California could start charging drivers more for owning heavy trucks and SUVs
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "California could consider charging weight-based registration fees for heavier passenger vehicles, such as trucks and SUVs, under a proposal making its way through the state legislature.
Assembly member Chris Ward, a San Diego Democrat, wants the California Transportation Commission to study the costs and benefits of levying a weight fee for heavy cars to pay for street safety improvement projects."
A deadly building flaw common in California brings destruction and misery to Turkey
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II: "As seismic engineers study the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria that killed more than 20,000 people this week, it’s becoming clear that a significant cause of the destruction involved a building design common in California and other parts of the U.S.
The flaws of non-ductile concrete construction are found across the Golden State, with many buildings having not been evaluated or retrofitted and at risk of collapse in a serious earthquake.
It can be tempting for Californians to assume that their structures are inherently better than those in Turkey. But the state hasn’t been tested with a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in more than a century. And that event — the great 1906 earthquake — destroyed much of San Francisco."
Amid spy balloon fears, California bill bars China from owning land near military bases
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Just days after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon capable of collecting communications signals, two California lawmakers have introduced a bill intended to block hostile foreign governments from conducting surveillance of sensitive American locations.
Assembly Bill 475, co-introduced by Assemblyman Devon Mathis, R-Visalia, and Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, prohibits any foreign government from purchasing, acquiring, leasing or holding a financial interest in any property located within 50 miles of a U.S. military or California National Guard base.
The bill exempts any land already held by foreign governments prior to Jan. 1, 2024, and does not conflict with existing U.S. treaty obligations. Mathis’ chief of staff, Justin Boman, told The Bee in an email that the bill may be amended to replace the words “foreign government” with the words “prohibited foreign actor.”"
Eggs are so expensive, Californians are trying to bring them across the border from Mexico
LA Times, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "With egg prices spiking in California, Border Patrol agents have noticed a rise in the number of people trying to bring eggs across the border from Mexico, which is illegal.
Inflation and bird flu have also pushed up egg prices in Mexico, but the cost of a dozen eggs south of the border is still much lower — up to half as much — as in the U.S., tempting some border crossers to look for new ways to fill their fridges with cheaper eggs.
“They are significantly less expensive in Mexico than the U.S.,” said Gerrelaine Alcordo, spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. “This is also occurring with added frequency at other Southwest border locations as well.”"
Big Tech battles impending CA web design law
Capitol Weekly, BRIAN JOSEPH: "In 1986, when California voters approved Proposition 65, they effectively enacted a nationwide law, whether they intended to or not. The ballot measure, known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires all businesses, including product manufacturers, to warn Californians about any significant exposures to chemicals that could cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm.
Because California’s economy is the largest in the United States, nationwide distributors can’t afford to be cut out of the Golden State’s market. Thus, Prop. 65 warnings appear on all kinds of products sold throughout the country, even though the law only technically applies to California.
Thirty-eight years later, California is poised to establish de facto nationwide policy again when Assembly Bill 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, goes into effect on July 1, 2024. Signed by the governor in September, AB 2273 requires any business serving up web pages likely to be accessed by California children to consider the children’s best interests when designing their sites."
California native tribes call for the state to address missing and murdered Indigenous people
BANG*Mercury News, JACKSON GUILFOIL: "On Tuesday, tribal representatives whose homelands ranged from near the Mexican border to California’s rural north gathered in Sacramento to call upon the state government to combat the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Several tribal leaders spoke in front of the state capital, including Yurok Tribe Chairman Joseph James, who asked the state Legislature to support several initiatives meant to address the disproportionate rates Indigenous people, especially women, experience violence.
“We got some work to do and again, that’s why we’re here today. It’s us and we are moving this forward as tribes, as a state, as advocates, as organizations coming together, ringing that bell,” James said."
Pages and pages of conspiracy theories: S.F. officials were flooded with disturbing emails after Paul Pelosi attack
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "The attack on Paul Pelosi prompted a flood of vitriolic emails to San Francisco officials, many from people influenced by conspiracy theories who accused the district attorney of lying and corruption, records obtained by The Chronicle show.
In response to a California Public Records Act request, the District Attorney’s Office released more than 150 pages of emails about the attack, most from people commenting on the office’s handling of the case. The emails, some laden with racial slurs and expletives, help illustrate the extent to which misinformation that circulated online and was shared by prominent people including former President Donald Trump and Twitter CEO Elon Musk shaped the story of the attack.
The accused assailant, David DePape, was himself publishing erratic and unfounded claims online before he was arrested, including about election fraud, vaccines and the war in Ukraine. After officials announced that DePape broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fractured the skull of her 82-year-old husband with a hammer, far-right sites began spreading inaccurate theories about the incident."
S.F. Supe Walton apologizes for making obscene gesture at rally
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton apologized for giving the middle finger to a person who he said “harassed and threatened” him at a rally for Tyre Nichols last week.
“This action from Supervisor Walton, as a result of continued harassment from this person, was wrong,” his office said in a statement Wednesday."
Thanks to a Granite Bay fossil, we know our tall cup of joe dates back to when dinosaurs were grande
Sac Bee, BENJY EGEL: "New evidence shows that coffee, potatoes, tomatoes and mint’s ancestral plants have their roots in the Cretaceous Period. And that conclusion is largely thanks to a fossilized fruit discovered in the dirt below peoples’ Granite Bay homes.
Brian Atkinson, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and the KU Biodiversity Institute’s curator of paleobotany, recently published a study in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Plants arguing as much.
The backstory goes: in the 1990s, construction workers unearthed a fossilized fruit while building housing in Granite Bay. Sierra College geology professor Dick Hilton and Rocklin paleontology enthusiast Patrick Antuzzi preserved the fossil in the college’s Natural History Museum, where it sat until Atkinson came looking."
Here’s a story about one of the worst winters in California history
BANG*Mercury News, KURT SNIBBE: "It’s been a tough winter for Californians, but here’s a story of one of the worst. The families of brothers George and Jacob Donner and businessman James Reed left Springfield, Missouri, on April 14, 1846. It was two years before gold would be discovered in California and 10 years before Chinese workers would start building the Transcontinental Railroad.
At its peak, the Donner Party would have 87 people — 29 men, 15 women and 43 children — in a column of 23 ox-drawn wagons."
Exide lead cleanup leaves fear, frustration and contamination in its wake
LA Times, TONY BRISCOE/JESSICA GARRISON/AIDA YLANAN: "California’s largest and most expensive environmental cleanup has failed to properly remove lead pollution from some homes and neighborhoods near a notorious battery recycler in southeast Los Angeles County, leaving residents at continued risk, a Times investigation shows.
Six years after the California Department of Toxic Substances Control embarked on a massive remediation effort around the shuttered Exide plant, numerous homes targeted for cleanup have been left with concentrations in excess of state health standards.
In findings shared exclusively with The Times, researchers at USC and Occidental College reported that they had tested surface soil from the yards of 93 remediated homes and found 73 had at least one sample with lead concentrations over the California health threshold of 80 parts per million. They also found that 22 of the homes had at least one sample that tested over 400 parts per million, the federal limit."
Gas prices in Los Angeles are up 10 cents in a week — and they could rise even higher
LA Times, NOAH GOLDBERG: "Gas prices in Los Angeles County rose sharply over the last week, and it could be due to a switch from winter to summer oil blends, according to the American Automobile Assn.
In L.A. County, gas prices spiked 10 cents over the last week, topping out Thursday at $4.67 for a gallon of regular, consistently rising 10 of the last 11 days, according to AAA. While prices in Los Angeles are up 16 cents from last month, they are actually down 8 cents from this time last year.
“It appears as though this most recent pump price increases were the result of refineries switching to summer blend fuel, which is more expensive than winter blend fuel,” said Doug Shupe, a spokesperson for AAA of Southern California."
COVID in California: Unvaccinated people far more likely to die than those with new shots
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The White House unveiled late Thursday its roadmap for transitioning the U.S. out of the three-year-long COVID state of emergency, which includes reduced federal support for testing and vaccines — and could result in less data reporting. At the same time, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra extended the existing emergency until an expected May 11 expiration date. As cases in California start to show signs of creeping back up from their recent dip, the CDC released a study showing that people who got the updated bivalent booster were three times less likely to die than those with only the original vaccine shots and 14 times less likely to die than unvaccinated people."
CSU asks: What do you want in the next systemwide chancellor?
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "The next chancellor of the CSU system should be a leader who can boldly address the needs of a diverse student body that, in the wake of the pandemic, has struggled mightily not only with academics but basic needs like food and housing.
That has been the overwhelming message from a series of public forums held throughout the state this week as the search for the next leader of the 23-campus system kicks into high gear.
The search comes as the institution has also been beset by internal scandal. Previous CSU Chancellor Joseph I. Castro resigned a year ago after allegations that as Fresno State’s president, he mishandled a sexual harassment case involving Frank Lamas, an administrator. CSU is currently investigating how sexual harassment cases have been handled systemwide."
Bay Area college system sues contractors, alleging massive pay-to-play fraud
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "A lawsuit filed by the San Mateo Community College District on Thursday alleges that two architects and three contractors engaged in a pay-to-play fraud scheme involving former chancellor Ron Galatolo.
The suit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court, names architectural firms Allana, Buick and Bers, and Bunton Clifford and Associates and construction companies McCarthy Building Cos., Blach Construction and Robert A. Bothman of engaging in a massive fraud scheme to win lucrative contracts worth millions for construction at the Skyline College, College of San Mateo, and Cañada College campuses."
Californians are pouring into Nevada. Not everyone is happy about it
LA Times, NOAH BIERMAN/DON LEE/CAROLYN COLE: "The wild horses, sagebrush and snow-dusted mountains make this scrubby expanse of northern Nevada seem farther than 265 miles from the bikeable campuses and rooftop kombucha bars of Silicon Valley. Yet as yellow excavators flatten hilltops in the high desert to make way for boxy factories and endless rows of truck bays, the connections between the two places keep tightening.
California residents and companies have poured into northern Nevada since Tesla began building its battery pack factory in a business park outside Reno in 2014. The Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, billed as the world’s largest, covers 166 square miles, roughly the size of New Orleans or Denver.
The industrial park boasts few amenities; there’s not even a Starbucks. But its massive tax breaks, vast footprint and speedy permitting process have lured droves of big tech companies and their wealth to this remote expanse — inside and beyond the property’s borders."
‘We’re not victims of circumstances’: Here's how Mayor Breed plans to revive San Francisco
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Mayor London Breed laid out a vision for how to revive San Francisco in her annual State of the City address Thursday, pledging to tackle the city’s biggest challenges, including the housing crisis, public safety concerns and a struggling downtown.
Breed unveiled proposals to pump $25 million more into overtime for a Police Department struggling to fill vacancies and to revitalize downtown by lightening the tax burden on businesses, and reiterated her plan for how to build 82,000 homes in eight years."
S.F. may have found a way to help fund the city’s stalled housing projects
The Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "The redevelopment of San Francisco’s Potrero Power Station will be the prototype for a new citywide infrastructure initiative designed to jump-start stalled housing projects that have the potential to add tens of thousands of units to the city’s housing supply.
Next week Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton plan to introduce legislation that will create an “infrastructure financing district” at the 2,600 unit waterfront project just south of Pier 70. The district, known as an IFD, will allow the developer to raise the $150 million needed to finish building out the streets, sidewalks, seawalls and underground utilities that will provide the foundation of the new waterfront neighborhood — which will include 800 affordable homes, seven acres of parks and a mix of commercial buildings.
Once the IFD is created, the developer will be able to borrow against future tax revenues in order to help pay for the $400 million in public infrastructure that the power station requires. IFDs can finance everything from highways to transit, water systems to sewer projects, flood control to libraries."
The Bay Area housing market is flashing a key warning sign
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/ADRIANA REZAL: "For the first time since early 2012, the average home in the San Francisco metro area is selling for less than its asking price, according to real estate listings site Redfin.
That key benchmark is another indicator of the Bay Area’s shifting housing market, which is at the forefront of the nationwide cooldown."
‘Someone did this to him’: Lawyer who died in Mexico had 40 skull fractures, pathologist says
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI/TERRY CASTLEMAN: "The Orange County public defender who died while on vacation in a popular tourist area of Mexico last month sustained dozens of skull fractures, according to the family’s lawyer.
Case Barnett, the lawyer for the family of Elliot Blair — whose mysterious death at a resort in Rosarito in January has raised questions among his loved ones — said that an independent pathologist in Los Angeles hired by the family to perform an autopsy found Blair had about 40 fractures in the back of his skull.
The pathologist did not rule on a cause of death, and the report could take five or six weeks to publish, Barnett said."
D.A. Jenkins wants to end the historic prosecution of an S.F. officer. She says it’s Boudin’s fault
The Chronicle, JOSHUA SHARPE/ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins intends to drop the historic prosecution of a police officer who killed a man, alleging that her predecessor and former boss Chesa Boudin filed the manslaughter charges for political purposes.
Jenkins revealed her position in a nine-page letter to state Attorney General Rob Bonta on Wednesday, outlining “internal conflicts” at the District Attorney’s Office in the prosecution of former police Officer Christopher Samayoa, who shot Keita O’Neil in 2017. In doing so, Jenkins went into greater detail about an internal investigation she conducted into Boudin’s handling of the case and presented Bonta with an offer to take it over “before it is dismissed.”"
Tesla Devil’s Slide crash: Driver enters plea to attempted murder charges
BANG*Mercury News, JAKOB RODGERS: "A man accused of intentionally driving a Tesla carrying his wife and two young children off a 250-foot seaside cliff last month pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of attempted murder.
Dharmesh A. Patel, 41, stood quietly in the courtroom, showing little emotion while his attorney issued an across-the-board denial of the charges against the Southern California physician. Patel’s plea came as he was handed a no-contact order forbidding him from communicating with his wife and children — all of whom survived the wreck.
Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, his hands shackled, Patel spoke only to waive his right to a key evidentiary hearing within 10 days. His preliminary hearing was set for March 20."
Trump supporter in California bomb plot begs judge to accept plea deal that could net 9 years
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "One of the two Donald Trump supporters accused of plotting to firebomb Sacramento’s state Democratic headquarters building is asking a federal judge to accept a plea deal that would net him up to nine years in prison, and “begging you for a chance to redeem myself.”
In a four-page handwritten letter filed in court in San Francisco, Ian Benjamin Rogers begs Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to accept his word that he regrets his actions and deserves a chance to rebuild his life after prison.
“I am 47 years old,” Rogers wrote in a letter dated Oct. 7 and filed in court Wednesday. “I have never been in trouble before."
