California’s about to get its first big atmospheric river of the season. Here’s where it’s going
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY: "The strongest atmospheric river to hit California in months is expected to dump rain and snow across the northern half of the state this week — also bringing high winds and possible flooding — before eventually making its way south, forecasters say.
“This is going to be the first major storm of the season,” said Dial Hoang, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey. The low pressure system off the Pacific Northwest coast driving this storm will begin rapidly intensifying Tuesday — reaching the threshold of a bomb cyclone — which will drastically increase its moisture and strength."
READ MORE -- Will the atmospheric river bring extreme impacts to Bay Area? Here's how to know -- The Chronicle's GREG PORTER
News Analysis: If Democrats want to win back the American people, does California need to stand down?
LAT's TARYN LUNA, SEEMA MEHTA: "After voters across the nation chose President-elect Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned against buying into the first wave of hot takes and “punditry” about what went wrong for Democrats.
“I think this will reveal itself, and I think we have a responsibility to interrogate ourselves. I’m not naive about that, and that includes all of us, individually,” Newsom said in a video address. “We have to look into the mirror and really reflect on what happened more broadly.”"
Why legislators want more options than aye, no or not voting
Capitol Weekly's BRIAN JOSEPH: "For lawmakers who are loath to vote “no,” Adam Gray has become something of a rallying cry for legislative reform.
Twice, California Democrats have deemed the former Assemblymember their best bet to take the highly competitive 13th Congressional District. And twice Republicans have hammered him for an unremarkable aspect of his legislative record."
Lobbying activity this past summer cost a record-breaking $168 million. Here’s what we know.
CALMatters's JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "Big Tech and Big Oil drove a record-setting lobbying blitz this summer that saw nearly $168 million spent to influence state policymakers in just the third quarter of this year.
That’s up from this past spring, the previous quarter, when another record was set with more than $131 million spent on lobbying by labor unions, companies and nonprofit organizations, according to a CalMatters analysis of data from the California Secretary of State."
Native Americans press Biden to designate three new national monuments in California
LAT's LILA SEIDMAN: "A Native American-led coalition is pressing the Biden administration to designate three new national monuments in California, with some fearing the chance to protect these areas from mining, drilling and logging could be jeopardized after President-elect Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20.
The lands being sought for monument status encompass more than 1.2 million acres, the largest being the proposed Chuckwalla national monument on more than 620,000 acres stretching from the Coachella Valley near the Salton Sea to the Colorado River. Backers led by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians and other tribes also want neighboring Joshua Tree National Park expanded by nearly 18,000 acres."
A California Republican won a seat he didn’t want. Now taxpayers are paying for a new election
CALMatters's RYAN SABALOW: "San Joaquin Valley Republican Vince Fong was on the ballot this fall for an Assembly race, but he didn’t want to win it. After all, he left that job for Congress earlier this year, and he planned to stay in the nation’s capital.
He even went so far as to endorse the Bakersfield city councilmember who was listed as running against him on the November ballot."
Meet S.F. mayor-elect Daniel Lurie’s secret weapon: His wife, Becca Prowda
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Daniel Lurie won the San Francisco mayor’s race after pitching himself as an outsider promising to shake up City Hall. But his wife, Becca Prowda, is a consummate political insider whose considerable government savvy is poised to make her a powerful force in her husband’s administration.
Prowda served as an aide to Gavin Newsom during his tenure as San Francisco mayor and is now his chief of protocol in Sacramento. People who have worked with her described her as personable and gracious, as comfortable campaigning door-to-door as she is chatting with diplomats on overseas trips with the governor."
LAUSD poised to declare immigrant sanctuary, affirm LGBTQ+ rights as it braces for Trump
LAT's HOWARD BLUME: "Bracing for the return of President-elect Donald Trump, the Los Angeles school board is moving quickly to reaffirm the nation’s second-largest school system as a sanctuary for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community and to propose a new high school course delving into current political events.
These efforts are coming forward at the Tuesday meeting of the Board of Education in four emergency resolutions sponsored by board President Jackie Goldberg in her last regular public board meeting before her retirement."
Lawsuits charge antisemitism, civil rights violations at California charter school and high school district
EdSource's JOHN FENSTERWALD: "The parents of a former student of a San Jose charter school and six families in a wealthy Bay Area high school district have filed separate lawsuits charging “rampant” civil rights violations resulting from bullying, taunting, ostracism and other forms of antisemitic conduct. In the lawsuit brought against the Sequoia Union High School District, the families claim school officials ignored and showed “a deliberate indifference to the problem.”
The second lawsuit was filed against University Prep Academy in San Jose."
Covered California starts offering health care to DACA immigrants. Will Trump’s win deter them?
CALMatters's ANA B. IBARRA: "For the first time since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children can purchase subsidized health plans through Covered California, the state’s insurance marketplace.
This move is expected to provide relief to thousands of so-called Dreamers, especially those who are freelancers, self-employed or have no other means of health coverage."
S.F. overdose deaths hit ‘remarkable’ new low
The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO: "The number of people who died from accidental drug overdoses in San Francisco fell in October to 32, the lowest number since the city began releasing monthly death figures in 2020 — a continuation of what officials called “remarkable” progress against the deadly fentanyl crisis.
The preliminary figures, released Monday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, mark a 20% year-to-date decline compared to 2023. The preliminary numbers are likely to rise a bit once they become final."
This California city is fluoride-free. Dentists there worry about the trend spreading
The Chronicle's MOLLY BURKE: "With President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, many Americans are wondering whether they’re in for a future without fluoridated water.
Kennedy, who has widely spread falsehoods about vaccines causing autism and other medical claims, has vowed that the Trump administration will “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water” as soon as the 47th presidency begins."
Potent tree-killing disease reemerges in the Bay Area
The Chronicle's KURTIS ALEXANDER: "The tree disease that exploded in Bay Area forests three decades ago, stunning residents with vast die-offs in parks and neighborhoods before slowing, has opened a new front with a second, potentially more potent microbe now on the attack.
Researchers at UC Berkeley say they recently uncovered at least four outbreaks of sudden oak death caused by a different genetic lineage of the fungus-like pathogen that was previously known to propel the disease in California."
With Trump vowing deportations, workers in Los Angeles race the clock for a reprieve
LAT's SUHAUNA HUSSAIN: "A line of immigrant workers formed outside an office building in Koreatown on a recent Friday afternoon.
They followed makeshift signs to a small courtyard, where scores of volunteer lawyers, translators and other staff helped them apply for a little-known federal program that offers an unusual — and probably fleeting — reprieve from deportation."
How the second Trump administration could affect the housing market
LAT's ANDREW KHOURI: "Across Southern California, and for that matter much of the country, housing is unaffordable for many, whether someone is trying to buy a house or rent an apartment.
Voter concern over the nation’s cost of living, including housing, appears to have played a big role in returning Donald Trump to the White House."
Does your S.F. landlord have the necessary license to raise rent? Here's how to check
The Chronicle's EMMA STIEFEL: "As of 2023, all rent-controlled landlords in San Francisco have one more box to check off before they can raise rents: submitting property information to San Francisco’s Housing Inventory. Landlords must report yearly to receive a license for the annual allowable rent increase, which is currently 1.7%. Many of them don’t have it.
According to the San Francisco Rent Board, about 47% of the 202,000 residential units that paid the Rent Board fee obtained a rent increase license for 2024. The Rent Board fee applies to most units that are not owner-occupied, regardless of whether they are rent-controlled, with some exemptions."
