About 1 million Californians could have to repay pandemic unemployment money to EDD
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "About 1 million Californians who got unemployment payments from the pandemic-related federal benefit program now have to prove to the state they had a prior work history – or face paying back benefits.
“A potential overpayment could be all benefits you received,” warns the state’s Employment Development Department, which manages California’s unemployment program.
And, EDD says, “we will add a 30% penalty if we determine that you intentionally gave false information or withheld information to receive benefits.”
California’s biggest labor group recommends Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez as its next leader
JEONG PARK, SacBee: "Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat assemblywoman who authored prominent bills on gig workers and warehouse employees, could become the first woman and person of color to lead California’s biggest labor organization.
The executive council of the California Labor Federation, which represents 1,200 unions with more than two million workers, took a non-binding vote Monday to recommend Gonzalez to be the organization’s next chief officer, its spokesman Steve Smith said Tuesday.
The council won’t take the official vote until the current leader, Art Pulaski, steps down, which could be at some point next year, Smith said. He said Pulaski could choose to step down around July, when the federation plans to hold its biennial convention."
Alarming rise in follow-home robberies in upscale L.A. prompts police crackdown
RICHARD WINTON, LA Times: "Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore announced Tuesday he is setting up a task force to apprehend follow-home robbers, saying the department has not seen violent hold-ups “like this in decades.”
The troubling trend, which has targeted celebrities and upscale restaurants in recent months, turned deadly in the predawn hours Tuesday when a man was gunned down during an attempted robbery outside Bossa Nova restaurant in Hollywood.
Moore told the city’s civilian oversight Police Commission he was creating a follow-home robbery task force of more than 20 detectives from elite investigative divisions, including Robbery-Homicide, Metropolitan and specialized gang narcotics units, to identify and stop the growing threat to public safety posed by organized groups of criminals."
Mayor Breed touts local seasonal shopping, plays down theft spree
SAM WHITING, Chronicle: "In the face of a retail smash and grab spree last week by marauding thieves at Union Square, San Francisco Mayor London Breed stood in front of a Marina storefront at noon Tuesday to proclaim that shopping in the city is safe as can be, despite the recent unfavorable publicity.
“I want to be clear. We are not going to let what these others try to do to our city define who we are,” said Breed, in announcing that points of entry on Union Square would be closed off from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the shopping season.
She also said that she is working with the Police Department on plans to temporarily close some Union Square streets to automobile traffic, and that starting Friday and lasting until the end of the year all city-owned parking garages around the square would provide two hours of free parking, at an estimated cost of $700,000 to $900,000 in lost revenue. There will be extra police patrols in the garages and security personnel available to escort shoppers to and from their vehicles."
Citing climate risks, California is denying fracking permits in droves
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER and J.D. MORRIS: "Oil companies that blast water and chemicals into the earth to extract fossil fuels are having trouble getting new permits for their California operations even sooner than expected.
Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged the state would stop issuing new permits for fracking by 2024, but California has already begun to ban the controversial oil extraction method in practice by denying permits in droves with little fanfare.
Since July, the state has denied 109 permits to expand fracking. Many were rejected, in part, under a legal rationale the state hasn’t used before: that fracking could exacerbate the effects of climate change. State oil regulators, in their denial letters, argue it’s within their discretion to deny permits to protect the environment and public health, including through the “mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.”"
California law allows transgender inmates in women’s prisons. Now, female inmates are suing
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "A woman’s rights group is suing the state to overturn a new law that requires prisons to place transgender and gender nonbinary inmates in facilities that correspond to their gender identities, alleging the practice puts incarcerated people in danger.
The Women’s Liberation Front filed a lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on behalf of several incarcerated women as well as a group, Woman II Woman, that advocates on behalf of incarcerated women.
Two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, both incarcerated women, allege they were sexually assaulted by inmates who identify as transgender or gender nonbinary."
L.A.’s infamous Thanksgiving traffic gridlock expected to return with vengeance
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "In Los Angeles, the official start of the holiday season isn’t marked by changing leaves or a fine dusting of snow, but by the blinking red-and-white taillights snaking along the 405 Freeway as millions of people head out of town for Thanksgiving.
Last year, that annual tradition was upended by tightened travel restrictions amid the burgeoning winter surge of COVID-19.
But travel experts expect numbers to bounce back to almost pre-pandemic levels this week: An estimated 3.8 million Southern Californians will be driving to their holiday destinations — up 9% from last year and only 1% less than in 2019, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California."
Why Bay Area can be thankful in COVID pandemic
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "Perhaps lost among the recently dire warnings of another COVID-19 surge on the horizon is this key message: California, and especially the Bay Area, is in a much better position coming into this holiday season than last. We have much to be thankful for, pandemic-wise, the experts say.
One year ago this week, almost all of the Bay Area was under state-mandated curfew, and indoor dining — actually, indoor just-about-anything — was closed, as coronavirus cases spiked ahead of the holidays.
Please don’t gather for Thanksgiving, health officials pleaded. Stay home and stay safe, they said."
Lakewood man charged with threatening to bomb agency that denied him COVID relief loan
MICHAEL FINNEGAN, LA Times: "A Lakewood man has been charged with threatening to bomb the offices of a federal agency that denied his request for an emergency pandemic loan for a business that he runs out of his home.
In the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Christopher J. Antoun, 29, asked the U.S. Small Business Administration for a loan to Federal Student Loan Consulting LLC, a business that he owns, according to Thomas Smith, an agent at the Homeland Security Department.
When Antoun did not get the loan, he sent an angry and profane all-caps email to the SBA saying his business was eligible for the loan and demanding a $1,000 advance immediately, Smith alleged in a sworn statement filed in court."
What you need to know about The Chronicle’s ongoing investigation of former Windsor Mayor Dominic Foppoli
The Chronicle, ALEXANDRA BORDAS/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "In April, The Chronicle published the first in a series of stories investigating accusations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct against Dominic Foppoli, the mayor of Windsor, a Wine Country town that had seen its profile rise alongside Foppoli’s political career.
Initially, four women told reporters Alexandria Bordas and Cynthia Dizikes that they had been sexually assaulted by Foppoli, who co-owned Christopher Creek Winery, an estate outside of Windsor.
Since that first report, The Chronicle has published more than 35 follow-up articles, examining the institutional failures that enabled Foppoli’s alleged behavior, as well as the repercussions in Windsor and Sonoma County. Nine more women have come forward with new allegations of sexual assault or misconduct against Foppoli, bringing the total number of his accusers to 13."
