Conservative 9th Circuit panel reinstates lawsuit challenging San Francisco’s employee vaccine mandate
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "San Francisco employees who believe they would be endorsing abortion by getting vaccinated against COVID-19 can sue the city for violating their religious rights by mandating vaccination for all its workers, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
Two longtime employees of San Francisco’s Human Services Agency, Selina Keane and Melody Fountila, filed suit in March 2022 after the city denied them religious exemptions. They said their religious freedom as Christians would be violated by taking medications derived from fetal cells, which were used in early testing of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, though they were never ingredients in the vaccines themselves. Both retired from their jobs when their requests were denied."
Grand jury report blames Marin County D.A. for excessive case delays
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Criminal prosecutions in Marin County suffer from excessive delays, harming crime victims and defendants jailed awaiting trial, as well as overworked county prosecutors, and District Attorney Lori Frugoli’s office is chiefly responsible, the county grand jury reported Monday.
“Once charges are filed in Marin, there is an unreasonable delay in bringing these cases to a resolution — in many cases more than a year,” said the grand jury, whose members are appointed by county judges. Out of 251 people held in county jail as of Feb. 28, the report said, 199 had not yet gone to trial, and 40 of those had been held for more than a year. And 42.4% of misdemeanor charges and 38.4% of felonies had been pending for a year or more."
From Solitary Confinement to Executive Suite: Ken Oliver (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, TIM FOSTER: "We are joined today by Ken Oliver, Executive Director of Checkr.org, the philanthropic arm of Checkr, a tech firm that is working to reinvent the background check, “making the process fairer through education, and eliminating human bias.” Oliver knows firsthand the struggles that formerly incarcerated people face upon re-entry to society: sentenced to life in prison in 1997 under California’s Three Strikes law, he spent nearly 24 years behind bars, 8 in solitary confinement.
Oliver educated himself in prison, reading history, law and philosophy, and with the help of the Mayer Brown law firm and Michael Romano from Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project, ultimately won his bid for early release. Putting his behind-bars legal training to use, Oliver went to work as a paralegal for an Oakland nonprofit that provided legal services to inmates; he was soon promoted to Policy Director.
Oliver joined us to talk about his journey, the flaws in California’s re-entry program and about SB 809, the Fair Chance Expansion and Protection Act of 2023, which would ensure that conviction history does not prevent qualified candidates from finding employment."
Border crossings drop significantly after end of Title 42, U.S. officials say
LA Times, HAMED ALEAZIZ: "Biden administration officials said Monday that the number of migrants crossing the southern border had dropped dramatically over the weekend, following a significant increase early last week in the lead-up to the expiration of Title 42.
Some speculated that the end Thursday of Title 42, a policy used amid the COVID-19 pandemic to turn back migrants at the border without giving them access to asylum protections, would bring about an influx of crossings. But the Biden administration has long said it was prepared for the moment and had been planning for the change, despite attacks from Republicans who argued that border policy was being mismanaged.
The worries about increased migration were reflected in recent court filings from border officials who said that encounters could reach upward of 14,000 a day after Title 42 was lifted. Instead, the numbers have dropped."
Raging California rivers are replenishing historic Gold Rush spots
BANG*Mercury News, LISA M. KRIEGER: "For 170 years, the gold deposits along Sierra streambeds have been so poked and prodded that easy supplies of the precious metal have grown scarce and are a challenge to find.
This spring’s raging rivers are regifting them.
“There it is!” said Kevin Bell of Sacramento, swirling a pan in the cold waters of Moore Creek, as glitter suddenly illuminated the inky black sand. A half bucket of material yielded 12 showy specks — nearly a tenth of a gram of gold, worth about $7 — about double the typical haul in previous years.
Prospectors call it “flood gold” — fine-sized flakes carried by alluvial waters and then deposited as flow recedes."
How much COVID is in my community? It’s getting harder to tell
LA Times, LUKE MONEY, RONG-GONG LIN II: "With wide-reaching intervention against COVID-19 now firmly in the past, officials and experts continue to preach the importance of individual decision-making to assess and manage their health risks.
Monitoring coronavirus conditions is becoming more difficult, however, as the pandemic’s post-emergency phase has seen data collection and reporting endeavors either scaled back or abandoned entirely.
Part of this is by design. The collective experience with the coronavirus has shunted some incomplete metrics, such as officially reported case counts, in favor of others such as wastewater monitoring, which can provide a clearer picture of the virus’ circulation in a community."
Searching for coronavirus, Marin County wastewater tests detect ‘tranq’ drug
BANG*Mercury News, RICHARD HALSTEAD: "Xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer that is increasingly being mixed with fentanyl, heroin and other illicit drugs, has been detected in Marin County’s wastewater.
Although xylazine, also known as “tranq,” use has been common on the East Coast for some time, this is the first positive evidence of its presence in Marin. Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer, made the announcement in a recent update on levels of COVID-19 infection in Marin.
Since most people now rely on at-home antigen tests to determine if they’re infected, instead of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that must be processed through a lab, health officials have come to rely on wastewater testing to determine infection levels in their communities."
Campus food pantries expand to support students' basic needs
EdSource, ARABEL MEYER, EMMA ROBERTSON: "Roy Vicerra, a first-year student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is like other college students who balance jobs with school and life. Working in his campus food pantry, Vicerra is able to actively help his fellow students to focus on balancing their lives as well, without the worry of food insecurity.
“I’m glad whenever there’s a new shipment and there’s a lot of food. It puts a smile on students’ faces,” Vicerra said. “And it shows that, you know, I might not know what their situation is, but I’m glad it made their day better.”
In light of recent initiatives to aid California students with basic needs such as food insecurity, resources like food pantries have expanded to help fight hunger on college campuses."
OUSD strike: Deal ends walkout as students return to classrooms this week
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "A teachers strike that kept 35,000 children out of school for more than a week in the Oakland Unified School District ended Monday after the teachers union and district reached a contract deal.
Many teachers returned to classrooms Monday, although it was not required. Instruction for students will not resume until Tuesday, district officials said."
Hundreds of banks are vulnerable to collapse. Here's the latest outlook
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "In the wake of the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, customers at some midsize regional banks have withdrawn money, potentially setting up those banks for similar scenarios as the failed banks, where they are forced to sell underwater assets for quick cash to satisfy their depositors.
“It’s fair to say that scores and possibly hundreds of banks are vulnerable in this way,” said Robert Hockett, a Cornell professor of law and public finance. “As more and more banks get into trouble or fail, increasingly depositors in the remaining banks think, ‘Maybe I should move my money into the too-big-to-fail banks.’ We’ve had a massive drain from community and retail banks into the JPMorgan Chase-type banks.”
And it’s essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy. “The more that it happens, ironically, the more that it will have to happen,” Hockett said. “It’s a massive, slow-moving drain. You could almost call it a bank walk, rather than a bank run.”"
In this uber-rich Bay Area city, 70% of newly sold homes aren’t owned directly by people. Here's why
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Tucked away near the easternmost edge of the city of Atherton is a block of two dozen properties. Only two directly belong to people.
The rest, according to parcel data from Regrid as of February 2023, are owned by some type of legal entity, such as a trust, limited liability company or real estate group.
Many of those entities are named after the people who own them — families and partners, in most cases. For example, a home owned by Jane Doe on this block would more likely be officially owned by the Jane Doe Trust or Jane and John Doe LLC."
Elk Grove will fight California AG lawsuit alleging city broke state affordable housing law
Sacramento Bee, DARRELL SMITH: "Elk Grove will fight a state lawsuit alleging the city violated California affordable housing law, council members decided last week.
The 5-0 city council vote in closed session Wednesday sets the stage for the legal battle ahead with state officials.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta made good earlier this month on past threats to sue after Elk Grove leaders rejected the Oak Rose affordable housing project planned for Elk Grove Boulevard and Kent Street in the city’s historic Old Town."
In a gentrified Bay Area, the former ‘Rottenest City’ fights to preserve its history
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "Emeryville’s Oaks Card Club has been in Cole Tibbets’ family for over a century. He has memories of coming into the card room as a kid with his dad, hearing stories about the guys who lived in the boarding house-style apartments on the top floor. He’s now the manager, greeting regulars as they approach the front door, but he’s worked every job in the building.
“I learned to play poker before I knew how to read,” Tibbets said.“It was part of the fabric of my life growing up.”
The same is true for generations of Emeryville residents. In a city that’s now defined by retail outlets, biotech offices, Pixar studios and a Chevy’s Fresh Mex, the squat brick building on the corner of San Pablo Avenue now feels like the closest thing Emeryville, a tiny town of 12,000 wedged between Oakland and Berkeley, has to a cultural center."
Trash can’t: S.F.'s bespoke garbage bins put on hold because of graffiti fears
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "San Francisco’s seemingly endless quest to deploy new garbage cans took another odd twist Monday, when the city’s Civic Design Review Committee put the entire process on hold.
Not for rarified artistic reasons, but something that regular people can relate to — committee-wide skepticism that the sleek silvery trash receptacles won’t end up trashed themselves."
Ex-LAPD officer charged with sexually assaulting four children while on the force
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "A former Los Angeles police officer has been charged with sexually assaulting four boys at his Covina home while employed by the LAPD, according to the district attorney’s office.
Paul Razo, 46, was arrested by detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s special victims unit Wednesday after he was charged with eight counts of lewd acts upon a child, the district attorney’s office said Monday in a news release.
He is expected to be arraigned Tuesday. He remains in custody with bail set at $2.5 million, sheriff’s records show."
BART officer resigns amid investigation of gaming video in which he allegedly uses racist slurs
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "A Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency police officer has resigned amid an investigation by the BART Police Department of a recently surfaced video that allegedly shows him using racist language while off-duty, officials said Monday.
The transit agency said in a news release late last week that the BART Police Citizen Review Board, which collects allegations of police misconduct, received an email about the video from a member of the public on May 10 and immediately started investigating."
