California's deteriorating infrastructure targeted for a facelift in Newsom's new budget
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Thousands of California state bridges, as well as crumbling roads, that badly need repair would get a $2 billion shot of new money under the budget revision proposed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom’s budget plan also includes $4.2 billion to complete the High Speed Rail project in the Central Valley, provide help for eventually launching service between Merced and Bakersfield and perform other work.
The budget has $500 million for projects that include encouraging walking and biking. Though fewer vehicles used the roads last year, California’s pedestrian death toll in the first six months of 2020 was up 5% to 485."
READ MORE BUDGET WOES NEWS --- Newsom's $267.8B California budget proposal includes health care for undocumented seniors -- The Chronicle, ALEXEI KOSEFF
‘This is not normal’: Topanga Canyon is used to fire. But not amid drizzling, May gray gloom
ALEX WIGGLESWORTH, LA Times: "The temperatures were cool, the skies overcast with some drizzle.
But that didn’t stop the Palisades fire from continuing to threaten communities in Topanga Canyon on Sunday.
This is fire country. And residents know the dangers. But for many, they consider the summer and fall the dangerous times — when Santa Ana winds combine with hot temperatures."
AT&T to spin off HBO, other WarnerMedia assets in a huge deal with Discovery. What went wrong?
MEG JAMES and STEPHEN BATAGLIO, LA Times: "Three years ago, AT&T Inc. marched into Hollywood with big ambitions to be a 21st century media colossus, connecting its booming cellphone business with legendary media properties — HBO, the Warner Bros. film and TV studio and Turner channels including cable news juggernaut CNN.
Now, the company is retreating from those plans.
Daunted by the challenges of competing in the streaming age and shackled by a mountain of debt, the Dallas telecommunications behemoth is poised to spin off its entertainment assets into a new venture with cable programming company Discovery, which owns HGTV, the Food Network and Animal Planet, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment."
State plans to order drought restrictions, but it doesn't have good water data to do it
The Chroniclke, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "As California descends deeper into drought, state regulators are planning to do something they’ve done few times in modern history: order thousands of people, farms, and even cities and towns that hold historic water rights to stop drawing water from the rivers, lakes and ponds they rely on.
The move is intended to make sure the dwindling flows in California’s waterways are reserved for those with the most senior water rights, as well as for fish and other wildlife. Many of those with lesser rights would have to turn to storage, groundwater or another source, if they have it.
The problem, besides leaving several in a tough spot, is that the state doesn’t have an accurate tally of how much water is being pulled from its watersheds, nor who exactly is taking it. This lack of information makes it hard for regulators to determine which water rights holders to restrict, and how many."
The Trump lobbyist and the 'sex tape': Behind Dominic Foppoli's combative response to sexual assault allegations
The Chronicle, ALEXANDRA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES/MATTHIAS GAFNI: "With his political career on the brink of ruin amid multiple allegations of sexual assault, Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli turned to an old friend who had parlayed early loyalty and slight ties to Donald Trump into a multimillion-dollar lobbying business in Washington.
With the help of Robert Stryk, described by the Associated Press as “one of the most successful lobbyists during the Trump presidency,” Foppoli has waged an aggressive campaign to save his job that has alarmed many residents and local officials already upset over the allegations revealed in a Chronicle investigation last month.
The campaign hinges on an apparent attempt to shift the conversation away from the original Foppoli accusers by fiercely attacking Esther Lemus, a Windsor Town Council colleague and Sonoma County deputy district attorney who herself has accused Foppoli of sexual assault in a report to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office."
California's first Filipino American AG weighs in on anti-Asian racism
LA Times, ANH DO: "Rob Bonta, California’s new attorney general, is known as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform.
From defending the state’s gun control laws to investigating fatal police shootings to eliminating cash bail and reducing incarceration, his work is cut out for him in that realm.
As the first Filipino American to hold the office, Bonta has another top priority — fighting anti-Asian racism at a time when hate attacks are rising up and down the state and across the nation. He plans to create a racial justice bureau to combat white supremacy and biased policing as well as to explore reparations for slavery."
California veterinarians could recommend cannabis/CBD under proposed law
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "California veterinarians would be able to recommend cannabis for people’s pets under a bill being considered by state lawmakers.
Assembly Bill 384 follows up on a 2018 law which empowered vets to discuss cannabis with pet owners without facing sanction.
Those products are commonly available now, including CBD-infused oils, capsules and treats. California veterinarians can talk about them, but they cannot make recommendations."
CDC director defends mask-ditching decision
AP, KIMBERLEE KRUESI: "The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday defended the decision to ease mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, stressing that increasing political pressure had nothing to do with the abrupt shift in guidelines.
“I’m delivering the science as the science is delivered to the medical journals. And it evolved," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on FOX News Sunday. “I deliver it as soon as I can when we have that information available.”
Under the new guidelines released last week, fully vaccinated people — those who are two weeks past their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — can quit wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings and give up social distancing."
READ MORE VACCINE/MASKING RUILES-RELATED NEWS --- Californai nurses union urges state to reject CDC guidance on easing mask mandate -- The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES
Undocumented workers forced to 'wipe out their life savings.' Will California help?
Sac Bee, YESENIA AMARO: "Many undocumented immigrants in California have gone through their life savings during the coronavirus pandemic. Others have mounting debts, immigrant advocates say as they push Gov. Gavin Newsom to step up and help as other states have.
Advocates say it will take years for the state’s undocumented workers and their families to emerge from their financial ruins without a safety net in place to provide relief.
The pandemic exacerbated their already dire financial situation, and as the economy starts to reopen, their struggles continue, said Lucas Zucker, policy and communications director at the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy."
Bay Area temps to heat up early this week after light weekend drizzle
The Chronicle, VANESSA ARREDONDO: "Temperatures are expected to heat up in the Bay Area to start the week before cooling down to below-average lows, according to meteorologists.
Temperatures on Sunday will be cooler than seasonal averages, but slightly warmer than in the previous days. Highs at the coasts will range from the mid 50s to mid 60s. Temperatures in inland regions will be between the mid 60s and 70s, with a few spots reaching the low 80s, according to the National Weather Service.
Low clouds covered much of the Bay Area on Sunday including Santa Rosa, Napa, Oakland, Concord, Livermore and San Jose. These regions received “patchy” light drizzle throughout the morning and into the early afternoon before the clouds cleared, meteorologists said."
Hundreds take to the streets in Oakland to decry the recent waves of anti-Asian-based violence
The Chronicle, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "A shrill noise briefly filled the air in Oakland’s Chinatown just after noon on Saturday as hundreds of people blew bright yellow whistles while rallying against anti-Asian violence.
The plastic whistles, attached to wristbands, were handed out to participants in the Unity Against Hate rally in front of the Pacific Renaissance Center on Ninth Street. They’re meant for people to blow loudly if they’re being attacked, as an increasing number of Asian Americans — especially elders — have been in Oakland and around the nation.
But the blast of noise wasn’t a cry for help so much as a coordinated signal of solidarity against hate crimes around the nation, particularly against Asian Americans."
Californians are finally acknowledging Asians are 'frequently' discriminated against, survey shows
LA Times, PRISCELLA VEGA: "In a sign of shifting views on the Asian American experience in California, state residents are more willing to acknowledge that Asian Americans encounter discrimination, and Asian Americans are increasingly fearful of being victims of a hate crime, even more so than Black or Latino residents, according to a new statewide poll.
The recognition in the past year of growing animus toward Asian Americans is one of the key findings of the survey, which was commissioned by community groups and conducted in consultation with The Times. The shift in attitudes spans the time period since George Floyd’s death and the spate of attacks targeting Asian Americans nationwide.
Charlie Woo, chair of the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment, a group that helped commissioned the survey, said the poll’s data show Californians’ “profound shift” in attitude of the model minority myth. It also presents an opportunity to foster “ally-ship,” he added."
SCOTUS agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe vs. Wade
LA Times, DAVID G SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court said Monday it would hear a major challenge to the reach of the landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling and decide whether states may bar nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of a pregnancy.
The justices said they had voted to hear an appeal from Mississippi that urges the court to “reconsider the bright-line viability rule” that says states may not prohibit abortions until the time a fetus is viable or capable of living on its own. This is generally about the 23rd week of a pregnancy.
It is the court’s first major move to reconsider abortion rights since Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September shortly after Mississippi had lodged its appeal. Barrett, who has acknowledged being personally opposed to abortion, is widely expected to be the vote that would allow the court’s conservative majority to rein in abortion rights."
Giant Trump chicken balloon laid to rest -- for now
The Chronicle, STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "A three-story-high inflatable chicken resembling Donald Trump was deflated and placed in a coffin before being interred in a San Francisco warehouse on Saturday.
“Donald Trump,” concluded the chicken’s owner, Danelle Morton, “isn’t funny anymore.”
Morton, a San Francisco writer and longtime anti-Trump protester, used to display the 33-foot chicken from time to time during the Trump presidency. Its greatest fame involved a well-photographed 2018 cruise to Alcatraz, dressed in prison garb."
