Newsom wants to waive environmental rules in the delta amid drought worries
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "As January’s drenching storms have given way to an unseasonably dry February, Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking to waive environmental rules in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in an effort to store more water in reservoirs — a move that is drawing heated criticism from environmental advocates who say the action will imperil struggling fish populations.
In an executive order signed Monday, Newsom directed the State Water Resources Control Board to “consider modifying requirements” for California’s two water conveyance systems in the delta, the State Water Project and the federally operated Central Valley Project.
“While recent storms have helped replenish the state’s reservoirs and boosted snowpack, drought conditions continue to have significant impacts on communities with vulnerable water supplies, agriculture and the environment,” an announcement of the order read. “Until it is clear what the remainder of the wet season will hold, the executive order includes provisions to protect water reserves.”"
California water agencies hoped a deluge would recharge their aquifers. But when it came, some couldn't use it
Water Education, NICK CAHILL: "It was exactly the sort of deluge California groundwater agencies have been counting on to replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland. Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
Bay Area’s largest state park in debate over off-road vehicle use
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "The largest state park in Northern California, a vast expanse of scenic trails, oak woodlands and breathtaking views of the Diablo Range, is often out of sight and out of mind for many Bay Area residents.
But now, Henry W. Coe State Park, a rugged landscape in the hills east of Morgan Hill and Highway 101, is at the center of a debate about whether California should open more land to off-road vehicles.
Coe park was included in a state law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom two years ago as a location that the state parks department should consider for expanded off-road vehicle access as part of a wider statewide study to find new locations where people can ride dirt bikes, dune buggies, ATVs and other off-road vehicles."
California lawmakers denied an anti-slavery bill last year but they are trying again
Sac Bee, MARCUS D. SMITH: "California lawmakers will once again introduce legislation that could ban imposing forced labor on inmates. This effort to amend state’s Constitution was rejected last year when lawmakers failed to pass it through the Assembly.
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, announced Wednesday the reintroduction of the measure called End Slavery in California Act during a news conference at the State Capitol West.
Wilson was joined by other members of the Legislature as well as a coalition of sponsors such as Anti-Recidivism Coalition, All of Us or None, Anti-Violence, Safety, & Accountability."
California’s privacy agency must change course on new rules (OPINION)
Capitol Weekly, RACHEL MICHELIN: "This year, the California business community has found itself in an untenable—and frankly, bizarre—position of being out of compliance with regulations that do not yet exist. How did we get here?
California’s plan for new consumer privacy protections was expected to serve as another example of the state’s leadership in creating enlightened public policy and a model for the nation. Instead, the plan has been mired in confusion, missed deadlines, and a failure to agree on the actual rules businesses must follow under the new law that went into effect January 1.
Let’s take a step back. When California voters passed Proposition 24 in 2020, they called for new regulations to better protect consumer data online. That makes sense. And at the time, businesses of all sizes—from large companies to small family operations—were not an afterthought: the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) clearly stated that the law must give “attention to the impact on business and innovation.”"
CA expands abortion access and nurse practitioner authority at once
Capitol Weekly, CLAIRE MCCARVILLE: "This January, what would have been fifty years of Roe v. Wade met fifty years of scope of practice debate in California.
Following the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, California lawmakers passed a large number of bills to protect the right to legal abortion. Part of that expansion included amending the state’s complex scope of practice laws.
The legislative solution was Senator Toni Atkins’ Senate Bill 1375, which allows nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives to perform first-trimester abortions without the oversight of a doctor, upon completion of additional training in the procedure."
COVID in California: Supreme Court scraps arguments in pandemic border-control case
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Ahead of the lifting of California’s COVID-19 emergency public health order on Feb. 28, local jurisdictions are dropping their own rules like hot potatoes. San Francisco plans to end its own emergency order the same day. Oakland schools will revise their pandemic protocols on Mar. 1, while Berkeley is set to close the last of its free public testing sites the next day. Even the Navy will no longer use vaccination status in staffing its deployments. Yet against this backdrop of loosening restrictions, state case numbers and Bay Area wastewater samples signal a renewed COVID wave — perhaps driven by the immune evasive XBB.1.5 subvariant arriving from the East Coast."
Growing signs of new Bay Area COVID wave as wastewater counts soar
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "If it feels like more people you know are getting COVID-19 lately, that may be true. Though the rise is relatively small, it marks a reversal of the downward trend the Bay Area had experienced since early December.
California’s public health leaders are keeping their fingers crossed that the state will be ready to move past the pandemic as the state of emergency comes to an end later this month, despite the recent uptick in coronavirus cases attributed to the fast-moving omicron subvariant XBB.1.5."
Horrific new street drug 'tranq' found in S.F. overdose victims, showing dangerous shift in supply
The Chronicle, TRISHA THADANI/KEVIN FAGAN: "At least four drug overdose victims who died late last year had traces of a horrific new street drug mixed with fentanyl in their systems, according to city officials, evidence that the animal sedative colloquially known as “tranq” has begun to infiltrate the city’s drug supply.
While San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner only found low levels of the drug, xylazine, in four out of the 145 victims who were tested, officials in the Department of Public Health said the discovery is “concerning” and that they also expect to see an increase in its prevalence on the city’s streets. The department issued a health alert Thursday warning the public of the potential danger and said that it is “working to understand the extent” to which xylazine is in the city’s street drugs and “respond to it accordingly.”"
Do California's college students feel safe on campus?
California Student Journalism Corps, STAFF: "Members of the California Student Journalism Corps fanned out to ask students their thoughts about safety on their college campuses.
The question was left open to interpretation because “safety” could have a different meaning for each person; and while the Feb. 13 Michigan State University shooting had not yet happened when California students were interviewed, they were still reeling from January’s mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay.
In addition, the issue of policing at colleges and universities remains a hot topic and focus area for organizations like Cops Off Campus, which has chapters at numerous California State University and University of California campuses."
California tax confusion: Already filed your return? Here’s what you should (and shouldn’t) do
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "Tax season is well under way and Californians have seen their fair share of confusion waiting on guidance from tax officials — and it’s not over yet.
What we know: Both the state tax board, and later the Internal Revenue Service, said the California inflation relief — also known as the Middle Class Tax Refund — is not taxable income and should not be reported on 2022 tax returns. The IRS guidance came Friday, weeks after filing season opened.
Here’s where it gets tricky: What if you claimed it as income before guidance came out?"
Tesla recalling 362,758 cars with Full Self-Driving mode due to crash risk
LA Times, RUSS MITCHELL/DANIEL MILLER: "Under pressure from federal safety regulators, Tesla on Thursday launched a recall to repair defects to the experimental Full Self-Driving software deployed on public roads.
The recall affects 362,758 Tesla vehicles and includes certain Model S and Model X (2016-23), Model 3 (2013-23), and Model Y (2020-23) vehicles. To be delivered by over-the-air-software, the fix is intended to repair code that can cause FSD-equipped Teslas to run yellow lights, disobey speed limits and travel straight ahead from turn-only lanes. Recalled models make up about 10% of the 3.6 million vehicles that Tesla has sold to date globally.
The company has been under fire for years from critics who say using the software is a risk to public safety. YouTube is rife with videos showing FSD-equipped cars crossing double yellow lines head-on into oncoming traffic, mistaking railroad tracks for roadways, aiming cars into pedestrians in crosswalks, and more."
This Bay Area man has become the face of California’s latest housing drama
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Los Altos Hills resident Sasha Zbrozek is the first to admit that he is not a real estate developer.
“I’m just some random homeowner dude,” he said. “I’m not qualified to develop much.”"
As Hollywood invades Culver City, some residents push back against gentrification
LA Times, WENDY LEE: "Long known as “the heart of screenland” because of its role in Hollywood history, Culver City has lately taken on a different nickname thanks to an influx of digital video giants — “the heart of streamland.”
But the city’s transformation into a hub for tech giants and streaming studios — including Amazon, HBO and TikTok — has created a classic case of neighborhood tension, between the big companies and local business leaders promising jobs on one side and longtime residents who fear the ongoing march of gentrification on the other.
The latest example in that tug-of-war: a proposed 4.5-acre campus for Apple Inc. and its growing streaming TV and music operations."
Man with animus toward Jewish community arrested in L.A. shootings, sources say
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN/RICHARD WINTON/BRITTNY MEJIA: "The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested a suspect in the shootings of two men outside synagogues in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of L.A. over the last two days.
The man has a history of animus toward the Jewish community, law enforcement sources told The Times.
In a statement late Thursday, the LAPD said that “the facts of the case led to the crime being investigated as a hate crime.”"
‘Could this be it?’: UC Berkeley professor recalls stomach-churning plunge on United Airlines flight to SFO
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "Kenneth Raymond expected a bumpy ride when he and his wife boarded United Airlines flight 1722 from Maui to San Francisco on Dec. 18, as rain and wind lashed the runway at Kahului Airport.
But nothing prepared Raymond for the sudden, stomach-churning drop he felt roughly a minute after takeoff, like being trapped in an elevator that had fallen several floors."
Bruce Willis diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, a ‘cruel disease,’ family says
LA Times, CHRISTIE D'ZURILLA: "Bruce Willis, who left acting last year due to his struggles with aphasia, has been diagnosed more specifically with frontotemporal dementia, his family announced Thursday.
“Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD),” said the statement signed by wife Emma Heming Willis, ex-wife Demi Moore and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.
“Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”"
Lindsey Graham in GOP hot seat for speedy judicial nominees
The Hill, ALEXANDER BOLTON: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is coming under pressure from conservatives on his panel and outside Congress to slow down consideration of President Biden's judicial nominees.
Graham has voted for more of Biden's nominees than any other Republican on the Judiciary Committee, something that is coming under scrutiny from conservatives after Democrats this week celebrated the 100th successful confirmation of a Biden judicial nominee.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Republicans shouldn't have let Democrats confirm so many Biden nominees to the federal courts when the Senate was evenly split during Biden's first two years in office."
