This weekend’s storm could drop the most rain the Bay Area has seen this year
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "After a dry, sunny Saturday, the Bay Area is set to see “a quick transition into wet weather” on Sunday night to round out the month, in what could be the biggest storm of the year so far, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain is expected to last from Sunday night into Monday afternoon, the agency said Saturday. It should clear up by Monday evening.
“It’s potentially the wettest storm since around New Year’s,” said Ryan Walbrun, a meteorologist with NWS. “That being said, it’s not an atmospheric river.”"
Storm arriving in Bay Area — is it the region’s last chance for rain this season?
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Much-needed widespread rainfall was on the Bay Area’s doorstep Sunday, expected to arrive at nightfall and linger into Monday morning.
At around 8 p.m. in the North Bay and closer to 9 or 10 p.m. in San Francisco, rain was forecast to start falling, bringing up to a half-inch in most lower-elevation parts of the Bay Area.
The precipitation brought hope for some relief from record hot and dry weather as the rainy season heads toward its conclusion."
Approaching storm to yield rain, snow and hail across Southern California
LA Times, RUBEN VIVES/PRISCELLA VEGA: "After a dry start to the year, a powerful storm system was expected to move into Southern California late Sunday, producing heavy rain, snow and gusty winds, according to the National Weather Service.
A Pacific storm system has been moving down from the Gulf of Alaska the last few days and forecasters said it was expected to reach the region by 10 p.m.
“Even with La Niña, we still get storms,” Mike Wofford, a meteorologist with the NWS in Oxnard, said Sunday. “It’s not unusual to have spring storms at all.”"
There’s one big COVID rule still in place. Will we soon see isolation guidance change?
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "California has rolled back most of its COVID-19 measures since the omicron surge died down, and Bay Area counties have followed suit, removing indoor mask mandates and loosening other precautions like vaccination mandates for indoor dining and gyms.
Yet there is still one critical tool for controlling the spread of the virus that remains in place: the five-day isolation for those who test positive for the coronavirus.
Isolation and quarantine periods were dramatically shortened during the omicron surge, as counties faced immense staffing shortages at health-care facilities and some research suggested that omicron caused people to get sick faster. Elsewhere around the world, some countries have begun to change or remove isolation mandates. Spain recently ended mandatory quarantines for those infected with the virus but showing no or mild symptoms of the disease, and the U.K. ended the legal requirement to self-isolate in February, though it still recommends staying away from others after a positive test."
A deep dive into Newsom’s plan to overhaul mental health care policy
SIGRID BATHEN, Capitol Weekly: “Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley started the first Mental Health Court in California – one of the first in the country – in 1998, to divert increasing numbers of mentally ill defendants from the criminal justice system, where jails and prisons are often called “the new asylums.”
Designed to break the tragic pattern for people whose mental illness underlies their crimes — landing them, repeatedly, in jails and prisons ill-equipped to help them – Manley’s courts annually manage the cases of 1,500-2,000 mentally ill defendants (he calls them “clients”). Nearly 70 percent have successfully completed their requirements and many charges were dismissed, saving lives and public funds.
So it was not surprising to see Manley speaking at a San Jose press conference March 3 when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a sweeping proposal to address California’s badly broken system of “care” for the growing numbers of mentally ill Californians wandering the streets, clogging hospital ER’s, jails and prisons. Newsom dubbed the plan “CARE Court,” for Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment.”
Southern California grocery workers authorize a strike amid contract negotiations
MARGOT ROOSEVELT, LA Times: “Battered by two years of pandemic stress, tens of thousands of Southern California grocery workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if supermarkets don’t meet their wage demands as negotiations on a new contract resume in the coming weeks.
The vote, taken over five days, could lead to walkouts beginning at some Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions and Ralphs markets stretching from Central California to the Mexican border.
The United Food and Commercial Workers announced that 95% of those voting at seven local unions approved a potential strike.”
Newsom appoints California’s first openly transgender judge to serve in Sacramento court
CATHIE ANDERSON, SacBee: “Sacramento resident Andi Mudryk has become the first openly transgender person appointed to the judicial bench in California, and she will serve in Sacramento County Superior Court.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced her appointment — and that of Carmichael resident Alexander J. Pal — to the Superior Court on Friday. Mudryk succeeds retiring Judge Benjamin G. Davidian, and Pal fills a vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Trena H. Burger-Plavan. Like Newsom, both appointees are Democrats.
The position pays $225,074.
A visa crisis is hitting the children of Silicon Valley tech workers
The Chronicle, DEEPA FERNANDES/TAL KOPAN: "When Deepasha Debnath’s mom opened their Cupertino mailbox on a sunny February afternoon, she found the green cards her family had awaited for 12 years. But Deepasha did not receive one.
The 24-year-old grad student is part of a growing visa crisis hitting the children of Indian immigrants, many of them Silicon Valley’s tech workers, a generation forgotten in immigration reform efforts.
Brought to the U.S. on their parents’ work visas, many have spent their entire childhood here as their families waited to gain legal permanent residence, a process that can take years and even decades for Indians because of visa backlogs. Yet as they turn 21, they lose their family status and face expulsion from the country."
How one of the Bay Area’s most famous outdoor spaces nearly became a huge housing development
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "The planned community of Marincello, envisioned as a sprawling hillside community for 20,000 people in single-family homes, townhouses and apartment towers, started with a fishhook of paved curbing on Tennessee Valley Road.
That’s where it ended, too.
Marincello was halted soon after it began by a conservation drive and legal crusade that eventually carved out more than 3 square miles of open space stretching from the edge of Mill Valley to the beach. The land was eventually absorbed into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where thousands come to hike, bike and be in the wild each year."‘
Stronger together’: More Black families are calling this Sacramento neighborhood home
ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS, SacBee: “Tré Everett remembers driving around North Natomas in 2001 with his wife, enamored by the rows of new homes and the potential they saw.
They lived in Vallejo at the time and ended up moving to Georgia for work. But, he said, “our thoughts never left Natomas.”
Hundreds of Black residents who have started calling North Natomas home in the last decade.
The Oscars are back — but who will watch? The stakes have never been higher
LA Times, JOSH ROTTENBERG/ANOUSHA SAKOUI: "On Sunday evening, millions will tune in to the 94th Academy Awards — some, the film academy hopes, watching the show for the first time or returning to the fold as domestic viewership for Hollywood’s biggest night dwindled to a record-low 10.5 million last year.
Tom Fleischman, who won a sound mixing Oscar in 2012 for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” and was nominated four other times, will be among them, tuning in from his home in Nyack, N.Y. But, outraged over the academy’s recent decision to shift eight below-the-line and short-film awards out of the live ceremony, he says he’ll be watching for the last time.
“The only reason I’m going to watch it is to see if anyone else is going to speak truth to power,” said Fleischman, who resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in December, frustrated over the direction the organization has taken after more than 30 years as a member. “Winning an Oscar is the pinnacle of one’s career, and they’ve demeaned it. It’s unconscionable.”"
