Here’s what Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter could mean for San Francisco
ROLAND YI, Chronicle: “Elon Musk’s swift $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter could have major ramifications at its San Francisco headquarters, with the tech mogul previously expressing skepticism around remote work.
Musk’s stance could put him at odds with Twitter’s embrace of employees staying home forever under a policy started by former CEO Jack Dorsey. The company was one of the first to send workers home in the spring of 2020 as the pandemic closed the economy, and was slower to reopen its offices than other tech firms. Last summer, the delta surge shuttered the company’s Market Street headquarters just two weeks after it reopened. It wasn’t until March 3 that CEO Parag Agrawal said all offices were open again.
In December 2019, prior to the pandemic, Musk was asked on Twitter about his stance on remote work. “Big communication penalty for remote work, which means the gain in talent that won’t move has to be very high,” Musk replied.”
Coastal Commission staff says Poseidon’s ocean-to-tap water plant should not be built
ANDRE MOUCHARD, OC Register: “Poseidon Water’s long-running, controversial effort to turn the ocean off Huntington Beach into tap water for much of Orange County suffered a potentially fatal blow Monday, April 25 when staff for the California Coastal Commission released a report saying the project should not be built.
Citing a range of economic and social factors, including environmental damages from the proposed plant and the company’s track record for slow-walking environmental projects that would offset harm caused by its existing desalination plant in Carlsbad, the staff recommended that the commissioners vote against approving the project May 12 when they hold a public hearing in Costa Mesa.
“Due to this project’s fundamental inconsistencies with the Coastal Act … as well as its unclear but likely significant burdens on environmental justice communities, staff is recommending denial of the project.”
Oakland to argue for an end to the nearly 20-year federal oversight of its police department
SARAH RAVANI, Chronicle: “Oakland will make the case in court Wednesday that the city’s police department is ready to enter into a transition period to end its nearly 20-year struggle to end federal oversight — marking a potentially major milestone for the city.
The City Attorney’s Office and attorneys in the case filed a joint statement to U.S. District Judge Willim H. Orrick saying that they are open to begin the one-year transition period to end federal oversight. The statement said the department has complied with all the tasks required by the federal monitor except for one.
It’s the first time the city and the attorneys in the case have reached an agreement that the police department can enter the transition period to end federal oversight. The court-appointed monitor determines whether the department has complied with the federally mandated tasks, and a judge must agree with the monitor.”
Despite April rains, California still faces significant drought conditions as summer nears
HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: “The late-season burst of snow and moisture that blanketed Northern California in April helped make a small dent in drought conditions, experts said, but the majority of the state is still far below where it needs to be as it heads toward the hot, dry months of summer.
Several storms arrived weeks after the final snow survey of the season on April 1, in which state officials reported that statewide snowpack had dwindled to just 38% of average for the date after a bone-dry start to the year.
But on Friday, the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab in Donner Pass said it had received 76 inches of powder since the start of the month thanks to April’s storms — nearly doubling the 41 inches it received in the first three months of the year combined.”
California does not have to require prison workers to get COVID vaccines, court rules
BOB EGELKO, Chronicle: “California does not have to require state prison employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus because it is taking other precautions to protect health care in the nation’s largest prison system, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The vaccination mandate, which allowed exemptions for medical or religious reasons, was proposed by J. Clark Kelso, court-appointed overseer of health care in California prisons, and approved in September by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar of Oakland. He cited the rapid spread of COVID-19 in confined prison quarters, the vaccination rate of only 42% among prison guards, and the deaths of 242 inmates and 49 staff members from the virus.
But before Tigar’s order was to take effect in January, it was blocked by a panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom and the prison guards’ union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. On Monday, the appeals court panel said the mandate was not legally justified because it required evidence that the state had been “deliberately indifferent” to health in the prisons.”
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Revisiting the Capitol Annex
TIM FOSTER, Capitol Weekly: “In our discussion with lobbyist and author Chris Micheli last month we touched on the status of the Capitol Annex Project, the billion-dollar-plus update to the historic state capitol that is currently underway. While the legislature and Governor have already moved, and construction has begun, lawsuits are challenging the legality of the effort and could the halt the Annex Project. What happens then?
Our guests today, Dick Cowan and Paula Peper, are leaders in the effort to halt the Capitol Annex Project – they are former members of the Historic State Capitol Commission and offer their perspective on why the plans for overhauling the state’s Capitol need to be rethought.”
‘Pure greed’: Former DWP general manager gets 6 years in prison in corruption case
DAKOTA SMITH, LA Times: “David Wright earned more than $376,000 a year as the top executive of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He had several homes in Southern California and vacationed in Italy.
But that wasn’t enough for Wright: Prosecutors said he took part in a scheme to get a $30-million contract at the DWP approved, so he could join the company, at a $1-million salary, after he retired from the utility.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. sentenced Wright, 62, to six years in federal prison for his role in the bribery scandal. At a downtown court hearing, Blumenfeld said that Wright was “well off” before he broke the law.”
Thousands of Stanford nurses strike to demand better pay, more staffing
SUMMER LIN, Mercury News: “Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital canceled appointments, postponed surgeries and sent chemotherapy patients to sister hospitals as thousands of nurses walked off the job Monday to strike for better wages and working conditions, forcing hundreds of traveling nurses to scramble to meet patient demand.
After treating patients without a contract since the end of March, 5,000 nurses lined streets near Stanford Hospital raucously picketing and urging medical center officials to deliver an agreement ahead of negotiations scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Holding signs that read “Stanford hates caregivers” and shouting slogans like “shame on Stanford” as drivers blared their car horns in support, nurses appeared more than ready to pressure Stanford indefinitely until a “reasonable” contract is reached.”
Showdown between reform and tough-on-crime policies in California attorney general’s race
HANNAH WILEY, LA Times: “The most contentious and closely watched California election in 2022 is likely to be the race for attorney general, where voters will choose in June from the liberal incumbent who was appointed to the job last year, three unheralded challengers and an openly gay career prosecutor whose campaign could hinge on the public’s new fears about crime.
For state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, the timing of his first statewide campaign could be challenging. The race coincides with increased scrutiny of recent criminal justice reform efforts, a juxtaposition that his opponents see as an opportunity to pin the blame for rising crime on Democrats. They believe that new leadership at the California Department of Justice will strengthen law and order and bring political balance back to Sacramento.
Gov. Gavin Newsom tapped Bonta last year to be the first Filipino American to serve as California attorney general after then-Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra was appointed U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.”
