A growing chorus on the left is calling for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to resign
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Democratic activists and left-leaning media outlets called for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to resign Tuesday in the wake of reports that her continued illness has made it tougher for the Senate to confirm President Biden’s judicial nominees.
Feinstein has been working at home in San Francisco while she recovers from shingles, according to her office. Her absence since March 7, combined with that of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has shaved the Democrats’ 51-49 advantage in the Senate down to nothing. Fetterman, who was out for a month after checking himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment for clinical depression, plans to return to the Senate next week."
L.A. Council reappoints Heather Hutt, skipping special election for Ridley-Thomas seat
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER: "The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to reappoint Heather Hutt as the interim replacement for former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, despite objections from critics who labeled the move undemocratic.
On an 11-1 vote, Hutt was chosen to remain on the council through December 2024, representing Ridley-Thomas’ district for the rest of his unfinished term. Ridley-Thomas was ousted from his seat last month after being convicted on federal corruption charges.
Hutt was first chosen as an interim council member for the 10th District in September. The decision to extend her tenure another 20 months means the 10th, which stretches from Koreatown to the Crenshaw Corridor, will likely end up going more than three years without its voters choosing their own representative."
Harley Rouda drops congressional comeback bid in O.C., citing traumatic brain injury from fall
LA Times, SARA CARDINE: "Former Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda announced Tuesday he will withdraw his bid for a seat in Congress being vacated by Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a recent fall.
The Laguna Beach resident said in a statement on social media that as a result of a fall last month, he’d sustained two intraparenchymal hemorrhages, which can cause oxygen loss and tissue damage in the brain, and had to be transported to the hospital.
“Thankfully, my doctors say that I have started on the path to a full recovery,” Rouda said. “But on their advice, I am ending my campaign for California’s 47th Congressional District today."
Ace Smith tells his story
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Among the ranks of California’s top-drawer political strategists, one name invariably stands out – Ace Smith. The San Francisco-based consultant has participated in dozens of state, local and federal campaigns, including races in other states from Florida to Texas to Chicago. In a new Oral History, Smith shares the story of his life in politics.
Ace – his given name is Averell, but his nickname stuck – cut his political teeth decades ago on the successful campaign of his father, Arlo Smith, for district attorney of San Francisco. Later, Arlo ran for state attorney general but lost by an eyelash; Memories of that race and the lessons learned remain vivid more than 30 years later. Smith’s more recent efforts include the launching of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and the handling of Rick Caruso’s unsuccessful fight against Karen Bass for mayor of Los Angeles. The latter effort drew surprise from some of Smith’s friends, who wondered why the staunch Democrat was handling the Republican Caruso."
Federal government considers major water cuts to protect Colorado River
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "The federal government on Tuesday laid out two options for preventing the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs from falling to critically low levels, saying water cuts could be imposed across the Southwest by following the water rights priority system or by using an across-the-board percentage.
The stakes in the decision are high for California, which receives the largest share of water from the Colorado River, as well as for Arizona and Nevada. Imposing an equal across-the-board cut would hit California harder, particularly in agricultural regions, while strict adherence to the water rights priority system would bring larger reductions for cities such as Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation presented its alternatives as an initial step in a review aimed at revising the rules for dealing with shortages through 2026. Federal officials said that the proposals still could change and that a solution somewhere between the two options could emerge as representatives of states, water agencies and tribes continue negotiations on how to address the chronic water shortages."
US proposes options for cutting California’s Colorado River water
CALMatters, ALASTAIR BLAND: "The Biden administration today proposed alternatives for cutting Colorado River water allocations for Southwest states, including one that would substantially reduce the amount of water delivered to Southern California.
One of the three options would retain California’s historic, century-old senior water rights, while another would override them and split the cuts in water deliveries evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona. The even-split option would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers while benefiting the other states.
The river, which supplies water for 40 million people in seven states, has shrunk during the West’s megadrought, with its major reservoirs, Mead and Powell, approaching record lows and expected to eventually run out of water unless user states cut back."
Volcano? Climate change? Bad luck? Why California was hit with 31 atmospheric river storms
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY: "As winter approached, few anticipated what was about to hit California.
Mired in a serious drought, the state was suddenly battered by an onslaught of 31 atmospheric river storms in a matter of months. While the number alone isn’t exceptional, the location, intensity and duration of these storms had a transforming effect on California’s climate. Record snowfall. Deadly flooding. The end of many drought restrictions."
California has so much snow that flood danger will last through the year
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "A clearer picture of California’s flood risk is beginning to emerge as temperatures rise and officials release new forecasts for snowmelt and runoff. The legacy of the state’s remarkably wet winter could linger through much of the year, the latest outlooks show.
The Tulare Lake basin and the San Joaquin River basin remain the areas of top concern, as record-deep snowpack in the southern Sierra Nevada is expected to send a cascade of water down into the San Joaquin Valley as it melts.
Residents who live in the potential path of runoff should be prepared to take action, said Jeremy Arrich, manager of the division of flood management with the state Department of Water Resources."
California officials gird for potential disaster: When and where will the record melting snow go?
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "This winter has been one for the record books — snow piled so high across California’s mountain ranges that it’s collapsed roofs and extended ski season into summer.
Now California officials are anxiously eyeing the weather and girding for potentially disastrous flooding in parts of the state — especially the southern Central Valley — as that bountiful snowpack begins to melt, flows down saturated ground and pours into already swollen rivers. Because the snow is thicker in some areas than it’s been in generations, it’s hard to say how quickly it will melt and difficult to predict what will happen as it does.
“We’re in uncharted territory for the southern Sierra because we’ve never measured snowpack this thick,” said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center. How bad the snowmelt will be depends on how warm it gets and how fast, which affects when the snowpack “ripens,” or thaws."
California super blooms are so huge they’re showing up in satellite images
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Powerful storms that soaked California this winter have yielded wildflower super blooms so large and vivid that they're showing up in images captured by satellites orbiting the Earth.
Satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs PBC, a San Francisco-based aerospace company, shows large swaths of colorful wildflowers in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve (Los Angeles County) and the Carrizo Plain National Monument (San Luis Obispo County)."
Vandalism forces S.F. supervisors to postpone meeting
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors postponed its meeting shortly after it began Tuesday afternoon, after a fiber-optic line used to broadcast the meeting was cut about seven blocks away. The disruption also knocked out service to about 5,000 Comcast customers, the company said.
Comcast spokesperson Joan Hammel said in an email that the company became aware of the problem at Geary and Hyde streets at about noon Tuesday. The alleged vandalism “completely destroyed” an underground fiber enclosure, Hammel said. San Francisco police visited the scene and indicated they would investigate the matter further, he said."
The California mask mandate is gone. Now some patients fear for their health.
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "For months California disability and labor advocates have been attempting to preserve statewide masking requirements in health care settings.
But with the sunset of one of the last remaining COVID-19 mandates, they say people who are the most vulnerable to severe illness now have to make an “impossible choice” — risk getting the virus at a doctor’s office, or avoid necessary health care.
On April 3, the California Department of Public Health ended masking and vaccination requirements in high-risk settings, including health care facilities, jails, prisons and emergency homeless shelters."
Column: Anti-vaxxers loved to cite this study of COVID vaccine deaths. Now it’s been retracted
LA Times, MICHAEL HILTZIK: "Back in January, an academic study gave heart to critics of COVID-19 vaccines by estimating the number of U.S. deaths from the vaccines at 278,000.
That was a bombshell, if true. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited only 19,476 reports of deaths after COVID vaccination in a national database of unverified adverse reactions to the shots.
Since even that surely inflated figure, which reflects an unknown number of deaths from unrelated causes, amounted to less than three-thousandths of a percent of the 672 million doses of COVID vaccines administered in the U.S., the CDC properly judged the shots “safe and effective” and severe post-vaccine reactions “rare.”"
Google drops COVID vaccine mandate for people entering its buildings
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Google has become one of the first major technology companies in the Bay Area to eliminate the mandate that employees and visitors entering its buildings must be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Mountain View company said on Tuesday that it was dropping the policy, implemented in December 2021, effective immediately, citing the “extraordinary time” that has passed since the onset of the pandemic."
S.F. debates funding supervised drug consumption sites with millions from opioid settlement funds
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "San Francisco supervisors and activists are pressuring City Attorney David Chiu to use more than $130 million the city is set to receive from pharmaceutical companies in opioid litigation to open supervised drug consumption sites.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who is leading the charge to open the sites, has accused Chiu of standing in the way. Chiu has said he wants nonprofits to pay to supervise drug consumption to shield the city from liability."
Covid inspired students to grow their own businesses
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "Tamiya Williams, her mother and sisters move around long tables in the family living room in Rio Linda most Sundays preparing, testing and packaging body scrubs, body butters, lip gloss and lash shampoos for her online business — Sydnis Serenity.
Williams’ products have calming scents like baby powder, honey almond and lavender, and names like Love, Peace and Serenity. She started her beauty business, first called Yours Truly T&Bee, during the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to stay busy and beat anxiety during school closures. Williams decided to sell the beauty products she had been making for herself, to help others relax."
IRS says do this to get money back if you paid taxes on your California refund
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "File an amended federal income tax return if you already filed your federal taxes and reported your California inflation relief as income, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday.
The IRS said on Feb. 10 that the 2022 California Middle Class Tax Refund was not subject to federal tax.
But many people had already filed their federal returns for 2022 and did pay tax on the refunds."
Bay Area tech, biotech layoffs widen, jolt tech office janitors
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Tech and life sciences companies have widened their job cuts in the Bay Area, with more than 100 layoffs adding to the woes for the wobbly sectors, official government filings show.
Separately, a company that provides janitorial services at tech offices has decided to chop jobs amid ongoing tech layoffs and tech-spurred cutbacks in space requirements.
The most recent tech or life science layoffs involve Medtronic, Jabil, Stratasys and Viasat, which together have revealed plans to eliminate 143 jobs in the Bay Area, according to WARN notices the companies sent to the state Employment Development Department."
Serial ADA lawsuit filer Scott Johnson sentenced in false tax return case in California
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON: "Scott Norris Johnson, a quadriplegic lawyer who for 20 years sued thousands of California businesses over access for the disabled, was sentenced Tuesday in a Sacramento courtroom to 18 months of home detention and $250,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to filing a false tax return.
But the sentencing came only after Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez insisted that Johnson face a fine for his behavior, a requirement that had not been included in the plea agreement between the prosecution and Johnson defense attorney Malcolm Segal.
“I think he should pay a significant fine given his financial condition, how much money he has,” Mendez said."
L.A. moves to rein in catalytic converter theft, but some question the need for a new law
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER: "Looking to combat a rash of thefts from Priuses and other cars, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to make it illegal to possess an unattached catalytic converter without proof of ownership.
On an 8-4 vote, the council approved an ordinance allowing police to arrest anyone who has a catalytic converter that is not connected to a vehicle — and fails to produce a receipt or other identifying information, such as documentation from an auto repair shop, spelling out the ownership.
Councilmember John Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, said the new ordinance would give the LAPD a much-needed tool at a time when theft victims are struggling to find replacements for their stolen catalytic converters. The Times recently found that Prius owners frequently wait several months for a replacement part, a situation that frequently leaves them without a working car."
Rent prices are up in most of the Bay Area in past years — except in these ZIP codes
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Three years after the pandemic began, rental prices in the city of San Francisco are still less expensive than before, while rents in other parts of the Bay Area have surged.
San Francisco’s typical asking rent was $3,440 a month in February 2023, according to data from the real estate listing site Zillow, after dropping by about 3.7% from $3,570 in February 2020. But the larger San Francisco metropolitan area, one of the most expensive places in the country, saw rents rise from $2,930 to $3,080, a 5.4% increase. The San Francisco metro area includes Oakland, Berkeley and Marin County, but not San Jose."
Exclusive: Inside the Antioch police department’s secret racist texting group
BANG*Mercury News, NATE GARTRELL, JAKOB RODGERS, JUDITH PRIEVE: "For years, Antioch officers routinely used private text messaging groups to flaunt their racist views, spouting slurs in front of superiors without fear of reprisal.
The horrific language also was common at work, a newly-released report shows, even in front of internal affairs investigators. Officers joked about harming Black residents — one offered to buy a “prime rib dinner” for anyone who shot Mayor Lamar Thorpe with a projectile used on protesters. Others talked about falsifying police reports and congratulated each other on the violence they inflicted during arrests.
The comments were met with indifference, laughter or praise from their colleagues, according to a 21-page investigative report obtained by this news organization Tuesday that details dozens of racist texts shared between nearly two dozen officers over two years."
San Mateo D.A. clears Redwood City officers following fatal police shooting
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: "The San Mateo District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday it has cleared five Redwood City officers of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a San Carlos man who pulled a gun from his waistband during a domestic violence incident last November.
In the 17-page report, District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe concluded that all five officers who fatally shot 36-year-old Abran Gutierrez “were justified” in their use of lethal force."
