Bay Area looks to regional approach when California mask mandate ends
ERIN ALLDAY, Chronicle: "Bay Area health officials are expected to announce regional masking guidance in the coming days that would go into effect next week, when the statewide universal mask mandate meant to curb coronavirus transmission expires.
It’s not clear what the local guidance will look like and to what degree some counties may keep mandates in place even after the state’s mask requirement is lifted next Wednesday. At least two counties — Marin and Solano — have said they will go along with the state and no longer require vaccinated people to wear face coverings in indoor spaces.
The other Bay Area counties have not yet laid out their plans. Several counties appear to be trying to coordinate their guidance to keep it somewhat consistent across the region, as occurred at earlier points during the COVID pandemic."
L.A. County still weeks away from lifting indoor mask mandate, Ferrer estimates
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "Los Angeles County is probably weeks away from lifting its indoor mask mandate, and at the latest could ease the order by the end of April — unless a new coronavirus variant poses a threat.
There are two triggers that could result in L.A. County easing its indoor mask mandate, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced Tuesday.
The first is the county entering a “moderate” rate of transmission, in which cases fall below 730 a day for two consecutive weeks, Ferrer said."
Santa Clara County won’t budge just yet on mask mandate, despite state’s announcement
GABRIEL GRESCHLER and SHOMIK MUKHERJEE, Mercury News: "Santa Clara County won’t be making any changes to its mask rules for now, despite a decision Monday by the state to loosen its order.
During a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody said that her office was still reviewing figures before they change any policies.
“As you know, we are always seeking to do what we can to be the most protective but also flexible,” said Cody during Tuesday’s meeting in response to a question from Board President Mike Wasserman. “We are looking at our data and where we are in the omicron wave and just going through the process that we usually do and don’t have a decision to share from this point.”
How Jose Huizar’s lavish Las Vegas jaunts tripped alarms for FBI in L.A. bribe case
LAT, MICHAEL FINNEGAN/DAVID ZAHNISER: "Las Vegas casinos pamper their big spenders with loads of perks, and the $13 million Wei Huang had lost gambling at the Palazzo made him a coveted “whale” of a customer. So the casino charged him nothing to fly on its private jet and stay in its presidential suite overlooking the Strip.
But when Palazzo security learned one day in July 2015 that the billionaire developer was bringing Los Angeles politician Jose Huizar to Las Vegas that night on the resort’s luxury Gulfstream IV, it set off alarms.
As a City Council member, Huizar was what casinos call a “politically exposed person.” He could gamble at the Palazzo only after filing papers showing he was not using public funds."
Latest vaccine policy in Los Angeles County is aimed at a defiant sheriff
AZI PAYBARAH, NY Times: "The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion on Tuesday that could lead to the termination of thousands of county employees who have not gotten vaccinated or received a medical or religious exemption.
The motion, which passed by a vote of 4-0 with one abstention, would shift power away from department heads who may not be enforcing the county’s existing vaccine mandate, and give it to the county’s director of personnel.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, author of the motion, said it was primarily aimed at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, whose 54 percent vaccination rate is the lowest of any of the county’s 36 departments and whose leader has openly refused to enforce the county’s vaccinate mandate."
Unvaccinated inmate with COVID-19 dies while in custody at Sacramento County jail
ROSALIO AHUMADA, SacBee: "An unvaccinated inmate who tested positive for COVID-19 died Monday while in custody at Sacramento County Main Jail, deputies announced Tuesday afternoon.
The 51-year-old man who died had been in custody for nearly five years, suffering from mental illness and awaiting trial on an assault charge as COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb amid a jail outbreak that began last month.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not release the inmate’s name. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office will release his name once his family has been notified.
‘Explosion of people dying’ has led to huge backlog of bodies at the Alameda County coroner’s office
RACHEL SWAN, Chronicle: "Standing in the loading dock outside the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau on a recent morning, Sgt. Erik Bordi took in a grim scene: five biohazard cans, two refrigeration containers stacked with human remains, a gurney ready to load in a truck. He pondered the day’s work ahead.
More than 100 bodies sat in coolers at the bureau, and staff had 21 autopsies to perform by the end of the day.
A growing backlog of bodies awaiting autopsies has reached a critical point in Alameda County, making it more difficult to close cases amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 deaths, a regional overdose crisis and surging homicides in Oakland."
Kaiser Permanente files plans for $298 million expansion at its Roseville Medical Center
MOLLY SULLIVAN, SacBee: "Kaiser Permanente is planning a big expansion at its Roseville Medical Center that would increase the hospital’s capacity by dozens of beds.
According to an application filed with the state Department of Health Care Access and Information, the healthcare giant plans to build a $298 million tower to house 30 intensive care unit beds and 108 surgical beds.
The project will also include an expanded perioperative and emergency departments, inpatient pharmacy and support spaces.
Patients who accused UCLA doctor of sexual abuse to share $243.6-million settlement
LAT, RICHARD WINTON: "The University of California system has agreed to pay $243.6 million to settle lawsuits by more than 200 women, some of them cancer patients, who alleged they were sexually abused by a former UCLA gynecologist.
The agreement, announced Tuesday, covers 203 former patients who have sued over the conduct of Dr. James Heaps. It comes on top of a $73-million class-action settlement involving more than 5,000 patients from 1983 to 2018.
The settlement does not cover more than 300 patients who are continuing to sue. Heaps is also facing criminal charges involving seven of those patients."
California Republicans elect new leader in state Assembly
ADAM BEAM, AP: "Republicans in the California Assembly have elected a vocal critic of the state’s Democratic governor as their new leader.
Assemblymember James Gallagher of Yuba City will replace Marie Waldron of Valley Center, the caucus announced Tuesday.
Republicans control 19 of the 80 seats in the state Assembly, making it impossible for them to slow down the Democratic majority. Waldron has been the Republican leader since 2018, but she has not been as visible as some of the party’s other members."
Silicon Valley’s tech monopoly is over. Is the future in Austin, Texas?
LAT,DON LEE: "When Tesla announced last fall that it was moving its corporate headquarters from California to Texas, officials in Sacramento seemed more surprised than concerned.
After all, Tesla was expanding its sprawling Fremont, Calif., assembly plant, which already employs thousands of people. It’s building a battery factory in the Northern California town of Lathrop.
And real estate brokers say the company is leasing more office space in Palo Alto, where its corporate headquarters had been located since 2009. Tesla was founded in nearby San Carlos in 2003."
McConnell denounces RNC’s censure of 2 House Republicans; McCarthy dodges the question
LAT, MELANIE MASON and SEEMA MEHTA: "Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that it was “not the job” of the Republican National Committee to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which he described as a “violent insurrection,” in contrast to the party’s resolution characterizing it as “legitimate political discourse.”
His blunt rebuke of the RNC’s actions on Friday contrasted sharply with the reactions of House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who declined to say whether he supported the move, and another member of the House Republican leadership, who said the party had acted within its rights.
The resolution’s continuing reverberations laid bare the unresolved tensions within the Republican Party between those who want to keep the focus solely on Democrats ahead of this year’s midterm elections, and President Trump and his loyalists, who want to punish his political opponents and revisit the 2020 presidential race."
A post-Soviet border town in northern Ukraine wonders if Russia is coming back
LAT, NABIH BULOS: "It’s hard to find a more tranquil place than this hamlet on the edge of northern Ukraine. A collection of huts sprinkled along a barely there road, it abuts the Zheveda and Tsata rivers. In winter, when the Tsata freezes, the town’s 70 or so residents, many of them old with long memories, punch holes in the riverbed and fish amid a hushed birch forest draped in snow.
“Oh, I just started two weeks ago. I’m a beginner, but I have no luck. The fish aren’t coming,” said Vladimir, a grizzled but affable man in his late 50s who preferred not to give his last name. He adjusted his ushanka, or ear-flap hat, squatted down and gingerly dipped his line for another attempt.
Vladimir has lived in Klyusy all his life. Like other villagers near the border linking Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, he remembered the Soviet Union days when the boundary was little more than a line on paper. Every June, residents would stream through the Senkivka border crossing, six miles west of Klyusy, and join tens of thousands of Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians celebrating the Slavic Unity Festival held near the Monument of Friendship called the Three Sisters."
