California bar owner charged with selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "The owner of a San Joaquin County bar was arrested and charged this week with selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards, authorities said.
The arrest Tuesday of Todd Anderson, 59, followed an investigation by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which began in April after the agency received complaints that fake cards were being sold at the Old Corner Saloon in Clements.
Undercover agents were able to purchase four fake vaccination cards at the bar for $20 apiece, according to ABC spokesman John Carr, who noted that it was the first case of its kind the agency has investigated."
Exclusive: Sacramento PD documents describe secret probe that led to cop’s arrest
SAM STANTON, Sacramento Bee: " It started last July with Sacramento police stopping to talk to a young Black motorist who suddenly pulled off the road near Discovery Park and into a gas station.
That routine police action just after midnight on Saturday, July 11, 2020, mushroomed over the course of the next 10 months into the suspension of at least two officers, felony charges against one of them, and an internal affairs and criminal investigation using some of the Sacramento Police Department’s most seasoned detectives.
Internal police documents obtained exclusively by The Sacramento Bee show more than two dozen officers were interviewed, search warrants were served at two officers’ homes, their phones and hard drives seized."
READ MORE POLICE MISCONDUCT NEWS: Policing experts not surprised by Sacramento officer's arrest -- Sac Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA:
U.S. appeals court upholds California program for workers without retirement benefits
MAURA DOLAN, LA Times: "A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a California program that provides retirement savings accounts to workers whose employers don’t offer them.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided unanimously that the program, CalSavers, did not interfere with federal law.
The state established CalSavers in 2017 to encourage savings for future retirees. Private workers whose employers do not provide pensions or 401(k) programs were automatically enrolled in CalSavers. Unless workers opt out, their employers are required to remit money from payroll deductions to CalSavers to be deposited in IRAs set up on the employees’ behalf."
California's unemployment center phone lines are still jammed, what gives?
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/LARA KORTE: "A year ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood before the people of California and proclaimed he’d take bold steps to fix the state’s overwhelmed unemployment claim system.
“Our top priority has been on processing these claims,” he declared at an April 10, 2020 news conference.
Today, thousands still can’t get through every day on the Employment Development Department’s phone line. Billions of dollars have been paid in fraudulent claims. Improving the technology remains a work in progress."
Windsor requests a grand jury investigation of Mayor Dominic Foppoli for 'willful or corrupt misconduct'
The Chronicle, ALEXANDRIA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "Faced with a defiant mayor who has refused to heed mounting calls for his resignation, Windsor officials requested Thursday that the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office authorize a grand jury investigation into Dominic Foppoli’s “willful or corrupt misconduct in office.”
The obscure and quasi-criminal process is yet another route to potentially unseat Foppoli, who was a rising Wine Country politician and winery owner until several women accused him of sexual assault in Chronicle investigations last month.
“I have been asked by our Town Council to request that your office consider commencing grand jury proceedings against Mayor Foppoli,” Windsor Town Manager Ken MacNab wrote in a letter to District Attorney Jill Ravitch."
Should California allow distance learning in fall? Lawmakers, educators battle over how education should work
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/JILL TUCKER: "Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have been emphatic that public schools in California must re"open for full-time, in-person learning this fall.
But that push has inspired a new debate in Sacramento: Should they create an exception for students who prefer to stay remote or who learn better outside the classroom?
The issue is dividing some lawmakers and educators as the Legislature wades into negotiations over a new state budget that could determine what, if any, amount of distance learning will be funded for schools."
This California Republican voted to impeach Trump. Now he's helping others who voted the same way
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "A month after Rep. David Valadao was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, his political action committee gave $1,000 to each of eight of his fellow GOP members of Congress who voted his way, Federal Election Commission records show.
In turn, Valadao’s campaign has received a total of $24,000 from the House members who voted for impeachment and a senator who voted to find Trump guilty. He got another $4,500 from two congressmen who co-sponsored a bid to censure Trump.
Valadao, R-Hanford, will be a “special guest” at a fundraiser in Washington state next month for Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of the Republicans who backed impeachment."
Bay Area employers more likely to require coronavirus vaccinations than other US regions
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO/YOOHYUN JUNG: "Businesses mostly have the power to require employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. But while many businesses across the nation are deciding against vaccine mandates — to avoid facing privacy concerns and the potential for a public uproar by defiant employees — those in the Bay Area are more likely to ask their employees to get the shots.
Recent data from a U.S. census small business survey done during the second full week in April shows that some local Bay Area businesses have not been deterred from requiring proof of vaccinations.
While nationally only about 3% of businesses surveyed required employees to show proof of having been vaccinated, that number was more than double, at 7.5%, in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metropolitan statistical area, or MSA."
Orange County and other California sites to close mass COVID-19 vaccination centers
RONG-GONG LIN II, LA Times: "Officials in Orange County and elsewhere in California are preparing to close a number of COVID-19 mass vaccination sites as bookings for appointments continue to drop dramatically and authorities look to shift doses to mobile vaccine clinics, pharmacies and doctor’s offices.
Orange County officials said the demand for first doses has dropped by over 75% since the end of April. As a result, efforts will be made to boost vaccine clinics in neighborhoods. The county said that on June 6, it will close mass vaccination sites at the Anaheim Convention Center, OC Fair & Event Center, Soka University and Santa Ana College.
The last first-dose Moderna appointments will be offered Saturday, and the last first-dose Pfizer appointments will be offered May 15."
Why this year's Folsom Lake super bloom is so amazingly rare--and troubling
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "A spectacular super bloom of lupine flowers has exploded in and around Folsom Lake.
Lupine flowers, which are native to California and commonly found around the state, tend to crop up every year. But this spring, experts say the super bloom that’s sprouted in the Sierra foothills reservoir 25 miles east of Sacramento is like nothing they’ve ever seen — and says a lot about the dire state of California’s deepening drought.
Just last weekend the state park saw thousands of people, some from as far as Nevada, drive in to catch a glimpse of the bright purple lupines that now blanket the reservoir in areas that normally would be underwater but are now fertile blooming ground because of historically low water levels."
Daly City to buy police body cameras after fatal shooting of Roger Allen
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "One month after the police killing of Roger Allen, lawmakers in Daly City approved a plan Wednesday to buy body cameras for the city’s police department.
During a special session Wednesday evening, the five-member City Council unanimously agreed to pay $1.35 million for 100 body cameras and 32 patrol car cameras. Police will begin wearing the cameras by October, Police Chief Patrick Hensley said.
The decision comes after Allen, 44, was fatally shot in the chest by Daly City police during a traffic stop on Apr. 7. According to a police account of the shooting, officers opened fire during a struggle over what they thought was a firearm on Allen’s lap. The weapon turned out to be a BB gun."
