There’s now only one official COVID protocol left in California — and it’s unlikely to change soon
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Beginning Monday, California will no longer require masks for COVID-19 prevention in health care settings — leaving isolation for those who test positive as the last vestige of the state’s formerly mandatory COVID rules.
California lifted its COVID-19 state of emergency in February, nearly three years after it was put in place, and President Biden indicated last week he won’t veto a Republican-led measure to immediately end the national COVID emergency, which was set to expire May 11."
Why major study argues Florida’s COVID death rate compares favorably to California’s
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "California officials boast that the state’s extended pandemic lockdowns and health mandates saved tens of thousands of lives from COVID-19, compared to states like Florida that reopened early.
But a major study of all U.S. states’ pandemic performance found that while masks and social distancing drove down infection rates, they didn’t influence death rates, which were driven more by population age, health, poverty, race, education, health care access, vaccination and public trust.
The study argues that while Florida’s death rate per 100,000 was higher than California’s, it would actually be lower than the Golden State’s if all states had the same age and health characteristics of the country as a whole."
Column: A looming crisis: the crushing cost of elder care and the crippling effects of low wages
LA Times, STEVE LOPEZ: "Caregiver Maria Diaz leaves her South Los Angeles home well before the sun rises and returns long after it sets. Days off, even on weekends, are rare. At 46, having recovered from a series of strokes, she is her family’s primary breadwinner and she needs the hours.
“It’s the only way I can make ends meet,” said Diaz, whose husband is disabled.
She has three elderly clients and four young disabled clients, and spends an hour here, three or four hours there, shuttling between Los Angeles, Huntington Park and Gardena. Depending on the need, she cooks and cleans for people, bathes them, changes their diapers, monitors their health and drives them to grocery stores and medical appointments."
Fight over pay for L.A. hospital execs could hinge on what President Biden makes
LA Times, EMILY ALPERT REYES: "Should Los Angeles clamp down on how much hospital executives are paid?
That decision could be put to Los Angeles city voters, under a ballot measure supported by a union representing healthcare workers.
But whether that happens may hinge on another question: How much does the president of the United States make?"
State senator on mission to change how California treats its most severely mentally ill residents
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "If you are concerned about reducing the number of mentally ill Californians living and dying on our streets, state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman is the person to watch right now in Sacramento. The Stockton Democrat is the leader of a growing movement to finally change the 56-year-old laws that Gov. Ronald Reagan signed — and make it easier to get help for people with the most severe mental illness.
Even if that help has to be given involuntarily."
In a city rocked by corruption, Ridley-Thomas’ conviction brings public tributes, not scorn
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER, MATT HAMILTON, JULIA WICK: "The corruption cases that have upended Los Angeles city politics in recent years have been greeted by a familiar set of reactions: public disgust, condemnation from elected officials, urgent calls for reform.
But in the days since a jury found former City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas guilty of bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges, some of the city’s political leaders have given a markedly different type of response, offering tributes instead of scorn.
Mayor Karen Bass described Ridley-Thomas, a friend and ally for more than 40 years, as a “thought leader” who had made a huge impact on the city. Steve Soboroff, who sits on the Board of Police Commissioners, tweeted his appreciation for Ridley-Thomas’ work. State Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) issued a statement listing Ridley-Thomas’ accomplishments — omitting the fact that the veteran politician had just been convicted of multiple felony counts."
L.A. protesters denounce Biden and López Obrador’s policies after 39 migrant deaths
LA Times, POR SOUDI JIMENEZ: "The afternoon was cold and starkly silent, broken only occasionally by passing cars honking in solidarity. A blue and white five-starred Honduran flag wavered in the breeze, one of many symbols marking the deaths this week of 39 immigrants who were trapped in a fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
“It was the State,” read one poster in Spanish.
“No human being is illegal,” proclaimed another text held aloft by a Mexican immigrant."
CROP program looks to move people from prison to tech
Capitol Weekly, SETH SANDRONSKY: "Getting out of prison is one thing: staying out as a productive member of society can be another entirely.
With California’s high levels of recidivism in mind, Oakland-based nonprofit Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP) is set to open a reentry campus there for formerly incarcerated people in early April. It is a mission that defines the life arcs of Ted Gray and Jason Bryant, the organization’s co-founders. The duo met as state prisoners after felony convictions in their early 20s.
“The Ready 4 Life program is CROP’s expression of a reimagined reentry program,” Bryant says. “When our proximate leaders envisioned this program, we knew the development and implementation of a holistic program would be a huge mountain to climb. We anticipated there would be challenges and winding paths . . . so in that regard, what has transpired is exactly what we expected. Beyond this, we’ve remained anchored in our commitment to put our Fellow’s needs first and ensure that all programmatic components are aimed at supporting people’s success in the community.”"
California's storms may have set the stage for another disaster: deep landslides
The Chronicle, CLAIRE HAO: "A gap in the earth has appeared in Marin County above Redwood Boulevard, a road so warped by last month’s landslide that it looks more like river rapids. The landslide temporarily shut down Highway 101 and also disrupted operations of two Pacific Gas & Electric Co. gas lines and a county aqueduct.
“20 feet wide, 15 feet deep. That’s how much earth has moved down toward the road and pushed the asphalt of the road over the top of our pipeline,” said Robert Clark, North Marin Water District operations superintendent.
The earth is still shifting, and may for months."
Why water levels remain low at one major California reservoir, even after rain
The Chronicle, CLAIRE HAO: "After an extraordinarily wet winter, most reservoirs in California are at, over or near their historical average capacity.
But there’s a major exception: Trinity Lake, in far northern California, the third-largest reservoir in California behind Shasta and Oroville reservoirs. Trinity is only at 51% of its historical average capacity — and 37% of capacity overall — as of April 1, according to data from the Department of Water Resources."
‘Mindboggling’: Will Monday’s big snow tally break a 1952 record in the Sierra Nevada?
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "California water officials were set to trek up to Echo Summit south of Lake Tahoe on Monday for a highly anticipated annual snowpack measurement — and this year, it could be like a scene out of the 1975 movie “Jaws.”
They’ll — probably — need a bigger ruler.
The results could topple a record set more than half century ago."
A Bay Area city reels from refinery’s hazardous fallout. Did warnings come too late?
LA Times, TONY BRISCOE: "It was the morning after Thanksgiving when residents in the Bay Area city of Martinez awoke to find their homes, cars and yards blanketed by a mysterious pale residue.
Although the dusting resembled ash, there were no wildfires burning nearby. When residents called local authorities, they learned nothing.
But then, more than a month later, the Contra Costa County Health Department published a two-page notice informing residents that the “white dust” was a hazardous material released by the Martinez Refining Co. on the northern edge of the city."
Spring weather is coming, Sacramento. See when temperatures will rise this week
Sac Bee, HANH TRUONG: "Temperatures are warming up heading into the first full week of April, bringing sunshine to the Sacramento region and eventually spring-like weather after a long period of gloomy skies and rain.
The week is expected to start with daytime highs in the 60s, rising to 75 degrees or more by the end of the week.
But keep your warm clothes handy, especially at night and in the early morning."
Here’s what we know about this dead whale that washed up on North Bay beach
The Chronicle, JESS LANDER: "The Bay Area has recorded its first gray whale death of the 2023 migratory season. The carcass of a 35-foot North Pacific gray whale washed up on a Bolinas beach, likely having died from the trauma force of being struck by a vessel, experts say.
The latest victim of a whale-boat collision, a common hazard, was found ashore east of Duxbury Point on March 23. An autopsy by scientists from the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences determined that the sub-adult male, otherwise in “normal body condition” for fat stores and blubber, had bruising and hemorrhage in the soft tissue around its left eye, extending to the base of its skull. That indicated a vessel collision caused the death, the scientists said in a news release."
A 90-year-old time capsule was unearthed at S.F.’s Mount Davidson. Here’s what was inside
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Ninety years ago, San Francisco Boy Scouts buried a sealed copper box, filled to the brim with mementos from 1933, at the foot of the cross on Mount Davidson.
On Saturday, it was finally time to open it.
More than 100 people gathered at the steps of the 103-foot concrete cross at San Francisco’s highest peak to see the history unearthed at an event hosted by the Council of Armenian American Organizations of Northern California, which owns the cross, with the help of Scout Troop 88, the same troop that buried the time capsule almost a century ago."
Elon Musk May Have a Chinese Surprise
The Street, LUC OLINGA: "China is the world's largest automotive market and a key market for Tesla in its ambition to dominate the global car industry.
Dominate headlines globally.
Be at the center of conversations in business and geopolitical circles around the world."
Black homeownership has declined across the Bay Area, furthering inequality
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "Since pulling herself out of homelessness a decade ago, Nadia Johnson has worked tirelessly to achieve what no one else in her family has accomplished: owning a home in the Bay Area.
Johnson, a manager at a local Starbucks, and her husband, Andre, a driver for a private bus service, now rent a two-bedroom duplex in the Contra Costa County suburb of Rodeo with their 13-year-old daughter, Raiena.
The couple has been saving to buy a house of their own in the working-class community known for its sprawling Phillips 66 oil refinery. But their modest incomes make it nearly impossible to qualify for a mortgage, even in one of the more affordable parts of the increasingly unaffordable Bay Area."
New housing in Oakland comes wrapped in historic garb. There’s a reason for that
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "The days have long passed since Oakland’s Broadway — the stretch north of downtown — was a mecca for car buyers.
You wouldn’t know this by a casual glance at the building fronts along the sidewalks, though.
Three large residential projects that have opened since the depths of the pandemic on Broadway between 24th and 30th streets are adorned with outer walls that date back more than a century. Not really historic preservation, what’s on display is an architectural sleight-of-hand known as facadism — or, put another way, using scraps of sculptural history to maintain stage sets on an urban scale."
Greene defends calling Democrats ‘pedophiles,’ eliciting eye-roll from 60 Minutes’ Stahl
The Hill, LAUREN SFORZA: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) defended calling Democrats "pedophiles" in a new interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday, eliciting eye-rolls from correspondent Lesley Stahl.
Stahl asked Greene about what she called "over-the-top" comments, such as saying that "Democrats are a party of pedophiles."
"I would definitely say so," Greene responded. "They support grooming children.""
