Newsom declares storm-related state of emergency in 20 counties, including L.A.
LA Times, GREGORY YEE: "Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in 20 California counties on Thursday as winter storms continued to lash the state with record snow and rainfall that have knocked out power, shut down major roads and freeways, and caused debris flows, among other hazards.
According to the proclamation, the following counties are under a state of emergency: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra and Yuba.
The emergency proclamation will support response and recovery efforts after the storms, including by expanding access to state resources under the state’s Disaster Assistance Act, according to a statement by Newsom’s office."
California’s very dry year ends with some chaos, some relief in heavy rain and snow
HAYLEY SMITH and JAMES RAINEY, LAT: "A year characterized by drought, wildfire and water restrictions in California ended not with more dryness but with a deluge.
Back-to-back storms dumped about 7 inches of rain in downtown Los Angeles in December, more than tripling the month’s normal rainfall of 2.03 inches and placing it in the 10 wettest Decembers on record, the National Weather Service said.
The L.A. River, reduced to a near trickle during a bone-dry November, surged to nearly 10 feet in some areas Thursday, while a flash flood in Malibu hamstrung at least 50 campers who had to be rescued from raging muddy waters."
Who should pay for pension mistakes? New California law puts employers on the hook
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "California state retirees can breathe a little easier on Jan. 1, as a new law goes into effect directing the California Public Employees Retirement System to go after employers — not retirees — in cases where the pension system discovers errors in pension calculations.
The law ends a practice in which CalPERS and government employers like city governments required retirees to repay miscalculated pensions while reducing their retirement income going forward.
Instead, the new law puts government employers on the hook for those mistakes.
Gun violence hits 15-year high in L.A., taking lives and erasing hard-fought gains
KEVIN RECTOR, LA Times: "Sean Reynolds almost lost his life over a PlayStation.
The 17-year-old high school senior had arranged to sell his gaming console through the app OfferUp, and agreed to meet the buyer — another teenager — near a public housing complex in Watts. He intended to save the cash he earned for college expenses that fall.
Instead, one of two teens who met Reynolds at his car that hot day in May pulled out a gun and shot him, the bullet ricocheting off his hip and fragmenting through his abdomen. As he lay on the ground bleeding, he said, the second teen urged the first to fire again."
How will California’s new laws affect you?
LA Times, JOHN MYERS/MELODY GUTIERREZ/TARYN LUNA/PHIL WILLON: "The COVID-19 pandemic continued to slow the pace of governing California in 2021 as it did the year before, with the second fewest number of bills approved by the Legislature of any year since 1967, trailing only the record low number ratified in 2020.
In all, Gov. Gavin Newsom considered 836 bills covering a range of topics, a mix of proposals prompted by the current COVID crisis as well as items that have been hotly debated for years. Newsom vetoed only 66 of the bills that made it to his desk.
The Times’ list highlights 43 noteworthy new laws for 2022, including several that were approved years earlier but are only taking effect now. Most of those listed take effect on New Year’s Day. As in years past, the list mostly reflects the interests of the Democrats who hold a supermajority of seats in both the state Senate and Assembly."
I-80 reopens; Nevada governor closes Highway 50 at state line
MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee: "A stretch of Interstate 80 between Colfax and the Nevada state line reopened late Tuesday, but authorities continue to strongly discourage mountain travel unless absolutely necessary as extreme winter weather continues to ravage the Sierra Nevada range.
The long span of I-80 reopened first to essential commercial vehicles around 9 p.m., then to all motorists shortly after 10:30 p.m., Caltrans said.
Chains or snow tires are required. Nevada Gov. Stephen Sisolak late Tuesday evening announced he plans to declare a state of emergency in Northern Nevada due to the storm, shuttering Highway 50 for non-essential interstate travel.
Federal approval for COVID booster shots for kids 12 to 15 expected next week
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "Infectious disease experts hailed reports on Thursday that a third vaccine shot against COVID-19 could be approved for 12- to 15-year-olds next week as pediatric COVID-19 cases rise in the Bay Area and concerns mount that a surge in hospitalizations could follow.
Although still unconfirmed by the Food and Drug Administration, the widely reported news of a forthcoming booster for younger adolescents comes as the omicron variant is landing more children in the hospital in the northeastern U.S. Bay Area experts say a similar scenario remains possible in California.
“We welcome approval of boosters for children, as we see that pediatric vaccinations continue to be safe and effective,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital."
Mayor Breed poured millions into Tenderloin community ambassadors, added police months before crackdown. Has it helped?
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "For years, Bushra Alabsi tried to shield the kids who came to her child care center on Turk Street in the Tenderloin from drug dealers or people injecting on the sidewalk.
She would come down early from the neighboring apartment building, where her family from Yemen has lived since 1998, to ask people sleeping not to block the door. When a mentally ill woman came into the foyer, urinated and locked the door, Alabsi called police, but by the time they arrived, the woman was gone.
For the past half year, though, the block has been relatively clean and safe, Alabsi said. The main difference came after the city funded community ambassadors under Mayor London Breed’s public safety plan announced in May, she said."
Decades before LAPD killed girl, a wild shootout blocks away helped militarize police
LA Times, CONNOR SHEETS/ROBERT J. LOPEZ: "Policing in Los Angeles changed forever on the morning of Feb. 28, 1997, when Americans watched on live TV as a 44-minute firefight unfolded between two heavily armed bank robbers and outgunned LAPD officers at a Bank of America in a bustling North Hollywood shopping district.
In the end, nearly 2,000 bullets were fired, the two robbers were killed, and multiple officers and civilians were injured in the now-infamous showdown, which helped usher in the modern era of militarized police.
Last week, another shocking incident just three blocks away offered a tragic postscript to the high-powered approach that police adopted after the bank shootout."
A Times journalist’s diary inside the fall of Afghanistan
LA Times, STAFF: "Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent and photographer Marcus Yam entered Afghanistan on the verge of the American withdrawal, and stayed for the next two months to document the Taliban’s swift takeover. Here are his reflections."
