Recall backers try to block Trump mentions from California voter guide
JEREMY WHITE, Politico: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent months framing the California recall vote as a Trump-aligned Republican power grab, but recall proponents want to block him from saying so in state campaign materials.
The recall’s original supporters want the courts to edit references to Republicans and to former President Donald Trump out of the official argument Newsom has proposed for inclusion in the state’s voter information guide, which will be mailed to voters by Aug. 24. Recall backers argue Newsom’s partisan arguments inappropriately “mirror his and his supporters’ paid advertisements.”
“The Guide is not a paid advertisement,” they argue in their complaint filed Friday in Sacramento Superior Court."
Hundreds of new California retirees aren't getting their pension checks from UC system
Sac Bee, KATHERINE SWARTZ: "In a record year for retirement, the University of California is lagging in paying pensions for its new retirees, hundreds of whom won’t be paid on time — and don’t know when they will be paid.
Hundreds of newly retired University of California employees aren’t getting their pensions and they don’t know when they’ll start receiving their checks.
The UC Retirement Administration Service Center acknowledged the delay in a July 27 email to pensioners in which it said some new retirees wouldn’t receive their first retirement payment as expected on July 30."
Kaiser orders all employees to get COVID vaccine as delta variant spreads in California
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "Kaiser Permanente ordered its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine Monday in one of the most dramatic moves yet by a healthcare organization to fight the recent surge in coronavirus infections.
The Oakland-based healthcare giant said nearly a quarter of its 240,000 employees remain unvaccinated, including 5% of its doctors.
Last week Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all healthcare workers to get vaccinated — but gave them the option of wearing masks and submitting to regular COVID testing instead.
L.A.'s new homeless encampment law: A humane approach or cruel to unhoused people?
DAVID ZAHNISER and BENJAMEN ORESKES, LA Times: "A sweeping ordinance outlawing camping around parks, libraries and other facilities was approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council. Mayor Eric Garcetti quickly signed the ordinance, which is expected to go into effect next month.
The ordinance marks the city’s latest attempt to address homeless camping at a time when business leaders, neighborhood groups and others are voicing alarm over reduced access to sidewalks, parks and other public spaces.
Backers have called the ordinance a more humane way to clear encampments, with outreach teams offering shelter and services before any enforcement takes place. Critics say it punishes people for living on the street and argue that the city should put its energies into building housing for the city’s neediest people.
Marin is the most vaccinated county in California, but cases are surging in one community
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "For the past year and a half, Mercedes Morgan was dealing with the pandemic as best she could.
The 36-year-old Marin City resident was careful, staying home as much as possible, always wearing a mask when leaving the house, and only visiting close family and friends. But when the COVID-19 vaccines became available, Morgan was not in a rush to get one.
“I never had intentions to get the shot,” she said. “It was all so confusing. ‘Get this one, don’t get this one’ ... I would see a lot of stuff on TV about people getting strokes.”"
Lagging in fundraising, Sacramento DA candidate dropping out of race, sources say
Sacramento Be\e, SAM STANTON: "Paris Coleman, one of three announced candidates to replace Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, has told people he is dropping out of the race, sources say.
Coleman, a deputy district attorney Schubert endorsed as she runs for California attorney general, did not respond to requests for comment Monday night. His campaign website was not functioning Monda.
The sources, who were not authorized to speak on Coleman’s behalf, said they were told by the candidate he was dropping out."
Having problems w/ your fed child tax credit? Tips inside
Sacramento Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "As new federal child tax credits go out to parents in monthly payments — with another round due out next week — some recipients are reporting delays, incorrect amounts, wrong addresses and money that just isn’t wanted.
The biggest issue so far involves people who don’t want the monthly credit, which is an advance on a credit taxpayers can claim on their earnings this year.
They’re concerned they won’t qualify for the break at the end of the year and could owe more money when they file taxes next year. Or they would rather have the credit as a big refund in 2022."
Trash is the trophy for Lake Tahoe divers
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: "The first pull of the day was a Corona bottle, its label scraped off by the coarse sand just off the shore of South Lake Tahoe. How long it had been there was anyone’s guess.
A freediver in the floating cleanup crew unearthed it from the sand — only about 12 feet deep here — and surfaced to dump it in a green floating trash raft named Darlene.
“Partyyyy! Wooo!” shouted Colin West, amused and sarcastic. “I bet that isn’t the last beer bottle we find today.”"
BART service returns to near-normal levels, but the post-pandemic future could be 'something different'
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "At BART’s West Oakland Station on Monday morning, riders had little time to scroll through their phones or check the system’s schedule because there was virtually no wait to catch a train to San Francisco.
After one of the system’s new trains arrived, passengers entered a half-full train car and effortlessly found open seats as the train took them to the depths of the Transbay Tube.
In some ways, it looked like pre-pandemic BART on the first day the service returned to near-normal, a milestone of sorts for the Bay Area’s struggling public transit system that lags the nation in its recovery. But a BART commute Monday morning also showed signs of the system’s uncertain road back as it works to restore service to near pre-pandemic levels."
