The allure of the AR-15: As judge overturns assault weapons ban, the style of rifle remains at heart of gun control battle
MATTHIAS GAFNI Chronicle: "John Parkin bought an AR-15-style rifle for his wife in 2016. The couple live on a remote 150-acre ranch in Northern California, and Parkin, who owns gun shops in Burlingame and Lower Lake (Lake County), is often away on business.
“She needs to have something that could equal what a bad guy could have,” he said.
Steve Sposato has spent almost three decades fighting for that type of rifle and similar guns to be banned. In 1993, a man killed his wife, Jody, with a military-style firearm in a San Francisco office building, in one of the nation’s first modern mass shootings."
Your California vaccine card is digital now, health officials say. Here's how to get it
Sac Bee, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California residents can now access a digital vaccine card through the Department of Public Health’s website, state officials announced Friday.
Entertainment venues, sports arenas and other businesses can use the cards to verify that someone has been vaccinated, State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said on a call with reporters Friday. She also said the digital cards can also be used for travel to countries that require proof of vaccination.
California requires that venues holding indoor events with more than 5,000 people check to ensure that attendees are vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19. The state doesn’t have any requirements for other types of events or businesses to verify vaccination status."
State orders stricter county oversight of districts' spending for low-income kids, English learners
EdSource, JOHN FENSTERWALD: "In a decision with statewide implications, the California Department of Education ruled this week that the San Bernardino County Office of Education erred in approving several districts’ plans for spending money targeted for low-income students and other high-needs student groups.
The department upheld a June 2020 complaint filed on behalf of two San Bernardino-area faith-based organizations against the office of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Ted Alejandre. The county office should not have signed off on the Local Control and Accountability Plans of three school districts that failed to justify how they would spend tens of millions of dollars, the ruling said. Included was spending on police and law enforcement that the organizations argued should have been spent instead on counseling and wellness centers serving Black and Latino students.
LCAPs are the annual plans in which districts detail their spending priorities for money from the Local Control Funding Formula, including extra funding for “high-needs students”: English learners, homeless, foster and low-income students."
READ MORE EDUCATIONAL NEWS --- Many California kids can't access Wi-Fi for schoolwork. Newsom wants the state to step up -- LA Times, GEORGE SKELTON
CW Podcast: Annie Notthoff
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Longtime environmental advocate Annie Notthoff retired from the Natural Resources Defense Council last year but still has plenty to say about California environmental issues. Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster asked her about CEQA exemptions for housing, what to make of the budget and the drought. Plus: Who had the Worst Week in California Politics?"
California's prison boom saved this town. Now, plans to close its lockup are sparking anger and fear
LA Times, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "When Mike O’Kelly was a boy, this was a timber town.
In the early 1900s, his grandfather drove a herd of cattle more than 200 miles from the Oregon border to this remote outpost near the Nevada state line where he sold milk to millworkers and loggers.
He ran a dairy, and so did O’Kelly’s father, whose children grew up watching logging trucks speed past their house."
Few police agencies have given L.A. prosecutors the names of dishonest cops
BEN POSTON, LA Times: "Four months after Dist. Atty. George Gascón sent a request to law enforcement agencies across Los Angeles County, more than 40 departments have yet to provide his office with names of officers who have histories of dishonesty and other misconduct that could affect their credibility in court.
Only a half-dozen agencies have submitted names of officers who have been disciplined for wrongdoing, which prosecutors are obligated to disclose to the defense in criminal cases. A dozen say they have no officers who fit the description.
Greg Risling, a district attorney’s spokesman, said all agencies have vowed to cooperate, but gaining compliance has taken longer than expected because police wanted to consult with their legal counsel and officer unions to make sure they weren’t violating state laws that protect police privacy."
Only one US city saw a bigger pandemic exodus than SF
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "San Francisco saw the second largest population decline of all major cities in the U.S. in 2020, according to census data. Only one city —Baltimore — logged a greater population decline.
San Francisco’s population shrank by 1.39% between July 1, 2019, and July 1, 2020, U.S. Census data shows. Before that, San Francisco’s population had been growing modestly since 2010. Baltimore, meanwhile, declined by 1.42%.
San Jose was the city with the third largest population decline, shrinking by 1.3% over that time period, though the city also had negative growth in 2019."
22 states ask federal court in SF to halt state ban on assault weapons
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "As California defends its 32-year-old ban on the firearms it defines as assault weapons, 22 Republican-led states are urging a federal appeals court to halt enforcement of the ban, saying people will be safer in California and elsewhere if they’re allowed to carry guns that can be fired repeatedly without reloading.
“Law-abiding citizens keeping and bearing modern rifles benefit public safety, counter-balance the threat of illegal gun violence, and help make our homes and streets safer,” the states, led by Arizona, said in a filing this week in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
The weapons are AR-15-style semiautomatic rifles and pistols with detachable magazines and specific features, such as forward pistol grips. Semiautomatic firearms do not require reloading after each squeeze of the trigger."
Newsom's recall fundraising edge becomes a chasm with union, tribal, tech money
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/NAMI SUMIDA: "There was always little doubt that Gov. Gavin Newsom would have the financial edge in California’s recall election, but the fundraising gap between the governor and his main GOP challengers has become a quickly growing chasm.
Newsom, a Democrat, has raised nearly $16.5 million to defend himself in the recall contest expected this fall, with much of the money pouring in over the past two weeks. He has also raised $9.3 million for his 2022 re-election campaign.
In other words, the governor has pulled in about twice as much as his entire field of Republican challengers combined. The next closest candidate, San Diego businessman John Cox, has raised $7.7 million, most of it from his own pocket."
Why is California still constructing homes in wildfire red zones?
Sac Bee, DALE KASLER/RYAN SABALOW/PHILLIP REESE: "The scenery is breathtaking — rolling hills, steep canyons and stately vineyards, a pastoral landscape ruled by cattle, sheep and the occasional coyote. But there are also grim markers of the worst wildfire season in modern California history, in the form of blackened oaks and pines.
Guenoc Valley is a $1 billion resort and housing development planned for Lake County, in the heart of one of the most fire-prone regions in the state. A portion of the site burned in the LNU Lightning Complex, a string of wildfires that chewed up 360,000 acres of wine country last September.
The state has decided the risk is too high. The Attorney General’s Office, in league with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, is suing Lake County officials over their decision to approve the development."
Is California 'ready to roar back' -- or will Newsom's post-pandemic economic boom fizzle?
Sac Bee, DALE KASLER: "Practically everywhere he goes these days, it seems Gov. Gavin Newsom is bragging about California’s economy — how well it withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, its performance compared to rivals like Texas, and the stunning boom that’s still to come.
The reality is somewhat complicated.
It’s true there’s considerable evidence that California is poised to make a strong recovery from the coronavirus stay-at-home orders that Newsom all but completely lifted Tuesday."
Is Juneteenth going to become a paid state holiday? It's not California lawmakers' top priority
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/HANNAH WILEY: "Junteenth is the newest federal holiday, but California state workers aren’t likely to get it as a paid day off anytime soon.
Doing so would be meaningful, but other priorities should be addressed first, said state Sen. Sydney Kamlager, Legislative Black Caucus vice chair.
“Juneteenth is important, but fixing the (Black community’s) systemic issues is more important,” the Los Angeles Democrat told The Sacramento Bee. “I think symbolism is important, but the substantive legislation that comes with teeth and is attached to money is more important.”"
Small businesses can't find workers. Newsom counsels patience
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Gov. Gavin Newsom had a big challenge when he stopped in Oakland on Thursday to highlight, as his office put it, “small businesses roaring back as California fully reopens”: Many small businesses aren’t roaring back yet because they’re having trouble hiring employees.
That includes Graffiti Pizza, an Oakland restaurant where Newsom spun pies for the cameras capturing the photo-op. Owner Davina Dickens said it’s been really difficult to find people for the four open positions she has that pay $17 an hour. Until she can, she will continue to do everything at the restaurant from answering the phone to cleaning to managing the payroll.
“I know, from firsthand experience, a handful of people who don’t want to work because they’re getting unemployment,” Dickens said. “I don’t think the governor and I agreed on that one.”"
Weather service predicts cooler temps coming this week to Sacramento Valley
Sac Bee, VINCENT MOLESKI: "The National Weather Service expects cooler temperatures to return briefly this week in the Sacramento Valley, but Northern California will again contend with triple digits by the end of the week.
The weather service’s Sacramento office described the upcoming week of fluctuating heat via social media as a “temperature roller coaster,” with cooling coming in the middle of the week before rising again later in the week.
The Sacramento Valley can expect highs on Monday between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit — comparable to Sunday’s high in Sacramento around 99 degrees. But starting on Tuesday, highs will start dropping."
READ MORE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS -- Next heat wave coming soon, centering on NorCal -- The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG/JESSICA FLORES
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: "When news broke that the U.S. Coast Guard was called to rescue ocean kayaker Cyril Derreumaux off the coast of Santa Cruz earlier this month, the questions started rolling in: How much does a helicopter rescue cost? Is that charge passed onto taxpayers? Why doesn’t the Coast Guard bill the kayaker?
“Why should taxpayers foot the bill for his narcissistic waste of time,” one person wrote in an email to The Chronicle.
Derreumaux, a 44-year-old paddler from Marin County, set out May 31 on what he thought would be the voyage of a lifetime, planning to stroke his small kayak 2,400 nautical miles across the Pacific to Hawaii. If successful, he could have set a world record for the fastest human-powered crossing between those points, a goal that appears to be increasingly alluring to certain hard-core water enthusiasts."
READ MORE PUBLIC SAFETY NEWS --- SF debates cutting police budget to fund community-led response to homelessness -- The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH
The reason most Republicans now back gay marriage is ... Donald Trump?
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "A recent Gallup Poll found that for the first time a majority of Republicans (55%) said they supported same-sex marriage. Four years ago, only 40% backed it. So what changed over that period?
“Obviously, change happens rapidly in society,” said Charles Moran, managing director of the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBTQ GOP organization with 51 chapters in 33 states. “But I do give a good amount of credit to the leader of the Republican Party during those times.”
Wait a minute. Donald Trump was good for the LGBTQ community?"
