Hospitals see big jumps in COVID-19 patients, but this surge is different from last winter
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II/EMILY ALPERT REYES: "The number of coronavirus-positive patients has spiked dramatically across Southern California since Christmas — but some health officials are noting important differences in how the latest surge is playing out in hospitals compared with last winter’s devastating wave.
In Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, the coronavirus-positive patient count has more than doubled in the last nine days. And in L.A. and San Bernardino counties, the daily hospital census has surpassed the peak seen during last summer’s spike.
Some officials remain concerned that hospitals could still face challenges as the highly contagious Omicron variant infects people at what experts are calling an unprecedented rate. But there are signs that the crunch at a number of Southern California’s hospitals may not be as severe as last year, before vaccines were widely available."
Lorena Gonzalez leaves Assembly, heads to Cal Labor Fed
JOHN HOWARD, Capitol Weekly: "Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego-area Assemblywoman who successfully pushed landmark legislation to reclassify many California independent contractors as employees, is leaving the Capitol to run the California Labor Federation.
Gonzalez, 50, will become the group’s executive officer when the current leader, long-time chief Art Pulaski, retires this summer after serving 25 years as the top executive. The Labor Fed is a coalition of scores of labor organizations representing about 2.1 million union members.
Gonzalez made the announcement during the opening Monday of the 2022 legislative session."
READ MORE about Lorena Gonzalez: Lorena Gonzalez will leave the Assembly to lead one of California’s most powerful unions -- LARA KORTE, SacBee; Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez resigns from Legislature to lead California Labor Federation -- TARYN LUNA and JOHN MYERS, LA Times
Prop. 57 doesn’t allow early parole for violent criminals, court rules
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "In a victory for prosecutors, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that a 2016 ballot measure making prisoners eligible for parole consideration once they have served their sentence for a nonviolent felony does not apply to those who were also convicted of violent crimes.
Proposition 57, sponsored by then-Gov. Jerry Brown and approved by 64% of the voters, was aimed at reducing the population of California’s overcrowded prisons without endangering the public. It allowed inmates whose longest current sentence is for a nonviolent crime to appear before the Board of Parole Hearings after completing that sentence so that the board could decide whether they could be safely released. Previous law required the inmates to serve additional years, or even decades, for prior convictions, gang membership and other aspects of their record.
On Monday, however, the court ruled unanimously that inmates who were convicted of both violent and nonviolent felonies are not eligible for parole consideration after serving time for the nonviolent crime, even if it is their longest sentence. The court did not decide whether those inmates could seek parole after completing their sentence for a violent crime or would have to serve their full term without parole eligibility."
Why are so many vaccinated people still getting COVID-19 of late?
AP, LAURA UNGAR: "Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately?
A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places.
People might mistakenly think the COVID-19 vaccines completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, says Louis Mansky, a virus researcher at the University of Minnesota."
Kelly Ernby, deputy DA and former Assembly candidate, has died of COVID-19 complications
BROOKE STAGGS, OC Register: "Orange County Deputy District Attorney Kelly Ernby, who ran for state Assembly in 2020 and had become a leader with the Republican Party of Orange County, has died suddenly, a week after telling friends she was very sick with COVID-19. She was 46 years old.
“I lost a dear friend to Covid complications,” Ben Chapman, chair of the Greater Costa Mesa Republicans, tweeted Monday. “You’ve been nothing but an inspiration to many of us here in Orange County.”
Condolences were pouring in online Monday for Ernby, who was a Huntington Beach resident and presumed 2022 candidate for Assembly."
California’s longest serving auditor pulled no punches. Who will replace her?
LA Times, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "California State Auditor Elaine Howle walked out of her office a final time last week, retiring following two decades at a post where her name became synonymous with “scathing audit.”
But she’s not done.
There are a handful of audits that the nonpartisan oversight agency will release to the public in 2022 that she is eagerly awaiting, although she’ll be retired."
Drought’s grim death toll: California says endangered salmon perished in Sacramento River
DALE KASLER and RYAN SABALOW: “Amid a brutal heat wave and a worsening drought, California’s wildlife agency made a dire prediction in July: “Nearly all” of an endangered salmon species’ juvenile population was likely to be cooked to death on the Sacramento River in 2021.
It turned out to be true. Only an estimated 2.6% of the winter-run Chinook salmon juvenile population survived the hot, dry summer, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said. The fate of the winter-run salmon has profound implications for California’s chronically overtaxed water supplies, even as recent rain and snowpack levels suggest the drought might be easing.
Environmental restrictions aimed at propping up the fish populations could deprive cities and farmers of water deliveries this year.
CORONAVIRUS COVID cases erupt to all-time high in Sacramento County, tripling in the past week
MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee: “Sacramento County’s case rate for COVID-19 has exploded to the highest point of the pandemic, nearly tripling in one week as the extremely contagious omicron variant takes over.
The county’s latest seven-day case rate is 72 per 100,000, soaring well past the previous record of 64 set in December 2020 and with no sign of slowing. The local health office in a Monday update to its data dashboard, including four days of data due to the New Year’s holiday, reported more than 6,500 new cases.
The rate had been just 26 per 100,000 one week earlier and about 10 per 100,000 in late November, but the county set a daily record on the four most recent days with data available: 1,375 cases emerged Dec. 27, followed by 1,633 on Tuesday, 1,815 on Wednesday and 1,871 on Thursday in the county of about 1.5 million people.
California is sitting on $350 million in unclaimed bottle deposit funds, thanks to ‘recycling deserts’
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "Every time Californians purchase a bottle of beer or can of soda, they pay an extra nickel or dime — a deposit they can theoretically get back if the container is returned to a recycling center.
But, in practice, billions of containers are never recycled, so the money is forfeited. Currently, only about 68% of bottles and cans are recycled, including those tossed in curbside bins.
California’s bottle deposit program has about $350 million in unclaimed nickels and dimes as a result, a surplus that built up over the past several years as redemption rates tumbled due to upheaval in the recycling industry."
Here’s what’s ahead for California businesses in 2022
The Chronicle, GRACE GEDYE: "Clogged supply chains. Hiring struggles. New mask rules. A virus that trampled over return-to-work schedules. Last year was chaotic for many businesses across California.
What does 2022 hold? Layered on top of pandemic uncertainty is the question of what California legislators might do for — and to — businesses.
“2022 is going to be a very busy legislative year,” said Jennifer Barrera, CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce."
It’s March 2020 COVID deja vu for UC students as the new term begins
LA Times, COLLEEN SHALBY: "The start of 2022 at the University of California feels like March 2020 deja vu for some students.
Most campuses started the winter quarter Monday with two weeks of remote classes — a decision announced days before Christmas as Omicron cases prompted new warnings for caution from health experts and public officials. But the online reality has reminded students of March 2020 when a two-week shutdown turned into campus shutdowns that sundered their traditional college experience. With coronavirus cases rapidly surging, driven largely by younger adults, many students are already wondering if the delay to in-person classes will expand.
“I’m worried that campus will fully lock down as it once did, and that those of us that rely on our campus jobs for income will be left to dry,” said Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan, 23, who is the UC Student Assn. president. “If I’m honest, I’m concerned that I won’t have an answer until the end of next week.”"
These data sources are tracking San Francisco’s omicron surge. Which one is best?
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "San Francisco is in the middle of an omicron wave. But the recent trajectory of that wave looks different depending on the data source.
According to coronavirus data reported by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the city had just over 6,300 new cases over the most recent seven days for which the department has data (Dec. 22 through Dec. 28), with a high of nearly 1,500 cases on Dec. 27. The average daily case rate for that period was 103 per 100,000 people.
That’s 30% higher than the figures from the California Department of Public Health, the state’s health department. According to its data, San Francisco had just under 4,900 cases over that same period, with a high of 1,370 on Dec. 27th — an average daily case rate of about 80 per 100,000."
‘A good year’ to see coho salmon make their annual return to Marin creeks
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Their forms are murky in the water made gray by a winter sky and recent rains, but it’s soon clear that five male salmon are brawling for the best spot in the middle of Lagunitas Creek.
The pink-backed fish have eyed a female, setting the stage for the big event, the coho’s annual spawn in Marin. She is preparing a redd, or nest, by leaning on her side in the shallow water, arching her back and swishing her tail to smooth out the gravel.
“When she stops digging it, she’s ready,” says Ayano Hayes, watershed biologist for Turtle Island Restoration Network, while leading a tour of the creek last month in Samuel P. Taylor State Park in Lagunitas. Hayes explains that the female salmon releases pheromones as she is about to lay the eggs, a cue to the males to move in close to fertilize them."
Newsom promised 6 million COVID tests for students. Only half have arrived
The Chronicle, MACKENZIE MAYS/MELODY GUTIERREZ: "Gov. Gavin Newsom promised that schools would receive at-home COVID-19 tests in time for students to safely return to campuses after winter break, as health officials warned of a surge in cases over the holidays.
But as many school districts resumed classes on Monday, they did so without having received a single test from the state.
Just half of the 6 million tests Newsom said the state would purchase for schools have been delivered, while an additional 1 million tests are en route and expected to be delivered within 24 hours, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health said Monday. An additional shipment of 1.5 million tests was expected to arrive Monday to the state’s warehouse before being directed to counties, while the remaining 500,000 tests have been ordered and are expected to arrive later this week, the agency said."
Jury finds Theranos ex-CEO Holmes guilty of 4 of 11 fraud charges
The Chronicle, CAROLYN SAID/ROLAND LI: "A jury found Elizabeth Holmes, the ambitious Silicon Valley wunderkind who went from the lauded head of a $9 billion blood-testing startup to the defendant in a San Jose courtroom, guilty of four fraud charges against investors on Monday.
The jury found Holmes not guilty of four fraud charges, including against patients, and was unable to reach a unanimous decision on three of the 11 charges involving investors: wire fraud against Alan Eisenman, Black Diamond’s Chris Lucas and Hall Group’s Bryant Tolbert.
After more than a week of deliberations, the 12-person jury ruled partially against Holmes, 37, who faced 11 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud from her time as founder and CEO of Theranos. The decision was one of the biggest rebukes of a Silicon Valley startup to date, though the ruling cleared her of some of the government’s charges."
Trauma in House gallery bonds members of Congress even a year later
LA Times, JENNIFER HABERKORN: "A few months after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, a sound jolted Rep. Sara Jacobs back to one of the most terrifying moments in her life: the echoing thud of the doors to the cavernous House chamber slamming shut.
The Democrat from San Diego knew it was just a drill, but the moment nevertheless transported her back to the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, when she found herself trapped in the chamber’s gallery as a pro-Trump mob breached the building.
This time, the rookie lawmaker pulled out her phone and texted for help — from a support group of 28 House members who are wrestling with the same lingering trauma of having been cornered in the gallery that deadly day a year ago. In minutes, members flooded the chat group with responses that sought to soothe Jacobs’ anxieties."
