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California's prisoner unemployment fraud now estimated at $400m, officials say
LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "State investigators have so far identified $400 million paid on some 21,000 unemployment benefit claims improperly filed in the names of California prison inmates, officials said Monday as state lawmakers called for legislative hearings over the massive fraud.
Debit cards issued by the state Employment Development Department containing the millions in benefits have since been frozen, while an additional $80 million in potential payments were blocked when some 10,000 other claims were not approved, according to Crystal Page, a deputy secretary for the state Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
The new total is nearly three times the $140 million in claim payments estimated last week by a group of nine district attorneys across California and a federal prosecutor."
‘Biblical mandate.’ California churches ready to defy Newsom after Supreme Court ruling
From Dale Kasler, SacBee: "Greg Fairrington, pastor of a Rocklin megachurch that’s been defying California’s pandemic restrictions on indoor churchgoing, opened Sunday’s service by pulling out his cell phone and reading aloud from a fresh U.S. Supreme Court decision.
“There is no world in which the Constitution tolerates a color-coded executive edict that opens liquor stores ... and bike shops but shutters churches,” Fairrington said, quoting the opinion written by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The pastor then looked out at his congregants at Destiny Church and shouted: “The Supreme Court of the United States of America — yeah! We have a biblical mandate and First Amendment rights!” What appeared to be a large crowd of worshippers, packed closely together, roared its approval."
750K Californians are about to lose jobless bennies. What is Congress doing?
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK/DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Unemployment insurance for self-employed people has been a lifesaver for Lis McKinley, not just for her finances but – at 61 – also for her health.
McKinley owns and runs Let’s Make Room, which helps people reorganize and move their homes. Because of the unemployment insurance, McKinley said she has been able to
turn down most requests that involve face-to-face interactions with a client.
“It’s a risk I’m not willing to take, and it’s a risk I couldn’t even justify under the current situation,” said McKinley, who lives in Oakland."
California will receive 327k doses of vaccine by mid-December. Who gets them?
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that California could receive as many as 327,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine as early as mid-December, with another round of supply anticipated three weeks later.
Newsom said he “did not want to give the specific date quite yet” for when exactly the pharmaceutical company Pfizer plans to send a shipment to California, but said it’s expected before the end of the year.
“We are anticipating 327,000 doses of the vaccine, Pfizer, to come in within the next few weeks,” Newsom said."
They know the pain of online learning. Here’s what teachers, parents and students did about it
PALOMA ESQUIVEL, JULIA BARAJAS and LAURA NEWBERRY, LA Times: "Nearly nine months and counting — that’s how long more than 1 million L.A. County students have been out of school. It’s only a guess when campuses will reopen amid the alarming surge in coronavirus cases. But talk to educators, parents and students and they invariably know someone who has made a difference. Someone who identified a pain point with distance learning, attempted to fix it and moved schooling forward during this unprecedented disruption to education.
They are brothers, worried mothers, creative teachers and college professors inventing new ways to teach familiar lessons. They are community builders who motivate students isolated behind computer screens.
These are some of their stories."
Coronavirus cases and deaths soared in nursing homes across California. Here's why
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "The number of residents in California nursing homes who became ill or died from the coronavirus more than doubled between May and August — the result of several risk factors that have made nursing homes particularly vulnerable to outbreaks, a report by the California Health Care Foundation revealed.
The foundation partnered with researchers from Cal Hospital Compare, IBM Watson Health and UCSF to study data from more than 800 nursing homes in May and August to better understand COVID-19 outbreaks in these facilities.
The report, released Tuesday, found that the size of the facilities and resident demographics played significant roles in infection and death rates, among other factors."
State GOP rallies from 'blue wave' election of 2018 as Republican wins House race
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "With the tally finally completed, GOP Rep. Mike Garcia beat Democratic Assemblymember Christy Smith by 339 votes Monday in the last California congressional race to be decided.
The victory in the 25th Congressional District gives Garcia, a businessman and former Navy pilot from Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), a full two-year term in the seat he first won in a special election in May.
It also means that California Republicans have taken back four of the seven congressional seats they lost in the “blue wave” election of 2018, narrowing the Democrats’ already tight majority in the House. Garcia’s victory leaves Democrats with a 222-211 margin, with two contests remaining to be called. Republican candidates lead by 12 votes in a New York race and by six votes in an Iowa contest."
Some Bay Area students are getting no live instruction from public school districts -- parents are furious
The Chronicle's VANESSA ARREDONDO: "Ted Elliot wants his two daughters to return to in-person class at Tiburon’s Reed Union School District just as much as any other parent, but sending them back could be deadly. He has stage three rectal cancer, and his wife recently suffered a heart attack.
His sixth-grade daughter told him that she doesn’t want to kill her medically at-risk parents by going back to school and potentially contracting the coronavirus.
“We don’t think it’s such a great choice that a 10-year-old has to make a decision between their parents dying and going to school,” Elliot said."
High-dollar real estate sales in SF hit over coronavirus, Prop I concerns
The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER: "The number of high-value real estate transactions in San Francisco has dropped sharply since the coronavirus cast a pall over the economy and the future of office work, according to new data released Monday by Carmen Chu, the city’s assessor-recorder.
Some large property holders may have postponed sales pending the outcome of Proposition I, a measure on the November ballot that doubled transfer taxes on transactions in San Francisco valued at $10 million and up, Chu said. The passage of Prop. I could spur some large property owners to sell before it takes effect Jan. 1, she added.
Transfer taxes are a one-time tax levied when properties change hands. Although residential (including multifamily) properties accounted for about 81% of transactions in fiscal 2019-20, commercial property transactions accounted for 55% of transfer tax revenues."
SFPUC chief charged with accepting bribes in alleged City Hall graft scheme
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "Federal prosecutors have charged San Francisco Public Utilities Commission chief Harlan Kelly for allegedly accepting bribes from a contractor — taking international trips, free meals and jewelry in exchange for insider information on city contracts.
The U.S. attorney’s office announced the criminal complaint against Kelly on Monday, shortly after the FBI served a search warrant and removed boxes from his San Francisco home. Kelly resigned as general manager Monday, according to a statement issued by Mayor London Breed.
Kelly is married to City Administrator Naomi Kelly, who oversees more than two dozen city departments."
