Yet another same-sex wedding cake case will test California civil rights law
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "Once again, a wedding cake could re-draw the boundaries between civil rights laws and religious protections.
Over the last six years, the Supreme Court has allowed business owners in two separate cases to refuse to design wedding cakes for gay and lesbian couples. A California case takes those religious protections even further, by testing whether a business owner can refuse to allow a same-sex couple to simply purchase a standard product – with no customization – because of the owner’s religious views."
S.F. political operative resigns post after new sexual assault and domestic violence allegations arise
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY, SUSIE NEILSON: "Three years after a tenants rights activist alleged that city commissioner and affordable housing official Jon Jacobo had raped her, three additional women have come forward to accuse the once-rising San Francisco political star of sexual assault or domestic violence, according to a report published Tuesday in the San Francisco Standard.
Hours after the report was published, Jacobo resigned from his leadership position at TODCO Group, a San Francisco-based affordable housing nonprofit."
Rising Stars: Loyal Terry, Assembly Fellow, office of Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry
Capitol Weekly's MOLLY JACOBY: "Loyal Terry, Assembly Fellow for Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), attends our virtual interview adorned in a cowboy hat and a green tie with bandana designs, sporting his own twist to country attire as he prepares for Ag Day at the Capitol. For Terry, authenticity is key.
In his work, Terry takes inspiration from the lived experiences of his late father, his aunts and uncles, and himself. Terry approaches policy from a holistic perspective, having experienced how housing, transportation, health, and more intersect to impact working-class people."
Beavers are our partners in protecting and restoring California (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly's KATE LUNDQUIST, BROCK DOLMAN: "If you’re like us, you’re inspired by the natural world and eager to see California’s beautiful mountains, forests, and lakes protected for future generations. You also might be surprised to hear that the health and survival of these places depends on one species more than most: beavers. Put simply, beavers are our partners in protecting and restoring California.
Beavers are known as a “keystone species,” meaning they create, modify, and maintain critical ecosystems for insects, birds, mammals, fish, plants, and trees. In fact, 50% of North America’s threatened or endangered species are highly dependent upon beavers for their survival. Beavers primarily live in riparian areas such as rivers, wetlands, and mountain meadows, areas which are similarly known as “keystone ecosystems.” When these habitats are healthy and thriving, this has disproportionate benefits for other ecosystems too. As a result, preserving riparian areas can have an outsized impact on conservation efforts locally and statewide."
California hospitals keep closing their labor wards. Can lawmakers do anything about it?
CALMatters's KRISTEN HWANG: "In just the first few months of 2024, four California hospitals have closed or announced plans to close their maternity wards.
The closures are part of an accelerating trend unfolding across the state, creating maternity care deserts and decreasing access to prenatal care. In the past three years, 29 hospitals stopped delivering babies, according to a CalMatters investigation on maternity ward closures. Nearly 50 obstetrics departments have closed over the past decade."
$100,000 a year? How California colleges compare to most expensive schools in country
The Chronicle's DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Several New England colleges have made headlines recently for soaring price tags, with a year’s tuition and costs topping $90,000 for the coming school year. Data shows that some California colleges are not far off, costing just as much or more for students who are required to pay top dollar.
While Tufts University in Boston comes out above most California universities — with a year’s tuition, housing and other expenses topping $96,000, according to a CNN report — Pepperdine and the University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles County, are not far behind, each with total costs around $95,200, according to the universities’ websites."
USC valedictorian’s grad speech is canceled: ‘The university has betrayed me’
LAT's JAWEED KALEEM: "When Asna Tabassum learned that USC had barred her from speaking at next month’s graduation, she hadn’t yet planned what she would say in her remarks, beyond that she would convey a message of hope.
University leaders who announced the decision Monday, after pro-Israel groups criticized a link on Tabassum’s Instagram page as evidence of her being antisemitic, didn’t know the theme of her speech because she hadn’t shared it with them, the class valedictorian said an interview with the Times on Tuesday."
Yosemite’s famous High Sierra camps, closed for 5 years, will reopen this summer
The Chronicle's GREGORY THOMAS: "Yosemite’s historic High Sierra Camps, which have served as a springboard into the national park’s backcountry for generations of Bay Areans, are slated to reopen this summer after being closed the past five years.
Established a century ago and supplied by pack mules, the five rustic camps are set about 8 miles apart and form a large hiking loop through the granite wilderness east of Yosemite Valley and into Tuolumne Meadows."
California’s fastest-growing city has built a $400 million school. Here’s a look inside
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "The brand new Bay Area high school, with verdant spring-green hillsides in the distance, doesn’t look real.
It looks like a mirage, an educational oasis in contrast to the thousands of aging public schools across the region desperate for critical upgrades and modern amenities."
Renters across L.A. are under strain and many fear becoming homeless, survey finds
LAT's PALOMA ESQUIVEL: "Nearly 4 in 10 renters in Los Angeles County have worried about losing their homes and becoming homeless in the last few years, according to the results of a new survey from UCLA. A similar share have worried that they or their family would go hungry because they cannot afford the cost of food.
The 2024 Quality of Life Index, prepared by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, suggests that the county‘s renters are feeling particularly intense strain from the steep cost of housing combined with inflation."
O.J. Simpson never paid the Goldmans the millions he owed them. Can they finally collect?
LAT's HANNAH FRY: "For the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, it has been nearly three decades of court fights, painstaking forensic accounting, detective work and, ultimately, frustration.
The goal: Make O.J. Simpson pay."
Massive Disneyland expansion to add new rides, restaurants and hotels wins OK
LAT's SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, RUBEN VIVES: "The Anaheim City Council unanimously approved Disneyland’s multibillion-dollar expansion plan early Wednesday, allowing the theme park to build new attractions, shops and restaurants within its current properties while allocating millions for local projects.
The council voted 7-0 following presentations and public comments from more than 200 people, including residents, Disney employees, city officials, business associations and union groups that ran into the early hours Wednesday."
Pacific Coast Highway could get speed cameras following deaths of 4 Pepperdine students
CALMatters's RYAN SABALOW: "Barry Stewart’s daughter and her three friends from Pepperdine University died when a young man allegedly driving 104 mph down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu crashed into them in his mother’s BMW.
Six months later, Stewart sat last week beside Malibu’s state senator, Ben Allen, and urged lawmakers to approve a bill that would add Malibu to a short list of California cities testing out automated cameras to ticket speeders."
