COVID hospitalizations, deaths surge in California — and worst is yet to come, CDC warns
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "As respiratory illnesses surge through the Bay Area, many residents likely had to forego New Year’s Eve celebrations.
California witnessed a rapid increase in influenza activity and emergency department visits for COVID-19 during the third week of December. The surge — which Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show continued nationally through the final week of December — is attributed to holiday gatherings, travel and the newly identified JN.1 coronavirus variant."
Protesters calling for Gaza cease-fire shut down California Assembly
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "The anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace shut down the California Assembly on Wednesday by staging a disruptive protest calling for a cease-fire in Gaza when lawmakers reconvened for the new year.
After several months on break, lawmakers were back in session for only a few minutes before dozens of protesters congregated in the viewing gallery overlooking the Assembly chambers and began calling out and disrupting the proceedings. They unfurled eight red and black banners with phrases including “Jews say no U.S. funding for Israel’s genocide in Palestine,” while singing the phrases, “Cease-fire now,” “Not in our name” and “Let Gaza live.”"
9th Circuit won’t let Berkeley enforce first-in-the-nation natural gas ban
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: A divided federal appeals court refused Tuesday to allow Berkeley to enforce its first-in-the-nation ban on installing natural gas appliances in new buildings, a case that could affect dozens of communities in California and other states.
The ordinance, which took effect in 2020, was intended to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. It was challenged by the California Restaurant Association, which contended it violated a 1975 federal law that authorized U.S. officials to set energy-efficiency standards for appliances such as furnaces and water heaters."
Anti-Trump Republicans say Nikki Haley is their ‘only hope.’ But is her surge coming too late?
LA Times, SEEMA MEHTA, JAY L. CLENDENIN: "Retiree Reggie Alt handed a handwritten seven-page memo detailing her ideas for how to beat former President Trump to one of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s aides.
Then she grasped Haley’s hands and offered the GOP presidential candidate some Star Wars-themed advice:"
The Epstein documents: Names cited in court papers are released
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI, ANDREW J. CAMPA, JEREMY CHILDS: "Court documents with the names of people connected in some way to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier accused of orchestrating a sex-trafficking ring involving girls, were released Wednesday. About two dozen high-profile names were included, and the majority are not accused of any wrongdoing. The information was highly anticipated, but it will take time to determine its import.
Some of the names have been linked to Epstein in the past. Among those in Wednesday’s documents are former Presidents Trump and Clinton, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, late former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, billionaire Tom Pritzker and late AI pioneer Marvin Minsky. Entertainment figures including David Copperfield and Michael Jackson also are mentioned."
Parenting classes are routinely ordered in child abuse cases. California isn’t ensuring they work
LA Times, MACKENZIE MAYS: "Before they were charged with torturing and murdering their 4-year-old son, Ursula Juarez and Jose Cuatro were ordered by a court to complete classes meant to teach them how to be better parents.
For 12 weeks in 2017, court records show, they each attended parenting classes as part of their case plan with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services in an effort to regain custody of their toddler, Noah Cuatro, who was taken by the state after allegations that another child in the home had been abused."
Tahoe’s first big 2024 snowfall delighted skiers. Here’s how it impacted the snowpack
The Chronicle, CHLOE SHRAGER: "Skiers rejoiced Wednesday as a storm covered Lake Tahoe with its first significant snowfall of the new year, following a slow start to the season — though weather experts said the storm did not significantly move the needle for the state’s scant snowpack.
Flurries blanketed cars in the Alpine parking lot of the Palisades Tahoe resort early Wednesday morning as excited mountain-goers raced to be first in line for the ski lifts."
Why many insured Californians avoid hospitals in this county: ‘It’s just too much’
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "Every three months Bernie Medina takes a day off of work and drives an hour from Salinas to San Jose to see her oncologist. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer two years ago and needs regular checkups. Medina lives in Monterey County but her health insurance forbids her from using any of the local hospitals.
Medina and her wife Jeannie are both teachers in Salinas Union High School District. They’re enrolled in a local government employee health insurance plan created a decade ago to save employees and employers money. To do that, it excludes all Monterey County hospitals and their affiliates. As the hospitals have gobbled up local doctors’ offices and urgent care centers, seeing specialists like Medina’s oncologist and getting emergency care have become more difficult."
The old Westside Pavilion will transform into a UCLA biomedical and quantum science center
LA Times, ROGER VINCENT, MELODY PETERS: "The fomer Westside Pavilion, a long shuttered indoor mall, will be transformed into a UCLA biomedical research center aimed at tackling such towering challenges as curing cancer and preventing global pandemics, officials announced Wednesday.
The sprawling three-story structure will be known as the UCLA Research Park and will house two multidisciplinary centers focusing on immunology and immunotherapy as well as quantum science and engineering."
UC Berkeley sends police into People’s Park as closure begins
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "UC Berkeley sent hundreds of police officers into People's Park early Thursday in an effort to close off the historic space to prepare for the long opposed construction of student housing.
After midnight, police and CHP officers barricaded every street within two blocks of the park. At some, barricades small clusters of protesters who have stridently opposed university plans to build a housing complex there huddled and a lone few shouted insults at the officers."
California education issues to watch in 2024 — and predictions
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD, YUXUAN XIE: "“Hold on,” ever-wise Ms. Fensters interrupted. “Why would anyone read a New Year predictions column if you make them feel like jumping back in bed and pulling the covers over their head for the next 362 days?”
She’s right."
This community college has 1 full-time Black faculty member out of 165. Why campuses struggle with diversity
CALMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN: "At Cabrillo College near Santa Cruz, Nikia Chaney stands out. You can spot her bright pink hair from a distance. She’s also the only Black professor out of the community college’s 165 tenured or tenure-track faculty.
“When I first got hired in 2019, I didn’t look up the demographics of the school or anything like that. I was just really happy I had a full time job,” she said. But after arriving on campus, she started to feel isolated. “You don’t have faculty members who look like you,” she said."
S.F. car break-ins continued to decline over Christmas and New Year’s
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS: "San Francisco saw a big drop in reported car break-ins during the holiday season even as visits to the Union Square shopping district increased from 2022, Mayor London Breed announced Wednesday, touting the figures as a sign she is making progress on reducing property crime.
Between Nov. 20 — the Monday before Thanksgiving — and New Year’s Day, reports of larceny theft, which include both car break-ins and retail theft, fell 48% from last year, Breed’s office said in a news release. Over the same time period, reported burglaries declined 26% and reports of stolen cars dropped 17%. Reported shoplifting, however, stayed flat over the same period, according to the Chronicle’s analysis of crime incident data."
‘How are we going to defend ourselves?’ Inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection
LA Times, SARAH D. WIRE: "Many Americans watched video footage of the crowd attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but few have a firsthand account of what happened inside. Three years ago, Times reporter Sarah D. Wire wrote about her experience, typing it out on a cellphone from the House safe room. She was one of three reporters to make it inside.
Now, with the aid of time and surveillance footage recently made available by the House, along with additional firsthand accounts from Rep. Norma Torres (D-Pomona), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and freelance congressional correspondent Matt Laslo, Wire provides a more expansive view of what it was like inside the Capitol that day."
