Inflation brings California food banks a surge in first-time users on ‘razor’s edge’
LA Times, MACKENZIE MAYS: “More than a dozen people stood in the rain last week before the gates at the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services distribution center had even opened. Parked cars wrapped around the block.
“Our walkup line is growing. We’re hearing from people that they don’t want to waste their gas sitting in the drive-through line while waiting for their boxes,” said spokesperson Kevin Buffalino. “People are on that razor’s edge right now, and the cost of gas is eating into their food budgets.”
Food banks across the state are seeing an influx of new faces as spikes in the cost of groceries and gas have some Californians seeking help for the first time. The numbers of those receiving services dipped at the start of the year as the spread of the COVID-19 virus waned, but are now rising in the face of the highest inflation in 41 years.”
Sexual harassment scandal triggers ouster of lobbyist for PG&E wildfire victims
DALE KASLER, SacBee: “A lobbyist trying to secure state aid for PG&E Corp. wildfire victims has been removed from his post over a sexual harassment scandal at a CSU campus where his wife is president.
Patrick McCallum, a veteran lobbyist who came out of retirement to work for the PG&E Fire Victim Trust, was dismissed one day after briefing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s aides about a possible bailout for the beleaguered trust. McCallum’s dismissal is a potentially significant setback for the trust’s efforts to secure financial help for fire victims.
McCallum spent years lobbying at the Capitol on education issues and became a high-profile advocate on fire-related issues after his house burned down in the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa.
The new mask-optional phase of the pandemic fuels fears, and some cheers
LA TIMES: “A new mask-optional phase of the pandemic is arriving, sparking concern from some experts that the shift is occurring too soon.
For months, local officials have been easing mask rules in public places, such as supermarkets and shopping malls. But a federal court ruling Monday striking down the federal mask-wearing order on public transportation systems accelerated the trend, with Uber, Lyft, many airlines and transit agencies making face coverings optional.
In one section of Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday morning, an estimated 30% to 40% of travelers were not wearing masks.”
California strikes down mask mandate for public transit
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “Californians will no longer be required to wear masks on public transportation or at transit hubs, in alignment with federal rules.State officials announced the abrupt change on Wednesday, minutes before the Justice Department said it is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs.
“Going forward, California will strongly recommend masks on all public transportation and in transit hubs, including bus and train stations, ferry terminals and airports,” Dr. Tomás Aragón, California’s public health director, said in a statement to The Chronicle.
“These crowded settings should be considered high risk and may often not have adequate ventilation, an additional layer of protection against the virus,” he said.”
Matt Haney’s Assembly victory is a coup for YIMBY activists seeking to align with S.F. progressives
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: “For decades, some housing activists in San Francisco have fought to upend a common perception that the city’s deeply progressive values are at odds with policies that seek to dramatically boost the construction of market-rate housing.
Through that lens, Matt Haney’s blowout victory in Tuesday’s runoff election for California’s 17th Assembly District seat wasn’t just a win for the YIMBY movement — it was a coup d’état.
Haney, a member of the Board of Supervisors and unabashed progressive, was winning by a 26-point margin, with some votes still to be counted. He defeated opponent David Campos, a former supervisor and fellow progressive, in nearly every precinct.”
With S.F. Supervisor Matt Haney headed to the California Assembly, what’s next for District 6?
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS/MALLORY MOENCH: “The race to succeed San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney has already begun after his commanding victory in the Tuesday special election for state Assembly District 17
.
Mayor London Breed will name someone in the coming weeks to fill Haney’s seat on the Board of Supervisors until voters elect a representative to another four-year term in November.
Haney has thrown his support behind his chief of staff, Honey Mahogany, who would be the city’s first transgender supervisor if Breed appoints her or she is later elected. Mahogany hasn’t declared her candidacy but expressed strong interest in the seat on Wednesday.”
To find more bilingual teachers, California needs to cast a wider net
EdSource, ZAIDEE STAVELY: “fter years of prioritizing English-only classes for students who spoke other languages at home, California is now pushing to expand bilingual programs for all students. But the state has a huge hurdle: It needs more bilingual teachers.
In part, the low number of bilingual teachers is a lingering legacy of Proposition 227, which voters passed in 1998 and then repealed in 2016. Proposition 227 required English learners to be taught in English-only classrooms unless their parents signed a waiver.
“As soon as Prop. 227 passed, a lot of higher education programs stopped offering bilingual credentials, especially in public institutions,” said Magaly Lavadenz, professor of English learner research and executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.”
Sonoma State president faulted CSU’s sex harassment response. Now she has her own scandal
LA Times, ROBERT J LOPEZ/COLLEEN SHALBY: “Sonoma State President Judy Sakaki was part of a group of Cal State presidents who met with a top aide from the Assembly speaker’s office in February to say they had lost confidence in the system chancellor over his handling of a sexual harassment case, The Times has learned.
Sakaki now faces a revolt from some faculty on the Academic Senate at her own campus who are drafting a resolution for a no-confidence vote in her leadership after a Times investigation detailed accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation involving Sakaki and her husband.
Records show that just weeks before the Feb. 15 meeting with Assemblyman Anthony Rendon’s office, Sakaki signed an agreement that paid $600,000 to settle a legal claim filed by a former provost who reported the harassment allegations against the president’s husband, lobbyist Patrick McCallum, and alleged that Sakaki then retaliated against her. A Rendon spokeswoman confirmed that the meeting took place and said the speaker had been unaware of the settlement when Sakaki and four other CSU presidents met with his higher education aide.”
|Could April storms help save California from another drought year?
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: “A burst of late-season storms rolling across Northern California is filling in the region’s mountains with snow at a time when many people had chalked up this winter as another disappointing drought year.
After a three-month dry spell of paltry precipitation, the La Niña weather pattern in the Pacific has unleashed a barrage of wet weather this month that could continue, on and off, through early May.
It’s been an erratic winter in the mountains. Early October storms gave way to a dry November, then December brought historic heaps of snow to the Lake Tahoe area — as deep as 17 feet in some places. But the wet weather came to a halt beginning in early January and the dry conditions continued through the end of March.”
More rain in store for S.F. Bay Area this week as the Sierra braces for snowstorms
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: “The Bay Area is set to receive much-needed rainy weather over the next two days before sunny skies return for the weekend, meteorologists said Wednesday.
Rain and gusty winds will first develop Wednesday afternoon in the North Bay, with widespread showers and isolated thunderstorms expected across the Bay Area through Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
Rainfall totals should average between half of an inch to an inch for most of the Bay Area, weather officials said. Higher elevations could see up to 2 inches of rain.”
Abnormally warm water could get close to California coast soon — but it’s no ‘blob’
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: “Federal scientists have created a new tool for forecasting marine heat waves, and they say one is currently forming in the North Pacific Ocean that has the potential to get close to the California coast by fall.
The marine heat wave currently predicted to linger into winter is not expected to have the impact of “the blob” — the name for a period of high seawater temperatures that persisted along the West Coast from 2014 to 2016. But scientists say their new prediction models will help forecast similar extreme ocean warming events that are expected to increase in duration and intensity with climate change.
“The impact of these marine heat waves are pretty well documented now,” said Michael Jacox, lead author of a study published Wednesday in Nature that describes the forecasting models for marine heat waves that he developed as research oceanographer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Those kind of things have had such widespread impacts, in terms of economic impacts to the fisheries and ecological impacts.””
