Newsom's campaign

Newsom seizes on the fight over abortion as a key part of his reelection campaign

LA Times, TARYN LUNA: “Two days after kicking off his reelection campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom replaced his opening upbeat message about California with a dire warning that his highest-profile Republican opponent “stands with Donald Trump” and “wants to roll back abortion rights.”

It’s a pivot to a familiar strategy for the Democratic governor.

Newsom released the new 30-second ad Wednesday, one day after the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed a draft opinion was leaked that, if signed by five justices, would rescind existing federal legal protections for women seeking abortions. The news quickly catapulted reproductive rights to the top of the list of key issues in midterm elections around the country and Newsom’s reelection campaign for a second and final four-year term in office.”

California moves to embrace cryptocurrency and regulate it

DON THOMPSON, AP: "California, which has a economy larger than all but four countries and where much of the world’s technological innovation is born, on Wednesday became the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations.

Following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order for state agencies to move in tandem with the federal government to craft regulations for digital currencies. It also calls for officials to explore incorporating broader blockchain computer coding into the government operations.

Evolving blockchain and cryptocurrency technology “is potentially an explosive creator of new companies and new jobs and new opportunities,” said Dee Dee Myers, a senior advisor to Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development."

Lawmakers want strict rules so students avoid no-credit remedial courses

MICHAEL BURKE, EdSource: "Aguing that too many community college students are getting stuck in remedial classes, California lawmakers are pushing a new bill that would create stricter rules dictating when colleges are allowed to enroll students in those courses.

Assembly Bill 1705 would build on Assembly Bill 705, the landmark California law passed in 2017 that says community colleges must allow most students access to transfer-level classes without first needing to take remedial classes, which are noncredit courses that can’t be used to transfer to a four-year university. Requiring students to take those courses has been shown to often derail them from completing an associate degree or pursuing a bachelor’s degree.

The new law, which has already cleared the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee, would clarify that colleges can only enroll students in remedial classes under specific circumstances and must back up those enrollment decisions with data. For example, if a student pursuing a science degree had a low high school GPA and the college had data showing that students with similar high school grades fared well in the same major after taking remedial classes, that could be an acceptable reason to enroll the student in those courses."

How Californians feel about Roe v. Wade, according to one survey

The Chronicle, RYAN KOST: “California has a reputation as one of the nation’s liberal bulwarks — and already there’s talk that the state could become a refuge for women seeking abortions if the Supreme Court follows through on overturning Roe v. Wade.

Still, residents’ opinions on whether the case should be overturned vary by geography and income, according to a survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California in July 2021.

The firm asked more than 1,500 Californians the following question: “As you may know, the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion. Would you like to see the Supreme Court overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, or not?””

Patrols, fines, altered landscapes: How severe SoCal water restrictions will roll out

LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: “More than a week after the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced its harshest-ever water restrictions for millions of residents across the region, several of the affected water agencies are offering a preview of how life will change throughout Southland when the rules kick in June 1.

The restrictions target areas that rely heavily or entirely on the State Water Project, a Northern California water supply that officials say is dangerously low after the state’s driest-ever start to the year. The plan was designed to achieve at least a 35% reduction in water consumption, shrinking usage to about 80 gallons per person per day, which can be done through volumetric allocations or one-day-a-week watering limitations.

MWD’s largest member agency, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has so far offered few details about how the restrictions will be applied to their customers, but said more information will be provided in the coming days.”

S.F. has 305 affordable housing units sitting empty, despite more than 20,000 applications from potential residents

The Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: “Hundreds of San Francisco apartments set aside for low- and moderate-income families are sitting vacant, the result of a sluggish bureaucracy and pandemic-era leasing market that has become less predictable, according to a new report from the Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst.

For 30 years San Francisco has required that housing developers include a percentage of “below market rate” units in their projects, an effort to create affordable homes and mixed-income neighborhoods in a city that has steadily grown wealthier and less accessible to average families.

While San Francisco’s 1992 inclusionary housing requirement has long been held up as a model — most major U.S. cities now have some version of it — the new report shows that the program is marred by high vacancy rates. Of the 1,961 units created under the program, 305 of them — about 15% — are unoccupied, according to the report, which was requested by Supervisor Ahsha Safai.”

Long Beach fails to keep Queen Mary lifeboats afloat

HUGO MARTIN, LA Times: "The city of Long Beach plans to dispose of 19 lifeboats from the Queen Mary after a bidding process to identify preservationists and historical groups to restore them failed.

A structural study of the 86-year-old ocean liner determined that the lifeboats were putting too much strain on the frame of the ship, prompting the city to seek bidders willing to save the lifeboats from ending up in landfills or scrap yards.

But the bidding process, which ended April 28, concluded with only two bidders, Long Beach officials said. One bidder withdrew and the other failed to submit the documentation required by the city, the officials said."

Why getting COVID is still nothing like getting the flu — even if it’s just as ‘normal’

The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: “Health officials are saying it, friends are saying it: COVID-19 seems on track to become as common and familiar to us as influenza. But experts stress that there are still limitations to this comparison — COVID is still, and may always be, no ordinary flu.

“It is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal,” leaders at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in a paper published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “It will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, experts noted, drawing comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu was highly politicized — a way to minimize a new disease that would go on to kill nearly a million people in the U.S. alone. But now, with vaccines and treatments more widely available, comparing the two is more appropriate.”

San Francisco propositions 2022: What’s on the ballot in June election

The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: “San Francisco voters will decide on eight ballot measures when they vote in the June 7 election, including the marquee initiative to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

If successful, the recall would make Boudin the fourth local elected official removed from office this year, after three school board members were voted out in February.

At the same time, the electorate will also choose whether to reform the recall process itself, possibly raising the threshold to remove officials in the future. Other items on the ballot include funding for Muni improvements and the creation of a new city government office dedicated to victim rights.”

Zelensky pleads for evacuations as battle at last Mariupol holdout rages

LA Times, LAURA KING and JAWEED KALEEM: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded Thursday for a cease-fire to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped in a sprawling complex of underground bunkers and tunnels beneath a Mariupol steel plant, where fighters continue to try to fend off the Russian troops who have taken over the rest of the city.

As the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine entered its 11th week, Zelensky said time was needed “to lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters” in Mariupol, the southern city whose bombardment and intense suffering have become a symbol of the human costs of the war.

“In the present conditions, we cannot use heavy equipment to clear the rubble away. It all has to be done by hand,” Zelensky said in an early morning address, adding that 344 people were evacuated from Mariupol in a second round of rescues Wednesday and taken to Zaporizhzhia, around 140 miles northwest. At least hundreds remained trapped.”

 U.S. refuses to invite Cuba to Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles

LA Times, TRACY WILKINSON: “The Biden administration plans to exclude Cuba from the upcoming Summit of the Americas, a major global meeting to be held in Los Angeles in June that typically welcomes all governments in the Western Hemisphere, a senior U.S. official told The Times.

The summit, which is held every three or four years, is being convened in the United States for the first time since its 1994 inaugural session in Miami. Los Angeles was chosen as the venue earlier this year.

The administration’s refusal to invite Cuba is likely to anger several other Latin American countries as President Biden and the State Department attempt to repair damaged relations in the region.