Tiny seedlings of giant sequoias rise from ashes of wildfire
BRIAN MELLEY, AP: "Ashtyn Perry was barely as tall as the shovel she stomped into barren ground where a wildfire last year ravaged the California mountain community of Sequoia Crest and destroyed dozens of its signature behemoth trees.
The 13-year-old with a broad smile and a braid running to her waist had a higher purpose that — if successful — she’ll never live to see: to plant a baby sequoia that could grow into a giant and live for millennia.
“It’s really cool knowing it could be a big tree in like a thousand years,” she said."
PG&E under federal probe in Dixie fire, expects more than $1 billion in losses tied to blaze
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "In yet another investigation into the role that utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric has played in California’s worsening wildfires, the company announced Monday that it received a subpoena from the U.S. attorney’s office seeking documents related to the Dixie fire.
PG&E received the subpoena Oct. 7, according to Monday’s regulatory filing, which also said the utility expected to take a loss of at least $1.15 billion from the blaze.
The Dixie fire — the second-largest wildfire in California history — ignited in the dense forest of Plumas County in July. In the weeks and months that followed, it burned through more than 963,000 acres across five counties, destroying 1,300 structures and leveling the town of Greenville."
Questions on college debt? California prepares to answer
MATT KRUPNICK, EdSource: "As thousands of California students apply for 2022 admission to the state’s colleges and universities, one big question remains unanswered for many of them: how to pay.
That confusion, due in part to inadequate communication from institutions, leads to far more students than necessary taking out loans. Nearly 4 million Californians owe $147 billion in student debt, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center, and more than 500,000 are delinquent or in default. While just a sliver of the borrowers, that’s still half a million students who face a rocky financial future. It’s especially an issue for Black or Latino residents who have higher default and delinquency rates than others, a new report notes.
With an eye on reducing debt problems, the state is preparing to hire its first student loan ombudsperson by the end of the year, and a panel of experts recently told the California Student Aid Commission – the agency responsible for managing Cal Grants – that the state should make significant changes to help students navigate college costs."
Elizabeth Holmes: Two months into Theranos founder’s trial, how does it look for her?
ETHAN BARON, Mercury News: "Two months after Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ federal criminal trial started in San Jose, legal observers are divided on her prospects.
“It doesn’t look good for Holmes,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who’s now an attorney at West Coast Trial Lawyers. “I fully expect her to be convicted unless something dramatic happens when the defense puts on their case.”
But Bay Area defense attorney Jessica Nall said she believes Holmes “has a fighting shot” to escape conviction. “I’m getting more optimistic for her chances,” said Nall, of Baker McKenzie in Palo Alto and San Francisco. “It’s been held up as a clear fraud. I don’t think it’s that clear.”
Drug companies win in California opioid crisis lawsuit
ROBERT JABLON and DONALD THOMPSON, AP: "A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling on Monday that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance.
“There is simply no evidence to show that the rise in prescriptions was not the result of the medically appropriate provision of pain medications to patients in need,” Wilson wrote in a ruling of more than 40 pages."
Climate change is now the main driver of increasing wildfire weather, study finds
ALEX WIGGLESWORTH, LA Times: "In a finding that scientists believed was still decades away from becoming reality, California researchers say that climate change is now the overwhelming cause of conditions driving extreme wildfire behavior in the western United States.
As world leaders gathered in Scotland this week to discuss plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a study released on Monday said that global warming was essentially two-thirds to 88% responsible for the atmospheric conditions fueling increasingly destructive wildfires.
And that’s a conservative estimate, said study author Rong Fu, a climate researcher at UCLA."
Army veteran sentenced to 25 years in prison for Long Beach terrorist bombing plot
MICHAEL FINNEGAN, LA Times: "A U.S. Army veteran from Reseda was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison for plotting to set off a bomb at a Long Beach political rally in a thwarted terrorist attack.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson rejected prosecutors’ request for a penalty of life in prison for Mark Steven Domingo, 28, who was convicted at his trial in August for attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support to terrorists.
Prosecutors told Wilson that Domingo wanted the aborted April 2019 bombing to avenge the killing of 51 people at mosques in New Zealand “and to stoke terror, chaos, and civil unrest that would weaken the United States and help ISIS and other Jihadist groups spread.”
S.F. public employees return to City Hall, but Civic Center stays quiet
CHASE DiFELICIANTONIO, RYCE STOUGHTENBOROUGH and TRISHA THADANI, Chronicle: "On the first day that all San Francisco city employees were required to come back to the office after more than a year of doing their jobs from home, a steady but small stream of people trickled off BART on Monday morning and walked into their Civic Center offices.
The drizzly, breezy morning around City Hall seemed calm, quiet and nothing special. But, in reality, it was a significant day for San Francisco: Not only did all city employees have to return to work for at least two days a week, but they also had to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Monday, San Francisco could boast one of the highest inoculation rates of major cities with a similar mandate: About 98% of the city’s workforce was vaccinated, with less than 1,000 unprotected against COVID-19. That high vaccination rate made some employees like Damien Lacy, who has already been coming into the office part time, much more comfortable working in person."
Transgender man can sue California hospital after Supreme Court decision not to hear appeal
CATHIE ANDERSON, SacBee: "The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would not hear arguments on a California appeals court decision that let a Sacramento-area transgender man sue Mercy San Juan Medical Center over its cancellation of his hysterectomy.
The 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled in September 2019 that Evan Minton could sue the Carmichael-based hospital over the last-minute change in his care, overturning a lower-court ruling that dismissed the case.
Leaders of Mercy San Juan, a hospital operated by Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health and its subsidiary Dignity Health, had maintained that the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise of religion and free speech protected its decisions in the case."
State renews $1.7 billion contract with troubled COVID lab
EMILY HOEVEN, CalMatters: "On Sunday, while you were out trick-or-treating, California quietly auto-renewed a contract worth up to $1.7 billion for a COVID-19 testing lab so plagued with problems that state health officials warned in February it could lose its license.
The automatic renewal, which California Health and Human Services Agency spokesperson Sami Gallegos confirmed to me Sunday night, comes as the state faces scrutiny for its failure to release a report investigating “significant deficiencies” at the lab. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said the full report would be made available in mid-March. More than seven months later, it is nowhere to be found.
“I urge you to halt auto-renewal of the contract,” Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk wrote in a late October letter to the state’s top health officials, arguing that it “would be irresponsible to let any contract auto-renew when serious allegations remain unanswered and the report out of public reach.”
Irvine man, 20, charged in attack on flight attendant en route to John Wayne Airport
JOSH CAIN and CAITLIN ANTONIOS: "Federal authorities on Monday charged an Irvine man in an attack last week in which he is accused of punching a flight attendant in the nose aboard a flight from New York to Orange County, an alleged assault that forced the pilot to divert the plane to Denver.
Brian Hsu, 20, was arrested at an Irvine home Monday morning, and later appeared in federal court in Santa Ana, where a judge ordered him to report to Colorado later this month to face two charges related to the incident, including one that accuses him of interfering with the crew of American Airlines Flight 976 on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
He faces up to 21 years in prison if convicted on both counts, according to federal officials.
How is the pandemic changing births in California?
SUSIE NEILSON, Chronicle:"Several months ago, the Chronicle examined how the coronavirus pandemic’s initial lockdown period had driven a nearly historically unprecedented California-wide “baby bust” — a steep decline in births — in the first two months of 2021.
Now that we’re nearing the end of the year, it’s time to check back in. Where are California’s birth rates now?
Higher than might be expected, as it turns out. Through August, the latest month with data available, 3% fewer births had occurred in California in 2021 than it did over the same period in 2020. But that decrease is due mostly due to the lower birth numbers in January and February; births for other months have so far remained mostly parallel with 2020."
Ridley-Thomas’ chief of staff is named caretaker for indicted councilman’s district
DAKOTA SMITH, LA Times: "Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez on Monday appointed Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ chief of staff as the caretaker for the district, a Martinez spokeswoman said.
Karly Katona will oversee the district following the City Council’s decision last month to strip Ridley-Thomas of his duties, said spokeswoman Sophie Gilchrist. As caretaker, Katona will not be a council member or have voting powers, Gilchrist said.
Federal prosecutors allege that Ridley-Thomas, while serving on the county Board of Supervisors, conspired with the former dean of USC’s School of Social Work to steer county money to the university. In return, Ridley-Thomas’ son Sebastian was admitted to USC’s graduate school and given a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship, prosecutors allege."
Push to overhaul sex-work laws hinges on a central question: Who counts as a victim?
DUSTIN GARDINER, Chronicle: "Efforts to protect both victims of human trafficking and people who engage in sex work willingly are increasingly hinging on a fundamental question: When is the act of trading sex for money truly voluntary?
In recent years, California lawmakers have taken up a handful of measures to ease enforcement targeting sex workers as they weigh the effects of decades-old laws criminalizing the industry. The debate could ultimately put the state on a path to decriminalize sex work.
For TS Jane, a sex worker and organizer from San Diego, the fight is personal. She said her decision to start working in the industry more than 15 years ago has helped her become her authentic self and pay for surgeries so her appearance reflects her identity as a transgender woman."
