California jail population plummets during pandemic. Could this lead to long-term change?
From SacBee's JASON POHL: "California’s long history of altering its criminal justice system — from requiring life in prison for third-strike offenders to reducing the punishment for hundreds of crimes — is having another moment that could dramatically alter how the state locks people up.
In a seismic, almost overnight shift, California has jailed 21,700 fewer people — nearly one-third of its daily population — in county lockups since the new coronavirus hit the state. Prisons are holding about 5,500 fewer inmates than they did in late March.
The state has reduced bail to $0 for low-level offenses and sheriffs have cleared space in their jails to allow for better physical distancing. At the same time, fewer people are being arrested — jails are seeing less than half the number of weekly bookings than before the pandemic."
High court rejects challenge to state law favouring local district elections
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "The Supreme Court rejected a conservative challenge Tuesday to the California Voting Rights Act, which seeks to enhance minority representation by requiring many local governments to switch from at-large elections to district elections.
The 2002 law applies to local governments, school boards and other agencies where evidence shows that a majority group has historically voted as a block to elect its own candidates, or to pass race-based ballot measures opposed by minorities. If so, they must stop electing representatives at large, from their entire area, and instead choose candidates from individual districts, which may have different racial and ethnic majorities.
The law has been used in recent years to redraw many local election maps, particularly in school districts, sometimes resulting in the first elections of Latino or other minority candidates to governing boards in decades. Opponents said nearly 200 local governments have been affected. San Francisco acted earlier, switching from at-large to district elections under a local ballot measure that took effect in 2000."
Trump targets California in latest attack on mail-in voting
LA Times's CHRIS MEGERIAN/ELI STOKOLS/NOAH BIERMAN: "Facing a potentially difficult path to reelection, President Trump on Tuesday expanded his attacks on states using mail-in ballots, a scorched-earth campaign that could undermine confidence in the democratic process as the novel coronavirus threatens to make in-person voting more dangerous.
The president targeted California in particular, where Republicans are suing Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to block his plan to send mail ballots to every registered voter.
Trump falsely accused the state of distributing ballots to “people who aren’t citizens, illegals” and “anybody who is walking or breathing.” Citing no proof, he warned that people would print fake ballots and send them in “by the hundreds of thousands."
Big Oil loses appeal to stop climate lawsuits from going to court in California
AP: "Big Oil lost a pair of court battles Tuesday that could lead to trials in lawsuits by California cities and counties seeking damages for the impact of climate change.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by energy companies and ruled that state courts are the proper forum for lawsuits alleging that producers promoted petroleum as environmentally responsible when they knew it was contributing to drought, wildfires and sea-level rise associated with global warming.
The lawsuits claim Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and other companies created a public nuisance and should pay for damage from climate change and help build sea walls and other infrastructure to protect against future impact — construction that could cost tens of billions of dollars."
Santa Clara County releases info on every COVID-19 death
The Chronicle's JOAQUIN PALOMINO/MATTHIAS GAFNI/ERIN ALLDAY: "Health officials in Santa Clara County released detailed information Tuesday on every confirmed death from COVID-19, providing a thorough accounting of the human toll the disease has taken on the South Bay community.
The data, the most comprehensive to be published by a public health department in the Bay Area, provides the age, race, gender, residential ZIP code, cause of death and underlying health condition for all 139 people who have perished from the disease since the first documented casualty on Feb. 6.
Pneumonia, respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome were listed as a cause of death in more than three-fourths of the COVID-19 deaths. Other fatal complications included renal failure and cardiac arrest, adding to evidence that the disease can ravage not just the lungs but other systems."
Hair salons, barbershops can reopen now, in Stage 3 of Newsom's plan; LA also loosens some restrictions
LA Times's TARYN LUNA/STEPHANIE LAI: "Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that counties can begin to reopen hair salons and barbershops, marking a transition to the third stage of a plan to ease his stay-at-home order as California nears 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
With cases on track to nearly double in the month of May, the governor has pointed to steady hospitalizations and other metrics as proof that the state is bending the curve.
The shears will not be snipping immediately in Los Angeles County, however. The county, which accounts for the bulk of the state’s COVID-19 cases and more than half of its reported deaths, is one of 11 the state has not yet allowed to push further in reopening."
Coronavirus 'silent spreaders' become a bigger risk as California reopens
LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II: "The role of “silent spreaders” in transmitting the coronavirus is becoming an even greater issue for health officials as they ease stay-at-home rules and slowly reopen the economy.
Health officials have stressed the importance of creating an army of disease detectives — investigators who can interview newly infected people and find their close contacts, telling them to quarantine themselves for 14 days in hopes of keeping other people from getting infected.
But if many people who get the virus don’t show symptoms and yet are infectious, the disease could spread invisibly, beyond the reach of county health officials."
(OP-ED) 'Teal Deal:' Add blue to the Green New Deal
ARIELLE LEVINE/REBECCA LEWISON/STEVEN DUNDAS: "California is spearheading efforts to address climate change while also supporting a robust economy, demonstrating leadership that values economic and environmental prosperity, sustainability and security. As policymakers prepare to vote in June on the new state budget while facing a massive budget deficit, we want to highlight a source of solutions largely absent from the discussion which can help spur an equitable economic recovery for all Californians.
Earlier this month, the proposed Green New Deal for California was amended to become the COVID-19 Recovery Deal, a policy framework that aims to achieve economic recovery while meeting critical environmental and social goals and objectives, such as addressing the looming crisis of climate change.
However, an important source of climate solutions remains largely overlooked: our 3,427 miles of coastline and adjacent oceans. We believe that blue policy options can play a key role in supporting efforts to avert climate change while spurring economic and social justice and recovery from the pandemic."
California's Prop 13 ballot fight intensifies with pandemic
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "A proposed change to California’s sacrosanct Proposition 13that seeks to raise $12 billion annually for schools and local government was already primed to be one of the hottest battles on the November ballot before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
But the financial damage brought on by the disease is transforming the fight over a measure that would raise property taxes for many businesses into a struggle over the future of California.
Passing the initiative “was critical a few months ago,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, whose city is one of many in California that are teetering on the edge of a financial abyss. “Now, it is a matter of life and death for many California families."
Feinstein cleared by Justice Dept in husband's stock trades
LA Times's DEL QUENTIN WILBER/SARAH D WIRE: "The Justice Department is dropping its inquiry into Sen. Dianne Feinstein over stock trades made as the novel coronavirus struck the U.S. and roiled the economy, a person familiar with the matter said.
Feinstein (D-Calif.) is among a handful of senators whose stock trades have been scrutinized by federal investigators to see if they violate a law preventing lawmakers from utilizing insider information gleaned from their work. She had denied wrongdoing and said the trades were made by her husband.
A spokesman for Feinstein declined to comment."
Coronavirus has amplified issues for Bay Area adults, but they're still living life
The Chronicle's TONY BRAVO: "Like everyone, CJ Peoples says he’s had to make major adjustments to maintain his well-being during the coronavirus crisis.
Taking classes and being a part of groups at the Curry Senior Center in the Tenderloin was a key part of retired life for Peoples, 65. He was even a part of the center’s weekly podcast, “Revolting Seniors.” With the center now closed, many of its resources have moved online or to the phone, which does little to help his social life.
Peoples says Mister, his 13-year old terrier-Chihuahua mix, has been a major factor keeping him from going into a depression."
A birdwatcher. A dog. Another viral racial incident in America
LA Times's JAWEED KALEEM: "It began with a black man’s regular early morning stroll to glimpse scarlet tanagers, the bright red songbirds found in the Ramble, a shady, meandering series of paths in New York’s Central Park popular with birders and dog walkers.
But what unfolded on Memorial Day was far less serene, leading once again to a viral moment that raised disturbing questions about race, violence and policing in a nation where videos race across social media with visceral and stinging effect.
Christian Cooper says he “wishes we could move on” from the incident that has made him and his unrelated foe, Amy Cooper, household names. He was a black man scanning for birds; she was a white woman walking her dog. They disagreed over her off-leash cocker spaniel when she suddenly erupted, saying she was calling the police on an “African American” who is “threatening my life."
Newsom vetoes parole of man who murdered Tukrish diplomat as a teenager in 1982
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed the parole of an Armenian-American man who took part in the murder of a Turkish diplomat in Los Angeles more than 38 years ago, rejecting the parole board’s conclusion that the murderer was repentant and no longer posed a danger to society.
Despite Harry Sassounian’s record of good behavior in prison, he expressed support for Armenian nationalists in 2012 and has not yet shown that “he fully understands the nexus between nationalism and violence,” Newsom said Sunday. Before being paroled, Newsom said, Sassounian must demonstrate a “sustained commitment to avoiding conduct that could be used to incite violence or radicalize others as he himself was radicalized when he was young.”
Sassounian, also known as Hampig Sassounain, was 19 when he and another man ambushed and fatally shot Kemal Arikan, Turkey’s consul general in Los Angeles, on a street corner in January 1982."
Heat wave to bake parts of SoCal, dry out vegetation that can fuel fires
LA Times's LUKE MONEY: "A heat wave will bake Southern California through Thursday, boosting the mercury to dangerously high levels in some inland areas and parching vegetation that could serve as fuel for brush fires, forecasters say.
Inland areas will see maximum temperatures 10 to 18 degrees above normal, with many valleys hitting the 90s and some cracking triple digits, according to the National Weather Service.
The coast will have a more subtle uptick, with temperatures 4 to 6 degrees warmer than usual for this time of year."
Sanctioned SF tent camp riles Haight-Ashbury neighborhood
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "The cascade of tents hitting San Francisco’s liberal Haight-Ashbury has stunned merchants and residents alike, and led to an outcry over the city’s decision to set up a “safe sleeping site” at one of the neighborhood’s busiest intersections.
“We have had a problem with homelessness for some time, but this is the first time we are seeing tents in the neighborhood,” said resident Michelle Leighton, spokeswoman for Safe Healthy Haight, a neighborhood group formed this month to respond to the city’s plan to put a sanctioned tent camp on the site of the old McDonald’s restaurant at Haight and Stanyan streets just across from Golden Gate Park.
Leighton lays part of the blame for the tents on Dean Preston, the district’s progressive supervisor. Leighton said Preston and his supporters claim to have handed out nearly 1,000 tents to the homeless."
