Dave Kaval outlines Oakland A’s rent-free deal to play in Sacramento
BANG*Mercury News's SHOMIK MUKHERJEE: "Ahead of the A’s announcement Thursday that they will finally ditch the city they’ve called home for five decades and establish a temporary residency in Sacramento, team president Dave Kaval was continuing to take phone calls.
On Tuesday night, it was a fresh late-game proposal by Mayor Sheng Thao’s chief of staff to extend the A’s lease in Oakland. On Thursday morning, Kaval attended a meeting with a development group looking to buy the A’s share of the Coliseum complex, which the team still plans to sell off."
READ MORE -- ‘It’s disgusting’: Why some Sacramentans are upset about A’s landing in their backyardc -- BANG*Mercury News's CONNOR LETOURNEAU, SOPHIA BOLLAG; Who will be left on the sidelines as A’s baseball marks new chapter in Sacramento sports? -- Sacramento Bee's DARRELL SMITH
Newsom and Democratic lawmakers detail first California budget cuts totaling $17 billion
LAT's TARYN LUNA: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly announced an agreement Thursday to cut $17 billion from the state budget in April, providing the first details of their plan to begin to tackle the state’s massive deficit.
The plan calls for delaying $1 billion in grant funding for transit and intercity rail projects, saving $762.5 million by pausing hiring for open state jobs and pulling back $500 million from a program to help districts pay for K-12 building projects, among other proposals to trim the shortfall now, before additional cuts are made this summer."
READ MORE -- Newsom, Legislature get a $17 billion jump on California budget deficit -- CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF
Two California House candidates have officially finished in a tie. Here’s why neither wanted to break it
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "In California, the top two finishers in primary elections advance to the general in November, unless in the rare case when two candidates are tied.
But c’mon, that never happens, right?"
READ MORE -- Every vote counts. Just ask these two candidates tied with exactly 30,249 votes each -- CALMatters's YU STELLA YUE
S.F. mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin is a YIMBY target. Here’s what his housing record reveals
The Chronicle's JK DINEEN: "A month before Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced his candidacy for mayor, London Breed stood on the steps of City Hall flanked by a dozen yellow-vested carpenters and delivered a scathing assessment of her soon-to-be rival’s approach to housing.
“What Supervisor Peskin is trying to do is what he’s always done, the NIMBY that he is, and that is to destroy housing production,” Breed chargved. “I am sick of his shenanigans.”"
We must invest in California’s ports to lead on climate & offshore wind (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly's MIKE GIPSON: "California ports have long been essential to our state’s growth and economic development.
The ports of San Francisco and Sacramento supplied the Gold Rush, spurring rapid population growth and, ultimately, statehood in 1850. Today, our ports are key to California’s standing as the world’s fifth largest economy."
L.A. County faces $12.5 billion in climate costs through 2040, study says
LAT's HAYLEY SMITH: "A first-of-its-kind report has estimated that Los Angeles County must invest billions of dollars through 2040 to protect residents from worsening climate hazards, including extreme heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea levels and climate-induced public health threats.
The report, published this week by the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, identified 14 different climate adaptation measures that authors calculated would cost L.A. taxpayers at least $12.5 billion over the next 15 years, or approximately $780 million per year. The vast majority of those costs — more than $9 billion — will be incurred by local municipal governments, including the cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Clarita, the report said."
PG&E CEO, other execs with utility titan, land higher compensation
BANG*Mercury News's GEORGE AVALOS: "PG&E handed out higher executive compensation for the utility leviathan’s top boss and other key execs in 2023, pay increases that arrive at a time of soaring monthly bills and rising profits.
Patricia Poppe, chief executive officer at PG&E, was among the top executives who harvested an increase in total direct compensation, a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows."
Coldest storm of the year hits Southern California with snow and rain
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY: "A cold, Pacific storm hit Southern California Friday, bringing winter-like temperatures and the lowest-elevation snow so far this year, posing a risk for drivers on several mountain roads, according to weather forecasters.
Temperatures at elevations as low as 3,000 feet could reach freezing levels by late Thursday and Friday across the Southland — the lowest elevation for snow seen this winter and spring season, said Rich Thompson, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard."
READ MORE -- As a winter storm pounded Northern California, this Sacramento mother gave birth on I-80 -- ISHANI DE SAI
Bill to mandate ‘science of reading’ in California schools faces teachers union opposition
EdSource's DIANA LAMBERT, JOHN FENSTERWALD and ZAIDEE STAVELY: "California’s largest teachers union has moved to put the brakes on legislation that mandates instruction, known as the “science of reading,” that spotlights phonics to teach children to read.
The move by the politically powerful California Teachers Association (CTA) puts the fate of Assembly Bill 2222 in question as supporters insist that there is room to negotiate changes that will bring opponents together."
Stanford names new president 9 months after predecessor’s resignation
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "Stanford University announced Thursday that it has chosen the dean of its business school — an economist and member of President Joe Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — as its 13th president, ending a seven-month search for a permanent head to replace Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who resigned in July.
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Jonathan Levin, 51, will take over for interim President Richard Saller on Aug. 1."
Why does California have the nation’s highest unemployment rate? Three sectors were hit hard
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "California’s unemployment rate was the nation’s highest in February, as the high cost of living and the loss of construction, machinery and agriculture jobs hit hard. The state’s jobless rate in February, the latest data available, was 5.3%, up from 5.2% in January and 4.5% a year earlier.
The seasonally adjusted national rate was 3.9% that month. Nevada, at 5.2%, had the second highest state rate. North Dakota, at 2%, was lowest, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
California’s wealthiest farm family — and scores of their workers — accuse UFW of bait and trick
LAT's REBECCA PLEVIN and MELISSA GOMEZ: "The revelation that United Farm Workers would be representing workers at a Kern County company owned by the state’s wealthiest farming family should have been a triumphant moment for the storied union co-founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Following decades of diminishing membership in the vast stretches of California’s farm fields, the UFW had seized on a new way to unionize workers, made possible by recent state legislation. Rather than hold a formal election at a company job site, union leaders had invited employees at Wonderful Nurseries, the nation’s largest grapevine nursery, to off-site meetings where they were instructed in how to apply for $600 in federal relief for farmworkers who labored during the pandemic, as well as encouraged to sign cards authorizing the UFW to represent them at Wonderful."
Apple lays off hundreds of Bay Area workers in first mass cuts since the pandemic
The Chronicle's ROLAND LI: "Apple is laying off 614 employees in Santa Clara as part of its first mass job cuts in years, according to a state filing.
An attorney for the tech giant wrote that the layoffs are effective on May 27, in a letter last week to the California Employment Development Department."
99 Cents Only to close all 371 stores and wind down its business
LAT's ANDREA CHANG and LAURENCE DARMIENTO: "99 Cents Only Stores will close all 371 of its stores and wind down its business operations after more than four decades, the City of Commerce discount chain announced Thursday.
“This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,” interim Chief Executive Mike Simoncic said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment.”"
Inside the gambling ring linked to Ohtani -- as told by two bettors themselves
LAT's DAVID WHARTON and NATHAN FENNO: "For all its complexities, all its twists and turns, the gambling scandal that has engulfed Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani raises a simple question.
In this era of DraftKings and FanDuel, when so many people across the nation can place wagers with a few taps on the phone, why would anyone use an illegal bookie?"
A Black couple defied racism by renting to a Chinese family. Now comes $5 million in thanks
LAT's ASHLEY AHN: "Every morning, Lloyd Dong Sr. would take the ferry from San Diego to Coronado, where he worked as a gardener for wealthy homeowners. And every night, he would retreat back home across the bay, barred by racially restrictive housing practices in the early 1900s from renting or buying his own house in the town.
Gus and Emma Thompson — a Black couple who had managed to secure ownership of Coronado property before restrictions took hold — boldly rented a house they owned to the Dong family, whose Chinese heritage blocked them from living in the community. The intersection of these two families amid the embedded racism of the time would decades later become a story of gratitude, made possible by the very home that once belonged to the Thompsons."
San Bernardino County deputy had a double life with a motorcycle gang, police say
LAT's MATT HAMILTON: "For years, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Christopher Bingham had two jobs: as a law enforcement officer in the Inland Empire, and as the owner of a gun store in Twentynine Palms.
But authorities on Thursday said Bingham had more than two jobs — he had a double life that was complicated and illicit. He’s accused of being a member of a local outlaw motorcycle gang and committing numerous firearms crimes in connection with the gang’s enterprise, including stealing a shotgun from his own Sheriff’s Department."
