Another atmospheric river is heading to California. Here’s where and when it will hit
THE CHRONICLE, MICHELLE APON: "The Bay Area has a day to dry out before a new atmospheric river closes in on California. A storm will start late Monday and continue Tuesday before subsiding Wednesday. As a low-pressure system heads from the Gulf of Alaska to California’s central coast, it will steer the bulk of the atmospheric river to Central and Southern California.
While the Bay Area will get rain, the bulk of it is likely to hit the Santa Cruz Mountains, with 2 to 3 inches. Bay Area hills and mountains could average 2 inches, while the valleys could get up to 1 inch.
The storm that dropped rain on the Bay Area on Sunday is likely to bring scattered snow to the Sierra Nevada through late Monday morning, with 1 to 2 feet of snow possible. Tahoe has a slight chance of snow Monday before the next storm approaches at night."
Scattered showers on tap for the Bay Area, while the Sierra girds for more snow
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, JAKOB RODGERS: "Sunny skies are expected to grace much of Northern California on Monday ahead of another round of storms that could bring rain to the Bay Area and at least another foot of snow to the already-blanketed northern Sierra Nevada.
The system — which should move into the region late Monday and linger through Wednesday — threatens to further saturate soils in communities along the San Francisco Bay while adding to impressive seasonal snowfall totals over the high country. A half-inch of rain is expected to fall along the coastal parts of the Bay Area by midweek, while 1 to 2 inches of rain could fall over the higher elevations.
“Rain’s going to be the story for at least the beginning part of the work week,” said Dial Hoang, a National Weather Service meteorologist."
Scientists found microplastics in Sierra snowpacks. Should we worry about Bay Area drinking water?
THE CHRONICLE, NORA MISHANEC: "Scientists have found microplastics in snowpacks across the Sierra Nevada, a jarring discovery that may help California regulators better understand how the polluting particles are entering the state's drinking water supply.
The preliminary findings also indicate that microplastics — tiny fragments shed from synthetic clothing, food packaging and tires — are so widely dispersed that they have found their way to some of the most remote and pristine parts of the California landscape, a troubling development as scientists race to understand their long-term health impacts.
The Sierra have been mired in heavy snowfall for much of the year, replenishing reservoirs with much-needed water after years of punishing drought."
‘We need to stop the water’: A California town’s frantic fight to save itself
LA TIMES, IAN JAMES: "Last week, when it rained for days and floodwaters poured onto roads, the people of Allensworth grabbed shovels and revved up tractors.
The makeshift barriers they built with sandbags, gravel and loose sand kept the water back.
Now, the town of nearly 600 people northwest of Bakersfield faces another threat — a broken levee, along with yet another storm expected to hit in a few days."
How a long history of racism and neglect set the stage for Pajaro flooding
LA TIMES, SUSANNE RUST, RUBEN VIVES: "Thirty-five-year-old Maria Martinez felt nauseated as she and her son crossed the Pajaro River Bridge into Watsonville, in Santa Cruz County.
Their home in the Monterey County community of Pajaro was flooded after a levee failed during an intense storm on March 10. Within hours, streets, homes and businesses of this mostly Spanish-speaking town of 3,000 people were under several feet of water.
As Martinez crossed, she saw two National Guard Humvees, a few fire department vehicles, a couple of sheriff’s cruisers and a security guard truck blocking traffic from entering the flood zone — an area she and many others chose not to evacuate."
Thousands of Central Valley residents told to leave homes ahead of another rain onslaught
LA TIMES, IAN JAMES, PAIGE ST. JOHN: "It takes only the sound of raindrops hitting the roof to seize Tulare County resident Tony Ferranti with thoughts of filling sandbags, restocking supplies and keeping a close watch on area bridges.
“It’s sort of a flood PTSD,” Ferranti said Sunday, as he and thousands of others prepared for the arrival of the latest in a series of major storms that have hit the Central Valley since January.
The new weather system, which began moving into the region on Sunday and stretches across the lower third of the state, is forecast to drop another 4 inches of rain by Wednesday on the sodden valley and its steep mountain slopes."
Newsom proposes bond measure, sweeping mental health reform in California
LA TIMES, HANNAH WILEY, TARYN LUNA: "Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking lawmakers and voters to approve sweeping mental health reforms that would commit billions of dollars in state funding for behavioral health-based housing and treatment facilities throughout California.
The Democratic governor’s proposal, unveiled Sunday in San Diego, would raise at least $3 billion through a bond measure to fund the construction of new mental health campuses, residential settings and permanent supportive housing. Newsom wants to redirect another $1 billion in funds annually from an existing income tax on top earners to operate the facilities, his office said.
“It’s unacceptable what we’re dealing with, at scale now, in the state of California,” Newsom said during an event at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center to announce his plan. “We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state and our nation.”"
If you still haven’t had COVID, are you immune — or just lucky?
THE CHRONICLE, KELLIE HWANG: "Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, most people have contracted the coronavirus at least once. Case numbers spiked especially high when the ultra-infectious omicron variant surged in late 2021 and early 2022, and it continues to spawn more and more transmissible strains.
And yet, some still have managed to dodge the virus, or at least haven’t tested positive yet.
The estimated percentage of people who have contracted the coronavirus ranges from 70% to 90% of the U.S. population, but it’s unclear how many have truly not been infected, as asymptomatic infections and at-home testing have muddied the waters."
How immune are we? Why answering this question is essential for post-pandemic life
LA TIMES, MELISSA HEALY: "The pandemic’s formal end on May 11 marks neither victory nor peace: It’s a cessation of hostilities with a dangerous virus that is still very much with us.
To maintain such an uneasy truce, Americans will have to stay protected enough to prevent humanity’s viral foe from staging a break-out of our shaky accord.
Providing that assurance, in turn, assumes scientists and public health officials all agree on what it means to be “protected enough,” and that they can tell whether people are meeting that mark."
AB 1630 would streamline private student housing developments
DAILY CALIFORNIAN, CHRISSA OLSON: "Amid a statewide student housing crisis, California assemblymember Eduardo Garcia introduced AB 1630, which would streamline private student housing developments within 1,000 feet of California college campuses.
The bill also considers the development “ministerial,” and thus exempts the developments from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which has been at the core of the case preventing UC Berkeley from building student housing on People’s Park.
Michelle Andrews, the government relations chair of the University of California Student Association, or UCSA, noted that while AB 1630 is not meant to have any effect on the development on People’s Park, which is university-sponsored, the stall in development pushed them to pursue the bill."
Labor board won’t halt LAUSD strike for now, but could still act after a Monday review
LA TIMES, HOWARD BLUME: "A last-ditch legal effort by the Los Angeles school district has failed for now to avert a three-day strike and school closures scheduled for Tuesday, but district officials said Sunday that their case remains under consideration by a state labor board and that a decision could come as soon as Monday.
L.A. Unified had argued that the strike — by Local 99 of Service Employees International Union — is illegal, on the grounds that the union’s official justification is not the real reason for the walkout. Local 99 has stated that the purpose of the strike is to protest alleged unfair labor practices by the district; L.A. Unified claims the union walkout is about pressuring the district to improve its salary offer.
The school system had requested an injunction from the California Public Employment Relations Board that would have delayed or halted with strike — and this was denied."
AI in school: Virtually chatting with George Washington and your personal GPT-4 tutor
EDSOURCE, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "ChatGPT both awed and alarmed the computer savvy and the computer-phobic public when the encyclopedic chatbot debuted in November. Teachers worried about cheating, and parents feared the unknown.
The artificial intelligence software, which analyzes mammoth amounts of information from the internet, spits out impressive essays and logical answers to seemingly any question — even, on occasion, with undue confidence, as it miscalculated a math problem or made up an answer.
Sal Khan, founder and chief executive of the Mountain View-based nonprofit global classroom Khan Academy, envisions artificial intelligence as a powerful tool for learning and teaching. On the same day last week that the research lab OpenAI released GPT-4, which is an even more advanced version of ChatGPT, Khan introduced Khanmigo. It’s an application of GPT-4 that will be integrated into Khan Academy’s lessons and videos."
How a poker game launched Silicon Valley Bank’s four-decade ride on the tech wave — and a bad gamble 42 years later ended it all
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "In the early Eighties, when “High Tech” was still written with quotation marks and the region was starting to become known as The Silicon Valley, tennis buddies Bob Medearis and Bill Biggerstaff took their idea for a new bank to a poker game in Pajaro Dunes.
Their wives and children would be joining them at their Monterey Bay beachfront rentals the next day, but Friday night the two men gathered their close friends, made a big dinner and explained the plan to open a bank specifically for tech companies. They would call their customers “clients” and name their business after the region’s trendy new moniker: Silicon Valley Bank.
Who’s in?"
Credit rating for San Francisco’s First Republic Bank downgraded for second time in a week
THE CHRONICLE, SAM WHITING: "https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/credit-rating-first-republic-said-downgraded-17848352.phpThe credit rating of First Republic Bank, a San Francisco lending institution once so conservative that it would not accept a deposit over $90,000 to ensure that all its accounts remained within FDIC insurance coverage, was downgraded again Sunday.
Warning that still another cut could follow, S&P Global Ratings downgraded First Republic’s long-term issuer credit rating to B+ from its earlier ranking of BB+, according to a research update sent to The Chronicle from Jeff Sexton, S&P Global Ratings head of communications. This came despite Thursday’s infusion of $30 billion in uninsured deposits by other banks attempting to stabilize and increase confidence in the struggling lender.
A rating of B+ is considered “junk” in that it suggests that credit issued by First Republic is not investment grade and runs a higher than average risk of default. The bank had already been lowered to BB+ which is the highest level of non-investment grade bond. Sunday’s downgrade, the second for First Republic in the past week, was first reported by Bloomberg."
Could First Republic’s collapse trigger a recession? Here’s what experts say
THE CHRONICLE, CAROLYN SAID: "Another week, another California bank collapsing before our eyes.
How worried should the average person be about news that San Francisco’s First Republic Bank is teetering on the brink, following on the heels of Santa Clara’s Silicon Valley Bank, which imploded last week?
By now, we’ve all been reminded that U.S. bank deposits are federally insured up to $250,000. Amounts above that are far beyond reach for most soccer moms and barbecue dads, so they need not fear losing their bank savings."
Newsom takes another swing at getting mentally ill homeless off the streets
CAPITOL WEEKLY, DAN MORAIN: "In California, the state that led all others in the failed social experiment of emptying psychiatric hospitals, the pendulum clearly is swinging.
Not that California Gov. Gavin Newsom aims to return to the days when forgotten souls were locked away in large asylums. But in a proposal to be detailed on Sunday, Newsom will call on legislators to place a $3 billion bond measure before voters in 2024 to pay to house thousands of people with severe mental illness.
Additionally, Newsom will ask legislators to rewrite a 2004 initiative, Proposition 63, that raised income taxes by 1% on individuals with earnings of $1 million or more to help people with mental illness."
Gavin Newsom wants voters to approve his plan to fund housing for mentally ill people
THE CHRONICLE, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Californians would vote on a plan to fund housing for people with mental illness under a proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Sunday.
Newsom is calling on lawmakers to place a measure on the 2024 ballot to authorize new bond funding and existing tax revenue to fund new residential centers where people with mental illness could live and receive treatment. The measure is directed at people with severe mental illness who are homeless, or who need intensive treatment but are falling through the cracks in the state’s overburdened system.
“It’s not acceptable what we’re dealing with in California, not only in terms of what’s happening on the streets and sidewalks, but those that are suffering alone … in homes, mobile home parks, on the streets, obviously, as well as in isolation,” Newsom said. “We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state.”"
#CAHOUSING: The State of the Rental Market
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s Conference on Housing, which was held in Sacramento at the California Endowment Conference Center on Thursday, March 9, 2023.
This is Panel 3: The State of the Rental Market
Panelists: Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh; Assemblymember Alex Lee; Debra Carlton, California Apartment Association; Alex Lantsberg, State Building and Construction Trades Council; Shanti Singh, Tenants Together"
Bay Area cities struggle to balance housing mandates, wildfire risks
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, KATIE LAUER: "How can cities balance new state guidelines restricting development in high-risk wildfire zones with parallel — and often conflicting — mandates for aggressive housing construction?
In vulnerable areas like Orinda, where virtually the entire hillside city is subject to high fire risk, many local leaders say they are doing the best they can. But critics who think they aren’t doing enough to keep the city safe have reached out to the California Superior Court to weigh in on the conflict.
Orinda is home to nearly 20,000 residents living across roughly 13 square miles of rolling, dense hills and secluded valleys nestled in between Berkeley and Walnut Creek along Highway 24."
PG&E connection delays add to California’s housing woes, advocates say
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, ETHAN VARIAN: "Add waiting for the lights to turn on to the laundry list of delays holding up urgently needed housing in California.
Newly constructed apartment buildings across the northern half of the state are sitting empty for months as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. drags its feet connecting them to the power grid, according to developers and housing advocates. They say they utility’s increasingly slow pace is also driving up building costs, creating yet another challenge to solving the state’s worsening housing crisis.
This month, Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator from San Francisco, crafted a bill to force PG&E and other utilities to install power hookups at residential and commercial construction sites no more than eight weeks after projects receive the necessary permits. Otherwise, utilities would be required to pay developers to compensate for the wait."
Younger Angelenos have far more negative view of police than elders, poll finds
LA TIMES, LIBOR JANY: "Angelenos are split in their views of the Los Angeles Police Department, showing a sharp generational divide on how they rate the force’s performance and on whether officers generally treat people of all races fairly, a new poll shows.
The Suffolk University/Los Angeles Times poll also found that residents of L.A. are more supportive than those of several other large cities about shifting money away from police and using it to fund community-based approaches to public safety.
About a third of Angelenos rated the LAPD’s performance as excellent or good. The largest share of those polled, 4 in 10, rated the department’s work as fair, while just under a quarter rated it as poor."
‘I’m emancipated now’: Nancy Pelosi enjoying life after leadership
LA TIMES, NOLAN D. MCCASKILL: "“Now we’re going to have some fun,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) says enthusiastically, winning a giggle from her daughter.
It’s a little past 6:30 p.m. on a recent Thursday. The former House speaker is sitting in a packed black SUV with a reporter on her left, a driver and a member of her security detail in the front and her daughter Christine and two top congressional aides squeezed into the backseat.
The group is en route from the Swedish Embassy, where Pelosi was the keynote speaker at an event supporting Ukraine, to the St. Regis Hotel for “Thank You, Madam Speaker,” a reception celebrating her legacy."
