Household water wells are drying up in record numbers as California drought worsens
LA Times, DORANY PINEDA/GABRIELLE LAMARR LEMEE: "For almost four decades, water flowed faithfully from Fred and Robin Imfeld’s private well here in rural Tehama County, a region where thirsty orchards of walnuts, almonds, plums and olives stretch across thousands of acres.
But that reliable supply of household water began to sputter last year, and then ceased completely this summer amid California’s driest three-year period on record.
Now, the Imfelds and other residents here are scrambling to find alternate water sources, and trucking in supplies to fill massive, portable water tanks that have sprouted up throughout the community."
Wildfire smoke can slash California solar power output by nearly a third
BANG*Mercury News, DAVID R. BAKER: "The wildfire smoke that’s often seen blanketing California skies is more than just a problem for breathing — it can also drastically slash electricity generated by solar panels in a state that’s been struggling to meet all its power needs.
A new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research shows that smoke can cut solar power production by nearly a third.
Scientists examined a period in September 2020, when smoke from some of the largest fires in California history shrouded much of the state in a sickly orange haze. Using data from the state’s power grid operator, they studied the output from the area’s vast solar farms and compared that to the same period in the prior two years. They also included data from monitoring stations that measure the amount of solar radiation hitting the ground."
From diesel big rigs to electricity: The costly transition begins
Capitol Weekly, WILL SHUCK: "Never mind there are few on the market, or that keeping them moving requires a nonexistent network of chargers, California wants truckers to hurry up and replace diesel big rigs with versions that run on batteries or hydrogen.
Regulations to achieve the transitions are not yet complete. The California Air Resources Board is gathering public opinion on the latest iteration and a subsequent draft is anticipated in the spring.
Few expect many changes in response to previous rounds of public comment. When the rule-making is complete, the final plan is likely to look much as it does now."
Who stands to lose in California’s gas price debate?
Opinon, Capitol Weekly, JIM KENNEDY: "In the past six months, the volatility of fuel prices has been a major concern for Californians as well as a contentious issue between politicians and oil refiners. Even with gas prices decreasing upwards of $0.70 a gallon, the average price per gallon now is significantly more than it was this time last year.
The debates and conversations between those in the fuel industry and politicians, however, gloss over an even more important point: how we can help those who stand to lose the most.
As Dan Walters and Amy Myers Jaffe, managing director of the Tufts University Climate Policy Lab, point out, moving from old gas-powered infrastructure to the new zero-emissions infrastructure leaves a middle transitionary period where disadvantaged communities are almost always left out. Those most in need in our state are dealing with drastically high gas prices, without the ability to purchase new pricey electric vehicles."
Cold front to sweep Northern California this afternoon, bringing rain, winds and a chance of thunder to these Bay Area cities
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "Despite the sun’s attempts to shine over San Francisco this morning, the city and most of the Bay Area will be shrouded in a sea of thick stratus clouds today. These clouds will gradually moisten as a cold front from the northwest streams into the North Bay right around noon. This robust weather feature will then charge into the rest of the Bay Area, raising strong gusts along the coast and some of the mountain ranges along the bays carving out a path for showers to rain down on the region.
Weather models are projecting a wide path for these winds and rains to take as they travel over the Bay Area right around rush hour, making for a commute on roadways and metro lines that will certainly be full of headaches. And depending on where in the Bay Area you happen to be this afternoon, you may even hear a rumble of thunder off in the distance."
Sacramento braces for an ‘ugly day’ as storms return to Northern California
Sac Bee, JACQUELINE PINEDO: "This weekend will be a wet one for Sacramento.
Two storms are expected to hit the area starting Thursday, bringing in a few inches of rain to the Sacramento area, according to the National Weather Service.
“Saturday is going to be pretty wet,” said Cory Mueller, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Sacramento office. “I would expect rain pretty much the entire day, it’s going to be a pretty ugly day.”"
Whale protection: Another delay in Bay Area Dungeness crab fishing season
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "After endangered humpback whales have been observed in high numbers where Bay Area commercial fishing boats usually catch Dungeness crab, state wildlife officials announced a third delay to the commercial fishing season on Wednesday.
It’s part of a familiar pattern over the past four years: The season was due to open on Nov. 15, right before Thanksgiving, but instead has been hit by a series of delays designed to protect whales from getting entangled in crab pots, which have long lines that travel from the ocean’s surface to the sea floor.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will reassess the situation on Dec. 22 in time for a possible opener on Dec. 31, it said in an announcement."
California labor secretary abruptly exits post in Gavin Newsom’s cabinet
Sac Bee, MAGGIE ANGST: "Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top adviser on California labor issues abruptly left her post this week under uncertain circumstances.
Natalie Palugyai, who Newsom appointed as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency in July 2021, is no longer with the department, the governor’s office and the agency confirmed Wednesday.
In the interim, Undersecretary Stewart Knox is serving as Acting Labor Secretary."
City council recognizes Lori Droste’s departure, concerns over San Pablo Avenue lease
Daily Californian, MAYA JIMENEZ: "Berkeley City Council began its meeting Tuesday by recognizing outgoing city councilmember Lori Droste. Representing District 8, Droste announced in May that she would not be pursuing a third term.
Denise Montgomery, the landmarks preservation commissioner for Droste’s office, noted that Droste is “open-hearted” and “open-minded.”
Many public commentators acknowledged Droste’s efforts toward improving housing initiatives and zoning laws."
San Francisco COVID cases are spiking again, especially in these neighborhoods
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "Once again, San Francisco’s COVID case rates are spiking right before the winter holidays. And once again, the city’s lower-income, heavily Black and brown neighborhoods are bearing the burden.
The city’s confirmed case rates are still lower than they were in the summer and midwinter, when omicron subvariants drove national spikes in sickness. But public health experts say the figures from early December indicate we’re at the start of a potentially much larger winter wave."
Will you mask up again? A January mandate looms for L.A. if COVID-19 wave worsens
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "With coronavirus cases surging and hospitalizations worsening, Los Angeles County once again faces the possibility of a renewed public indoor mask mandate.
The return of such rules, which haven’t been on the books since March, is not a given. But with the startling formation of a third straight fall-and-winter wave, officials have said a new order could be implemented shortly after the calendar turns should current trends continue.
“We are seeing a rapid acceleration again,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “This is the time to put that mask back on.”"
A world gone mad: Schizophrenia and a journey through California’s failed mental health system
LA Times, THOMAS CURWEN: "Standing in the dappled sunlight of a Westside city park, Anthony Mazzucca was trying to make a point. The words flew out of him, like birds, a flock of words. He laughed at the thought.
Yet he wondered whether he was being clear. No one — not God, Obama, the devil, his counselor from high school — seemed to understand him.
It was the summer of 2015, and between the voices he heard and meth he had smoked, Anthony was once again slipping away."
UC faces tumultuous finals week as strike reaches pivotal moment
LA Times, DEBBIE TRUONG/HANNAH FRY/ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE: "When 48,000 University of California academic workers went on strike in mid-November, Stacy Fahrenthold joined them on the picket line. The associate professor of history at UC Davis canceled lectures and will not read final papers or record grades until the walkout is settled.
“We don’t have the grading labor to do it,” said Fahrenthold, who would normally rely on a graduate student worker to score assignments.
Such disruption has unfolded throughout the UC system‘s 10 campuses. As the massive strike by teaching assistants, tutors, graduate student researchers and postdoctoral scholars drags into its fourth week, the walkout has reached a pivotal moment, exacting its harshest toll yet on students, faculty and picketers during the all-important finals week in California’s premier higher education system."
Striking academic workers still paid, some report
Daily Californian, AMUDHA SAIRAM: "As academic workers continue to strike for increased wages throughout the UC system, discussions have emerged over how the strike will impact workers’ payrolls.
The university has not withheld pay for academic workers as of press time, according to UAW 2865 bargaining representative Kai Yui Samuel Chan. The striking unit was provided with a sample attestation form that asks workers whether or not they are striking, Chan added.
Workers have not yet received the actual form from the university, Chan noted, which means the university does not have formal documentation of who is striking in order to facilitate pay cuts."
Travel agent pocketed $415,000 from canceled school trip, California officials say
Sac Bee, DON SWEENEY: "A San Diego-based travel agent refused to refund parents $415,000 paid toward a school trip canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, California prosecutors said.
She spent the money, intended for an 8th-grade trip to the East Coast, on credit card purchases, rent, and artwork instead of reservations, officials said.
“More than 150 California families set aside their hard-earned money to give their children the educational opportunity of a lifetime,” state Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a Monday, Dec. 5, news release. “Instead, the trip was canceled, and their money disappeared.”"
Lowell teachers and staff stage sickout over San Francisco Unified’s payroll fiasco
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "Teachers and staff at Lowell High School staged a massive sickout Wednesday to protest ongoing problems with the payroll system for the San Francisco Unified School District.
An administrator at Lowell reached by phone Wednesday confirmed that the sickout was happening but referred all questions to the district."
Chico State professor disciplined for student affair allegedly threatened colleagues who complained
EdSource, THOMAS PEELE: "A prominent Chico State University biology professor allegedly spoke of killing two female colleagues who cooperated in a 2020 investigation that found he had a prohibited sexual affair with a graduate student, state court and newly released university records show.
A former FBI agent hired by the university to evaluate David Stachura and the alleged threat concluded that the university might have been justified to fire him, his report shows. But Stachura did not act on the alleged threat and Chico State retained him, sanctioning him lightly for the alleged affair.
The settlement, with Stachura denying any wrongdoing, kept the investigation out of his personnel file, clearing his path to tenure in the spring of 2021 and naming him “Outstanding Professor” of the 2020-21 academic year."
Bay Area home values are falling. Here’s why most homeowners still shouldn’t expect a break on their property tax bill
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN/MARISA KENDALL: "Bay Area home values likely will continue to fall in 2023 — with the San Francisco area set to take the biggest losses in the country — but that doesn’t mean homeowners should necessarily expect a break on their property taxes.
By next fall, home prices in the San Francisco metro area — which includes the East Bay and Peninsula — are forecast to tumble 3.6%, the largest decrease of any big population center, according to Zillow. In the San Jose metro, prices are expected to fall 1.8%.
Bay Area home prices have come down in recent months as rising mortgage rates have boosted monthly home payments, squeezing many would-be buyers out of the market. The average rate on a 30-year-fixed home loan is now around 6.5%, about a half-percent decrease from November but more than double the historic lows from just last year."
Here are 8 ways to improve San Francisco housing for homeless people
The Chronicle, KEVIN FAGAN/YURI AVILA/JOHN BLANCHARD: "Supportive housing is the linchpin of San Francisco’s effort to pull homeless people off the streets. The idea is that the city’s most vulnerable can rebuild their lives but that they need help with challenges like poor health, joblessness and drug addiction.
The city, which now spends more than $600 million a year on homelessness services, hopes to add hundreds of new supportive housing units over the next few years. But how these units are created matters.
A Chronicle investigation this year found that the aging single-room-occupancy hotels known as SROs often fail to help people due to ramshackle conditions and understaffing. In some ways, they are designed to fail."
More street medicine teams tackle the homeless health care crisis
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Living on the streets of California is a deadly affair. The life expectancy of an unsheltered person is 50, according to national estimates, nearly 30 years less than that of the average Californian. As homelessness spirals out of control throughout the state, so too do deaths on the street, but it’s those whose lives are the most fragile who are least likely to get medical care.
Now, the state Medi-Cal agency is endeavoring to improve health care access for people experiencing homelessness. Through a series of incentives and regulatory changes, the Health Care Services Department is encouraging Medi-Cal insurers to fund and partner with organizations that bring primary care into encampments.
They’re known as street medicine teams. There are at least 25 in California."Bay Area home values are falling. Here’s why most homeowners still shouldn’t expect a break on their property tax billBay Area home values are falling. Here’s why most homeowners still shouldn’t expect a break on their property tax bill."
Virginia police blame ‘human error’ in hiring of cop who later killed 3 in California
LA Times, ERIN B. LOGAN/SUMMER LIN/GRACE TOOHEY: "Virginia State Police now blame “human error” for the agency’s hiring of Austin Lee Edwards, the cop who killed the grandparents and mother of a 15-year-old California girl he “catfished” online.
“Human error resulted in an incomplete database query during Edwards’ hiring process,” Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said in a news release Wednesday.
The statement amounts to an admission that the agency should have known about a 2016 incident, first reported by The Times on Tuesday, in which Edwards was detained for psychiatric evaluation after threatening to kill his father and himself. According to an Abingdon, Va., police report obtained by The Times through a public records request, Edwards was taken into custody after he cut his hand and emergency medical technicians had to call police to help restrain him."xBay Area home values are falling. Here’s why most homeowners still shouldn’t expect a break on their property tax bill."
Bye-bye parking requirements: San Jose becomes largest city in U.S. to abolish minimum parking"
BANG*Mercury News, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "The car is no longer king in the Bay Area’s largest city. That’s the message city leaders sent to housing developers as San Jose became the country’s largest municipality to abolish decades-old parking minimums that fueled vast concrete lots and commuter sprawl.
The City Council axed the parking requirements for new developments in a unanimous vote on Tuesday evening, shedding a post-World War II legacy that turned San Jose into one of the most “overparked” cities in the state, according to transportation advocates. The rule was a key roadblock in San Jose’s efforts to build more housing and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But many residents, particularly in densely populated East San Jose, worry the policy could exacerbate parking woes in communities that have long been battlegrounds for curbside spaces.
“How many parking lots do we see that are big shopping centers (and) the parking lot is half empty?” Councilmember Pam Foley said during the meeting. “We need to correct that and make sure that space is utilized for other things.”
More housing, fewer prisons: California outlines game plan
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "Hanging over the heads of California’s newly sworn-in state lawmakers — and likely to be top of mind when they return to Sacramento next month — are the state’s intertwined housing and homelessness crises.
That was made clear Tuesday, when Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco introduced for the third time a bill to make it easier for religious organizations and nonprofit colleges to build 100% affordable housing on their property. The proposal — part of the YIGBY, or Yes In God’s Back Yard, movement — would allow those groups to bypass local zoning laws and California’s landmark environmental review process, both of which can delay projects for years and tack on millions of dollars in additional costs.
(The state itself wound up on the losing end of an environmental review lawsuit Tuesday, when a California appeals court ruled that the state Department of General Services didn’t sufficiently analyze the environmental impacts of its more than $1 billion project to demolish and replace the nearly 70-year-old Capitol annex building that houses offices for Gov. Gavin Newsom, lawmakers and their staff. The ruling will likely result in project delays.)
Brittney Griner freed from Russian penal colony in high-level prisoner swap
LA Times, ERIC TUCKER/MATTHEW LEE: "Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, U.S.officials said. The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for President Biden, but carried a heavy price — and left behind another American who has been jailed for nearly four years in Russia.
“She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home,” Biden said from the White House, where he was accompanied by Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and administration officials.
xThe deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose months-long imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees."
‘Law & Order: SVU’ showrunner accused of mistreating women, support staff on multiple shows
LA Times, STACY PERMAN: "In June, David Graziano was given the keys to one of the most valuable fiefdoms in television when he was named showrunner of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (“SVU” among fans) ahead of the NBC drama’s record-setting 24th season.
Graziano, known as “Graz” to friends and colleagues, is a prominent television writer and producer with a lengthy string of credits to his name including stints on the recent adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” on Starz and the Amazon Original “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.”
None of his previous shows, however, can claim “SVU’s” enduring popularity — it is the longest-running prime-time live-action series in history, shown in 250 territories worldwide."
