New data shows residents fleeing California in near record numbers
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "California’s historically strong population growth has ground to a near halt, new data show, as far more people moved to other states than moved here from elsewhere in the United States. The birth rate also continued to drop and older Baby Boomers passed away, some from COVID-19.
In contrast, the Sacramento region continues growing, led by El Dorado County, which had the largest growth rate in the state in the year leading up to July 2020, much of it thanks to the ongoing exodus of people from the Bay Area looking for less expensive, more expansive housing and a more relaxed lifestyle.
Sacramento County ranked seventh in the state in growth, and Placer was 11th, as smaller, more rural and Central Valley counties led the state’s modest growth."
California’s record COVID-19 surge persists: 51,724 cases and 393 deaths in a single day
LA Times' RONG-GONG LIN II, LUKE MONEY and SEAN GREENE: "Single-day pandemic records were shattered across California yet again on Wednesday. For the first time, a Los Angeles Times county-by-county tally found more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases and nearly 400 deaths in California reported in a single day.
The Times survey Wednesday night found 51,724 new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, shattering the state’s single-day record broken on Monday, when 42,088 cases were reported.
The Times tally also found 393 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday across California, breaking the record set Tuesday, when 295 deaths were recorded. Cumulatively, California has now reported 1.7 million coronavirus cases and 21,887 COVID-19 deaths.
High-Poverty Neighborhoods Bear the Brunt of COVID’s Scourge
PHILLIP REESE, Capitol Public Radio: "Over the course of the pandemic, COVID-19 infections have battered high-poverty neighborhoods in California on a staggeringly different scale than more affluent areas, a trend that underscores the heightened risks for low-wage workers as the state endures a deadly late-autumn surge...
A California Healthline review of local data from the state’s 12 most populous counties found that communities with relatively high poverty rates are experiencing confirmed COVID-19 infection rates two to three times as high as rates in wealthier areas. By late November, the analysis found, about 49 of every 1,000 residents in the state’s poorest urban areas — defined as communities with poverty rates higher than 30% — had tested positive for COVID-19. By comparison, about 16 of every 1,000 residents in comparatively affluent urban areas —communities with poverty rates lower than 10% — had tested positive.
Epidemiologists say the findings offer evidence of the outsize risk being shouldered by the millions of low-wage workers who live in those communities and do the jobs state and federal officials have deemed essential in the pandemic. These are the grocery store clerks, gas station cashiers, home health aides, warehouse packers, meat processors, hospital janitors and myriad other retail and service employees whose jobs keep the rest of us comfortable, clothed and fed. Those jobs cannot be done remotely.
Bay Area falls to 12.9% ICU availability, triggering states stay-at-home order in San Mateo, Napa, Solano counties
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI/ERIN ALLDAY: "Intensive care availability plummeted in the Bay Area on Wednesday to fall under 15% for the first time, forcing the entire 11-county region under the state stay-at-home order. And as of Thursday night, more than 98% of California will be shut down as the pandemic rages on.
The state mandate will affect only five counties in the Greater Bay Area region: Napa, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Solano. The other six counties had preemptively adopted stay-at-home directives earlier this month.
ICU bed availability dropped to 12.9% for the Bay Area and 4.1% for the state on Wednesday, according to the California Department of Public Health. It was under 1% for the Southern California region, which includes Los Angeles County."
Beds filling halls. Agonizing ER waits. Burned-out staff. Inside overloaded California hospitals
LA Times's HAYLEY SMITH: "When Erick Fernandez’s alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m., the stress begins.
As an emergency room nurse at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, Fernandez said his 6 a.m. shift marks the start of a long day. The hospital is home to one of the busiest ERs in the state, and like many, it has been overrun by COVID-19.
“The surge is definitely in full force,” Fernandez said. “Sometimes we come in in the morning, and a lot of the areas are just full of COVID patients already.”"
Judge allows strip clubs to stay open, indicates restaurants could reopen too
GREG MORAN and LORI WEISBERG, Union-Tribune: "A San Diego Superior Court judge on Wednesday ruled two strip clubs can remain open and operating during the most recent COVID-19 shutdown orders from the state, in a ruling that appeared to extend to the county’s beleaguered restaurant industry and allow those businesses to reopen to some extent.
The ruling by Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil came in a case filed by two San Diego strip clubs. And while the clubs prevailed in earning an injunction that allowed them to continue to offer live dancing, the judge went a significant step further and said the injunction can apply across San Diego’s restaurant sector that has been crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wohlfeil’s ruling prevents local officials from enforcing the latest set of restrictions that went into effect in San Diego County on Dec. 3, not only against the two strip clubs — Pacers and Cheetahs — but also “San Diego County businesses with restaurant service” that abide by health and safety protocols that “are no greater than is essential” to control the spread of COVID-19.
Lawyer for suit challenging California COVID-19 rules want Newsom deposed
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON: "Gov. Gavin Newsom, already facing a recall effort and a number of lawsuits over his stay-at-home orders, may soon face a new challenge: an effort to depose him and other top state officials over their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a motion filed in Sacramento federal court, plaintiffs suing Newsom over last spring’s ban on protests at the state Capitol asked for an order compelling the governor, former California Highway Patrol Commissioner Warren Stanley and former state Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell to sit for sworn depositions in the case.
The motion was filed following a Dec. 11 telephone conference between lawyers on both sides that left them “unable to resolve their differences,” according to court filings."
READ MORE related to Economy/Reopening: California sued over new coronavirus workplace rules -- The Chronicle's CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO
SoCal cities consider renewed 'hero pay' for grocery store workers amid COVID-19 surge
LA Times's HAYLEY SMITH: "Some Los Angeles County grocery workers may soon be entitled to renewed “hero pay” in recognition of the hazards they are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Long Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to draft an urgent ordinance mandating an extra $4 an hour for grocery store workers for at least the next 120 days.
Councilwoman Mary Zendejas, who introduced the proposal, cited the need for immediate action amid soaring hospitalizations and infection rates."
Can I stop wearing a mask? When can I go see grandma? Answers to your vaccine questions
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "When will our lives return to normal?
As coronavirus vaccines finally roll out across the Bay Area, there are as many reasons to feel hopeful as there are questions about how quickly things will change after nearly a year of living with the pandemic.
How soon can I see grandma after getting vaccinated? When will I be able to board a plane for a tropical vacation? What are the odds of seeing the Rolling Stones on yet another farewell tour in 2021?"
SF Chinatown 'may be lost forever': Leaders plead for more financial aid from city
The Chronicle's JANELLE BITKER: "Chinatown community leaders are calling on Mayor London Breed to provide financial aid to the historic neighborhood’s restaurants and small businesses, arguing many won’t survive the pandemic without millions of dollars in grants and investment.
In a letter sent on Monday, nine organizations asked Breed to support Chinatown as the city has supported the Latino community during the pandemic. They want $5.3 million in grants to help Chinatown small businesses keep employees on payroll; $4.2 million to partner with a nonprofit like SF New Deal to work specifically with Chinatown restaurants to feed the neighborhood’s most vulnerable residents; and $2 million to go toward revitalizing Chinatown tourism after the pandemic.
They’re also asking for daily street cleaning and free parking with validation at nearby parking garages to encourage more people to eat and shop in Chinatown."
Congressional leaders close in on coronavirus aid deal
LA Times's SARAH D WIRE: "After months of impasse, House and Senate leaders were on the brink Wednesday of announcing an economic aid package of about $900 billion, which is expected to add $300 a week to state compensation for the unemployed and provide a one-time direct payment of at least $600 for most Americans.
The compromise is also expected to include another round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses as well as money for vaccine distribution, food assistance, rent payments, child care and schools.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor early Wednesday that the leaders had made “major headway” toward getting a “targeted relief package” and have committed to not leaving Washington until a deal is reached."
Sacramento International Airport gets COVID testing site. You don't have to fly to use it
Sac Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "Sacramento International Airport now has COVID-19 testing for both passengers and the general public.
The appointment-only testing site opens today in the parking lot between AM-PM and the east economy lot — the former taxi waiting area.
City Health Urgent Care is administering the no-cost nasal swab tests. The PCR, or, polymerase chain reaction tests, allow for very small DNA samples to be amplified to a size large enough to be studied with more precision."
How toxic fumes seep into the air you breathe on planes
LA Times's KIERA FELDMAN: "Tellmann and the captain parked the Airbus A319 at the gate. But they had no memory of landing or taxiing Spirit Airlines Flight 708. Tellmann went to the hospital for treatment and spent the next week at home in bed, vomiting and shaking and feeling “like a freight train had run over us,” he said in a letter to his union about the July 2015 event.
A mysterious smell. Strange symptoms. A trip to the emergency room.
The signs were all there: Something had gone seriously wrong with the plane’s air supply."
Health officials investigate virus outbreak in two Contra Costa County jails
The Chronicle's VANESSA ARREDONDO: "Thirty-six inmates in two Contra Costa County jails have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday morning in the latest virus outbreak to hit detention facilities.
Contra Costa Health Services is investigating a coronavirus outbreak that has infected 36 inmates at the Martinez Detention Facility and the West Contra Costa Detention Facility in Richmond, the health department said in a statement. Officials said none of these cases required hospitalization.
The outbreak likely began at the Martinez Detention Facility and spread to the Richmond facility after one or more inmates who later tested positive for the coronavirus were transferred, according to Contra Costa Health Services."
Around 300 maskless police officers attend 'superspreader' event, CA complaint says
Sac Bee's SUMMER LIN: "Two community groups in California filed a complaint on Monday alleging the Long Beach Police Department’s senior staff held a coronavirus superspreader event last month.
The Long Beach Reform Coalition and People of Long Beach accused Chief of Police Robert Luna of holding a gathering of approximately 300 police officers Nov. 5 inside the Long Beach Convention Center, according to the complaint filed with the Citizen Police Complaint Commission.
The groups said that the event was held “without requiring compliance with Health Department mandates associated with social distancing and masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, thereby knowingly and willfully ordering a superspreader event to take place.”"
The most important company you've never heard of is being dragged into the US-China rivalry
LA Times's DAVID PIERSON/MICHELLE YUN: "It’s been called Taiwan’s Silicon Shield, and without it much of modern life would cease.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, makes more than half the world’s contracted semiconductor chips and lies at the center of the technology supply chain, churning out circuitry found in iPhones, Amazon cloud computers, graphics processors that power popular video games and even military drones and fighter jets like Lockheed Martin’s F-35.
But TSMC is confronting problems it had never anticipated when a Taiwanese American engineer, who spent 25 years at Texas Instruments and is revered here like a hometown Bill Gates, founded it in the late 1980s. The company has been drawn into an increasingly bitter — and at times dangerous — rivalry between the U.S. and China that is forcing nations and corporations to choose sides in an era that is redefining the global order."
Interior secretary is latest Trump official to test positive for coronavirus
AP: "Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has tested positive for the coronavirus, an agency spokesman said.
Bernhardt’s test result Wednesday makes him the latest Trump administration official to be infected with the coronavirus. President Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 for three days in October.
Interior spokesman Nicholas Goodwin said Bernhardt has no symptoms. He “will continue to work on behalf of the American people while in quarantine,” Goodwin said."
