Newsom mandates vaccines/tests for California teachers
Sacramento Bee, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "All California school teachers and staff must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday as many kids are returning back to the classroom after a year of remote learning.
Newsom, a Democrat, publicized the new policy at an elementary school in Oakland, where the school district had already decided to impose such a requirement on teachers.
“We think this is the right thing to do,” Newsom said while standing in front of a colorful wildlife mural near the playground at Carl B. Munck Elementary. “We think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open, and to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have — I have four young children — and that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe.”
California’s new vaccine requirement for schools: What you need to know
HOWARD BLUME, LA Times: "California on Wednesday became the second state in the nation, following Hawaii, to impose a vaccination mandate for school staff.
It comes as schools across the the state are reopening amid worries about the highly contagious Delta variant.
Here are the basics:"
'Unlike anything we've seen': California fire officials plead with residents to prepare for more dangerous wildfires
LAUREN HERNANDEZ, Chronicle: "California fire officials pleaded with residents to remain vigilant over the next few months of the state’s fire season, pointing to “another bout” of weather conditions that could bring dry lightning to the Dixie Fire zone, which has already burned more than half a million acres.
The forecast is a concern in the “near term,” Cal Fire Director Thom Porter said Wednesday afternoon, but added fire officials are aware that there is a “long peak season” still left in the year. Porter warned residents that officials will be “at this for months to come,” and urged residents to make sure they don’t create sparks that could ignite another blaze.
“If there is even a blade of grass near you, that is enough to start a fire these days. It is so dry,” Porter said during a community update on the Dixie Fire with state law enforcement and emergency management authorities at the Plumas County Fairgrounds. “The way we’ve seen this burn through live timber in the tens of thousands of acres an hour is unlike anything we’ve seen other than a few times. And those few times, most of them have been within the last year or two years.”
PG&E Faces Growing Risk of State Oversight as Fire Spreads
MARK CHEDIAK, Bloomberg: "A sprawling Northern California wildfire has now destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, crossing a key threshold that puts PG&E Corp. at risk of heightened regulatory scrutiny and ultimately could set the utility further down a path toward a state takeover.
The Dixie Fire, which PG&E says may have been sparked by its equipment, is the second-largest blaze in state history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. If PG&E is found to have started it, the number of burned buildings is now high enough to allow regulators to place the utility into the second level of a six-step enforcement process that could lead to state takeover for repeated safety violations.
t could take months for state officials to determine whether PG&E caused the fire, considering the blaze is only 30% contained. For the utility to be placed into the next level of enforcement, regulators would also need to find that it didn’t follow state rules or prudent management practices. There would be multiple opportunities for the company to correct course before even reaching higher enforcement levels, let alone losing its license to operate."
Pay cut: Google employees who work from home could lose money
DANIELLE KAYE, Reuters: " Google employees based in the same office before the pandemic could see different changes in pay if they switch to working from home permanently, with long commuters hit harder, according to a company pay calculator seen by Reuters.
It is an experiment taking place across Silicon Valley, which often sets trends for other large employers.
Facebook (FB.O) and Twitter (TWTR.N) also cut pay for remote employees who move to less expensive areas, while smaller companies including Reddit and Zillow (ZG.O) have shifted to location-agnostic pay models, citing advantages when it comes to hiring, retention and diversity."
California Supreme Court won't hear Republican case on Newsom's emergency COVID-19 powers
Sacramento Bee, LARA KORTE: "The state’s highest court declined to to hear an appeal arguing against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s use of emergency power during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The California Supreme Court denied the petition for review submitted by Assemblymen James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, which allows a lower-court ruling affirming Newsom’s powers to stand.
Gallagher and Kiley sued the governor last year, saying the Democrat acted illegally when he issued an executive order laying out procedures for a mail-in election. The lawmakers, who represented themselves in court, said Newsom had unconstitutionally used executive action under the California Emergency Services Act when he changed how the state would conduct elections that year."
California college lecturer held after string of arsons near Dixie Fire to remain jailed
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "The California professor suspected in a string of arsons near the 500,000-acre Dixie Fire was ordered Wednesday to remain in jail as a flight risk and danger to the community.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis M. Cota said during a Zoom hearing in federal court in Sacramento that Gary Stephen Maynard, 47, must remain in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail at least until an Aug. 24 preliminary hearing due to the nature of the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Anderson urged Cota to keep Maynard jailed because of the potential threat he poses"
Why conservative California Rep. Tom McClintock wants to ease fed cannabis laws
Sacramento Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Rep. Tom McClintock doesn’t approve of marijuana use.
He sees “clear evidence” its use can cause neurological problems in children.
He’s a reliable Republican, conservative vote in Congress."
Sacramento supe casts doubt on COVID vaccine at demonstration near Kaiser Permanente hospital
Sacramento Bee, MICHAEL FINCH II: "Supervisor Sue Frost appeared at an anti-vaccine rally at a Roseville hospital this week where she lobbed criticisms at the federal government and denounced the COVID vaccine as “experimental.”
Frost’s comments were in response to a FOX 40 reporter who covered the protest on Monday. A longer clip of her interview was later posted on Twitter, where the author of an anonymous account linked the extremist Proud Boys and a self-styled militia known as the Freedom Angels to the protest.
In the interview, Frost said she had spoken with “whistleblowers” in the health care community and that she has “a lot of questions” about the virus and the federal response. She repeated a widely debunked theory that “forcing” people to get a vaccine violates the Nuremberg Code, a set of ethical principles created in the wake of Nazi medical experimentation on humans."
SPD Chief Daniel Hahn says he's retiring after four turbulent years
Sacramento Bee, ZAEEM SHAIKH/THERESA CLIFT: "Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn announced Wednesday he will retire at the end of the year after a four-year tenure.
Hahn, the first Black police chief in the city, said in a social media post he submitted his intention to retire to City Manager Howard Chan on the same day of his swearing-in ceremony in 2017.
He served as the city’s 45th in a turbulent era. In 2018, two police officers shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in the backyard of his grandparents’ home. Impassioned protests ebbed and flowed for months in Sacramento as the community reckoned with its police department."
