California drivers pay the nation's highest gasoline taxes. Now they're going higher
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "California motorists will find their taxes for a gallon of gasoline — already the nation’s highest — went up Thursday because of inflation.
And that’s on top of what AAA says are the highest average per gallon gasoline prices in the country.
The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the state Thursday was $4.28, the group said. Sacramento’s average was $4.22, according to the GasBuddy website. Only one other state, Hawaii, has an average over $4 at $4.02."
Public banking movement gaining traction in California
Capitol Weekly, SCOTT SORIANO: "San Francisco has taken its first major step toward establishing a public bank, and other California municipalities are also moving forward in exploring public banking, including a regional effort by cities and counties on the Central Coast.
The moves come nearly two years after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 857, enabling California cities and counties to form public banks. These are locally-controlled financial institutions into which municipal revenues — such as taxes and fees — are deposited. The money is then lent out to small businesses and infrastructure projects, among others, through partnerships with community banks. The goal is to directly benefit residents, while providing not-for-profit services for citizens who choose to use the bank.
A state public bank was formed in North Dakota more than a century ago, although no cities or counties in the nation have public banks. But the California statute reportedly is adding fuel to a nationwide public banking effort."
California saw record surge in handgun sales during pandemic, attorney general says
PATRICK McGREEVY, LA Times: "Amid economic and political turmoil during the COVID-19 pandemic, California saw a record increase in the sale of handguns last year, and the number of long-gun purchases was higher than it has been in four years, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Thursday.
With gun violence also surging, Bonta called on local law enforcement to step up efforts to reduce shootings, including use of a state law that allows judges to order temporary removal of firearms from people deemed a public danger.
“While violent crime rates are still well below their historical highs in the early ‘90s, the increases we’ve seen during this pandemic are unacceptable,” Bonta said. “In California and across the country, gun violence in particular continues to be a uniquely American health crisis.”
COVID cases up more than 20% in Bay Area, California since June 15th reopening
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "New coronavirus cases have jumped more than 20% in California and the Bay Area since the state’s June 15 reopening — a sign that even as residents embrace a return to normalcy, the virus can still spread among unvaccinated people and will likely linger for months to come.
Statewide, new cases crept up from about 900 on June 15 to nearly 1,100 on June 30, according to seven-day averages of new daily infections. In the Bay Area, cases ticked up from 187 to 225 during the same period, according to Chronicle data.
State and local health officials had predicted a rise in new cases after June 15, when California lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions on public life. Case rates are still considered low, at fewer than 3 new infections per 100,000 people statewide and in the Bay Area. In January, during the worst of the winter surge, there were nearly 100 new cases a day per 100,000 people statewide."
Despite urgent warnings of fire danger, Bay Area fireworks sales are booming
The Chronicle, STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "The Bay Area may be a tinderbox waiting to ignite, but fireworks — the legal ones offered in supermarket parking lots in some spots and the illegal ones peddled from the backs of trucks — are still very much for sale.
Sparklers, snakes, glowing fountains: They’re all up for grabs at the wooden shacks that pop up in the handful of Bay Area towns that still allow the sale of so-called “safe and sane” firework sales.
“This is basic American culture,” said Jenna MacDonald of Pacifica, while her mother, Mickie, browsed the wares at the TNT Fireworks shack outside the Safeway at Pacifica’s Manor Plaza. “It’s tradition. We always do it.”"
Newsom recall election date officially set: Voters to cast ballots in September
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom will face a recall election on Sept. 14, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis announced on Thursday.
Her declaration follows more than a year of petition-gathering and campaigning fueled, in part, by outrage over the governor’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic
Whether he will actually lose his job, however, is up to voters."
Califiornia Capitol faces COVID outbreak of 7 new cases, including 2 breakthrough cases
Sac Bee, HANNAH WILEY: "The California Capitol is experiencing an outbreak of seven new COVID-19 cases, all within the same Assembly office, just weeks after it opened its doors to the public and began lifting certain pandemic rules.
The cases have all been reported this week in memos that Assembly Rules Chief Administrative Officer Debra Gravert sent to staff and members.
Two of the employees who tested positive were fully vaccinated, a Thursday note included, and all reportedly wore masks while in the office."
Why did an Alameda County deputy play a Taylor Swift song while arguing with protesters?
MICHAEL CABANATUAN, Chronicle: "An Alameda County sheriff’s sergeant who pulled out his phone and started playing a Taylor Swift song in the middle of an argument with protesters is being investigated for allegedly using the tactic to keep a video of him from being posted on social media because it contained copyrighted music.
Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said the incident is being investigated after the video was, nevertheless, posted on YouTube and Twitter by the Anti Police-Terror Project. The group was protesting outside the Alameda County Superior Court René C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland this week.
“Obviously it’s problematic,” Kelly said. “This is not something that is acceptable. It has triggered some concerns in community and it’s being investigated.”
Special education sees 'historic' boost in new funding
EdSource, CAROLYN JONES: "Special education in California has been showered with more than $1 billion in new state and federal money in recent weeks, enough to potentially transform a system that’s been underfunded for decades.
“It really is unprecedented and historic,” said Anjanette Pelletier, director of San Mateo County’s Special Education Local Area Plan. “The budget for 2021-22 holds amazing promise for students with disabilities. … It is an amazing time to be thinking about how to use one-time and ongoing resources to support students as we complete extended school-year programs and move into in-person learning in the fall.”
The state budget approved this week includes $656 million in new ongoing funding for special education, including a 4.05% increase to the base funding rate. The state also allotted $550 million in one-time funds for addressing disputes between parents and school districts, which are expected to surge in the next few months as students return to the classroom."
California homicides surged 31% in 2020. New gun sales are also skyrocketing
Sac Bee, HANNAH WILEY: "California homicides increased 31% in 2020, the same year hundreds of thousands of new guns were purchased at record levels in the Golden State, according to annual data released Thursday by the Department of Justice.
California recorded 2,202 homicides last year, up from 1,679 in 2019, according to the state agency.
Handgun sales in 2020 also surged a record 65.5%, and long gun sales increased 45.9%, an increase second only to 2016."
READ MIORE GUN VIOLENCE NEWS --- California homicides jumped 31% last year, erasing years of progress, state report says -- The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA
Could a building collapse like the Florida disaster happen in the Bay Area?
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "The catastrophic condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., where at least 18 people died and almost 150 remain missing, raises questions whether a similar disaster could occur in the Bay Area.
Both the Miami region and Bay Area have significant construction near ocean water, which can affect soil quality, and both regions grapple with natural disasters. Building codes around Miami are oriented to protect against tropical storms and hurricanes, while California building standards have been strengthened in the wake of earthquakes.
The Bay Area has seen deadly building collapses, many during earthquakes, and cases where buildings weren’t properly maintained, though nothing on the scale of the Surfside collapse. In recent years, cities have taken steps to require owners to retrofit older buildings against earthquakes."
Newsom failed homeless Californians, opponents say. Here's what GOP wants to do
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "Standing under Highway 160 in north Sacramento on Tuesday, amid discarded clothes, boxes and other random litter, gubernatorial hopeful Kevin Faulconer gave his pitch for fixing homelessness in California.
“I feel very, very strongly that we have to change what we are doing as a state,” said the former San Diego mayor, steps away from the tents of homeless people who milled about as he addressed a small crowd of reporters.
“The failure of leadership from this governor Gavin Newsom continues to manifest itself in tent cities and tent encampments up and down California. And this encampment that you see right behind us here underneath this freeway overpass is no different.”"
