State eviction ban ends soon. Here's how renters can protect themselves
Sacramento Bee, JEONG PARK: "As California’s coronavirus eviction moratorium ends Friday, state officials and community advocates are urging renters to apply now for help from a housing and utility assistance fund that could give them cash to catch up on bills.
The state has billions of dollars to spend from money allocated through a federal pandemic relief law. People who receive support from the program also get extend eviction protections through March.
“Tenants who owe back rent or who will have trouble paying rent on the first of the month should not wait to apply for rent relief,” Department of Housing and Community Development Department Director Gustavo Velasquez said in a press release this week. “The sooner they apply for rent relief, the sooner they will be protected from eviction for non-payment of rent.”"
Businesses face eviction as moratorium ends
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "California restaurants, retailers and other commercial and office tenants are all at risk of eviction starting Friday, after the state’s pandemic-era moratorium expires at the end of September.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office confirmed the executive order that established the moratorium is expiring Thursday and will not be renewed, potentially exposing scores of businesses to more fallout from the pandemic. California’s moratorium for rental evictions will also end Thursday. As of Friday, tenants could be evicted for unpaid rent.
Some landlords and real estate brokers believe it won’t lead to many evictions, because property owners are desperate to keep their spaces filled and want to renegotiate leases."
COVID delta variant spooks consumers, slows California recovery: new report
GEORGE AVALOS, Mercury News: “The spread of COVID’s delta variant is slowing California’s economic recovery as it seeks to rebound from the epic job losses that devastated the state and Bay Area at the start of the pandemic, according to the state’s leading economic forecast, released Wednesday.
The growth of California’s job market is expected to trail the United States in 2021, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast, which just six months ago projected that the Golden State would bounce back much faster than the nation. Now, forecasters said, it will be 2022 before the state is poised to charge past the nation.
The latest quarterly forecast found that California didn’t really roar back to recovery after the statewide economy was formally reopened in June of this year. In fact, measured by nonfarm payroll employment, California’s job market is predicted to grow by just 1.8% over the course of this year — less than half of the 3.7% increase projected for the nationwide economy.”
California tenants struggling to make rent, study finds
Sacramento Bee, ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "Thousands of California tenants are still struggling to pay rent and fear impending evictions, a new California Housing Partnership report found, despite unprecedented levels of emergency financial assistance and renter protections during the coronavirus pandemic.
As of last month, about one in four California tenants said they had no or slight confidence they could pay next months rent. California renters of color have disproportionately struggled to pay rent during the pandemic, according to the report: An average of 19% of Black renters, 17% of Latinx renters and 17% of Asian renters said they fell behind on rent in the last year, compared to 8% of white renters.
Published this month, the analysis spans the last 17 months of the pandemic and is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, a new survey which began last year to track how COVID-19 is impacting people."
Southern Sierra wildfires wiping out giant sequioias for 2nd year in a row
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "More than a dozen groves of giant sequoias may lose significant numbers of trees in the wildfires now raging in the southern Sierra Nevada, even as fire crews succeed, sometimes dramatically, in keeping flames at bay in the most popular stands.
Scientists surveying the damage of two active fires say the biggest losses will likely be at the south end of Giant Sequoia National Monument, where already 29 large trees have been listed as dead and many more are expected to follow.
The Windy Fire there has exploded to 87,901 acres, and it’s burning out of control through several less-known, but still-towering sequoia stands, including the stately Packsaddle Grove. The fire was just 25% contained on Wednesday."
Extreme makeover? Two LA Council members could see huge changes to their districts
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER: "When Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman won her campaign for city office last year, her victory was historic on multiple levels.
Raman ousted an incumbent — a rare event at City Hall — and delivered an enormous win to some of the city’s most politically progressive activists. She also received more votes than any council candidate in city history, in part because the contest coincided with the presidential election.
Now, after less than a year in office, Raman could see much of of her Hollywood Hills district disappear — redesigned dramatically as part of the city’s once-a-decade redistricting process following the release of U.S. Census data."
How Florida fell so far behind California in battling the coronavirus
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/MARISSA EVANS/SEAN GREENE: "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, California and Florida have stood as polar opposites in how government has responded to the coronavirus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last year backed sweeping stay-at-home orders in California, and this summer supported targeted vaccination requirements and indoor mask rules. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis led efforts to quash health rules: He issued an order prohibiting mask requirements and signed a law banning vaccine passports — mandates by businesses or government agencies to show proof of vaccination to gain services.
The divergent approaches have been the subject of endless partisan debate."
Changes at USPS kick in Friday. How will it affect your mail
Sacramento Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "United States Postal Service changes to delivery times kick in Friday, meaning that cross-country mail could see up to two-day delays going forward.
The changes also mean package shipments will be more expensive during the upcoming holiday season, U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Meiko Patton said.
Current standards regulate that first-class mail shipped from any location reaches its destination in three days or less. New regulations would allow mail to be delivered in up to five days, depending on where it is coming from within the continental U.S., as the service transitions more of its operations to ground shipping from air."
As few as 38% of sanitation workers are vaccinated. Advocates worry that threatens LA's homeless people
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES/DAVID ZAHNISER: "In March 2020, Los Angeles sanitation crews mostly stopped doing their most extensive cleanups at homeless encampments, hoping to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19 on the streets.
More than a year later, the number of residents becoming sick from the virus has dropped and the cleanups have resumed. But advocates for homeless people warn that the risks from COVID-19 are still present, and they fear the renewed cleanups will spread the virus among the unhoused.
Adding to the fear is the fact that many sanitation workers — possibly even most — are still not vaccinated."
Elk Grove ranked highest in the state for suspending black students. Advocates demand change
Sac Bee, MARCUS D. SMITH: "Two of Sacramento’s largest school districts had among the highest suspension rates of Black students in 2019, and advocates are pushing for changes to what they describe as extreme and unfair disciplinary actions.
Elk Grove Unified School District suspended more Black students than any district in California in 2019 and the Sacramento City Unified School District was listed at fourth in the state based on data from the “Suspending Our Future” survey released by the Black Minds Matter Coalition.
Lorreen Pryor, a parent and former student of the Elk Grove school system, now serves as the President and CEO of the Black Youth Leadership Project (BYLP). She’s advocating for a solution to what students, parents, and advocates say is an unacceptable problem."
Alameda County deputies seize more than 100K cannabis plants in one of state's largest illegal grows
The Chronicle, LAUREN HERNANDEZ: "Alameda County sheriff’s detectives said they seized more than 100,000 marijuana plants and more than $10 million in cash on Wednesday as part of what they called the “taking down” of one of the largest illegal cannabis grow operations in California.
Deputies conducted more than one dozen search warrants across the East Bay on Wednesday and said they expected to be at the undisclosed locations for several days to process “this enormous amount of evidence.” They did not say which cities the grows were located in.
“The enormity and complexity of this illegal grow operation cannot be expressed in words or pictures, it’s unbelievable,” sheriff’s officials said in a Wednesday night Facebook post."
LAPD officers broke policy in shootings at Paramount Pictures and downtown, panel rules
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR: "Los Angeles Police officers broke policy by opening fire in two separate incidents last year, including one involving a barricaded suspect on the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Hollywood and another involving a robbery suspect downtown, the LAPD’s civilian oversight panel has ruled.
Investigators in both cases came to a strikingly similar conclusion: The officers opened fire based more on their fears than the facts around them, and put bystanders at risk in the process.
In the first incident, LAPD officers responded to the Paramount lot on the night of Oct. 18 after officers from the Fullerton Police requested their assistance in taking a Paramount security guard, Bryan Barrios, into custody."
