Michael Avenatti gets 14 years in prison for stealing millions of dollars from clients
LA Times, MICHAEL FINNEGAN: "Michael Avenatti, the once-swaggering celebrity lawyer who was undone by his proclivity for embezzlement and fraud, was sentenced Monday to 14 years in prison for dodging taxes and stealing millions of dollars from clients.
His sentencing by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana concludes the last of three federal prosecutions of the former attorney, who gained notoriety for representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her court battles against former President Trump.
Avenatti accomplished “good things in his life,” but has “also done great evil,” Selna said as he handed down the sentence. He ordered Avenatti to pay $7.6 million in restitution to victims and $3.2 million to the government."
Here are 14 new laws Californians must start following in 2023
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Hundreds of new laws passed by the California Legislature will take effect in the new year, from legalizing jaywalking in many scenarios to a higher minimum wage for more workers. Most of them take effect on Jan. 1. Here are 14 new laws coming to California in 2023:
Jaywalking: Pedestrians will no longer be cited for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk, unless they are in immediate danger of being hit. AB2147 by Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, prohibits police officers from stopping or citing people for jaywalking “unless a reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger” of a collision with a vehicle or bicyclist.
Minimum wage: California’s $15 minimum wage will expand to nearly all employees, including those working for small businesses. The hourly wage hike applies to employees of businesses with 25 or fewer workers. It’s the final step in a seven-year plan to phase in a statewide $15 minimum wage, which extended to employees of larger businesses in 2022. Legislators approved the wage increases with SB3 in 2016, by then-Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. Many cities in the Bay Area have ordinances that require a higher base wage."
Renewable energy: First ocean areas to be leased off California for floating wind turbines
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "Ushering in a new era of renewable energy in the United States — along with debates about how best to balance its environmental benefits and impacts — the Biden Administration on Tuesday is scheduled to auction the rights for private companies to build wind turbines off the California coastline.
Similar lease sales for offshore oil drilling were held in federal waters off Southern California in the 1950s, 60s and 70s before moratoriums and marine sanctuaries blocked new drilling. Tuesday’s event will mark the first time in history that ocean areas off America’s West Coast have been auctioned to construct wind farms.
The two areas affected are each about 20 miles from Eureka, in Humboldt County, and Morro Bay, in San Luis Obispo County, extending to about 35 miles offshore. They total about 373,000 acres — a footprint larger than the city of Los Angeles."
Lawmakers’ special session to address high gas prices will sit in neutral until January
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California legislators will convene a long-awaited special session Monday to weigh Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to combat spiking gas prices by penalizing oil companies for their record profits.
But after more than two months of fiery rhetoric, as Newsom attacked oil refineries over their “price gouging” tactics, the session is likely to start with more of a slow walk than a bang."
Newsom plan to fight ‘price gouging’ would set gas profit cap, fine companies that exceed it
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced the broad outlines of a plan to set a cap on oil profits and fine companies that exceed it, setting up a fight with oil companies next year.
The plan he released Monday leaves out key details, including the actual amount of profit that the policy will cap and how much companies that exceed it could be fined. Newsom said his office will work with the Legislature to hammer out those numbers."
Is California’s beleaguered jobless benefits agency ready for a recession?
CALMatters, GRACE GEDYE: "A cascade of tech layoffs, the strain of inflation and news of potentially recession-inducing decisions from federal bankers could spell tough economic times ahead.
If more people are laid off, more Californians will turn to unemployment benefits to help them afford the basics while they look for a new job.
It’s a process that buckled under the pressures of the pandemic. Residents sometimes waited months for benefits from the state’s Employment Development Department, dialing the department hundreds of times. On top of that was a string of fraud scandals: Claims came from ‘unemployed’ infants and children and according to prosecutors, benefits were paid to tens of thousands of inmates in jail and prison, who are ineligible. The vast majority of the fraud was in temporary, federally funded pandemic aid programs."
A record number of Latino lawmakers are heading to California’s Capitol after midterm election
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "Latinos, mostly Democrats, continue to make gains in the Legislature, pushing them closer to equal representation with California’s population.
With midterm results finalizing, the Legislature is on track for its largest class of Latinos in history, increasing from 32 to 39 lawmakers. All but five of them are Democrats.
Latinos will now make up 32.5% of the California Legislature, which consists of 80 Assembly seats and 40 Senate seats."
Meet Lee Ann Eager, chair of the state Transportation Commission
Capitol Weekly, LISA RENNER: "Equity and safety are top priorities for Lee Ann Eager, the chair of the California Transportation Commission.
The low-profile Eager — few statewide have even heard her name — holds a critical position in state government. As CTC chair, the Fresno native heads the agency that figures out how best to spend money on the state’s mammoth highway and transit systems, a daunting task.
The 13-member commission needs to make sure all areas of California benefit, Eager said. Too often, the focus is on the big population centers on the coast, rather than the Central Valley or the rural areas in the middle and north of the state, she said. “There’s no reason to leave anybody out of this process,” she said."
Exit Interview: AP photographer Rich Pedroncelli calls it a day
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Shaquille O’Neal. The Golden State Killer. Governors Pete Wilson, Gray Davis, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newson. Longtime Associated Press photographer Rich Pedroncelli has photographed them all – and just about every other prominent person to make an appearance in California’s capitol city. Now, after over three decades behind the lens, he is hanging up his press pass.
Capitol Weekly’s John Howard often shared assignments with Pedroncelli when the two worked together at AP; they, along with co-host Tim Foster, reminisced about those days and talked about the changes to the industry. Plus: Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics?"
San Francisco is California's most progressive county, according to proposition results. Which county is number two?
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "California voters weighed in on seven ballot measures in November’s election, with issues covering abortion rights, sports betting and dialysis clinics. Three measures passed — abortion rights, arts education funding and a flavored tobacco ban.
But if it were solely up to voters in the state’s most Republican counties, no proposition would have passed. None of the seven received majority support in, for instance, Modoc County located in the state’s northeast corner."
Opponents of S.F.’s ‘killer robot’ police policy threaten ballot measure to reverse it
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: "Progressive San Francisco supervisors who oppose a new policy that allows police to kill some suspects with robots in extreme cases may turn to voters if they can’t persuade their colleagues to reverse course.
Supervisors Dean Preston, Hillary Ronen and Shamann Walton on Monday made a last-ditch effort to prevent the policy from taking effect by urging the eight other members of the Board of Supervisors to change their minds when they take their second of two required votes on Tuesday.
If they fail in that effort, Preston said he might work with activists to try to put a measure on the ballot that would undo the policy, which lets police use remote-controlled robots with deadly force in certain dangerous situations."
Lawyers for London Breed’s brother make final ask to block S.F. D.A.’s office from the case
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "The attorney representing Mayor London Breed’s brother in his bid for a reduced sentence made what was likely his last attempt to convince a judge to keep the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office off the case Monday.
Marc Zilversmit, the attorney for Napoleon Brown — Breed’s older brother — argued once again in a court hearing Monday that prosecutors at the District Attorney’s Office would be clouded by politics if they remained on the case given the fact that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins was appointed to the post by Breed before winning the office in the November election."
Black COVID patients were delayed treatment because of one medical device. Why are doctors still using it?
The Chronicle, ELISSA MIOLENE: "Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, East Bay Dr. Stephanie Brown began noticing a startling trend. Many of her Black patients were getting worse, even while their oxygen measurements said the opposite.
Like her fellow emergency-room physicians, Brown was relying on pulse oximeters, the standard tool for measuring a patient’s blood oxygen level, to assess a critical cut-off point determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Anything below 95% indicated a severe case of COVID-19 and the need for more intensive treatment, while those at 95% and above typically had milder symptoms."
California senior citizens are hit hard as COVID-19 surges this winter
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II: "There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions among seniors in California, rising to levels not seen since the summer Omicron surge.
Hospitalizations have roughly tripled for Californians of most age groups since the autumn low. But the jump in seniors in need of hospital care has been particularly dramatic.
Officials in Los Angeles County have said increases in hospitalizations could lead to an indoor mask order, possibly in early January. Still, there is optimism that any winter surge will not be as bad as those of the last two years."
The supply of COVID antivirals is increasing, but many patients aren’t using them
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "As California gears up for a winter of respiratory illnesses, health officials and providers often reference one encouraging factor — the greater availability of COVID-19 treatments and antivirals like Paxlovid. But many patients aren’t using them.
“We have a concerning low rate of outpatient COVID-19 treatments, especially for vulnerable populations,” Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, chief equity officer at the California Department of Public Health, told doctors in an online event in November. “We want to remind the provider community that therapeutics are in ample supply and that most adults have qualifying conditions.”
Some county health officials agreed that more people should be taking advantage of these treatments. Patients may not be using them for a number of reasons, they said, including lack of awareness and confusion over who qualifies for a prescription. Add to that some people’s concerns over “Paxlovid rebound,” when people test positive again soon after having tested negative. There is also a need for easier and quicker access, experts say. Anecdotally, people have found some providers more strictly limit which patients get prescriptions."
COVID in California: Positive-test rate in S.F. is more than double October low point
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI/RITA BEAMISH/CLAIRE HAO: "Bay Area wastewater is providing scary signs of a new COVID-19 surge, one that could top the summer BA.5 wave. The requirement that military troops get vaccinated against the coronavirus has GOP politicians threatening to throw a wrench into defense funding unless that mandate is lifted. But the U.S. defense secretary is speaking out strongly in favor of the mandate which he says has protected the troops."
Mayor Breed’s Tenderloin Center just closed. What does that mean for S.F.’s ongoing drug epidemic?
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "With the closure this week of the controversial Tenderloin Center, city leaders are shutting the book on an imperfect experiment to address San Francisco’s drug epidemic — a heartbreaking, complicated and costly crisis.
When Mayor London Breed opened the center in January as the anchor to her Tenderloin emergency initiative, she said she hoped it would help get homeless people struggling with addiction into housing and treatment as part of her larger plan to cut fatal overdoses and open-air drug dealing.
The site saw more than 100,000 visits; provided thousands of meals, showers and loads of laundry; and helped more than 1,000 people get into housing or shelter. But nearly a year later, the center’s closure points to the difficulty in meaningfully addressing the city’s drug crisis, with fatal overdoses on track to nearly match last year’s numbers. While center staff reversed more than 300 overdoses, fewer than 1% of visits resulted in linkages to mental health or drug treatment."
Real ID deadline is delayed again. What does it mean for Californians, the DMV and travel?
Sac Bee, MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "The federal deadline to obtain a Real ID in order to fly domestically in the U.S. has once again been extended, this time by two additional years to May 2025, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday.
The delayed enforcement will give some reprieve to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has braced repeatedly in recent years for a large influx of Real ID applications in advance of the deadline.
The Real ID Act was originally set to take effect in 2008 but has been delayed numerous times. The latest postponement is again in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal officials said in a statement."
‘When they took the foundation, everything started crumbling’: California group fights eminent domain, racism
CALMatters, LIL KALISH: "Beverly Moore recalls feeling a wave of relief when her family rented a house in Richmond, California after their prior house burned down in the late 1950s.
The one-story wooden house at 502 Enterprise Ave. soon became part of a close-knit Black community. There was a porch and a den filled with books. Moore remembers her mom tending to their fig and pear trees with water from their well. Her mother grew collard greens that she traded with neighbors for fresh-caught fish.
Moore held jobs through her teen years and after graduating from Cal State Fresno, she bought that house for her mother in 1980, relieving her from a lifetime of renting."
SFO and Bay Area airports face even bigger risks from sea level rise than we knew
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Runways at major Bay Area airports could face flooding within two decades if nothing is done to protect them from sea level rise and storm surge, a new UC Berkeley study evaluating risk to California coastal airports has found.
The report, which looked at exposure to flooding at California public airports located within 6 miles of the coast, found vulnerabilities at 39 out of 43 by 2100. That includes all 14 Bay Area airports in the study, half of which could face flooding on their runways or taxiways in the next 20 years. San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport are two of the most vulnerable airports statewide — though they are taking steps to mitigate the problem.
Preparing for sea level rise can be especially difficult for airports, since they must maintain such high safety standards, said Sarah Lindbergh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study."
Local air regulators say it’s impossible to meet smog standards without federal help
LA Times, TONY BRISCOE: "Southern California air regulators have approved a sweeping plan to reduce pollution in the nation’s smoggiest region within the next two decades, but say they cannot meet national air quality standards without federal action.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District governing board voted 9-2 on Friday to adopt a nearly 5,000-page plan, which is expected to serve as a roadmap on how the air district expects to comply with the 2015 federal standard for ozone (the lung-aggravating haze commonly known as smog).
Within the voluminous report, the air district outlines dozens of potential measures that could reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides and bring the region closer to meeting the 2015 ozone standard, which it is required to meet by 2037. But air district officials said these proposals alone would not help the region meet that target, and implored the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to curtail pollution in ports, rail yards and airports — all of which fall under federal authority."
Rain will keep hitting the S.F. Bay Area this week — with a chance of thunderstorms
The Chronicle, MICHELLE APON: "The Bay Area had an exciting weekend, with rain in the region and snow piling up in the Sierra — but the weather isn’t over as we’re left with the remnants of this low-pressure system.
The region will see another day of showers and a chance of thunderstorms on Monday, with the precipitation coming to an end Tuesday morning. A drier and colder weather pattern will follow, setting up temperatures that could drop close to freezing over the next few mornings, in some locales."
3.7-magnitude earthquake rattles California’s Bay Area, geologists say
Sac Bee, HELENA WEGNER: "A 3.7-magnitude earthquake rattled California’s Bay Area on Monday, Dec. 5, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.
The 4-mile-deep quake hit about 8 miles southeast of Alum Rock at 3:13 p.m., according to the USGS.
More than 1,000 people from as far away as San Francisco and Sausalito reported feeling the tremor to the agency about an hour after the earthquake."
Winter weather brings cold-related deaths to Bay Area, Sacramento
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL: "Winter hasn’t officially started yet, but already two San Mateo County residents appear to have died while trying to stay warm in a car, and a third person froze to death at a Sacramento homeless encampment — highlighting the immense dangers cold, rainy weather can pose to those with nowhere warm to go.
Police responded to a residential neighborhood in South San Francisco just before 6 p.m. Friday, where they found two men unresponsive in a parked car. It appears they were burning charcoal or a similar substance for heat — which likely filled the car with carbon monoxide, poisoning them, said Sgt. Sean Curmi. Paramedics attempted to revive them, but they were pronounced dead at the scene."
A cold moon will rise over Sacramento this week. Here’s when and what that means
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "Sacramento’s rainy weather is forecast to dry up just in time for the last full moon of the year.
December’s full moon, also known as the cold moon, will be entirely illuminated by the sun at 8:09 p.m. Wednesday. The moon will be positioned high in the sky, Farmers Almanac wrote on its website, allowing it to sit above the horizon longer than most full moons.
Here’s what you need to know about cold moons and what makes them special, plus the exact time it will appear in Sacramento."
California court decision ups the odds for passing school parcel taxes
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Last month, 52% of the 438 school district voters in the unincorporated low-income Central Valley farm communities of Cutler and Orosi voted in favor of a parcel tax. But as also happened four years earlier, that wasn’t enough. Supporters fell several dozen votes shy of the two-thirds majority they needed to pass a $48 per property tax to fund staff for summer youth sports.
“We are building a new auditorium and aquatic center; we were looking for a funding source to hire lifeguards and a director of recreation,” said Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified Superintendent Yolanda Valdez, who grew up in Orosi, a dozen miles north of Visalia. “We want to give our kids what other middle-class communities offer. Our kids do not know how to swim.”
Next election, they may have better odds."
Update: Police give citations to striking UC workers who staged sit-in at Sacramento building
Sac Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA/MAYA MILLER: "A group of striking University of California workers held a sit-in Monday at a downtown Sacramento building, where police officers surrounded them for a few hours before citing them for trespassing.
The workers are demanding that UC administration officials resume bargaining in negotiations with a union representing about 48,000 academic worker. The strike is in its fourth week.
The sit-in coincided with a march on the building, the UC Center Sacramento at 1130 K Street. The center is a teaching, research and public-service site operated by UC Davis that offers an academic program in public policy to students from throughout the UC system."
Bay Area tech workers react to layoff axes with shock, and ‘more pain’ is coming
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN BARON: "The ax fell suddenly and out of the blue for technology worker Nitesh Donti. Less than a year ago on the networking platform LinkedIn, he’d expressed excitement over his new job as an engineering manager at robot-vehicle company Nuro. Then last month, Nuro laid off Donti and around 300 others as it slashed 20% of its workforce.
“It was a complete shock,” said Donti, 30, of San Francisco, who’d spent five years as a software engineer at Google before moving to the Mountain View-based Nuro.
He is among the thousands of tech workers laid off since October as companies responded to slowing revenue growth, rising inflation and interest rates, and worries of a coming recession. It’s no surprise these tech employees were shocked when the bad news came: Their industry was going gangbusters until it wasn’t, with think-tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley in February reporting that “Silicon Valley’s innovation engine is red hot” and tech was leading a return in employment to pre-pandemic levels."
Los Angeles magazine, two other SoCal outlets, sold to attorneys Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas
LA Times, BRIAN CONTRERAS: "Los Angeles magazine, a long-running institution in the city’s media ecosystem, has been purchased by attorneys Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas, the publication announced Monday.
The acquisition marks a new chapter for a publication that bills itself as “Southern California’s oldest glossy and the first city magazine in America.”
Geragos and Meiselas reportedly also purchased the magazines Pasadena and Orange Coast; all three publications sold for an as-of-yet undisclosed price, and will be based in downtown Los Angeles under the auspices of a new company called Engine Vision Media."
California restaurants gather 1 million signatures to challenge new fast-food labor law
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "A restaurant business coalition announced on Monday that it has gathered enough signatures to challenge a new California law that would create a state-backed labor council to set pay and working conditions for the fast-food industry.
Save Local Restaurants, a coalition opposing the law, said it filed more than 1 million signatures to postpone the law and place a referendum on the November 2024 ballot.
Counties will now have eight business days to provide a count to the secretary of state’s office. Opponents need roughly 623,000 valid signatures."
A massive, floating swimming pool on San Francisco Bay? Here’s where a developer wants to build it
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL: "Ever wished you could swim on the bay without actually immersing yourself in the frigid, murky water?
A new proposal would turn an old pier on the San Francisco waterfront into the Bay Area’s first public floating pool, where guests could swim laps, play water polo or lounge in a hot tub while soaking up a view of the Bay Bridge. The plan also includes offices, shops and apartments — and for those who do prefer cold salt water, a protected cove for open water swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding.
Proponents say the project could provide much-needed opportunities for locals to become more confident swimmers, in a city that is surrounded on three sides by water but has limited access to pools. But some neighbors already have raised objections to the project’s proposed residential towers and questioned the need for a pool. And developers have years of hurdles to jump through before they can even break ground."
Former U.S. Capitol Police chief hired as next UC Berkeley chief of police
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: "A U.S. Capitol Police chief who served a six-month term in the position during the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection has been hired as the new UC Berkeley police chief, according to a university announcement.
Yogananda Pittman will become police chief on Feb. 23, UC Berkeley said in a press release. Current UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett announced her retirement in October 2021."
Bay Area home prices are set to keep falling in 2023. Here’s by how much
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/ADRIANA REZAL: "Home prices in the Bay Area are likely to continue to fall through 2023, several data sources and experts said, with San Francisco expected to take the biggest hit.
Home prices in the San Francisco metro area are forecast to see a 3.6% drop in the next year, the largest in the top 20 metros in the country, according to Zillow projections. CoreLogic projections back up this forecast, showing that home values in San Francisco have a very high probability of decline as of September this year.
Statewide, prices are also expected to fall over the next year. The California Association of Realtors estimated that the California median home price will fall 8.8% to $758,600 in 2023."
Why an unofficial dog park with a real sense of community might get shut down by Sacramento
Sac Bee, ARIANE LANGE: "An all-out revolt is brewing in a picturesque de facto dog park in Sacramento, and on Friday afternoon, a 16-year-old mostly-blind Maltese-terrier mix named Charlie toodled around in the grass, none the wiser.
Though many people bring their canine companions to Curtis Park’s Sierra 2 Center, the city of Sacramento intends to start enforcing leash requirements. Signs are set to go up within the next two weeks telling park-goers that off-leash dogs are prohibited.
John Malin, a Curtis Park resident, comes to the park with Toby the puppy once a week. He doubts the city policy will stick. “I have a hard time believing anybody’s gonna follow that.”
Actor Kirstie Alley dies at 71 of cancer that was ‘only recently discovered’
LA Times, GREGORY YEE: "Actor Kirstie Alley has died of cancer, her family announced Monday evening.
Alley, 71, was battling cancer that was “only recently discovered,” according to a statement by her children, True and Lillie Parker.
“She was surrounded by her closest family and fought with great strength, leaving us with a certainty of her never-ending joy of living and whatever adventures lie ahead,” said the statement shared on Alley’s social media."
Deplorable: How Kanye West went from beloved generational rapper to far-right Hitler apologist
LA Times, AUGUST BROWN: "In late November, Kanye West, the 45-year-old rapper now known as Ye, dined at Mar-a-Lago with former President Trump and a neofascist.
Trump sat with West and his guest Nick Fuentes, a far-right influencer and white supremacist who attended the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. Fuentes doubts the Holocaust’s existence, and has said progressive shifts in society are a “bastardized Jewish subversion of the American creed. The founders never intended for America to be a refugee camp for nonwhite people.”
Not long ago, West was surrounded by cultural luminaries like his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, his lifelong collaborator Jay-Z and Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna. His dinner companions were top executives from Adidas and Gap, eager to chat about their nine-figure partnerships."
