Dear dedicated subscribers,
We are back! We were faced with a technical issue that forced the roundup servers into an extended outage this past week. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
--Geoff
Here’s where California reservoir levels stand after this week’s big rain
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Despite heavy rain throughout the Bay Area and Northern California this week, water levels in the state’s major reservoirs remained mostly steady, though they could rise as precipitation is expected to soon reach the southern part of the state.
California’s reservoirs, which have been storing elevated amounts of water since atmospheric rivers and storms repeatedly swept through the state in late 2022 and early 2023, currently ssshold in aggregate 117% of their total historic average for this time of year."
California approves Delta tunnel project, pitting water agencies against environmentalists
Sacramento Bee, ARI PLACHTA: "California’s leading water agency approved a controversial water infrastructure project to build a tunnel underneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Thursday, marking a significant step in a decades-long effort to advance it. Governor Gavin Newsom has long advocated for the tunnel, called Delta Conveyance, as a key way to protect water supply from climate change.
The Department of Water Resources’ decision is expected to usher in extensive legal challenges."
COLORADO RIVER SHORTAGES DRIVE MAJOR ADVANCES IN RECYCLED SEWAGE WATER USE
Water Education Foundation, NICK CAHILL: "After more than two decades of drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on imported water from the dwindling Colorado River."
State’s end-of-year affordable housing bonanza likely to leave dozens of near-ready projects ‘mothballed’
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER: "Just in time for Christmas, the Newsom administration is preparing to dole out more than $500 million to build affordable housing, playing Santa to projects that promise to shelter low-wage school employees, veterans, farmworkers, people living on the street and other poor and middle-income Californians.
Like sleepless children on Christmas Eve, nonprofit developers across California are impatiently waiting to find out who will receive a cut. But everyone already knows that most will be left with empty stockings."
UC Davis starts contact tracing to prevent tuberculosis outbreak on campus
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "UC Davis officials are working to prevent an outbreak of contagious tuberculosis after someone on campus turned up positive for the potentially lethal disease.Just in time for Christmas, the Newsom administration is preparing to dole out more than $500 million to build affordable housing, playing Santa to projects that promise to shelter low-wage school employees, veterans, farmworkers, people living on the street and other poor and middle-income Californians.
Like sleepless children on Christmas Eve, nonprofit developers across California are impatiently waiting to find out who will receive a cut. But everyone already knows that most will be left with empty stockings."tifying everyone who has been in close contact with the infected person that they should be tested for tuberculosis, known as TB."
Could a Republican Senate candidate make it to the November election? New poll shows it’s possible
Sacramento Bee, ANDREW SHEELER "Republican Steve Garvey has moved into second place in a new U.S. Senate race poll — and if he can maintain that showing in the March 5 primary he’ll qualify for the November runoff.
The race for the California Senate seat currently held by Sen. Laphonza Butler after the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein is shaping into a scramble for second place behind frontrunner Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank., according to a new poll from Politico and Morning Consult.
How fake Xanax and ‘benzo dope’ are contributing to S.F.’s deadly overdose epidemic
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST: "Rebecca Chapa moved to San Francisco this year, she said, for one reason: Readily available “Xanax” sold on the streets.
The 39-year-old has been addicted to benzodiazepines — a class of depressant drugs often used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures — since she was a young adult.''
A PhD and full class load gets a CSU lecturer $64,860 a year. They are striking for change
LA Times, DEBBIE TRUONG: "Olga Garcia is devoted to the East Los Angeles community where she’s lived most of her life. A graduate of Garfield High School, she’s spent nearly half of her teaching career — nearly 11 years — in the college of ethnic studies at Cal State L.A.
But in the Cal State system, her role is considered temporary. Garcia is among the thousands of lecturers who make up a majority of the teaching force in the sprawling 23-campus system. As “contingent” faculty members, they work on contracts that can run as short in duration as a semester and are not eligible for tenure."
Study of Oakland Unified’s parent tutors finds exciting possibilities and challenges
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Initial findings from a study of a closely watched Oakland Unified program that recruits parents and neighbors as tutors show intriguing potential for other low-income school districts struggling to teach kids to read.
By training recruits in phonics and structured literacy and assigning them to K-2 classrooms, the initiative offers Black and Latino parents and others a direct stake in seeing their neighborhood children achieve the skills to read.
California loses population for an unprecedented third year. It could cost state real clout
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "For the third year in a row, California saw its population drop, raising new concerns about how the much-discussed exodus could hurt the state’s political influence.
The state’s population declined by around 37,000 people from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, or 0.1%. The loss is minuscule compared with the more than 500,000 people the state lost from April 2020 to July 2022. But it still represents the sixth-largest rate of loss of any state during that time span."
Trump’s fate rests with U.S. Supreme Court in two unprecedented cases
LA Times, DAVID G. SAVAGE, SARAH D. WIRE: "As year‘s end approaches, the U.S. Supreme Court faces two pressing legal questions about former President Trump and his alleged misconduct in office that will weigh heavily on next year’s election and potentially set historic constitutional precedents.
On Tuesday, Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled Trump is ineligible under the 14th Amendment to appear on the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot due to his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol."
