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "This is a scary time for parents.

Children are returning to school as the highly infectious delta variant is sending more younger people to hospitals nationally than at any other point in the pandemic.