El Niño to bring record-breaking temperatures. What does that mean for California weather?
The Chronicle, JACK LEE: "Officials raised the alarm last week for a near guarantee that the world will face its hottest year on record within the next five years.
A double whammy of human-induced climate change and the return of El Niño are expected “to push global temperatures into uncharted territory,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas in a news release.
“There’s really high confidence that we will get an El Niño event,” said John O’Brien, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “I think what we don’t know right now is what kind of El Niño we’re going to get."
California could lose two-thirds of its beaches by the end of the century. Here’s which ones are at risk
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Rising seas and hammering waves could radically transform California beaches by the end of the century, pushing the coastline straight through homes in Stinson Beach and right near a wastewater treatment plant in San Francisco. In Half Moon Bay, a beach beloved by surfers would lose all its sand.
These are some of the worst-case scenarios in a new report projecting that a majority of California beaches could disappear by 2100 if more isn’t done to curb greenhouse emissions and take measures to protect the coast.
The dire outlook, which foresees a range of 25% to 70% of the state’s beaches eroding completely, is based on models that incorporate historic rates of coastal erosion and projections for sea level rise and future wave heights. Though the study covers a long period, Californians got a preliminary glimpse this winter when storms pummeled local beaches."
Most popular hiking trail in Yosemite to receive a $5 million upgrade
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "At Yosemite National Park, a landscape defined by breathtaking views and stunning scenery, the Mist Trail stands out.
The seven-mile round trip, which begins near Happy Isles in the eastern edges of Yosemite Valley, takes hikers up the Merced River as its pristine waters roar out of the park’s high country, cascading through granite boulders over two spectacular waterfalls, the 319-foot-tall Vernal Fall and the 594-foot-tall Nevada Fall.
The trail, which is used by up to 4,000 people a day during summer weekends, is also slippery and steep, drawing dozens of rescues every year, and occasional deaths when people fall into the river. But now a $5 million project planned for the popular trail aims to make it safer and more enjoyable."
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was a San Francisco miracle. It was also a curse
The Chronicle, PETER HARTLAUB: "It was 1908 in California, and naturalist and author John Muir was full of rage.
The prospect of damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley was a long shot — still 15 years away from completion — but he wrote an essay for the Sierra Club Bulletin as if the construction crews were already on the valley floor.
“These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature,” Muir wrote. “Instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, (they) lift them to the Almighty Dollar.”"
Rep. Barbara Lee calls for Supreme Court overhaul
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "Flanked by local leaders, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee called for a radical overhaul of the U.S. Supreme Court at a press conference in Oakland on Sunday, calling the way the court currently operates “a crisis of democracy”.
The reforms would include adding justices, creating term limits, and investigating ethics violations. The nation’s highest court, which has a conservative majority, currently has nine justices serving lifetime appointments.
Lee, a Democrat who represents the East Bay in Congress and is vying to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, said the reforms were imperative for continued public trust in the court, which has faced criticism from progressives after a series of ethics scandals and controversial rulings, most notably the decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the nation’s landmark abortion law."
Column: Feinstein is not going to quit the Senate. Ever. Just ask her biographer
LA Times, MARK Z. BARABAK: "Other than family and close friends, few people have a longer history with Dianne Feinstein or a better understanding of California’s ailing U.S. senator than Jerry Roberts.
The former political writer and newspaper editor — now host of Santa Barbara’s singular broadcast “Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts” — first covered Feinstein nearly 50 years ago.
cShe was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; Roberts was a reporter for the city’s alternative paper, the Bay Guardian."
A Bay Area politician returned to D.C. after a major health scare. His approach is a lesson for Feinstein
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "For the 16 months remaining in her term, Sen. Dianne Feinstein will have just one job: Show up to work and vote the Democratic Party line.
The bar for California’s 89-year-old senator has dropped that low as she returns from her nearly three-month absence while she battled complications from shingles.
The 39 million Californians Feinstein represents can’t expect one of the state’s most accomplished politicians to be an orator. Or to even meet and talk to constituents — virtually or in person. Or to engage in more than passing, sound-byte interviews with the media that often generate confusion and concern. California’s other senator, Sen. Alex Padilla, has done 38 long-form interviews this year and attended 15 events in California."
‘Deep in the weeds’: California counties face unknowns in launching mental illness court
LA Times, THOMAS CURWEN: "In four months, the gavel will fall, and the state’s first CARE Courts will be in session.
Seven counties opted for an Oct. 1 rollout of the law that orders each county to create special courts, whose judges have the authority to order treatment plans for individuals with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders. Even though the plans are not compulsory, the courts hope for compliance as the law tries to straddle a line between voluntary and mandated treatment.
The CARE Act, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last September, requires counties to come up with the bureaucratic mechanisms that will support the goal of easing an epidemic of severe mental illness on the streets and in communities."
Enroll every 9th grader in a college course, says California's incoming Community College Chancellor
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "California’s incoming Community College Chancellor Sonya Christian doesn’t officially step into her new role until June 1, but she has an urgent agenda: enrolling every ninth grader in a college course.
Right now, just 6% of California students take a college course through dual enrollment their first year of high school. The time is now, Christian said, to make sure that all 436,192 of the state’s eighth graders will be automatically enrolled in a college course next fall.
“Can we do this? We must. We must,” Christian said. “We can’t wait for tomorrow.”"
CSU didn’t investigate claims that Fullerton president inappropriately touched students
LA Times, ROBERT J. LOPEZ, COLLEEN SHALBY: "California State University officials were notified about reports accusing the Fullerton campus president of inappropriately touching students but never launched an investigation, according to internal records and statements.
The first report, made in August 2019 to the Cal State Fullerton campus, accused President Framroze “Fram” Virjee of hugging a student and kissing her forehead, making “her feel very uncomfortable.”
Two other reports, also made to the campus, involved separate incidents while Virjee gave a tour of the school one day in November 2021. One alleged that “Virjee attempted multiple times to force himself upon” a student, touching her and trying to hug her, despite her objections. The other accused the president of touching a student’s arm and rubbing her back “without her consent” — behavior that she and a witness agreed was “unacceptable.”"
12-year-old to be youngest to graduate from Fullerton College with five degrees
LA Times, VANESSA ARREDONDO: "At 7, Clovis Hung was bored with second grade.
“I wanted more of a challenge,” he said.
In 2019, his mother, Song Choi, pulled him out of second grade and began homeschooling him. A year later, when he was 9, he also enrolled in Fullerton College."
Three years later, Bay Area home prices 28% higher than at start of pandemic
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "The Bay Area’s population is shrinking and more housing is being built, but local home prices remain sky-high in the latest report — about 28% above where they were when the pandemic first upended the local real estate market.
How can that be? The short answer: The Bay Area still lacks anywhere near enough homes to meet demand, even as high mortgage rates squeeze out would-be homebuyers. Until the region can add significantly more housing, prices will likely remain far out of reach for most residents.
While interest rates, tech layoffs, stock market fluctuations and recession fears have brought down the Bay Area’s median home price from a record peak of more than $1.5 million last spring, prices haven’t dropped as much as would be expected in a “normally functioning housing market,” said Matt Regan, a housing policy expert with the Bay Area Council, a pro-business group."
Tolls are coming to this congested Bay Area highway. Here’s what to expect
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "It’s official: Highway 37 will become a toll road later this decade.
Tolls are one of several changes coming to the 21-mile commuter route that connects Marin and Sonoma counties to Vallejo after state transportation commissioners this week unanimously approved a project to widen the flood-prone, congestion-plagued highway.
Toll dollars will help pay for a portion of the $430 million project helmed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area’s transportation planning agency."
