Big Ten reaches seven-year TV deal worth nearly $8 billion after adding UCLA, USC
LA Times, SAM FARMER: “The Big Ten has finalized a monumental media-rights agreement inspired by the NFL’s coast-to-coast takeover on Sundays — and paves a path to ending those late-night USC and UCLA games that only part of the country watches.
As of next fall, the conference will feature morning games on Fox, afternoon games on CBS and prime-time games on NBC.
“I think this media deal will give more attention to the West Coast schools,” Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren told The Times. “We’ll be starting at 9 in the morning Pacific time, and because of the quality of the games, with fans across four time zones, it’s going to give validity and credibility to all our games, from the morning, throughout the day and into the night.””
Facing drought, climate change recycled water is key to survival
Capitol Weekly, AARON GILBREATH: “In 2019, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled what the city calls “The Green New Deal.” This ambitious sustainability plan stipulates many policy and infrastructural changes to prepare the four-million-person city for climate change. To name a few, the Deal includes: transitioning the power grid to 100% renewable energy by 2045; modifying 100% of buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050; increasing zero emission vehicles, and electrifying all Metro and LADOT buses, to reach zero carbon transportation by 2050.
“The United Nations has warned us of the dangers of inaction or incrementalism,” Mayor Garcetti wrote in a statement. “This crisis is real. This moment demands immediate solutions.”
One solution is to reduce the city’s dependence on imported water by recycling 100% of its wastewater by 2035. Water recycling is neither a new idea nor the savior of arid California, but increasing water recycling to drink, landscape, and recharge aquifers is a smart and practical move that modern technology now allows arid cities to do so.”
Newsom wants California legislators to pass the state’s most aggressive climate package ever. Is there enough time?
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: “Two weeks before state legislators must adjourn for the year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pleading with them to pass the most ambitious climate change package in state history.
Newsom has asked the California Legislature to sign off on a slate of bills that would require the state to dramatically reduce heat-trapping emissions in all sectors and become carbon-neutral by 2045.
The Democratic governor’s assertive foray into climate policy started in early August, when he made a rare visit to the Capitol to meet with the Senate and Assembly Democratic caucuses. Last week, he unveiled five proposed bills and declared the state “isn’t waiting a minute longer” to take bold action.”
Why 5 California unions are attacking deal that would boost pay for many health care workers
CATHIE ANDERSON, SacBee: "A powerful labor union and California’s hospitals are closing in on a deal that would allow hospitals to put off meeting seismic safety standards that will cost them tens of billions of dollars in exchange for significant boosts in minimum pay for certain health care workers.
The proposal, however, has set off alarm bells for five unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers in the state’s health care industry. They quickly assembled a coalition that fired off a letter Tuesday to state leaders to strongly oppose a legislative deal that would extend seismic safety standards set to go into effect for California’s hospitals in 2030.
A spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association did not respond to The Sacramento Bee’s request for comment, but a document on the group’s website said: “CHA — at the direction of its board of trustees — and Service Employees International Union are together advancing a proposal to create long-term stability and predictability for hospitals and a path toward higher wages for California’s health care workforce.”
Here’s where California’s cliffs are collapsing into the sea the fastest
LA Times, ROSANNA XIA: “Cliffs along California’s northernmost coast have been eroding faster than the more populated bluffs of Southern California — one of many conclusions highlighted in a new map and study that analyzed, for the first time with high-resolution data, every cliff along the state’s long and varied shoreline.
The study, conducted by researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, also identified hot spots in areas both north and south: The rate of cliff collapse was more than 16 feet per year in places such as the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Big Sur, Point Arguello and Martins Beach just south of San Francisco.
Overall, the highest rates of erosion were detected in the counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte. Hot spots there include Usal Beach, the King Range, Centerville Beach — which are all part of a region known as the Lost Coast — and an area about two miles north of the Klamath River.”
Joe Stephenshaw takes the reins as state’s new finance director
LISA RENNER, Capitol Weekly: "As a budget analyst in the California Department of Finance in 2005-2008, Joe Stephenshaw never imagined that he would one day come back to lead the division.
This month, Stephenshaw, 47, was sworn into the post, becoming the first African American to hold the position.
“I have a great deal of respect for this department,” said Stephenshaw, who previously served as Gov. Newsom’s senior counselor on infrastructure and fiscal affairs. “I have a deep understanding of the work the employees do and how hard everyone here works. To be the director of this department is such an honor in the highest degree.”
New data shows 20,000 people will be homeless in San Francisco this year
The Chronicle, KEVIN FAGAN/MALLORY MOENCH: “San Francisco officials estimate as many as 20,000 people will experience homelessness at some point in the year 2022 — and for every one person housed by a city program, four more will become unhoused.
Those figures, contained in a report set to be released Thursday, reflect the Sisyphean nature of battling one of the city’s worst crises in some of the starkest terms ever. As dire as those numbers are, though, the report also shows the most significant headway in 17 years in reducing overall homelessness in San Francisco.
The new data is contained in the city’s full Point-in-Time Count, which fleshes out details hinted at in a much briefer summation released in May, when officials announced San Francisco saw a 3.5% drop in homelessness over three years, going from 8,035 to 7,754. That number reflects a snapshot in time — one night — versus the 20,000 people over the course of a year.”
California’s fast food bill could link chains to wage theft and other workplace violations
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: “California lawmakers this month are considering a fast food bill that would significantly shift the relationship between restaurant workers and the corporate chains whose products they sell.
If Assembly Bill 257 passes, California would be the first state to assign labor liability to fast food corporations and not just their individual franchise owners.
The bill’s provisions would let workers and the state name fast food chains as a responsible party when workers claim minimum wage violations or unpaid overtime at a franchise location.”
Bay Area COVID vaccination rates for kids are among state’s highest, but ‘we can do a lot better,’ experts say
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/SUSIE NEILSON: “At the start of the new school year, the Bay Area boasts some of California’s highest rates of childhood vaccination against COVID-19, providing parents some comfort as the virus continues circulating. But even the region’s strong showing has gaps in protection, with room for improvement to keep students safe, health experts say.
Eight of the Bay Area’s nine counties lead the state in primary series vaccination rates among school-age children, according to data posted Tuesday by the state. Yet enthusiasm has waned and plateaued in some counties, especially in families with younger children.
“We can do a lot better,” said Dr. George Rutherford, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at UCSF. With more immune-evasive subvariants of the virus, such as BA.5 and BA.4, now dominant, schools can expect to see potential disruptions throughout the fall without more vaccine uptake, he said.”
First known case of human-to-animal monkeypox transmission reported
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: “In what appears to be the first documented instance of monkeypox spreading from humans to animals, a dog was likely infected with the virus by its owners in France, scientists say.
The development, reported in the Lancet medical journal, underscores guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that urges people with suspected or confirmed monkeypox infections to avoid contact with animals — including their pets — while they’re infectious.
The France case occurred in a household where two men live with their male Italian greyhound. The dog slept in the same bed with its owners. The greyhound developed symptoms 12 days after the owners did, according to the report.”
Frustration spurs California parents to run for school boards
CALMatters, JOE HONG: “Across California, parents’ pandemic-era frustrations over everything from COVID school closures and safety protocols to the power of teachers’ unions are driving them to run for school boards.
Some are motivated by national controversies, such as critical race theory and LGBTQ+ education. Others want to make sure the record amount of money pouring into California schools benefits students directly. According to the California School Boards Association, about half of the approximately 5,000 school board seats in the state are up for election this year, but there’s no official count of how many parents are running for these offices that have drawn so much ire during the pandemic.
“It’s clear that we’re really investing in our public schools,” said Taylor Kayatta, a parent and school board candidate in Sacramento. “Whatever money we’re making this year should be spent on this year’s students. I don’t like the idea of putting money away just to put it away.””
UC and CSU campuses prepare to offer abortion pills for students by January
EdSource, MARGO ROSENBAUM/NATALIE LU: “When Jessy Rosales was a 20-year-old student at UC Riverside, she had a second-trimester abortion.
While she was not initially certain she was pregnant, a visit in the fall of 2016 to her campus’s Student Health Services clinic confirmed it.
The next steps were “a no-brainer,” Rosales said — she wanted an abortion. “The reason why that was so logical is because deciding to parent is a huge, life-altering decision,” she explained, and she wanted to keep her life on her planned trajectory.”
Sunset District supervisor candidate defends her residency and voting history amid S.F. investigation
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS: “San Francisco officials are investigating a candidate for District Four supervisor over whether she met the residency requirements needed to appear on the ballot and whether she voted in a different district this year where she wasn’t eligible to cast a ballot.
The investigation comes after a local news outlet looked into her moves between districts and voting record.
Leanna Louie, one of two challengers trying to unseat incumbent Supervisor Gordon Mar, defended herself in an interview with The Chronicle on Wednesday. She said she temporarily lived in her father’s house in District 10 at one point this year and voted from there in the April election, after she had signed a lease in District Four but before she had actually completed her latest move to the Sunset.”
It was once the nation’s largest trash heap. Now it’ll be an inspirational L.A. County park
LA Times, ANDREW J. CAMPA “Standing atop Nike Hill, Victor Moreno brushed sweat from his brow and dust from his eyes.
The three-mile run on a sun-drenched afternoon had been a challenge, but the payoff was worth it: From the 1,160-foot-high spot in the Puente Hills, he was treated to a glorious 360-degree vista. Los Angeles’ skyscrapers jutting into the sky to the west, the grandeur of the San Gabriel Mountains to the north. To the east was the seemingly endless Inland Empire, with Orange County’s suburbs spread to the south.
But what really mattered to Moreno, 32, was the chance to introduce his 12-year-old daughter, Janae — who was on her first climb — to some things many city dwellers never see: darting lizards, hopping rabbits and diving birds of prey. For years the partially paved trail has been a refuge for Moreno, a place to unwind and, more recently, unmask. The Hacienda Heights resident said he’s looking forward to his daughter making memories there.”
Some see L.A. as a composting ‘laggard.’ Are Angelenos ready to change that?
LA Times, JAMES RAINEY: “For all the smiles and goodwill they attracted on a recent morning, the workers in the big green truck might have been hawking popsicles and Choco Tacos. But on this hot Saturday near downtown, the people of Los Angeles were showering their love not on the ice cream man, but the trash man.
The reason: L.A. Sanitation & Environment employees were delivering composting pails to every home and apartment in the Sunset Junction neighborhood west of Dodgers Stadium. If all goes as planned, the expansion of this program will allow every Angeleno to conveniently recycle kitchen scraps, thereby reducing the burden on landfills and helping stem the production of Earth-warming greenhouse gases.
“I’m really excited,” said Frankie McLafferty, a freelance web producer, accepting a toaster-sized composting pail at her front door. Until recently, she had seen composting as an “inaccessible” goal, requiring a big yard and her own equipment. Not anymore.”
Secret Service waited to tell Capitol Police of Pelosi threat until the Jan. 6 riot was underway
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: “A government watchdog group says it has obtained emails showing the Secret Service identified a social media account threatening Speaker Nancy Pelosi two days before the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol but did not notify Capitol Police until the insurrection was underway.
The email, which Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington posted online Wednesday, says the Secret Service identified “a social media threat directed toward Speaker Nancy Pelosi” on Jan. 4, 2021. An unidentified “intelligence research specialist” in the Secret Service sent the message to an email address for the U.S. Capitol Police, according to the copy the watchdog group posted on its website.
The email says the Secret Service discovered a post on the social network Parler, a favorite of right-wing users, that threatened then-President-Elect Joe Biden, which said, “we CANNOT allow #Biden to enter the white house.””
