Drought, fires and beetles — California’s forests are dying. Is it too late to save them?
The Chronicle, Kurtis Alexander: "With increasing heat and drought across the West, one of the largest tree die-offs in modern California history reached new heights last year and, in combination with wildfires, has left much of the state’s once sprawling green forests browned, blackened and in critically dire shape.
An estimated 9.5 million trees died from bugs, disease and dehydration in 2021, according to new aerial survey data from the U.S. Forest Service. The losses were slightly less than what was recorded in surveys two years earlier but still well above what scientists consider normal. The run of mortality since 2010 now exceeds 172 million trees.
The epidemic, which started last decade in the southern Sierra Nevada and has since spiraled throughout the state, is contributing to the changing character of California’s 33 million acres of forests. The timberland, notably conifer forest, has become increasingly prone to losing biodiversity, giving way to encroaching shrubs and grasslands, and burning up in wildfire."
Newsom Says He Won't Intervene to Stop Oakland Schools From Permanently Closing
KATE WOLFFE, KQED: "In an interview with KQED, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state should not get involved in the Oakland school board's recent controversial decision to close, merge or shrink 11 schools over the next two years — a decision that's been met with fury from local families and educators.
The board said they needed to take the action because they have too many schools for a dwindling number of students, citing a need for cost-cutting measures to help solve a structural deficit. OUSD is still paying $30 million in debt to the state from a loan given decades ago to head off bankruptcy.
Two Oakland educators, Moses Omolade and Maurice André San-Chez, went on hunger strikes to protest the decision. They said one of the conditions of ending their strike was that Newsom meet with them.
State fires Sacramento County Fair chief following critical financial audits
DALE KASLER, SacBee: "The Sacramento County Fair has been a family-friendly staple of the region’s entertainment scene for decades, serving up a time-honored buffet of carnival rides, livestock shows and live music for five days in the spring.
But in the past year its acting chief executive has been the target of state auditors who discovered numerous financial irregularities, including expense reimbursements and payments from nonprofit foundations that were deemed improper.
Last week the state decided it had seen enough. The California Department of Food and Agriculture, which oversees the fair, told The Sacramento Bee it has dismissed Pamela Fyock as acting CEO, just three months before the 2022 fair is scheduled to take place at Cal Expo.
Capitol Weekly Podcast: What’s up with all these Assembly retirements?
CW Staff: "At last count, 27 Assemblymembers who were elected to seats in 2020 will not be returning to those seats in 2022. What is driving this exodus? Redistricting? Term limits? The overall political climate? We asked political data whiz Paul Mitchell to weigh in on what to make of this unexpected turnover.
Plus, as always, we tell you who had the Worst Week in California politics."
No guns, no badges, no sirens. San Diego County reimagines response to mental health calls
LYNDSAY WINLEY and TAMMY MURGA, U-T: "A man in the throes of a panic attack called 911 from his Chula Vista apartment on a recent morning.
It’s the kind of call police officers would usually go to. Instead, the Chula Vista Police Department forwarded the call to Lauren Muecke, who works for the county’s Mobile Crisis Response Teams.
“We’re not going to be sending an ambulance, and we’re not going to be sending police officers,” Muecke told the man. “We’re happy to talk to you today and support you today. How does that sound to you?”
LAT, NABIH BULOS and HENRY CHU: "Talks between Russia and Ukraine opened Monday amid skepticism that they would produce any breakthrough to halt Europe’s biggest ground war in 75 years, as Ukrainian fighters continued to fend off the capture of key cities, Russian missiles pounded targets and hundreds of thousands of people fled the country.
Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow met Monday morning at a site near Ukraine’s border with Belarus. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to the negotiations Sunday, despite seeing “small chance to end the war,” and said the fate of his country as an independent nation had now entered a “crucial period.”
In Kyiv, a two-day-long curfew was lifted Monday to allow residents to venture out cautiously to replenish supplies, get some fresh air and survey the state of their city of 3 million people. Many lined up for hours outside gas stations and supermarkets, mostly ignoring the occasional wail of air-raid sirens."
Prayer and protest mark Bay Area events in solidarity with Ukraine
The Chronicle, Kellie Hwang/Trisha Thadani: "On the fourth day of Russia’s military action in Ukraine, hundreds of people from across the Bay Area gathered inside a Berkeley church and outside San Francisco City Hall to decry the invasion and urge harsher measures against Russia.
The Ukrainian consul general in San Francisco, Dmytro Kushneruk, urged Californians to pressure Silicon Valley companies and Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop doing business with Russia. At the afternoon rally in San Francisco, he called on the businesses and the state to cut off contracts and trade with the country.
“We need the political will,” he said."
‘Stop war’: Demonstrators rally in Balboa Park in support of Ukraine
DAVID HERNANDEZ, U-T: "About 200 protesters, many of them in blue and yellow clothes that resembled the Ukrainian flag, rallied in Balboa Park on Sunday, expressing their opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The demonstrators — who included Ukrainians and Russians — held signs that read, “Hands off Ukraine,” “Stop war” and other messages in support of Ukraine.
They also chanted “Stand with Ukraine,” “Stop Putin” and sung Ukraine’s national anthem."
Amid policy and pandemic, will California employment rebound?
SETH SANDRONSKY, Capitol Weekly: "The year 2021 was a long year battling COVID-19. As coronavirus restrictions ease under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s SMARTER Plan in 2022, we turn to the Golden State’s labor market. Is it on track to rebound to its pre-pandemic shape? Here are the employment numbers, then and now.
In March 2020, when Gov. Newsom issued a mandate to cut the transmissibility of the airborne coronavirus that closed businesses and schools, there were 18,304,600 employed Californians and the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent.
Fast forward to December 2021, with 17,836,800 employed Californians and a 6.5 percent unemployment rate. The December 2021 employment data is the most recent available."
Urgent action needed to address climate change’s catastrophic threats, U.N. report warns
LAT, IAN JAMES: "Climate change will put people’s lives and Earth’s ecosystems at increasing risk of catastrophe if nations fail to quickly reduce emissions of planet-heating gases, according to a new United Nations report that urges humankind to scale up efforts to adapt and protect the most vulnerable.
As global warming continues to unleash deadly heat waves, intense droughts, floods and devastating wildfires, the researchers from 67 countries called for urgent action to address the crisis. They said many of the dangerous and accelerating impacts can still be reduced, depending on how quickly the burning of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases are curbed.
The report, which was released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, documents how climate-driven weather extremes have exposed millions of people to water shortages and acute food insecurity, and how many of the planet’s surviving species are vulnerable to global warming."
Here’s when the Bay Area could see rain again after chilly week
The Chronicle, Danielle Echeverria: "After a week of freezing temperatures, the Bay Area will start to warm up this weekend, with chances of rain for mid- to late next week, according to the National Weather Service.
In what feels like weather whiplash, Friday brought record lows to some parts of the Bay Area — just two weeks after the same areas saw record highs. But temperatures over the weekend and through Tuesday will gradually tick up, with highs “right around average for this time of year,” according to Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the weather service.
Saturday night will also bring “a few chances for light rain” to the northernmost parts of the Bay Area, Murdock said, but nothing to get too excited about — “and by northernmost, we mean the northern border of Sonoma County could see a few hundredths with the light rain failing to push farther south,” he said."
Warm weather expected in Southern California before another cooling trend
LAT, PRISCELLA VEGA: "Dramatic weather changes are once again in store for Southern California this week.
Warm temperatures are expected through Tuesday, with lower to mid 70s at beaches in the Los Angeles area and mid to upper 80s in the inland area, according to the National Weather Service.
But the warming trend won’t last long. Patchy fog will set in Wednesday, followed by cool temperatures in the high 60s, signaling the start to another cold snap through the weekend."
A wealthy family’s plans for a Napa vineyard have exploded into controversy. The outcome could define the valley’s future
The Chronicle, Esther Mobley/Jess Lander: "In the hills overlooking the Napa Valley, a wealthy family has waged a long effort to clear trees from an expansive piece of land and plant grapes. Any vintner can see the potential: The property sits in the Atlas Peak appellation, prized for its high elevation and volcanic soils, producing wines that routinely sell for $100 a bottle or far more.
But 17 years after the family bought the property, known as Walt Ranch, the dispute over their plans has proved existential, raising questions about who should decide land use in the nation’s wine mecca and whether the valley’s abundance should face limits.
Now that debate — the subject of a Napa County Board of Supervisors hearing Tuesday — has exploded after a supervisor with connections and support in the wine industry voted in favor of the vineyard deal without revealing that he and his family had, in the previous months, acquired a financial stake in the property next door."
Parents rally in S.F.’s Golden Gate Park against school masks
The Chronicle, Sam Whiting: "It was only after Carolyn Selig’s 9-year-old son developed COVID-19, then contact dermatitis, that she became a protester for the first time in her life, contending the mask requirement at his school didn’t prevent the virus but did irritate his face.
“Mask choice for kids. Let them breathe,” Selig, 40, yelled to passing cars, bicyclists and pedestrians entering Golden Gate Park on Sunday. Her orange T-shirt proclaimed “Parents for Mask Choice,” and she rotated a selection of handmade placards.
“Now I am angry,” she said during a break while the stoplight changed. In her view, “People have a false sense that masks protect kids but they do more harm than good.”"
