Schiff takes narrow lead in Senate race; tight contest for second, new poll shows
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "The fight for second place in California’s U.S. Senate race between Rep. Katie Porter and former Dodgers star Steve Garvey appears volatile as the March 5 primary approaches, according to the latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times.
Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank leads the field by 4 percentage points in a race that thus far has lacked much sizzle, though that could change now that the candidates have launched political ad campaigns and are set to clash in a trio of televised debates over the next two months."
Newsom suggests ways to crack down on property crime without dismantling Proposition 47
LA Times, ANABEL SOSA: "Gov. Gavin Newsom said he can relate to business owners and other residents angered by smash-and-grab thefts from California stores. One of the wine shops he owns in San Francisco was burglarized at least three times in 2021.
But the problem won’t be solved, Newsom said, by changing Proposition 47, the 10-year-old law voters approved to change some felonies to misdemeanors, including thefts of items worth less than $950, which some people blame for a rise in thefts. Instead, he wants to tackle retail theft with legislation to crack down on what he called “professional thieves.”"
Gavin Newsom goes on defense over California Democrat’s wealth tax. Why it’s a political move
Sacramento Bee, LINDSEY HOLDEN: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom railed during his budget presentation this week against “shameful” suggestions from the Wall Street Journal editorial page that he would support a tax on wealthy Californians, he also could have been speaking to the national audience he’s been wooing for months.
The effort to institute a state tax on ultra-millionaire and billionaire constituents’ net worth was going nowhere. Hours after Newsom spoke, state lawmakers promptly shelved the measure with little discussion."
House Democrats are investing $35 million to target voters of color in 2024 election
Sacramento Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hopes a $35 million investment this election cycle will help the party win over communities of color and take control of the U.S. House.
House Democrats announced the eight-figure investment, P.O.W.E.R. The People, on Tuesday as part of its plan to to “persuade and mobilize” Black, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian voters in key congressional districts across the nation. This year’s money surpasses the $30 million spent during the last two election cycles."
Why Berkeley’s youngest-ever council member is leaving politics at 27
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Rigel Robinson was a rising star in Bay Area politics. At 22, he was the youngest person to be elected to the Berkeley City Council and now at 27 was a front-runner to become its youngest mayor this year. Attorney General Rob Bonta endorsed his bid.
But all that hope and promise ended this week. Robinson abruptly retired from politics and ended his mayoral campaign. He said he was burned out by the toxicity around him and the harassment from political opponents that he believed endangered the safety of himself and his family. They’ve followed him, told him to kill himself and taped threatening messages to his residence."
California takes the lead in building an aging-ready state (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, PATRICK KENNEDY, RICH DESMOND: "In Okinawa, Japan, residents commonly live past the age of 100. The same is true on the island of Sardinia in Italy, the Greek isle of Ikaria, the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica and Loma Linda, California.
What is the secret to their longevity?"
Younger, older Californians take starkly different views of Israel-Hamas war (POLL)
LA Times, DAVID LAUTER, JAWEED KALEEM: "Three months of war between Israel and Hamas have sharply split Californians, with stark divisions between the state’s older and younger voters, a new statewide poll finds.
Voters younger than 30 are far more likely to sympathize with Palestinians more than with Israelis, while those older than 65 side with Israel, according to the new poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times."
Nation’s largest dam removal marks milestone: the freeing of a major California river
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "The nation’s largest dam-removal project is reaching a major milestone this month as work crews release the water behind three dams on the Klamath River, leaving the storied waterway in Northern California and southern Oregon to flow freely for the first time in a century.
The drawdown of the reservoirs and the unleashing of the river, which began Thursday at the 189-foot-high Iron Gate Dam, is a necessary – and hugely transformative – step before the three hydroelectric facilities in the remote Siskiyou Mountains are fully removed. Last fall, workers took out a smaller, fourth dam on the river."
As California transitions to electric vehicles, loss of gas tax revenue may hurt roads
LA Times, RUSS MITCHELL: "California drivers already rumble across some of the worst pavement in the nation, but the poor condition of the state’s roads and highways could get far worse in coming years as electric cars take over and gasoline cars fade away, according to state analysts.
That’s because money for road repair and maintenance depends on the state’s motor fuel taxes, and that revenue is expected to plunge. Electric vehicles don’t use gasoline, so EV drivers don’t pay the gas tax."
With climate change, king tides could be the new normal
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "King tides returned to the San Francisco Bay this week, and although flooding across the region was mild, they raised the specter of an increasingly tenuous relationship between water and infrastructure in the region.
“It’s a little less than we expected, but it’s still scary that the water is rising,” said Diane Livia, a volunteer with the environmental nonprofit Bay Keeper."
Strong storm to bring heavy rain to these parts of Northern California
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "A strong storm is forecast to impact Northern California on Saturday. Parts of Mendocino and Humboldt counties could experience their wettest day in more than a year, with 3 to 5 inches of rain. The North Bay is expected to get hit hard, too, with localized flooding possible. Mount Tamalpais and the Sonoma County mountains could record up to 3 inches of rain. San Francisco and Oakland are in line for about an inch of rain.
A low-pressure system will quickly move from the Gulf of Alaska on Friday morning toward Northern California by Saturday morning. As it approaches, rain will gradually increase Friday night between Point Arena and Crescent City, becoming heavy Saturday morning."
Avalanches are rarely a danger at U.S. ski resorts. Palisades Tahoe slide was a deadly exception
LA Times, SUMMER LIN, HANNAH WILEY: "High in the mountains above Lake Tahoe, skiers and snowboarders lined up Wednesday morning to be among the first of the season to ride a chairlift serving some of North America’s most iconic expert terrain. A weekend storm had dumped much-needed snow on the upper mountain at Palisades Tahoe, and more was on the way.
Within half an hour of the lift’s opening, disaster struck."
READ MORE -- ‘I was buried’: Inside the desperate moments after the Palisades Tahoe avalanche hit -- The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI, MEGAN FAN MUNCE, MELISSA SIIG; Second avalanche hits Palisades Tahoe, a day after a snowslide killed one, injured another -- BANG*Mercury News, JASOON GREEN
Will avalanches in California worsen with climate change?
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "As a popular Tahoe ski resort digs out from a tragedy that killed a skier and buried several others, scientists say predicting how the warming planet will affect avalanches is elusive at best.
Just after lifts opened on Wednesday, an avalanche tore through the Palisades Tahoe ski resort, creating a 10-foot-deep debris field that stretched 450 feet long and 150 feet wide. A second one struck in neighboring Alpine Meadows this afternoon, although no one was injured. The US Forest Service and ski resorts take steps to forecast and prevent dangerous slides, and avalanche fatalities at ski resorts remain rare: Before this week, the last one in California was four years ago."
California’s grizzlies: gargantuan, dangerous meat-lovers. Totally wrong, research shows
LA Times, KAREN GARCIA: "Forget what you were taught in elementary school about the supposed ravenous meat-eating grizzly bear: New research has found that California’s extinct bear was actually more of a vegetarian.
“California’s historical record misrepresented” the animal and humans are largely to blame, researchers say."
‘Striking’ study reveals immune system anomalies in people with long COVID
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "A new analysis of blood samples from people with the vexing set of conditions known as long COVID lends fresh evidence to the idea that bits of the coronavirus can remain in the body wreaking havoc for years after infection, say researchers at UCSF and Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.
Scientists around the world are in a race to figure out why millions of people suffer from persistent, debilitating symptoms after recovering from an acute COVID infection. Understanding the cause is key to developing treatment for the range of long COVID ailments that often include slowed thinking, lung pain, heart problems and deep fatigue."
Amid national blood shortage, Bay Area blood banks urge residents to donate
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "Bay Area blood banks are urging residents to donate blood amid what the American Red Cross is calling a national shortage emergency.
The number of Americans donating blood is at a 20-year low, the Red Cross said this week, and more than a third of the nation’s 59 community blood centers have only a one-day supply or less, according to America’s Blood Centers, the organization that represents 60% of the blood centers in the United States."
Advocates, education leaders speak out on Newsom’s initial plan for state budget
EdSource, STAFF: "This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom presented the first pass on the 2024-25 state budget.
It includes his ideas for addressing an $11 billion drop in funding for TK-12 and community colleges and a larger projected general fund deficit affecting child care and higher education."
How bad is inflation for California? We’re already paying a more than 35% premium to live here
LA Times, DON LEE: "A small uptick in the nationwide inflation rate last month was an unwelcome glitch for many consumers and for Washington policymakers, but it may be a more serious development for most of California.
The December increase, at 3.4% over the price level a year earlier, could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates in spring, as many analysts have predicted. It was also bad political news for President Biden, who has presided over a sharp drop in inflation but has yet to get credit for it among voters."
CEO of biggest U.S. bank: ‘S.F. is in far worse shape than New York’
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is hosting the world’s biggest health care conference in San Francisco this week. But he isn’t holding back when it comes to the city’s problems.
“San Francisco is in far worse shape than New York,” Dimon said in an interview Thursday on Fox Business."
These L.A. residents got $1,000 a month. What happened after the cash stopped?
LA Times, REBECCA PLEVIN: "Claudia Gutiérrez Muñoz worked at El Pollo Loco for more than two decades, raising six children.
The restaurant closed during the start of the pandemic, and then only the drive-through reopened. Her hours were reduced around the same time that her building was being sold, and she needed to find a new place to live."
California’s high-speed rail is taking shape. This Sacramento manufacturer may play a part
Sacramento Bee, RANDY DIAMOND: "A Sacramento manufacturing plant could stand to benefit from the $3.1 billion federal grant awarded last month to revive an over-budget and overdue high-speed rail project between Merced and Bakersfield.
Siemens Mobility, the German company whose North American train manufacturing hub is in Sacramento, is one of two bidders the California High-Speed Rail Authority selected to vie for $561 million they have allocated to pay for train cars."
A rising star at celebrity trials like O.J. Simpson’s. Then a quiet, mysterious death
LA Times, HARRIET RYAN: "Kristin Jeannette-Meyers made a career showing America the darkness behind its sunny facades.
As an anchor and reporter for Court TV and CBS News in the 1990s, she specialized in the legal sagas that transfixed the nation, from William Kennedy Smith, the Kennedy cousin acquitted of raping another bar patron in Palm Beach, Fla., to Lorena Bobbitt, a woman who, after what she said was prolonged domestic violence, severed her husband’s penis."
