California’s top environmental regulator leaves to join ‘one of the biggest climate funds in the world’
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: “California’s top environmental regulator is stepping down at the end of the month, leaving the task of confronting climate change and pollution under Gov. Gavin Newsom to a respected environmental justice advocate.
Jared Blumenfeld, a seasoned policy guru and San Francisco resident who was tapped by the Newsom administration to serve as secretary for environmental protection four years ago, said he’s vacating his
“Frankly, I love working for government, and the scale of what we’ve been able to do is huge,” Blumenfeld told The Chronicle. However, he said, the opportunity to work outside of the bureaucratic red tape on climate issues with an enormous sum of money was not one he could pass up."
Heat wave expected to bake inland region of the Bay Area this week
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: “Forecasters expect a heat wave to bake the inland regions of the Bay Area this week, with temperatures pushing into the 90s and lower 100s.
People living in the Central Valley and areas around Sacramento face the highest risk of dangerous, sweltering heat, according to a map tweeted Sunday by the National Weather Service. It shows hot spots along the eastern side of the Bay Area, and the weather becoming more moderate toward the coast.
Meteorologists warn residents in the hottest areas to avoid outdoor activities during the mornings and afternoons, to stay hydrated, seek out cool places and use air conditioning when possible.”
Baja California tries to return to normal after a weekend of cartel violence
LAT, JESSICA GARRISON/WENDY FRY/ALEXANDRA MENDOZA: “As Mexican national guard troops patrolled the streets of Tijuana and cruise lines canceled dockings in Ensenada over fears of violence, Baja California residents struggled Sunday to return to normal life after hooded bandits associated with criminal cartels effectively shut down much of the region Friday.
State officials said the assailants hijacked and burned at least two dozen vehicles and put up roadblocks around the state Friday evening. Messages also began circulating on social media, purportedly from the Jalisco New Generation cartel, declaring a curfew in Tijuana and warning residents to go home or risk being attacked. Many did, turning the normally frenetic zone of restaurants and bars around Avenida Revolución into a virtual ghost town.
By Saturday afternoon, hundreds of military troops and special forces had arrived in Tijuana to help restore order and reinforce security. Some 300 troops, along with 50 members of the national guard, were flown in to support 3,000 national guard troops and the 2,000-strong Tijuana police force that, according to the mayor, were already patrolling.”
California’s vital ocean current will soon see major disruption. Here’s what’s at stake
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: “Enormous disruption is predicted for the California Current marine ecosystem, which runs the length of the West Coast and is considered one of the most rich and abundant ocean regions in the world.
With human-caused climate change, some of the most important species that live in that zone will experience major changes by the end of the century, in some cases facing a 25% lower chance of survival, a new study found.
“Everything from plankton and seaweeds to fish and marine mammals and birds, all of that is dependent on the health or condition of the California Current system,” said Terrie Klinger, a coauthor of the study at the University of Washington.”
Electric vehicles, fine, but hydrogen fuel cell cars are even better
Capitol Weekly, WILL SHUCK: “Driving a fuel-cell car means hunting for stations, dealing with shortages and managing an unfamiliar nozzle that sometimes freezes to the car — but Sen. Josh Newman loves it.
“I’m the self-appointed chair of the ‘Hydrogen Car Caucus,’” said the senator from Orange County, whose personal car is a 2021 Toyota Mirai. Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine and Asssemblymember Bill Quirk, D-Hayward also drive, and advocate for, hydrogen vehicles.
“These are wonderful cars,” Newman said.”
San Bernardino Mountains hit with flash floods as summer downpours continue
LAT, PHIL WILLON: “Heavy rainfall continues to cause havoc in Southern California’s mountain and deserts, including flash flooding that forced a San Bernardino County sheriff’s search and rescue team to help seven hikers trapped near Forest Falls on Saturday.
The weekend deluge hit just over a week after historic rainfall and flooding swamped Death Valley National Park, trapping hundreds of visitors and staff members in the park due to road closures, the second major deluge that week to hit what is usually one of the hottest spots on Earth. Earlier this month, monsoonal rains and mud flows also wiped out a section of Highway 38 near Big Bear and stranded more than 200 people on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
That treacherous weather is expected to continue through the week.”
What parents should know about getting kids ready for transitional kindergarten
EdSource, KAREN D’SOUZA: “oing back to school is always a bit of a sticky transition, but this year there’s more to worry about, from teacher shortages to mask rules, than the usual concerns. On top of all that, there are many more children who will be going to transitional kindergarten, or TK, this year because of the expanded age guidelines. These children are younger than the usual TK cohort of almost 5-year-old children who just missed the cutoff for kindergarten.
Paula Merrigan, for one, is up for the challenge. A veteran early childhood educator with 15 years teaching kindergarten and TK in the Castro Valley Unified School District, she’s long been a champion of making transitional kindergarten, a steppingstone between preschool and kindergarten, available to more children.
The universal transitional kindergarten program is being gradually phased in until it includes all the state’s 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year. In the 2022–23 school year, children who will turn 5 between Sept. and Feb. 2 are eligible for TK. In the 2023–24 school year, children who will turn 5 between Sept. 2 and April 2 are eligible for TK.”
Newsom, out front on marriage and marijuana, faces ‘different animal’ on drug sites
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: “Gavin Newsom is facing one of the toughest political decisions of his career: whether to grant state permission for San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to open experimental safe injection sites as a way to curb California’s overdose crisis.
Most elected leaders couldn’t veto something like this fast enough. Condoning illegal drug use — even if it is supervised by professionals — sounds politically insane.
But since his first days in elective office, Newsom has been at his best when he’s looking around the corner and leading on a controversial issue, long before it’s well understood, much less politically popular. Think about his leadership on same-sex marriage, the legalization of cannabis, rolling back the death penalty, toughest-in-the-nation gun safety laws and making California an abortion rights sanctuary.”
How Bay Area home prices would hold up in a recession compared to the cities where so many have moved
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “Stratospheric home prices in the Bay Area, which had seemed impervious for much of the pandemic even as people fled its large population centers, are edging down from record highs as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to combat inflation — and now concerns about a possible recession are further rattling homeowners.
But with Northern California’s housing markets cooling faster than the rest of the country, how vulnerable is the Bay Area’s housing market if a recession hits, relative to other parts of the country?
While an economic downturn would have a negative impact on the region, its effects would likely be much worse in the U.S. metropolitan areas that saw an influx of people from places like the Bay Area, a new report says.”
‘I was in shock’: California rents are spiking — and in places you might not expect
LAT, UMMER LIN: “When Santa Monica resident Rob Leonard got a notice telling him that rent for his one-bedroom apartment would go up $100 a month starting in September, he had to read the letter several times because he thought there was a mistake.
“I was in shock,” he said. “Twelve hundred dollars a year — that’s people’s grocery money. That’s gas. I have a cat, so that’s cat food, cat litter, or one vet visit could amount to $1,200. I generally live within my means, but it just means I’m going to have to work even harder and grind more.”
Leonard moved to the beachfront city in June 2013 from South L.A. and started out paying $1,450 a month. His rent has gone up slightly every year, but the latest hike — a new monthly payment of $1,764 — is the largest bump in nine years.”
The Chinese dream of home ownership is crumbling. The economy could go with it
LAT, STEPHANIE YANG: “Last November, hundreds of angry homeowners in Nanchang, the capital of China’s Jiangxi province, gathered on the roof of an unfinished apartment building. From their perch, they unfurled red and white banners along the outer walls and chanted demands for completion of the homes they had already partially paid for. On the dirt below, workers inflated a large airbag to catch anyone who jumped.
Nearly 500 miles away in Shanghai, a 26-year-old interior designer watched video of the protest on social media, and saw her life plan falling apart.
The woman and her husband, who requested anonymity to avoid retribution, had purchased a three-bedroom unit in the sprawling Xinli City project presale in August 2019. Just a few hours’ drive from both their hometowns, the development was touted as a “750,000-square-meter city of ideal life,” with a daycare center for the couple’s young child. It should have been finished that November. It wasn’t until she saw the video that she learned construction had stopped three months earlier.”
These maps show the S.F. neighborhoods that lost the most restaurants during COVID
The Chronicle, ELENA KADVANNY: “When the coronavirus shutdown forced restaurants to go dark in 2020, the future of the industry looked grim. Renowned chef Tom Colicchio predicted 75% of independent restaurants would close for good. San Francisco’s restaurant trade group said the city could lose half of its restaurants.
Yet it’s been challenging to accurately quantify how many restaurants were closed due to the pandemic and to assess the full scope of its impact on the industry. Now, though, data on restaurant openings and closures in the city from 2019 to 2021 — which The Chronicle obtained from the San Francisco Department of Public Health — offers new insight into the state of the city’s dining industry, and suggests that its future may be rooted in residential neighborhoods.
In a normal year, such as in 2019, roughly as many restaurants open as close in San Francisco. But that balance drastically shifted during the pandemic. In 2020, 335 restaurants closed while 269 opened. Even more — 530 restaurants — closed in 2021 and just 265 opened. (Note: The data includes some restaurants that were temporarily closed and have since reopened, as well as businesses licensed to serve food and drink that aren’t technically restaurants.”
Myanmar court convicts Aung San Suu Kyi on more corruption charges
AP, GRANT PECK: “A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges Monday, adding six years to her earlier 11-year prison sentence, a legal official said.
The trial was held behind closed doors, with no access for media or the public, and her lawyers were forbidden by a gag order from revealing information about the proceedings.
In the four corruption cases decided Monday, Suu Kyi was alleged to have abused her position to rent public land at below-market prices and to have built a residence with donations meant for charitable purposes. She received sentences of three years for each of the four counts, but the sentences for three of them will be served concurrently, giving her a total of six more years in prison.”
