Support for Prop 30 drops after California Gov. Gavin Newsom airs an ad opposing it
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "Support for Proposition 30, a ballot measure to impose a tax on the wealthy to pay for greenhouse gas reduction efforts, has dipped since California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut an ad opposing it.
According to the latest Berkeley IGS poll, 49% of likely voters support Proposition 30, while 37% are opposed and 14% are undecided.
That’s down from 55% of likely voters supporting it in a Public Policy Institute of California poll that was published in mid-September.
As the Salton Sea shrinks, a radical plan to save it with ocean water is rejected
LAT, IAN JAMES: “For as long as the Salton Sea has faced the threat of ecological collapse, some local residents and environmentalists have advocated a radical cure for the deteriorating lake: a large infusion of ocean water.
By moving desalinated seawater across the desert, they say, California could stop its largest lake from shrinking and growing saltier and could restore its once-thriving ecosystem. Without more water, they argue, the lake will continue to decline, and its retreating shorelines will expose growing stretches of dry lake bed that spew hazardous dust and greenhouse gases.
“The Salton Sea is drying up, along with water for our people and the environment,” the Salton City nonprofit the EcoMedia Compass says on its website. “Let’s ensure water resource sustainability for future generations, and import water from the ocean.””
Third rapper shot and killed in L.A. County in less than a month was found dead in planter
SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, LA Times: "An Inglewood rapper died after he was shot multiple times by someone inside a dark SUV in Koreatown late Monday night, according to reports.
KTTV-TV, Channel 11 identified the victim as Half Ounce, who had released an album in May called “Gang Bangin.”
The Los Angeles County coroner’s office on Tuesday confirmed the victim’s identity as Latauriisha O’Brien, Half Ounce’s real name."
Doctors who question COVID vaccines sue California over new medical misinformation law
BOB EGELKO, Chronicle: "California will soon become the first state with a law aimed at punishing doctors who give patients false information about COVID-19 — and, not surprisingly, the law was challenged in court Tuesday by two physicians who question the effectiveness of vaccines for the virus, advocate unproven treatments and oppose mask mandates.
“The goal of AB2098 is to chill speech — in particular the speech of doctors who make a different assessment of the available evidence than the state of California,” attorneys from two conservative nonprofit organizations said in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles on behalf of doctors seeking to declare the law unconstitutional.
AB2098 by Assembly Member Evan Low, D-San Jose, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and scheduled to take effect in January, prohibits doctors from giving their patients “false or misleading information” about the coronavirus. That includes information about the risks of the disease, its prevention and treatment, and the “development, safety and effectiveness” of COVID vaccines."
These are the new COVID variants that experts say could fuel a winter surge
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: “With the arrival of the fall and winter seasons, experts are keeping a close eye on emerging coronavirus variants and their potential to cause a new COVID-19 surge.
Two of the pandemic’s worst surges to date — in January 2001 from the delta variant and January this year from the original omicron variant — occurred as the weather cooled, and many people traveled and gathered indoors for the holidays.
This year is different, experts say, with multiple vaccines and an updated booster shot available, more natural immunity as an ever-larger proportion of the population contracts the virus, and a number of treatment options for those who do fall ill.”
Newsom with law enforcement on solitary confinement veto
SETH SANDRONSKY, Capitol Weekly: "Last Thursday, Gov. Newsom vetoed the California Mandela Act on Solitary Confinement, named after Nelson Mandela, who emerged from decades of political imprisonment in South Africa, to be its first black president in the post-apartheid era.
The Mandela Act, or AB 2632, would have reformed the practice of solitary confinement, placing people, convicted and awaiting trial, in isolation for up to 24 hours a day in jails, prisons and detention facilities.
By one estimate, at any one time there are thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement in prisons, jails and other lockups."
Flu could be far worse in L.A. this season. Here’s why
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: “More than 2½ years into the battle against COVID-19, officials are warning that this fall and winter could see the rebound of a more traditional foe: the flu.
Influenza has been largely dormant the last two seasons, a development some attribute to the infection-prevention protocols put in place to ward off the coronavirus.
But with measures such as mandatory masking, physical distancing and limitations on business and social activities having been put aside amid improved pandemic conditions, California could be in line for a more active flu season this year.”
Two-thirds of California voters say Trump should be prosecuted if there’s enough evidence, poll shows
LAT, MELANIE MASON: “Two-thirds of California voters believe former President Trump should be prosecuted if the government feels there is sufficient evidence of crimes, but far fewer believe he is likely to face charges, according to a new poll.
The Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, found stark partisan divides over the investigations into the former president, with nearly 6 in 10 Republicans believing that prosecuting Trump would not be good for the country, while just 4% of Democrats feel the same.
Still, there are signs that Trump’s hold on the GOP is diminishing in California, with a small but noticeable drop in Republican voters who identify themselves as Trump supporters instead of supporters of the party.”
Descendants of Serranus Hastings sue state and UC Hastings law school board to keep name, disputing link to racism
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: “Days after Gov. Gavin Newson signed a bill to reverse an 1878 law requiring that UC Hastings College of the Law forever keep its founder’s name — or the state must repay descendants $100,000, plus interest — six family members sued on Tuesday to get their money back.
If California persists in removing Hastings’ name from the law school on Jan. 1, the interest rate would be an annual 7%, family and supporters said Tuesday at a press conference outside San Francisco Superior Court.”
Police release video of person of interest in possible serial killings in Stockton and Oakland
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN/KEVIN FAGAN/SARAH RAVANI: “Detectives in Stockton have linked two more shootings to a string of cases they believe are related, possibly the work of a serial killer whom police have now connected to a homicide in Oakland.
“By definition, these shootings are a series of killings,” police Chief Stanley McFadden told reporters on Tuesday afternoon, noting similarities in a spate of five deadly shootings from July 8 to Sept. 27, clustered on the north side of the Calaveras River.”
Citywide crime in S.F. is looking like it did pre-COVID — with one major exception
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: “Since 2020, many events have shaken up San Francisco’s crime landscape. Progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin took office, got recalled, and was replaced by former employee Brooke Jenkins(who supported the recall).
The SFPD experienced attrition and recruitment issues. But none of these events had even close to as significant an impact on crime in the city as the pandemic.
Starting in March 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns began, crime patterns in the city went haywire. Reported assaults, larceny thefts and robberies declined, while burglaries and motor vehicle thefts soared.”
A streetcar is coming to downtown Santa Ana. Will it fast track gentrification?
LAT, GABRIEL SAN ROMAN/HANNAH FRY: “Behind Yohana Rojas’ apartment near downtxxxxxaaSanta Ana, workers are pounding away on a new streetcar line.
Nearby, a 218-unit complex is going up on 4th Street, promising a “new riff on downtown living” for rents likely above $3,000 a month.
Rojas’ family gets by on what her husband earns as a painter. With two children to feed, the couple can’t afford more than the $1,800 they pay for the two-bedroom unit.”
In the Ukraine war, a shadowy key player emerges: Russia’s private army of mercenaries
LAT, MARKUS ZIENER/LAURA KING: “As Russia suffers one devastating military setback after another in Ukraine, a key player in the conflict is stepping out of the shadows: the private army known as the Wagner Group.
Despite the Kremlin’s longtime practice of publicly distancing itself from the paramilitary organization, Wagner mercenaries — who first emerged during Russia’s 2014 conquest of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula — have taken part in some of the most consequential battles of the 7-month-old war, according to Western military analysts.
Now, at a potentially fateful juncture in the fighting, experts say Russia is likely to become even more dependent on the private army, which has been implicated in human rights abuses in Ukraine as well as other conflict zones, including Syria, Libya, Mali and Central African Republic.”
