Barbara Lee wants to use the Bernie Sanders playbook for winning California
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Californians start voting in a little over a month, and Rep. Barbara Lee previewed her closing strategy Friday as she campaigned in San Francisco’s Mission District: Win the Latino vote.
It is the same path that Lee’s ideological twin, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders used to capture the California presidential primary in 2020, drubbing Joe Biden by 8 percentage points.That’s not surprising because Lee’s campaign manager and several senior leaders were top advisers on Sanders’ last presidential run, and they see a similar opportunity now: 40% of Latino voters remain undecided with no candidate winning more than 12%, according to a November poll by BSP Research, which is unaffiliated with any campaign.
Inside Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff’s L.A.
LA Times, COURTNEY SUBRAMANIAN, CHRISTINA HOUSE(Photograpy): "The headaches begin the moment Air Force Two touches down at LAX. A trail of black SUVs exits the Los Angeles airport and snakes along the 405 Freeway, choking traffic with rolling road closures across West Los Angeles as it makes its way to the tony neighborhood of Brentwood. Inside the quiet enclave, the motorcade rolls to a stop in front of the home of one of the country’s most famous political couples.
In a city full of celebrities and A-listers, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s presence is hard to escape."
READ MORE -- 14 of Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff’s beloved L.A. spots — including, yes, Zankou Chicken -- LA Times, COURTNEY SUBRAMAIAN
Southern California Dem introduces bill in ‘direct response’ to Vince Fong congressional run
Sacramento Bee, JENAVIEVE HATCH: "Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, has introduced Assembly Bill 1795, which would prevent a candidate from running for two elected offices simultaneously. If a candidate has already filed to run for one position, the measure would withdraw the person from the first race if they file to compete for a second office.
The bill is a “direct response” to a judge’s decision to allow Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, to run for both U.S. Congress and re-election to the Assembly, Carrillo said in a statement last week."
Exclusive: How Sacramento’s NAACP branch leaders mismanaged county funds and hired themselves
Sacramento Bee, DARRELL SMITH: "Suspended Greater Sacramento NAACP president Betty Williams and an executive officer appear to have used their own businesses to manage a multi-million dollar county-sponsored pandemic-era food delivery program, according to financial filings obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
Williams, the California civil rights stalwart and longest serving president in the Sacramento chapter’s history, and branch education chair Salena Pryor, were among six executive officers suspended in October by the national civil rights organization for alleged financial improprieties, including the use of their positions for financial gain."
California weather: More rain, snow expected before potential fierce weekend storm
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "An arctic blast is expected to hit the Pacific Northwest this week, with some of the chilly air spilling toward California. With more storm systems on their way to the Golden State, the Sierra Nevada is in line for several feet of snow in the next seven days.
Closer to the coast, parts of the Bay Area will face freezing temperatures Monday morning before two weather systems hit Tuesday and Wednesday."
Learning cursive in school, long scorned as obsolete, is now the law in California
LA Times, HOWARD BLUME:: "Erica Ingber has something of a dark past when it comes to handwriting: The future elementary school principal got a C-minus in cursive in the fourth grade. But she’s ready to follow the curvy ups and downs of a new California law that requires the teaching of cursive writing, which has been cast aside as obsolete in the digital age.
But cursive is making a comeback amid concerns that learning to use a keyboard had superseded handwriting skills that are important for intellectual development — and also that a new generation of students could not write or read the flowing words of historical documents, old letters and family recipes."
Stanford is searching for a new president — a job more political and scrutinized than ever before
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "Stanford University is preparing to hire a new president this spring, just as the task of leading the world’s most influential schools — and keeping that job — has become more politicized and scrutinized than ever before.
Presidents set the agenda and the tone for universities, a role that echoes across classrooms, student dorms and donor decisions. They serve as fundraiser-in-chief for their campus, as its top administrator and, at places like Stanford and the Ivy League schools, are among its brainiest scholars."
Career Technical Education: A pathway for arts educators
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Ina Gutierrez lives for the opera. She has a master’s degree in classical voice as well as a decade of singing and performance under her belt.
She tapped into that lifelong passion to teach music and choir to fourth and fifth graders for two years in Kern County using emergency credentials, and she loved every minute of it but had to stop teaching once that credential ran out."
Bay Area schools are desperate for substitute teachers. Can this program help find them?
BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA MIOLENE: "Brandon Mendoza was a senior at UC Berkeley when he first saw the flier: Get paid to try out teaching in your community.
Mendoza, who had always hoped to become a teacher, was curious — he didn’t realize he could test the career before jumping in."
The L.A. Public Library is getting into book publishing. Why it makes total sense
LA Times, JIM RULAND: "The year just past was a bleak one for independent media.
Every day seemed to bring the announcement of a newspaper being bought out, a media company laying off journalists, an independent press shutting down. When Paddy Calistro and Scott McAuley, the co-founders of Angel City Press, announced they were retiring from the publishing house they’d run for more than 30 years, it sounded like just another sad story in 2023."
Which San Francisco CEOs are taking home the most money? We break it down
The Chronicle, EMMA STIEFEL: "Charles Scharf, the CEO of San Francisco’s largest publicly traded company Wells Fargo, made $24.6 million in 2022. That was 324 times more than the median employee at the company, who made $76,000.
Those numbers come from the AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch database, which is based on company statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Chronicle used this database to analyze the compensation of the CEOs of San Francisco’s 20 largest public companies by revenue, and how they compare with median employee pay. The data often shows huge disparities between CEO compensation and the typical worker, but not in all cases. The numbers also indicate that stock and options awards are often what drive the biggest chasms."
State officials wouldn’t let these homeowners build a sea wall. Their lawsuit could reshape California’s coast
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "Raging storms brought major damage to California’s coastline last winter. They washed out West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, smashed the Capitola Wharf, burst levees on the Pajaro River in Watsonville, flooded the Santa Barbara airport, and sent two tornadoes barreling into Los Angeles.
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Most of the destruction is largely repaired now, or at least under construction. But at the end of a quiet residential street in Half Moon Bay, a different kind of coastal upheaval is gaining momentum — one that could decide the fate of billions of dollars of property and affect hundreds of public beaches from San Diego to the Oregon border as rising seas pose a growing threat to the state’s beloved 1,100-mile coastline."
Thinking about buying a home in the Bay Area? Here are three tips for getting a better deal
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "It’s rarely easy to buy a home in the Bay Area. But more people might try soon.
Many real estate industry experts expect mortgage rates to decline this year. Though they probably won’t fall anywhere near the record-low levels of 2021 and 2022, they’ve largely reversed course from months of steady increases."
A California city’s transformation from ‘murder capital’ of the U.S. to zero homicides
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA: "This is what it took to make a small city safe.
In 1992, East Palo Alto was dubbed the “murder capital” of the U.S., with 42 murders in its 2.5 square miles — a per capita rate higher than that of any other city of any size. In 2023, according to East Palo Alto Police Department statistics released last week, the turnaround seemed complete: zero homicides."
