California surpasses 7 million coronavirus cases, adding 1 million in one week
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "California has recorded more than 7 million coronavirus cases, after its fastest accumulation of reported infections in the history of the pandemic.
The unprecedented count, recorded in California’s databases late Monday, comes one week after the state tallied its 6 millionth coronavirus case.
Even during last winter’s disastrous wave, new infections increased more slowly. It took a little over three weeks for California to get from its 2 millionth cumulative coronavirus case to its 3 millionth."
Like ‘Tetris’: COVID surge turns staff scheduling at California hospital into a frustrating numbers game
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA: "The 28 patients had camped out for hours and even days in the emergency room of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. With more than 100 COVID-19-positive patients in the hospital, there weren’t enough in-patient beds to put them in.
In the fourth-floor intensive care unit, tired nurses tended to three COVID patients at a time instead of their normal two. Five nurses were out sick and those tasked with scheduling staff likened it to a game of “Tetris,” fitting in people wherever they could.
State Senate leader Bob Hertzberg to run for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
LA Times, SEEMA MEHTA: "Veteran Democratic legislator Bob Hertzberg plans to run for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, upending the race to represent the San Fernando Valley on the powerful panel.
Hertzberg, who serves as the majority leader in the state Senate and was previously the speaker of the state Assembly, told The Times he was motivated to run by new district lines that place much of the Valley inside a single district.
“The San Fernando Valley in my judgment is too big to not have a voice on the Board of Supervisors,” Hertzberg said, noting that if it were a city, it would be the seventh largest in the nation. “I’m the only elected leader who would be in this race as of now who has an 818 area code. We in the Valley know what that means.”"
Sacramento County breaks record for hospitalized COVID cases amid omicron surge
MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee: “Sacramento County broke an all-time record for coronavirus hospitalizations over the weekend, reporting nearly 550 COVID-positive patients in hospital beds.
The county had 533 confirmed COVID-19 cases in hospitals Saturday and 547 on Sunday, according to data updated Monday by the California Department of Public Health. Each exceeded the previous record of 518 patients, reached at the peak of the winter 2020 surge.
Hospitalizations with COVID-19 in Sacramento County have more than doubled in the past two weeks, up from 267 on Jan. 2, as the highly contagious omicron variant continues to boost transmission rates."
Kevin de León, working to clear encampments, wages an escalating fight with activists
DAVID ZAHNISER, LA Times: "For the last year, Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León has focused much of his energy on reducing the number of encampments in his Eastside district, working with city agencies to move people off the streets and into temporary housing or other forms of shelter.
Last spring, he said, his office succeeded in moving 74 homeless people off a median strip in El Sereno and into two converted motels. Six months later, dozens more were relocated from a two-block section of Main Street in downtown. And since Thanksgiving, his team — working alongside outreach workers — moved about 90 people out of encampments that have long surrounded El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument and into temporary housing.
Those efforts have put De León, a veteran politician known for his left-of-center challenge to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2018, in direct conflict with some of the city’s most outspoken homeless advocates, who say he is pursuing a policy of “banishment” for L.A.'s unhoused."
S.F. native plans move to Mexico after an eviction. Can a new bill keep other renters in the city?
The Chronicle, LAUREN HEPLER: "Humberto Navarro’s mind races when he thinks about life after the April deadline he’s been given to leave his home in the Mission.
Since the eviction papers first arrived in a manila envelope, the 57-year-old San Francisco native has been calling lawyers, tenants unions and friends who might have a spare couch. Even converted closets seem out of reach on his monthly disability check and limited relocation funds. He worries he’ll end up in one of the tents that line the sidewalk just outside his door.
Navarro is willing to go to short-term extremes to stay close to family members including his 92-year-old father, who he said lives in a tiny place nearby and has prostate cancer. But ultimately, he plans to leave his city — and country — to move in with family in Guadalajara."
California energy officials plan to slash incentives for rooftop solar
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "The promise of lower electricity bills wasn’t the only reason Paul and Kathi O’Leary shelled out roughly $30,000 to put solar panels on their San Francisco home. But it sweetened the deal.
First and foremost, they wanted to lower their carbon footprint. Then they learned they could partly recoup the steep upfront costs of installing the panels by getting credit for sending their excess electricity back to the grid. Since installing solar at their Alamo Square home four years ago, they estimate they’ve saved just under $3,000 a year, much of it from the credits.
But this month the California Public Utilities Commission is poised to dramatically scale back the state-established credits for surplus solar power. The proposal is spurring a fierce debate among utilities, the solar industry, environmentalists and homeowners over whether cutting a program credited with driving California’s leading embrace of residential rooftop solar would stall the state’s headlong push toward clean energy."
Spotlight on the Assembly race: David Campos thinks his progressive message meets the moment
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "David Campos has been here before — locked in a fiercely competitive race to represent San Francisco in the state Assembly while battling a chief rival whose supporters have deeper pockets.
The last time, nearly eight years ago, Campos lost. After a negative and expensive fight, David Chiu defeated him by two percentage points.
But Campos, a former supervisor, has vowed the do-over will be different."
Water buffalo escapes California home, gets involved in low-speed chase with CHP officers
ROBERT KUWADA, SacBee: “The California Highway Patrol was involved in a different type of chase on Monday afternoon, a very low-speed pursuit of a wayward water buffalo that managed to squeeze through a fence and was wandering rather aimlessly around North Zediker and Ashlan avenues in Fresno.
“I was on my way back from the store, and he was standing there in the road, and I didn’t want anybody to get hit,” said Dan Villanueva, who lives up the road from the 20-acre lot that is home to the water buffalo.
After calling in and reporting the water buffalo, Villanueva and a CHP officer managed to steer the fully-grown bovid into a fenced-in area running along an adjacent canal and alerted its owner."
