Porter and Schiff polling neck and neck in California Senate race, in lead for a runoff
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Katie Porter are in nearly a dead heat in California’s U.S. Senate race, well-positioned to move ahead to a runoff, a new poll shows.
The two well-funded House Democrats have been pacing the field since the beginning of the year. Other candidates, including fellow Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee and Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey, have so far not shown an ability to make the race more broadly competitive."
Senate candidate Adam Schiff locks down a prominent California Democratic endorsement
Sacramento Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff announced a high-profile endorsement Thursday in his campaign to succeed the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein: California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.
Rivas, who took over the speakership earlier this summer, said he was proud to support Schiff."
California Rep. Barbara Lee introduces bill to give workers smoke leave during wildfires
LA Times, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "Workers in this country generally enjoy federally required sick days when they’re not feeling up to the job. New legislation proposes time off for smoke days too.
A bill introduced in Congress this week by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, would require employers to take steps to protect their employees from the bad air caused by wildfires. This includes providing up to 12 weeks of unpaid annual leave — and sometimes paid leave — during periods of heavy smoke to those whose health is seriously threatened."
Shifting politics pushes mental health care onto the agenda
Capitol Weekly, DAN MORAIN: "Gov. Gray Davis visited the Los Angeles Times’ Sacramento Bureau in 1999 not long after he was sworn in and took questions from reporters who gathered in the conference room, me included.
When my turn came, I asked him what his plan was for the mental health care system. He paused to think and answered: The issue was not on the agenda. The response was direct and honest, and hardly unique.
Davis’s primary issue was public education. It was, his aides repeated, his first, second and third priorities–though public safety ranked high as well. If the words, mental illness, were uttered on the 1998 gubernatorial campaign trail, it is lost to history."
Major guilty plea in Santa Clara County gun permit corruption case
BANG*Mercury News, ROBERT SALONGA: "A man charged in a landmark corruption case that accused top Santa Clara County sheriff commanders of favor-trading concealed-gun permits has pleaded guilty, becoming the first indicted defendant convicted from a scandal that ultimately led to former sheriff Laurie Smith’s ouster under heavy political and legal scrutiny."
"Michael Adrian Nichols, 48, a Milpitas-based gunmaker, admitted in court Thursday to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to solicit a bribe in connection with a 2020 indictment alleging that he — along with a political fundraiser for Smith, a sheriff’s captain and an attorney friend — brokered a deal for a large donation supporting Smith’s 2018 re-election to obtain concealed-gun permits for a security firm’s employees."
Watch: How the largest immigrant communities have shifted in the U.S., California and Bay Area
BANG*Mercury News, HARRIET BLAIR ROWAN: "People born in India are now the largest immigrant group in the Bay Area’s two biggest counties. Santa Clara and Alameda are now home to 250,000 residents who were born in India, enough to rank as the Bay Area’s fourth largest city. But how does that compare to the state and the country, and how has it changed?
In the interactive charts below, you can see how the immigrant population has shifted since 2010 in the two largest Bay Area counties, in California, and in the country as a whole, according to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey."
Millions of sterile fruit flies are being dropped on L.A. to fight an infestation
LA Times, NATHAN SOLIS: "The citrus trees at C&S Nursery in Baldwin Hills would normally be full of passionfruit, kumquats and other fruits this time of year. But last month, employees stripped dozens of them and placed them at the rear of the lot, away from the public, as part of an all-out quarantine effort aimed at eradicating one of the most destructive pests in the world: the Mediterranean fruit fly.
In addition to the fruit removal, ordered by Los Angeles County along with federal and state agencies, officials have a more dramatic plan in the works: dropping millions of sterile male flies on Los Angeles County over the next several weeks in hopes of disrupting the life cycle of the insects, which feast on a wide variety of fruits."
What is Covered California and do I qualify? Here’s what to know during open enrollment
Sacramento Bee, CORTLYNN STARK/THE SUM: "Open enrollment just started for California’s state-run health marketplace, Covered California.
Here’s what you should know."
Allegations of sexual harassment, armed surgeon roil top L.A. teaching hospital
LA Times, REBECCA ELLIS: "Beginning a decade ago, staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center started to report the same high-ranking doctor, alleging jarring sexual comments and retaliatory behavior that routinely raised alarms inside the renowned teaching hospital.
Maria Garibay, then a medical secretary, told human resources in 2013 that her boss, Dr. Louis Kwong, the head of orthopedics, would openly discuss with his staff how the women he operated on under anesthesia “would groom their pubic areas,” according to her written complaint reviewed by The Times. Los Angeles County, which runs the public hospital in West Carson, found the complaint unsubstantiated."
How college admissions are changing after the end of affirmative action
CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "For students of color, the Supreme Court’s recent ban on affirmative action has left them frustrated but undaunted as they plow through college application season. Some California private colleges, meanwhile, are increasing their outreach efforts to attract more students and send a signal that the end of race-based admissions doesn’t change their belief in the importance of diversity.
“I want to go to a college where I feel comfortable and supported and confident. So yes, the ruling has definitely affected what schools I’m looking at,” said Maya Murchison, a senior at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista. “I want to know what colleges are doing to guarantee diversity.”"
A divide over the Israel-Hamas war flares at UC Berkeley Law
LA Times, DEBBIE TRUONG: "A week into the Israel-Hamas war, a Berkeley law professor published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal under the headline “Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students.
Backlash was swift. More than 200 alumni signed an open letter to the law school’s dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, urging him to “publicly address the harm” done by the article and to uphold freedom of speech for all students."
Community college professors allege new diversity policies infringe on academic freedom
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "Bill Blanken, a chemistry professor at Reedley College, said a new diversity and equity policy in California’s community colleges amounts to a “loyalty oath” and “compelled speech” that runs afoul of free speech and academic freedom.
Blanken, along with five other tenured professors in State Center Community College District, are challenging new California Community College diversity policies that change the way employees are evaluated. A lawsuit, filed in August, describes the plaintiffs as critics of anti-racism and diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion (DEIA) principles who are concerned that these stances could result in negative performance evaluations or even losing their jobs."
Chico State professor hit with legal fees in failed libel case
EdSource, THOMAS PEELE: "Suspended Chico State professor David Stachura’s failed effort to sue a colleague for libel has hit him in the wallet.
A Superior Court judge has ordered Stachura to pay the California State University system more than $64,000 it spent to defend a lecturer he sued after she said at a campuswide forum nearly a year ago that Stachura threatened to shoot up the biology department. The university indemnified the lecturer, Betsey Tamietti."
Google among four California tech companies laying off nearly 1,700 workers
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Four more California tech companies are cutting nearly 1,700 combined jobs, the latest in a relentless wave of downsizing. All four companies had previously laid off employees in the past 13 months, underscoring the extent of the industry’s pain.
Google laid off up to 20 data scientists in its voice assistant division, Insider reported. It was the third round of cuts at the tech giant since September, with layoffs previously hitting the Google News and recruiting teams. Last month, parent company Alphabet’s Waymo division also had its third layoff round this year."
Thousands of planned homes could vanish as ‘builder’s remedy’ sweeps Bay Area cities
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "As California struggles to build enough homes for its nearly 40 million residents, developers across the Bay Area could be using a perceived loophole to downsize projects, thanks to a penalty on cities that haven’t yet gained approval for state-mandated housing plans.
In the striking turn of events, developers in San Jose are now using the legal mechanism known as “builder’s remedy” to scale back housing proposals because of difficult economic conditions that have prevented high-density projects from penciling out. The move, which is riling the city’s leadership, could be a sign of things to come for other Bay Area cities."
S.F. housing wait list is open for first time in 10 years. Thousands are rushing to apply
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "More than 40,000 people have already thrown their hat in the ring for a rare chance to join a wait list for federal rental assistance in San Francisco, an indication of how many people are desperate for housing help in one of the nation’s most expensive markets.
About 60,000 applications are expected by the time the window closes on Monday, according to the San Francisco Housing Authority, which manages the program locally — and with only 6,500 spots available, that means only 11% will make it onto the wait list."
Oakland crime rate: What data can — and can’t — tell us about DA Pamela Price’s impact
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price was just a few months into her first term when her opponents began linking her progressive policies, which seek to reduce incarceration, to a wave of violent crime sweeping through Oakland.
“She is wilfully fomenting a culture of violence that serves criminals, instead of cracking down on crime to keep violent criminals off our streets,” wrote members of Save Alameda for Everyone. The group is now organizing the possible recall of Price, a former civil rights attorney who has said her policies need time to work and that her critics are seeking to undermine a fair election."
How will California public transit agencies spend $5 billion?
CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL: "Remember when California’s transit agencies were barreling towards a “fiscal cliff’?
In June, the Legislature and governor agreed to a $5 billion lifeline in the budget as transit agencies’ ridership slowly recovered from the COVID shutdowns. You might also recall that the deal took some convincing due to the state’s overall budget deficit, and reports of mismanagement at Bay Area Rapid Transit."
