The biggest storm in weeks is headed to the SF Bay Area
The Chroncle, ANDRES PICON: "A storm system was expected to sweep across the Bay Area this weekend and into Monday, bringing significant rainfall to the region for the first time in weeks.
Coastal areas were forecast to get up to a few inches of rainfall after the storm arrives Saturday night. The rain will continue through Sunday and into Monday, dropping up to 2 inches of rainfall in some of the main urban areas, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, said Roger Gass, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
The storm will follow a much lighter system expected to arrive Wednesday night into Thursday morning, when most of the Bay Area will get less than a tenth of an inch of rainfall, Gass said."
Pfizer says its COVID-19 booster shot offers protection against the Omicron variant
LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP: "Pfizer said Wednesday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine may offer important protection against the new Omicron variant even though the initial two doses appear significantly less effective.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said that while two doses may not be protective enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased by 25-fold people’s levels of virus-fighting antibodies.
Blood samples taken a month after a booster shot showed that people harbored levels of Omicron-neutralizing antibodies similar to amounts proven protective against earlier variants after two doses.
L.A. approves its redistricting map, setting political boundaries for the next decade
DAVID ZAHNISER, LA Times: "The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to finalize its new set of district maps for the next 10 years, bringing a quiet end to a frequently contentious redistricting process.
On a 13-0 vote, council members approved a redistricting ordinance that places Koreatown in a single council district, reworks political boundaries in the San Fernando Valley and ensures that USC and Exposition Park remain in the South Los Angeles district represented by Councilman Curren Price.
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson has pushed without success in recent weeks to have Exposition Park — which includes the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Banc of California Stadium and the California African American Museum — moved out of Price’s district and into his own. On social media, Harris-Dawson said his district lacks major economic assets, describing the issue as a matter of “Black equity, representation and fairness.”
34,000 L.A. Unified students have not complied with vaccine mandate, signaling problems ahead
HOWARD BLUME, LA Times: "About 34,000 students have not yet complied with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the Los Angeles Unified School District — and there’s no longer enough time for students who have not gotten their first shot to be fully vaccinated by the Jan. 10 start of the second semester, portending significant disruption to their education as they will be barred from campus.
The high number of students who will not be able to meet the full inoculation deadline is likely to force difficult decisions on leaders of second-largest U.S. school system, which has enacted among the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation. Students who are not fully vaccinated — or exempt — will be forced into the district’s independent study program or will have to leave the Los Angeles public school system.
Shifting 34,000 students 12 and older into independent study would be challenging —especially as the district’s independent study program, called City of Angels, has been beset by staffing shortages and confusion after it was inundated at the start of the school year with about 10,000 students, a number that grew to 16,000. The 34,000 total by itself would make up one of the 25 largest school systems in California.
How to know if it's OK to go to gatherings when you have the sniffles
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "The holidays are here, and social gatherings are back on the calendar for many after being largely canceled by COVID-19 last year.
But, say, the day before a holiday party, you have a scratchy throat. Or a few days leading up to a big family gathering, you get the sniffles.
Before the pandemic, you might have shrugged off such symptoms if they were mild. But now, those same symptoms could mean you have COVID-19, and you could put others — particularly those who are vulnerable to severe disease — at risk.
And even if it isn’t COVID, you could inconvenience your family or friends by giving them a cold with symptoms that mirror coronavirus infection."
California considers $500 fines for water wasters as drought worsens, conservation lags
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "As California descends deeper into drought, officials are growing increasingly troubled by dwindling water supplies and the public’s lackluster response to calls for conservation, with residents in recent months falling short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a voluntary 15% reduction in usage.
Now, as the West tips toward crisis, state water regulators are considering adopting emergency regulations that will prohibit certain actions in an attempt to curtail water waste and help conserve supplies.
If approved, the proposal could usher in a wave of water regulations that hearken back to previous droughts while underscoring the seriousness of the current one."
Car crash deaths have surged during pandemic. Here's why
LA Times, EMILY BAUMGAERTNER/RUSS MITCHELL: "It was a tally that shocked the experts: 38,680 deaths on U.S. roadways last year, the most since 2007 even though pandemic precautions had dramatically reduced driving.
“This was completely unprecedented,” said Ken Kolosh, a researcher at the nonprofit National Safety Council. “We didn’t know what was happening.”
One possibility was that stressed-out Americans were releasing their anxieties on the wide-open roads. He guessed that fatal accidents would decline in 2021 when traffic returned.
Huge ‘strange looking creature’ swims under paddleboarder off California, video shows
MADDIE CAPRON, SacBee: “Rich German says he has gone paddling off the California coast every day for 12 years.
He’s seen thousands of dolphins and whales, and many fish in the sea.
On Dec. 2, however, a giant creature like he’s never seen before swam up under his board. It was an unusually large ocean sunfish.
Mayor Steinberg, councilwoman criticize sweep. Will city continue crackdown on homeless vehicles?
THERESA CLIFT, SacBee: “Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela Tuesday raised concerns about the city’s decision to clear 160 homeless vehicles from a North Sacramento industrial park. But it’s unclear whether the pushback will halt an apparent new city strategy to clear more homeless vehicles.
“I as mayor of the city believe strongly the businesses on Commerce Circle and other commercial corridors need and deserve relief,” Steinberg said during a City Council meeting Tuesday, referring to a Sacramento Bee report. “I believe living in unsupervised tent encampments is a health and safety crisis for the businesses and neighborhoods, but mostly people living in such conditions. From what I know, I disagree strongly with the timing and manner of this action over the last several days.”
A total of 18 vehicles and trailers were towed on Monday from Commerce Circle, city spokesman Tim Swanson said. Many vehicles and trailers had moved from the area since receiving notices from the city that they would be towed, Swanson said. Many said they were not offered shelter or housing.
Pearl Harbor suvivors gather on 80th anniversary of attack
AUDREY McAVOY, AP: “A few dozen survivors of Pearl Harbor and other veterans gathered Tuesday at the site of the bombing 80 years ago to remember those killed in the attack by Japan that launched the U.S. into World War II.
The USS Chung-Hoon, a guided missile destroyer, passed in front of the pier with its sailors “manning the rails,” or lining the ship’s edge, to honor the World War II veterans present.
David Russell, a 101-year-old from Albany, Oregon, who survived the attack while on the USS Oklahoma, stood to salute to the destroyer on behalf of the veterans.
