Nearly half a billion dollars in mortgage relief is still available in California. Here's who qualifies
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Cash grants to help Californians who have missed mortgage payments because of the pandemic have been expanded, with nearly half the $1 billion in federal funds still available.
The California Mortgage Relief Program offers up to $80,000 in assistance to residents within specific income limits who have missed at least two mortgage payments or have overdue property taxes."
Gavin Newsom calls ban on S.F. homeless sweeps ‘preposterous’ and ‘inhumane’
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "The court order preventing San Francisco officials from clearing homeless encampments is “preposterous” and “inhumane,” Gov. Gavin Newsom told the Chronicle on Tuesday.
The December order by U.S. Magistrate Donna Ryu halted the city’s efforts to clear most tent encampments in the city."
Katie Porter’s campaign visit to S.F. looked more real than Ron DeSantis’ version
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "It’s become a trope. Politicians drop by San Francisco for a doom loop photo opp — and then fundraise off of it.
Exhibit A is Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who ripped the “collapsed” city in a video shot during a June fundraising trip for his presidential campaign. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy stopped by the Mission District in June, framing his selfie video in front of sidewalks full of tents — and then asked for donations."
Thought San Jose’s 2022 mayor’s race was expensive? Experts say brace yourself.
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "San Jose’s contentious mayoral race last year between Matt Mahan and Cindy Chavez was a pricey battle between business and labor interests, shattering the city’s all-time campaign spending record to the tune of more than $8 million.
Now that figure could climb even higher in the years to come after the San Jose City Council voted 10-1 Tuesday to loosen the city’s campaign finance laws in the wake of a 2022 Supreme Court case involving Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz."
As challenges loom, L.A. City Council approves $150 million in ‘mansion tax’ spending
LA Times, JACK FLEMMING: "The Los Angeles City Council passed a $150-million spending plan for funds raised by Measure ULA on Tuesday, marking the first time funds will be specifically allocated since Angelenos passed the tax in November.
The expenditure plan will be directed to six programs: short-term emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, tenant outreach and education, direct cash assistance for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, tenant protections, and affordable housing production."
S.F. city workers charged with misusing public funds after corruption probe
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged two city employees Tuesday with bribery, misuse of public money and financial conflicts of interest in connection with a sprawling investigation into corruption in San Francisco city government.
Lanita Henriquez, 53, director of the city’s Community Challenge Grant Program, and Rudolph Dwayne Jones, 56, a former city employee, were each charged with six counts of bribery, 23 counts of financial conflict of interest in a government contract and one count of misappropriation of public money, the district attorney’s office said in a statement."
Erika Girardi, Secret Service and American Express engaged in corrupt conspiracy, lawsuit claims
LA Times, MATT HAMILTON: "The co-owner of a Hollywood costume firm filed a lawsuit Tuesday against reality TV star Erika Girardi, two of her staff members, current and former U.S. Secret Service agents and American Express, alleging corruption among federal law enforcement to benefit Girardi and her once-influential husband, former Los Angeles attorney Tom Girardi.
In the 70-page suit, Christopher Psaila accuses Erika Girardi and her estranged husband of having “weaponized the Secret Service to maliciously prosecute” him in 2017 to secure a $787,000 refund from American Express at a time when the Girardi family was “in desperate financial straits.”"
Building our way out of the climate crisis takes planning (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, KATELYN ROEDNER SUTTER: "When state lawmakers and Governor Gavin Newsom enacted a more ambitious timeline last year for transitioning our economy to clean energy, they prompted a reckoning.
Even as California has made great strides and raised the bar on climate action, it has not adequately planned for our long-term energy needs. Now we are at a turning point. We need a plan to reach the state’s new clean energy targets of 90 percent by 2035 and 95 percent by 2040 on the road to 100 percent by 2045."
California is now practically drought-free, but we keep wasting so much rainwater
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY: "Almost all of California is finally drought-free, after Tropical Storm Hilary’s rare summer drenching added to this winter’s record-setting rainfall totals.
But despite all that drought-busting precipitation, California continues to capture only a percentage of that water. Much of the abundance in rain from Hilary ended up running off into the ocean — not captured or stored for future use, when California will inevitably face its next drought."
Wildfire threat looms for Northern California as weather service issues red flag warning
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Tuesday as portions of the Sacramento Valley brace for “critical fire weather conditions.”
According to the weather service, a red flag warning is issued when fire conditions have either entered the area or are expected soon. The area’s first warning of the year will go into effect from 11 p.m. Tuesday to 8 p.m. Wednesday for fire zones that cover most of the Sacramento Valley."
California’s wildland firefighters are being poisoned by smoke. And we’re doing little to protect them
The Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Fourteen years before her cancer diagnosis, Michelle Bletcher dropped to the ground on a hillside in Shasta-Trinity National Forest and began frantically digging a hole.
Blasts of hot smoke had overtaken Bletcher and her crewmates, wildland firefighters with the U.S. Forest Service, as they burned away overgrown brush on Bully Choop Mountain. They had retreated to a nearby ridge, but the smoke found them, stinging their eyes and searing their throats. Bletcher grabbed clumps of dirt and dug into the ground, desperate to find cooler, cleaner air."
Spare the Air alert issued as wind pattern draws smoke from wildfires
BANG*Mercury News, RICK HURD: "A weather pattern that’s funneling smoke from fires burning in Northern California and Oregon will bring with it a Spare the Air alert on Wednesday, air officials said.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued the alert, saying the notice was caused by an expected combination of temperatures that could reach 100 degrees in some places, vehicle exhaust and smoke."
New variants linked to swell in California COVID cases. Here’s when to get next booster
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The late summer COVID-19 wave is gaining momentum in California.
Over the past month, hospitalizations jumped by nearly 81%, rising from a daily average of 186 admissions to 336, according to state health department data published Friday. The state’s test positivity rate is also up to 13.2% after falling as low as 3.4% at the beginning of the summer. Wastewater samples from Bay Area sewer sheds indicated a doubling of the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 virus since July, underscoring a steady upward trajectory that is expected to extend into the fall and winter."
As culture wars escalate, California officials push back on conservative school board policies
CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "California’s culture wars escalated Monday as the state sued a school district over its transgender student policy, and a parents’ group took the first step toward placing a trio of initiatives on next year’s ballot that would restrict protections for transgender youth.
The moves follow highly publicized incidents last month in which state leaders attempted to rein in school boards they said had run afoul of civil rights laws. Under California’s local control system, school boards have wide latitude to enact their own policies — a freedom that’s now being tested as a handful of districts move to expand parental rights by limiting the rights of LGBTQ students."
The power of arts education: A conversation with Letty Kraus
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Letty Kraus knows her way around the arts ed world. She started teaching dance at the ripe old age of 15, while she was still in high school.
First she convinced her old middle school to let her teach a dance class for kids after school. Then she started landing jobs at performing arts summer camps."
S.F. school district charts map for district overhaul. Families and educators are already frustrated
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "The San Francisco school board started to map out an overhaul of the district Tuesday evening to address nearly every aspect of how it operates, including how it staff schools and where it spends money.
In front of a standing-room only crowd Tuesday, district staff discussed hard choices ahead to address declining enrollment, failing facilities, struggling students and years of overspending, a path that will lead to bankruptcy without action. While the decisions about exactly how to cut are many months away, officials underscored the sobering reality of the situation facing the district."
Bomb threat at Oakland school likely spurred by ‘racist’ social media storm, official says
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN, SARAH RAVANI: "Oakland police and the FBI were investigating bomb threats Tuesday that were sent to an elementary school and multiple residences, and were possibly related to what authorities described as hate speech in response to a school-sponsored event for students of color.
The Oakland Police Department was alerted to a bomb threat by the principal of Chabot Elementary School at 7:30 a.m. and immediately responded to the scene, said Lisa Ausmus, a captain with the department. Classes had not yet started but some students and staff were already on campus."
Silicon Valley power players behind Bay Area land grab begin to reveal details about plans for a new city
The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN: "The mysterious company buying thousands of acres in Solano County told a lawmaker that it plans to build at least one city and up to three in the farming-heavy county, he told the Chronicle Tuesday.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, met with two representatives from the group, called Flannery Associates, Tuesday evening and gained some of the first insights into the plans of the Silicon Valley power players, he detailed in an interview."
Maui residents consider the unthinkable: Las Vegas, the ‘ninth island’
LA Times, JAWEED KALEEM, SANDHYA KAMBHAMPATI: "Since the Lahaina fire incinerated her apartment, Tatiana Kamelamela-Liua has been at a crossroads.
A lifelong inhabitant of the islands who is of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage, she knows no home but Hawaii and feels close to “the aloha of the community that you can’t find anywhere else.”"
As California closes prisons, correctional officers land a $1 billion contract with raises and more
CALMatters, BYRHONDA LYONS: "Thousands of California correctional officers are in line to get $10,000 bonuses through a new contract their union negotiated with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration as the state prepares to close several prisons.
The tentative deal for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association is loaded with other incentives that collectively increase compensation for about 26,000 prison guards through a combination of raises, retirement perks and pay differentials for working overnight."
Six Sacramento jail inmates have died this year. They won’t be independently investigated
Sacramento Bee, THERESA CLIFT: "Visalia Dobie-Johnson was finishing work on April 5 when she saw two missed phone calls from the Sacramento County Main Jail.
Worried her fiancé may be there, she rushed to the downtown jail from her Pocket-Greenhaven condo. She had believed that he was out with friends for the night, but learned when she arrived at the jail around 2 p.m. that Delion Johnson had been in a holding cell for more than 11 hours. She was told that she could not see him."
Trump gets March 4 trial date in federal case over efforts to overturn 2020 election
LA Times, SARAH D. WIRE: "Former President Trump will face trial on March 4, 2024, for four felony charges related to his alleged efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election.
That means jury selection would begin a day before Super Tuesday on March 5, when California, Texas and a dozen other states hold their presidential primaries."
