Speed cameras would ticket drivers in these California cities under proposed bill
The Chronicle, ISABEL FUNK: "Drivers in three Bay Area cities may soon receive automated tickets from speed cameras, if a bill co-sponsored by Mayor London Breed is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The bill, AB645, written by Assembly Member Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, would launch a five-year pilot program for the automated speed enforcement systems in six California cities, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. The other cities are Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach."
CalPERS health premium rates are going up for 2024. Here’s how much more they’ll cost
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "CalPERS health insurance policyholders will officially see their premiums grow close to 11% on average next year.
The board of administration for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System approved the new rates Tuesday, during the second day of their offsite meeting in Monterey. The vote was split 6-5."
Fourth bus of migrants sent from Texas arrives in L.A.
LA Times, JEREMY CHILDS: "A bus carrying 45 migrants arrived at Union Station on Tuesday evening, the fourth sent to Los Angeles by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas.
“One bus with migrants on board from Texas arrived around 6:30 p.m PT today at Union Station,” said Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass. “The city has continued to work with city departments, the county and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith partners, to execute a plan set in place earlier this year. As we have before, when we became aware of the bus yesterday, we activated our plan.”
H-1B visa: Canada’s program to poach Silicon Valley talent off to a booming start
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN BARON: "Canada’s new program for poaching skilled technology workers from Silicon Valley hit its maximum 10,000 applications the day after it launched, according to the Canadian government.
The nation to the north announced last month it would start issuing work permits to foreign citizens living and working in the U.S. under the H-1B visa, which is intended for jobs requiring specialized skills and is used heavily by the Silicon Valley tech industry to secure top foreign talent as well as lower-wage contractors employed through staffing firms."
Feinstein says late husband’s trust not paying her medical bills, asks court for more control
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "After acute health problems that kept her away from Washington for months earlier this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein is now engaged in a legal effort to gain more control of the finances from her late husband’s trust.
The 90-year-old senator filed a petition asking a court to make her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, a successor trustee of Richard Blum’s trust, arguing that the people serving as trustees “have refused to make distributions to reimburse Senator Feinstein’s medical expenses.”"
Why is San Jose’s gun insurance law going unused?
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "It was touted as a novel way to hold gun owners accountable.
San Jose’s gun liability insurance requirement — the first-of-its-kind in America and upheld by a federal court judge last week — will make the city safer from the firearm-related violence that has wreaked havoc across the nation, its proponents assert."
Scorching days, searing nights: Not even Death Valley is immune to climate change
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "It was 10 p.m. and 116 degrees as a brutal wind whipped through the darkness.
Here in Death Valley National Park — dubbed the hottest place on Earth — intrepid tourists waded into a hotel swimming pool seeking what little relief they could find."
Hotel, union negotiation fails to break stalemate; more walkouts ahead, union vows
LA Times, HELEN LI: "Tensions rose Tuesday between the Southern California hotel operators and their striking workers during the first bargaining session since intermittent walkouts began July 1. Hotel representatives accused the union of failing to bargain in good faith, and Unite Here Local 11 vowed more strikes at hotels across Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Meanwhile, the labor unrest has cost targeted hotels some major business."
Dangerous new strain of fentanyl discovered in S.F.’s drug supply
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "A dangerous new strain of fentanyl — fluorofentanyl — was found in dozens of overdose deaths in San Francisco last year while a concerning new street drug called xylazine — commonly known as “tranq” — was present in more than a dozen cases, according to a new report from the medical examiner.
Fluorofentanyl, which can range from half to five times as powerful as prescribed fentanyl, was found in 45 deaths, while xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer not intended for human consumption, was identified in 15 cases. Different kinds of fentanyl were found in 12 cases. All tranq cases also contained fentanyl."
Mayor Breed’s latest plan to revive downtown S.F.: Moving city workers into empty buildings
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Could city office workers help revive downtown San Francisco?
In an effort to both pump new life into downtown office buildings and create opportunities for housing development elsewhere, Mayor London Breed on Tuesday asked the city’s real estate-owning agencies to look into whether they might be able to take advantage of the depressed market to lease space in the Financial District."
Bay Area home prices keep edging higher. Will they hit record highs again?
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA, ADRIANA REZAL: "Home prices in the Bay Area are continuing to level off after a huge spike during the pandemic and subsequent market “normalization.” However, even as some regions begin to see home price growth turn positive for the year, values are still far from the peaks set in 2022, according to new data from Zillow.
The big question for home buyers and sellers now: Will values push into new record territory soon? Or, will prices decline again?"
Here's the word that best describes each Bay Area city, according to Airbnb
The Chronicle, EMMA STIEFEL, ANDREW WILLIAMS: "“Restaurants, bay. SFO, Stanford, Ocean, Tesla, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine, wine.”
What string of words could be more Bay Area than this?"
Zillow and other rental websites agree to disclose ‘junk fees’ in deal with White House
The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN: "As rents and security deposits have climbed in recent years, so too have various fees that push renters’ monthly bills even higher – including charges for applications, trash collections and paying rent online.
In an effort to bring more transparency to the shadowy costs to the rental market, major housing websites like Zillow and Apartments.com will make rental fees clearer and more prominent in an effort to help consumers more effectively comparison shop."
S.F. D.A. Jenkins drops charges in final police shooting case inherited from Boudin
The Chronicle, GABE CASTRO-ROOT: "District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Tuesday formally dismissed charges against San Francisco Police Officer Kenneth Cha in the 2017 shooting of Sean Moore.
Cha shot Moore, who was unarmed and had schizophrenia, on the doorstep of Moore’s home while responding to a call that Moore was pounding on a shared wall in violation of a “noise harassment” restraining order, The Chronicle previously reported."
GOP debates impeaching Merrick Garland after McCarthy surprises
The Hill, REBECCA BEITSCH: "House Republicans are debating whether to focus impeachment efforts on Attorney General Merrick Garland after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested an inquiry against him, taking some members by surprise after much of the GOP impeachment furor had been directed at other Biden officials. I
n a year where the GOP has been most steadily focused on possible impeachments of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or President Biden, McCarthy often has been the voice urging the conference to move patiently and deliberately."
