Newsom rescinds California’s COVID-19 state of emergency, marking an end to the pandemic era
LA Times, TARYN LUNA: "California’s COVID-19 state of emergency officially ends Tuesday, bringing a symbolic close to one of the most challenging chapters of state history and of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political career.
The Democratic governor declared the state of emergency three years ago, giving himself broad executive powers to protect Californians from an unpredictable and deadly virus. After previously resisting GOP pressure to end the emergency as conditions improved, Newsom now says California is finally ready to move forward.
“California is better prepared and that’s because we have a serious Legislature and the health ecosystem in California is second to none in the country,” Newsom said."
Could California snowpack break 40-year-old record? Here’s what we know
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "The Sierra snowpack is already at epic levels and snow on tap this week will push it to even greater depths.
“We’re going to end this year with a very large Sierra Nevada snowpack,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy during an online presentation on Monday. “It’s very possible we’ll end up vying for one of the top two snow years on record in parts of the state.”"
California could keep the lights on by expanding grid across the West, report finds
Sac Bee, ARI PLACHTA: "Expanding California’s electricity grid to cooperate with neighboring states would bolster reliability and affordability while reducing carbon emissions, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy concluded in a new report.
The report released Monday said California would both maintain jurisdiction over energy rates and stay on track to meet its clean energy goals as nearby states such as Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington strive to meet theirs.
State lawmakers requested the report last year, and will consider a bill this year that could turn California ISO into a regional Western grid operator. A similar legislative effort failed in 2018 following opposition from labor and environmental groups."
How much rain and snow fell in Northern California storm? Here are the latest totals
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "After days of windy rainstorms, the latest being over the weekend into Monday, Sacramento is moving toward clear skies — regardless if it’s only temporary.
But the city is still far below its normal rainfall for the month.
From Friday to Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, roughly 1.25 inches of rain fell across Sacramento. More than 1.6 inches of rainfall has already dropped across the region, which is almost half the normal amount for February."
San Bernardino County declares state of emergency as snow traps residents, visitors
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS: "In the wake of an immense storm and with more snow on the way, San Bernardino County officials declared a local emergency Monday to secure state and federal assistance clearing highways and neighborhood streets.
So much snow has hit Lake Arrowhead in the last several days that resident Lisa Griggs couldn’t recognize the highway outside her door when she walked to get groceries.
She’s one of the lucky ones in the town."
Another winter storm hits the Bay Area, with more on the horizon: Will this weather end anytime soon?
BANG*Mercury News, RICK HURD/AUSTIN TURNER: "A winter that has brought storm upon storm upon the Bay Area — sometimes as rapidly as the low-elevation snowflakes that fell last week — dropped another one into the region Monday.
To hear weather experts tell it, it was just one more signal that we should not expect spring sunshine anytime soon.
“When you look at everything, there is a suggestion that we could have a wet pattern into March,” said Dr. John P. Monteverdi, an emeritus professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University. “It does look like that will happen”"
The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles
LA Times, DAVID WHARTON: "First came early weather reports, the forecasts of historic rain and snow headed for Los Angeles. Then came the storm itself, and by that time Andy Lewicky was too excited to sleep.
Checking the National Weather Service every few hours didn’t help. Lewicky kept scanning meteorologists’ Twitter feeds, hungry for any morsel of information he could spot.
“That way you can read the buzz as to how excited they are,” he said. “It’s hard not to get obsessed.”"
Gov. Gavin Newsom likes to bash Texas. Is California a better place to live?
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Ugh, Texas.
That’s often Gov. Gavin Newsom’s view of the Lone Star State, a place he likes to chide for its tax burden, abortion restrictions, gun laws and more.
So is California a better place to live?"
New poll shows most California voters fear gun violence, but Democrats and Republicans are divided
LA Times, HANNAH WILEY: "Following two high-profile mass shootings in California, the majority of voters surveyed in a new statewide poll said they worry that gun violence will affect them or someone close to them.
The survey also revealed a stark political divide over fear about gun violence among Californians, and of the disproportional concern among women, city residents and people of color in the state.
Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said they were worried about becoming a victim of gun violence or having someone close to them being harmed, with 30% saying they were very concerned, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times."
The Supreme Court gutted a California worker law. A state court just said the law is still on
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that workers in California could not use a unique state law to join together and sue their employers, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said California’s courts, the final interpreters of state law, could still reach a different conclusion.
Now a state appeals court has borne out her prediction."
COVID in California: With pandemic emergency out, some measures are now law
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "After three rocky years of hopes for normality rising and falling, California on Tuesday is lifting its pandemic state of emergency. In news that looks back to the early days, the geopolitical and domestic political scene has been roiled by media reports of an Energy Department “low confidence” finding that the pandemic likely stemmed from a lab leak in China. The White House on Monday refused to confirm the reports, saying there was no definitive conclusion on the virus origins."
California’s COVID emergency ends this week. What happens next?
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "California will lift its sweeping COVID-19 state of emergency on Tuesday — nearly three years to the day after it was put in place, giving Gov. Gavin Newsom broad power to impose strict mandates and lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
While most people may not notice the shift, especially with new cases on the decline and limits on daily life all but vanquished, the change is a punctuation point that marks both a tangible and emotional evolution of the crisis that has consumed the nation and the world."
Supreme Court will hear arguments in student loan case: What to expect
LA Times, JESSICA GRESKO: "The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments over President Biden’s student debt relief plan, which affects millions of borrowers who could see their loans wiped away or reduced.
So far, Republican-appointed judges have kept the Democratic president’s plan from going into effect, and it remains to be seen how the court, dominated 6-3 by conservatives, will respond. The justices have scheduled two hours of arguments in the case Tuesday, though it will probably go longer. The public can listen in on the court’s website beginning at 10 a.m. EST.
Where things stand ahead of the hearing as well as what to expect:"
California reconsiders the potential of college work-study jobs
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "When she returned to school to become a nurse, Karina Mendez wanted a work-study job that she could balance with classes at City College of San Francisco. Thanks to a new program in California, she landed one that does more than pay the bills – it gives her a career boost.
Mendez works to support patients with cancer at UCSF, helping her get a foot in the door of a hospital where she’d love to be a nurse.
“It gives me a sense of hope that I could be a part of the UCSF department,” Mendez said."
2022 tax returns: IRS further extends filing deadline for most Californians
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "The Internal Revenue Service has further extended its tax filing deadline for Californians affected by the winter storms pounding the state — which means the entire Bay Area and most of the rest of the state have until the fall to file and pay their federal taxes.
The agency set Oct. 16 as the new deadline for eligible individuals to file their 2022 federal individual and business tax returns and to make tax payments, the IRS announced Friday. Residents, households and business owners in 44 California counties listed in a federal emergency declaration earlier this year are eligible for the extension. All nine Bay Area counties are on the list, along with the rest of the state's major population centers."
Elon Musk is the richest person in the world again
CNN: "Elon Musk has reclaimed the title of the richest person in the world, per Bloomberg’s tally.
The Tesla CEO was unseated from the top spot by Bernard Arnault, CEO of French luxury brand LVMH, in December of last year, making Musk No. 2 on the list for more than two months. As of Monday, however, Bloomberg reports that a rally in Tesla stock has lifted Musk back to the top of its real-time Billionaires Index."
S.F. companies pay the highest taxes in the Bay Area. For some, it might not matter
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "San Francisco has the highest business tax rates for large companies in the Bay Area. But it is unclear how much that is affecting the city’s ongoing uphill battle to recover the office-driven economic vitality plucked away by the pandemic.
A recent report by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute compared the tax burdens of three hypothetical companies with between 75 and 1,000 employees and high taxable gross receipts in 15 cities, big and small, across the region."
The number of BART's canceled trains nearly tripled in 2022. Here's why
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "It’s become an all-too-common scenario for BART riders: You arrive at a station platform only to see that a train scheduled to arrive soon has been canceled.
The cancellation causes frustration and tests riders’ patience as it can mean an added 30 minutes or more of waiting for the next train to arrive. And BART data illustrates how the issue has recently worsened — the number of canceled BART trains nearly tripled in 2022 from the prior year to more than 10,000 cancellations."
One man’s fight to hold an LAPD officer accountable for a protest shooting
LA Times, KEVIN RECTOR: "Since Deon Jones first alleged that a Los Angeles police officer had unjustly shot him in the face with a hard-foam projectile at a 2020 protest, he and his legal team have gone to great lengths to prove it.
They fought for, obtained and scoured hours of police body-camera video to find instances of officers firing such weapons during L.A.’s mass demonstrations over George Floyd’s murder.
When they found the shot they believed struck Jones — fracturing bones in his face and ripping the skin from his cheek bone — they hired a forensic video analyst to retrace Jones’ movements that day and prove he was in the line of fire."
As cold weather sweeps Sacramento, inmates complain about ‘frigid conditions’ in jail
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "With winter storms continuing to sweep through the Sacramento region, advocates say inmates in the county’s jails are now living in “frigid conditions” with only short-sleeve T-shirts and a lack of warm clothing.
In a letter the Prison Law Office sent to Sacramento County Feb. 6, law office staff attorney Patrick Booth complained about the type and amount of clothing provided to inmates by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
“First, people in the jails are issued only one pair of clothes, which does not include any long-sleeve T-shirt, jacket, sweatshirt, or thermal clothing,” Booth wrote. “People are provided only one short-sleeve T-shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of socks, and one or two pairs of underwear.”"
After nearly two-month delay, judge allows Oakland to remove large homeless camp
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL: "A federal judge on Monday ruled the city can resume efforts to remove dozens of people from a large homeless camp in West Oakland, ending a nearly two-month courtroom battle over the camp’s fate.
The city has demonstrated it now has enough shelter beds for everyone who will be displaced by the camp’s closure, U.S. District Judge William Orrick ruled."
Grappling with homelessness, California weighs extending foster care for 5 years
The Imprint, JEREMY LOUDENBACK: "California lawmakers will soon weigh legislation that would extend the nation’s largest foster care system by five years for some youth, making it the first state in the nation to offer housing, financial and caseworker support to young adults through age 26.
It’s the second time such legislation has been introduced in California in the past three years, , but this time — despite a looming budget deficit – there is new influential support that may boost the bill’s prospects.
Introduced in December by state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), Senate Bill 9 aims to prevent rampant homelessness among foster youth aging out of the system at age 21. Notably for child welfare-related legislation, the bill is backed by the California Judges Association, a nonprofit advocacy group representing the interests of the judiciary in the state. And the bill will be heard by a Legislature that has long been amenable to improving the state’s foster care system, serving roughly 53,000 children and youth. There is also growing attention to how poorly young people leaving the state’s care fare once they are 21 years old."
Scott Adams faces ‘consequence culture’ as U.S. newspapers drop Dilbert
BANG*Mercury News, MARTHA ROSS: "In the category of career implosions for a major American cultural figure, the downfall of Scott Adams has been especially swift and spectacular.
The East Bay cartoonist’s “Dilbert” comic strip, long one of the most popular in the country and appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers at its peak, all but vanished by Monday after he called Black people “a hate group” in an incendiary diatribe on race relations in America last week.
First, hundreds of newspapers — including The Mercury News and East Bay Times, Washington Post, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times and those in USA Today Network — canceled the strip. Then Andrews McMeel Universal, the company that syndicates “Dilbert,” said it would no longer work with the cartoonist. Adams told this news organization Monday that the publisher of his books on career and life advice had canceled his upcoming and backlisted works, as well."
