Satellite images show stunning change for Lake Tahoe before and after December snowstorms
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "December’s storms across Northern California dumped snow over the Sierra — and the difference is highly visible around Lake Tahoe.
Satellite imagery shows the Lake Tahoe area before the storms, on Nov. 28, with just a dusting of snow on the green landscape. Just over a month later, on Jan. 4, the area was completely covered in white.
The snowfall smashed records — the Sierra saw its snowiest December since 1970, with the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab recording 214 inches of snow over the month. As of Tuesday, the Central Sierra had 145% of its normal snowpack for Jan. 4 historically, according to the California Department of Water Resources."
California is suddenly snow-capped and very wet. But how long will the water rush last?
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH/PAUL DUGINSKI: "The dusty hills of Griffith Park are sprouting shades of green. In Pasadena, water is streaming through arroyos that only weeks ago sat caked and dry. And from the perfect vantage point downtown, the distant San Gabriel Mountains are gleaming with crowns of snow.
After one of the driest years in recent memory, Los Angeles — and California — is off to a notably wet start. The state received more precipitation in the final three months of 2021 than in the previous 12 months, the National Weather Service said.
Statewide, 33.9 trillion gallons of water have fallen since the start of the water year, which runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30 to accommodate for the wet winter months and the springtime runoff. That three-month tally has already surpassed the previous water year’s 12-month total of 33.6 trillion gallons. By comparison, Lake Tahoe holds about 40 trillion gallons."
California’s $1 billion accounting program delayed again, could affect state’s credit
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: “A $1 billion effort to unify California’s state government accounting systems will miss another deadline this summer, likely taking the project into its 18th year, according to a California State Auditor’s report published Tuesday.
The unified accounting program, called Fi$Cal, was supposed to deliver a critical new function to the State Controller’s Office by June 2022, according to Tuesday’s report. But that won’t happen on time, and the Department of Fi$Cal hasn’t provided a new timeline, according to the report.
The update would have helped the Controller’s Office compare FI$Cal data to data in its legacy system to help ensure accuracy as the office prepares the state’s annual comprehensive financial statements, according to the report. The delay likely will continue to hamper the State Controller’s ability to complete annual financial reports on time, which could eventually harm California’s credit rating and increase borrowing costs, the audit says.
Newsom administration bans wasteful water uses in first restrictions of drought
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Californians must curb their outdoor water use under statewide regulations adopted Tuesday as a stubborn drought continues to threaten water supplies despite recent storms.
The State Water Resources Control Board voted to enact yearlong prohibitions on water uses considered wasteful, such as cleaning sidewalks or public medians with drinkable water, washing cars without an automatic shut-off nozzle and irrigating ornamental landscapes within 48 hours of measurable rain. Violations could result in $500-a-day fines.
Some local water agencies already have similar regulations in place, but many do not."
PG&E outages: 18,000 in dark as crews make ‘safe and steady progress’ after Sierra storm
ROSALIO AHUMADA, SacBee: “More than 18,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers remained without power Tuesday in five Northern California counties as crews continued to work on equipment damaged by last week’s severe snowstorm.
Vast accumulations of snow, downed trees and other hazards continue to prevent access to repair equipment, according to a Tuesday morning update on the power outages. Officials on Friday said about 36,000 PG&E customers in the Northern California mountains and foothills were without power.
Since then, PG&E crews have made “safe and steady progress” restoring power to customers in the utility’s Sierra Nevada region, PG&E spokeswoman Megan McFarland said in Tuesday’s update. It is unclear when power will be restored for all PG&E customers in the region.
California’s new election maps favor Democrats, but these 3 House races could go either way
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: “Three California congressional races could swing easily for either a Republican or Democrat next year, according to initial analyses by experts.
Each of the races has a Republican incumbent. California’s new congressional maps favored Democrats in redistricting and put five Republicans in more vulnerable positions, experts said. The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections are a few nonpartisan organizations which designate elections as a “toss-up” or rate districts on a diminishing scale from “solid” to “likely” to “lean” in favor of a particular party in impending elections.
The reports’ editors released updated ratings following the end of California’s redistricting process, the once-a-decade reformation of legislative boundaries.
Bay Area, California mark record-high spike in coronavirus cases
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "California reported an enormous spike in coronavirus cases over the holiday weekend, far surpassing the peak of last winter’s surge, with an average of nearly 59,000 cases a day recorded from New Year’s Eve through Monday.
The previous pandemic high point in cases was January 2021, with an average of about 45,000 cases a day.
The Bay Area similarly has reached record-level coronavirus numbers, according to data released Tuesday, fueled by the highly infectious omicron variant that is sweeping California and the nation. The region averaged nearly 9,700 cases a day over the four-day holiday weekend, more than double the previous peak of about 4,700 cases a day, also from last January."
Thousands of U.S. troops defy COVID-19 vaccine order
LA Times, MELISSA HERNANDEZ: "Nickaylah Sampson seemed well on her way to achieving her dream of becoming an officer in the U.S. Army.
A stellar student whose family has a long tradition of military service, the San Antonio native earned a coveted spot at West Point.
She completed her freshman year in the spring of 2021, just as the military launched its vaccination campaign against COVID-19. Though she had no problem with the nine other vaccines the U.S. military requires upon enlistment, she said she worried that the COVID-19 shots were too new for their risks to be fully understood."
L.A. healthcare system hit with widening staffing shortages as workers get coronavirus
The Chronicle, EMILY ALPERT REYES: "Hospital workers and other healthcare employees have been getting infected with the coronavirus in rising numbers as cases skyrocket in Los Angeles County, compounding staff shortages at medical centers amid the latest wave of the pandemic.
“We have a very sophisticated healthcare system, but it is made up of people,” said Dr. Kimberly Shriner, medical director of infection prevention and control at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. “And right now, people are getting COVID.”
Roughly 100 front-line workers at the Pasadena hospital are now out because of COVID-19, Shriner said. As cases soar, Huntington has been seeing wait times exceeding five hours at its emergency room. On Tuesday, it started putting elective surgeries on hold."
‘Unprecedented’: More than 600 S.F. teachers or aides absent, forcing district top brass to helm classrooms
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "More than 600 classrooms in San Francisco were without their teachers or aides Tuesday and with only 157 substitutes available, every district employee with a teaching credential was ordered to take a class, including the superintendent and other high-ranking officials.
Even with every qualified individual deployed to schools, there still weren’t enough adults to cover the absences, district officials said. In most of those cases, other teachers at school sites substituted during their preparation times to fill the gaps.
The number of absences, which included 406 out of about 3,600 teachers — was about the same as Monday, the first day district schools were open after the two-week winter break. The return to classrooms for the district’s 49,000 students coincides with yet another pandemic surge, with the highly contagious omicron variant sending case counts skyrocketing in San Francisco and across the country."
PG&E power lines started enormous Dixie Fire, investigators say
The Chronicle, LAUREN HERNANDEZ: "The Dixie Fire, the second largest wildfire in recorded California history, was sparked by PG&E power lines that came into contact with a tree, Cal Fire officials said Tuesday.
The Dixie Fire started on July 13 west of the Cresta Dam in Butte County. It scorched 963,309 acres and destroyed 1,329 structures in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta and Tehama counties.
Cal Fire said it has sent its investigative report to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office. District attorney’s officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday evening."
Dixie Fire caused by PG&E, Cal Fire says. Fire was second largest in California history
ROSALIO AHUMADA and DALE KASLER: “Cal Fire investigators determined that a tree contacting Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power lines caused last summer’s Dixie Fire, which burned nearly 1 million acres and destroyed more than 1,300 homes and buildings in five Northern California counties.
The fire, which started July 13, burned 963,309 acres in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama counties. The wildfire — the largest of 2021 and the second largest in California’s history — destroyed 1,329 structures during a three-month rampage.
It devoured much of the tiny Plumas County town of Greenville. Investigators determined the tree contacted electrical distribution lines owned and operated by PG&E west of Cresta Dam along the Feather River in Plumas County, the agency said."
Law enforcement told a local journalist they never searched his equipment. An internal memo suggests otherwise
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "A photojournalist whose camera, cell phone and memory cards were seized by police in Sausalito has been assured by police and Marin County’s chief prosecutor that the items were not searched and will be returned to him unexamined. But a memo from a district attorney’s investigator suggests otherwise.
The memo, disclosed by an attorney for photojournalist Jeremy Portje, said the investigator, Brett Liddicoet, downloaded the contents of Portje’s cell phone, photographed and visually inspected his camera and memory cards, and, “as requested,” delivered the items to a Computer Crimes Task Force. The memo was dated Dec. 21 and addressed to Liddicoet’s boss, District Attorney Lori Frugoli.
It shows that “the story is not over yet,” said Portje’s lawyer, Charles Dresow."
Boy Scouts of America falls short in bid to emerge from sex-abuse bankruptcy
LA Times, KIM CHRISTENSEN: "The Boy Scouts of America’s bid to emerge from bankruptcy appeared to fall just short Tuesday when a $2.7-billion settlement offer failed to garner enough votes from thousands of men who say they were sexually abused in Scouting.
Although 73% of the nearly 54,000 claimants who cast ballots voted to accept the settlement, the proposal needed at least 75% to ensure confirmation by the bankruptcy judge presiding over the case, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“Survivors understood that the Plan does not adequately compensate them,” said John Humphrey, co-chairman of the official tort claimants committee appointed by the bankruptcy trustee to represent all victims."
Timeline: Pelosi and McCarthy, briefly in accord on the Jan. 6 riot, have diverged in statements since
LA Times, ARIT JOHN: "In the hours after the attack on the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy seemed united as they spoke on the House floor.
The Democratic and Republican lawmakers vowed to defy the insurrectionist mob’s attempt to block certification of the presidential election results. The Californians hinted that the trauma of the day could help bridge the partisan divide in Congress. They even agreed that President Trump — through actions or inaction — bore significant responsibility for the Capitol riot.
But over the last year, a chasm has grown between the two leaders over how to move forward from the attack and how to hold those responsible accountable. It is a divide that reflects a larger split in America, as more people inside and outside of Washington seek to write and rewrite the history of last Jan. 6."
