LA Times's HOWARD BLUME: "Students in California are now allowed to sit three feet apart in classrooms — instead of four or six feet — in guidelines state officials issued over the weekend, a major change in policy that will exert pressure on local officials to consider a faster and more complete reopening of campuses that have been closed for over a year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local education leaders, however, will have the final say — and Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner said Sunday that the L.A. Unified School District would keep the six-foot rule.
Still, the ground has shifted rapidly since the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday announced its endorsement of a three-foot rule for elementary schools. The agency also OKd three-foot desk spacing on campuses with older students, but there are substantial caveats, including the rate of coronavirus cases in the community."
Former employee sues California Democrat and state Senate, alleging sexual harassment
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "A former legislative employee for California Sen. Bob Archuleta is suing him and the state Senate, alleging she experienced workplace discrimination and retaliation after she refused the lawmaker’s romantic gestures while working in his district office.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, outlines incidents in which she alleges Archuleta made inappropriate comments about her breasts, detailed affairs he had and publicly reprimanded and embarrassed her. She is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that the former legislative employee experienced retaliation and ultimately had “no choice but to resign because of her intolerable working environment” after she raised complaints of sexual harassment to a superior."
It's time for Newsom to pick California's AG. Here are some contenders
LA Times's GEORGE SKELTON: "Gov. Gavin Newsom can’t delay much longer. He needs to choose a new California attorney general.
And it’s a wild guess who he’ll pick, because he apparently hasn’t been talking. So, no leaks.
Newsom kept saying he wouldn’t name a replacement for Xavier Becerra — as California law requires — until the U.S. Senate confirmed Becerra as the first Latino secretary of Health and Human Services. Fair enough."
SCUSD and teachers union finalize school reopening plan
Sac Bee's SAWSAN MORRAR: "Sacramento City Unified students will begin returning to campus April 8, according to a long-awaited and finalized pact between the district and its teachers union.
The district and the Sacramento City Teachers Association finalized the memorandum of understanding around 1 a.m. Saturday. The two groups agreed to provide professional development on technology, an opportunity for teachers to bring their own school age children on campus, and medical assistants to help screen students and staff.
The agreement also allows teachers who have health risks or who care for relatives with health conditions to apply for accommodations, which may include continuing teaching remotely. The district and the union agreed on providing improved ventilation that includes MERV-13 filters, HEPA filters and CO2 monitors."
Marin County mall to be converted into 1,345 housing units, moving theater
The Chronicle's JK DINEEN: "Big box retail is out and big housing is in at Northgate Mall in San Rafael.
Two years after the owner of Marin County’s only enclosed shopping mall announced plans to build the largest Costco in the United States — a 180,000-square-foot store with 30 gas pumps that would have been dwarfed only by the chain’s outlets in Mexico and Japan — the developer has decided to scrap the warehouse retailer in favor of a residential development with a new town center.
Merlone Geier Partners, a real estate investment firm that bought the mall in 2017, is proposing to build 1,345 housing units and a town center for the Terra Linda neighborhood. The mall would be converted to an open-air shopping center, while some of the existing retail space, including the former Sears building, would be knocked down to make way for apartments."
Where would a major tsunami strike? Malibu, Venice and Long Beach get ready
LA Times's DOUG SMITH/CASEY MILLER: "When state geologists went looking for the hypothetical origin of the worst tsunami that could strike Southern California in 1,000 years, they found it in the Aleutian Trench off the Alaskan coastline.
A magnitude 9.3 underwater earthquake there could generate a wave that would hit Southern California several hours later and inundate portions of Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey, Long Beach and the two busiest ports in the nation.
That was the worst-case scenario, but there were plenty of other possibilities for catastrophe. Earthquakes along undersea faults near Catalina and Anacapa islands — as well as submarine landslides off of the Palos Verdes Peninsula — could generate tsunamis capable of flooding those same areas in just minutes.
Campaign to recall Newsom criticized for 'Chinese' virus rhetoric
The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER: "Organizers of the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom have repeatedly called the coronavirus a “Chinese” virus over the past year, echoing rhetoric that Asian American leaders say has fueled racist attitudes and violence.
On its website, the recall campaign referred to the virus as the “Communist Chinese Party (CCP) Virus,” and some political operatives who have worked on the effort have used similar language.
The language appeared among a list of reasons to recall Newsom, along with an apparent reference to immigrant-owned businesses that have received stimulus money during the pandemic."
