Trump indictment: Former president charged with 34 felony counts
LA TIMES, STAFF: "Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday in New York to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with alleged hush money payments made to silence an adult film actor in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
“These are felony crimes in New York state, no matter who you are,” Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg told reporters in a news conference following Trump’s arraignment. “We cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct.”
Trump is the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged. He was indicted last week by the Manhattan grand jury following an investigation into a $130,000 payment made by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to porn star Stormy Daniels. The money was allegedly paid to prevent Daniels from publicly saying she had an affair with Trump during his campaign for president."
Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts. How strong is the Manhattan D.A.’s case?
LA TIMES, KEVIN RECTOR: "In a 13-page court filing outlining the New York criminal case against former President Trump, Manhattan Dist. Atty. Alvin Bragg on Tuesday described a years-long “catch-and-kill scheme” in which Trump and his associates buried negative stories about him by doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money.
The payments in the run-up to the 2016 election — to a porn star, a Playboy model and a Trump Tower doorman — didn’t constitute crimes on their own, Bragg said. What did were Trump’s alleged efforts to cover up the scheme, including by falsifying company records to disguise the payments as legal fees, Bragg said.
The former president’s actions rose to the level of felonies, Bragg said in court documents, because they were made to further additional violations of the law. However, he only broadly suggested what those additional acts could be."
These are the four main reactions to Trump's indictment
THE CHRONICLE, JOE GAROFOLI, SHIRA STEIN: "The indictment of Donald Trump is an opportunity for politicians on both sides of the aisle to capitalize on another historic “first” by the former president — the first ever to face criminal charges.
For some — like Trump — it could be seen as a short-term win. The indictment unsealed Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom could prevent his opponents from attacking him for fear of alienating his fanatical base."
How did TV cover Trump’s arraignment? It depends on who you watched
LA TIMES, STEPHEN BATTAGLIO: "The arraignment of former President Trump in a Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday created one of those increasingly rare collective TV viewing experiences with every cable news channel and broadcast network focused on the proceedings.
The day was saturated with images of Trump’s motorcade making the four-mile drive down FDR Drive from Trump Tower to the criminal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, where he was arraigned and entered a not guilty plea on 34 felony counts related to alleged hush money payments to a porn star with whom he allegedly had an affair.
It was the most historic and somber video of a living president since Richard Nixon departed from the White House lawn in a helicopter the morning after he resigned from office in 1974."
Legislature considers bills to regulate AI decision-making
CAPITOL WEEKLY, BRIAN JOSEPH: "Not that long ago, artificial intelligence was a staple of science fiction, a technological fantasy akin to traveling to the stars. But with recent, headline-grabbing developments like ChatGPT’s stunningly human-like word processing, AI is not only becoming more and more of a reality every day, but it’s seeping into our everyday lives as well.
Even now, automated systems employing AI are being used to make hiring and college-acceptance decisions, controversial arrangements that could unfairly filter out worthy candidates, leading to discrimination, or infringe on the rights of individuals or marginalized groups.
Despite the stakes readily apparent to virtually everyone working in AI, the technology is largely unregulated in the United States. President Trump issued a couple of executive orders on the topic, but they’re seen as largely useless. President Biden in October released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, a document listing ethical principles for the use of AI, but it’s entirely nonbinding, with no legal authority."
Rising Stars: Nikki Ellis, Cal Chamber of Commerce
CAPITOL WEEKLY, LISA RENNER: "From her early interest in Latin America to her work on a recent trade mission to Japan, Nikki Ellis has long had a global outlook on life.
As international affairs and media relations specialist for the California Chamber of Commerce, she loves that her work regularly brings her in contact with leaders from around the world.
“It’s such a unique opportunity to engage with people from 50 different countries in one room at the same time,” she said."
Snowmelt flood risk to last for months, experts say
LA TIMES, HAYLEY SMITH: "After a relentless three months of heavy rain and snow, California is facing yet another environmental threat — sunny skies and balmy weather.
That’s right, after announcing the deepest snowpack in decades, state officials are warning that runoff from melting snow will send torrents of water rushing from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the foothills and valleys thousands of feet below.
Of particular concern is the Tulare Lake Basin and other areas of the Central Valley that have already seen storm flooding this year and remain in the path of snow runoff and releases from nearby dams. Major waterways such as the San Joaquin River, and tributaries, will see treacherous conditions as well."
April showers? Here’s what the weather might look like later this week
THE CHRONICLE, GERRY DIAZ: "For the past few months precipitation has been drawn to California like a magnet, and that trend isn’t going away just yet. Another low-pressure system is forecast to approach the West Coast by Thursday night, ushering in breezy winds and cooler temperatures. This system is also looking to reel in moisture from what’s left of a Pineapple Express between Hawaii and California. Depending on how much moisture comes ashore, the system might be able to produce a few showers across Northern California by Friday.
A couple of weather models are leaning into rain chances this week, but there are a few potential setbacks."
Vast, historic Bay Area ranch to be preserved as open space
THE CHRONICLE, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "A nearly 2,000-acre cattle ranch south of San Jose, a rare vestige of the region’s past, has been purchased by conservationists as part of a continuing effort to keep the strip malls and subdivisions of Silicon Valley at bay.
The Peninsula Open Space Trust closed last month on the $22.4 million sale of Lakeside Ranch, on Uvas Road near Morgan Hill. The plan is to maintain the rural property, with its creeks, grassy hills and oak woodlands, in its current, largely natural state and eventually build a through-trail for hikers."
Coyote Valley: $22 million deal preserves huge ranch owned by prominent Bay Area family
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, PAUL ROGERS: "In the 1980s, Apple eyed Coyote Valley as the place to build its world headquarters. In the 1990s, Cisco tried to build a massive campus there and battled environmentalists.
But now the latest land rush around Coyote Valley — a scenic expanse of farmland and oak-studded hillsides between San Jose and Morgan Hill that reflects what Santa Clara County looked like before Silicon Valley sprawled — is to preserve nature and wildlife.
On Wednesday, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a Palo Alto environmental group, announced it has purchased Lakeside Ranch, a 1,986 acre-property formerly owned by the Bechtel family, for $22.3 million. The property is home to black tail deer, wild turkeys, live oaks, laurel and sycamore trees, and Llagas Creek, which meanders to the Pajaro River."
COVID-19 health rules ease as emergency declarations end. Here’s what has changed
LA TIMES, RONG-GONG LIN II, LUKE MONEY: "The steady unwinding of COVID-19 emergency declarations has ushered in a slate of changes to Los Angeles County’s pandemic guidance, including when to mask, quarantine or isolate, as well as the reporting of new infections and outbreaks.
The most significant — the easing of government-issued masking orders for patients and visitors in healthcare settings — took effect Monday in L.A. County. In other California counties, masking orders for doctors and nurses also have expired.
The tweaks are the latest reflection of a broad new phase of the pandemic, one characterized more by individual risk assessment and targeted intervention than sweeping measures or restrictions."
Column: America’s decline in life expectancy speaks volumes about our problems
LA TIMES, MICHAEL HILTZIK: "Years of widening economic inequality, compounded by the pandemic and political storm and stress, have given Americans the impression that the country is on the wrong track. Now there’s empirical data to show just how far the country has run off the rails: Life expectancies have been falling.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that life expectancy at birth fell in 2021 to its lowest level since 1996, a decline of nearly a year on average from 2020. That was after a decline by 1.8 years from 2019 to 2020, producing the worst two-year decline since 1921-23.
These figures open a window on a set of pathologies unique to America among developed countries."
California schools face ‘deep trouble’ as flooding danger looms
EDSOURCE, STAFF: "As heavy storms keep pounding California with torrential rains and a record Sierra snowpack is poised to melt and send rivers surging over their banks, more than a fifth of the state’s 10,000 K-12 schools are at a high or moderate risk of flooding, an analysis of federal data by EdSource shows.
Schools in flood-prone areas, in some cases protected by aging, weakened levees with poor safety ratings, face possible floods similar to those that have already swept through schools in Alameda, Merced and Monterey counties this year, causing millions of dollars in damages, Federal Emergency Management Agency data shows.
Flooding in the Tulare and the San Joaquin basins in the Central Valley in the months ahead “is inevitable,” Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California who studies flood and water management, told EdSource in an interview."
Exodus from California public schools slows but share of disadvantaged kids grows
THE CHRONICLE, JILL TUCKER: "The pandemic-fueled exodus from California’s public schools largely leveled off this year, allowing some districts across the state to stave off more budget cuts and, in some cases, the need for school closures.
Overall, the state saw enrollment decline by just under 40,000 students in the fall, a significant improvement compared with the loss of more than 110,000 in the fall of 2021 and the departure of 160,000 in the fall of 2020, according to data released Tuesday. Across all districts, 5.85 million students were enrolled statewide."
California population winners and losers: The fastest growing and shrinking counties
LA TIMES, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "A prison closed in Lassen County. College campuses welcomed students back in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties, and thousands of new housing units were added in Yolo County.
While California’s overall population continued to shrink, new census data show that during the pandemic period of the last two years, population swings have affected large and small counties across the state, the result of COVID-19 health protocols, the return of employees to workplaces, new housing construction and various other factors.
Several large urban counties — including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Barbara — have rebounded from population losses that hit hardest at the start of the pandemic."
$250 million up in flames: The infamous crime that scarred California’s Wine Country
THE CHRONICLE, FRANCES DINKELSPIEL: "Ted Hall will never forget the moment he realized that his entire 2002 vintage was going up in flames.
It was October 2005, at the tail end of the grape harvest in Napa Valley. Hall was at his winery, Long Meadow Ranch in St. Helena, when his CFO called to tell him the massive Vallejo warehouse where they stored their wines might be burning. Hall jumped into his Range Rover and tore down Highway 29 toward a huge plume of black smoke."
Tech companies plan hundreds more Bay Area job cuts as layoffs worsen
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, GEORGE AVALOS: "Roku, Lucid and Microsoft have revealed plans for fresh Bay Area job cuts, together adding hundreds of workers to the region’s worsening layoffs.
Here are the details for the most recent high-profile tech layoffs in the Bay Area, according to separate WARN letters the companies have sent to the state Employment Development Department (EDD):"
Levi’s is using AI to generate ‘diverse’ models. Here’s why that’s a fashion fail
THE CHRONICLE, JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "When Levi Strauss announced last month that it would start testing AI-generated models on its website and app later this year, my first thought was to call real-life, Oakland-based model Carolyn Doelling.
Doelling is unique in a fashion industry defined by youth and European beauty standards: She’s Black, 76 years old, wears her hair short and naturally curly and stands about 5-foot-4, short by model industry standards. This year, she was featured in a national Target clothing campaign for Black History Month."
Push to name wild parrots S.F.’s official animal takes flight with supervisors’ proposal
THE CHRONICLE, HEATHER KNIGHT: "It turns out there’s one area in which sloth-like San Francisco City Hall acts with great speed: naming an official animal.
Supervisor Myrna Melgar on Tuesday introduced legislation that would make wild parrots the official animal of the city — just one day after The Chronicle announced the loud, colorful birds had won its online contest.
Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí signed on as co-sponsors, meaning just three more supervisors’ votes — and a mayoral signature — will send the parrots flying into the history books. Peskin, the board president, said the resolution will head to the full board for a vote April 11."
Landmark ruling or wishful thinking? City of Alameda claims it is no longer bound by county mandates
BANG*MERCURY NEWS, WILL MCCARTHY: "When the Alameda Superior Court ruled that the county’s Covid-19 eviction moratorium did not apply in a housing dispute between a tenant and the city of Alameda, even the judge overseeing the case didn’t expect it to have larger ramifications.
So it came as quite a surprise when city officials claimed Friday that the “landmark ruling” resolved a so-called “long-standing ambiguity” about the amount of power California counties have over the cities within their boundaries.
Alameda contends the ruling has now set a precedent for whether counties can regulate incorporated cities during times of emergency. If its interpretation is correct — which has yet to be tested by further lawsuits — cities in Alameda County would have broad power to ignore ordinances set by the county – from mask mandates and curfews to eviction moratoriums."
