Analysts say California’s soaring gas prices will decrease by $1 a gallon — sooner than you might think
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO/CLAIRE HAO: “Gas prices in the Bay Area and California have exploded in recent weeks, flirting with record highs set in June. But some relief could be coming as early as this weekend.
High prices at the pump have whiplashed motorists’ wallets for most of this year, rising to astronomical levels in February, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, before dropping modestly over the summer.
California’s gas prices soared again in late September with the average price per gallon climbing to $6.42, just 1 cent lower than the all-time high set June 14, according to data from the American Automobile Association.”
S.F. area’s exodus of rich people led to biggest drop in household income of any U.S. city
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI/SUSIE NIELSON: “The San Francisco metro area saw the biggest drop in median household income between 2019 and 2021 among the nation’s most populated regions, as many wealthy residents left during the pandemic.
Median annual income fell 4.6% to $116,005 per year, a drop of $5,546 per year, according to new census data.
The San Francisco metro area, which includes Berkeley and Oakland, still had the country’s highest median income, but the data is fresh evidence of a sustained loss of high-income earners.”
Bass, Caruso spar over USC, Scientology, policing and housing in L.A. mayoral debate
LAT, STAFF: “Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso both found themselves on the defensive Thursday evening as a quintet of moderators pressed them on an array of pain points during an hourlong live debate.
If either candidate had a wish list for uncomfortable topics they hoped their opponent might be pushed on, they probably saw it fulfilled — albeit while parrying their own laundry list of attack-line questions.
The rhetorical daggers flew fast and furious between the candidates, with Bass attempting to portray the real estate developer as a shape-shifting opportunist whom voters can’t fully trust. Caruso, in turn, aimed to characterize the congresswoman as lacking judgment and having little to show for her time in Washington, D.C.”
How California’s newest community college is shaping its identity
EdSource, ASHLEIGH PANOO: “On a recent morning after the late-summer heat wave had passed, about half a dozen students were hanging out on picnic tables in the middle of California’s newest community college, a tiny campus amid farmland about 2 miles east of Highway 99 in the Central Valley.
To first-year students Zayden Lomas and Sahib Singh, gathering in person at Madera Community College feels like a new beginning after spending much of their last years of high school at home with online classes.
Both are from Madera and met here because they had a class together on a campus that is looking to emerge from the pandemic and grow as the 116th community college in the state. Neither of them said they minded it was far from urban life and lacked the more vibrant feel of larger or more established colleges with student centers, restaurants or rec rooms. “
Most California voters favor gasoline-car phaseout
LAT, RUSS MITCHELL: “In August, California regulators issued a mandate both dramatic and historic: Ban the sale of most new gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035, in favor of electric vehicles.
So far, a majority of California voters back the move, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. Fifty-five percent of registered voters favor the mandate and 39% oppose it.
Support for the mandate was fairly widespread among voters of different ages, races and ethnicities. The biggest dividing line is politics, with conservative voters opposed to the mandate and liberals supporting it.”’
‘I’m already stressing out’: Families to face bigger bills for subsidized child care as California ends waivers
CALMatters, ELIZABETH AGUILERA: “During the pandemic, California’s low-income families that are required to pay a fee to receive subsidized child care got a waiver from paying. That waiver is set to expire next year, worrying parents who have struggled to afford it in the past.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last month that would have made the waiver permanent. Parents say the waiver, which will end in June 2023, allowed them to pay other expenses or get caught up on delinquent bills. Now they will have to stop paying down debt, saving for emergencies and enrolling their children in extra activities like dance lessons to pay the fees instead.
In South Los Angeles, Marisol Rosales has already started to save money for the coming bill. Before their fees were waived last year, the family paid $400 a month for child care for their four children. After paying for rent, necessities and child care there was no money left, she said.”
State withdraws plans to limit internet and cell phone discount for low-income Californians
CALMatters, LIL KALISH: “A day before the California Public Utilities Commission was to vote on a rule that would have shrunken subsidies low-income residents use for phone and internet services, officials pulled the item from the commission’s agenda.
Under the proposed rule, low-income California households who qualify for federal help to pay for phone service and internet access would have lost some or all of their California LifeLine monthly discounts. The result: Instead of being able to stack three discounts, most California LifeLine users would have been limited to two, for a total of up to $39.25 in discounts a month.
The commission was scheduled to discuss and vote on the proposal at its meeting Thursday but officials removed it from the agenda without a written explanation. A commission spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.”
This popular California hot spring reportedly still has brain-eating amoeba present in the water
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: “Recent water testing of a popular California hot springs destination called Hot Ditch in Bishop (Inyo County) reportedly found that the same brain-eating amoeba that killed an 8-year-old boy in 2018 remained present in the water.
The sampling was performed for attorneys representing a California family who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
The agency owns and operates Hot Ditch, a series of man-made water ponds. The lawsuit also names Brown Supply Company, which operates a nearby resort called Keough’s Hot Springs under a leasing agreement with DWP.”
Gimme Shelter: How California’s new parking law could lower housing costs
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS: “Gov. Gavin Newsom signed dozens of housing bills into law this year, but one of the most popular among housing experts had little to do with homes for people and a lot to do with homes for cars.
The new law in question does away with certain parking minimums — a frequent demand from local governments when approving a new restaurant or apartment building. Researchers have long argued these mandates add prohibitive costs to development — and stretch out cities, making driving a necessity.”
S.F. may limit when police can pull over drivers to fight racial profiling. Will it make the city less safe?
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY/SUSIE NIELSON: “San Francisco is weighing whether to bar officers from stopping drivers for a variety of low-level violations, a move that would fundamentally shift policing — if it survives a bitter debate now playing out mostly behind the scenes in a city divided over public safety issues.
Under a proposed policy designed to reduce racial profiling, city police officers could no longer pull over motorists for infractions including throwing trash from a window, driving without registration tags, sleeping in a vehicle, failing to signal a turn or stopping in a no-parking zone.”
A high school ended its football season after a racist chat. Anger and rumors ensued
LAT, JESSICA GARRISON: “The stadium lights blazed onto the brand new turf and the varsity football players braced themselves for the struggles and triumphs of the game ahead.
Then, just moments before the match between Amador High, a mostly white school perched in the foothills southeast of Sacramento, and Rosemont High, a largely Black and Latino school tucked into the city’s industrial eastern fringe, Amador officials abruptly called it off. Everyone would have to leave. And to make sure they departed safely, the police department in the bucolic tourist town of Sutter Creek had called in reinforcements from the Amador County sheriff’s department and other agencies.
As shaken parents and kids made their way home, rumors swept both communities that an ugly act of racism had triggered the extraordinary action — something so serious that school officials in this conservative community felt compelled to respond strongly.”
For historic Black community, Crenshaw/LAX Line is ‘a blessing and a curse’
LAT, RACHEL URANGA: “Not far from the new Martin Luther King Jr. station along Crenshaw Boulevard, dozens of new apartments are under construction, a sign of the chanzge washing over the historically Black district as Metro readies to open its seventh major rail line Friday.
The 8½-mile Crenshaw/LAX Line, known as the K Line, is being hailed by officials as the key to linking the region’s transit lines, at long last offering a connection into the Los Angeles International Airport, and with lines to downtown and the beach. The full line is not set to open until 2024, but officials will begin running the trains along seven stops, this first weekend for free.
For those who live and work close to the line, it is rapidly changing the neighborhoods around it, for better or worse. Investors are pouring billions of dollars to build commercial space and high-density and affordable housing in an area that has long been the heart of the Black middle class in Los Angeles, and a place of mom-and-pop businesses like dentists, hair salons, florists, art studios, grocery stores and restaurants.”
