Backroom deal to change earthquake standards in California hospitals collapses
LAT, MELODY GUTIERREZ: “A secretive deal between a group of hospitals seeking to weaken seismic upgrades at medical centers and an influential union looking to increase the pay of employees collapsed on Tuesday, just days after it was made public.
The last-minute alliance between Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and the California Hospital Assn. infuriated other unions, which accused the unlikely pair of making a backroom deal that skirted the legislative process and put patients, healthcare workers and communities at risk.
In a hospital association memo obtained by The Times, the group said the deal with SEIU-UHW came together quickly and followed years of stymied attempts to delay a state law that requires hospital buildings to have earthquake upgrades by 2030. Hospitals estimate that those upgrades will cost $100 billion, a tab they say is likely to result in closures across the state.”
Sacramento leaders ban homeless camps from sidewalks, American River Parkway and more
THERESA CLIFT, SacBee: "Homeless people will soon be prohibited from camping along the entirety of the American River Parkway, and also from blocking city of Sacramento sidewalks and business entrances.
City and county elected leaders voted unanimously Tuesday on three separate ordinances that collectively ban encampments from many public spaces. The measures do not commit the agencies to providing more shelter.
They will take effect in 30 days. Starting in late September, people can be cleared from the parkway and sidewalks — two of the most common locations for camps."
Prominent retired justice returns gifts from disgraced lawyer Tom Girardi, her ex-boyfriend
LAT, HARRIET RYAN/MATT HAMILTON: “A retired California appellate justice who carried on a four-year affair with Tom Girardi has returned numerous gifts from the now-disgraced lawyer to a bankruptcy trustee, an attorney for the former justice said.
Tricia A. Bigelow, who stepped down last year as presiding justice of an appellate court division in Los Angeles, handed over the gifts this week after The Times asked for an explanation of checks Girardi wrote to her in 2017, including one for $5,000 from his law firm’s bank account.
An attorney for Bigelow said that her romance with Girardi had concluded by then, and that she could find no record of having cashed that check or one for $10,000 from an account Girardi shared with his wife, Erika, star of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” But the inquiry apparently prompted Bigelow to turn over other gifts to the trustee overseeing the defunct law firm Girardi Keese.”
Our California salary database is updated with UC pay. See top-paid workers and more
Sacramento Bee, PHILLIP REESE: “The five highest-paid coaches in the University of California system collectively earned about $18.3 million last year, an increase of 41% from five years prior, according to the latest UC data.
The coaches pay is part of the 2021 salary data for all University of California employees that has been recently added to The Bee’s California state worker salary database.
The 41% increase in the pay for elite UC coaches outpaced inflation, which rose by about 13% during the same period. The average hourly wage paid to California workers rose about 20%.”
What’s next for potential S.F. supervised drug consumption site after Newsom’s veto?
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS/MALLORY MOENCH: “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of state legislation that would have allowed San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to launch supervised consumption sites for drug users isn’t the end of local efforts to open these facilities with the hope of reducing the number of fatal overdoses.
Shortly after Newsom announced that he was rejecting a state bill that would have authorized sites in the three cities, City Attorney David Chiu said he would support allowing a nonprofit to open one in San Francisco anyway, emulating a model already in place in New York City.
But major hurdles remain in the way of a potential San Francisco site, and it’s still not clear when such a facility might get up and running in light of the governor’s veto. Here’s a breakdown of the current situation:”
New contract for California state union lifts pay by 7.5%, offers family leave in $458M deal
WES VENTEICHER, SacBee: "A new contract agreement would provide 7.5% in raises to California state engineers over the next three years plus paid family leave at no cost to them. The Professional Engineers in California Government reached the three-year deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration on Friday.
The tentative agreement, which would add about $458 million in state spending by the end of its term, requires approval from union members and the Legislature to take effect.
The 12,600 rank-and-file employees the union represents would receive a 2.5% raise retroactive to July 1, plus a 3% raise next year and a 2% raise in 2024, according to a summary posted on the California Human Resources Department website.
Will PG&E get through fire season without causing catastrophe?
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: “At this time last year, one of the largest wildfires in California history had destroyed the historic Gold Rush town of Greenville and scorched nearly 1,140 square miles in the Sierra Nevada. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment was once again to blame for a record-setting fire.
Californians have so far skirted another PG&E fire disaster this year, on the heels of a yearly run of PG&E fires that took homes and lives since 2017. Can PG&E get through a fire season without starting a major wildfire?
That goal was evident Tuesday in a conference room in San Ramon where utility managers with the company met with top executives for a weekly fire prevention briefing.”
Autopsy confirms Kiely Rodni’s remains were recovered, but cause of death remains a mystery
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: “Kiely Rodni has been officially identified as the person whose body was found in a submerged car in Truckee’s Prosser Reservoir, the Nevada County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
An autopsy on the body was conducted on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office announced on social media — and it confirmed that the body found in the reservoir by divers on Sunday was the missing 16-year-old girl from Truckee.
Although an autopsy was conducted, no cause of death was released.”
Northern California ranchers told to stop diverting water, defying rules amid drought
AP: “California has warned a group of farmers and ranchers near the Oregon state line to stop diverting water from an area already wracked by extreme drought and a wildfire that killed tens of thousands of fish.
The State Water Resources Control Board issued a draft cease-and-desist order Friday to the Shasta Water Assn., warning it to stop taking water from the Shasta River watershed.
The association has 20 days to request a hearing or the order becomes final and could subject the organization to fines of up to $10,000 a day, according to the state water agency.”
A rural California prison was set to close this summer. It’s still open, and inmates want a say
LAT, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: “When it rains, water pours through the ceilings of the California Correctional Center in Susanville, sometimes flooding the cells of incarcerated men who have resorted to using soap to seal leaks.
Some toilets in the prison don’t flush and are filled with green algae.
And when the Dixie fire — the second-largest wildfire in California history — burned last summer a few miles outside town, inmates were not moved from the facility, even as electricity and water were shut off, smoke filled their cells, and they had to cover their faces with wet towels to breathe, according to court documents filed in Lassen County Superior Court, signed by about 100 men incarcerated there.”
Nancy Pelosi’s husband sentenced to 5 days in jail after guilty plea in California DUI crash
Sacramento Bee, ROSALIA AHUMADA: “Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol and causing injury in a vehicle crash three months ago in Napa County.
Paul Pelosi, 82, did not appear in court Tuesday morning. Amanda Bevins, his defense attorney, appeared on his behalf and entered his guilty plea, according to a news release from the Napa County District Attorney’s Office. California allows defendants to have their attorneys appear on their behalf in misdemeanor cases.
Napa Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga sentenced Pelosi to five days in jail and serve three years of probation, prosecutors said. Pelosi has already served two days in Napa County Jail after his Nov. 28 arrest and earned two days of credit for good behavior while in custody, according to court records. The judge also ordered him to spend eight hours in a jail-work program.”
This power line could save California — and forever change the American West
LAT, SAMMY ROTH/ROBERT GAUTHIER/MAGGIE BEIDELMAN/JESSICA Q CHEN/CLAIRE HANNAH COLLINS/ASHLEY CAI/THOMAS SUH LAUDER: “I know the wind turbine blades aren’t going to kill me. At least, I’m pretty sure.
No matter how many times I watch the slender arms swoop down toward me — packing as much punch as 20 Ford F-150 pickup trucks — it’s hard to shake the feeling they’re going to knock me off my feet. They sweep within a few dozen feet of the ground before launching back toward the heavens, reaching nearly 500 feet above my head — higher than the highest redwood.
They’re eerily quiet, emitting only a low hum. But in the howling wind, the tips could be barreling past at 183 mph.”
‘Beyond toxic’: S.F. supervisor candidate condemned for referring to Jewish journalist as a Nazi
The Chronicle, EMMA TALLEY/J.D. MORRIS: “A candidate for a San Francisco Board of Supervisors seat referred to a Jewish journalist as a Nazi in social media posts Tuesday that promptly drew condemnation from political leaders and organizations.
Leanna Louie, who is running for election in District Four, which includes the Outer Sunset, posted messages on Instagram and Facebook that twice referred to Mission Local editor and columnist Joe Eskenazi as “Joe EskeNAZI.” Her posts followed recent reporting by Eskenazi that raised questions about whether Louie meets the residency requirements to appear on the ballot and whether she voted in an election for which she was not eligible to participate.
In the wake of Eskenazi’s reporting, the San Francisco elections director asked the City Attorney’s Office to review whether Louie meets the requirements to run in District Four.”
What’s behind Newsom’s safe injection sites veto?
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: “Read between the lines of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Monday veto of a controversial bill that would have allowed San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to launch trial supervised drug injection sites in a bid to curb California’s epidemic of fatal overdoses, and you might catch a glimpse of the political tightrope he’s walking.
Although the governor’s veto message raises concerns about the operation of supervised injection sites — which currently aren’t allowed under federal law — it appears particularly apprehensive about the number of facilities that could have sprung up following his signature.
Newsom: “The unlimited number of safe injection sites that this bill would authorize — facilities which could exist well into the later part of this decade — could induce a world of unintended consequences.”
SFUSD is spending nearly $100 million to build a new school despite families fleeing the district. Here’s why
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: “Despite an enrollment decline that is leaving thousands of seats empty in San Francisco schools, the city’s school board is forging ahead with a plan to build a $95 million elementary school to open in three years.
The Mission Bay project has been in the works for more than two decades, as part of the master plan to develop the formerly industrial area.
On Tuesday, the school board is expected to vote to accept the formal transfer of 2.5 acres for free from UCSF, which currently is in control of the land.”
Los Angeles Unified carrying focus on recovery into new school year
EdSource, KATE SEQUEIRA: “Los Angeles Unified is focused on academic recovery as Covid-19 takes a back seat for the district this new school year. As LAUSD moves into its second week back, attention is on ensuring all students return to the classroom and on addressing the gaps in learning made evident by the district’s most recent round of testing.
“The last couple of years we focused on Covid protocols,” school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said at a news conference last week. “We worried about whether we would catch it, what was happening physically in our classrooms. Now, we get to focus on, instructionally, what’s happening in our classrooms, socio-emotionally, what’s happening in our classrooms, what relationships we’re building.”
Though data has not yet been released, Carvalho said last school year’s Smarter Balanced testing demonstrates “significant declines” in areas such as reading and math across all grade levels. That’s why this year will focus on acceleration, he said.”
How two Hollywood stars plan to save a team, and a town, ‘desperate for a lifeline’
LAT, KEVIN BAXTER: “Coal and steel built Wrexham, a market town wedged between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley in northern Wales. But soccer has long sustained it.
The city’s team was formed in 1864, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, making it the third oldest in soccer history. And the fortunes of team and town have risen and fallen together ever since.
Both have been in steep decline lately.”
Ukraine marks its Independence Day — and a 6-month-old war that’s growing more dangerous
The Chronicle, TRACY WILKINSON/LAURA KING: “Far from bogging down in a stalemate, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has evolved into an increasingly dangerous conflict as it passes the six-month mark, with fighting around Europe’s largest nuclear plant, a high-profile assassination in Moscow, escalating threats and daring Ukrainian attacks in Russian-held territory.
“The dynamic of the battlefield” is shifting, said retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former commander of U.S. Army Europe. Armed with increasingly lethal weapons from the U.S. and other allies, Ukraine has been able to occasionally seize the initiative and surprise Russian forces.
It is not clear, however, how long that can last or whether Ukraine can build on those small victories enough to dictate the course of the war.”
