California's biggest teacher union votes to defend Gov. Newsom against recall
Sac Bee, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California’s largest teachers union voted Saturday to throw its weight behind Gov. Gavin Newsom, pledging to defend the Democratic governor in an upcoming recall election.
“California educators stand in strong opposition to the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom,” union president E. Toby Boyd wrote in a statement. “From our classroom vantage point during the pandemic, we didn’t always agree on approach, but we’ve never questioned his commitment to California’s students and public education.”
In his statement, Boyd credited Newsom for driving down California’s COVID-19 rates with the state’s vaccination efforts. Boyd also praised the governor for brokering legislation that increased regulation of charter schools and for his budget proposal to create a new transitional kindergarten grade in California public schools."
California one of just two states at CDC's lowest level of COVID transmission
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "California continues to help set the pace for U.S. COVID-19 recovery, now ranked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of just two states at the lowest level of coronavirus community transmission.
In fact, according to the CDC’s four-level color-coded system, California’s transmission metrics were the lowest out of all 50 states as of Saturday.
The CDC determines the level of community transmission based on the number of cases in the last seven days per population of 100,000, and the number of tests in the last seven days that yield a positive result."
It's not about hair
Capitol Weekly, RICH EHISEN (Kaiser HealthLine): "State Sen. Holly Mitchell was appalled. Video of New Jersey high school wrestler Andrew Johnson having his dreadlocks chopped off as a condition of competing in a match was spreading around the country.
Johnson had competed in a previous tournament without incident, but was now being told by a white referee with a previous history of making racist comments to a black colleague that his hair was “unnatural,” and he could either cut it off or forfeit the match. Johnson chose the former.
Mitchell, now a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, knew Johnson’s situation was hardly unique."
Man and woman arrested in shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos on 55 Freeway in Orange
BRIAN ROKOS, TONY SAAVEDRA and NATHANIEL PERCY, LA Daily News: "A man and woman suspected in the May 21 shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Anthony Leos on the 55 Freeway in Orange were arrested in Costa Mesa on Sunday, June 6, the California Highway Patrol said.
Authorities, who sources said were acting on a tip, arrested the pair — a boyfriend and girlfriend — at 1:30 p.m. at their home.
Officials identified the pair as Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and Wynne Lee, 23."
How scientists are already hunting for California's next COVID variant
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "At the start of the year, infectious disease experts across California were, in their own words, stumbling around in a blind frenzy.
A new variant of the coronavirus was raging across the United Kingdom, causing unprecedented spikes in cases and deaths. California was similarly overwhelmed by a surge in winter cases — but here, very little high-tech testing was being done to identify the source of those infections. When California scientists finally discovered a locally bred variant, it was almost by accident. The mutant virus had long since gained a foothold and spread widely.
That experience raised alarms, statewide and nationally, and spurred fresh efforts and funding for genomic sequencing, the main tool scientists use to hunt for variants."
Fire killed thousands of mature giant sequoias, Sierra research shows. What's happening now?
Sac Bee, CARMEN GEORGE: "Between 7,500 and 10,600 mature giant sequoias over 4 feet in diameter were likely killed last year by a California wildfire, new research shows.
That’s the largest number of giant sequoias killed by a single fire in recorded history, and an estimated 10% to 14% of the world’s population of giant sequoias that size. The huge, ancient California trees only grow in a small range stretching from the Southern Sierra to around Lake Tahoe.
“Devastating” is a word frequently used by scientists now studying the destruction. The large giant sequoias won’t be back in a generation, or many generations."
Is California's assault weapons ban really over? Gun control advocates hope not
The Chronicle, LAUREN HEPLER: "The federal judge who struck down California’s 32-year-old assault weapon ban has a history of being overturned on gun.
issues. With the Bay Area still reeling from another mass shooting, critics are hoping for a quick reversal — but with a Supreme Court increasingly open to reconsidering major gun laws, there’s no guarantee of that lasting.
Top-ranking state officials are pledging to quickly appeal the Friday night ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez that the law limiting semiautomatic weapons violates the Second Amendment."
After judge overturns California assault weapons ban, state officials vow to fight back
LA Times, ALEX WIGGLESWORTH/THOMAS CURWEN: "Families of mass shooting victims, gun control advocates and California officials condemned a federal judge’s decision to overturn California’s 30-year-old ban on assault weapons, largely because of the manner in which he justified his ruling.
In declaring the ban unconstitutional late Friday, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez compared the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to a Swiss Army knife, calling it “good for both home and battle.”
Benitez, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush and serves in the Southern District of California, issued a permanent injunction against the law’s enforcement but stayed it for 30 days to give the state a chance to appeal."
Hawaii-bound kayaker rescued by Coast Guard helicopter near Santa Cruz
GREGORY THOMAS, Chronicle: "Marin kayaker Cyril Derreumaux, who launched into the ocean six days ago from Sausalito, was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter Saturday night amid high winds and rough seas.
Derreumaux, 44, had hoped to solo-paddle his 23-foot kayak to Hawaii when he set out May 31 on a voyage he thought would take him about 70 days. He’d been preparing for the adventure for three years.
But Saturday night, about 54 nautical miles west of Santa Cruz, after most of a rough week on the ocean of unrelenting winds and powerful swells during which Derreumaux had spent a considerable amount of time hunkered down in his small cabin, the French-born waterman decided to call it quits."
Why is VP Kamala Harris going to Guatemala and Mexico?
LA Times, NOAH BIERMAN: "When Vice President Kamala Harris leaves Sunday night for her first official trip out of the country, she won’t be going far or for long. Guatemala and Mexico are closer to Washington than her home in California, and she’ll spend just a day in each country.
But the stakes are big, for Harris and the country.
The trip will be her most high-profile act yet on the first international assignment President Biden gave her, in March, to tackle the root causes of migration from the Central American countries in what is known as the Northern Triangle — Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala."
Ticks on a 'quest' for blood at California's beaches. Is Lyme disease a rising risk?
LA Times, SUSANNE RUST: "Millions of people enjoy hanging out at California beaches in the warmer months. So do ticks carrying Lyme disease.
That’s one finding from four years of field work in California’s San Francisco Bay Area and nearby wine country involving the collection of some 3,000 Western black-legged ticks.
The abundance of the blood-sucking arachnids surprised some tick biologists and experts, in part because it is unclear what animals may be spreading them around."
California schools move ahead with fall distance learning plans despite limitations
EdSource, SYDNEY JOHNSON: "While parents and state officials are pushing to fully reopen campuses this fall, some families are fearful of sending their kids back into classrooms too soon. But options for distance learning this fall are unclear across the state.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he expects schools to fully reopen after the distance learning statute expires on June 30 and that students who want to continue with remote learning can pursue existing independent study plans. But some are critical of independent study. Although schools receive funding for students in independent study, some say the model has been used to push low-achieving students out of schools and lack accountability over academic experiences and outcomes for students.
Now, some parents, education and civil rights advocacy groups are urging Newsom to extend and strengthen the 2020-21 distance learning provisions for the upcoming school year."
NorCal to see cooling trend this week, weather service says
Sac Bee, VINCENT MOLESKI: "Northern California will see cooler weather in the week ahead, dipping back down into the 70s in the Sacramento area after a stretch of hot temperatures.
The National Weather Service’s Sacramento office predicts relatively cool below normal temperatures across Northern California through Friday.
Officials at the weather service say that Sunday’s forecast daily high temperatures across the region were the first since May 28 to predict temperatures below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The highest expected temperatures Sunday were in Sacramento and Chico, both at 93 degrees."
Shoreview Park in SF's Bayview reopens after $3M makeover, with first Skywalk in California
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "For a year, three 8-year-old cousins have been riding the fenced-off perimeter of Shoreview Park waiting for its playground to reopen. That’s what they were doing on their bikes Friday afternoon when project manager Lauren Dietrich Chavez opened the construction gate and invited them in for a test drive.
The boys rode up the ramp like they’d never left, even though their playground by the bay was all new. First they twirled around in newfangled bucket seats until they were good and dizzy. Then they headed for the 15-foot climbing net to the Skywalk, where they gave a quick nod to a south view all the way down past Yosemite Slough to Candlestick Point. Then they came down the 25-foot tube, shooting out the bottom onto a soft landing of turf atop spongy rubber.
“Scary,” said Jaquan Phillips to his cousins Antonio Reed and Jaecieon Lowe, by way of review. “Slippery too.”"
These SF neighborhoods have high eviction rates, but little help from city
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Over the past seven years, the Mission District has become San Francisco’s busiest neighborhood for affordable housing development, with 1,100 units in the pipeline and a steady drumbeat of groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings blessed by ceremonial Aztec dancers and lauded by politicians.
At the same time, the nonprofit Mission Economic Development Agency has worked with the city’s Small Sites Program to buy more than 25 rent-controlled buildings — totaling 240 units — that were at risk of being snapped up by investors, emptied of their largely working-class Latino residents and turned into expansive tenancies in common.
For District Eight Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights and Glen Park neighborhoods in the city’s central sector, it’s been bittersweet to watch. He loves that so many low- and middle-income Mission families will be able to stay in their homes. Still, he can’t help but reflect on the fact that his district, which since 2009 has had nearly as many evictions as the Mission, has almost no affordable units coming down the pike. Nor does it have a nonprofit dedicated to buying and preserving rent-controlled buildings."
Manchin says he'll vote against Democrats' elections bill
AP: "A key Democratic senator says he will not vote for the largest overhaul of U.S. election law in at least a generation, defying his party and the White House and virtually guaranteeing the failure of the legislation after a near party-line approval in the House.
“Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen,” Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia wrote in a home-state newspaper, the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
He wrote that failure to bring together both parties on voting legislation would “risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.""
