‘It scares the heck out of me’: California's federal firefighter shortage has gotten dramatically worse
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: “As California’s wildfire season ramps up, the number of federal firefighters in the state is down — way down — plummeting to its lowest level in years, despite pledges by fire officials to have boosted the ranks before a potentially busy summer.
The U.S. Forest Service, which operates the nation’s largest wildland fire force, entered the summer months with about 25% fewer firefighters in California than it had planned for, according to federal records obtained by The Chronicle. This translates into nearly 1,300 unfilled jobs.
The lack of staffing means less capacity to put out fires and protect people and property. It comes as the state has seen record burning over the past two years and, with the continuing drought, remains poised for another difficult year. Recently, crews have been tested by the still-out-of-control McKinney Fire, which exploded in the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border and has killed at least four people, as well as by a pair of big blazes in and around Yosemite National Park.”
Newsom Asks Hollywood to Stop Filming in Conservative States
SHAWN HUBLER, NY Times: "Widening his attack on Republican states for their positions on guns, civil rights and abortion, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Wednesday called on Hollywood to “walk the walk” on liberal values by bringing back their film and television productions from states such as Georgia and Oklahoma.
Mr. Newsom issued the challenge through an ad in Variety that asked the state’s left-leaning creative community to “take stock of your values — and those of your employees — when doing business in those states.”
The Democratic governor on Wednesday simultaneously endorsed a legislative proposal that would provide a $1.65 billion, five-year extension of California’s film and television production tax credit program."
LAT, ROSANNA XIA: “After an exhaustive historical investigation into the barrels of DDT waste reportedly dumped decades ago near Catalina Island, federal regulators concluded that the toxic pollution in the deep ocean could be far worse — and far more sweeping — than what scientists anticipated.
In internal memos made public recently, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that acid waste from the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT — a pesticide so powerful it poisoned birds and fish — had not been contained in hundreds of thousands of sealed barrels.
Most of the waste, according to newly unearthed information, had been poured directly into the ocean from massive tank barges.”
McKinney Fire update: Firefighters get some containment of massive fire
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: “For the first time since the McKinney Fire started last week, firefighters reported getting some containment Wednesday — 10%.
Cloudy, cooler weather overnight Tuesday prevented the wildfire, burning in the Klamath National Forest off Highway 96, from expanding its perimeter, Cal Fire and U.S. Forest Service officials said.
Thunderstorms also hit the area, bringing heavy rainfall to part of the fire and causing mudslides, including one that blocked a key access road being used by firefighters. The storm dropped as much as 3 inches on the eastern end but almost nothing on the west, said Mike Lindbery, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service.”
He waited 16 years for a green card. He died of COVID-19 when his turn finally came
LAT, ANDREA CASTILLO: “Milap Kashipara spent 16 years waiting for a green card that he hoped would lead to better opportunities for his three children than in India, as well as a chance to reunite with his siblings in California.
In 2019, his petition finally arrived at the front of the line. He completed the paperwork and had reached the final step — scheduling an interview with the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai. Processing estimates at the time showed his family could be approved by April 2020.
Then came COVID-19. Kashipara was 47 and healthy when he became infected. He died alone in a hospital 15 days later, on May 1, 2021, before the interview took place.”
Lawmakers: Improve access to mental health drugs (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, JANINE BERA: “As the state of California continues to move forward in supporting people with behavioral health issues, I am writing to suggest some simple, but often overlooked changes that would help people seeking treatment and the health care professionals who provide this care.
Specifically, the California Legislature is considering legislative action that would streamline the approval process for people accessing care through Medi-Cal to receive their prescribed medications for serious mental illness without undue delays.
As a physician who has served our community for more than 25 years, I strongly support this effort.”
Tom Girardi’s epic corruption exposes the secretive world of private judges
LAT, HARRIET RYAN/MATT HAMILTON: “The settlement Tom Girardi reached with a drug company in 2005 was characteristically large and righteous: some $66 million the famed Los Angeles trial attorney won on behalf of patients who said a diabetes medication caused liver failure and other maladies.
At Girardi’s suggestion, a nationally renowned mediator was appointed to ensure proper distribution of the funds. For overseeing the settlement, retired California appellate Justice John K. Trotter Jr. and his private judging firm, JAMS (formerly known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services), received a $500,000 cut.
Yet in the years that followed, Girardi diverted money Trotter was hired to safeguard for purposes that were highly questionable and even, in the recent assessment of one federal judge, “a crime.” Girardi sent $750,000 to a jeweler for what Bankruptcy Court records show was the purchase of an enormous pair of diamond earrings for his wife, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Girardi. He dipped into the settlement account again and again for supposed case expenses, sometimes writing multiple seven-figure checks to his law firm in the same week, according to the records.”
Unraveling the mystery of Erika Jayne’s $800K diamond earrings — and Tom Girardi’s finances
LAT, MATT HAMILTON/HARRIET RYAN: “Not long after they started dating, Tom Girardi presented cocktail waitress and aspiring actress Erika Chahoy with a pair of $800,000 diamond earrings.
“It was the first significant gift I had given her,” Girardi recalled years later to tax authorities.
The earrings set the tone for the private-jet-and-haute-couture lifestyle the pair would enjoy as a married couple.”
Force multipliers: How one donor network is pushing the envelope on California campaign money
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER/ALEXEI KOSEFF/JEREMIA KIMELMAN: “Sift through the campaign contributions to Robert Rivas, the Salinas Democrat angling to become the next speaker of the California Assembly, and a name keeps popping up: Govern For California.
The organization’s statewide chapter gave the maximum $9,800 to Rivas in 2021. So did its Marin chapter, Hollywood chapter, Golden Gate chapter, Palo Alto chapter and four others. In the past 14 months, 16 Govern For California chapters have given him a combined $116,000 — nearly a tenth of everything he’s raised this election cycle.
Over the last two years, Rivas’ 2022 reelection committee has been a top recipient of campaign contributions from the Govern For California network, according to a CalMatters analysis of state campaign finance records. During the same period, financial disclosure forms, lobbying reports and Govern For California emails show that his brother, Rick Rivas, has served as both a political advisor to the statewide organization and as a consultant to Robert Rivas’ campaign.”
This Orange County city to consider banning abortions, becoming ‘sanctuary for life’
LAT, ITZEL LUNA: “The San Clemente City Council is set to consider a resolution in a couple of weeks that would declare the city a “sanctuary for life,” making it an abortion-free zone.
The resolution, which was written and proposed by Councilman Steven Knoblock, states that the City Council “considers life to begin at conception” and stands against the establishment of Planned Parenthood health centers or any other clinics where abortions are performed.
“There probably isn’t a family in America that hasn’t been impacted by abortion,” Knoblock said. “The [resolution] will get people thinking about what society has been doing for 50 years.””
Biden signs executive order to protect travel for abortion
AP, SEUNG MIN KIM/CHRIS MEGERIAN: “President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that lays the groundwork for Medicaid to help women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure.
The details are still being worked out, and the administration faces a challenging legal landscape because it’s illegal to use federal funding to pay for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
However, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Department of Health and Human Services would invite states where abortion remains legal to apply for permission to use Medicaid funds to “provide reproductive healthcare to women who live in states where abortion is banned.””
Gavin Newsom is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. So why hasn’t he commuted any death sentences?
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “Two months after taking office in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions in California, a bold action in a state whose voters have approved the death penalty four times since 1972. But because Newsom has yet to seek clemency for any of the state’s condemned inmates — currently 687 — they could again face execution once he leaves office.
Some states allow their governors to commute sentences on their own, such as the 167 death sentences that Illinois Gov. George Ryan reduced to life in prison, or to 40 years in some cases, as he was leaving office in 2003. But since 1879, California’s Constitution has required the governor to gain approval from a majority of the state Supreme Court’s justices before granting clemency to anyone with felony convictions in two or more cases, a category that includes most, or perhaps all, of the state’s Death Row inmates.
The court set no public criteria for considering clemency until 2018, when the seven justices announced that they would deny a governor’s request only if it represented “an abuse of (clemency) power,” a seemingly permissive standard.”
Wrangling over renewables: Counties push back on Newsom administration usurping local control
CALMatters, JULIE CART: “Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves guided his pickup to a stop next to a long line of chain-link fencing. On one side of a gravel road stood row after row of glinting solar panels. The automated mirrors pivot and turn, following the sun in its daily path across the Central Valley sky.
Neves, a big man with a wispy Santa Claus beard, was showing off the county’s newest mega solar power project, still under construction on 1,600 acres. A state-of-the-art facility, it includes powerful batteries to store and deliver power after the sun sets.
This solar plant in King County is one of the scores of new renewable energy puzzle pieces across the state considered vital to California’s transition to cleaner electricity and its pursuit of climate change solutions.”
Federal appellate bench has many ex-corporate lawyers but few who represented the vulnerable, report finds
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “Among the nation’s 171 federal appeals court judges, only 11 — less than 6% — had any experience in representing workers, consumers or the poor before their appointments, according to a new report. By contrast, the report said, 68% of the appellate judges are former corporate lawyers, and 28% are former prosecutors.
In its study, the liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice contends that federal court rulings in recent years “for the wealthy and powerful and against the interests of working people and communities” were influenced by the makeup of the judiciary.
“We have created a justice system where working people are far more likely to sit before a judge with experience union-busting or blocking consumer protections than someone with experience representing people like them,” said the group’s president, Rakim H.D. Brooks.”
Poorer students still get the least qualified teachers, but California has made progress
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT/JOHN FENSTERWALD/DANIEL J WILLIS: “Across California, low-income students are more likely to have unqualified teachers, but what has been a longstanding problem of inequity between rich and poor schools may be showing progress.
Among all schools statewide, the rate for unqualified teachers is lowest in the wealthiest schools and higher in the rest. There are 40% more teachers in poor schools who lack the required qualifications than in the richest schools, an EdSource analysis found.
But the analysis of newly released state data also shows there may be reason for optimism.”
Targeting fentanyl dealers, new S.F. D.A. to revoke plea offers in drug crimes made under Boudin
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: “San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is pulling back more than 30 plea offers she deemed too lenient for defendants accused of selling fentanyl, marking the most concrete rebuke to date of her office’s previous practices under Chesa Boudin.
The Wednesday announcement came as Jenkins laid out a slate of new policies intended to clamp down on a drug epidemic that has decimated the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood.
The directives would amend the prosecutors’ treatment of bail, drug-free school zones and and diversion programming — all potentially boosting the time a defendant remains behind bars.”
Protesters halt construction at UC Berkeley’s People’s Park after clashing with police
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI/JORDAN PARKER/MICHAEL CABANATUAN: “Several dozen protesters made a last-ditch effort to halt the construction of a controversial student housing development at UC Berkeley’s People’s Park on Wednesday, knocking down security fencing and planting themselves in front of construction vehicles to oppose the project.
Tensions between protesters, police and construction crews ebbed and flowed throughout the day, but they reached a peak shortly after 12:30 p.m. after protesters began tearing down fencing erected around the park’s perimeter.
Police, some in riot gear, attempted to clear the park of people Wednesday morning, but protesters had ripped down most of the security fencing, reoccupied the park and halted construction efforts before they began smashing windows and mechanical components on several bulldozers and earthmovers. Multiple vehicles and pieces of equipment had wires clipped, spark plugs removed and unknown materials dumped into gas tanks.”
The price gap between renting and buying Bay Area homes reaches new high
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “With Bay Area rent prices still below pre-pandemic levels and home prices hovering around all-time highs — despite a recent softening as mortgage interest rates rise — the gap between the cost of renting and the cost of owning a home in the region is the highest it’s been for at least the past two decades, data shows.
What’s more, that gap, called the price-to-rent ratio, is higher in the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas than anywhere else in the nation, according to Moody’s Analytics. The last time the ratio reached nearly this high was right before the housing bubble of the early 2000s burst, presaging the Great Recession.
Does this mean it is better to rent than buy now in the Bay Area? And, given that high price-to-rent ratios are seen as possible indicators of real estate bubbles, what does that mean for where home prices may be headed?”
Russian prosecutors seek 9½-year sentence for WNBA star Brittney Griner
AP, JIM HEINTZ: “Russian prosecutors asked a court to sentence American basketball star Brittney Griner to 9½ years in prison as closing arguments in her trial for cannabis possession were made Thursday.
The trial outside Moscow is nearing its end nearly six months after Griner’s arrest at a Moscow airport and subsequent detention. The case has reached the highest levels of U.S.-Russian diplomacy. Under Russian law, the 31-year-old Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Although a conviction appears almost certain, given that Russian courts rarely acquit defendants and Griner has acknowledged having vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage, judges have considerable latitude on sentencing.”
