Newsom seeks federal disaster aid for ravaged California communities
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI, JESSICA FLORES: "Gov. Gavin Newsom asked President Biden on Tuesday to declare a major disaster for storm-affected counties of California, including the community of Pajaro in Monterey County where nearly 2,000 residents were evacuated after a levee broke nearly three weeks ago.
The flooding in Pajaro devastated the community, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses. Residents were finally able to return home last week to start the arduous task of cleaning up waterlogged storefronts and mounds of mud inside their homes.
“Over these past months, state, local and federal partners have worked around the clock to protect our communities from devastating storms that have ravaged every part of our state,” Newsom said. “We will continue to deploy every tool we have to help Californians rebuild and recover from these storms.”
“FEMA help is actually on the way” — Gov. Newsom takes key step to bring FEMA aid to California flood victims
BANG*Mercury News, ALDO TOLEDO: "Gov. Gavin Newsom took a key step on Tuesday in getting FEMA aid to California communities recovering from devastating damage caused by recent atmospheric river storms, including the small town of Pajaro where about 3,000 residents were flooded out of their homes.
Newsom’s request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration comes two weeks after an aging neglected levee broke and flooded the small farmworker community and aims to bolster emergency response and recovery in Calaveras, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Tulare and Tuolumne counties.
The Presidential Major Disaster Declaration request encompasses the communities impacted by flooding, snow, mudslides, avalanches, and debris flows that resulted from storms beginning February 21."
As floods endanger the San Joaquin Valley, Newsom cuts funding for floodplains
CALMatters, ALASTAIR BLAND: "Last fall, when the state Legislature authorized $40 million for floodplain restoration, Julie Rentner knew just what she would do with it. Her group, River Partners, would spend more than a quarter of the funds buying a 500-acre dairy farm abutting the San Joaquin River in Stanislaus County.
Then millions more would be spent on removing debris, sheds, manure heaps and levees. They would plant native vegetation, and eventually restore the parcel to its natural state as a woodland and floodplain.
When floodplains like these are allowed to fill with water, they can reduce flooding impacts elsewhere along the river, so the project could protect communities downstream, including Stockton, which is highly vulnerable to flooding."
Newsom signs watered-down oil profit penalty into law
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "For six months, Gov. Gavin Newsom waged a highly public battle against the oil industry, accusing companies of fleecing Californians as gasoline prices soared to record levels last year and urging lawmakers to claw back the excess profits to return to taxpayers.
He finally got to take a victory lap today as he signed a first-in-the-nation law that could lead to a cap on earnings for oil refiners.
“We proved we can actually beat Big Oil,” Newsom said during a ceremony under the state Capitol rotunda."
These people have the power to fix S.F.'s biggest problems. Here's what's holding them back
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Everyone seems to agree San Francisco has big problems – homelessness, a housing crisis and concerns about crime – but not everyone agrees who in city government is responsible for failing to fix them.
While Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors sometimes work together, she and her moderate allies have long accused progressive supervisors of blocking her solutions to those issues — whether delaying housing projects or scrutinizing police spending.
But some progressives and the mayor’s critics have started punching back, blaming Breed for not adequately addressing the challenges, pointing out that she controls more than 60 department heads, more than 36,000 employees and a $14 billion budget."
Will this winter’s megastorms end the Bay Area’s toxic algae problem?
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "In recent years, thick layers of cyanobacteria—commonly known as blue-green algae—have closed popular local swimming spots Lake Anza and Lake Temescal for weeks at a time.
Last summer, a toxic algae bloom in the San Francisco Bay killed thousands of fish.
Although algae is always present in some quantity in lakes and the bay, higher temperatures, stagnant water, and excessive nutrient levels can cause the algae to multiply."
Amid a disastrous flood, interpreters are a lifeline for Indigenous farmworkers
LA Times, RUBEN VIVES, MELISSA GOMEZ: "Inside an evacuation center at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Maria Adolfo-Morales and a disaster service volunteer listened to a woman describe her concerns in the Mixteco language.
The woman and her three children had been staying at the center for a week, after a broken levee flooded the farming town of Pajaro and forced residents to flee.
Adolfo-Morales, a 22-year-old community healthcare worker, interpreted what the woman said into English, then rendered the volunteer’s responses into Mixteco, one of several Indigenous languages spoken in southern Mexico."
‘Too much loss from the rain.’ How businesses are coping — or benefiting — from recent storms
LA Times, STAFF: "Southern California’s seemingly endless parade of storms has been disastrous for some businesses: most infamously, the Royal Paper Box Co. in Montebello, which lost its roof last week during a rare tornado.
With more rain forecast for Wednesday, businesses that operate outdoors or rely on in-person customers are bracing for another financial dry spell. That includes many restaurants and carwashes, where workers are struggling with sharply lower income.
For others, the storms can mean an operational boost. If you’ve tried to get a roofer to call you back lately, you know what we’re talking about. But delaying outdoor work for sunny days can eat into profits."
San Francisco broke a century-old temperature record today. Here's how cold it got
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "On Tuesday, the highest temperature in downtown San Francisco reached just 51 degrees, setting a new daily record, preliminary data shows. The previous lowest maximum temperature for March 28 was 52 degrees, set in 2006.
On Monday, temperatures in the city dipped down to 42 degrees, tying the coldest temperature ever recorded for March 27, last seen 125 years ago in 1898."
Mountain volunteers were a lifeline in a world buried in snow. And they’re not done
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS, GINA FERAZZI: "The snow is melting in the San Bernardino Mountains after eight to 12 feet of powder fell in back-to-back winter storms last month.
Damaged homes dot the landscape, and the storms will have an economic ripple effect on the mountain communities that will continue long after the snow is gone, according to mutual aid groups, which point out that — weeks after the worst weather — people are still trying to refill depleted pantries and remain in need of other resources.
San Bernardino County plans to wind down a food distribution center in the hard-hit Crestline community by the end of the month, and the Red Cross will close its shelters for people displaced by the storms on a similar schedule."
One COVID-19 bivalent booster is enough for now, CDC finally decides
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "There is finally clarity for Americans wondering whether it’s time to get another COVID-19 booster shot.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines on Monday emphatically stating that one updated dose is sufficient, even for individuals who received their last vaccination more than six months ago."
This Bay Area school district could be first in U.S to offer cash reparations to some Black students
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Berkeley Unified School District is looking into paying cash reparations to African American students whose ancestors were enslaved in the United States, with officials saying the district “can and should lead such a change” nationally.
The district is creating a task force to make recommendations to the school board by January on how to fund and implement a reparations program focused on cash payments, according to a district webpage explaining the effort. The task force, with 15-20 members, will include board members, district staff, teachers and community members. Kad Smith, a Berkeley High School alumnus and former project director at Oakland social justice nonprofit CompassPoint, will be the task force facilitator."
Documentary film asks: Do all children have 'The Right to Read?'
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Jenny Mackenzie struggled with reading until she was 14. She often felt ashamed and learned to hide her vulnerability.
“I was quite closeted about it,” said Mackenzie, now 60. “I knew that I was a slow reader, but I was able to cover it up.”
Fortunately, her parents came to the rescue. She was officially diagnosed with dyslexia and finally got the help she needed. Then she went on to earn a doctorate, becoming first a social worker and later an Emmy-winning filmmaker known for social justice-minded documentaries such as “Kick Like a Girl,” “Quiet Heroes,” and “Dying in View.”"
San Jose’s Bellarmine hit with two lawsuits alleging long-ago abuse by disgraced Jesuit
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "Two men who attended Bellarmine College Preparatory High School in the 1960s and 1970s have filed separate lawsuits against the school and Roman Catholic authorities alleging they were sexually assaulted as students by a Jesuit school official who insisted on giving them unwarranted hernia checks.
The lawsuits were filed late last year by California men now in their 60s identified only as John Roe and John Roe 1. The suits claim they were sexually abused by William C. Farrington, a Jesuit brother whom Bellarmine more than a decade ago acknowledged was credibly accused of molesting another former student years earlier.
“It turns out Brother Farrington has a long history of sexually assaulting minors,” attorney Mary Bajo said."
Judge says Google destroyed messages that may have been evidence in antitrust suit
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Google’s in-house communications system destroyed employee messages that might have contained evidence for antitrust suits against the internet giant by California, other states and consumer groups, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Google “intended to subvert” the evidence-gathering process, said U.S. District Judge James Donato of San Francisco, who is presiding over the suit. He said the company has also “tried to downplay the problem and displayed a dismissive attitude ill tuned to the gravity of its conduct.”
The suit, filed in 2021 by 38 states and the District of Columbia, after earlier suits in Donato’s court by consumers and competing companies, accuses Google of plotting with cell phone manufacturers to monopolize the smartphone app market by making sure that Android phones offer Google Play as the primary or only available option. Google is also accused of extracting a 30% commission from consumers. Google has denied the allegations."
This unique ADU offers hope for two sets of grandparents and Ukrainian refugees
The Chronicle, LISA BOONE: "Seventy-four-year-old Viktor Vasyliev — arms outstretched and smiling broadly — greeted Raul Villagra and his wife, Cristina Araya, with a warm embrace.
Standing nearby, his daughter Alina Vasyliev shook her head and laughed. “My father would have never kissed anyone ‘hello’ before he met Raul and Cristina,” she said. “It’s like this every weekend at our house: My parents speak Russian. My in-laws speak Spanish. But somehow they communicate.”
The three families were lingering inside the accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, located behind Alina and Daniel Villagra’s newly built home in the Los Angeles area."
Outlook for Bay Area home prices is changing. Here's the latest data
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG, ADRIANA REZAL: "While home prices are still expected to decline in the Bay Area over the next year, the outlook is improving a bit, according to new data — even amid ongoing economic pressures in the Bay Area.
Projections by Zillow show that home values in the San Francisco metro areas will likely decrease 2.7% in the next year, compared with the 3.6% decline the real estate listings website was forecasting in December."
Newport Beach battles a new breed of luxury party houses: fractional ownership
LA Times, HANNAH FRY: "Max Gardner and his wife, Artyn, decided to sell their home in Irvine and move to Balboa Island eight years ago because they wanted something more than a comfortable place to live. They were hunting for a lifestyle.
On this tony man-made island in Newport Beach, stately homes with street-facing patios are clustered together on avenues named after gemstones. Residents zip around in golf carts, taking in the harbor boats, art fairs and chic boutiques. Visitors ride in on a ferry to buy frozen bananas from a sweet shop that inspired the family banana stand on the TV sitcom “Arrested Development.”
People who live here are fierce defenders of the island’s cozy charm. They’ve battled the Federal Aviation Administration over jet noise from nearby John Wayne Airport and successfully fought to regulate short-term vacation rentals."
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