California attorney general: Woodside can’t use mountain lions to avoid housing law
SAM WHITING, Chronicle: "California Attorney General Rob Bonta sternly rebuked the Peninsula town of Woodside on Sunday for using its mountain lion population as an excuse to avoid SB9, the state law that lowers construction barriers in a bid to ease the housing crunch. He said his office would not “stand idly by” and let the policy go forward.
Within hours of Bonta’s statement, Woodside announced that it has changed its stance and will immediately begin accepting housing applications as allowed under SB9. The town had earlier said it was pausing such applications because Woodside serves as a regional habitat for mountain lions, which are being considered for classification as a threatened species.
Bonta did not mince words in a Sunday statement on how he saw the town’s posture: “Woodside declared its entire suburban town a mountain lion sanctuary in a deliberate and transparent attempt to avoid complying with SB9,” he said, calling that illegal. SB9 allows for more lot-splitting and subdivision of some lots, and for and construction of accessory dwelling units to encourage housing construction."
READ MORE on mountain lions: California attorney general accuses wealthy town of using mountain lions to skirt affordable housing law -- MICHAEL FINNEGAN, LA Times
Mayor Garcetti’s former top spokeswoman wants him charged with perjury
LAT, JAMES RAINEY: "Mayor Eric Garcetti’s onetime chief spokeswoman has filed a complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors, demanding that he be prosecuted for perjury for repeatedly denying that he knew about another former aide’s alleged sexual misconduct.
A nonprofit law firm sent a 31-page letter on behalf of Naomi Seligman to the U.S. Department of Justice, the California attorney general’s office and Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón last week, accusing Garcetti of lying and conspiring with top staffers to cover up multiple accusations of sexual harassment against Rick Jacobs, the mayor’s former deputy chief of staff.
Seligman said she hopes felony charges will be filed against the mayor for allegedly lying under oath, in a legal deposition and in testimony to a U.S. Senate committee. She said she hopes that the letter also will have a political impact — causing the U.S. Senate to block Garcetti’s confirmation as U.S. ambassador to India."
California grapples with port congestion, supply chain kinks
SETH SANDRONSKY, Capitol Weekly: "The pandemic economy has catalyzed changes for California businesses and consumers. Take the impacts of the state’s system of ports that connect with the movement of goods to 40 million residents.
Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell and state Sen. Lena A. Gonzalez, both Long Beach Democrats, are co-chairs of the Assembly and Senate Select Committees on Ports and Goods Movement. In November, the two legislators convened a joint informational hearing of leaders in and out of private industry to focus on short-term and long-term solutions to the crisis of port congestion and supply chain disruptions.
O’Donnell reflected on the past three months. “The congestion at the San Pedro Bay Ports (Los Angeles and Long Beach) is part of a worldwide supply chain crisis to address on numerous levels,” he said."
Former EDD employee gets 63 months in prison for $4.3 million fraud scheme
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "A former Employment Development Department employee was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison Friday for her involvement in a $4.3 million fraudulent unemployment benefit scheme.
U.S. District Court Judge John Holcomb sentenced Gabriela Llerenas, also known as Maria G. Sandoval, 44, of Perris, and ordered her to repay the money.
EDD has been riddled with fraudulent claims, and estimates are that as much as $20 billion could be lost in federal funds used to pay unemployment benefits."
Sheriff, district attorney appear to be preparing legal action over Sacramento homeless camp
THERESA CLIFT, SacBee: "Two Sacramento County law enforcement agencies are soliciting information about a highly visible homeless encampment on Fair Oaks Boulevard within Sacramento city limits in a manner that suggests they are preparing some kind of legal action.
The efforts by the District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office — which include asking residents to fill out forms, submit photos and describe any illegal activity they’ve observed — could signal that tension between the city and county over the homeless crisis has reached a boiling point.
The camp sits on a grassy city-owned lot near the corner of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Howe Avenue, a busy commercial strip characterized by apartment buildings and the University Village shopping center."
How a double homicide in Fiji could leave a single mom homeless in California
ARIANE LANGE, SacBee: "In a blue-roofed house on a dusty road, Sesha Reddy and Mirdu Lata Chandra were beaten to death.
The couple had moved from Hercules, Calif., back to Fiji in retirement. In 2012, the Fiji Sun described Reddy as “an American investor” who returned to develop more than 100 acres into homes for former expatriates; in 2021, neighbors in the village by the Sigatoka River were shocked by the homicides.
Reddy and Chandra left no will, and their estates are being processed in a California court. Among their possessions is a single-story home with a small backyard in Rancho Cordova. Rachel Walker’s home."
Falling behind on your mortgage payments? How California homeowners can apply for relief
CASANDRA GARIBAY, SacBee: "California homeowners who have fallen behind on mortgage payments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic can now apply for up to $80,000 in mortgage relief.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the $1 billion program, which is similar to the ongoing rent relief program, in late December. Homeowners throughout California who meet the criteria and were financially affected by the pandemic are eligible for the mortgage relief. Recipients of this relief will not have to repay the debt.
Funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act’s Homeowner Assistance Fund, the program is open to people who own and occupy their single-family home or manufactured home, such as a mobile home. The funds will go directly to homeowners’ mortgage service providers."
‘I don’t have a life’: Parents struggle to get home nurses for medically fragile kids
LAT, BY EMILY ALPERT REYES: "To make sure her 3-year-old daughter survived the night on her ventilator, Amber Suarez stayed awake for four hours, then woke up her husband to watch Mia for another four hours as the girl dozed.
It had already been months since the family lost a nurse who assisted them during the day, which meant Suarez had been caring for her disabled daughter since the morning, juggling the needs of Mia and her twin sister, Savannah. She feeds her through a gastrostomy tube, administers breathing treatments, and suctions out fluid from the tube that helps her breathe.
Mia is also supposed to have a nurse at her side by night, but Suarez said the night nurse hadn’t shown up that Friday. The next night, another nurse missed her scheduled shift, forcing her and her husband to stay up again, Suarez said."
‘You just show up’: Case managers work to keep drug users healthier, safer and free
LAT, BY EMILY ALPERT REYES: "It was a brisk and gray Friday when Jason Sodenkamp parked his weathered Nissan Altima under a freeway overpass in East Hollywood and headed to meet the man he called Lucifer.
Lucifer had been his client for a few years after police officers referred the blue-eyed man with the devilish nickname to a program meant to keep him from heading back to prison.
Its name was the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, but Sodenkamp puts it more plainly with new clients: He’s going to help them get stuff done that they want to get done.
For Lucifer, that was getting an ID, something he hadn’t had for nearly two decades. Next he hopes it might be housing. In the meantime, Sodenkamp brings Lucifer clean syringes and boxes of naloxone — medication to reverse an opioid overdose — and asks what else he needs."
Experts chart Bay Area life after COVID — and when it might arrive
ERIN ALLDAY, Chronicle: "Coronavirus cases have plummeted across the Bay Area since the peak of the omicron surge a month ago, and health officials increasingly are talking about the next phase of the 2-year-old pandemic: specifically, what living with endemic COVID might look like.
But first it would help, these officials say, to define what endemic means. Or rather, what it doesn’t mean.
“‘End’ is in the word ‘endemic,’ and people are so sick of all this that they’re interpreting endemic as the end. And it does not mean that,” said Dr. Scott Morrow, the San Mateo County health officer. COVID would instead join the ranks of dozens of other endemic diseases, including seasonal threats like the flu and illnesses of varying degrees of severity from the common cold to malaria."
