The Roundup

Here are the latest numbers as omicron cases skyrocket in California

ERIN ALLDAY, Chronicle: "California recorded a massive jump in coronavirus cases over the long holiday weekend, including an average of roughly 3,400 cases a day from Christmas Eve through Monday in the Bay Area — numbers far outpacing the summer surge as the omicron variant continues its takeover.

The positive test rate, a key marker of how widespread the virus is, skyrocketed to a seven-day average of 9.6% as of Tuesday, according to the California Department of Public Health. That’s up from just 3% one week ago.

The explosive rise in cases prompted San Francisco on Tuesday to cancel its New Year’s Eve fireworks celebration for the second year in a row. City officials said they were concerned about potential spread of the virus at the event, along with public safety due to many essential workers — including police and firefighters — being unable to work because they are in isolation or quarantine from COVID.

READ more about omicron: California COVID-19 hospitalizations up 25% in last week -- LUKE MONEY and RONG-GONG Lin II, LA Times; COVID: New York’s experience indicates omicron in California is about to get worse -- EMILY DERUY and HARRIET BLAIR ROWAN, Merrcury News; Omicron variant takes hold in California. Where cases are surging -- MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee; Why isn’t vaccination proof required for domestic flights? -- HUGO MARTIN, LA Times

Here comes another COVID vaccine debate as California lawmakers brace for more protests

SOPHIA BOLLAG, SacBee: "Anti-vaccination protesters looked on from the Senate visitors gallery as California lawmakers debated the final bills of the year on a Friday evening.

Earlier that week, the lawmakers had passed legislation cracking down on medical exemptions to required childhood vaccines, which had drawn hundreds of demonstrators to the Capitol. One of them was in the gallery that evening in 2019 and threw the proceedings into chaos — she tossed a menstrual cup of blood onto the legislators below, turning the Senate chamber into a biohazard.

Sen. Steve Glazer, the unlucky lawmaker positioned underneath the protester, had to head to the doctor to be checked for blood-borne illnesses after some of it splashed on his head. The cleaning bill to sanitize the carpet and scour the tables and chairs came to $70,000.

San Francisco cancels New Year’s Eve fireworks show amid omicron surge

EMILY DERUY. Mercury News: "Bay Area residents hoping to ring in the new year with San Francisco’s traditional midnight fireworks display are in for some disappointment.

Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday afternoon the city has canceled the show amid the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases.

“While we are all understandably eager to ring in a new year with San Francisco’s customary New Year’s Eve fireworks show, we must remain vigilant in doing all we can to stop the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant,” Breed said in a statement.

“By canceling the New Year’s Eve fireworks show we are reducing everyone’s exposure to COVID-19, while ensuring continuity of citywide public safety operations.”

Record-breaking Sierra snow buries towns, closes highways

HAYLEY SMITH and MELODY GUTIERREZ, LA Times: “Snowbound” was not a term Stephen Kulieke thought he would hear at the end of California’s driest year in a century, but that’s precisely the position the Sierra City resident found himself in this week.

“It’s snowmaggedon,” said Kulieke, 71, whose mountain cabin was buried under at least 4 feet of powder Monday amid record-breaking snowfall in the Sierra Nevada. “It’s just beyond belief how much snow there is.”

Officials at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab at Donner Pass said the area’s snowfall totals have surpassed the previous December record of 179 inches set in 1970. By Tuesday morning, the lab had received a whopping 202.1 inches of snow, making it the third-snowiest month on record.

The government is releasing water from Folsom Lake during California’s drought. Here’s why

RYAN SABALOW and PHILLIP REESE, SacBee: "Despite recent storms, Folsom Lake isn’t even two thirds full, and California remains mired in a multi-year drought that’s left its biggest reservoirs even emptier.

Nonetheless, starting early Tuesday the federal managers of Folsom Dam began letting out a substantial amount of water into the American River through Sacramento, prompting warnings from local authorities to be mindful of rapidly rising, swift-moving water. 

The dam’s operators say there’s a good reason they’re keeping space in the lake instead of letting it fill with water for the hot and dry months to come.

A new state department targets California’s infrastructure

WILL SHUCK, Capitol Weekly: "This summer, California created a department dedicated to stopping its strained electric grid from causing more catastrophic wildfires, and come the new year the fledgling bureaucracy will add a questionably mapped labyrinth of underground cables and pipes to its list of concerns.

The Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (OEIS) became a stand-alone department under the the Natural Resources Agency July 1 of this year. Before that, it functioned within the Public Utilities Commission as the Wildfire Safety Division, an oversight branch created by statute in 2019.

Caroline Thomas Jacobs has been director of OEIS since its inception. She’s staffing up and solidifying procedures even as she continues to the work of the former PUC division. 

Several options, big decisions loom for funding school construction

JOHN FENSTERWALD, EdSource: "If the Assembly’s Democratic leaders have their way, next year’s state budget will dedicate $10 billion out of a projected $30 billion surplus to repair and expand K-12 school districts’ facilities.

The money would put a big dent in building needs that have grown since voters defeated a $15 billion bond for K-12 schools and colleges in March 2020. These include an  immediate need to modernize school buildings to accommodate transitional kindergarten and community schools.Yet the proposal could also derail a proposed $12 billion school building bond issue for next year’s ballot.

Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, highlighted the $10 billion in the Assembly budget blueprint that he presented earlier this month. An unspecified additional amount would go to university and community college facilities, along with $10 billion for transportation projects.

Nevada political giant, former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid dies at 82

Las Vegas Sun: "Harry Reid never felt the need to be loud or brash. The former U.S. Senate majority leader who died Tuesday in Henderson at age 82 instead often took a soft-spoken approach to politics that resulted in effective, lasting and historic results.

The Searchlight native represented Nevada for 30 years in the Senate, where his even-keeled approach was vital in helping broker the Affordable Care Act, thwarting a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and fostering laws to preserve public lands and encourage clean energy investment.

Along the way he became a key player in the Democratic Party, encouraging then-Sen. Barack Obama to run for president and advocating for immigration reform. Following Reid's retirement in 2017, he continued to wield power from behind the scenes, advising candidates running for office and remaining outspoken on current affairs."

NFL world salutes John Madden and his impact on football

DES BIELER, Washington Post: "News of John Madden’s death elicited an outpouring of fond remembrances and salutes to his towering legacy from across the NFL. Madden, who the league said died unexpectedly Tuesday morning at age 85, had an impact on football that will probably never be replicated given his enormous success and renown as a coach, a network analyst and the namesake of a popular video game series.