Map shows why California will be spared from ‘bomb cyclone’ set to freeze the rest of the U.S.
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/GERRY DIAZ: "Harsh winter weather spinning out of a monster bomb cyclone is expected to disrupt travel across the country this holiday weekend. But if you’re staying in California, you might not even know it’s happening.
The winter storm that on Wednesday was pushing east toward the Plains, Great Lakes and Midwest is expected to turn into a bomb cyclone — a low-pressure system that grows rapidly during a process called bombogenesis, with atmospheric pressure dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. That will bring frigid temperatures, blizzards, heavy downpours and flooding to two-thirds of the country."
Depletion of groundwater is accelerating in California’s Central Valley, study finds
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "Scientists have discovered that the pace of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically during the drought as heavy agricultural pumping has drawn down aquifer levels to new lows and now threatens to devastate the underground water reserves.
The research shows that chronic declines in groundwater levels, which have plagued the Central Valley for decades, have worsened significantly in recent years, with particularly rapid declines occurring since 2019.
“We have a full-on crisis,” said Jay Famiglietti, a hydrology professor and executive director of the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Water Security. “California’s groundwater, and groundwater across the southwestern U.S., is disappearing much faster than most people realize.”"
Amid climate change, a question: What’s the future of California rice?
Capitol Weekly, AARON GILBREATH: "After absorbing sunshine all summer, mature rice plants in California’s Sacramento Valley stand as high as three feet tall, in five inches of flood water. Planted in spring, farmers drain their fields in August, and they drive big, loud harvesters into them in September, gently separating the rice stalks from the grain, and blowing the harvest into bankout wagons that they tow beside them.
On average, each acre produces 8,000 pounds of rice, which is a greater yield than most of the world’s rice growing regions. But this September, 300,000 of California’s 550,000 acres of rice lay barren—over half the state’s rice crop.
Instead of miles of soft green grasses swaying amid shimmering water, the fields were cracked bare dirt, some crowded with weeds—no water, no rice, no harvest."
Ninth Circuit condemns EPA’s approval of chemical that kills bees — but allows its continued use
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "The government has improperly allowed farmers to continue dousing their crops with the widely used insecticide sulfoxaflor without considering its harmful effects on honeybees and other species, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. But the court said the chemical can remain in use while the Environmental Protection Agency studies its impact and considers alternatives.
Sulfoxaflor, originally a Dow Chemical product, was first approved by the EPA in 2013 to kill insects on citrus fruits, cotton, soybeans and other crops despite the agency’s finding that it was “very highly toxic” to honeybees. After the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in 2015 that the EPA had relied on flawed data from Dow, the agency reapproved the insecticide in 2016 with restrictions endorsed by beekeepers, including a ban on its use with some crops and a buffer zone for others — but abruptly removed those restrictions in 2019, under President Donald Trump.
President Biden’s EPA says it is studying sulfoxaflor’s effects and possible alternatives but has defended its approval in court."
It will be a red-tagged Christmas for those whose homes were wrecked in 6.4 quake
LA Times, MACKENZIE MAYS/SUSANNE RUST/JESSICA GARRISON: "As aftershocks rumbled and crews worked across Humboldt County on Wednesday afternoon to restore water and power knocked out by the powerful earthquake that struck earlier this week, Kevin Mcniece rushed to his former home, hoping to beat a code enforcement team so he could grab some of his possessions before access was blocked.
He was too late. The quake-battered structure had already been red-tagged by the time Mcniece, 37, a sawmill machinist, arrived to try to salvage some of his belongings, including his beloved record collection, worth thousands of dollars.
He could only peer helplessly through what used to be his kitchen window at the damage: cupboards blown open, fire retardant stains on the ceiling and shattered glass everywhere."
Animation shows deadly Northern California earthquake’s shockwave roll across the US
Sac Bee, BROOKE BAITINGER: "If you’ve wondered how earthquake aftershocks work, this animation might help you visualize it.
The animation shows the shock wave from the 6.4-magnitude earthquake that hit Northern California as it rolled across North America and lit up sensitive seismic stations in its path. At least two people died and 12 were injured after the earthquake rattled Humboldt County, according to The Sacramento Bee.
The EarthScope Consortium posted the animation to Facebook on Wednesday, Dec. 21."
‘The most frightening thing’: Why Humboldt County earthquake punched above its weight
BANG*Mercury News, JAKOB RODGERS/ETHAN BARON: "Patti Toroni awoke early Tuesday to her house jolting violently from side to side — tossing about like a boat at sea as her china cabinet came crashing down and items fell from the walls and smashed to the floor.
“The quake was terrifying,” said Toroni, 68, a retired care worker. “It was really the most frightening thing that’s happened to me in my whole life, and that’s saying quite a bit.”
The two cottages Toroni and her husband lived in near Highway 101 are now filled with piles of fallen furnishings and decorations. They don’t know how, exactly, they’ll get the buildings cleaned up so they can move back in, Toroni said."
Will Northern California earthquake revive seismic safety debate?
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: "Is California prepared for The Big One?
That was the question undoubtedly on many residents’ minds after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Humboldt County in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, resulting in two deaths and at least 12 injuries; damaging homes, roads, bridges, water and gas lines and other critical infrastructure; and leaving about 57,000 PG&E customers without power and many without water.
The quake occurred in a rural stretch of Northern California known as the Mendocino Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates meet — but many residents said this temblor felt different than those that usually rattle the area."
Bay Area rattled by 3.3-magnitude earthquake, second in a day
The Chronicle, KATE GALBRAITH: "The Bay Area was shaken by an earthquake with preliminary magnitude of 3.3 on Wednesday evening.
The quake had an epicenter 2 km north of Union City in Alameda County, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was at a depth of 4.9 kilometers and occurred at 6:22 p.m."
California county sees highest number of monarch butterflies in more than 20 years
Sac Bee, MACKENZIE SHUMAN: "There’s some hope fluttering around San Luis Obispo County this holiday season.
It comes in the form of an iconic orange-and-black striped butterfly that makes tall eucalyptus or Monterey cypress trees its home up and down the coast.
More than 129,000 western monarch butterflies were counted in the county by Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation employees and volunteers in November, according to preliminary data shared by local volunteer coordinator Jessica Griffiths."
A P-22 statue? A star on the Walk of Fame? Tribute ideas pour in for famed mountain lion
The Chronicle, LAURA J. NELSON: "It was an outpouring of grief befitting any Los Angeles celebrity: glamour shots running in news outlets around the world, stunned fans wearing his face on T-shirts, candles left outside his favorite haunts.
Now, Los Angeles is tackling how to memorialize its beloved resident mountain lion, P-22.
Since the mountain lion was euthanized Saturday after being diagnosed with significant injuries and several chronic illnesses, local officials, wildlife advocates and others whose lives were touched by the cougar have been flooded with suggestions about how Los Angeles should honor one of its best-known residents."
California gas prices are plummeting. What does it mean for Newsom’s penalty on Big Oil?
Sac Bee, MAGGIE ANGST/LINDSEY HOLDEN: "Gas prices in the Golden State are plummeting and inflation may be easing, but Democratic lawmakers and other political professionals believe it will have little effect on the state’s push to take oil companies to task for allegedly price-gouging drivers at the pump.
The average price of gas in California was $4.35 per gallon on Wednesday, and experts say it will likely drop below $4 a gallon in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the latest consumer price data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates inflation is receding as well.
This comes as California lawmakers prepare for a contentious debate about penalizing oil companies for alleged price gouging. State legislators will resume the special session on California gas prices at the start of the year, running concurrently with the regular session. It could take months to come to an agreement on the price-gouging penalty."
Dying for your high: The untold exploitation and misery in America’s weed industry
LA Times, PAIGE ST. JOHN/MARISA GERBER/BRIAN VAN DER BRUG: "Sareth Sin, 67, died upright, seated in a plastic chair, on Christmas Day. He was asphyxiated by fumes from the generator he ran to chase the desert chill out of a cannabis greenhouse on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.
Leuane Chounlabout, 79, was found lifeless, lying on his back surrounded by a tangle of electrical cords connecting heat lamps to a greenhouse generator outside Palmdale. He had arrived two days earlier to help harvest.
Miguel and Rufino Garcia Rivera, 28 and 36, collapsed on the floor of a desert greenhouse not far away that reeked of diesel and pesticide fumes. The brothers, recent arrivals from Mexico, died of carbon monoxide poisoning near the small cannabis plants they had been hired to cultivate."
California keeps better police shooting data than the FBI. Here’s why that’s a problem
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "As police killings of civilians in the U.S. have come under recent scrutiny, so has the low quality of the police shooting data the federal government collects.
As a recent Washington Post investigation found, the FBI, which has long undercounted fatal police shootings, is actually missing by more in recent years than it was several years ago. The investigation found that two-thirds of national fatal police shooting data is missing from the FBI’s data archive. The agency’s California data is better than average, but it’s still quite lacking: The FBI data was missing about one-half of California fatal police shootings the Post could identify from 2015 to 2021."
As Conception boat burned, divers trapped below deck calmly looked for way out, video shows
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "Following the horrific Conception boat fire in 2019, authorities offered a small solace: The 33 divers and one crew member had died of smoke inhalation and may have perished in their sleep without suffering.
That theory was called into question when some of the dead were found to have been wearing their shoes, leading investigators to speculate they had tried to escape before the ship was engulfed in flames.
Now, more than three years after one of the country’s deadliest maritime accidents, a sobering piece of evidence has put the question to rest, showing conclusively that the divers were awake and searching for a way off the boat in the minutes after crew members had jumped into the water."
Buried treasure: California politicians stash $35 million in leftover campaign cash
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF/BEN CHRISTOPHER: "It has been nearly eight years since Bill Lockyer held elected office in California.
For more than four decades, he climbed the ranks of state politics — Assembly member, Senate leader, attorney general, treasurer — before ending a campaign for controller amid turmoil in his marriage and retiring at the start of 2015.
Nevertheless, Lockyer still has more than $1 million in a campaign account for the 2026 lieutenant governor race. Every month, he pays $2,500 to consultant Michelle Maravich, who said she helps maintain his donor list, manage meetings and appearances, and provide advice on occasional contributions to other candidates as the 81-year-old Democrat contemplates a comeback."
Here’s what new California labor laws mean for you 2023, from minimum wage to family leave
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "Job hunters will be able to know how much a position pays before applying. Public employers found to be interfering with union activity will pay sizable fines. Family leave benefits will improve.
These are some of the changes coming for California workers and businesses as the calendar flips to 2023. Here’s what you should know about new laws taking effect next year:"
Here’s what you need to know about California’s new pay transparency law
CALMatters, GRACE GEDYE: "In less than two weeks, job seekers in California will finally know how much a job pays when they apply for it — if companies don’t figure out a way around a new law.
Starting on Jan. 1, employers with at least 15 workers will have to include pay ranges in job postings. Employees will also be able to ask for the pay range for their own position, and larger companies will have to provide more detailed pay data to California’s Civil Rights Department than previously required.
California isn’t the first state to force businesses to put their cards on the table. Colorado took that step in 2019, and a similar requirement went into effect in New York City in November. Washington state has its own version that will also kick in on Jan. 1, and a similar statewide bill in New York was just signed by the governor."
Racist audio leak raises a tough question: Why don’t Latinos vote more in L.A.?
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA: "Florentina Serna has waited more than three decades to cast a ballot. She still can’t. When election day comes around and she sees the propositions and candidates and knows she can’t do a thing to help change her hometown, she feels powerless.
Her daughter, Maria Serna, can vote but rarely exercises the right her 55-year-old mother covets. It’s a circumstance that frustrates Florentina — and anyone who runs for office in the city of Los Angeles.
“She’s on top of us about it, me and my sister,” Maria, 37, said sheepishly as she stood outside a supermarket in the family’s Arleta neighborhood. Florentina is waiting for her naturalization ceremony to be scheduled so she can register to vote."
Before leaving office, Alameda D.A. tried to transfer $20M to projects she founded
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "In her final days in office, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley tried to persuade county supervisors to transfer $20 million from her office’s budget to projects she started, county documents show.
O’Malley had requested that supervisors transfer the money from the District Attorney Consumer and Environmental Trust account into a general county fund to expand programs she created to help domestic violence survivors and people accused of low-level crimes who struggled with mental illness or drug addiction."
Immigration reform hopes nearly extinguished as Congress approaches end of session
LA Times, ANDREA CASTILLO: "Congressional leaders who hoped to strike a deal on immigration reform before the end of the year faced difficult odds to push proposals through for votes.
Democrats saw the lame-duck session between the election and the start of the new Congress as the last chance to pass significant legislation before losing their majority in the House. Among the immigration-related legislation considered were bills that would have offered pathways to citizenship for so-called Dreamers, for farmworkers and for Afghans evacuated to the U.S. since last year; and another that would have removed caps on the number of green cards granted each year to people from any given country.
As of Wednesday night, none of the bills had advanced."
If you had COVID recently, what are the odds you could get reinfected over holidays?
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Dear Advice Team: My father, who is 75 years old, vaccinated and boosted, got COVID over the Thanksgiving holiday week after traveling to Las Vegas. As we go into two weeks of holiday activities, I’m wondering if he — and the other family members and friends who I know were infected during that period — are “safe” from getting COVID again during the December holidays? Are variants mutating so quickly now that people could be re-infected that quickly?"
How California’s colleges are supporting formerly incarcerated students
EdSource, ARABEL MEYER: "California public universities are becoming more equitable and inclusive as programs emerge to help formerly incarcerated students earn college degrees. These programs include the California State University system’s Project Rebound and the University of California’s Underground Scholars, both of which have shown promising results in the successful reintegration of people into the education system.
Project Rebound was started in 1967 by professor John Irwin to help facilitate the transition from the criminal justice system to receiving bachelor’s degrees at San Francisco State University. Since then, the organization was adopted by Associated Students and has expanded to 14 Cal State campuses, aiding in the passage of hundreds of formerly incarcerated students through the four-year education system. Another, newer California program, the Underground Scholars Initiative, was founded by two UC Berkeley alumni in 2013. This program has since expanded to all nine UC undergraduate campuses, furthering the support of educational equality.
Statistically, the work of these organizations has proven to be invaluable in reducing rates of recidivism. The term recidivism refers to the tendency of someone who has been convicted of a crime and imprisoned to reoffend and re-enter the system after their first release from custody."
UC Santa Barbara ‘Dormzilla’ housing plan is a safety threat without changes, report says
LA Times, TERESA WATANABE: "UC Santa Barbara’s proposed student housing project — a massive building dubbed “Dormzilla” — presents a potential health and safety risk and should undergo a “robust redesign” with more windows, ventilation and bedroom space, according to an independent review released Tuesday.
The project is aimed at addressing UCSB’s severe student housing crisis, which has forced some students to live in hotels and even their vehicles after enrollment exploded over the past several years without enough dorm rooms to keep up. Unveiled last year, the original project design featured 4,500 beds in small rooms — most without windows — in an 11-story warehouse-sized building. The proposal drew widespread criticism and prompted the resignation of a leading Los Angeles architect from the campus design review committee.
The design was favored by the project’s funder, billionaire Charles Munger, who donated $200 million in seed money for the residence hall that will be named after him."
L.A. students’ grades are rising, but test scores are falling. Why the big disconnect?
LA Times, PALOMA ESQUIVEL: "Claudia Chacon said her two children, who attend Fairfax High School, bring home good grades in math and English. But when she reviews their individual scores on California’s statewide tests, she wonders what they are learning. The standardized exams have shown her boys do not meet grade-level standards, making her worry their report cards mask their real achievement levels.
“It feels like they’re still struggling,” she said, concerned that her ninth- and 11th-grade sons aren’t being fully prepared for college.
Their situation is far from unique. After falling in the early semesters of the pandemic, by spring 2022 high school and middle school math and English grades in the Los Angeles Unified School District not only rebounded, but went up, according to an L.A. Times analysis. At the same time, math and English proficiency rates on the state’s standardized tests fell to their lowest levels in five years."
Congress is About to Change the Rules For Your Retirement Savings
The Street, VERONIKA BONDARENKO: "Major revisions to retirement savings rules are part of the year-end spending package currently in front of Congress.
As part of a $1.7 trillion spending bill that includes funds for everything from national defense to disaster aid and college and food assistance, Congress is also currently mulling several big changes to retirement.
The provisions dedicated to how Americans save for those non-working years are known collectively as Secure 2.0. They're largely bipartisan and passed two House committees earlier in the year. Most lawmakers expect it to pass through both the House and Senate as part of the wider bill by the end of the week."
Layoffs keep coming with Tesla reportedly cutting jobs next quarter
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "Electric car maker Tesla will reportedly freeze hiring and go through a fresh round of layoffs as job cuts at marquee companies small and large, including Twitter and Meta, have roiled a range of tech companies across the Bay Area.
Electric car blog Electrek first reported the story."
Tesla ‘full self-driving’ triggered an eight-car crash, Bay Area driver tells police
CNN, MATT MCFARLAND: "A driver told authorities that their Tesla’s “full-self-driving” software braked unexpectedly and triggered an eight-car pileup in the San Francisco Bay Area last month that led to nine people being treated for minor injuries including one juvenile who was hospitalized, according to a California Highway Patrol traffic crash report.
CNN Business obtained the report detailing the crash through a public records request Wednesday. California Highway Patrol reviewed videos that show the Tesla vehicle changing lanes and slowing to a stop.
California Highway Patrol said in the Dec. 7 report that it could not confirm if “full self-driving” was active at the time of the crash. A highway patrol spokesperson told CNN Business on Wednesday that it would not determine if “full self-driving” was active, and Tesla would have that information."
S.F. land values are sinking to rock bottom prices, but there could be a silver lining
The Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "Land values in San Francisco appear to have hit rock bottom, which could create a rare opportunity for the city as it scrambles to acquire sites in order to meet the state-mandated housing goals of creating 46,000 affordable units between 2023 and 2031.
While very few residential development sites have traded hands since the pandemic began nearly three years ago, last week a fully entitled parcel at 25 Mason St. — on the border of the Tenderloin and Union Square — went up for sale through the online auction website Ten-X, according to sources familiar with the sale."
Here’s how much Bay Area home prices have fallen from their 2022 peak
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/YOOHYUN JUNG: "As we enter the new year, potential homebuyers and sellers in the Bay Area may be wondering just how far off home prices are from the overheated days earlier this year when they seemed to be hitting new highs all the time.
Rising mortgage rates, soaring inflation and stock market turmoil have cooled housing markets across the country, with the Bay Area leading the trend since the summer. But mortgage rates have actually edged down recently, from their 2022 high of 7.1% on Nov. 10 to 6.3% on Dec. 15."
Bass wants to bring homeless people indoors. Can she secure enough beds?
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "Seated on the hard sidewalk along Cahuenga Boulevard, Rue Ryan arranged a batch of red roses she had plucked from the trash into a memorial for her “street mom,” Hyper, who died two years ago.
The work was an escape from the activity around her, as friends and fellow encampment residents hurriedly prepared to move into nearby hotel rooms, choosing what to keep or toss.
Outreach workers had counted about 25 people living in under a 101 Freeway overpass in Hollywood, and on Tuesday, 11 of them went to one of three nearby hotels. A hot shower, a good night’s rest — these are luxuries housed people take for granted, Ryan said, and would help her find a job, some security and a permanent place to live."
Zelensky to Congress: ‘Your money is not charity’
LA Times, TRACY WILKINSON/COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN/NOLAN D. MCCASKILL: "Making a dramatic, risky wartime visit to Washington on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strategized privately with President Biden at the White House and then, to repeated standing ovations, delivered an impassioned plea to Congress for sustained U.S. military aid.
“Your money is not charity,” Zelensky told the unusual joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening. “It is an investment in global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.”
The Ukrainian leader, fresh from the front lines and making his first known trip outside of his country since Russia’s invasion 300 days ago, pressed a message of thanks to “ordinary” Americans for their support while also making the case for more help."
