Epic storm headed for Bay Area will also see up to 70-mph winds, triggering urgent warning
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER/MICHAEL CABANATUAN/JULIE JOHNSON: "Residents, business owners and emergency workers already weary from recent tempests braced for an epic storm headed for the Bay Area this week, filling sandbags, moving inventory off the ground, and staging crews to prepare for another onslaught of rain and alarming 70 mph wind gusts.
Officials said the storm arriving Wednesday — fueled by a bomb cyclone and strong atmospheric river — could be even more devastating than the New Year’s Eve torrent. That means another round of vehicles stranded in flooded streets, power outages, dangerous wildfire debris flows, mudslides, and a lot of trees falling onto cars, power lines and potentially homes.
Californians, many of whom misplaced their umbrellas months ago amid a steadfast drought, now find themselves trying to clean up flooded basements, overstretched storm drains and drenched storefronts before the next wave hits — and the next and the one after that over the next 10 days."
California’s snow pack at decade-high for New Year after massive storms
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "After three years of drought, California is beginning 2023 with more snow on the ground than at any start to a year in a decade.
State water officials trekked into the Sierra Nevada to conduct the first snow survey of the winter season on Tuesday, reporting 174% of average statewide snowpack for the date.
The reams of powder come amid a series of storms that is blasting Northern California and has piled snow onto banks up to 16 feet high at major highway passes through the mountains. Some ski resorts count 18 feet of snow on the slopes."
California snowpack is far above average amid January storms, but a lot more is needed
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "A series of atmospheric river storms has brought California heavy rains and above-average snowpack across the Sierra Nevada, but experts say the state still needs many more storms to begin to emerge from drought.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack measures 174% of average for this time of year, but there are still three months left in the snow season, and the snow that has fallen to date remains just 64% of the April 1 average.
“It’s definitely a very exciting start to the year and a very promising start to the year. But we just need the storm train to keep coming through,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory."
Sacramento Valley, already deluged, braces for more floods
CALMatters, JULIE CART/ALASTAIR BLAND: "Raising questions about whether California’s elaborate system of flood protections will hold, another dangerous storm is barreling toward the Sacramento Valley, where rains already punched through some levees and floods killed at least one person.
The storms have tested the flood-prevention infrastructure across the region, which sits at the confluence of two major rivers and bears the brunt of heavy rains. “It’s a bathtub, basically,” said Beth Salyers, deputy district engineer for the federal Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento.
In the Central Valley, an estimated 1.3 million people and $223 billion worth of property are protected by the state-federal systems of levees, dams and other structures."
Everything you need to know to navigate flooded highways as second storm heads to Sacramento
Sac Bee, JACQUELINE PINEDO: "This weekends atmospheric river storm flooded parts of Sacramento County including Highway 99 south of Elk Grove, which stopped drivers in their tracks. Now, as another storm is expected to rake Northern California, more flooding is anticipated and transportation officials are urging motorists to stay off the roads and urge caution if you do.
So what is the safest approach when maneuvering flooded roads?
“Turn Around, Don’t Drown” is a program launched in 2003 by the National Weather Service that urges drivers to, like the slogan says, turn around instead of driving through a flooded road."
Bay Area storm touches down; here’s what to expect on Wednesday
BANG*Mercury News, AUSTIN TURNER: "Most of the Bay Area woke up to rainfall Wednesday morning, marking the beginning of what’s expected to be a ruthless winter storm that’s already prompted emergency proclamations and multiple hazard warnings of potential flooding and severe winds to come.
“Today’s going to be a really impactful day,” NWS meteorologist Brian Garcia told Bay Area News Group Wednesday morning. “And while it doesn’t seem bad this morning, if you try to go into work this morning and you try to come home at 5, 6 p.m. tonight, it’s not going to be pretty.”
A NWS bulletin posted early Wednesday morning explained that widespread flooding and damaging winds were expected to last from the afternoon through Thursday as an atmospheric river moves over the region."
Bay Area storm: ‘Bomb-cyclone’-fueled weather brings landslides, flooding
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ/CLAIRE HAO/AIDIN VAZIRI: "Yet another winter storm is set to pummel California today with strong winds and heavy rainfall. Forecasts for the storm have been dire, prompting cities in the Bay Area to frantically prepare emergency services, and issue strong warnings to avoid traveling if possible. A National Weather Service forecast said the impacts will include "widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down, widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life."
Weather models expect the first wave of strong winds and rain to roll in this morning, bringing 35 to 45 mph gusts to large swaths of the Peninsula, North Bay and Santa Cruz Mountains, along with rainfall rates at around a quarter of an inch per hour until noon. The strong winds are expected to drop off Wednesday night, but heavy downpours will persist across most of the Bay Area through Thursday morning.
In San Francisco, city officials activated an Emergency Operations Center ahead of the storm. The Department of Public Works ran low on sandbags after distributing more than 8,500 by Tuesday afternoon, and limited the number to five per household. In addition, flood barriers were in place in areas where the storm drains are unlikely to be able the handle the water quantity, officials said."
Storms headed for California are being driven by strongest jet stream seen in years. Here’s what it looks like
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "As residents across California recover from intense flooding on New Year’s Eve that inundated neighborhoods in San Francisco and Sacramento, another series of atmospheric rivers are set to bring intense winter storms to the state over the next 10 days.
On Wednesday and Thursday a rapidly-forming winter storm referred to as a bomb cyclone will charge yet another round of strong winds and heavy downpours to the California coast. But that won’t be the end of this recent onslaught of active weather. This week’s atmospheric river — shown in the map above — will steer moisture from Indonesia all the way to the California coast. Another round of rain and strong winds is on tap for the weekend and into early next week, with most weather models expecting this active weather pattern to carry over into the middle of January. And it’s all thanks to a relentless jet stream over the Pacific Ocean."
String of brutal atmospheric rivers imperils a California already weakened by drought
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "A successive series of powerful atmospheric river storms poses a growing threat to California as the ground becomes more saturated, river levels rise and heavy winds threaten the power infrastructure.
This week’s storms are expected to dump intense levels of rain in a fairly short period of time. The greatest potential for disaster is in Northern California, which has already been battered by several destructive storms — including one this weekend that caused a deadly levee breach. But each new storm, including one set to arrive Wednesday, adds new pressure.
“The main reason why this storm is going to have a larger impact than it would have had if it had happened two or three weeks ago is that it’s rained a lot in Northern California already recently, so everything’s really saturated,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA."
Bay Area flood risk: This detailed map shows danger zones
The Chronicle, YOOHYUN JUNG/JACK LEE/CLAIRE HAO/SRIHARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "The atmospheric river storm headed for California on Wednesday is expected to bring more flooding - perhaps significant flooding - to the Bay Area. Warnings from the National Weather Service and local officials are increasingly dire.
This map from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows parts of the Bay Area’s nine counties that are at risk of flooding in a 100-year storm — a huge storm that has a 1% chance of occurring in a given year. Whether the impending storm is such an event is still uncertain, but expected to bring intense rain.
The FEMA data shows large swaths of near-coast areas on 100-year floodplains, including the northern part of the San Pablo Bay from Santa Venetia to Vallejo. The coastal areas of the San Francisco Bay, from San Bruno all the way around to Oakland International Airport and parts of Alameda, are also in flood risk zones."
Why S.F.’s $600 million plan to prevent floods won’t help during this week’s storm
The Chronicle, TRISHA THADANI/CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO/ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "San Francisco officials are furiously working to prepare for the massive storm expected to hit the city beginning early Wednesday, erecting flood barriers and piling up sandbags to help prevent catastrophic damage to residents and businesses.
While the city is in the midst of three major infrastructure projects — totaling more than $600 million — to help low-lying neighborhoods that are particularly vulnerable to extreme flood damage, those projects are still years from completion and will not protect those areas from the brunt of this week’s storm.
Instead, the business owners and residents in these neighborhoods — which includes areas in the Mission, West Portal and around Lower Alemany — will largely have to rely on old-school tactics to protect their properties, like flood barriers and sandbags."
Southwest Airlines Gets Even More Bad News
The Street, MICHAEL TEDDER: "The fallout from Southwest's holiday meltdown continues.
Holiday travel is stressful under the best of circumstances, but passengers who opted for Southwest Airlines last month had an especially harrowing ordeal.
A winter storm wreaked havoc on America over the holidays, resulting in thousands of canceled flights. But Southwest was hit especially hard, canceling 15,000 flights, or more than 60% of its planned flights, at one point scrapping nearly 2,500 each day."
How much does the Legislature look like California?
CALMatters, JOHN OSBORN D'AGOSTINO/SAMEEA KAMAL/ARIEL GANS: "The California Legislature that reconvenes today is the most diverse ever: It includes a record number of women, occupying 50 of 120 seats, with one still being contested. It also includes an all-time high of Latino legislators, as well as lawmakers who openly identify as LGBTQ. And it now includes its first Muslim and Sikh members.
But how representative are legislators of California as a whole?
The proportion of women, Latinos and Asian Americans still isn’t at parity with their share of the state’s population. Take a deeper look with the CalMatters interactive below."
Inside the California state Capitol: How your government works
CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL/JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "In the beginning, there was state government.
Before there was a federal government, a collection of states organized under the Articles of Confederation in 1781. But the 13 separate entities with different interests soon realized they needed an overarching body to enforce laws, reds CVADgulate commerce and wage war. So the U.S. Constitution was drafted in 1787, then ratified by the states and took effect in 1789.
Yet, despite states being the foundation upon which this country’s government is organized, their role in our daily lives is not always apparent. And in some respects — and especially for a place as populous as California — state and local governments play a more prominent role in decisions that affect daily life than the federal government, according to research from nonpartisan the Brookings Institution."
California workers get new protections in 2023. Here’s what you need to know
LA Times, MARGOT ROOSEVELT: "Far-reaching new laws seek to better working conditions for a broad swath of Californians in 2023 from white-collar employees to blue-collar farm laborers, fast-food servers and construction workers.
Measures expanding family leave, providing for bereavement leave and mandating pay transparency are among lawmakers’ “incredibly productive” record of accomplishment, said Mariko Yoshihara, legislative counsel and policy director for the California Employment Lawyers Assn. “But there’s still a lot more work to do.”
Legislative wrestling between worker advocates and the state’s powerful industries meant several ambitious efforts failed to gain traction last year. They are likely to surface again this year, including bills to expand overtime, protect employees from artificial intelligence surveillance and stop businesses from moving call centers out of state."
Medi-Cal will keep more insurance plans after pushback
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG/ANA B. IBARRA: "In a significant course change, the California Department of Health Care Services announced that it has negotiated with five commercial health plans to provide Medi-Cal services in 2024, scratching a two-year-long bidding process for the coveted state contracts.
This upends the state’s previous plans of awarding contracts to only three health plans. It means more Medi-Cal enrollees will likely get to keep their current insurer and doctors, averting a confusing re-enrollment process for most members and preventing disruption to patient care. It also means that the state will avoid a protracted legal battle amid lawsuit threats from insurers who had previously been left out.
The big winners: Blue Shield and Community Health Group will get a contract after initially having lost bids, and Health Net will get to keep at least some of its Los Angeles enrollees."
California’s school finance ratings: D for adequacy, B for equity, F for effort — but on the upswing
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "During the past decade, California has leapfrogged a dozen states in per-student funding, and its system for distributing the money to high-needs students is now among the most equitable in the nation.
California is also an economic behemoth, the fifth–largest economy in the world, with projections that it will surpass Germany to become the fourth. Compared with other states, though, California falls near the bottom in terms of how much it spends on K-12 schools in relation to the total wealth it generates. Despite its reputation as an overtaxed state, California’s education funding has not paralleled the growth of its economy — its state gross domestic product or GDP.
The nonprofit Education Law Center provides this multilens picture of California’s school financing in Making the Grade, an annual ranking of the states that was published in December. The center, based in New Jersey, is a public interest law firm that advocates for increased school funding. It’s best known for initiating a protracted lawsuit, Abbott v. Burke, that led to higher school funding in New Jersey."
The foundation: Inside the LAPD’s secretive, multimillion-dollar private funding arm
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR/LIBOR JANY: "The Los Angeles Police Department and its multibillion-dollar budget were under intense public scrutiny in the spring of 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic had greatly reduced city revenue amid some of the largest and most destructive street protests in decades. The LAPD was being accused of exacerbating the unrest and bungling its response. Activists and politicians were calling for the department’s funding to be slashed in favor of social services for the homeless, mentally ill and poor.
Behind closed doors, the money from private donors kept coming."
Family to sell Bruce’s Beach property back to L.A. County for nearly $20 million
LA Times, REBECCA ELLISLSix months ago, Los Angeles County leaders signed off on an unprecedented transaction: They would return two parcels of beachfront property in Manhattan Beach to the Bruce family, the first example of the government giving back land to a Black family after acknowledging it had been stolen.
On Tuesday, the county announced a surprise twist in the historic deal: The family would sell the Bruce’s Beach property back to the county for nearly $20 million.
In the early 1900s, Willa and Charles Bruce were pushed out of a bustling resort they had built, beloved by the area’s Black community. The Ku Klux Klan, along with other white residents of the area, plotted to drive the family away and city officials later condemned their property in 1924 through eminent domain, claiming they needed the lots for a park. The family’s resort was demolished, and the Bruce family moved away. The park would not be built for decades."
California cop won’t face charges for killing bystander while shooting at a suspect
AP: "A California police officer won’t face criminal charges for accidentally killing a bystander while shooting at a suspect last year, the state Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Juan Olvera-Preciado, 59, of Guadalupe, died at the scene on the night of Aug. 21, 2021 in the small coastal city in Santa Barbara County.
A bullet ricocheted off the ground and traveled about 174 feet (53 meters) before hitting Olvera-Preciado in the head as he sat in a parked car, said a report by the DOJ, which is required by state law to investigate law enforcement shootings that kill unarmed civilians."
Bystanders tackle tech CEO accused of peeping in Panera bathroom, California cops say
Sac Bee, PALOMA CHAVEZ: "A tech CEO was arrested after he was accused of sticking his head under a bathroom stall in a Panera in California to stare at a woman, multiple news outlets reported.
Mountain View police received a call Jan. 2 from a woman who said while she was in the bathroom a man peered under the stall, according to a news release by police.
The woman screamed and the 35-year-old, identified by police as Eduardo Moreno, ran out of the restaurant, officials said."
News Analysis: Whoever wins, serving as House speaker will be more like ‘being mayor of hell’
LA Times, DAVID LAUTER: "Republican leader Kevin McCarthy surely could have seen defeat coming: The wave that swamped him has been building for years.
In 2015, attacks from the right wing drove House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio to quit in frustration. Boehner’s successor, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, stuck it out for just 2½ years before announcing that he, too, would quit the House.
On Tuesday, the division that stymied the last two Republican speakers reached its logical conclusion: For the first time in 100 years, the majority party in the House proved unable to elect its nominee as speaker."
Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker to continue, Donald Trump urges support
AP: "House Republicans plan to open the second day of the new Congress much like the first — with leader Kevin McCarthy trying to become House speaker despite losing in multiple rounds of voting that threw the new GOP majority into chaos.
It was the first time in 100 years that a nominee for House speaker could not take the gavel on the first vote, but McCarthy appeared undeterred. Instead, he vowed to fight to the finish, encouraged, he said, by former President Donald Trump to end the disarray and pull the Republican Party together.
Early Wednesday, Trump publicly urged Republicans to vote for McCarthy: “CLOSE THE DEAL, TAKE THE VICTORY,” he wrote on his social media site. He added: “REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT.”"
