Season of Sharing helps Bay Area food banks seeing unprecedented need as costs soar
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "The economy and job creation are bouncing back in the wake of the pandemic, but the Bay Area’s need for food is as high as ever, as soaring inflation and gas prices put pressure on people’s budgets — and also strain the food banks themselves, some of which are experiencing a dropoff in donations.
After seeing unprecendented demand during the first two years of the pandemic, Bay Area food banks are still struggling with a heavy need from low-income residents and those who are out of work. That’s despite COVID case and death rates falling and many businesses reopening and rehiring workers.
“Today, it feels like the need is just as high” compared to the worst periods of the pandemic, said Regi Young, executive director of Alameda County Community Food Bank. “It doesn’t feel like it’s getting any better.”"
Gavin Newsom told President Joe Biden that he won’t run for president in 2024, report says
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "Gov. Gavin Newsom won’t run for president in 2024, even if President Joe Biden decides not to seek a second term, Politico reported Saturday.
The governor told Biden and White House officials in an election night phone call, according to columnist Jonathan Martin.
“I’m all in; put me in coach,” Martin overheard Newsom saying as he spoke to Biden. “We have your back.”"
Tracking coronavirus hospitalizations in California by county
CALMatters, JOHN OSBORN D'AGOISTINO/LO BENICHOU: "CalMatters is tracking — and updating daily — California hospitalizations, by county, of people who have been infected or suspected of being infected with COVID-19.
Winters have proven to be brutal for California hospitals. In January 2022, hospitals saw another wave of admissions ignited by the omicron variant. The mid-January high of COVID-positive hospitalizations surpassed that of last summer’s delta surge — although it didn’t quite reach last winter’s peak. Since then, admissions have once again started to decline.
As hospitals start to emerge from the worst of the omicron wave, the state is scheduled to relax some of its mask rules and soon announce an endemic strategy. NOTE: The California Department of Public Health is no longer updating data daily. Updates will now happen on Tuesdays and Fridays."
State AG Rob Bonta investigates hospital algorithms for racial bias
The Chronicle, MARK KREIDLER: "California Attorney General Rob Bonta sailed to victory in the Nov. 8 election, riding his progressive record on reproductive rights, gun control, and social justice reform. As he charts a course for his next four years, the 50-year-old Democrat wants to target racial discrimination in health care, including through an investigation of software programs and decision-making tools used by hospitals to treat patients.
Bonta, the first Filipino American to serve as the state’s top prosecutor, asked 30 hospital CEOs in August for a list of the commercial software programs their facilities use to support clinical decisions, schedule operating rooms, and guide billing practices. In exchange, he offered them confidentiality. His goal, Bonta told Kaiser Health News, is to identify algorithms that may direct more attention and resources to white patients than to minorities, widening racial disparities in health care access, quality, and outcomes.
“Unequal access to our health care system needs to be combated and reversed, not carried forward and propagated, and algorithms have the power to do either,” Bonta said."
‘We’ll end up on the streets’: L.A. caregivers for elderly, disabled push for higher pay
LA Times, EMILY ALPERT REYES/FRANCINE ORR/ROBERT GAUTHIER: "In the mornings, Rosa Andresen showers hurriedly before her daughter wakes up, worried the 24-year-old might suffer a seizure or tumble out of the bed while she is still shampooing her hair.
Her daughter Amanda Andresen, who does not speak, was born with a condition affecting the part of the brain that bridges its left and right sides. Her walking is unsteady, and she needs to be assisted from the moment she gets up.
In the front room of their South Gate home, Rosa guided Amanda gently from a cushy sofa to the dining table, where she had prepared a mixture of Malt-O-Meal and crumbled bits of toast smeared with peanut butter, stirring them until they grew mushy enough to swallow."
S.F. should do justice to jury diversity by preserving stipend program
The Chronicle, JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "Kiswendsida Kola received a postcard this fall with a novel proposition.
It read: “You may be eligible to receive $100 per day for your jury service!” as a participant in a pilot program called Be the Jury.
This offer came as a pleasant surprise to Kola, who, like many San Francisco residents, struggles to balance his willingness to participate in the legal system against the financial imperatives that come with living in one of the least affordable cities."
Oakland mayor unveils public safety plan to boost holiday shopping areas
The Chronicle, SHWANIKA NARAYAN: "Outgoing Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has announced plans to install more lights and crack down on illegal vending in the city’s retail districts, an effort to lure holiday shoppers back to businesses that wilted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nearly $800,000 program aims to bolster security measures in shopping areas including downtown, Fruitvale, Lakeshore, Montclair, Rockridge, Temescal and other retail neighborhoods.
“We want to create a deep sense of safety for everyone,” Schaaf said at a news conference Wednesday. “We know these last few years have been difficult. People have felt unsettled, and we want you to know that the city is here to welcome you back to enjoy your shopping.”"
California regulators OK $1 billion for EV charging project, mostly for trucks
SD Union-Tribune, ROB NIKOLEWSKI: "The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a $1-billion vehicle electrification charging project, with most of the money earmarked to accelerate the number of midsize and heavy-duty trucks on the state’s roads.
Some 70% of the funds will go to charging medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which combine to account for a disproportionate amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. Costs of the five-year program will be spread out among utility ratepayers across California.
“It’s the highest priority,” Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said. “We have very stringent state goals established by the Air Resources Board to electrify medium- and heavy-duty trucks and they need charging infrastructure in order to electrify their fleets.”"
What your smartphone is telling UC Berkeley researchers about Bay Area earthquakes
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "For about seven hair-raising seconds on a Tuesday morning in October, a 5.1 magnitude earthquake ruptured the Calaveras Fault near San Jose — causing parked cars to wobble, high-rises to swing back and forth, and alerts to bleat from 100,000 cell phones.
To many residents, the Seven Trees earthquake served as a terrifying omen, foreshadowing the giant temblor that could hit the Bay Area at any moment: The chances of a Big One — an earthquake of at least magnitude 6.7 — are 2 in 3 within the next 30 years, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.
But to experts at UC Berkeley, the October quake became a sprawling research project in which thousands of individual smartphones served as seismic instruments. These phones, equipped with a MyShake app that records ground motion when the phone is plugged in and stationary, are generating data that has changed scientists’ understanding of earthquakes, presenting a much clearer picture of how people experience them in a house, or in a classroom, or on the 18th floor of San Jose City Hall."
Los Angeles County health officials issue cold weather alert
LA Times, LAURA NEWBERRY: "Los Angeles County health officials on Sunday issued a cold weather alert for what’s expected to be a chilly week in Southern California.
Starting Monday, wind chill temperatures are expected to drop below freezing in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, as well as the San Gabriel Mountains, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health. The cold weather is forecast to last until at least Friday.
“Children, the elderly, and people with disabilities or special medical needs are especially vulnerable during cold weather. Extra precaution should be taken to ensure they don’t get too cold when they are outside,” Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer, said in a statement. “There are places where people can go to stay warm, such as shelters or other public facilities.”"
Wetter and cooler weather is on the way as storms blow into Northern California
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "For all the fans of warm and dry weather — apologies, but it looks like it’s time to break out the hats and gloves.
After a warm and dry Thanksgiving weekend, cooler temperatures are on the way this coming week as two storms blow through Northern California. Highs in the Valley likely won’t top 60 degrees, according to meteorologist Scott Rowe with the National Weather Service.
The first storm, which should arrive Sunday night, will lightly dust the mountains, but the Valley won’t see precipitation until later in the week."
Is the water safe at Point Reyes beaches? Here is what we know
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Looking down at the coast from a hill above the historic L Ranch at Point Reyes National Seashore, rolling swells appear on the ocean surface like blue corduroy. The peninsula that stretches south toward the horizon is almost entirely taken up by ranchland and weathered buildings. Among them, coyotes stalk gophers on the dun hillsides, red-tailed hawks perch on fence posts and a skunk waddles along the road’s asphalt margin.
Those beef and dairy ranches are the focus of a recent water quality report showing high levels of fecal bacteria downstream from the cattle, and their manure, in lagoons and beaches popular with park visitors. The report, which was commissioned by an environmental group and is disputed by the ranching industry, is the latest flareup in a decades-long debate over the ranching that occupies more than one-third of the national seashore.
“Our concern big time is ocean health and water quality health,” said Scott Webb, advocacy and policy director at Turtle Island Restoration Network, a Marin nonprofit that commissioned the water quality report from an environmental engineer. The group doesn’t believe ranching belongs in a national park and would like to see the land restored. “This is public land. This should be for everyone to come explore,” Webb said."
Two die, seven saved after ‘massive’ waves capsize boat, California officials say
Sac Bee, DON SWEENEY: "At least two people died while rescuers saved seven others after a panga boat capsized in heavy surf off Imperial Beach near the California-Mexico border, officials told news outlets.
U.S. Border Patrol agents investigating reports of an effort to smuggle migrants across the border discovered the capsized boat at 6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, KFMB reported.
“Six to 8 foot waves, it was just massive pitching the waves, so the boat was probably just tossed and all the individuals immediately submerged,” Capt. Patrick Spears of Imperial Beach Fire and Rescue told KSWB."
LAUSD’s stunning reading score on NAEP: Illusion, real or something in between?
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Los Angeles Unified’s unexpectedly big increase in eighth grade reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress drew praise and skepticism after the release of the scores last month. The results may have warranted some of both.
LAUSD was the only one of the 26 urban districts nationwide that took NAEP to see improvement in 2022. And its 9-point growth from pre-pandemic 2019 was by far the biggest increase among all states and school districts on any test. Most saw a significant decline in reading and record declines in math on the fourth and eighth grade tests.
Some data experts and testing analysts questioned the size of Los Angeles’ gain and the significance of any single year’s score in isolation. In 2019, the district had an unusually large drop in scores from 2017, putting the rebound in 2022 into context, said Brian Gill, a senior fellow and data expert at Mathematica in Princeton, N.J. There may be actual improvement in reading in the district, or there may be an unexplainable quirkiness in the data; that can happen with statistical outliers, he said. “A focus on outliers could cause you to get fooled by randomness.”
‘Conservatives were shocked’: Democrats held ground in Sacramento-area school board elections
Sac Bee, SAWSAN MORRAR/JENAVIEVE HATCH/ARIANE LANGE: "Energized by activism against COVID-19 education mandates, conservative parents all over California put their names on the ballot this fall aiming to claim seats on local school boards. Some saw the makings of a GOP wave in a blue state, and the Republican Party recruited and trained candidates.
It didn’t work.
The so-called parent revolt didn’t materialize as conservatives hoped in Sacramento County school board races or in neighboring communities."
S.F. vigil marks 44th anniversary of Milk and Moscone slayings, with special homage to this month’s Club Q victims
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "Dozens of people gathered at San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Plaza on Sunday night to mark the 44th anniversary of the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city Supervisor Harvey Milk, who were shot and killed in City Hall by former Supervisor Dan White.
The annual vigil, organized by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, comes about a week after the deadly mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs. The Castro event also commemorated the victims of the Club Q attack, which left five people dead and injured at least 18.
Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California, and many are drawing parallels between his slaying and more recent acts of violence against the LGBTQ community — including the Colorado attack and the 2016 shooting at Pulse LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Fla."
A new General Hospital: Turning an iconic L.A. landmark into homeless housing
LA Times, DOUG SMITH/ANDREW J CAMPA: "The room is a marvel of architectural oddities. On one wall a cathedral-sized window frames the Eastside skyline. Facing it, several rows of wood-backed theater seats fan out, arching up at a dizzying angle to the ceiling three stories up.
The lone piece of furniture, a bedlike platform, stands on a pedestal in the center of the room.
Unchanged since the last patient left Los Angeles County General Hospital 14 years ago, the operating room encapsulates the rich opportunities and huge challenges for an institution that became too old and decrepit to go on as it was but is too much of a civic treasure to discard."
World Cup: U.S. briefly protests Iran by stripping flag of Islamic Republic emblem online
LA Times, KEVIN BAXTER: "German players wore rainbow colors on their boots and put their hands over their mouths in a pregame photo, mocking attempts by FIFA to silence them. Iran’s players refused to sing the national anthem before their opening game. And seven European nations, including Germany, issued a strongly worded statement protesting FIFA’s decision denying a request to wear armbands in support of the OneLove movement, which promotes diversity and inclusion.
The U.S., meanwhile, has taken a much less confrontational — and arguably more effective — approach with its messaging. The federation altered its crest, replacing the seven vertical red bars with rainbow-colored ones in support of LGBTQ rights, but it displayed the altered crest only in areas visible to the players, staff members and media to avoid a row with FIFA.
Coach Gregg Berhalter and his players have spoken out in support of human rights and free speech, but have been careful to avoid mention of Qatar to avoid offending their host."
Cuba’s informal market finds new space as internet access grows
AP, MEGAN JANETSKY: "In the Telegram group chat, the messages roll in like waves.
“I need liquid ibuprofen and acetaminophen, please,” wrote one user. “It’s urgent, it’s for my 10-month-old baby.”
Others offer medicine brought from outside Cuba, adding, “Write to me in a direct message.” Emoji-speckled lists offer antibiotics, pregnancy tests, vitamins, rash creams and more."
Lviv was once a safe haven for Ukrainians fleeing the war. Now it’s suffering too
LA Times, LAURA KING: "For one exhausted, bedraggled Ukrainian woman — driven from her home by Russian bombs, her soldier husband in peril on the war’s front lines — safe haven seemed at hand when her early-morning train screeched into the majestic but freezing Art Nouveau railway station in Lviv, the country’s westernmost big city, a few days ago.
It was not to be. The middle-aged teacher was told, kindly but firmly, that there was no available spot in any of the shelte
rs for displaced people and that she should keep heading west, out of Ukraine.
“When we said we could not find a place for her here, she cried and cried and cried,” said Hanna Bystrytska, a 27-year-old volunteer greeting arrivals at the rail station. “She said she couldn’t bear to leave Ukraine while her husband was serving at the front. But in the end, that was what she had to do.”"
