What are California lawmakers doing to fix the housing crisis? A look at 2023’s new bills
LA TIMES, HANNAH WILEY: "Feeling political pressure to solve California’s severe housing shortage and ballooning homelessness, state lawmakers are pushing new bills to increase production of affordable homes and strengthen tenant protections against evictions and surging rents.
Some of the proposals include letting religious organizations quickly build affordable homes on their excess land and lowering the cap on how much landlords can raise rents each year. Others would ask voters to add housing as a human right to the state Constitution and ease barriers homeowners face when building duplexes in their single-family neighborhoods.
Those efforts would add to laws passed in recent years to streamline student housing on college campuses, funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into affordable housing and clear red tape for more accessory dwelling units, known as casitas or granny flats."
How a Trump indictment could change California’s GOP primary
THE CHRONICLE, JOE GAROFOLI: "If Donald Trump is indicted this week in New York, the effect will ripple outward to California, where Republican voters will have a big say for the first time in a generation about who their party will nominate for president next year.
Trump can’t afford to blow off California if he wants to be the Republican nominee again. He may still lead Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in national polling, but DeSantis is beating him in California, according to the February Berkeley IGS Poll. Trump doesn’t want to be trailing in California, the state that will again offer the largest haul of delegates needed to capture the nomination."
Rep. Khanna says he won’t seek Feinstein’s Senate seat, endorses Rep. Lee
THE CHRONICLE, JESSICA FLORES: "California Rep. Ro Khanna announced Sunday that he will not enter the competitive race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein and instead endorsed Rep. Barbara Lee for the position.
“I have concluded that despite a lot of enthusiasm from Bernie (Sanders’) folks, the best place, the most exciting place, action place, fit place, for me to serve as a progressive is in the House of Representatives,” Khanna, D-Santa Clara, said Sunday during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”"
Will third time be the charm for bill on diacritical marks?
CAPITOL WEEKLY, LISA RENNER: "When Nancy Chaires Espinoza and her husband chose the name Nicolás for their newborn son in 2016, they never thought they wouldn’t be able to put it on his birth certificate.
But that’s what happened because of an obscure California law prohibiting the use of diacritical marks (accents, tildes and other marks indicating pronunciation) on vital statistics records. The hospital would only record the name as “Nicolas” without the accent over the “a.” Espinoza can’t understand why the state won’t correctly write names.
To correct this problem, she is supporting Assembly Bill 77, which would require the California Dept. of Public Health, which oversees vital statistics, to use such marks on birth and death certificates and marriage licenses."
Top Democrats warn Biden: Don’t restart family detentions
LA TIMES, COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN, HAMED ALEAZIZ: "Top Democrats are warning President Biden against restarting the controversial practice of detaining migrant families who cross the U.S. southern border without authorization.
“I urge you to learn from the mistakes of your predecessors and abandon any plans to implement this failed policy,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and 17 other senators wrote in a letter sent to the White House on Sunday and shared exclusively with The Times. Family detention, the senators argued, is “ineffective and impractical as an immigration management tool.”
As he prepares for an expected 2024 presidential campaign, Biden has tried to distance himself from the left, showing more willingness to crack down on illegal immigration and approving a GOP-backed bill to block an overhaul of the District of Columbia’s criminal code. The Senate Democrats’ letter amounts to an attempt to warn Biden against taking that effort too far."
California lifts target for 15% water conservation as yet another storm approaches
CALMATTERS, ALASTAIR BLAND: "With the Sierra Nevada smothered in snow, large swaths of the Central Valley underwater and many Californians weary of water, state officials announced today that they are lifting some drought-related provisions on water use.
“Our water supply conditions have improved markedly,” said Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot.
The state is rescinding its request for voluntary 15% water conservation statewide, which was issued in July 2021, and instead, Crowfoot said, shifting to an approach of making conservation a “way of life.”"
‘We’ve lost the aqueduct’: How severe flooding threatens a Los Angeles water lifeline
LA TIMES, LOUIS SAHAGUN: "For more than 100 years, the Los Angeles Aqueduct has endured earthquakes, flash floods and dozens of bomb attacks as it wends and weaves through the canyons and deserts of the eastern Sierra Nevada.
But earlier this month, record storms accomplished the unthinkable when floodwaters undermined a 120-foot-long section of aqueduct in Owens Valley, causing its concrete walls to crumble.
“We’ve lost the aqueduct!” a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power inspector told his superiors by cellphone. As he spoke, chocolate-colored runoff and debris undercut the aqueduct just west of Highway 395 and the community of Olancha."
Monterey spent one-fifth what Santa Cruz did on Pajaro River flood control. Did that contribute to catastrophic levee break?
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Twelve miles of levees were built to hold back the Pajaro River — a waterway with Monterey County on one side, Santa Cruz County on the other. But a Bay Area News Group review reveals there had been significantly less flood control work on the south bank where the levee failed this month, catastrophically flooding the small farming town of Pajaro, than along the north bank, where the city of Watsonville escaped a similar fate.
That may help explain why the nearly 75-year-old south levee crumbled March 11, despite the river never rising to levels historically associated with disastrous floods — or even topping flood stage.
It could almost be called the Tale of Two Levees."
Why are so many Bay Area trees turning destructive and deadly in recent storms? The answer is years in the making
MERCURY NEWS, LISA M. KRIEGER: "The same urban canopy that provides so much relief in the Bay Area’s summer is now exacting a winter toll, with hundreds of trees weakened by years of drought collapsing in relentless rain and wind — claiming lives, buildings and roads.
“Like for us humans, it takes a little bit of time to recover from stress, the lack of water and high summer temperature,” said UC Davis ecologist Alessandro Ossola, who specializes in urban areas. “Some of our trees are failing to adjust to newly wet soil and atmospheric conditions….they’re simply unable to cope when climate and environmental conditions revert too fast.”
In nature, downed trees are not a problem, but a benefit. They renew the forest by creating a home for fungus, insects, wildlife and sunlit space for new seedlings."
Bay Area teed up for another lashing by rain and wind. Here’s what different this time
THE CHRONICLE, MICHELLE APON: "After Sunday’s bright, sunny skies, another weather shift is bringing the Bay Area a new rush of strong wind gusts, heavy rain and snowfall in the local mountains, starting Monday night. By early Tuesday morning, this latest system incoming from the Gulf of Alaska and Pacific Northwest waters will skirt along the Oregon and Northern California coast and lash the Bay Area with wind and heavy rain.
A cold Monday morning in the Bay Area will be followed by thickening clouds and possible evening showers starting around 9 p.m. in the North Bay and around midnight for the rest of the Bay Area."
More rain is rolling into L.A. County Tuesday after high winds die down Monday
LA TIMES, ROGER VINCENT: "More rain is coming to Los Angeles County this week, following strong wind conditions that were expected to rake the region into the late hours Sunday night, according to forecasters.
Rain is expected to roll in again late Tuesday evening and continue until Thursday, but the storm won’t be as bad as last week’s. Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, expects a half to three-quarters of an inch of rain, compared with the two to three inches seen in the most recent storm.
The precipitation will be cold, though, with snow at higher elevations such as the Grapevine pass."
Will this week’s storms lead to more Bay Area highway closures?
THE CHRONICLE, RICARDO CANO: "Yet another atmospheric river-fueled storm is expected to pummel the Bay Area with rain and strong winds starting Monday afternoon, heightening the risk of more road closures throughout the region.
The historic series of storms that began Dec. 31 have been especially punishing to the region’s roadways and transportation infrastructure, with closed lanes and slower public transit creating significant delays for commuters in recent weeks. Since December, storms have caused more than $638 million in damage to the state’s highways, according to Caltrans."
What Sierra hikers can expect this summer after California’s onslaught of storms
THE CHRONICLE, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Every June, Californians tired of being cooped up pull on their hiking boots and head for the High Sierra, bound for the famed John Muir or Pacific Crest trails, the cables up Half Dome or the vistas around Tuolumne Meadows.
But this year, the huge amount of snow is likely to leave trails in the High Sierra buried for months, and make those hikes even more dangerous and crowded than usual even after they thaw."
An underwater mountain was newly discovered off California coast
THE CHRONICLE, TARA DUGGAN: "An autonomous sailing vessel made a new discovery along vast unexplored areas of the California coast: an underwater mountain 2 miles below the ocean’s surface. Standing about 3,300 feet, higher than the world’s tallest building, the dome has walls that drop down sharply and what appears to be a crater in the middle.
Though such underwater mountains are not exactly uncommon on the Pacific Coast because of the region’s seismic activity, their discovery can be important because they host rich ecosystems full of coral, sponges and other deep-sea creatures. This one is a pretty good size, said Andrew Fisher, distinguished professor in the Institute of Marine Sciences and Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at UC Santa Cruz, who called it “a nice discovery.”
“Seamounts can be a little neighborhood for life,” said Fisher, who was not involved in the expedition. They provide pathways for water to move in and out and are often located near thermal vents, bringing nutrients and warmer water to the deep ocean habitat. “We’ve found octopus at the vents brooding their eggs.”"
UCLA’s acceptance rate has plunged in recent years. These charts show how all UCs compare
THE CHRONICLE, NAMI SUMIDA: "UC Berkeley has long been considered by many to be the most prestigious among the nine undergraduate campuses in the university system. With its world-class academics and picturesque Bay Area campus, it regularly attracts more than 100,000 applications from high school seniors who hope to be one of the 6,000 incoming freshmen.
But within the past seven years, another UC boasts even more applications and a lower acceptance rate than Berkeley. UCLA, with its equally-prestigious academics and sunny L.A. backdrop, had about 22,000 more freshman applicants than Berkeley last year and an admissions rate of 8.6% — nearly three percentage points lower than Berkeley’s 11.3%."
For some, TikTok is a path to riches and the American dream. With a ban, it could all disappear
LA TIMES, JAIMIE DING: "When Lauren Wyman felt crushed under the weight of her corporate finance job in 2019, she found solace in launching a small goth and alternative clothing business.
She initially made Facebook and Instagram accounts for her shop, Dark Mother Clothing, but generated only $5,000 to $6,000 in sales the first year. Wyman, 32, joined TikTok at the start of the pandemic, launched new products and posted a couple of videos that went viral. In 2022, she grossed $217,000.
“A part of what people have done on this app is created their own slice of the American dream that is preached so much about,” said Wyman, who’s based in Arizona, “whether it’s opening a small business or people who are no longer facing homelessness, people who are able to retire, creators who are now allowed to pursue their creative pursuits.”"
Silicon Valley Bank to be acquired by North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank
AP: "North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank & Trust will buy Silicon Valley Bank, the tech-focused financial institution whose collapse earlier this month rattled the banking industry and sent shock waves around the world.
The deal could reassure investors at a time of shaken confidence in banks, though the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other regulators had already taken extraordinary steps to head off a wider banking crisis by guaranteeing that depositors in SVB and another failed U.S. bank would be able to access all of their money.
Customers of SVB automatically will become customers of First Citizens, which is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. The 17 former branches of SVB will open as First Citizens branches Monday, the FDIC said."
A California program to fix mobile home parks approved 1 application in 10 years. Will a rebrand work?
CALMATTERS, MANUELA TOBIAS: "Mobile home residents in California face an outsize risk of failing utility systems, flooding and fires as a result of infrastructure that frequently hasn’t been updated or repaired in decades.
In 1984, California passed a law to help remedy this: a loan program, paid into by the residents themselves, to buy and in later iterations, fix their parks.
But that solution, for the last 10 years, has helped only one of California’s 4,500 mobile home parks."
Bad bets, dysfunction: Inside the collapse of the Skid Row Housing Trust
LA TIMES, DOUG SMITH, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "In 2016, hoarding by the tenants of more than two dozen downtown residential buildings had become so pervasive that employees felt it posed a health and safety hazard.
The Skid Row Housing Trust, a nonprofit that owned the buildings, hired a specialist — clinical psychologist Danielle Schlichter. Her job was to set up a training program for graduate students who would help tenants overcome the obsessions that set them up for eviction.
But soon, the trust began falling behind on its payments to Schlichter and eventually stopped them, according to emails attached in a lawsuit. She was forced to stop working even as the problems at the buildings persisted, the emails said."
‘Holding my car hostage’: Bay Area drivers face DMV registration holds amid mounting express lane debt
MERCURY NEWS, ELIYAHU KAMISHER: "Brenda Angulo’s license plate has been pinging off the Bay Area’s growing network of electronic toll transponders — into a colossal $30,000 bill.
There were dozens of bridge tolls, and a flurry of express lane fees. For the past three years, they went unpaid as invoices filled Angulo’s mailbox.
But when Angulo went to renew her DMV vehicle registration this year, she was floored by the sticker shock. A single 50-cent express lane fee from last April would now cost her $73.50 with penalties — an increase of 14,700%. And if she wanted to keep her Mazda on the road, she also would have to fork over $2,523, which included her annual registration fees and a portion of her unpaid tolls."
