An epic battle is brewing between California and deep-red Shasta County. Here are the details
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "In the sprawling green hills of California’s far north, where the politics run red and rowdy, a new state law designed to clear a path for climate-friendly energy projects is facing a tough debut.
State officials are using their authority under the law, for the first time, to gain approval powers over a plan to build 48 giant wind turbines in Shasta County — powers typically held by local officials. In doing so, they’ve encountered not only opposition to the project but broader anger in a region known for its distaste of heavy-handed government and, in particular, Sacramento Democrats."
A special election to replace Kevin McCarthy could cost counties big bucks
Capitol Weekly, RICH EHISEN: "California Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s stunning announcement that he will resign from Congress before his term ends has sent the state’s political class and those who cover it into an uproar. The possibilities of who might seek to replace the former House Speaker are numerous, and names of conceivable candidates began flying practically moments after his announcement became public.
But for now, McCarthy still holds the cards for how exactly that all goes down."
Getting car insurance gets harder: California drivers face delays, higher rates
CALMatters, LEVI SUMAGAYSAY: "If you’re having trouble finding affordable car insurance, you’re not alone. Drivers across California say they’re having to wait longer than usual to get coverage — and when they finally find an insurer and a plan, they’re having to pay their premiums up front.
“Something is definitely not right,” said Willis Lai, a 36-year-old driver from the Bay Area who said it took him three weeks to find insurance for his new Honda Accord hybrid after he contacted all the major insurance providers whose jingles he could remember."
California consumers are angry over high prices. How Republicans will take advantage
DAVID LIGHTMAN, Sacramento Bee: "Prices are up 17.6% since Joe Biden became president, according to the Consumer Price Index. It’s a number Republicans love to cite.
It’s the biggest increase during the first 34 months of a presidency since Jimmy Carter endured double-digit inflation from 1977 to 1979. It didn’t end well for him. Inflation is often cited as one reason Carter lost his bid for a second term in 1980."
He wasn’t allowed to own a gun in California. But he bought one — and killed his 10-year-old son
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID: "Christy Camara decorated her home for the holidays this month, festooning a slender fir tree with ornaments made by her son, Wyland Gomes. There’s a red-and-green picture with his handprints from preschool. There’s his fourth-grade photo. Her refrigerator is similarly bedecked with Wyland’s artwork and little notes he wrote, some of them about his love for his mom.
But Camara, who lives in Oceano (San Luis Obispo County), won’t be celebrating Christmas with her quiet, funny son with the goofy laugh and the love of baseball. The ornaments and other mementos commemorate a life cut short. Wyland died four years ago, shot dead at age 10 by his father, Victor Gomes, who then took his own life."
Rocket launcher surrendered at gun buyback event, California authorities say
DON SWEENEY, SacBee: "A gun buyback event in San Jose collected 408 firearms, including a rocket launcher, California officials reported.
An Uzi submachine gun, a sawed-off shotgun and 20 “ghost guns” also were turned over at the Dec. 2 event at the San Jose airport, a Santa Clara County news release said."
It’s not just fentanyl. How ‘speedballs’ are making S.F.’s drug overdose crisis even worse
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Chi Minie overdosed on fentanyl for the first time four years ago, at age 32. But the near-death experience didn’t stop him from using — or from taking the even riskier step of escalating to speedballs, packing rocks of crack cocaine into a pipe along with the super-powerful opioid fentanyl. It’s pricier to smoke the mixture, because he has to shell out cash for two drugs instead of just one, he said, but the high is “smoother.”
Minie overdosed again in April. Still, whenever he gets a few extra dollars — not an easy thing to do, considering he is homeless — he treats himself to a speedball or a goofball, mixing fentanyl with methamphetamine."
Californian teen passes state bar exam and is sworn in as an attorney
AP: "A county prosecutor’s office says one of its law clerks passed the State Bar of California exam at age 17.
The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said that, according to research, Peter Park is the youngest person to pass the exam."
Davis professors rebuff UC president’s call for ‘viewpoint-neutral’ Middle East history lessons
ISHANI DESAI, SacBee: "UC Davis history professor Baki Tezcan knows firsthand how an authoritative government’s iron fist can stifle academic freedom — he was detained and accused of spreading terrorist propaganda in Turkey after signing a petition during a research trip saying the country’s army massacred Kurdish residents.
Drawing upon these experiences, Tezcan said alarm bells sounded when University of California President Michael Drake spoke at a Nov. 15 UC Regents meeting promising $2 million to teach faculty about antisemitism, Islamophobia, how to recognize and combat extremism and a “viewpoint-neutral history of the Middle East.” Drake issued his comments to address campus safety after violent acts and doxxing incidents unfolded on campuses in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war that broke out in early October.
New S.F. student housing was meant to transform the Tenderloin. School leaders are still waiting
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST: "In the midst of finals week, students at the UC College of the Law San Francisco shuffled in and out of a new state-of-the-art housing and academic complex in the heart of the city’s Tenderloin district.
Most of those residing in the 656-unit complex at 198 McAllister St. were either holed up in exam rooms or replenishing their caffeine levels to make it through the week ahead."
What will S.F.’s next generation of skyscrapers look like? These towers may show a shift
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "If the pair of 38- and 40-story towers going this week to the San Francisco’s Planning Commission become reality — no sure thing — they’ll be the tallest buildings south of Rincon Hill.
They’ll also be measuring rods to gauge how the unbridled expectations of pre-pandemic San Francisco are now a thing of the past. But if the streamlined shafts get the green light — replacing an earlier set of towers resembling elongated skateboard ramps — the switch should be seen as an isolated remedy to pre-COVID hubris, rather than a signal for developers and architects to abandon their responsibility to make the city better with the buildings they erect."
These Californians live in affordable housing. Why did their rent skyrocket?
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: "When California lawmakers passed a rent cap four years ago to protect tenants from large and frequent rent hikes, they exempted hundreds of thousands of units reserved for some of the state’s poorest renters.
Low-income housing, after all, is usually built with public subsidies that already impose rent ceilings on developers and property owners. Some are already managed or overseen by local public housing agencies."
Can San Jose’s mobile home park residents rest easy now?
BANG*Mercury News, GABRIEL GRESCHLER: "For years, San Jose native Jill Borders bounced between apartments with her husband and young daughter as they found it impossible to buy a single-family home in one of the country’s most expensive housing markets.
That nomadic lifestyle changed in 2013 when the family discovered Imperial Estates, a mobile home park in South San Jose that finally brought the stability Borders had been desperately searching for. The couple’s 10-year-old daughter got to pick the paint color in her room. They got a second dog."
Bass, one year in: Progress on homelessness but still a steep climb
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER, RUBEN VIVES, DOUG SMITH: "Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had been in office for little more than week when she announced the launch of Inside Safe, her signature program to move homeless Angelenos out of the city’s biggest encampments and under a roof.
The first place she went was a noisy stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard under the 101 Freeway in Hollywood. Working closely with Councilmember Nithya Raman, city and county agencies found beds for about 30 unhoused residents living at or near the overpass."
Catholic Diocese of Sacramento to declare bankruptcy protection amid clergy sex abuse lawsuits
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento announced Saturday that it is filing for bankruptcy protection, joining dozens of others that have been financially battered by sexual abuse lawsuits.
“After much prayer and careful consideration, it is now clear to me that this is the only way available to me to resolve these claims as fairly as possible,” Bishop Jaime Soto said in a statement posted to the diocese website. “There are many victim-survivors awaiting compensation for the reprehensible sins committed against them."
More than a decade later, Fukushima nuclear disaster clouds Japan’s clean-energy ambitions
LA Times, STEPHANIE YANG: "A quarter-mile inland from the eastern Japanese coastline, a sprawling complex of solar panels, robotic lawnmowers and the world’s largest hydrogen power plant stands as a monument to the country’s zero-carbon aspirations.
But surrounding the site are reminders of the biggest challenge Japan faces in realizing those ambitions: abandoned buildings, empty lots, roadside Geiger counters — the grim aftermath of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters."
