Beginning Monday, LA will offer appointment-free COVID-19 vaccinations
LA Times, ALEX WIGGLESWORTH: "Appointments are no longer needed for Angelenos to get COVID-19 vaccinations at any site run by the city, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Sunday.
“We stand at a critical juncture in our fight to end this pandemic, and our City will keep doing everything possible to knock down barriers to vaccine access and deliver doses directly to all Angelenos,” Garcetti said in a statement.
The move is intended to give people who don’t have the time or technological resources to navigate online booking platforms a chance to get the shot. Vaccinations are free."
California DMV reverses decision to eliminate most foreign language options for driver tests
Sac Bee, WES VENTEICHER: "The California DMV will continue to offer written drivers license tests in 32 languages, reversing a decision from last week to drop 25 of the languages, according to its public affairs office.
The reversal comes after The Sacramento Bee published a story online Thursday relaying the contents of an April 27 memo that said the department was planning to eliminate most of the languages from its written tests as part of a modernization project.
The department had planned to offer the tests only in the seven languages required by a 1973 law known as the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, a change that would have excluded commonly spoken languages like Korean, Russian and Tagalog, among others."
Bottoms up! S.F. bars reopen indoors at 25% capacity, no food required
LAUREN HERNANDEZ and CAROLYN SAID, Chronicle: "For the first time in more than a year, San Francisco bars can serve drinks indoors without offering meals — and patrons slowly found their way to their favorite watering holes over the weekend.
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The momentous change happened Friday, days after San Francisco reached the yellow tier, the least restrictive in California’s color-coded reopening system. Until then, bars could reopen only if they served food in addition to drinks.
Many bars have been closed since the morning of St. Patrick’s Day last year, when the city started shelter-in-place, although some added food service in recent months, allowing them to reopen. For some, the latest change in rules did not make a difference because they are limited to 25% of their usual capacity, a threshold some said was too low to cover expenses. That limit will remain until June 15, when the entire state is expected to fully reopen."
California is rolling in surplus cash. Bug legislators want to raise taxes anyway
LA Times, GEORGE SKELTON: "It’s income tax time across America, but in the California Legislature it is always tax time. Some Democrats never stop trying to raise taxes. It seems addictive.
Never mind that Californians already pay the highest state taxes in the nation.
Moreover, Sacramento is hauling in so much revenue that the state government is accumulating a huge surplus and is close to being legally forced to return some of the money to taxpayers."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Lande Ajose
Capitol Weekly Staff: "Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster are joined on this episode by Lande Ajose, chair of the Governor’s Council for Postsecondary Education – a big job as California colleges prepare to reopen campuses to students, post-pandemic. Ajose helped prepare the recently-released “Recovery With Equity” roadmap for California’s postsecondary systems to come back from the pandemic more financially resilient and positioned to more equitably serve California students.
Oceanside police to start taking police reports via Zoom
KAREN KUCHER, Union-Tribune: "Oceanside police Lt. Taurino Valdovinos, a part-time college instructor, knows a good idea when he hears one.
So when one of his students came up with an innovative way to help people better communicate with police agencies during the pandemic, he passed it along to his colleagues.
This week, the Oceanside Police Department added a button to its website so people are able to file police reports via Zoom. Previously, such reports could only be made in person or over the phone."
Former Sonoma Mayor Rachel Hundley accuses Dominic Foppoli of sexual misconduct
The Chronicle, ALEXANDRIA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "The law firm that provides legal services to the town of Windsor has recused itself from matters involving Mayor Dominic Foppoli after former Sonoma Mayor Rachel Hundley, a senior associate at the firm, accused Foppoli of sexual misconduct.
Hundley said in an interview that she told leadership at Meyers Nave, which has offices throughout California, that Foppoli climbed on top of her and exposed his penis in a Sacramento hotel room during a January 2015 conference for government officials. Hundley, now 38, said she had returned to Foppoli’s room after a night of drinking, but had explicitly told him that she did not want anything sexual to occur.
“His exposure to me was absolutely nonconsensual and unwanted,” said Hundley, who served on the Sonoma City Council from 2014 to 2021 and as the city’s mayor in 2017. It was “unwanted sexual aggression and persistence contrary to the boundaries I had set.”"
See where Bay Area reps want to spend federal pork
The Chronicle, TAL KOPAN: "Earmarks are back in fashion in Washington, and Northern California lawmakers are looking to cash in.
If local lawmakers have their way, up to $124 million in federal funding for projects ranging from community centers to policing improvements to wastewater treatment facilities could flow into the Bay Area, with tens of millions more going to surrounding congressional districts.
It’s unlikely that every project will be funded, as the new earmarks system caps the total pot of money available at about $15 billion. But the list of projects shows the competition will be fierce from local lawmakers to bring home the pork, as earmarks have colloquially been known for years."
California budget windfall dangles hopes for homeless housing, immigrant health coverage
The Chronicle, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "A year after tackling what state finance officials projected would be a record budget shortfall, California’s government is rolling in so much money that it could be forced to give some cash back to taxpayers.
Bolstered by federal aid and an economy that has recovered faster than anticipated, particularly for the wealthiest Californians, Gov. Gavin Newsom will reveal his revised budget plan this week. The announcement kicks off a final negotiation with lawmakers over the multibillion-dollar surplus that’s expected to surpass rosy estimates from January. At stake is major spending on homelessness, health care for undocumented immigrants and the worsening drought.
Newsom has teased that people will see “historic investments” in his budget."
Pediatricians can skip California's glitchy MyTurn system for COVID vaccine, state says
Sac Bee, DALE KASLER: "California patients and doctors alike have complained for months about problems with MyTurn, the state’s website for managing COVID-19 vaccines. MyTurn’s flaws were a key reason why many county health departments initially resisted signing up with Blue Shield of California, the insurer hired by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to oversee the vaccination program.
Now, as eligibility for the vaccines is about to expand to younger Californians, the state plans to let pediatricians bypass the MyTurn system.
Sami Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health’s vaccine task force, said Friday the state will exempt pediatricians from using MyTurn when vaccinating young people — as long as the doctors have their own electronic system for reporting vaccinations to CAIR, the California Immunization Registry."
Bay Area is close to herd immunity. But we may never get there
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY/CATHERINE HO: "The Bay Area has among the best COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States and several counties are approaching the threshold of herd immunity, where the virus eventually dies out because it can no longer find people to infect.
If the region was in a bubble, that could eliminate nearly all coronavirus infections. But with vaccine uptake already waning across California and the U.S. — and vaccines still unavailable to large swaths of the world — the level of global immunity required to squash the pandemic is almost certainly unattainable, at least for a long time to come, infectious disease experts say.
Herd immunity, once widely assumed the endpoint of the pandemic, is now mostly off the table. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the idea in California “illusory.” Even in the Bay Area, which probably has a better chance of reaching herd immunity thresholds than most other parts of the country, public health officials have abandoned that goal."
How working from home could actually make Bay Area traffic worse
The Chronicle, MATTHEW FLEISCHER: "In a pandemic year filled with untold horribleness, being allowed to skip the office commute and work remotely from home has clearly been an isolated bright spot for many.
When The Chronicle asked you to chime in last week on how things should change as COVID-19 restrictions wind down, ensuring flexible work-from-home policies stay permanent was easily your most popular response. So obvious was the appeal of this idea, in fact, that not a single person bothered to explain why it was so important.
My inbox saw more eloquent arguments for why sex clubs should open than any justifying the necessity of preserving work-from-home policies."
He ran the state's insurance dept. Now he wants to represent Sacramento in the state Senate
Sac Bee, HANNAH WILEY: "Former California Insurance Commissioner and Assemblyman Dave Jones announced last week that he is running to fill the Senate District 6 seat representing the Sacramento region when it opens in 2022.
The veteran California politician is the latest to join a crowded field of candidates vying for the seat that Democratic Sen. Richard Pan will vacate when he’s termed out next year. So far, seven candidates have filed statements of intention to run, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.
Candidates include several prominent Democrats, like Sacramento city council members Eric Guerra and Angelique Ashby and South Sacramento Pastor Tecoy Porter."
How California program helps seniors 'age at home' during pandemic
Sac Bee, JESSE BEDAYN: "The coronavirus pandemic and an infusion of new federal money could accelerate California’s expansion of programs that help people age at home.
The virus exposed a need for alternatives to nursing homes, where more than 9,000 people have died from COVID-19 in California alone. Before the pandemic, the Newsom administration was working on the state’s first Master Plan for Aging, which was released in January and prioritizes community programs that would eliminate the need for nursing homes for many people. The virus’ swift spread through nursing facilities adds urgency to that shift. And President Joe Biden’s plan to spend billions on community-based programs could ensure that it happens.
Among the Medi-Cal-funded options that stand to gain is Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which Biden’s plan specifically mentions. It started in San Francisco 50 years ago and has grown to 272 centers across 30 states. Each PACE program revolves around an adult day care center, where participants are bussed from their homes a few times a month for recreation, checkups, treatments, and physical or occupational therapy.."
Alison Collins wants $87M for damage to her career. These SFUSD employees say she destroyed theirs
The Chronicle, HEATHER KNIGHT: "When San Francisco school board member Alison Collins sued her colleagues and her own district for $87 million, she described how they “sprinted to judgment” before coming after her, voting to strip her of her vice president title and committee memberships.
Using dramatic language interspersed with poems, biblical passages and accusations of racism, her March lawsuit detailed how the vote — a response to comments Collins made on social media attacking Asian Americans — had harmed her career, reputation and enjoyment of life while causing anxiety, fear, embarrassment and “spiritual injury to her soul.”
About 2,500 miles from San Francisco, in Oaxaca, Mexico, Patricia Theel could only marvel at the irony."
SF high school seniors can return to campus for final few weeks, teachers union says
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "Seniors in San Francisco public high schools can head back to campus for classes in the final few weeks of the school year before graduation, teachers union officials announced over the weekend.
United Educators of San Francisco said it reached agreement with the San Francisco Unified School District on Friday that will allow 12th-grade students to return to in-person learning starting this Friday. The last day of instruction for the school district is June 2, and graduation ceremonies take place June 1-3.
“UESF brought the initial proposal to SFUSD so that our current graduating seniors would have the opportunity to spend some time in-person on campus with teachers and their peers during their last few weeks of high school as they say goodbye to classmates and prepare for graduation and the next chapter of their lives,” union president Susan Solomon said in an email."
These Tahoe home listings show the state of its red-hot real estate market
The Chronicle, ANNIE VAINSHTREIN: "Tahoe’s real estate market has been on fire since the beginning of the pandemic.
One huge factor has been the flocks of people moving into the region from the Bay Area. Truckee, for instance, saw the greatest percentage increase in households from San Francisco last year, with the town’s primary ZIP code gaining nearly 130 new households from San Francisco in August 2020, compared with 11 new households in August 2019.
In the past, Tahoe has been a more affordable place to buy a home, compared with the Bay Area. But that might not be so true anymore, Realtors say. Pandemic migration has driven up the market’s prices astronomically, while the number of people selling has gone down, reducing the supply of listings."
Cyberattack that shut down US pipeline linked to criminal gang
AP, MAE ANDERSON/FRANK BAJAK: "The cyber-extortion attempt that has forced the shutdown of a vital U.S. pipeline was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide, which cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, two people close to the investigation said Sunday.
The pipeline’s shutdown has stretched into its third day, with the Biden administration loosening regulations for the transport of petroleum products on highways as part of an “all hands on deck” effort to avoid disruptions in the nation’s fuel supply.
Experts said that gasoline prices are unlikely to be affected if the pipeline gets back to normal in the next few days but that the incident — the worst cyberattack to date on critical U.S. infrastructure — should serve as a wake-up call to companies about the vulnerabilities they face."
