Auditor blasts California regulators who oversee wildfire safety at PG&E, other utilities
DALE KASLER, SacBee: “The state auditor blasted the regulators who oversee wildfire safety at California’s major electric utilities Thursday, saying they signed off on safety plans that had significant flaws.
Michael Tilden, the acting state auditor, said the California Public Utilities Commission and the recently formed Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety haven’t gone far enough in demanding safety reforms from PG&E Corp. and the other two big utilities, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.
In particular, Tilden criticized the Energy Infrastructure Safety agency for approving the three utilities’ wildfire mitigation plans even though their plans contained “Class A deficiencies — the most serious type of deficiency.” Among other things, the plans failed to show that the utilities’ safety projects were “targeting the highest-risk portions of the electrical grid,” the audit said.”
BART backtracks on removing only Black board member after address dispute
ELIYAHU KAMISHER, Mercury News: “BART on Wednesday said that board member Lateefah Simon will remain in her seat representing parts of the East Bay and San Francisco following backlash over the transit agency’s attempt to remove its only Black board member over an address dispute. But Simon’s future on the board remains uncertain as the agency turns to outside legal counsel and faces a possible lawsuit.
Earlier this month BART’s staff sought to vacate Simon’s seat because she moved into an apartment complex in Oakland about a block outside of her District 7 boundary. Simon moved from her home in Richmond in May 2021 due to safety concerns. She said BART staff at the time assured her that the address – adjacent to the MacArthur BART station – was within her district. BART General Manager Bob Powers later said the mixup appeared to be due to “bad advice.”
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Powers and Rebecca Saltzman, the board president, said BART’s staff did not have the legal authority to force Simon out of her seat. Instead, that authority resides with the BART board or through a court order, according to a review of the matter from Olson Remcho, a firm specializing in elections law, which BART is now relying on for outside counsel.”
California set off a biofuel boom — but can it manage the fallout?
LA Times, EVAN HALPER/BRIAN VAN DER BRUG/GARY CORONADO/JACKELINE LUNA/MAGGIE BEIDELMAN/YADIRA FLORES: "As dawn breaks over 40,000 cows housed in a miles-long cluster of dairy farms near Bakersfield, rivers of their manure rush toward football-field-sized lagoons that are a hotbed of greenhouse gas, bubbling with the methane created by all those cattle droppings.
To the state of California, this collection of animal excrement is a climate success.
The state has enabled farmers and their business partners in California and far beyond to make millions diverting such methane into a web of futuristic machinery that processes and pumps it into natural gas pipelines."
Exclusive: Sex on duty, felony behavior alleged in Northern California police lawsuit
SAM STANTON, SacBee: “Oroville police Officer Robert Raiter started with the department in August 2015, eventually earning outstanding evaluations from his superiors and a prediction that he was “the future of the department,” his lawyer says.
Then, the trouble began.
In June 2020, Raiter was being questioned as a witness in a sexual harassment internal affairs investigation involving another officer, and he began volunteering information about what he had seen inside the department, according to explosive claims outlined in a civil rights lawsuit filed on Raiter’s behalf against the city of Oroville in Sacramento federal court.”
L.A. County panel launches investigation into Sheriff’s Department ‘deputy gangs’
LA Times, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "The civilian commission that oversees the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is launching an independent investigation into “deputy gangs” that have operated for decades.
The move represents a major step in efforts to scrutinize deputy cliques that have existed inside the department for decades and been linked to allegations of violence and corruption.
The investigation will be conducted by a team of heavyweight attorneys working pro bono, including at least six former federal prosecutors and two former federal public defenders, Sean Kennedy, chair of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, told The Times."
A Sacramento woman was evicted from a city homeless shelter. She died in a tent 10 days later
THERESA CLIFT, SacBee: “Tammy Couisan lost everything over the past four months.
Her wife, Christine, died four days before Christmas.
Then her poodle Toto died.
She lost her shelter on Feb. 22, too, when a city of Sacramento-run motel evicted her.
Ten days later, she died in a tent.”
More Black and Latino Californians face out-of-reach home prices
ALEJANDRO LAZO, CalMatters: “Homeownership has long been considered a path to the middle class. But just 17% of Black and Latino households could afford a median-priced home in California last year, down from the prior two years, according to a new report.
All Californians faced a high-barrier market in 2021. Only 26% of California households earned the minimum annual income of $144,400 needed to afford the monthly payments of a home priced at $786,750, the report by the California Association of Realtors said. That was down from 28% in 2020 and 30% in 2019.
The median home price is the point at which half the homes in the state are sold for more and half for less. In an ideal market, half of Californians would be able to afford a median-priced home, said Oscar Wei, deputy chief economist at the Realtors group.”
Sacramento schools remain closed as teachers strike continues with no movement on bargaining
SAWSAN MORRAR, SacBee: “Sacramento City Unified School District campuses remained closed for a second day as a teacher and classified employee strike carried on without a deal to end the impasse.
Representatives for the district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association each said they were open to bargaining, but they did not resume negotiating by Thursday afternoon. For the second day in a row, teachers stood at picket lines outside of schools all over the city. Hundreds then traveled to the Sacramento County Office of Education in Rancho Cordova for a demonstration where they reiterated their concerns about staffing levels.
They also called on SCOE to bring the district and the labor partners to the bargaining table.”
Will we soon be able to schedule our lives around ‘COVID season’? Here’s what experts say
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Throughout the pandemic, we’ve experienced time and time again the roller-coaster pattern of a spike in COVID cases followed by a descent, then a lull before another seemingly inevitable wave.
After two years and multiple surges, many people in California may be feeling that we can know what to expect from here — and that, perhaps, it’s becoming easier to predict when we might see surges and valleys in new coronavirus cases.
But experts stress that’s anything but the case, and that the idea of being able to forecast a “COVID season,” or to know when surges can be expected, is still beyond our capacity
How Karen Bass and Rick Caruso offer divergent paths forward for Los Angeles
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNSER/JULIA WICK/DAKOTA SMITH: "Rep. Karen Bass and businessman Rick Caruso showed up to Tuesday night’s mayoral debate with two sharply different messages — about leadership and, to an extent, the current state of the city.
Caruso cast Los Angeles as a dystopian Gotham City, one so beset by crime that every last resident is scared to walk outdoors. He cast his opponents as “career politicians” — saying the word a bit like one might handle week-old fish — and told the audience those rivals were offering “a lot of empty promises.”
Bass pushed back on that assertion, giving the real estate developer and former police commissioner a polite lecture on city government. She advised Caruso, whom she described as a friend, to stop denigrating people who have “devoted their life to public service.”"
Criminal inquiry into former Windsor mayor closed, charges decision pending
The Chronicle, ALEXANDRIA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office has concluded its investigation into sexual assault allegations made against former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli and passed the final report to the California Attorney General’s Office, a spokesman told The Chronicle.
“Generally any case that is sent over to review contains recommendations on charges,” Sgt. Juan Valencia said. The case “has been finalized,” he added, although Valencia declined to provide details about what the final report contained.
The Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Chronicle. The office can determine whether to pursue charges against Foppoli based on the contents of the Sheriff’s Office report."
Only one U.S. county saw a larger share of people leave last year than San Francisco
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/SUSIE NEILSON: "Throughout the pandemic, we’ve heard the narrative of a mass exodus from big cities as many offices went remote, and people sought out more space and affordable housing.
But new data from the U.S. census gives us a closer estimate of how many people left than ever before, and San Francisco and San Mateo County are near the top of the list with the biggest decreases in population in counties with 100,000 or more residents.
From July 2020 to July 2021, San Francisco’s population decreased by an estimated 6.3%, losing nearly 55,000 people in that time frame. San Mateo County was fourth, with its population decreasing 3.2% and a loss of nearly 25,000 people."
Cupertino megaproject will include world’s largest green roof. Here’s what it will look like
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "After seven years of lawsuits, failed ballot measures and a global pandemic, the contentious effort to replace a dead mall a mile from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino is preparing to begin construction.
What was once a 1970s mall called Vallco will now be branded as the Rise, a $4 billion behemoth of a project that will include 2,400 housing units, nearly 2 million square feet of office space, and 429,000 square feet of new shops and restaurants. At 7 million square feet, the entire project will be more than twice as large as Apple Park.
The project will feature a 29-acre green roof that will be the world’s largest and accessible to the public, giving the project its new name, which was announced Friday. Leasing efforts will now begin to fill the commercial space, said Reed Moulds, managing director of project developer Sand Hill Property Co."
Column: L.A. County’s sheriff leans on his Latino identity. Does he exemplify our worst traits?
LA Times, GUSTAVO ARELLANO: "When I walked into the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles last week for an interview with L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the deputy manning the metal detector was a Latina. The receptionist who called Villanueva’s office to let him know I had arrived 10 minutes early was a Latina. Her desk mate was a Latino.
In the lobby were life-sized banners plugging careers at the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department that featured a smiling Villanueva. “Hometown heroes needed,” it read. “Are you in?”
The security guy who walked me down a hallway to the Hall of Justice’s media room, where I would wait for Villanueva, was a burly Chicano in suit and tie. The deputy who greeted me was Sheriff’s Information Bureau Capt. Lorena Rodriguez. She initially talked to me in Spanish until realizing we were both pochos — Americanized Mexicans."
China streamers scrub Keanu Reeves titles over his support for Tibet
LA Times, REBECCA DAVIS: "Actor Keanu Reeves may now be kaput in China, despite his past close collaboration with its film authorities and decades of mega-stardom spanning the length of the country’s engagement with Hollywood.
In the wake of his show of support for Tibet earlier this month, the “John Wick” and “Matrix” star has fallen afoul of the country’s strict censorship regime, placing his future career in the world’s largest film market in jeopardy.
In January, reports broke that Reeves would participate in a March 3 benefit concert for Tibet House, a New York-based nonprofit affiliated with the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama."
Internet entrepreneurs far from the U.S. are inflaming political division on Facebook to sell T-shirts and coffee mugs
The Chronicle, NAZMUL AHASAN: "On a wintry morning in the town of Moulvibazar in northeast Bangladesh, 21-year-old Saeed Ahmed was reading news on Facebook when he came across an unusual story: Truckers were staging a mass protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.
Much of the world was bewildered by the “Freedom Convoy” and its disruptive blockades, but Ahmed was excited. He sensed an opportunity — one made possible by two tech companies with roots in the Bay Area.
Ahmed created a fake Facebook profile, pretending to be an American named Krystle Marie, and used the profile to build a pro-convoy group called “Convoy Freedom 2022.” Writing as Krystle, Ahmed sent a flood of posts supporting the truckers and bashing liberals like President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau."
Ukraine says Moscow is forcibly taking civilians to Russia
AP, NEBI QENA/CARA ANNA: "Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, have been taken against their will.
The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow."
