A Fight Over Rooftop Solar Threatens California’s Climate Goals
IVAN PENN, NY Times: "California has led the nation in setting ambitious climate change goals and policies. But the state’s progress is threatened by a nasty fight between rival camps in the energy industry that both consider themselves proponents of renewable energy.
The dispute is about who will get to build the green energy economy — utilities or smaller companies that install solar panels and batteries at homes — and reap billions of dollars in profits from those investments. At stake is whether the state can reach its goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2045.
For years, the rooftop solar business was ascendant in California, growing as much as 62 percent a year. That angered utilities and their labor unions, which long controlled the production, sale and distribution of electricity, and they lobbied state leaders to rein in the rooftop solar business — an effort that is on the cusp of success."
Anti-vaccination forces gear up for fight over California vaccine legislation
LA Times, ANGELA HART: "California is poised to become the front line of America’s vaccination wars.
State lawmakers are drafting the toughest COVID-19 vaccine legislation in the country, backed by a new pro-vaccine lobbying force promising to counter anti-vaccine activists who have threatened government officials and shut down public meetings across the state. Legislators want to require most Californians to get the shots — not just schoolchildren and healthcare workers — and eliminate the exemptions that would allow many people to get out of them.
But vaccine opponents say Democratic-led efforts to adopt stricter vaccine requirements are only helping propel their movement, handing them unparalleled momentum to build their ranks both in California and nationally."
$500 pandemic bonus checks are in the mail for California in-home caregivers
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: “The California Department of Social Services has begun mailing $500 bonus checks to more than 500,000 caregivers in the state.
“Eligible (in-home supportive services) providers began receiving their payments on January 20, 2022,” said department spokesman Jason Montiel in an email. “It will take about a week to distribute them all.”
Montiel said that providers who receive their payments through direct deposit will receive the bonus within two to three business days of issuance, while those who get their checks mailed will have to wait five to seven business days due to mail time.
No debate on skyrocketing cost of California single-payer bill? So much for good government
LA Times, GEORGE SKELTON: "Things don’t always go as hoped. A prime example is the Democrats’ push for single-payer healthcare legislation.
A good-government hope was that this effort would result in a thoughtful, substantive legislative debate worthy of the monumental issue of universal healthcare.
That hope was dashed Thursday in a legislative fiscal committee, which failed to carry out what should be its primary duty: to dig into the innards of a spending bill and examine whether it makes financial sense."
Fire crews increase containment of Colorado Fire along Big Sur coast to 35%
The Chronicle, Gwendolyn Wu: "The rare winter coastal blaze near Big Sur, dubbed the Colorado Fire, threatened 200 structures Sunday after overnight winds pushed flames onward before calming somewhat, and fire crews fought to increase containment beyond 35%. Hundreds of people remained evacuated.
Highway 1 remained closed Sunday evening from Andrew Molera State Park in the Big Sur area to Granite Canyon Bridge just south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Caltrans said.
Residents of about 500 homes who had been forced to flee after the blaze erupted Friday waited Sunday for the flames to abate so evacuation orders could be lifted, said Cecile Juliette, a Cal Fire spokesperson. No injuries were reported, though the evacuation remained in place Sunday night. Juliette said the area where the fire was burning is not heavily populated, although a community in the region was threatened by the flames."
‘I accepted I was going to die.’ Uninsured Californians make tough health care decisions
NADIA LOPEZ, SacBee: Honduran immigrant Sergio Tulio Arévalo Soliz suffered chest pains, heart palpitations and shortness of breath for four days before arriving at Adventist Health Hospital in Hanford on Jan. 6.
Doctors told the 42-year-old Soliz he needed emergency heart surgery but the undocumented Fresno County farmworker is uninsured and doesn’t qualify for full-scope Medi-Cal. He couldn’t afford to pay for the surgery, so he told the doctor to discharge him.
“I told them to send me home so I could spend my last moments with my family,” he said in Spanish, as tears welled up in his eyes. “I had no money for the surgery. I felt I didn’t have another option so I accepted that I was going to die. I was very, very afraid.”
Capitol Weekly Podcast: 10 Districts to Watch in 2022
Capitol Weekly Staff: “In December, the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission finished the decennial revision of the state’s electoral districts – handing in final maps on deadline, Monday, December 27. Aside from changes due to the state’s shifting demographics, the Commission also had to meet the challenge of eliminating one congressional seat, bringing the California congressional delegation from 53 to 52.”
We’re joined today by Matt Rexroad, of Redistricting Insights, who posted a fascinating breakout of each new district. We invited him to talk about the new maps and share his picks for the 10 districts to watch in 2022. Rexroad knows something about fair lines, having been involved in California’s first redistricting effort following the creation of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2008.”
All California schoolchildren must be vaccinated against COVID-19 under new bill
LA Times, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "A California lawmaker known for tightening restrictions on school vaccine laws will propose a bill Monday to close a loophole in the state’s requirement that children receive COVID-19 shots.
State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) will announce Monday morning a bill to add COVID-19 vaccines to California’s list of required inoculations for attending K-12 schools, a move that would override Gov. Gavin Newsom’s scaled-back mandate from last year.
“We need to make sure schools are safe so that all parents are comfortable sending their children to school,” said Pan, a pediatrician whose legislation has strengthened oversight of vaccine exemptions in previous years. “And we want to keep schools open.”"
COVID cases may have peaked, but hospitals still face a torrent of patients
The Chronicle, Erin Allday: "This winter’s omicron surge — the most explosive wave yet of the 2-year-old coronavirus pandemic — may be cresting in the Bay Area, but hospitals expect more challenging weeks ahead as the astonishingly high case counts continue to translate into a torrent of patients.
Though the highly infectious omicron variant is causing less severe illness than earlier strains of the coronavirus, this winter has in some ways been just as difficult for hospitals, health care staff and administrators say. They may have fewer very sick patients, but most hospitals are about as busy this year as last as they deal with staffing shortages caused by COVID on top of profound physical and emotional fatigue among workers.
“It’s pretty brutal. Every day COVID just keeps coming and coming and coming,” said Paula Reimers, a respiratory therapist at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, where workers recently picketed to draw attention to staffing problems. “Everybody is feeling the burnout, and probably more this year than last year.”"
Trouble for ballot measure petition? + A bipartisan appeal for more firefighters
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: “A proposed ballot measure that would cap attorney contingency fees in civil cases at 20% may be in trouble.
The group behind the initiative — which was being circulated for petition signatures — is the Civil Justice Association of California, an advocacy organization with funding from General Motors, Volkswagen Group of America and Ford Motor Company, among other corporations.
According to internal industry documents obtained by The Bee, it appears that CJAC is no longer paying for petitioners to collect signatures.
At California hospitals, many children are coming in with COVID — not for COVID
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA: "A unicorn stuffed animal kept the little girl company in the special infectious-disease unit at Rady Children’s Hospital.
The pink sign on Rachel Ward’s door warned that extra precautions were needed and that the door should remain closed. The 6-year-old could have one visitor in the room with her.
Rachel was one of 28 coronavirus-positive children in the San Diego hospital on a recent Wednesday. They ranged in age from 2 weeks to 17 years old."
Are ills of the Arctic hitting California? Hundreds of migratory seabirds wash ashore
LA Times, SUSANNE RUST: "Sara Bogard halted her dog as the two began descending the cliff down to Manchester Beach, along the Mendocino coast.
Below, scores of dead and dying birds littered the beach as far as she could see.
“The smell hit me first,” said Bogard, describing the musty, basement-like odor of northern fulmars scattered along the beach that mid-December morning. The smell, she recalled, was “kind of like a grandmother’s closet.”"
Alex Padilla’s first year in the Senate saw stalemates on his two most personal issues
The Chronicle, Joe Garofoli: "Sen. Alex Padilla’s just-completed first year in the Senate included a few wins and several frustrating stalemates on issues most personal to him.
His first year also included reminders that — as the first Latino to represent California in the Senate and one of few children of immigrants in the chamber — the Senate is still largely an old white man’s club. Average age: 64.
Padilla, 48, recalled one of his first interactions with Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and golfing buddy of Donald Trump."
Sneaker waves expected along S.F. Bay Area coastlines starting Sunday afternoon
The Chronicle, Lauren Hernández: "Beach-goers along San Francisco Bay Area coastlines should beware of sneaker waves starting on Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon, National Weather Service officials said Saturday.
Sneaker waves, named for their nature of sneaking up unexpectedly along the coast, are capable of pulling humans and animals into the cold waters even at 1 to 2 feet of height, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office.
“A lot of times the waters can look very calm and quiet and one of these waves will approach the coast and it basically catches people off guard,” Gass said. “Long period swells are initially only going to be about 1 to 2 feet in height, but they’re coming in at about 20 to 22 seconds.”"
After concerns of racism in home appraisals, what will it take to fix the $156 billion racial housing gap?
The Chronicle, Lauren Hepler: "Late last year, members of a Black family from the North Bay alleged that an appraiser lowballed them by hundreds of thousands of dollars before they “whitewashed” their home. It was only after they removed personal items and asked a white friend to stand in for a second appraisal, according to the family’s lawsuit, that the home’s perceived value shot up by $487,500.
The case was an extreme example of similar complaints by non-white homeowners from Oakland to Stockton to Los Angeles, putting high-priced California at the center of a national debate over how to address concerns about lingering racism in the home appraisal process.
Last week, a new report to federal financial regulators cites the North Bay family’s case in a review of how racial bias in home appraisals has evolved since last century’s explicitly discriminatory housing laws — and lays out a potential path to reform. Among the recommendations: changing the way appraisals are regulated, doing more to diversify the ranks of appraisers and releasing more federal appraisal data."
