California streamlines workplace pandemic rules — including masking and exclusion pay
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: “California workplaces will see some minor changes to coronavirus prevention procedures under new rules adopted Thursday that will last until year end. Many of the rules are now tied to California Department of Public Health guidelines, giving them more flexibility since that agency can be more nimble in adapting to changing conditions.
The Cal/OSHA Standards Board, a seven-member body appointed by the governor to oversee workplace regulations, approved the streamlined regulations Thursday. The board convened in person for the first time in two years at a hybrid meeting where people who wished to give public comments could do so either in person or by video conference.
Defaulting to CDPH rules on challenging issues “is a reasonable approach to keep up with the rapid pace of developments and changes,” said Pamela Murcell, president of the California Industrial Hygiene Council, during public comments. Her group advocates for the industrial hygiene profession.”
The ‘underappreciated’ case for delaying COVID infection as long as possible
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: “Although the few remaining pandemic restrictions and mandates are being dialed back — most recently, the federal mask mandate for public travel — medical experts say that avoiding infection carries benefits right now, and that it’s still possible to engage with life while taking health precautions.
“Delaying infections is actually an undervalued or underappreciated point,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease expert at Stanford.
He pointed out that people who have gotten infected recently are better off than people who got infected a year ago, given the advances in treatments and vaccines, and that’s only likely to become more true as doctors continue working on the many unknowns of the virus. For example, antiviral pills to treat COVID that were scarce just a few months ago are now widely available, officials said — and even offered on the spot at some medical offices, care facilities and pharmacies.”
READ MORE PANDEMIC NEWS -- L.A. County will keep mask mandate at airports, on public transit, despite federal changes – LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II
Thousands of Sutter nurses will lose 5 days of pay after one-day strike at CA hospitals
CATHIE ANDERSON, SacBee: “Sacramento-based Sutter Health has locked out thousands of registered nurses who hit 15 of the health care giant’s Northern California sites with a one-day strike, leaders of the California Nurses Association said Wednesday.
“Sutter Health is choosing to retaliate against its registered nurses for striking to protect their patients by refusing to allow these nurses to return to work for an additional four days,” union leaders said in a statement.
In a statement, Sutter Health representatives said management had informed nurses before they walked out that they would not be able to return to work until Saturday.”
The battle between companies and their workers’ right to sue
Capitol Weekly, WILL SHUCK: “Tired of losing billions to worker lawsuits, California business leaders are betting millions that voters will eliminate the lightning rod Private Attorney General Act and give enforcement authority to a historically underfunded state agency.
“We see thousands and thousands of PAGA cases,” said David Lanier, using the acronym by which this citizen-driven enforcement system is known.
Lanier, a former secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, has taken an advocacy role for the initiative. “It’s not good for employees. For employers, it’s a no-win, it becomes a shakedown. But it’s an absolute cash cow for employment attorneys.”
Judges tell Devin Nunes he cannot continue suing CNN. Here’s where all of his lawsuits stand
GILLIAN BRASSIL, SacBee: “A panel of federal judges denied former Congressman Devin Nunes’ appeal to reopen a lawsuit against CNN over a 2019 report that the California Republican went to Vienna to gather political dirt on President Joe Biden.
In a split 2-1 decision on April 14, judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan affirmed a lower court ruling that Nunes did not seek a retraction promptly, as is needed under California law for most damages, and that he failed to show he deserved special damages.
It marks another legal setback for the former congressman, who is now the chief executive officer of former President Donald Trump’s social media company.”
Sacramento woman ‘running wild’ opens emergency exit on plane, NY officials say
DON SWEENEY, SacBee: “A 24-year-old woman from Sacramento, California, faces charges after officials accused her of opening a cabin door and inflating an emergency slide on a flight at a New York airport.
The woman exhibited “unruly behavior” on a Chicago-bound American Airlines flight at Buffalo Niagara International Airport on the night of Tuesday, April 19, airport officials wrote on Twitter.
The pilot had already turned back to the gate before takeoff because of the disruption when officials say the woman opened a cabin door, inflating an emergency slide, WIVB reported.”
Santa Ana council offers blistering rebukes to police who play Disney songs to thwart public video
ROXANA KOPETMAN, OC Register: “Early Wednesday, Santa Ana City Council members harshly criticized the actions of a local police officer who blared copyright-protected music from his squad car as a way to prevent video of his on-the-job actions from being spread over social media.
The April 4 incident, which took place late at night in a previously quiet neighborhood, has gained national attention. Police in at least two other cities have used the same tactic.
As the April 19 council meeting extended beyond midnight, council members condemned the officer’s behavior. They also told the city manager to come back with an official policy that addresses the right of the public to film the police.”
Rain arrives in S.F. Bay Area as the Sierra braces for snowstorms
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: “The Bay Area began receiving much-needed rainy weather overnight Wednesday into Thursday, which was expected to last for another day before sunny skies return for the weekend, meteorologists said.
A break was expected Thursday morning with a few “hit or miss” showers, the National Weather Service reported. Rain, gusty winds and even isolated thunderstorms are likely to spread across the Bay Area starting Thursday afternoon, continuing through Friday morning, the National Weather Service said.
Rainfall totals should average between half an inch to an inch for most of the Bay Area, weather officials said. Higher elevations could see up to 2 inches of rain.”
VP Kamala Harris decries U.S. maternal health care crisis in S.F. visit, praises UCSF program
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: “The United States is facing a maternal health crisis, with the highest maternal death rate among wealthy nations and particularly high rates among Black women, Vice President Kamala Harris said during a visit to UCSF medical facilities in San Francisco on Thursday. The country must make solving the crisis a national priority, she said.
“It is real and it is impacting so many women and their families and communities,” Harris said after touring UCSF’s perinatal care program for Black families, called EMBRACE, located at the medical center’s Mission Bay campus. “A big factor that contributes to these outcomes is system inequities, the differences in how people are treated based on who they are or where they live.”
Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause compared to white women, according to federal health estimates. Native American women and women who live in rural areas also have much higher pregnancy-related mortality rates compared to white women.”
UC Berkeley lifts shelter-in-place order issued over threats to ‘specific individuals,’ police say
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES/DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/ANDRES PICON: “A shelter-in-place order at UC Berkeley that began mid-morning and lasted more than four hours as police investigated a “credible campus-wide threat” was lifted Thursday afternoon.
At about 2 p.m., UC Berkeley police located the person they had been searching for all morning at a location off campus, university officials said in a statement.
“According to UCPD, the security situation has been addressed and the individual poses no immediate threat,” university officials said.”
READ MORE EDUCATION NEWS -- Some student loans are in line for relief. What’s happening and what you should do now – LA Times, JON HEALEY; Empty classrooms and quiet hallways: California's rural far north grapples with declining enrollment – EdSource, CAROLYN JONES; How Lowell’s diversity compares to other elite public high schools around the U.S. – The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA/JILL TUCKER
Obama’s message to tech companies on misinformation reform: ‘You’ll still make money, but you’ll feel better’
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: “When Barack Obama sprang onto the stage Thursday afternoon at Stanford University, the energy in the packed auditorium immediately changed, bringing the audience to its feet before a speech on the challenges to democracy in cyberspace.
Wearing a dark blazer, a white shirt and no tie, the former president took a lighthearted tone at times, but he still sounded dark notes during the roughly hour long speech. He pointed to Russia’s war in Ukraine as an example of weaponized online information run amok, drawing parallels with election disinformation in the U.S, and broadly outlining what the government and big tech companies can do to push back against the viral spread of online falsehoods.
“We see our new information ecosystem is turbocharging some of humanity’s worst impulses,” Obama said. “Forty years ago if you were a conservative in rural Texas … you weren’t necessarily offended by what was going on in San Francisco’s Castro District because you didn’t know what’s going on” there.”
L.A. says it can’t take care of its sickest and most vulnerable. The county isn’t buying it
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES/DOUG SMITH: “Earlier this month, with much fanfare, Los Angeles officials announced a partial settlement of a 2-year-old federal lawsuit over homelessness.
The city pledged to create housing, either permanent or interim, for 60% of the city’s unsheltered homeless population. Lawyers representing L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, the group that filed the lawsuit, endorsed the agreement.
Conspicuously absent from the event were representatives of Los Angeles County, which is also being sued by the group.”
Mold and sewage plague South L.A. apartments even after inspections, tenants say
LA Times, LIAM DILLON: “Sabrina Dolan is convinced that her apartment is poisoning her.
Black, mold-like spots dot the windowsill in her living room. They appear on her bedroom windows along with signs of termites. The spots also cover a corner of her bathroom, and no amount of scrubbing can make them go away.
Recently, she’s been coughing up chunks of thick, dark mucus.”
Putin orders troops not to storm last Mariupol stronghold but declares success
LA Times, NABIH BULOS/JAWEED KALEEM/KURTIS LEE: “Russia claimed victory over the battered southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol on Thursday, with President Vladimir Putin saying he had ordered his forces not to attack the city’s last holdouts sheltering in a vast steelworks but to blockade the compound so tightly that “not even a fly comes through.”
Ukraine’s government rejected the Russian assertion of a complete takeover of the once-thriving coastal city, which has been nearly wiped out in the course of nonstop attack. But Putin’s announcement that troops would not storm the sprawling Azovstal steel plant — where Ukrainian forces and civilians are holed up — was at once a sign of Russian confidence in its grip on Mariupol and of the fierce resistance of local defenders who have refused the enemy’s demands to surrender.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a French television station on Thursday “local residents, children, the elderly and the military are blocked in the city of Mariupol.”
