California declared war on natural gas. Now the fight is going national
LA Times, SAMMY ROTH: "It all started in Berkeley.
In July 2019, elected officials in the Bay Area city, a national leader in progressive politics and environmental protection, voted to ban gas hookups in most new homes. That meant no gas furnaces, boilers or water heaters — and no gas stoves.
Berkeley was the first U.S. city to approve a gas ban. Since then, Los Angeles and more than 70 other California cities and counties have followed its lead, either requiring or encouraging new homes to be all-electric. New York and Seattle have done the same."
Why historic storms are 'both a blessing and a curse' for California's fire season
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "A series of torrential storms kicked off 2023, replenishing a parched landscape and improving drought conditions across California. Reservoirs are filling back up to normal levels and lush, green grasses are blanketing hillsides.
San Francisco saw 8.89 inches of rain in January, more than twice its normal amount for the month. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, Ben Lomond saw almost 2 feet, tallying its 10th-wettest January since 1937.
Data shows that rainy, wet winters in California typically accompany fewer acres burned in wildfires come fire season. Woody vegetation, in high-elevation forests and chaparral landscapes, can hold onto this moisture through the summer, especially if it’s supplemented by spring rains. The historic precipitation brings hope for a mild fire season, but the now-abundant grasses also serve as potent wildfire fuel, leaving uncertainty about how wildfires will unfold in the coming months."
California is wary of taking this big step to fight climate change. One Democrat says it makes them ‘hypocrites’
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "State Sen. Lena Gonzalez is calling out California as “hypocrites” when it comes to tackling climate change.
Specifically, the Long Beach Democrat says the state’s massive public pension funds should put its money – $11 billion worth of investments in fossil fuel companies – where its mouth is, by divesting those funds from polluters and moving toward renewable energy sources."
Amid water woes, Jackson appoints new public works director
AP: "As the most populous city in Mississippi attempts to improve its troubled water system, it has appointed a new interim director to lead the agency that runs local infrastructure.
City Engineer Robert Lee was named interim director of the Jackson Public Works Department Friday as Jackson begins a nationwide search to find a permanent candidate to fill the position.
“This is a big responsibility in our city given our challenges, and the city is grateful for Mr. Lee’s interest in taking on the job,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said in a news release. “I have full trust in his decision-making, knowledge and skills moving forward.”"
Dramatic photos show Lake Oroville’s rise after epic storms
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH/BRIAN VAN DER BRUG: "Lake Oroville, a key component of California’s water supply, looks noticeably fuller after a series of January storms.
The atmospheric rivers dumped trillions of gallons of moisture on the state, spurring widespread flooding and destruction but also providing a healthy boost to snowpack and drought-sapped reservoirs.
Lake Oroville, the largest reservoir on the State Water Project, was at 68% of its capacity on Friday — up from 28% just two months prior, according to state data. The State Water Project is a system of reservoirs, canals and dams that supplies water to about 27 million people."
The gorgeous Yosemite firefalls are back. Here's how to get reservations to see them
The Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER: "As the popular winter phenomenon of firefalls returns to Yosemite, the National Park Service is reminding guests that reservations are required to see them for the next three weekends of February.
To limit crowds, the park service is requiring reservations for guests entering the park on Feb. 10-12, 17-19 and 24-26. Parking will also be restricted to designated areas such as Yosemite Falls Parking, Yosemite Village or Curry Village."
Half Moon Bay massacre: Immigrants’ ‘humble dreams’ collide with ‘America’s gun violence’
BANG*Mercury News, ALDO TOLEDO/JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "In Half Moon Bay, the road to the American dream for newly arrived immigrant farmworkers often begins at the Hilltop Grocery.
Maria Melgar is usually there to greet them at the counter of the red brick market along Highway 92, where vegetables are piled in bins outside. She welcomes them inside with check cashing, wire transfers and all kinds of advice. Job openings? She knows about them. Places to live? She has connections for that.
“Vaya con Maria,” they say. Go to Maria. She will help."
He spent 14 years in prison for medical marijuana. Is change in federal law overdue?
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Luke Scarmazzo is back home in California after serving more than 14 years in federal prison for helping to run a nonprofit medical marijuana collective – an everyday business under state law but forbidden, then and now, by the U.S. government, which classifies the weed as one of the most dangerous drugs on the planet.
Even so, a federal judge ordered Scarmazzo’s release last week, citing his fine behavior in prison, including volunteer work and legal aid to other inmates, and the “changes in the legal climate” in the last two decades. The federal government now rarely charges marijuana users and sellers whose actions would be legal under state laws.
“It feels like a dream,” Scarmuzzo, 42, said from his parents’ home in Modesto after being freed from federal prison in Mississippi, his fifth home behind bars during what ended up being about two-thirds of his 2008 sentence of 21 years and 10 months."
Berkeley to close remaining state-funded COVID-19 testing sites
Daily Californian, CAROLINE MARSDEN: "With California’s state of emergency set to expire by the end of the month, all of the city of Berkeley’s COVID-19 testing sites are expected to close.
According to University Health Services spokesperson Tami Cate, even with the termination of state support, Berkeley still has the resources to provide adequate health services to students, including vaccines, boosters, testing and treatments.
“There will still be access to testing, the options may just look different as we go forward,” Cate said in an email."
A new bill would lower California college costs for some students living in Mexico
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "California college costs could soon be cheaper for hundreds of Mexican students who cross the border daily.
Assembly Bill 91, introduced by Assemblyman David Alvarez, R-San Diego, would create a five-year pilot program to allow some students living in Mexico to pay in-state tuition at one of the seven community colleges in the San Diego and Imperial Valley counties. To be eligible, students would need to live within 45 miles of the California border.
In 2023, the average California community college tuition is $1,246 per year for in-state students and $6,603 out-of-state."
Hmong is a ‘dying’ language – but it’s being preserved at this Fresno school
EdSource, ASHLEIGH PANOO: "It’s presentation day in a fifth grade classroom at Vang Pao Elementary School in Fresno, and some students are more shy than others. But 11-year-old Irene Her stands in front of the classroom, confidently weaving Hmong words together to talk about the “lub vab,” a basket tool used in the Southeast Asian culture.
Irene is among the inaugural class of students who began kindergarten in Fresno Unified’s Hmong Dual Language Immersion Program in 2018. Billed as the most extensive of its kind in the nation, the program is building up each year, welcoming new students into TK and kindergarten, while the other classes move up.
About a quarter of the school’s 850 students are in the dual immersion program. Next year the school will have Hmong classes in all grades through sixth for the first time."
Tech and biotech layoffs erase more than 19,000 Bay Area jobs
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Post-pandemic layoffs in the tech and biotech sectors continue to widen, and the brutal job losses are set to loom over the region’s economy for months.
Since mid-2022, tech and biotech companies — including giants like Google and Meta Platforms — have revealed plans to slash more than 19,000 jobs across the nine-county Bay Area, according to official state reports reviewed by this news organization. That figure includes cutbacks that have been completed or are slated to occur, in some cases as late as 2024.
Even worse, multiple tech companies, including Intel, in recent days have notified the state Employment Development Department of plans to orchestrate a second round of layoffs on top of job cuts announced earlier."
All Pharmaca locations set to close after $19.35 million Walgreens acquisition
Daily Californian, CHRISSA OLSON: "Walgreens has bought the assets and pharmaceutical records of Medly Health, the parent company of Pharmaca, for $19.35 million, according to court documents. As a result, all 22 Pharmaca stores nationwide are set to close by Feb. 25, including locations at Berkeley and Rockridge.
The Rockridge location closed its pharmacy Friday, although the general retail store remains open. All prescriptions have been transferred to Walgreens.
At the Rockridge location, where the shelves are nearly empty and everything is going for 50 percent off, Janet Nelson, a licensed wellness professional at Pharmaca, feels “like most everybody here.”"
More San Francisco homes selling below asking price. Could that trend come to L.A.?
LA Times, CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ: "The San Francisco Bay Area has developed a famous (or infamous) reputation over the years for its housing prices, driven in part by the tech industry’s mammoth presence in the region, with cash-flush workers who could parlay stocks into down payments.
“Historically, the Bay Area has almost always had homes sell for more than asking price on average,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist for real estate website Redfin.com, in an interview with The Times.
But new data reveal that if not a buyer’s market, then the Bay Area is a more buyer-friendly market. Homes are, relatively, cheaper — and a similar pattern may be manifesting in Los Angeles."
Evictions eclipsed pre-pandemic levels in these Bay Area counties as tenant protections expired
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "Janae Randolph waited nervously with her boyfriend outside a wood-paneled courtroom at the Contra Costa County courthouse in Martinez. She scanned the increasingly crowded hallway for somebody official-looking — maybe a public defender, she hoped — who would explain why they’d been summoned after receiving an eviction notice at their Concord apartment.
The bailiff motioned Randolph toward the defendant’s chair. Then suddenly, their names were called and a trial started. The couple found themselves seated alone, across from their landlord’s attorney at a separate table. Before them, a black-robed commissioner perched on the judge’s bench began asking pointed questions about their missed rent payments.
She answered carefully the questions from the commissioner, who oversees eviction cases, even though she didn’t fully understand what was happening. “You don’t want to make her upset, or say the wrong thing,” Randolph said. “So I felt like I just had to go with it, against my own judgment.”"
Transitioning to green cities: Becoming more walking and biking friendly
Senior homeless population growing at record pace
Capitol Weekly, SARAH CHUNG: "Meet Iris –– she’s from Germany originally, and she’s been in the U.S. for 33 years. She doesn’t receive SSI benefits, and she’s been without a home since her place burned down in the 90s. She has been waiting to be placed in a home, but says she has given up on the system.
“I’ve been trying, but it seems like there is something keeping me,” she says from a wheelchair near a parking exit in an Emeryville shopping plaza, which she describes as a frequent spot for her to seek donations.
“It’s very difficult these days. I’m disabled, you know,” she says."
Army sees safety, not ‘wokeness,’ as top recruiting obstacle
AP, LOLITA C. BALDOR: "While some Republicans blame the COVID-19 vaccine or “wokeness” for the Army's recruiting woes, the military service says the bigger hurdles are more traditional ones: Young people don’t want to die or get injured, deal with the stress of Army life and put their lives on hold.
They “just don’t see the Army as something that’s relevant,” said Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, head of Army marketing. “They see us as revered, but not relevant, in their lives.”
Addressing those longtime issues has taken on greater urgency as the Army tries to recover from its worst recruiting year in decades, a situation aggravated by the tight jobs market. The Army is offering new programs, advertising and enticements in an effort to change perceptions and reverse the decline."
Los Angeles County search-and-rescue team combs through wreckage in the Turkey earthquake zone
LA Times, NABIH BULOS: "It was early Sunday evening in California, and Joshua Svensson was driving home with his family from Mammoth when an app on his phone began to ping: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake had jolted southern Turkey and northern Syria, pulverizing tens of thousands of homes and killing thousands of people in them.
“At that point, you get that sinking feeling in your stomach, and it scares you,” he said. “Because when you see things on social media, you think, I’m going to probably be there in a couple of days.”
He was right."
U.S. jets shoot down fourth object in eight days, unprecedented in peacetime
AP, COLLEEN LONG/LOLITA C. BALDOR/ELLEN KNICKMEYER: "A U.S. fighter jet shot down an unidentified object over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.
Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said in a briefing with reporters.
Since then, fighter jets last week also shot down objects over Canada and Alaska. Pentagon officials said they posed no threats, but so little was known about them that officials were ruling nothing out."
Former DNC chair: Trump may regret entering 2024 race too soon
The Hill: "Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile said on Sunday that former President Trump, who kicked off his reelection campaign just one week after the midterms, may regret entering the 2024 race too soon as Republican Nikki Haley prepares her White House bid.
"The big donors in the Republican Party, they're now showing him the cold shoulder. So this may be Donald Trump's week to regret that he put his hat in the ring so soon," Brazile said as part of a panel of ABC's "This Week."
Trump launched his 2024 bid just after the GOP - and some of the former president's own favored candidates - lost key midterm races, with Democrats holding on to the Senate majority and Republicans winning the House by a smaller-than-expected margin."
