These celebrities are accused of drought restriction violations
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH/SEAN GREENE: “They’re among the biggest names in entertainment and sports: Sylvester Stallone, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Hart, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.
And as Southern California struggles with a third year of punishing drought and unprecedented water restrictions, they may be among the biggest names in water waste in the tony San Fernando Valley enclaves of Calabasas and Hidden Hills, documents obtained by The Times show.
The celebrities were among more than 2,000 customers who recently were issued “notices of exceedance” by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, indicating that they had surpassed 150% of their monthly water budgets at least four times since the agency declared a drought emergency at the end of last year.”
El Cajon man who posted ‘goofy’ photo at Capitol insurrection is convicted
JOSH CAIN, OC Register: "A Southern California man who posted an Instagram photo of himself standing in a ransacked office inside the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot there was found guilty of obstruction and disorderly conduct charges on Friday, Aug. 19.
A jury found Erik Herrera, a 34-year-old photographer from El Cajon in San Diego County, guilty of obstructing the proceedings inside the Capitol to confirm President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. He was also found guilty on four additional counts related to his entering the Capitol building and his behavior once he got inside.
Possibly key to the jury’s verdict was a photo of Herrera posted of himself on his Instagram account. He’s wearing a gas mask and goggles inside an office in the Capitol, holding what appeared to be a stack of documents he found."
COVID in California: FDA authorizes another COVID vaccine for kids 12-17
The Chronicle, DOMINIC FRACASSA: “A couple is cohabiting with COVID. Could they retransmit the coronavirus to each other, prolonging their infections? In one California county, just 4% of pre-teens are vaccinated against COVID.
Coronavirus cases have been on a steady decline recently in the Bay Area, but for the many who caught COVID-19 this year during the successive waves caused by omicron and its subvariants, the prospects of long COVID may be a new concern.
While experts said there is still much to learn, here is what we know about long COVID at this stage in the pandemic, including how it is diagnosed, who is more susceptible to it and whether there are any treatments.”
In California’s largest race bias cases, Latino workers are accused of abusing Black colleagues
LA Times, MARGOT ROOSEVELT: “Nearly every day, the onetime Ontario warehouse employee said, he was stunned to hear racist slurs from Latino co-workers.
“They said it in English — they said it in Spanish all the time,” recalled Leon Simmons, a Black father of four with a deep voice and gentle manner. “When they look you right in the eye and call you the N-word to your face, that’s dehumanizing.”
Thirty-two miles away at a Moreno Valley warehouse, it was the same story. Another Black laborer, Benjamin Watkins, described how a Latina co-worker called to him: “‘Hey, monkey! Yeah, you!’ and waved a banana in her hand. A group of women burst out laughing.””
Dead rats, no backup, too many calls for some in LA County Sheriff’s Department, witnesses say
CITY NEWS SERVICE, LA Daily News: "Dead rats have been left outside homes of members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department who are seen as being cooperative with investigations into the department, a witness testified at an oversight commission hearing on Friday, Aug. 19.
The anonymous witness detailed instances of retaliation that she said she and other employees at the East Los Angeles station faced from members of an alleged deputy gang known as the Banditos. Friday’s meeting was the fifth hearing by the Civilian Oversight Commission into allegations of deputy gangs in the Sheriff’s Department.
As the commission displayed a picture of a dead rat outside a home, the witness testified that she was the recipient of a deceased animal on “more than one occasion.”
From critical race theory bans to anti-LGBTQ rules: Will conservatives transform California schools?
The Chronicle, RYAN KOST: “They might have been two moms talking about their kids over coffee.
It was a sunny morning in Yorba Linda, like most spring mornings in Orange County suburbia are, when Shani Murray sat down with Leandra Blades in an empty Starbucks in a strip mall. Murray would have preferred a phone call, but Blades had suggested coffee — and Murray was thankful that Blades, a Placentia-Yorba Linda school board trustee, who had run and won her seat in 2020 on a platform that included banning critical race theory, was making time for her at all.
Murray, whose son is a sophomore in one of the well-regarded district’s high schools, didn’t support the ban, which, as she understood it, would prohibit any discussion of systemic racism in classes. She asked Blades, a Republican, about what she’d read on the subject of critical race theory. Blades referred her to an e-book by conservative commentator Candace Owens. Murray offered up her own sources, pieces written by academics — and a civil, if not entirely productive conversation ensued.”
Frustration after bilingual education bill dies in State Assembly
EdSource, ZAIDEE STAVELY: “A bill that would have helped school districts open more dual-language immersion programs fizzled in the California State Assembly this month, crushing the hopes of many advocates of bilingual education.
Senate Bill 952 would have established a program to offer at least 20 school districts technical assistance and grants of up to $750,000 each to expand or establish dual-language immersion programs.
Dual-language immersion programs are designed to help both those who speak only English and those who speak only another language become bilingual by teaching all students in both languages. Research shows that these programs improve academic achievement for English learners, and at the same time benefit students who are native English speakers.”
How a homeless woman and her ‘emotional support duck’ survive on the streets of L.A.
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA/MEL MELCON: “No one took a second look at the young woman pushing the maroon stroller through the concrete tangle of downtown Los Angeles. From a distance, Autumn McWilliams could have been any mother out with her baby — until passersby drew near and caught sight of the creamy white feathers.
Then they pointed. They quacked and shouted “Aflac!,” a nod to the ubiquitous insurance spokes-duck. They asked to snap photos.
Inside the stroller was the center of attention: a Pekin duck known as Cardi D.”
Why Cal State struggles to graduate Black students — and what could be done
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN/MICHAELLA HUCK/JULIE WATTS: ““A lot of people would tell you to get to college,” said Cal State Northridge senior Christopher Carter, “but the hardest part is staying in college.”
Carter speaks from experience: He arrived at Cal State as a business major, and discovered he was one of only a few Black students in his classes. Math had never been his strong suit, and he failed his introductory statistics class twice. Quarantining during the pandemic added more stress.
He sought help from academic advisors, but felt they couldn’t understand his background and experiences. Whenever he tried to see one of Northridge’s three Black mental health counselors, he said, they didn’t have available appointments.”
You can now use your retirement funds to invest in your favorite good cause. Here’s how
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: “In a stubbly field on a sunny morning, Erin Axelrod filled a feed pan with orange peels from her kitchen and spent grain from a nearby brewery. Maisie, a mama goat, munched placidly on the meal while Axelrod squeezed Maisie’s teat until a stream of milk trickled into a metal bucket.
Milking the goats housed at Wild & Radish eco-village in El Sobrante, five minutes from her home, is a weekly ritual for Axelrod, who uses the milk to make yogurt and cheese for herself.
It’s also a way that she stays hands on — in as literal a sense as possible — with her retirement investments.”
Inside L.A.’s deadly street takeover scene: ‘A scene of lawlessness’
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS/MELISSA HERNANDEZ/MYUNG J CHUN: “Cindy and Dora didn’t know where they were going on a recent Saturday night, but they knew they were headed to a “show.”
Around 11 p.m., Cindy texted a friend in Compton but didn’t immediately hear back. She and Dora grabbed some tacos from a stand and waited. About 40 minutes later, the women — who didn’t wish to be identified by their last names —had their answer: East Compton Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue.
A little after midnight, nearly 200 people blocked the streets in what has become a weekly ritual in the city. Two cars whipped around the intersection, burning tires and worn-down brake pads sending shrouds of thick smoke into the air.”
Here's when San Francisco normally has its hottest day of the year
The Chronic, JACK LEE: “While much of California sees peak temperatures in solidly summer months, San Francisco typically has its hottest day of the year in fall, according to decades of climate data.
Most of the United States experiences its warmest day during July or August. But atmospheric circulation patterns and the Pacific Ocean shift the timeline later for San Francisco and other coastal California communities.
This map shows when the warmest day of the year occurs across California, with later dates shown in darker shades of orange and red. The data come from the 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals, a record of the nation’s typical climate conditions over a 30-year period, including maximum temperatures each day. In locations where multiple days shared the highest temperature, a date in the center of the range was selected.”
One S.F. neighborhood added just 0.2% of city’s housing units in past five years
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: “Looking at San Francisco from bay to ocean, it’s apparent that the city’s east side is much more densely built than the west, as tall residential buildings dot the bay side while single family homes are far more common on the west side.
Even as the city faces intense pressure to meet mandated state goals to add 82,000 new housing units by 2030, recent development continues to reinforce that stark difference, a Chronicle analysis of data from the San Francisco Planning Department shows.
Over the last five years, 74% of San Francisco’s net increase in housing units, which subtracts demolitions, was built in SoMa, Downtown and the Mission — the top three among 15 total planning districts for new housing built over the last five years, according to the data.”
Protester wounded by LAPD reflects on two-year legal battle, $1.25-million settlement
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR: “Iz Sinistra was entering an exciting new chapter in life in May 2020. He was studying music under the GI Bill after four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, was about to sign a lease on a Los Angeles apartment, and felt happy and independent.
He also felt newly empowered to speak out about important social issues, which he said the Marines had always discouraged. So when George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis that month and thousands of people took to the streets of L.A. in protest, Sinistra joined them.
“I felt it was time to go do something that was right,” he said.”
