‘Dear Wayward Colleagues’: California congressman pens scathing letter to Republicans who ousted McCarthy
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "A California congressman penned a withering open letter Saturday to eight colleagues who helped oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House this month.
California Rep. Tom McClintock rebuked Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and other members of the right-wing Republican core that mobilized to remove McCarthy, mocking the group’s “martyrdom” after they vowed in an open letter Friday to accept “censure, suspension, or removal from the Conference” in order to elect Rep. Jim Jordan as speaker of the House."
Israel strikes Gaza, Syria and West Bank as war with Hamas threatens to ignite other fronts
AP, NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMY MAGDY, RAVI NESSMAN: "A second aid convoy destined for Palestinian civilians reached the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as Israeli warplanes struck targets across the Palestinian enclave, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants, as the 2-week-old war with Hamas threatened to spiral into a broader conflict.
Israel has traded fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group on a near-daily basis since the war began, and tensions are soaring in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days."
Newsom describes harrowing beheading video, meeting with survivors during Israel trip
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom saw a video of a beheading and met with a young woman who survived because she was buried under bodies during his 10-hour trip to Israel.
He said the Israeli government showed him a video in which militants poked a person's face to see if they were alive and beheaded them with a backhoe."
Maha Dakhil, a top agent at CAA, steps aside from leadership roles after Israel-Hamas post
LA Times, CARLOS DE LOERA, WENDY LEE: "Maha Dakhil, one of the top agents in Hollywood, is leaving her leadership roles at Creative Artists Agency after she posted on social media about Israel-Hamas.
CAA on Sunday confirmed that Dakhil resigned from the agency’s internal board and is stepping away for the time being from her position as co-head of the motion picture department."
‘The left has really let us down.’ Why many American Jews feel abandoned
LA Times, JAWEED KALEEM: "Like many American Jews, Jonah Goldman sides politically with the left, including its push for the rights of Palestinians.
During college, he was active in J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and lobbies for a two-state solution."
‘I’ve never seen anything like this’: Death Valley gleams with water, wildflowers and color
LA Times, CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS: "Death Valley is still wet. And only a fortunate few seem to be getting the best of it.
Two months after a storm that dropped a year’s rainfall in a single day, flooding roads, destroying trails and closing down the park, the national park’s Oct. 15 reopening revealed a strange place made stranger."
A migrant family’s odyssey: 7,100 miles from Venezuela seeking new life in San Jose
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK, JOSIE LEPE: "They walked and hitchhiked, rode buses and boats and sneaked onto a freight train. They passed through nine countries in nine months — a perilous, exhausting journey that began in January when they fled their home in Venezuela and spanned more than 7,100 miles before reaching San Jose last month, a city where they knew no one but were told they might find help.
They slept on cardboard mats on streets or in tents at transit stations and worked odd jobs for quick cash. They fended off robbers who stopped their Mexican train with rocks and bottles and slogged through a Colombian jungle passing bodies of fallen migrants who’d perished along the way."
Charles E. Young, UCLA’s longest-serving chancellor, dies at 91
LA Times, STUART SILVERSTEIN, REBECCA ELLIS: "Charles E. Young, the fiery, fiercely outspoken chancellor of UCLA credited with turning the campus into an academic powerhouse, died of natural causes Sunday at his home in Sonoma, Calif. He was 91.
At the helm of UCLA for 29 years, Young oversaw its transformation from a small regional campus to one of the nation’s premier research universities."
UC academic workers won big contract gains. Here’s their plan for an even stronger union
Sacramento Bee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "Academic workers at the University of California voted to unite their two branches of the United Auto Workers into one local, consolidating to increase their negotiating power, according to a news release they issued Saturday.
UAW Local 5810 has represented 6,000 postdoctoral scholars and 5,000 academic researchers across all UC campuses, while UAW Local 2865 has negotiated on behalf of 19,000 graduate workers and 17,000 student workers."
Debate over parental rights vs. student rights to gender identity privacy comes to Clovis Unified
EdSource, LASHERICA THORNTON: "Recent Clovis Unified school board meetings have been filled with posters bearing contrasting messages. “Support parental notification in schools. Stop keeping secrets from parents” as well as “Stop forced outing.”
With those starkly different messages in the background, nearly 100 people spoke at the Sept. 20 board meeting, joining a debate that’s sweeping the state: parents’ right to know how their children identify at school versus students’ right to privacy about gender identity and expression."
Coit Tower, a symbol of S.F.’s spirit, just turned 90. Here’s who attended the party
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "At the precise moment House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi began her remarks to commence the 90th birthday celebration for San Francisco’s Coit Tower on Sunday, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill appeared overhead to make a broad sweeping turn before flying directly overhead in formation, laughing all the while.
The parrots, in their renegade flyover, fit in perfectly with Pelosi’s message. “Coit Tower is such an emblem of optimism and spirit in our city,” she said. “When people see San Francisco, they see Coit Tower.”"
Google, Meta withdraw from major tech conference after founder accuses Israel of war crimes
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "Google and Meta are the latest companies to drop out of a major tech summit over the event founder’s remarks on Israel, company representatives told multiple outlets.
The tech giants joined a growing number of attendees and sponsors withdrawing from Web Summit’s global technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, next month after Chief Executive Paddy Cosgrave condemned Western support for Israel."
Scammers exploit bitcoin ATMs. Will new California laws help crack down on fraud?
LA Times, QUEENIE WONG: "Jim Meduri answered a terrifying phone call in January from a man pretending to be his son.
The caller, who sounded on the verge of tears, said he’d been in a car accident. Meduri was convinced his son had been arrested for driving under the influence and injuring a pregnant woman and her daughter."
San Jose leaders defend police following investigation on use of force against mentally impaired people
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA: "In response to a Bay Area News Group investigation finding that mentally impaired people disproportionately experience serious force by San Jose police, city leaders defended police training, and blamed broader failures in mental health services and a lack of viable alternatives that could shift the burden of dealing with people in crisis away from police.
The first-of-its-kind investigation, which examined more than 100 use-of-force cases in San Jose between 2014 and 2021, found that in nearly three-quarters of incidents in which officers seriously injured or killed people, those harmed were believed to be mentally ill or intoxicated. Of the 25 fatal cases during that period, 80 percent involved people with those conditions."
