Bay Area heat peaks Thursday with 105-degree temperatures in these cities
The Chronicle's ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Dangerously hot weather returns to the inland Bay Area on Thursday as a strong area of high pressure flexes its muscles one last time over Northern and Central California. The extreme heat will continue for two more days before a low-pressure system kicks the heat dome to the east.
Thursday’s highs are forecast to reach triple digits in the East Bay and South Bay valleys, and flirt with triple digits in the North Bay. Vacaville, Antioch, Livermore, Pleasanton, Concord and Fairfield may hit or exceed 105 degrees."
READ MORE -- How Death Valley National Park tries to keep visitors alive amid record heat -- LAT's NOAH HAGGERTY
California has just approved a new blueprint for offshore wind. The massive projects will cost billions
CALMatters's JULIE CART: "The California Energy Commission today unanimously approved a sweeping plan to develop a massive floating offshore wind industry in ocean waters — a first-of-its-kind undertaking that will require billions in public and private investments and could transform parts of the coast.
The new state plan sets the path for harnessing wind power from hundreds of giant turbines, each as tall as a 70-story building, floating in the ocean about 20 miles off Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay. The untapped energy is expected to become a major power source as California electrifies vehicles and switches to clean energy."
California home insurance: Allstate requests largest rate hike seen in current crisis
The Chronicle's MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "Allstate, one of California’s largest home insurers, is asking to raise its homeowners insurance rates by an average of 34.1% later this year.
If regulators approve the filing without changes, which is uncertain, it would be the largest rate increase by a major insurer in the past three years. The request is larger than the 30% average increase that State Farm, California’s largest insurer, is seeking."
Is Biden’s slump dooming Democratic chances in 2024?
PAUL MITCHELL in Capitol Weekly: "During this week’s back and forth about the future of the Biden nomination, California Congressman Mark Takano cited low Biden polling in his Inland Empire district as a reason for Democrats to find an alternative presidential nominee for November.
In 2020 Biden won the Takano district by 26-points. And if Biden is losing this seat, one could presume he is also losing in other blue-to-purple districts such as Pete Aguilar’s CA 33 (+25-pt Biden), Jim Costa’s CA 21 (+20-pt Biden), Julia Brownley’s CA 26(+20-pt Biden), Ami Bera’s CA 6 (+18-pt Biden), Raul Ruiz’ CA 25 (+15-pt Biden), Josh Harder’s CA 9 (+13-pt Biden), Mike Levin’s CA 47 (+11-pt Biden), and the open seat, currently held by Katie Porter, CA 9 (+11-pt Biden)."
California congressman raises concerns on Feb. meeting with Biden: ‘Controlled and different’
The Chronicle's SHIRA STEIN: "When President Joe Biden sat down with Democratic House members for a yearly “issues conference” in February, the meeting was more tightly controlled than in previous years in which Biden and President Barack Obama before him had participated, one member of Congress told the Chronicle.
The incident has taken on new meaning for that House member as Biden, 81, faces intense scrutiny about the viability of his candidacy and whether he can ably serve another four years in office."
Gavin Newsom for president? Tallying up his assets and liabilities
CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF, YUE STELLA YU: "In the nearly two weeks since President Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance in a televised debate, the Democratic freakout over whether he can continue as their presumptive presidential nominee has not abated.
Even as Biden insists that he is committed to finishing out the race, speculation continues among the party faithful and political observers over who might be best positioned to defeat Republican former President Donald Trump instead. Among those frequently cited is California’s own Gov. Gavin Newsom, a dedicated Biden surrogate who recently completed a tour on the president’s behalf through Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire."
‘I can’t believe you have been nominated’: Republican senators grill Bay Area judicial nominee
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "An Alameda County judge nominated by President Joe Biden to a federal judgeship was attacked Wednesday by Senate Republicans, who portrayed her writings about intersex and transgender children as a denial of the difference between males and females.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Noël Wise was questioned about her writings that described the difficulties doctors face in classifying babies who are born intersex or with genetic ambiguities."
The Supreme Court took powers away from federal regulators. Do California rules offer a backstop?
CALMatters's BEN CHRISTOPHER: "Tucked between headline-grabbing opinions on presidential immunity, Jan. 6 rioters and homeless encampments, the U.S. Supreme Court closed out a momentous session late last month with a series of body blows to the federal bureaucracy.
Under three back-to-back rulings, regulations that touch nearly every aspect of the American economy and American life (see: rules on food safety, water quality, overtime pay, medical billing, carbon emissions, fisheries monitoring and housing discrimination, to name a few) may soon be harder to enforce, more convenient to challenge in court and easier to strike down once challenged. For the conservative legal movement and for major business interests who bristle under what they see as an overreaching federal regulatory apparatus, the rulings mark a once-in-a-generation victory against the “administrative state.”"
California limits pay-to-play politics in local elections, but federal law enables a loophole
Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "California has limited the amount a local candidate can accept from an individual donor before they must abstain from voting on issues that benefit that contributor, but independent expenditures offer a limitless alternative for individuals and groups that want to advocate for the election of candidates and the passage of measures that advance their agendas.
“People who want to obfuscate who they are and why they’re giving are going to give to an IE,” said Sean McMorris of the transparency organization California Common Cause. “(Electeds) can more legitimately say, ‘their money doesn’t affect my vote.’ Whether the public believes it or not is up to them.”"
READ MORE -- California lawmakers enacted a bill to limit local pay-to-play politics. Is it working in Sacramento? -- Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT
L.A. County battery recycler on the verge of becoming California’s next Superfund site
LAT's TONY BRISCOE: "A battery recycling plant in southeast Los Angeles County is one step closer to becoming a Superfund site after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined it contains enough hazardous waste to qualify and California officials welcomed federal assistance.
For nearly a century, the former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon melted down lead-acid car batteries, leaving as many as 10,000 properties coated in brain-damaging lead dust, according to state environmental regulators."
Reflections on CA’s approach to budgeting after a decade of growth (OP-ED)
BEN GOLDBLATT in Capitol Weekly: "The State of California General Fund budget more than doubled in size from $96.3 billion in fiscal year 2014 to $225.9 billion in fiscal year 2024 while the state population remained essentially flat. Do residents feel their state government services have doubled during this period? I doubt it.
An obvious counterpoint is that government services disproportionately benefit low-income and other disadvantaged individuals so the increase in resources is concentrated there. However, this group hasn’t benefitted by an increase in government services by 2x either. On the contrary, conditions have worsened for our state’s most disadvantaged individuals. The estimated number of people experiencing homelessness in the state in 2014 and 2023 were 113,952 and 181,399, respectively. It is true that increased revenues have been directed to higher expenditures associated with inflation. However, inflation only accounts for some of that. Based on a calculation using annual CPI rates, cumulative US inflation has been 32.5% from 2014 to 2024—not over 100%."
Doctors said cutting countertops destroyed his lungs. He had to fight for workers’ comp
LAT's EMILY ALPERT REYES/ANGIE ORELLANA HERNANDEZ: "By the time that Dennys Rene Rivas Williams had fallen so ill that he needed new lungs, physicians at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center expressed little doubt about what was to blame for his sickness.
Doctors had diagnosed the 36-year-old with silicosis: an incurable disease caused by inhaling tiny bits of lung-scarring silica. It was an affliction that had debilitated dozens of workers in Los Angeles County like him, who had toiled cutting countertops bound for kitchens and bathrooms."
With COVID summer wave under way, when should you get your next vaccine shot?
The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO: "With the COVID pandemic now in its fifth year, millions of Americans have largely returned to their previous lives, with one exception: figuring out when to get their next COVID shot.
For a while, the answer seemed simple: once a year, in the fall, when an updated vaccine comes out that’s tailored to target the coronavirus strain that federal health officials believe will be circulating then."
UC students show hardening attitudes toward Israel but steady opinion of Jews in survey
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "The longer students remain at the University of California, the harsher their views become towards Israel — but not towards Jews — a new survey of more than 2,000 students at four UC campuses has found.
The results, released Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League, an international civil-rights group that fights antisemitism, found that fourth-year students held stronger views against Israel than did first-year students on such questions as whether the U.S. should impose sanctions on the country and who was more responsible for violence during the last three years, Israelis or Palestinians."
What happens now that West Contra Costa school board failed to pass budget?
EdSource's MONICA VELEZ: "Most school districts across California have already approved budgets for the upcoming school year along with a required planning document that gives a road map on how funds should be spent. It’s a routine process that by state law must happen by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
But what happens when a board fails to approve both by the deadline?"
Bay Area group says California Forever’s new city could help Solano County grow jobs, housing
The Chronicle's JK DINEEN: "The Bay Area Council has advocated for infill housing development for decades, arguing that building homes in population centers next to jobs and transit is far preferable to the freeway-clogging greenfield projects built on raw land in exurbs like Mountain House or Tracy.
But, in an unexpected new report, the powerful business-backed institute suggests that California Forever’s proposal to build a major city on 17,500 acres of ranchland in eastern Solano County may be big and bold enough to actually do what other “greenfield” communities like Mountain House in San Joaquin County have promised but failed to do: Create an integrated community with a diversified economy and affordable housing."
Passed over for promotions, no jobs in sight: Some deaf Californians question what’s fair
CALMatters's ADAM ECHELMAN: "Lisa Peterson interviewed first at Kohl’s, then at TJ Maxx and Target. She applied for jobs at Raley’s, Safeway, Applebee’s, and Olive Garden, too. Once, she advanced to a second interview at the Cheesecake Factory, but like the rest, no job offer followed.
Peterson is 60 years old, with white hair that falls just below her shoulders. She holds her hands near her face, wiggling her fingers as she pauses to recall months spent searching for an entry-level job."
Film and TV crews protest long hours, overnight shifts. ‘We are dying to entertain people’
LAT's CHRISTI CARRAS: "Gathered around a table stacked with battery-operated candles inside plastic cups, Hollywood crew members traded memories of their late colleagues and vented about their working conditions.
When a property assistant posed the question, “How many of you have had a near-miss driving home from work?” the hands of every person in the Burbank parking lot sprang up."
