California immunization rates drop 40% during pandemic’
From EdSource’s DIANA LAMBERT: “California’s vaccination rates for children took a nosedive just a few weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order in March to slow the spread of Covid-19, causing concerns among health professionals about the potential for outbreaks of other diseases during the pandemic.
In April vaccinations for children decreased by more than 40% compared to the same month the previous year, according to the California Department of Public Health. The department looked at immunizations for children ages 0 to 18, including 10 legally required for children to attend school in California.
Immunization rates have dropped across the country since the pandemic began. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the number of vaccine doses ordered by doctors in the United States began to decline the week after the Covid-19 national emergency was declared on March 13.”
Justices rule LGBT people protected from job discrimination
AP's MARK SHERMAN: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court.
The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.
“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court. “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."
Column: Already devastated by the coronavirus, seniors stand to lose again in Newsom’s budget’
From LAT’s GEORGE SKELTON: “Do you kick impoverished old people in the shins now or wait until the feds can join in?
Or maybe Washington will protect the seniors by sending Sacramento billions more to fund their critical services. It’s unlikely but possible.
Or perhaps legislators and the governor will agree to ease up on seniors and pick on something else — such as good government.”
LAPD violence against George Floyd protests erodes a decade of reforms
From the LAT’s JOEL RUBIN: “May Day, 2007, began peacefully in Los Angeles. It ended as another dark, violent chapter for the city’s Police Department.
As annual immigrant rights demonstrations wound down, marchers gathered at MacArthur Park. When a small group of agitators threw bottles and other objects, disorganized police responded with shocking force on the entire crowd. Officers in riot gear swept through the park, firing hard projectiles and beating people. The ruthlessness — televised live — left nearly 250 protesters injured. The city was outraged.
For a department still trying to reform itself after the Rodney King beating, the moment marked a giant step backward. The city ended up paying out more than $30 million to those hurt and once again agreed to changes designed to prevent such violence from happening again.”
Trump Rally Is the ‘Perfect Storm Setup,’ for Viral Spread, Disease Expert Says
PAM BELLUCK, NYT: “The coronavirus won’t be loosening its grip on the United States any time soon, leading infectious disease experts said on Sunday. They are also uncertain how the viral spread will be affected by the patchwork of states reopening businesses and by large events like protests and President Trump’s upcoming campaign rallies.
“This virus is not going to rest” until it infects about 60 percent to 70 percent of the population, Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Experts have estimated that without a vaccine, about 70 percent of the population will need to be infected and develop immunity in order to stop the virus’s spread, a concept called herd immunity. The number of confirmed American cases now exceeds 2 million, less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Dashboard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
Drug-dealing arrests soar in the Tenderloin, with no end in sight
Chronicle’s PHIL MATIER: “The San Francisco police narcotics unit that was taken out of the Tenderloin during the pandemic shutdown has been very busy since its return to the streets.
The rebooted unit, along with Tenderloin beat cops, arrested 69 suspected street dealers from May 18 to June 5 — that’s nearly four a day.
The overwhelming majority of the arrests occurred along a few blocks of Hyde, Eddy and Turk streets and Golden Gate Avenue — all hot spots that residents have been complaining about for months.”
California’s gas tax is going up again. Amid coronavirus, some say now is not the time
From LAT’s PAT MCGREEVY: “California’s gas tax is set to increase July 1, but some lawmakers are calling for a freeze on the higher levy, citing the financial burden of the coronavirus-spawned recession on millions of the state’s residents.
The automatic increase pegged to inflation — the third increase in the last four years — comes as a long-simmering dispute over the gas tax law enacted three years ago has again flared up at the state Capitol.
The tax is set to increase by 3.2 cents, to 50.5 cents per gallon, and state officials estimate it will bring in an additional $440 million to state coffers in the coming fiscal year. The hike is triggered by the increase in the consumer price index and is built into SB 1, the legislation that boosted the tax by 12 cents per gallon in 2017 and 5.6 cents last year.”
