RICHARD WINTON, LAURA J. NELSON and THOMAS CURWEN, LA Times: "A federal grand jury Wednesday charged three companies with criminal negligence in connection with the oil spill that tarred the Orange County coast in early October.

The three-page indictment alleges that Amplify Energy Corp. and two subsidiary firms, Beta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co., illegally discharged oil into federal waters from the pipeline they operated off Huntington Beach.

Though the size of the spill was initially overestimated at more than 100,000 gallons, the amount — more recently put at nearly 25,000 gallons — was “in a quantity that may be harmful to the public health, welfare and environment of the United States,” according to the charges."

PAUL ROGERS, Mercury News: "A plan to build a new $2.3 billion reservoir in southern Santa Clara County passed a significant milestone on Wednesday when a key state agency ruled that it continues to qualify for nearly half a billion dollars in state funding.

The California Water Commission, a panel appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, voted 8-0 that the project — which would be located near Pacheco Pass and would be the largest new reservoir constructed in the Bay Area in more than 20 years — is feasible and remains eligible to receive $496 million from Proposition 1, a water bond approved by voters in 2014.

Had the commission voted no, the plan by the Santa Clara Valley Water District would have suffered a major, if not possibly fatal, setback."

As vaccine availability for kids expands, rates vary across California

DYLAN SVOBODA, CapRadio: "As news came out in May that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine would be available for teens, James Frazee said he poured over studies to weigh the benefits of getting his 13-year-old son the jab.

Frazee, a community college professor who is vaccinated, said he came away unconvinced.

“The scientific literature doesn’t make a case for vaccinating him,” Frazee said. Like some other parents, Frazee argues that children aren’t as affected by COVID-19 as adults, and that possible side effects from the vaccine — as rare as they may be — outweigh can be more harmful."

Under ‘realignment,’ private prison firms look to the counties

SCOTT SORIANO, Capitol Weekly: "In 2019, California outlawed private prisons. By the time the ban went live in January 2020, the world’s biggest private prison contractor, the Florida-based GEO Group, lost $223 million in contracts with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

The new law, AB 32, authored by then-Assemblymember Rob Bonta, an Alameda Democrat, was approved handily by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, and many Californians thought that the cancellations of private prison contacts meant that the state would be rid of the prison profiteers.

But that was not to be."

The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/SUSIE NEILSON: "With California approaching an unfathomable milestone of 75,000 coronavirus deaths and 5 million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, many are wondering if the state’s many mitigation measures — some of the most stringent in the nation — have made a tangible difference in reducing the toll of the virus.

On Wednesday, Californians adjusted to new rules requiring everyone to mask up again in indoor public settings for at least a month, regardless of vaccination status — with a few regional exemptions — to blunt the impact of another winter surge.

“These are all trade-offs, these decisions,” said Dr. Michael A. Rodriguez, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Many people will be upset about having to wear masks again. At the same time, will many people be saved? There is no doubt about it.”

Sac Bee, HANH TRUONG: "California’s statewide mask mandate goes into effect Wednesday. For those in the Golden State, this means everyone, vaccinated and unvaccinated, must wear a face covering in indoor public spaces — for the most part.

This comes after COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have increased across the state and with the detection of the omicron variant.

Some people are exempt from this latest mask rule, according to the California Department of Health."

The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/YOOHYUN JUNG: "A recent new round of heavy rain and snow following a dry November soaked a thirsty California landscape — but it wasn’t enough to significantly improve the state’s water storage levels, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.

Even after the atmospheric river storm Sunday and Monday, on top of a similar downpour in October, most reservoirs in Northern California saw little change, and remain below water levels both one year ago and historic averages, according to the data.

The rain did boost some reservoir levels slightly — Lake Mendocino, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville all are holding slightly more water than last month, while others stayed the same."

PAUL BERGER, Wall Street Journal: "Container imports at the largest U.S. gateway for seaborne goods trade fell sharply in November, even as backups of ships waiting to unload cargo at the Southern California ports have been growing.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled the equivalent of 765,963 loaded inbound containers last month, the lightest traffic since June 2020. The import volume was down 9.6% from a year ago and off 10.1% from October.

Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, on Wednesday attributed the decline to an influx of smaller ships that have been dispatched by retailers, manufacturers and logistics companies as they scramble to get around bottlenecks and satisfy consumer demand."

Hosting travelers or flying out for the holidays? California issues new COVID advice

Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Travelers arriving in or returning to California should get tested for COVID-19 within three to five days of their arrival, according to new guidance released this week by the California Department of Public Health.

The new recommendation comes as the state begins to deal with the omicron variant of COVID-19, which state officials believe is spread more easily than other variants of the virus.

“While the percentage of Californians fully vaccinated and boosted continues to increase, we continue to have areas of the state where vaccine coverage is low, putting individuals and communities at greater risk for COVID-19,” the department said in a statement. “While we have made great progress, many states and countries are experiencing increasing levels of transmission and increasing travel from other states and countries is expected during this winter season.”

Sac Bee, JEONG PARK: "California’s publicly traded companies appointed more women than men to their boards in 2021, likely for the first time ever, according to a report from the California Partners Project released Wednesday.

Women now hold nearly 30% of California’s public company board seats, nearly double the number in 2018, according to the report from a nonprofit founded by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The report comes three years after California passed a law requiring public companies to hire more female directors to their boards.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” said Olivia Morgan, co-founder and executive director at the California Partners Project. “When California companies have been focused on and required to diversify their board, they have done it with remarkable results.”

The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "San Francisco expects a budget surplus in the next two fiscal years for the first time since 1998, thanks to a real estate tax windfall, federal aid and an economic boom that boosted the city’s pension investments.

The city is expecting a surplus of $108 million over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years, which start in July. San Francisco still has a projected four-year budget deficit of $149 million, but that’s down from a January 2022 estimate of $413 million.

Mayor London Breed told city department heads on Wednesday that there won’t be mandatory spending cuts but budgets won’t grow, calling on them to direct existing funding toward improving public safety and street conditions, economic recovery and to promote equity. The city has been able to avoid layoffs thanks to higher-than-expected tax revenue and federal aid during the pandemic — some workers received raises this year."

Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "The leader of SEIU International relayed concerns to the president of California’s largest state employee union Tuesday about the potential for violence and COVID-19 infections at a union meeting scheduled this weekend in Sacramento.

In a letter, SEIU International president Mary Kay Henry also suggested the parent organization of SEIU Local 1000 could get involved in an interior power struggle that has roiled the organization for months.

Henry told Local 1000 President Richard Louis Brown that some union board members have shared safety concerns with the International, including concerns over Brown “encouraging members to come to the meeting armed.”"

The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Bay Area seafood lovers can look forward to getting out their crab crackers for New Year’s Eve, now that the state announced it will allow local commercial Dungeness crab fishing to begin right before the holiday.

On Wednesday, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it would open up the coast between Pigeon Point and the Sonoma-Mendocino County line to commercial Dungeness crab fishing on Dec. 29. Though fishing there usually starts Nov. 15, it has remained closed to protect endangered whales, mostly humpbacks, from getting injured by fishing gear when they were found to be in high numbers off the coast.

The latest surveys, made from airplane and boat by federal scientists and several nonprofit organizations, found that the majority of whales have now moved out of the region and are on their way to winter breeding grounds in Mexico and Central America."

The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "A year ago, San Franciscans — fed up with dirty streets and delayed infrastructure projects — voted to split up the behemoth Public Works department, creating a new sanitation and streets department and separate commissions to oversee each department. More than 60% of voters embraced the ballot measure, which also landed in the wake of corruption charges against the former head of Public Works.

After a Board of Supervisors vote Tuesday, the city is now set to create the new commissions by July 1 and the new department by Oct. 1.

City residents want “clean and healthy streets and sidewalks and effective accountability and oversight over a department that has clearly lacked it,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, who authored the charter amendment to create the new department, during Tuesday’s meeting."

Charges in oil spill

The Roundup: