L.A. County coronavirus transmission rate at highest point since early months of pandemic
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II: "In a dramatic sign of Omicron’s relentless spread, the coronavirus transmission rate in Los Angeles County is now estimated to be greater than at any point since the early months of the pandemic, as cases explode across California, data show.
Every infected person in L.A. County is on average transmitting the virus to two other people, according to estimates from California’s COVID-19 computer models published Monday morning.
By contrast, the effective transmission rate at its worst point in last winter’s surge did not exceed 1.4, estimates from the L.A. County Department of Health Services show."
Precipitation since Oct. 1 tops previous full ‘water year’ in California
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "More precipitation has fallen on California during its current “water year” than in the full prior 12-month span, the National Weather Service says.
The downpours and mountain storms of recent weeks have helped boost the state’s precipitation volume to 33.9 trillion gallons thus far for the water year that began Oct. 1, compared to the previous water year’s 33.6 trillion gallons, the service said Sunday. Lake Tahoe by comparison contains roughly 40 trillion gallons. The water year refers to 12 months of precipitation that falls starting Oct. 1, through Sept. 30.
That means California’s water year is off to a decent start, meteorologists say, thanks to the atmospheric river that battered the northern part of the state in October and the relatively wet December."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Jay Lund talks water and drought
Capitol Weekly Staff: "California has experienced a historic amount of rain this season, capping the Sierra with snow and stocking many Northern California reservoirs.
Meanwhile, Colorado is plagued with devastating wildfires, burning through an unseasonably warm Winter. Are we seeing the effects of Climate Change in real time? Is California – finally – exiting the drought? And, should we be building more water storage to hold on to all this rain?
Professor Jay Lund, of the Center for Watershed Sciences, our first guest of 2022, answers these questions and many more."
Could Colorado’s type of extreme winter wildfires happen in California? ‘Absolutely,’ Cal Fire official says
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "The recent cold-weather wildfire in Colorado was a shocker, but it “could absolutely '' happen in fire-prone California as well, with the advent of late-season wildfires already offering a warning, a Cal Fire official said Sunday.
Where California’s wildfires used to blaze most intensely in September and October, they’ve crept later into the fall in recent years with some - like the December 2017 Thomas Fire - even sparking in the winter months, said Cal Fire Assistant Deputy Director Daniel Berlant.
While Western states are well accustomed to wildfires, the wind-driven blaze that erupted last week into the most destructive in Colorado history caught the state and country by surprise."
Snowstorms, pandemic ground thousands more flights as holiday travelers try to get home
AP, MATT O'BRIEN: "Wintry weather combined with the pandemic to frustrate air travelers whose return flights home from the holidays were canceled or delayed in the first days of the new year.
More than 2,600 U.S. flights and more than 4,400 worldwide were grounded Sunday, according to tracking service FlightAware.
That followed Saturday’s mass cancellations of more than 2,700 U.S. flights and more than 4,700 worldwide."
Should police arrest sex workers for standing around? Thorny question lands on Newsom’s desk
The Chronicle, ANITA CHABRIA: "Cold blue light from a convenience store sign spilled onto Star and Dream, not their real names, as they stood on a dark sidewalk in the Mission District, working to sell sex to johns.
In a scene repeated daily on dozens of similar “tracks” across the state, men in cars rolled slowly by the women, who are just past their teenage years but looked young enough to be on their way to a high school dance.
The drivers leaned low to peer through their windows, examining Star with half her hair in pigtails that brushed the collar of a leopard print coat and Dream in a thin black sweater pulled close over an electric-blue jumpsuit to ward off the November night."
Union membership declines slightly among telecommuting California state workers
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: "Union membership dropped slightly among California state workers in 2021, according to data from the State Controller’s Office, underscoring the ongoing challenge of recruiting new members during a pandemic.
Across state government, about 66% of employees paid union dues in October, according to the most recent available data from the controller’s office, which deducts dues from union members’ paychecks. That’s down from about 67% in August 2020.
More specifically, the rate of dues-paying members dropped by about seven-tenths of a percentage point.
How do the politics of San Francisco differ by race and ethnicity? Here’s what the ‘progressive voter index’ shows
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "On a national scale, San Francisco voters appear almost uniformly liberal, largely voting for candidates and legislation that lean progressive. 85% of San Franciscans voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, the third highest of any county with over 750,000 people. But when it comes to issues on the local level, key ideological differences do emerge along racial and ethnic lines.
The Chronicle collected data on demographics and the political ideology of voters in San Francisco’s electoral precincts — geographic areas used for elections of about 1,000 to 2,000 people — to better understand the city’s divides. To measure political ideology, we used a metric called the Progressive Voter Index (PVI), which was originally created by San Francisco State University professor emeritus Richard DeLeon in 1999, and attempts to measures the ideology of voters in each precinct based on how residents voted on recent ballot measures.
The Chronicle updated the index by combining election results from 14 local ballot measures from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 elections. These 14 measures cover issues that typically divide San Francisco politically, including fiscal, social, land use and governmental issues. The resulting PVI scores range from 0 to 100, with larger numbers indicating more progressive precincts. (More details on how the index is calculated can be found in our previous story on PVI.)"
UC Irvine fires physician who refused to get vaccinated, claiming ‘natural immunity’
LAURA NEWBERRY, LA Times: "A UC Irvine professor who claimed in a lawsuit to have a natural immunity to COVID-19 has been fired for refusing the vaccine.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the medical school and director of the medical ethics program at UCI Health, wrote in a blog post that the University of California system removed him from his position on Dec. 17.
“Two years ago I never could have imagined that the University would dismiss me and other doctors, nurses, faculty, staff, and students for this arbitrary and capricious reason,” he wrote, later adding, “Once I challenged one of their policies I immediately became a ‘threat to the health and safety of the community.’”
Bay Area schools hold firm with in-person plans as omicron surges and parents grow concerned
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Bay Area students will flood back into schools starting Monday after spending two weeks with family and friends or even traveling to other states and countries just as the omicron wave is hitting California.
The combination of a huge rise in coronavirus cases and exposure during the holiday break has left families and teachers concerned about the return to in-person learning in the coming days.
But pandemic experts, health officials, Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Biden are in lockstep on how to proceed: test, mask and continue teaching in person."
Video: San Ramon cops released dog to badly maul Uber driver who’d missed rental payment
The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI: "As the dog tore the flesh on Ali Badr’s right arm, the Egyptian immigrant and Uber driver yelled over and over, “What I did? What I did?”
For more than a minute, the San Ramon police dog named Dexter gripped the driver’s arm, whipping its head back and forth, as officers worked to handcuff Badr and he wailed in pain.
In that moment, captured on dashboard and body-camera videos obtained by The Chronicle, Badr was unarmed, barefoot and not resisting, but was suffering grievous and permanent injuries."
San Francisco confronts a crime wave unusual among U.S. cities
LA Times, RACHEL SCHEIER: "It’s the sentimental things people are desperate to recover: a child’s notebook, a wooden cross, an Army backpack that survived two tours in Iraq.
These are among the possessions Mark Dietrich has retrieved from curbsides here in recent months, hastily dumped evidence of the smash-and-grab burglaries and petty thefts that have become a feature of everyday life in the city.
Dietrich is among an increasingly loud group of local activists who say such crime has spun out of control in San Francisco."
Biden vows U.S. will act ‘decisively’ if Russia invades Ukraine
AP, AAMER MADHANI: "President Biden on Sunday conferred with the leader of Ukraine over the Russian troop buildup near its border, promising that the U.S. and allies will act “decisively” if there is an invasion.
The call between Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came as the U.S. and Western allies prepared for a series of diplomatic meetings to try to de-escalate a crisis that Moscow said could rupture ties with Washington.
“President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement following the call."
