Major California region now out of drought
The Chronicle, KATE GALBRAITH: "California’s Central Coast has emerged from drought, according to a map released Thursday by the federal government in partnership with a university group.
The good news applies to a broad swathe of the coastline, from the southern half of Santa Cruz County to the northern part of Los Angeles County."
California to get major boost in water supplies after January storms
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "
California water agencies that serve 27 million people will see an increased allocation of supplies from the state after a series of winter storms boosted reservoirs and snowpack, officials announced Thursday.
Less than two months after the Department of Water Resources said it could give only 5% of requested supplies in 2023 to the 29 agencies that rely on the State Water Project, the department increased its allocation to 30%. The State Water Project is a complex system of reservoirs, canals and dams that is a major component of California’s water system.
Officials said the allocation could change as the rest of the wet season develops. But the news marks a significant turnaround for California, which has been mired in extreme drought conditions for more than three years. Last year’s final allocation was just 5%, and the state has not issued an allocation of 30% or higher since 2019."
California makes big increase to 2023 state water allocations after soaking storms
Sac Bee, MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "California’s torrential storms from late December through early January will allow the State Water Project to deliver nearly 1.3 million acre-feet of water throughout the state this year – six times as much as projected before the storms, state water officials said.
Entrenched in a third consecutive year of severe drought conditions, the California Department of Water Resources on Dec. 1 announced it would be able to deliver only 5% of water supply requested for 2023. The State Water Project stores and delivers water to 29 water agencies that serve 27 million Californians.
But now, the state says the project can deliver 30% this year. That works out to 1.27 million acre-feet of water, about 413 billion gallons."
The Colorado River is overused and shrinking. Inside the crisis transforming the Southwest
LA Times, IAN JAMES/MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE/SEAN GREENE/LUIS SINCO: "The Colorado River begins as melting snow, trickling from forested peaks and coursing in streams that gather in the meadows and valleys of the Rocky Mountains.
Like arteries, its major tributaries take shape across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, coming together in a great river like no other — a river that travels more than 1,400 miles and has defined the rise of the American Southwest over the last century.
Water diverted from the river has enabled agriculture to spread across 5 million acres of farmland and has fed the growth of cities from Denver to Los Angeles, supplying about 40 million people. Harnessing the river’s bounty has provided the foundation for life and the economy across seven states and northern Mexico."
In death, Monterey Park shooter’s motive remains a mystery; cops can’t connect to victims
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON/HANNAH FRY/JAMES RAINEY/JULIA WICK: "In the four days since 72-year-old Huu Can Tran opened fire at a Monterey Park dance studio, fragments of his life and possible motives for the attack have slowly emerged.
He at one time frequented the ballroom dance scene but appeared to have personal grievances against some in that world. He lived a somewhat isolated life. A law enforcement source confirmed to The Times that Tran was a gun enthusiast who purchased the semiautomatic MAC-10 assault weapon used in the attack in 1999.
But a clear sense of why he killed 11 people in Monterey Park before launching another attack at a dance hall in Alhambra that was thwarted remains a mystery."
‘What drove a madman to do this?’ Domestic violence probed in Monterey Park shooting
LA Times, SONJA SHARP/KATIE LICARI: "Hours before Monterey Park shooter Huu Can Tran was found slumped over the steering wheel of his white cargo van, before his name was released or his victims identified, rumors swirled about his motive.
Was it jealousy that drove the 72-year-old Tran to storm Star Ballroom Dance Studio on the eve of Lunar New Year, killing 11 and injuring nine more? Had he been hunting his ex-wife when he was disarmed at Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra?
“What drove a madman to do this?” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “We don’t know. But we intend to find out.”"
Accused Half Moon Bay gunman claims he suffered ‘years of bullying’ before killing 7
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI/SALVADOR HERNANDEZ/TERRY CASTLEMAN: "Amid a state investigation into workplace conditions at the San Mateo County farms where seven people were killed this week, the farmworker charged in the massacre said he had experienced “years of bullying” and working long hours before opening fire.
Chunli Zhao, 66, in a jailhouse interview with NBC Bay Area, admitted that he took a semiautomatic handgun and opened fire on his co-workers Monday.
San Mateo County Dist. Atty. Stephen M. Wagstaffe told The Times in an interview that although he could not go into details in the case, the suspect’s comments to the TV station were “consistent with what he told law enforcement.”"
Half Moon Bay shooting: Massacre fueled by simmering tensions among farmworkers, sources say
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA/JAKOB RODGERS: "The shooting massacres at two coastal mushroom farms earlier this week were apparently fueled by the suspected gunman’s mounting frustrations with his job conditions and simmering tensions with other colleagues, a law enforcement source told the Bay Area News Group.
As a clearer motive emerged on Thursday, the state’s labor watchdog agencies announced investigations into working conditions at the farms, which have become a focus of attention in the wake of the shootings.
Chunli Zhao, 66, apparently had enough with his purported mistreatment Monday and responded by fatally shooting four people and wounding another at California Terra Garden farm, where he worked. He then drove three miles south to Concord Farms — which once employed him — and killed three more farmworkers."
Cities are leading California gun reform. Will recent shootings push state Democrats to follow?
Sac Bee, MAGGIE ANGST/LINDSEY HOLDEN: "California lawmakers have passed some of the nation’s strongest gun reform laws, but dozens of communities across the state are home to even more stringent measures.
As California reels from three mass shootings that left at least 24 people dead in the span of 8 days, there are calls for the state legislature’s Democratic supermajority to follow the lead of those localities and pursue even more aggressive gun regulations.
The recent killings have shaken residents across the Golden State, from a Los Angeles suburb known as America’s first “suburban Chinatown” to a small Central Valley farming town to a Bay Area coastal community."
California Rep. Adam Schiff enters marquee Senate race
LA Times, MELANIE MASON: "Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a decades-long fixture in San Fernando Valley politics who rose to national prominence as a top Democratic foe to then-President Trump, announced Thursday that he is joining a contest for U.S. Senate that is quickly shaping up to be highly competitive.
A mild-mannered former prosecutor, Schiff initially built a profile in the House as a moderate Democrat focused on foreign policy and national security. The Trump era, however, thrust him into the spotlight, as he led the first impeachment of the then-president and served on the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack that culminated in referring Trump to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.
“The Senate is where many of these fights over the future of our democracy take place,” Schiff said in an interview prior to his campaign launch. “Some of Donald Trump’s biggest enablers are in the Senate. And I think that is where I can most effectively champion our democratic institutions.”"
New California congressman Kevin Kiley is using his new position to ‘expose’ Gavin Newsom
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Now that he’s a congressman with a national megaphone, Kevin Kiley’s eager to describe over and over how he sees Gov. Gavin Newsom ruining California.
Four days after taking office, the Rocklin Republican vowed on his blog, “I will continue to do everything I can to expose Newsom’s failures, using all the new tools at my disposal to hold him accountable. Our movement for sanity in California will continue to grow.”
Asked by The Bee to describe the new tools he could use to battle Newsom from a continent away, Kiley cited his ability to talk to a wider audience, ask tough questions at hearings and help write legislation."
San Jose fills second empty seat through appointment
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "San Jose’s city council is finally complete with the appointment of its latest member, ending weeks of intense angling between moderates and progressives for the balance of power at City Hall.
Retired Intel and IBM manager Arjun Batra will become District 10’s new councilmember starting Jan. 30, representing the city’s southwestern portion that borders Almaden Quicksilver County Park to the south and includes Tulare Hill to the east and Westfield Oakridge mall to the north. The seat was previously held by Matt Mahan, who won the mayorship during the November election.
Batra will serve until the next general election in 2024 and said he is still deciding whether he will run in the contest to keep the seat. He is the first Indian-American councilmember since Ash Kalra left in 2016 for the state assembly."
Judge who struck down California’s COVID misinformation law questions ‘scientific consensus’ on vaccines
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "The federal judge who blocked a California law subjecting doctors to disciplinary action for giving patients information about COVID-19 that the state considers false said there was no established “scientific consensus” about prevention or treatment of the disease.
The coronavirus is “a disease that scientists have only been studying for a few years, and about which scientific conclusions have been hotly contested,” U.S. District Judge William Shubb of Sacramento said Wednesday in a ruling halting enforcement of the law, which had taken effect this month. “COVID-19 is a quickly evolving area of science that in many aspects eludes consensus.”"
COVID in California: Study says long COVID is affecting college campuses
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Positive reinforcement for the benefit of vaccination keeps piling up. A study of more than 11 million children found the COVID-19 vaccine safe and effective and identified minimal side effects. And researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that the bivalent vaccine boosters provide protection even against the immune evasive XBB.1.5 strain. But policy issues surrounding COVID may get stickier in weeks ahead, after Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy included controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green among the members of a panel investigating the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic."
FDA advisers back plan to simplify COVID vaccinations
AP, LAURAN NEERGAARD: "The U.S. is poised to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot, a major shift in strategy despite a long list of questions about how to best protect against a still rapidly mutating virus.
The Food and Drug Administration asked its scientific advisers Thursday to help lay the groundwork for switching to once-a-year boosters for most Americans — and how and when to periodically update the shots’ recipe.
“This is a consequential meeting to determine if we’ve reached the point in the pandemic that allows for simplifying the use of current COVID-19 vaccines,” said FDA’s Dr. David Kaslow."
Some question California’s resolve after it grants Medi-Cal contract concessions
KHN, BERNARD J. WOLFSON/SAMANTHA YOUNG: "California’s decision last month to cancel the results of a long-planned bidding competition among commercial health plans in its Medicaid program has some industry insiders and consumer advocates wondering whether the state can stand up to insurers and force improvements in care for millions of low-income beneficiaries.
In a backroom agreement announced in the final days of 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration, facing lawsuits, granted concessions that allowed major insurers to claw back business they would have lost had health officials stuck with the state’s initial contract awards for managed-care plans. Oakland-based Blue Shield of California and St. Louis-based Centene Corp. — which owns Health Net, the largest commercial health plan in Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid — were among those that had aggressively challenged the initial results.
“They had this long process, and then they just sort of struck deals,” said Maya Altman, who retired a year ago after nearly 17 years as CEO of the Health Plan of San Mateo, which did not participate in the bidding. “It’s kind of weird. Not transparent — very much behind closed doors.”"
Key decisions await next California Community Colleges chancellor as search winds down
EdSource, MICHAEL BURKE: "California’s system of 116 community colleges is closing in on the hiring of its new chancellor.
Whoever takes the helm will immediately need to contend with declining enrollments, racial disparities in student outcomes and an uncertain fiscal future. And in a system of districts run locally by publicly elected boards, the chancellor has limited powers.
The college system’s board of governors on Thursday began interviewing finalists for the position, which opened when Eloy Ortiz Oakley resigned last year to head a foundation. The interviews, happening in closed session, are scheduled to conclude Friday."
These Bay Area students are candidates for the prestigious U.S. Presidential Scholars Program
BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA MIOLENE: "Nearly 150 Bay Area students have been selected as candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, one of the country’s highest honors for graduating high school seniors.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the awards highlight “excellence in education and the promise of greatness in America’s youth.” Students are selected based on their academic achievement, including scores on the SAT or ACT exams, talent in the visual, creative and performing arts, and skills in the career and technical education fields.
These students were selected from nearly 3.6 million high school graduates across the country, and will be in the running for receiving Presidential Scholars Medallions, the final prize for the competition, this June. Each year, up to 161 students are selected to receive the final award, and are selected from a national pool of over 5,000."
Pessimism over economy could have broad political implications
Capitol Weekly, CHUCK MCFADDEN: "An increasing number of Californians are pessimistic about what 2023 holds for their economic future, the Public Policy Institute of California reports.
According to a statewide PPIC survey, 69 percent of those polled – 71 percent of likely voters – say bad times lie ahead. That represents a pessimism jump of 12 percent since April of last year and 17 points from November of 2021.
“It is noteworthy that majorities across partisan groups, regions of the state, and demographic groups are pessimistic in their CA economic outlook for 2023,” said Mark Baldassare, the PPIC’s Miller Chair in Public Policy and Statewide Survey Director in an email to Capitol Weekly."
Another half-dozen tech firms announce layoffs totaling more than 7,000 people
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "A slew of tech firms confirmed layoffs this week, adding thousands more employees to a wave of downsizing that has now affected more than 200,000 workers globally since last year.
New York-based IBM said it would cut around 3,900 jobs or 1.5% of its workforce. German software giant SAP said it was cutting 3,000 jobs or 2.5% of its workforce. Both companies have offices throughout the Bay Area but it wasn’t immediately clear how many local employees would be affected."
California’s largest wine company is laying off 355 employees
The Chronicle, JESS LANDER: "E. & J. Gallo, the country’s largest wine conglomerate, will lay off 355 California employees — including 93 in the East Bay — after a decision to close its in-house distribution operations.
Gallo’s layoffs, first reported by the San Francisco Business Times, come just two weeks after the wine giant announced that Texas company Republic National Distributing Co. (RNDC), one of the country’s largest wholesale alcohol beverage distributors, will now handle partnerships with chain retailers in California. This is an expanded role for Republic National, which took over distribution to independent retail and liquor stores for Gallo last September."
Groups sue to stop California from ordering unhoused, severely mentally ill people into treatment
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Gov. Gavin Newsom’s program requiring mentally ill Californians to undergo treatment at the request of relatives, caretakers and others has been challenged in the state Supreme Court by advocates for disabled and poor people, who say those who may have such ailments should be allowed to decide whether to seek care.
Starting in October, when the law first takes effect in some counties, “thousands of unhoused Californians with mental illness will be threatened with court orders, forced into involuntary treatment and swept off the streets, not because they are a danger to themselves or others, but because a judge has speculated they are ‘likely’ to become so in the future,” the organizations said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday."
California’s hottest real estate: Home prices are still rising in these ZIP codes
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/ADRIANA REZAL: "The California housing market continues to cool from the pandemic buying frenzy, with some areas seeing home prices decline for seven months in a row.
Among the factors fueling the decline have been inflation, economic uncertainty and soaring interest rates, experts say. The average monthly mortgage rate was 6.15% for the week ending Jan. 19, up 73% from a year ago.
Even so, home value growth in some California outlier neighborhoods has bucked the trend, continuing to rise even as parts of San Francisco and Los Angeles push further into the red, according to the latest data from real estate listings site Zillow."
S.F. population falls to lowest level in over a decade after second year of the pandemic
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI/YURI AVILA: "San Francisco, and the entire Bay Area, lost population during the second year of the pandemic, and California’s population continued to fall for the third year in a row, according to state estimates released Thursday.
San Francisco saw a drop of about 4,400 people, or 0.5% of its population, between July 2021 and July 2022, a smaller decline than the 3.7% population loss in the prior year.
The city’s population was an estimated 834,046 people as of July 2022, down from a pre-pandemic high of 889,783 people in January 2020. It was the lowest level since July 2012 as outmigration wiped out seven years of sustained growth fueled by a tech boom."
Ex-Memphis officers charged with murder in beating of Tyre Nichols; video to be released Friday
LA Times, NOAH GOLDBERG: "Five former police officers in Memphis, Tenn., were charged with second-degree murder Thursday in the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop, authorities said.
Former Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, who are Black, were each charged with one count of second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, one count of aggravated assault while acting in concert, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping in the death of Nichols, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m excited. It shows that justice is being served. It doesn’t matter the color of the officers. The fact is, the officers did what they did, and it was unnecessary,” Nichols’ aunt Kandi Green said in an interview with The Times."
Challenge in trial against ex-S.F. officer hinges on allegations Boudin mishandled case
The Chronicle, JOSHUA SHARPE: "Attorneys for a former San Francisco police officer charged with manslaughter are arguing the case should be tossed because the prosecution was the product of “misconduct” by ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Their challenge stems from new discovery materials that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office turned over within days of conducting interviews with two investigators who said Boudin and his lieutenants pushed through a case that others in his office found unprosecutable.
A judge will be asked Friday to determine whether the internal disagreements over Samayoa’s case — and the specific ways in which Boudin allegedly dealt with them — are enough to get the case dismissed."
California Supreme Court ends legal limbo for over $545 million in Bay Area bridge tolls
BANG*Mercury News, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "More than $545 million in Bay Area bridge tolls are now free to fund transit and highway projects across the region after the California Supreme Court ended a legal battle between a crusading anti-tax group and the Bay Area’s bridge authority.
Transit planners are breathing a collective sigh of relief after the court decision on Tuesday. If the lawsuit from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association succeeded the region’s entire transportation financing map would have been upended. Projects like BART through San Jose, ferry terminal expansions in Berkeley and San Francisco, and extending Caltrain to downtown San Francisco faced the potential for further delays.
“It’s certainly something that’s been a cloud over us for the past four and a half years,” said Thomas Hall, a spokesperson for Water Emergency Transportation Authority, which runs the San Francisco Bay Ferry. The ferry has been counting on the funding measure to back $300 million in infrastructure projects along with vital operating funds to maintain current service levels. “It really put our business, our purpose, in the crosshairs.”"
California air board official received nearly $500K payout last year when he left agency
Sac Bee, STEPHEN HOBBS: "The former executive officer of the California Air Resources Board received almost $500,000 in added pay last year — the vast majority for unused leave — when he left the agency.
That additional money helped Richard Corey more than triple his total compensation from the previous year, according to data The Sacramento Bee acquired from the State Controller’s Office.
Corey worked 37 years for the board, called CARB, and was appointed executive officer in 2013. He “accrued considerable vacation, personal leave and holiday time,” agency communications official David Clergen said in an email. In 2022, he took home $623,238."
