No more North vs South -- climate change, affordable housing demand California adopt unified approach to its problems
The Chronicle's JOHN KING: "The recent plague of smoke-darkened skies over the Bay Area did make one thing clear: We Californians are all in this together.
That notion of a shared fate in this state of 40 million residents runs counter to the idea that our region stands apart, or that our priorities are the only ones that count. That the Bay Area has nothing in common with the rest of Northern California, much less the netherworld of Los Angeles and its sprawling neighbors.
But if California is going to make headway on the various hazards that darken our future — taking effective action on problems ranging from forest management to equitable housing development — we need to embrace a shared acceptance of our common bonds."
Environmentalists plan lawsuit challenging Newsom over oil and gas drilling permits
LA Times's PHIL WILLON: "A national environmental organization on Monday threatened to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom to halt all new permits for gas and oil wells in the state, saying the governor has failed to protect Californians and the environment from hazards and pollutants released by the state’s billion-dollar petroleum industry.
In a letter sent to Newsom on Monday, the Center for Biological Diversity accused his administration of being friendly to California’s oil industry and issuing new permits without proper environmental reviews. The organization plans to take legal action unless the Democratic governor “promptly direct[s] your regulators to halt permitting.”
“We urge you to direct your regulators to immediately stop issuing the illegal permits, hold the oil industry accountable for its damage and stop allowing oil companies to profit from their oil spills,” attorneys Kassie Siegel and Hollin Kretzmann told Newsom in the letter."
CA120: Conspiracy theories may backfire — on both parties
PAUL MITCHELL, Capitol Weekly: "In our culture, conspiracy theories are running rampant, and elections seem to be particularly prone to the craziest among them.
Republicans, led by the president, have claimed that vote-by-mail is unsafe, and that non-citizens are registered to vote and casting ballots. Ballot “harvesting” is causing rampant voter fraud, President Trump says, and the system is being rigged against him. Even Attorney General William Barr claimed, incorrectly, that vote-by-mail eliminates the secret nature of voting in the US.
Recent Capitol Weekly polling can quantify this distrust, and how it breaks down on partisan lines."
Californians moved to Oregon for affordable housing. Wildfires left them homeless
MOLLY HENNESSY FISKE, LATimes: "Shannon King, a single mother, left the Bay Area 18 years ago as housing costs soared, hoping to find an affordable place to live in southern Oregon.
As California blazes rage, travel nurses fill critical need at fire camps
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "When Hillary Mills became a travel nurse in August after being unemployed for several months, the 30-year-old Tiburon resident assumed the job would take her to hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
Instead, Mills has been on the front lines of California’s most recent crisis, treating injured firefighters as they battle some of the most vicious blazes in the state’s history. She’s among a small group of emergency response personnel — including doctors, nurses, paramedics and emergency medical technicians — contracted by the state to work in fire base camps, tending to firefighters who suffer minor burns, aches and even bee stings.
Their presence at fire camps may not have been necessary just a few years ago. Back then, it was often sufficient to send a few EMTs or a paramedic. But that’s no longer the case. As fire seasons worsen, leaders of the response see an urgent need for more helping hands."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: Firefighter killed in El Dorado blaze ID'd as a 14-year veteran -- LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH
Air: clear this week, but haze, smoke could return by Friday
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC: "Hazy skies are out, clear skies are in — that’s the message from meteorologists this week as the Bay Area enters a brief respite from wildfire smoke.
Good to moderate air quality prevailed for much of the region Monday, a trend that is expected to continue through the week, said a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
But meteorologists warn that the upcoming weekend could bring a return of unhealthy air and smoke as south-blowing winds gather strength over Oregon and Northern California."
CDC removes new guidance on airborne coronavirus transmission, alarming Bay Area experts
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "In its latest stumble, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday removed a guideline — posted days earlier — that had originally confirmed the coronavirus can spread through the air and is contagious beyond 6 feet.
The abrupt retraction caused concern among local health and infectious disease experts who have long contended that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be transmitted via aerosols. The agency’s surprising move further fueled worry that the CDC is operating under the influence of the federal government.
“It doesn't inspire the greatest confidence,” said Michael Lin, associate professor of neurobiology and bioengineering at Stanford. “At the very least, it means they are a bit disorganized. At worst, it raises the possibility of political pressure altering what is on their website."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: California's COVID-19 positivity rate drops below 3% for the first time -- LA Times's LAURA J NELSON
Newsom wants to step up climate fight as wildfires rage. But will Californians pay up?
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom declared recently that “we have to step up our game” and accelerate California’s fight against climate change, it triggered a question in Chris Rufer’s mind:
How much will this cost?
Rufer is the founder of The Morning Star Co. of Woodland, one of the world’s largest tomato processors. Under California’s climate-change initiative known as cap-and-trade, Morning Star has to spend about $2 million a year buying carbon emission credits — the right to spew greenhouse gases at its processing plants in Williams, Los Banos and Santa Nella."
Despite past denials, LAPD has used facial recognition software 30,000 times in last decade, records show
LA Times's KEVIN RECTOR/RICHARD WINTON: "The Los Angeles Police Department has used facial recognition software nearly 30,000 times since 2009, with hundreds of officers running images of suspects from surveillance cameras and other sources against a massive database of mug shots taken by law enforcement.
The new figures, released to The Times, reveal for the first time how commonly facial recognition is used in the department, which for years has provided vague and contradictory information about how and whether it uses the technology.
The LAPD has consistently denied having records related to facial recognition, and at times denied using the technology at all."
Biden can thank Californians for his big lead in the money race
LA Times's EVAN HALPER/SEEMA MEHTA: "With the help of lots of cash from Californians, including past Republican donors, Joe Biden is eclipsing President Trump in fundraising as they head into their race’s final stretch.
The Democratic nominee’s substantial advantage as voting begins in several states — $141 million more than Trump through the end of August, according to new filings — is a surprise to many in the party. The left’s biggest worry had been the Trump campaign’s immense bank account.
But Biden, who’s had a career-long history of lackluster fundraising, apparently has seized the moment, attracting donors panicked by the prospect of a second Trump term. He ended August with $466 million in the bank, compared with Trump’s $325 million, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission and tallies shared by both campaigns."
Disinformation in local elections: How to spot it and what you can do
Sac Bee's STAFF: "America’s architects viewed the press as essential to our democracy, including it in the first article of our Bill of Rights.
And yet today we are faced with consistent attacks on credible news and information. Factual, accurate reporting is literally being replaced by Russian bots feeding us false information via our social media feeds.
But this is not what you’ll find in The Sacramento Bee or The Fresno Bee. Journalists at McClatchy’s five California news organizations — which also include The Modesto Bee, The San Luis Obispo Tribune and The Merced Sun-Star — are doing essential reporting around the clock, seven days a week."
LA Times shaken by a summer of turmoil and scandals
LA Times's MEG JAMES/DANIEL HERNANDEZ: "On a Friday night last month, Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine sent a short email to the newsroom, announcing sports columnist Arash Markazi had resigned.
The columnist had copied information contained in seven stories from other sources, an internal investigation found. Pearlstine said “for the record” clarifications were added to each of the articles.
But there was more to the story. For a year and a half, veteran sports writers had been roiled by Markazi’s penchant for lifting prose from press releases and other sources, his cozy relations with publicists and his social media posts that extolled businesses, including a Las Vegas luxury hotel."
SF human resources manager resigns after allegedly forging discrimination settlement
The Chronicle's MICHAEL WILLIAMS: "A manager in San Francisco’s human resources department resigned this month after admitting to forging a fake settlement agreement for a city employee who had complained of discrimination, city officials said.
The city is now investigating Rebecca Sherman, a manager who oversaw complaints about workplace discrimination.
Officials are auditing all cases she has handled or overseen, San Francisco’s human resources director Micki Callahan wrote in an email to the city’s Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness that was reviewed by The Chronicle."
Extra $300 unemployment money is gone. How will people survive without it?
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK/DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Losing $300 a week in unemployment benefits means Pearl Jow has to live off $110 a week.
It means Stephanie Hannah’s family could run out of money in three months. and Angelo Sebazzo is going to find it tougher to pay off his credit cards.
It means hardships for millions all over California, unemployed people who were receiving an additional $300 a week from the federal government for five weeks. But that benefit has ended, and back in Washington, Congress has gone home for a long weekend, stuck in a partisan deadlock over whether to revive it."
READ MORE related to Economy/Unemployment: Newsom defends pause on new unemployment claims: 'I didn't want to wait another day.' -- Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG
Hollywood studios and unions agree to terms over pandemic sick pay and safety rules
LA Times's ANOUSHA SAKOUI: "Hollywood studios and entertainment unions have agreed to a new set of safety protocols and pay for TV and film crew should they become infected with COVID-19 while working.
Under the deal, all union employees will receive 10 days of COVID-19 paid sick leave, per producer, which can be used for time for testing, or self-isolation or if a family member tests positive. The agreement ensures those who go on COVID-19 sick leave will be reinstated once they are cleared to return to work, alleviating any concerns among some crew that they may lose work if they reveal they have tested positive.
Employers will also be responsible for “quarantine pay” if productions or local laws require them to quarantine or isolate."
Replacing RBG quickly could determine ACA's fate
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could also prove fatal to the Affordable Care Act, the nationwide health insurance law that faces a Supreme Court hearing a week after election day. For California, the stakes are enormous: losing as much as $25 billion a year in federal aid that allows more than 5 million low- and moderate-income residents to obtain insurance.
The law, signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, extended coverage to most Americans who lacked insurance by providing federal funds to subsidize their purchases on state-regulated marketplaces known as insurance exchanges. Funding was also made available to states to expand coverage under Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, to 138% of the federal poverty level, raising the income limits to $17,609 for an individual and $36,156 for a family of four.
The law prohibited insurers from their previously common practice of denying coverage or increasing rates because of a person’s “pre-existing conditions,” like asthma or diabetes. It allowed children to be covered on their parents’ policies until age 26. And it required the uninsured to buy coverage, with the federal subsidies, or pay a tax penalty that in 2014 started at $95."
California exec linked to Lori Loughlin pleads guilty in college admissions plot
AP: "A California businessman said to have steered “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, J. Mossimo Giannulli, to the ringleader of the college admissions bribery scheme admitted Monday to paying $40,000 to rig his daughter’s ACT score.
Mark Hauser, an insurance and private equity executive who was once head of the board at the high school the famous couple’s daughters attended, became the 29th parent to plead guilty to participating in the scandal involving top universities across the country.
Lawyers for Loughlin and Giannulli said at their sentencing hearings last month that Hauser was the one who recommended they work with the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme."
SF school board candidates face tough pandemic choices and big budget shortfalls
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "San Francisco public schools are facing a tumultuous future, with classrooms likely closed until at least January and a budget shortfall combined with declining enrollment that could force officials to eventually make significant cuts to programs and staffing.
Amid this uncertainty, 10 candidates are vying for four available seats on the school board, including two incumbents and eight challengers.
The seven-member board has tipped to the city’s progressive left in recent years, aligning closely with the teachers union and causes that included a vote to destroy the New Deal mural at George Washington High School, followed by another vote to obscure it from view."
READ MORE related to Education: No place to study, hunger, inadequate computers hurting Eastside and South LA students -- LA Times's HOWARD BLUME/PALOMA ESQUIVEL
