California K-12 enrollment plunges again, falls below 6 million
JOHN FENSTERWALD and DANIEL J WILLIS, EdSource: "Dashing hopes for a rebound, K-12 enrollment has fallen sharply again this year, by an additional 110,300 students, pushing total public school enrollment in California below 6 million for the first time since 1999-2000.
The 1.8% enrollment decline, on top of the 2.6% record drop in 2020-21, is a combined loss of 271,000 students since Covid struck in spring 2020. Enrollment as of Census Day, always the first Wednesday of October, was 5.89 million students this year; five years ago, it was 6.23 million.
The decline includes charter school enrollment, which dropped for the first time year-to-year in two decades, by 12,600 – 1.8%, the same percentage as school districts. “Charter schools are public schools and are facing the same statewide demographic challenges as non-charter public schools,” said Myrna Castrejón, CEO and president of the California Charter Schools Association."
Pandemic slide continues: California public school student enrollment lowest in two decades
KAYLA JIMENEZ, Mercury News: “The second school year under COVID restrictions saw another big drop in the number of students enrolled in California public schools, dipping below 6 million for the first time in more than 20 years, and driven in large part by dismal Bay Area numbers, new figures released Monday show.
The state Department of Education’s new 2021-2022 school year data shows 110,000 fewer students signed up statewide than last year — a 1.8% decline — but less than the 161,000 decrease the year before, when campuses closed and most public school kids were learning online.
The opposite happened in the six-county Bay Area, where the second year of pandemic enrollment drops were even bigger than the first, and more dramatic than the state’s decline. The 799,000 students enrolled this year is a near 4% slide from 2020-21.”
Karen Bass and Rick Caruso in dead heat, L.A. mayoral poll finds
BENJAMIN ORESKES, LA Times: “Voters upset over crime and a seemingly limitless geyser of cash have propelled Rick Caruso to the front of the race for mayor, reshaping the contest and offering Los Angeles a stark contrast between the billionaire developer and his chief rival, Rep. Karen Bass.
If the primary were today, Caruso, with backing from 24% of likely voters, and Bass, with 23%, would move to the November runoff, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.
A contest between the two would feature stark divides of ideology, race and geography as well as different perceptions of Los Angeles and its governance, all of which have begun to emerge in the primary campaign.”
As drought persists, government says Klamath farmers will be allocated limited water
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "As severe drought persists in Northern California and southern Oregon, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday that farmers and ranchers will be allocated a limited amount of water in the Klamath River Basin this summer.
Water is at the center of bitter disputes between growers, the federal government and tribes over how much should be allocated for food production, flows in the Klamath River and the health of threatened fish.
Federal water managers said the initial allocation on the Klamath Project will be about 50,000 acre-feet to allow for limited irrigation from April to mid-July. That’s more than last year but less than 15% of the full allocation that federal officials say could be delivered for agriculture during times when there is sufficient water."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Electric Vehicle update with Lloyd Levine
Capitol Weekly Staff: “With gasoline prices hovering in the mid $5 range, many Californians are taking a new look at the option of driving an Electric Vehicle. If EVs are still uncommon in some rural parts of the state, they are ubiquitous in most urban areas, and the state recently passed a milestone: over one million EVs on the road. Will spiking gas prices move California drivers to the EV tipping point?”
Deadly Sacramento gang shootout renews calls for youth funding, violence prevention
ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS and CATHIE ANDEERSON, SacBee: “Community organizations and advocates say the deadly gang shooting that erupted earlier this month in downtown Sacramento is evidence that the city has not invested enough in youth services and violence prevention.
Details are continuing to emerge about the events that left six dead and 12 wounded, but police said Wednesday that the shooting broke out between two groups of men just as clubs and bars were letting out April 3. Police last week have arrested three individuals in the wake of the shootout, all of whom appear to have ties to gangs.
The city of Sacramento has not made consistent or significant investments in keeping youth on a healthy path or intervening with those who stray, particularly in neighborhoods where families don’t have the income to do as much for their children, said Monica Ruelas Mares, an organizer with local nonprofit Youth Forward.”
Daily Cal student newspaper at UC Berkeley survives vote to keep going after 150 years
SAM WHITING, Chronicle: “The Daily Californian student newspaper at UC Berkeley will survive for at least five more years after students, in an initiative passed last week, agreed to pay $6 per semester to keep the online and print editions afloat.
The “Save the Daily Cal Initiative” was part of the campus-wide election for officers to the Associated Students of the University of California. A simple majority was needed in order to pass, and the initiative received 7,224 yes votes while 2,226 voted no. But it was the 1,461 voters who abstained that nearly killed the paper after 150 years. The initiative needed 20% of the combined graduate and undergraduate student body at UC Berkeley to vote one way or another in order to be ratified, and barely escaped with 22% participation. A similar vote last year failed to meet the 20% threshold.
The results are official but the vote must still be certified by the student election council, which should happen happen sometime this week.”
Elon Musk will not join Twitter’s board, company says
MIKE ISAAC, NY Times: “Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and the biggest shareholder of Twitter, will no longer join the social media service’s board of directors, the company said late Sunday.
The move capped a whirlwind week at Twitter that had been set off by Mr. Musk, 50. On Tuesday, Twitter announced that the billionaire would be appointed to its 11-person board for a term that expires in 2024. The invitation to join the board followed Mr. Musk’s accumulating a 9.2 percent stake in the company, making him its largest shareholder.
But Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, tweeted late Sunday that the situation had changed. On Saturday morning, Mr. Musk — who is a heavy Twitter user with more than 81 million followers — told the company he would no longer become a board member, Mr. Agrawal said.”
Mariupol mayor says siege has killed more than 10K civilians
AP, YURAS KARMANAU, ADAM SCHRECK and CARA ANNA: " The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city, and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, as weeks of attacks and privation leave the bodies of Mariupol's people “carpeted through the streets.”
Speaking by phone Monday with The Associated Press, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also accused Russian forces of having blocked weeks of thwarted humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage there from the outside world.
Mariupol has been cut off by Russian attacks that began soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February, and has suffered some of the most brutal assaults of the war. Boychenko gave new details of recent allegations by Ukrainian officials that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the corpses of victims of the siege."
PG&E to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for starting two wildfires
LA Times, ALEX WIGGLESWORTH: "Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will avoid criminal charges for two wildfires started by its equipment under settlements announced Monday by district attorneys of six Northern California counties.
As part of the agreements, no criminal charges will be filed in connection with last year’s Dixie fire, and a criminal complaint regarding the 2019 Kincade fire will be dismissed. The utility still faces charges in the 2020 Zogg fire, which killed four people and destroyed more than 200 buildings when it burned through 56,000 acres in Shasta and Tehama counties.
In return, PG&E has agreed to pay about $55 million over five years in civil penalties and payments to local nonprofits and educational organizations. The utility will also launch a direct claims program for victims of the Dixie fire through which those who lost their homes can submit claims for expedited review, approval and payment, according to PG&E."
Have a library card? That could give you free entry to California state parks
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: "If you have a library card, you will soon be able to access California state parks free of charge.
Under a new three-year program meant to draw a more diverse array of visitors to the outdoors, the state Department of Parks and Recreation is distributing free passes to more than 200 park areas through public libraries.
The park department is handing out “at least three” passes per branch, including mobile libraries, according to a press release. The passes will become available for library patrons to check out as they are distributed throughout this month and May. The department encourages interested people to contact their local libraries."
California had another mild flu season. But are we in the clear?
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "For the second consecutive year, California had an unusually mild flu season. But health experts warn that a late spring surge could be on the way.
While outbreaks so far have been far fewer than in a typical flu season, infections are ramping up more than usual for this time of year in some parts of the country, federal data shows, as people emerge from pandemic caution.
California has seen only four influenza outbreaks and 36 flu deaths since the start of the 2021-22 season in early October. In a typical year, the total deaths for the flu season are around 100. As of Monday, positive flu test results and doctor’s office visits have also remained low as the flu season nears its typical close, according to public health data."
New Oklahoma abortion law could mean more women coming to California in search of care
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "The plight of an East Bay doctor who travels to other parts of the country to provide abortion services shows how quickly the front lines are shifting in the battle over abortion access, as new states pass restrictive laws and the Supreme Court is considering a case that could dramatically change the legal landscape.
East Bay obstetrician and gynecologist Rebecca Taub had for years regularly traveled to an Oklahoma abortion clinic but has redirected her efforts in the wake of the state passing a law virtually outlawing abortion. She has recently been traveling instead to a clinic in Kansas, which is expected to see a surge of new patients from Oklahoma now in addition to Texas, which passed its own restrictive abortion law last year.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is expected to sign the legislation, which makes abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine “except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.” If he does, it would go into effect on Aug. 26."
Voters are split on Garcetti. Here’s what that tells us about the race to succeed him
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH: "Voters in Los Angeles are evenly divided on Mayor Eric Garcetti’s performance, according to a new poll — a finding that may yield insights into the race to succeed him.
The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by The Times, found that 48% of likely voters in the June primary approve and 46% disapprove of Garcetti’s handling of his job. Digging into those numbers, 35% of voters “approve somewhat” of his performance, while 13% “approve strongly.” And 19% of voters disapprove somewhat, while 27% disapprove strongly.
The figures are a big decline from when Garcetti won reelection in 2017 with 81% of the vote in a race that wasn’t particularly competitive, but follow a trend of voters expressing unhappiness with elected officials at all levels."
Launch of condors on tribal land marks the species’ comeback, but a new threat looms large
LA Times, LOUIS SAHAGUN: "A plan to return federally endangered California condors to a rugged and remote stretch of Northern California coastline and redwood forests is taking shape on Yurok tribal lands where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean.
The tribe believes the condor is a sacred animal, and it says annual releases of four to six captive-bred condors starting later this month are part of its “obligation to bring balance to the world.” That’s because in the absence of large carnivores such as grizzly bears, condors will do the lion’s share of removing decaying carcasses from the ecosystem.
“We’ve been working toward these releases for 14 years,” said Tiana Williams-Claussen, a tribal member and wildlife biologist with the Yurok condor program. “Now, the condor is coming home.”"
Six maps show how San Francisco’s Asian population has changed
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "San Francisco is home to nearly 300,000 Asians and Pacific Islanders. Equivalent to about a third of the city’s population, they make up the second largest race group, closely following the 39% white share.
But the city’s Asian and Pacific Islander population a half century ago was vastly different — in terms of both its size and composition of ethnicities. And while Chinatown was the most prominent Asian enclave back then, new immigrants have since settled into other areas, sprouting new ethnic communities across the city.
For this story, The Chronicle examined the Asian and Pacific Islander population for each decade from 1960 to 2020. The data is sourced from the decennial census and compiled by the University of Minnesota’s Population Center. Because the census asks people about their race and ethnicity in a survey, our findings are based on residents who self-identified as a particular race or ethnicity, and not a definitive count of Asians and Pacific Islanders. Moreover, the Census Bureau’s definition of “Asian” has changed since 1960, so counts between certain decades are not perfectly comparable. Still, we think this is the best available data that captures the vast majority of Asians and Pacific Islanders each year."
Biden aims at 'ghost gun' violence with new federal rule
AP, MICHAEL BALSAMO and ZEKE MILLER: "President Joe Biden on Monday took fresh aim at ghost guns, the privately made firearms without serial numbers that are increasingly cropping up in violent crimes, as he struggles to break past gun-control opposition to address firearm deaths.
Speaking at the White House, Biden highlighted the Justice Department's work to finalize new regulations to crack down on ghost guns, and announced the nomination of Steve Dettelbach, who served as a U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016, to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Law enforcement is sounding the alarm," Biden said of ghost guns, briefly holding one up for cameras to see in the Rose Garden. “Our communities are paying the price.”"
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