California wants to go carbon-negative. No one knows the cost
The Chronicle's DAVID R. BAKER: "By the middle of this century, Gov. Jerry Brown wants California to pull more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere every year than it puts in."
"That vision will almost certainly cost Californians. No one can say how much, however, because no one quite knows how we’ll achieve it."
"California has years of experience ramping up its use of renewable power, plugging ever more solar plants and wind turbines into the grid."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: How to fly to a climate change summit? In a private, carbon-spewing jet -- The Chronicle's MATIER & ROSS; Mysterious great white shark lair discovered in Pacific Ocean -- The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE; Can we operate the Colorado River differently amid climate change? -- Water Deeply's MATT WEISER
UC hospitals, nurses' union have tentative five-year deal that would boost pay 15%
Sacramento Bee's CASSIE DICKMAN: "After almost two years of negotiations, the California Nurses Association announced Saturday that it has a tentative contract agreement with the University of California that would boost pay 15 percent over five years."
"We are so proud of our nurse leadership for standing up for our patients, families and community,” bargaining team member Valerie Ewald, a UCLA-Santa Monica registered nurse, said in a CNA press release. “This victory would not be possible without the dedication and sacrifice we’ve made through the last 20 months of this contract fight."
"If approved by union members, the new contract would cover 14,000 registered nurses working at five UC medical centers, 10 student health centers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory through October 2020, the press release said. CNA union members will begin voting on the deal sometime next week, the release said."
Border Patrol agent charged with murdering 4
AP's JUAN A. LOZANO: "A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor was charged Saturday with murder in the deaths of four female sex workers following what authorities called a two-week killing spree that ended when a fifth woman escaped from him at a Texas gas station and found help."
"Webb County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz said in a tweet that Juan David Ortiz, 35, an intel supervisor for the Border Patrol, had been charged with four counts of murder as well as aggravated assault and unlawful restraint."
'There is no justice yet.' Six months after Stephon Clark, Sacramento still seeks answers
Sacramento Bee's ANITA CHABRIA/MOLLY SULLIVAN/PHILLIP REESE: "Two teenage boys walked home from school through south Sacramento recently, passing the house where Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, was killed by police in March."
"On a street that has seen better days, neither noticed the aging brick and stucco home nor the new fence blocking off the backyard where officers apparently mistook Clark’s cell phone for a gun and fired 20 rounds at him, hitting him at least seven times."
"One barely knew who Clark was. The other did not."
BART cutting early morning serviced during seismic work on tube
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "BART is preparing for the type of earthquake that happens once in a thousand years — a jolt so great it would rupture the walls of the existing Transbay Tube and cause water to pour in from the bay."
"To prevent such a catastrophe, the agency will begin a major four-year retrofit in February that is likely to cause a different type of tremor, disrupting commutes for nearly 3,000 early risers. And some of them aren’t happy."
"During the construction period, BART will run three express bus services to ferry about 2,900 passengers — service workers, stockbrokers and others — to their jobs. The buses will run between 3:50 and 4:40 a.m. from 12 stations throughout the Bay Area, with most routes ending at Transbay Transit Center in SOMA."
As opioid death toll worsens, California doctors will soon be required to perform database checks
LA Times's KRISTINA DAVIS: "By the time the 59-year-old woman overdosed in the late summer of 2013, she’d been given 75 prescriptions by three primary care doctors, a psychiatrist and a pain specialist in one year."
"Her deadly cocktail: an opioid painkiller, a sleeping aid and anti-anxiety medication."
Police chiefs warn of increased crime if California allows pot deliveries statewide
LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "The prospect of vans loaded with pot delivering to homes in quiet Morgan Hill makes Police Chief David Swing uneasy."
"Like most cities in the state, the upscale San Jose suburb has banned pot shops. But now, as California considers a proposal to allow marijuana businesses to send home-delivery vans into communities where retail stores are prohibited, Swing and others in law enforcement say they are preparing for the worst."
“This will make it easier and more lucrative to rob a delivery person than a liquor store,” said Swing, who is president of the California Police Chiefs Assn. He notes drivers would be allowed to carry up to $10,000 in cash. “Robberies are the tip of the iceberg. They can lead to other crimes, including aggravated assaults and homicides.”
Anger in California's carpool lanes, as up to 200,000 drivers set to lose clean-air decals
LA Times's LAURA NEWBERRY: "For some California commuters, cutting down on carbon emissions isn’t a sexy enough reason to buy an electric car. But the ability to bypass freeway traffic without having to carpool — that’s another story."
"So there is grumbling in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes across California these days. On Jan. 1, the owners of as many as 220,000 low- and zero-emission vehicles stand to lose the white and green clean-air decals that allow them to drive solo in the diamond lanes."
"The decal program was designed to get more clean-air vehicles on state roadways. But it also clogged the lanes, sometimes to the point of gridlock."
Navy's Hunters Point retesting plan draws on questionable cost-cutting study
The Chronicle's JASON FAGONE/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "The U.S. Navy’s latest promise to clean up radioactive soil and buildings at its former San Francisco shipyard relies on an earlier Navy effort to remove less radioactivity in order to cut costs, The Chronicle has learned."
"The perplexing move has complicated the already-troubled project to rid the site of harmful radioactivity, provoking criticism from multiple government agencies that oversee the cleanup, as well as environmental groups. At stake is the city’s dream of one day filling the shipyard’s derelict land with thousands of new homes and businesses — San Francisco’s most ambitious redevelopment project in more than a century."
"A 2012 report obtained by The Chronicle details some of the Navy’s reasoning behind its new approach to the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Back around 2010, the Navy was spending a lot of money to dig up and haul away radioactive waste at the shipyard. It paid a major defense contractor to help it find ways of saving money. The resulting report suggested changes to cleanup rules. These changes would reduce costs by allowing the Navy to declare that more soil at the site does not pose a risk and therefore does not need to be removed."
SF Muni's Twin Peaks Tunnel now has automatic control system problems
The Chronicle's MATIER & ROSS: "The big $41 million overhaul of San Francisco’s Twin Peaks Tunnel appears to have been hit with the Muni curse."
"The project drew the ire of Mayor London Breed when Muni underestimated the number of buses needed to ferry commuters around the tunnel and track rebuild."
"Then a private contractor was struck and killed by a steel beam in early August as work wrapped up inside the tunnel. And after the job was finally completed in late August, there were a couple of glitches with the signals that caused the trains to stop as they entered the tunnel."
Palo Alto woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct steps into spotlight
The Chronicle's SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: "President Trump’s bid to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was thrown into uncertainty Sunday as a Bay Area woman came forward with explosive allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers more than three decades ago."
"Christine Blasey Ford, 51, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University, said in an interview with the Washington Post that during a high school party in the early 1980s, a drunken Kavanaugh pinned her on a bed, groped her and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming."
"I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing."
READ MORE related to SCOTUS: Kavanaugh's accuser is willing to testify, attorney says -- LA Times's JENNIFER HABERKORN
Oldest US nuclear plant is shutting down on Monday
AP's WAYNE PARRY: "America's oldest nuclear power plant is shutting down Monday."
"The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey will go offline at some point before 1 p.m., although officials will not say precisely when."
"Oyster Creek went online Dec. 1, 1969, the same day as the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station near Oswego, New York."
https://calmatters.org/articles/commentary/study-provides-new-ammo-for-k-12-school-battle/
