NorCal counties prepare to go after health order violators
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK/DALE KASLER: "No longer shy about challenging scofflaw businesses, two Sacramento-area counties now say they will fine or suspend permits of businesses that resist coronavirus safety measures.
The threat of fining or shutting down recalcitrant businesses is one that most local governments in California have been loathe to take, fearing it would stir anger among constituent businesses who believe their rights are being infringed.
But with virus infections surging, Yolo and El Dorado county officials say they’d rather take a tough stance in hopes it will help slow virus spread and allow them to avoid being ordered by the state to once again shut down entire segments of the economy."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Florida reports 15,300 new COVID-19 cases -- a record for one day anywhere in the US -- Sac Bee's DAVID J NEAL; Why a coronavirus vaccine won't end the pandemic by itself -- The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS; The view from inside hospit als as coronavirus surge hits -- LA Times's SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA; California officials rolling back reopenings as coronavirus surge creates new crisis -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II
Bankruptcy forced this California city to defund police. Here’s how it changed public safety
From the LAT's ANITA CHABRIA: "Resolute, sincere and white, Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones stood in front of a Black congregation in 2016 and apologized for a history that most law enforcement officials dismiss: the slave patrol origins behind modern American policing.
Not long ago, he said, police were dispatched to keep order at lynchings, part of the dark legacy of the metal shield on his chest that has long prevented Black communities from trusting police. He spoke in uniform, with a black band across his badge to honor five Dallas officers ambushed days earlier by an Army reservist angry about the killings of Black men by police.
Though Jones said he and his officers were not responsible for the actions of those who have worn the uniform before them, the history of injury, both chronicled and fresh, was a truth that had to be owned if he wanted this community to believe he meant to do things differently."
California Republicans drop suits against governor's plan to send mail ballots
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Three Republican lawsuits seeking to block Gov. Gavin Newsom from sending mail ballots to every active California voter this fall through an executive order have disappeared, victims of a Democratic bill that the governor has signed into law.
In the past few days, legal challenges to the governor’s May 8 executive order by the Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party, San Diego-area congressional candidate Darrell Issa, and a pair of GOP assemblymen have all been dropped or tossed out of court.
In all three suits, Republicans charged that Newsom’s powers under his coronavirus pandemic emergency declaration in March didn’t give him the right to unilaterally make changes in state election rules."
One-third of young adults may be at risk of severe COVID-19, especially if they smoke or vape
The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH: "One-third of young people across the country may be at risk of getting seriously sick with COVID-19, especially if they smoke or vape, according to a UCSF study published Monday in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Smoking was the most common risk factor for severe COVID-19 complications among otherwise largely healthy young people, the study found.
For young men, smoking or vaping may more than double the potential of being hospitalized, needing intensive care, or even dying from the virus. For young women, who suffer more from other risk factors, smoking or vaping could increase the possibility 1½ times."
Goodbye, cubicle culture. Employers look to keep workers home -- maybe forever
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER/TONY BIZJAK/PHILLIP REESE: "Nearly four months after sending most of its employees to work in the back bedrooms and dens of their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, SMUD was about to call some back to the office this month.
Now, with the coronavirus infections surging again in the Sacramento area, even that cautious return — totaling just 140 workers, brought in gradually — has been tabled until late September. The Sacramento Municipal Utility District wants to “make sure that we aren’t re-entering, just to have to be sent home again,” spokeswoman Lindsay VanLaningham said.
It’s not as if SMUD is in any hurry. After completing a mad scramble in mid-March to get 1,300 employees working from home, SMUD has decided telecommuting is working out surprisingly well — and could serve as a model for how the utility does business permanently."
Laid-off H-1B visa holders face painful predicament
The Chronicle's CAROLYN SAID: "Alexey Komissarouk, a software engineering manager, was among those let go when San Francisco real estate startup Opendoor laid off more than 600 employees in mid-April in response to the coronavirus pandemic’s economic impact.
As an Israeli citizen working with an H-1B visa, Komissarouk can’t receive unemployment benefits. But more crucially, under immigration rules, losing his job set a clock ticking on his time in the United States.
Getting laid off is hard for anyone. But for international workers on H-1Bs, the specialized-skill visas often used in the tech industry, the consequences are far more severe than lost income. Holders of these visas have 60 days to find a comparable new job or leave the country."
More stimulus checks could be coming -- but they might be sent to fewer people this time
Sac Bee's KATE IRBY: "Americans should expect another aid package to help with the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic by the end of July, Congressional leaders have said, but it’s still unclear if that package will include stimulus checks and increased payments to the unemployed.
Congress passed an aid package in March that gave $1,200 stimulus payments to Americans who made $75,000 and less and increased unemployment benefits by $600 per week through the end of July.
Now, it’s been months since most Americans received their first stimulus payment and the increased unemployment payments are about to end."
How University of California campuses are opening this fall
Sac Bee's MACKENZIE HAWKINS: "University of California campuses will offer mostly online instruction this fall, but each school has the power to set its own rules and at least two of them are already revising early plans to account for new coronavirus outbreaks.
Some schools plan to offer 30% of instruction in person, while others intend to limit on-site coursework to laboratory and studio classes. Some are prioritizing incoming freshmen for campus housing while others plan to reserve rooms for students with special circumstances, including financial need.
As the pandemic’s trajectory continues to change, university administrators warn campuses may revert to reduced operations even after the fall semester begins."
LA to start taking applications for $103M renters relief program
LA Times's NEWS SERVICE: "A five-day application period opens Monday for a city relief program aimed at helping Los Angeles residential tenants struggling with the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The application process for the Emergency Renters Relief Program will be open for five days, starting at 8 a.m. Monday and closing at 11:59 p.m. Friday, said Ann Sewill, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department, which is administering the program.
Interested renters can apply online at hcidla.lacity.org. People with limited online access can call the application hotline at 844-944-1868, between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. People with hearing or speech impairments can call 844-325-1398 during the same hours."
New comet Neowise dazzling onlookers in rare pass by Earth
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "An enchanting comet is gracing night skies across the Northern Hemisphere for the next several weeks — and it won’t return for nearly 7,000 years.
Comet Neowise made an extraordinary trip past the sun, which caused dust and gas to burn off its icy surface and create an even bigger debris tail.
Now, the 3-mile-wide comet is headed toward Earth, with the closest approach expected in two weeks."
(Editorial) Roger Stone's commutation shows utter contempt for rule of law
The Chronicle's EDITORIAL BOARD: "Roger Stone, convicted by a jury of seven felonies, should have been checking in to federal prison this week. That Stone remains free is a measure of the contempt the president he protected holds for the principle of rule of law. President Trump commuted Stone’s sentence for crimes that included witness tampering and lying to Congress in an effort to frustrate investigations related to Russian sabotage of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The upshot could be neither clearer nor more unseemly. Stone broke the law to save Trump’s skin, so Trump acted to save Stone’s, appearances be damned.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the most prominent of the rare Republicans who were willing to speak out against this brazen abuse of a president’s authority to grant clemency."
Actress Kelly Preston, wife of John Travolta, dead at 57
AP: "Kelly Preston, who played a dramatic and comic foil to actors including Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire” and Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Twins,” died Sunday, her husband, John Travolta, said. She was 57.
Travolta said in an Instagram post that his wife of 28 years died after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer,” Travolta said of his wife of 28 years. “She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.”"
