S.F. supes approve the use of killer robots. Here’s when police could deploy them
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS/ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "San Francisco police will be allowed to use robots to kill people in limited emergency situations under a controversial new policy approved by city supervisors on Tuesday.
Police leaders said they want the ability to deploy robots with lethal force during extremely rare cases against violent suspects such as mass shooters or suicide bombers. But critics, including a minority of the board, strongly objected to the policy over concerns that it could be abused and allow police to kill people too easily.
Following an impassioned debate, supervisors approved the policy in an 8-3 vote. They adopted an amendment that requires one of two high-ranking SFPD leaders to authorize any actual use of a deadly robot."
Ninth Circuit rejects challenge to California recall system from Newsom supporter
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "California’s recall elections do not violate equal voting rights, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, even though they would allow a recalled governor to be replaced by a candidate who received far fewer votes.
The state’s 110-year-old recall rules were challenged in August 2021 by a voter who sought to block the election a month later on a conservative-led attempt to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The plaintiff, A.W. Clark, a supporter of Newsom, noted that if the governor received as much as 49% of the vote to keep him in office, he would be recalled and replaced by the leading candidate among 45 would-be successors, even if that candidate received 20% or less of the total."
LAPD serves search warrants in investigation of who recorded racist City Hall leak
LAT, RICHARD WINTON: "Los Angeles police detectives have served several search warrants as they attempt to find out who recorded a meeting among three L.A. City Council members and a powerful labor leader filled with racist and offensive comments, law enforcement sources told The Times on Tuesday.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing, did not identify the specific targets of the warrants.
But they said the department obtained warrants for several social media accounts."
Surprise, surprise: An insurance crisis is upon us (OP-ED)
JULIAN CANETE in Capitol Weekly: "Perhaps the greatest financial risk faced by Californians today has nothing to do with rising interest rates or a looming recession. Rather, it is the loss of access to products they rely upon to protect their most valuable assets: auto, homeowners and commercial insurance.
While many may not yet be aware, an insurance coverage crisis is upon us – where consumers and businesses are having difficulty accessing the coverage they need to protect themselves, their property and businesses. That’s because Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has not done his job to ensure a balanced and thriving insurance marketplace.
Commissioner Lara has failed to carry out his constitutional responsibility to ensure that insurance rate plans adequately reflect the cost of covering consumer and business claims."
Is Brooke Jenkins doing anything differently than Chesa Boudin? Here’s what the numbers say
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "After Brooke Jenkins replaced Chesa Boudin as San Francisco’s district attorney, police ramped up the number of arrests they brought to the District Attorney’s Office for possible prosecution by nearly 20%, according to an analysis of data.
The Chronicle compared data from the last four months of Boudin’s term to Jenkins’ first four months, seeking to understand how arrest and prosecution rates have shifted following her appointment. While overall crime rates have not changed significantly, police presented an average of 100 more arrests per month to the D.A. since Jenkins took over in July.
Other than the number of arrests presented to them, few major differences in prosecutorial outcomes between Boudin and Jenkins are detectable yet. San Francisco’s jail population has not grown much; neither have the D.A. office’s conviction, dismissal or overall charging rates. The one case outcome that has shifted significantly is that Jenkins’ office is diverting a smaller share of criminal cases than under Boudin in his final months."
This under-the-radar measure passed by voters could reshape Oakland elections
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "The financing of election campaigns, and their results, have been increasingly dominated by a small number of wealthy donors. But a newly approved ballot measure in Oakland is likely to give everyday people more of a voice in future elections, judging from results in the only other U.S. city with such a law.
Measure W, supported by nearly 74% of Oakland voters on Nov. 8, requires the city to send four $25 vouchers every two years to each resident 18 and over, including non-U.S. citizens with legal permanent residency, to donate to one or more candidates for mayor, City Council or the school board. The candidates would have to abide by spending limits. The money, about $4 million per election, will come from the city’s general fund, which currently pays for a little-used program of limited public funding for local candidates.
Proponents call the vouchers Democracy Dollars. Oakland is the second U.S. city to enact such a program; the first, Seattle, implemented it in 2017, two years after voter approval, and has reported substantial changes in its elections, with more public involvement."
Should California tax oil profits? Gas spike hearing sets stage for contentious debate
BANG*Mercury News, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "Consumer advocates and oil industry representatives launched opening salvos Tuesday in a bitter debate over whether oil companies are “price gouging” drivers or are themselves actually the victim of California’s green policies squeezing out fossil fuel industries.
The California Energy Commission convened the panel of energy experts, advocates and oil industry representatives to probe a gas price spike in September that at one point ballooned to an unprecedented $2.60-price gap between what Golden State drivers paid for the average gallon as opposed to the rest of the country.
Tuesday’s hearing in Sacramento was meant to dig into the historic price spike that saw prices top $6.40 a gallon before dropping Tuesday below $5 for the first time in nearly nine months. But instead of exposing a smoking gun, the commission meeting ultimately revealed that regulators are “completely in the dark,” according to one state analyst, when it comes to critical oil industry operations that shape the state’s increasingly volatile gasoline market."
Empty chairs: Major oil refineries ditch California hearing on gasoline price spikes
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "California energy regulators held a marathon hearing Tuesday about the state’s soaring prices at the gas pump. But the hearing was overshadowed, from the start by who refused to come and testify.
Executives from five major oil refineries that supply most of California’s gasoline — Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, PBF Energy, Valero Energy and Phillips 66 — declined a request from the state’s Energy Commission to appear at the hearing in Sacramento, where five empty chairs and nameplates for the companies were set at the table. An industry trade association leader testified virtually.
Gov. Gavin Newsom chided the absent firms on Twitter: “Oil companies experienced record profits this year — while you paid record prices at the pump,” he posted with a video of the empty seats. “We asked them to explain why they are sticking you with the bill. They refused to show up.”"
U.S. government pledges $250 million to help ailing Salton Sea
LAT, IAN JAMES: "The Biden administration has announced a plan to provide $250 million to accelerate environmental projects around the shrinking Salton Sea, a major commitment intended to help revitalize the lake’s ecosystems and control hazardous dust in a deal that clears the way for California to take less water from the drought-ravaged Colorado River.
Leaders of the Imperial Irrigation District, which uses the single largest share of the Colorado River to supply farms in the Imperial Valley, had called for federal money to support the state’s Salton Sea program as a key condition for participating in water cutbacks. Some of the district’s leaders praised the funding commitment from the Interior Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, calling it a historic step toward addressing the windblown dust and deteriorating habitats that have plagued California’s largest lake.
“This checks the box big time,” said J.B. Hamby, an Imperial Irrigation District board member. “It’s a really big deal, and nothing like this has really ever happened before.”"
A strong winter storm is spinning into California this week. Here's a timeline of its impacts
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "December is cutting in line and bringing its entourage of rain, wind and snow to Northern California this week. Bay Area residents are already getting a taste of this upcoming shift in the weather pattern as bitter, cold air sweeps into the region today.
This cold air will be followed up by a winter storm that will bring strong winds and rounds of rain to most of Northern California. The system will likely cause myriad travel headaches for Californians across the state — especially those who live near the Sierra Nevada — over the next few days.
The last two days of November will be defined by some of the coldest air seen in California in nearly a year. A cold front will begin to take shape around Tuesday afternoon as it rolls into the Eureka and Mendocino coastline. Both the European and American weather models are forecasting temperatures that will take a nosedive between Tuesday and Wednesday. Some residents in the Sacramento, Santa Clara and Napa valleys are waking up to frost and lows just below freezing."
Lake Tahoe hit with avalanche watch as major winter storm approaches California
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "A winter storm on its way to California is expected to bring significant snow to the Central Sierra and Lake Tahoe area in a short amount of time.
“We're looking at accumulations around 1 to 3 inches per hour in the Sierra,” said Brittany Whitlam, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Reno.
Meteorologists forecast the snow will begin just before sunrise Thursday and become heavier throughout the day. This rapid buildup on top of a weak existing snowpack raises concerns for potentially widespread avalanche activity in the mountains."
COVID in California: Virus patients in Bay Area hospitals top 600, 1st time in months
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/RITA BEAMISH: "California is now averaging 10.6 new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents — a 63% jump in one month, and the state’s test-positive rate also is climbing. But the updated bivalent boosters against the coronavirus still prove not to be popular with the public: the CDC reports, with only about 12% of eligible Americans getting the new dose so far. And Bay Area health experts reacted with alarm Tuesday to Twitter’s halt to enforcing its policy against COVID-19 falsehoods.
The median age of people who died due to COVID-19 infections decreased significantly in 2021 compared to the first year of the pandemic, according to a new report published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The researchers from Harvard found that despite 20.8% fewer COVID-19 deaths in 2021 than in 2020, years of life lost due to COVID-19 increased by 7.4%. The median age of people losing their lives to COVID-19 deaths decreased from 78 in 2020 to 69 in 2021, as low vaccine uptake and laxity toward COVID precautions coincided with mortality among relatively younger adults. “A shift in COVID-19 mortality to relatively younger people in the second pandemic year contributed to markedly increased premature mortality from this increasingly preventable death,” said corresponding author Mark Czeisler, a medical student at Harvard Medical School, in a press release. “Understanding the factors that contribute to this age shift is critical as we continue developing our knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic.”"
Screening for adverse childhood experiences is increasing, but are patients getting treatment?
CALMatters, ELIZABETH AGUILERA: "In 2020 the state launched the adverse childhood experiences initiative, with the goal of cutting the number of those experiences in half within one generation.
Today the number of doctors screening patients for adverse experiences is growing, but the state is failing to track whether patients receive the follow-up services or support they might need. State officials say they are working on identifying this information about patients from state medical databases, but it could be a few years off.
More than 6 in 10 Californians have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, and 1 in 6 have experienced four or more, according to a state report. These include physical, emotional or sexual abuse, physical or emotional neglect, growing up in a home with substance use, mental illness, incarceration, parental separation or divorce or intimate partner violence. Research shows the higher the number of adverse experiences, the higher the risk of chronic health or mental health conditions later in life."
Twitter stopped policing COVID misinformation. Bay Area health experts are ‘terrified’
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/KELLIE HWANG: "Twitter’s halt to enforcing its policy against COVID-19 falsehoods has alarmed Bay Area public health experts who worry the platform can again become a super-spreader of doubt about the efficacy of vaccines and other lifesaving measures amid an ongoing pandemic.
“I am absolutely terrified and despondent,” said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert with UCSF. “Permitting misinformation is not just about freedom of speech. There is a direct pathway between misinformation and death if science-based interventions like vaccines are not embraced.”
UCSF infectious disease specialist Monica Gandhi said her “biggest fear” is the spread of vaccine misinformation on Twitter."
UC, CSU campuses in the hot seat
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "California’s public university systems, often ranked among the best in the nation, symbolize the state’s opportunities — and can also serve as a microcosm of some of its most pervasive challenges, such as bridging economic and racial divides.
Monday marked the start of the third week of strikes at all 10 University of California campuses, where 48,000 unionized academic workers — who conduct much of the system’s teaching, grading and research — are calling for significantly higher wages, expanded child care subsidies, enhanced health coverage and other benefits they say are necessary to keep up with the sky-high cost of living in the Golden State.
And the ramifications for UC are mounting as final exams approach, with some campuses set to end classes as early as Friday: Hundreds of influential faculty members announced a work stoppage Monday, writing in an online pledge of solidarity that they “will be exercising their right to honor the picket line by refusing to conduct university labor up to and including submission of grades — labor that would not be possible without the labor of all other academic workers as well as university staff.”"
Stanford president’s neuroscience research scrutinized following allegations of altered data
The Chronicle, SABRINA PASCUA/NORA MISHANEC: "Scientific research by Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne is under scrutiny following public allegations that the neuroscientist’s work contained altered images and data.
The European Microbiology Organization Journal, a prominent science research publisher, said in a public post last week that it was “looking into” discrepancies in a 2008 brain research paper by Tessier-Lavigne and 10 others that were highlighted on PubPeer, a website where scientists can identify suspected violations in published research.
The Stanford Daily first reported the post — as well as additional allegations of suspected manipulations in Tessier-Lavigne’s work — in an investigation published early Tuesday."
Cal Poly SLO enrolls the lowest rate of Black students among all the state’s public universities
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "The most selective university in the California State University system enrolled a miniscule 146 undergraduate Black students this fall.
Pick a common benchmark for racial or social inclusion and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is likely to trail all California public universities.
No Cal State or University of California campus, 32 undergraduate-serving institutions in total, enrolls a smaller percentage of Black undergraduate students than Cal Poly — just under 0.7% this fall. Across both systems, the campus has enrolled the smallest share of Black undergraduate students annually between 2003 and 2021 — and below 1% for most of those years."
Dual enrollment thrives in Central Valley area where few earn college degrees
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "Faith Serna said it was hard to picture herself going far from home for college before she took college courses at her high school, Wonderful College Prep Academy, a charter school in Delano. Now that she is in the home stretch of graduating from high school with an associate degree, she has her sights set on attending college at the University of California or a private college.
“Now I’m not scared to enter college,” she said. “It’s made me more comfortable.”
For many who live in the area served by the Kern Community College District, college can feel far away — and it is. The district sprawls over a region larger than West Virginia that encompasses the San Joaquin Valley, the eastern Sierra and the Mojave Desert. It is served by just one public university, Cal State Bakersfield. High school seniors in this district are less likely to attend college than most in the state."
Tech layoffs wallop H-1B visa holders: ‘It’s not just dollars and a job. It’s our entire life’
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "The software engineer from San Jose was dismayed when she learned that she was part of Twitter’s massive layoffs.
A native of India, she’s in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, a special permit for skilled workers. Now the clock is ticking for her to find a new job to keep her visa status.
“It’s like our whole life is being destroyed,” Vidya said of herself and the scores of other H-1B visa holders who have also been laid off in recent weeks. The Chronicle is using a pseudonym for her and other laid-off workers in accordance with its policy on anonymous sources, as they are concerned about their immigration status."
This Inglewood carwash paid workers $7 an hour, state officials say. The penalty: Over $900,000
LAT, MARGOT ROOSEVELT: "On a grimy Inglewood sidewalk, scores of protesters marched in circles, hoisting signs reading “Justice for Carwash Workers” and shouting “Down with greedy bosses,” “Wash your car elsewhere” and “Stolen wages.”
The Tuesday demonstration, mounted by labor and community groups, was aimed at the squat stucco facility of Shine N Bright, where a half-dozen workers were polishing and vacuuming cars.
In the latest crackdown against wage theft in Southern California, state officials had announced that morning that they would penalize the Hawthorne Boulevard carwash operator more than $900,000 for paying workers far below the minimum wage and denying them overtime and rest breaks."
Court formally expels ex-Santa Clara County sheriff Laurie Smith
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA: "Former longtime Santa Clara County sheriff Laurie Smith was formally removed from office Tuesday as a result of guilty verdicts in her civil corruption trial from earlier this month, marking an ignominious end to a nearly half-century career with the agency, which had been marred by scandal in the last decade.
The effect of San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Nancy Fineman’s sentencing is largely symbolic, since Smith resigned Oct. 31 while a jury was in deliberations for the hybrid civil-criminal trial. The verdict carried no punishment beyond removal from office.
Smith’s resignation had been an apparent attempt to render the trial moot and avoid the stain of being found guilty of corruption, but Fineman rejected the ex-sheriff’s argument, and jurors were allowed to finish their work. The judge voiced wariness of allowing defendants, already accused of abusing their power, to engineer their own resolutions and avoid court judgments."
Government to raise secured mortgage limit to more than $1 million — a record
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "The federal government has decided to raise the limit on mortgages it secures to just over $1 million, a move that will give Bay Area home buyers a measure of relief from rising interest rates.
Starting next year, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will back private loans issued in the Bay Area up to a record $1,089,300 — the current limit is $970,800 — the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday.
Home buyers who receive loans from banks or other lenders that are backed by Freddie and Fannie must have good credit and meet other guidelines for safety and security. The loans generally have lower interest rates than loans that exceed the limit set by the government."
San Jose can resume clearing notorious homeless encampment, judge rules
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL: "San Jose can resume clearing a prominent homeless encampment in Columbus Park, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, less than two weeks after a lawsuit abruptly halted the city’s efforts in an ongoing battle to relocate more than two dozen people with nowhere else to go.
The encampment has created “dangerous nuisance conditions” at the park and surrounding areas, the city argued in court filings. Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley agreed and lifted the order she issued earlier this month, which had tied the city’s hands and prevented it from removing people’s trailers and tents or forcing them to relocate.
Several of the plaintiffs who live at the park pleaded with the judge to extend the order, describing their fear of being left on the street once the city seizes the car or trailer they call home. But Corley sided with the city, which promised that teams of outreach workers are in the process of getting everyone from the park into housing or shelter."
These 10 Bay Area clergy are now linked for the first time to Catholic church sex abuse scandal
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "As a deadline looms for new lawsuits to root out decades-old abuse, 14 Northern California priests — including 10 in the Bay Area — have been accused for the first time of sexually abusing children, adding to the list of dozens of disgraced clergy already exposed in recent years in a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic church for a generation.
The 14 accused priests came to light in a torrent of litigation unleashed by Assembly Bill 218, which opened a three-year window from 2020-2022 during which adults who say they were abused long ago as children are allowed to sue. Attorneys had predicted the law would generate thousands of lawsuits against institutions including the Boy Scouts and Catholic Church.
“Additional lawsuits are being filed nearly every day,” said Jennifer Stein, a lawyer with the Jeff Anderson and Associates firm, which is handling many of the AB 218 cases. “The number of names continue to grow. … I think we’d expect the number of cases involving the Catholic Church in Northern California is likely to exceed 1,000.”"
