L.A.’s water lifeline faces unprecedented flood threat. The battle to prevent calamity
LA Times, LOUIS SAHAGUN: "More than a month after heavy storms eroded a section of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, work crews are still scrambling to complete repairs and shore up flood defenses in the face of a weeklong heat wave that threatens to trigger widespread snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada.
“We’re doing as much as we can, as quickly as possible,” said Paul Liu, of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Our crews are working 12-hour shifts.”
Historic snowpack levels in the Eastern Sierra are expected to melt into runoff that is 225% of normal, which translates to about 326 billion gallons of water that will need to be managed, DWP officials said."
U.S. EPA fines Tesoro $27.5 million for violations at Martinez refinery
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: "Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company, which operates a petroleum refinery in Martinez, will pay a $27.5 million penalty for violating a 2016 consent decree ordering the company to reduce air pollutants, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The company, according to Thursday’s settlement, failed to limit nitrous oxide emissions from July 2018 to May 2020, when authorities said the refinery suspended operations.
Shortly before shutting down refinery operations, Marathon Petroleum Corporation acquired Tesoro’s parent corporation and announced plans to convert the refinery from producing fuels from crude oil to renewable sources such as vegetable oil, according to the EPA."
UC Berkeley to embark on $700 million plan to supply its entire campus with clean energy
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "The last time the power house at UC Berkeley furnished electricity to the campus over 90 years ago it was boiling oil and spewing exhaust from a smokestack atop the brick barn just uphill from Sather Gate.
But the next time the power house furnishes electricity to the campus it will be boiling water to supply clean energy, as the entire campus — more than 100 buildings — goes green in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint by 80%.
The clean-energy campus, expected to be the first in the UC system, will cost $700 million by the time the transformation concludes in 2030. When it does, the existing natural-gas powered plant that lights and heats the campus from a building next to Haas Pavilion will be decommissioned, putting an end to the familiar white steam that periodically rises through grates across campus, as if it sits on a geyser."
New study shows Western forests struggling to keep up with climate change
Daily Californian, AMBER X. CHEN: "A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday reveals that Western forests are not adapting fast enough to match the current rate of climate change.
The study was co-authored by Kyle Rosenblad, a campus doctoral candidate in integrative biology, and integrative biology professor and dean of Rausser College of Natural Resources David Ackerly, alongside Kathryn Baer, a research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station.
“We know that climate change is happening really rapidly,” Rosenblad said. “That led us to wonder, to what extent are the forests adapting to that change and adapting quickly enough? In order to answer that, we had to think hard initially about what it means to “adapt” quickly enough.”"
Heat wave hitting California is likely to bring hottest weather so far this year
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY: "Temperatures across California started to rise Wednesday, kicking off a heat wave that’s expected to bring some of the state’s warmest days so far this year.
Highs are forecast to reach into the 90s and 100s by Saturday, which is expected to trigger increased snowmelt and flooding, primarily in the Central Valley. But weather officials said the heat affecting almost all of California should be short-lived, with a cold front expected to move in as early as Sunday and help stave off the worst-case scenario for flooding.
“It does look like after this hot spell, temperatures are going to remain below normal for a while after that,” said David Spector, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Hanford. “It’s going to prevent [the flooding] from getting out of control; the rivers are still going to overflow their banks.”"
Forecast map: California rivers bulge with snowmelt, but no major floods expected. How’s it look near you?
BANG*Mercury News, SCOOTY NICKERSON: "The “Big Melt” has begun.
As the gargantuan Sierra snowpack gets heated up by warmer temperatures this week, many of the Golden State’s major waterways are expected to see a surge in flow from the melting snow — though major floods still seem a ways off for now. The only rivers forecast to exceed flood stage in the next four days are the Merced River near Yosemite Valley, which will close down parts of the national park, and the West Fork Carson River in Alpine County.
The map below shows the two locations where minor flooding is forecast. Those spots are symbolized by yellow dots. These dot forecasts only predict flooding within the next four days."
Newsom’s proposed cuts to foster program angers advocates. ‘You’re hurting our youth’
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "Foster care youth advocates are hoping Gov. Gavin Newsom does not reduce a $60 million dollar commitment as the state deals with its projected billion dollar budget deficit.
The proposed move comes as the administration tries to pull back on spending on a range of measures that were previously enacted. But some advocates and lawmakers are urging the governor to reconsider, citing the benefits and need for funding of the Court Appointed Special Advocates program, better known as CASA.
The program, which began in 1977, enlists volunteers across the nation to help and advocate for foster youth navigating the judicial and child welfare system. In California, CASA operates 44 centers and consists of more than 11,000 volunteers."
Loved or hated, lawmaker Scott Wiener is a lightning rod who could make history
LA Times, MELANIE MASON: "Long before Scott Wiener became California’s leading housing iconoclast or a regular target for scathing Fox News diatribes, he was an introverted New Jersey teen with enviable choices for college.
Two options, Columbia University in New York and the University of Chicago, seemed tailor-made for Wiener, the kind of places where a studious closeted Jewish kid would blend in.
Instead, some inexplicable impulse — “the energetic forces of the world,” he surmised on a recent Sunday walking through the Castro, his longtime San Francisco neighborhood — drew him to Duke University in North Carolina, precisely because it wasn’t a natural fit."
U.S. to set up migrant centers in Guatemala, Colombia to curb border arrivals when Title 42 orders end
LA Times, ANDREA CASTILLO: "The United States will establish regional processing centers for migrants in Colombia and Guatemala in an effort to reduce arrivals at the southern border after a pandemic-era policy ends next month, Biden administration officials announced Thursday.
The administration is also in talks with additional Latin American countries about the possibility of establishing more processing centers, said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
Several thousand migrants will be screened at the centers each month for eligibility under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and other humanitarian and labor pathways. At a news conference with Mayorkas, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he expects many more people to stay near the regional centers and wait for their chance to seek legal protections."
Downtown S.F. outages: Power could be out until Saturday in key area after ‘extensive’ damage
The Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER, JESSICA FLORES, JOEL UMANZOR: "Hundreds of customers were still without power Thursday afternoon after an “underground equipment damage” disrupted service in portions of San Francisco, according to Pacific Gas & Electric.
Approximately 495 customers were still out of power as of 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning, PG&E spokesperson Mayra Tostado said.
According to The Chronicle’s PG&E outage tracker, the outages were clustered in the city’s northeast corner, including several downtown blocks of Jackson, Washington and Battery streets."
Should universities participate in school rankings reports?
EdSource, CALIFORNIA STUDENT JOURNALISM CORPS: "Are recent moves by medical and law schools in the United States to actively drop out of rankings reports by outlets such as U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” publications a sign of more withdrawals to come? Even top-ranked Princeton University’s president, Christopher Eisgruber, wrote in The Washington Post, “Rankings are a misleading way to assess colleges and universities. There are lots of great places to get an education.”
Additionally, the New York Times reported, “College presidents have decried the U.S. News rankings as meaningless. Policymakers accused them of skewing educational priorities. And high school guidance counselors call them unreliable.”
While other methods of evaluating colleges and universities are available — the U.S. government in 2015 began publishing online the College Scorecard that offers some data on both public and private schools — there remains a heavy reliance on rankings such as U.S. News & World Report, which includes considerable self-reported and opinion-based information."
Scientific journal corrects study co-authored by Stanford president
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "A German scientific journal has issued a correction to a 2008 brain study co-authored by Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, The Chronicle has learned. The study is one of at least six scholarly articles under investigation by the university’s trustees for potentially falsified data.
The correction issued by the EMBO Journal concerns a study by 11 authors, including Tessier-Lavigne, showing how two proteins signal nerve cells in the brain to stop growing or to change direction. The study’s purpose was to shed light on how brain damage might be repaired."
One billionaire owner, twice the hate: Twitter hate speech surged with Musk, study says
LA Times, CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ: "In October, polarizing billionaire and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk purchased the polarizing social media platform Twitter for $44 billion, promising to change how the site operated.
In various statements, most of them tweets, Musk made allusions to decreased moderation on the platform, pledging to make the site a bastion of “free speech.”
In the months that followed, he implemented several new initiatives at the company and the site, including firing hundreds of employees, reinstating hundreds of previously banned accounts, stripping badges of verification from most users who did not pay $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription, and pledging to address the site’s bot problem."
Google moves into two big San Jose buildings within huge tech campus
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Google has moved into two San Jose buildings that are part of a large tech campus where the search giant could eventually employ thousands of workers if it fills all the buildings it has leased at the site.
The buildings are among four office sites that Google has leased along East Brokaw Road between North First Street and Bering Drive in North San Jose.
“Google continues to have a presence in San Jose as clearly seen by their North San Jose office,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said Thursday."
‘The trouble with First Republic is real’: Experts say S.F. bank teeters on brink of collapse
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "First Republic Bank’s already-dire situation went from bad to worse this week as its stock nose-dived after a sobering earnings report. The San Francisco bank appears to be on the verge of collapse, and observers worry whether its troubles could spread to other financial institutions.
Behind the scenes, government regulators are frantically seeking another bank to swoop in and rescue First Republic by buying it, but can’t find any takers, finance experts told The Chronicle. The mismatch between the bank’s assets and liabilities is just too great."
Maker of fast coronavirus tests chops hundreds of Bay Area jobs
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "A maker of rapid coronavirus tests has revealed plans to chop hundreds of jobs in the Bay Area, a grim disclosure that suggests tech and biotech layoffs in the region have yet to run their course.
Cepheid, a medical devices and biotech company, has told state labor officials that it has decided to cut 625 positions in the Bay Area, according to official government filings.
The layoffs will affect Cepheid workers in Sunnyvale, Newark, Fremont and Santa Clara, WARN notices the company sent to the state Employment Development Department (EDD) show."
This data shows one huge reason California’s housing shortage is at crisis levels
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "California’s housing shortage is forcing some residents to look elsewhere for homes, contributing to its declining population. And when it comes to a critical aspect of the housing market — the number of permits issued for new construction — the state trails behind much of the rest of the country.
Most states are permitting more housing units relative to their populations than California, according to a Chronicle analysis of U.S. Census data from the past decade. From 2013 through 2022, California counties and cities approved just over a million housing units for a rate of roughly 2,600 per 100,000 residents. That’s notably lower than the nationwide rate of 3,900. A little over 13 million units were permitted in the U.S. overall during this period."
S.F. spends $356 million on rooms for homeless people. Why do so many sit empty?
The Chronicle, STAFF: "A slow referral process, decrepit conditions and undesirable locations keep 10% of rooms for the city’s homeless population vacant, The Chronicle found."
Santa Monica P.D. knew of Eric Uller’s molestation arrest but still let him be youth volunteer
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "Santa Monica police allowed a civilian employee to volunteer in a youth program — where he went on to molest more than 200 children — despite a 1991 background check that revealed he was arrested as a teen for molesting a toddler he baby-sat, according to a report reviewed by The Times.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Eric Uller preyed on the most vulnerable children in the predominantly Latino neighborhoods of Santa Monica, often traveling in an unmarked police vehicle or his personal SUV, which was outfitted with police equipment, according to court records. It took decades for Uller to be exposed before he was ultimately arrested and charged in 2018.
This week, the Santa Monica City Council approved a $122.5-million payout to settle hundreds of claims against the city’s top systems analyst, who died by suicide before his first court appearance. The total settlements now top $229 million — the most costly single-perpetrator sexual disbursement for any municipality."
Golden Gate Audubon Society dropping Audubon’s name, citing his racist legacy
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "The Golden Gate Audubon Society will remove “Audubon” from its name in a move to sever its association with John James Audubon, a 19th-century naturalist and illustrator who enslaved people and has a documented racist legacy.
The Berkeley-based organization made the announcement Monday, after 65% of its dues-paying members agreed in a survey last month that “changing the name was the right decision for the organization,” according to a news release.
The group’s board of directors unanimously voted on March 28, with one member absent, to drop “Audubon” from its name."
