90 miles of California high-speed rail approved to connect San Jose to Merced
LAUREN HERNANDEZ, Chronicle: "A 90-mile stretch of California’s high-speed rail project between San Jose and Merced was unanimously approved on Thursday by the state’s High Speed Rail Authority.
The authority board of directors also certified the Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement, which gives clearance for nearly 400 miles of the project’s 500-mile Phase 1, which stretches from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim, “including a contiguous stretch between Merced and Palmdale plus January’s clearance of the Burbank to Los Angeles section,” authority officials said in a statement.
It is the latest advancement in a years-long effort to build a bullet train through California’s Central Valley in an attempt to connect Northern and Southern California. The project has been mired in construction delays and high costs over the past several years."
California promised to close its last nuclear plant. Now Newsom is reconsidering
LA Times, SAMMY ROTH: “With the threat of power shortages looming and the climate crisis worsening, Gov. Gavin Newsom may attempt to delay the long-planned closure of California’s largest electricity source: the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.
Newsom told the L.A. Times editorial board Thursday that the state would seek out a share of $6 billion in federal funds meant to rescue nuclear reactors facing closure, money the Biden administration announced this month. Diablo Canyon owner Pacific Gas & Electric is preparing to shutter the plant — which generated 6% of the state’s power last year — by 2025.
“The requirement is by May 19 to submit an application, or you miss the opportunity to draw down any federal funds if you want to extend the life of that plant,” Newsom said. “We would be remiss not to put that on the table as an option.””
L.A. coronavirus cases up 40% in one week; hospitalizations rising, too
LUKE MONEY and RONG-GONG LIN II: "Coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County rose by 40% over the past week and hospitalizations have started to creep up as well, underscoring how important it is for people to be up-to-date on their vaccines and boosters, as well as wear masks in indoor public settings, officials said.
Although neither the number of infections nor the patient census are setting off alarm bells just yet, the trendlines illustrate that the county is contending with reinvigorated coronavirus transmission. And for county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, who called the increase in cases “pretty significant,” they reinforce the importance of taking individual actions to thwart the spread.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve all had to make choices about how to best protect ourselves and others from COVID-19,” she told reporters Thursday. “With cases on the rise, the potential for more contagious variants and lots of opportunities to be exposed, this is a great time to make a choice to get vaccinated or boosted and to wear a mask or respirator when you’re indoors and around others.”
Why some SoCal neighborhoods face dire water cuts while others escape restrictions
LA Times, IAN JAMES and HAYLEY SMITH: “Major water restrictions are about to take effect in areas ranging from Rancho Cucamonga to Thousand Oaks, and Baldwin Park to North Hollywood. But many nearby areas will escape the mandatory one-day-a-week watering limits — among them Santa Monica, Long Beach, Torrance and Beverly Hills.
Why? The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has targeted these first-ever water restrictions for areas that rely heavily or entirely on the State Water Project — a Northern California water supply that officials say faces a real risk of running dry. Areas that receive water from the Colorado River and other sources will be spared — at least for now.
It’s a strategy whose wisdom has divided experts. While some say it reflects the realities of California, others say it ignores the possibility that the drought could continue for another year, among other concerns.”
New S.F. supervisor districts get final approval over Tenderloin and SoMa objections
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: “San Francisco’s Redistricting Task Force ratified its final map of new supervisorial districts, putting in place deeply contested boundaries that break up the Tenderloin and South of Market despite community backlash.
Task force members voted 5-4 Thursday in favor of adopting the map, one week after they had approved it as a final draft in the wake of a turbulent and unpredictable process. The task force’s vote came two weeks after it missed a crucial deadline set by the city charter, prompting a lawsuit.
A once-in-a-decade process required to update the 11 supervisorial districts to account for population changes, San Francisco’s latest redistricting efforts have been beset by controversy in recent weeks. Various community groups have staged rallies to protest boundaries and public comment periods have lasted hours, as people passionately demanded changes to various maps.”
An unmet promise: Early literacy for all in California
EdSource, ALI TADAYON: “State leaders need to recognize that learning to read is a civil right and must “get off the fence” and “take responsibility” for the fact that more than 60% of California third graders are reading below grade level, panelists said Thursday during an EdSource roundtable discussion on early literacy.
The state should ensure that teachers are offered research-based training on reading instruction, that K-2 students are screened for risks of reading failure and that reading curricula is tested for effectiveness, said Kareem Weaver, member of the Oakland NAACP Education Committee and co-founder of the literacy instruction advocacy group FULCRUM, Full and Complete Reading a Universal Mandate.
Calling the failure to teach reading a long-ignored crisis that has been highlighted by the pandemic, Weaver called for action.”
Oakland teachers strike, prompting district to shutter schools
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: “Thousands of teachers, students and parents were expected to walk picket lines at Oakland’s public schools Friday in a one-day strike over controversial school closures to save money.
While the district’s nearly 80 schools remained open during the labor action, officials said there weren’t enough substitutes, administrators or other staff to accommodate or keep students safe and so urged families to keep their children home for the day.
While other unionized district workers were not directly participating in the strike, many were expected to be absent Friday as well, with their labor leaders advising them to notify supervisors that they wouldn’t feel safe given the picket lines.”
(OP-ED) California must keep its critical investments in roads, bridges
Capitol Weekly, KIANA VALENTINE/MARK WATTS: “For the past two years, traffic patterns as we once knew them shifted dramatically as people abided by public health guidance during the pandemic to work from home and congregate in fewer places.
For a short while, this did, in fact, result in fewer cars on the roads and granted California communities a limited reprieve from traffic congestion. During this time, the state and many counties and cities also were able to accelerate long overdue road and infrastructure projects – making smart and strategic investments that will support California’s growing economy for years to come.
And during these turbulent times, California’s robust economy continued to grow, giving us unprecedented budget surpluses and a unique opportunity to make short-term investments with long-term benefits.”
Why student enrollment in the 10 largest Bay Area school districts dropped this year
The Chronicle, NAI SUMIDA: “Enrollment at San Francisco public schools plummeted this year, from almost 52,000 students in the 2020-2021 school year to 49,000 in 2021-2022. This follows a decline of over 1,000 students in the previous year, combining for a district-wide drop in enrollment of 7% since before the pandemic.
Enrollment loss, however, is not just a San Francisco problem. Public schools across the state lost 2% of students compared to 2019, and in the Bay Area, districts had a combined 6.5% enrollment decrease, with several seeing more dramatic declines than San Francisco Unified.
The Chronicle compared enrollment data for non-charter public schools at the 10 largest school districts in the nine-county Bay Area from 2019-2020, the most recent school year unaffected by the pandemic, to 2021-2022, the current school year.”
Violent crime and verbal abuse at Union Station have become unbearable, some workers say
LA Times, RACHEL URANGA: “Janitor Gerardo Mixcoatl heard the cry as he was preparing to sweep and refill the toilet paper in a men’s room stall at Union Station.
“Gerardo, Gerardo, help me,” screamed Maria. The two often worked in pairs for safety, and she had just entered the women’s bathroom when she felt a blow on the back of her neck. As she turned, a homeless woman pushed her to the floor and hit her repeatedly with a mallet, according to court records.
Mixcoatl dashed into the bathroom and yelled “Stop!” The woman struck him and ran off.”
Is the Bay Area at risk of a housing bubble? Here’s what experts say
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: “With national home prices surging to record highs after a pandemic buying frenzy, some economists are sounding alarms about the growing risk of a U.S. housing bubble.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas issued a report last month warning of “housing market fever” and prices increasingly detached from rental rates and incomes. George Ratiu of Realtor.com said last week the market is “skating close” to a bubble and prices could fall 5% to 15% across the country.
But four housing experts in the Bay Area said there aren’t local signs of a bubble and the market is expected to stay competitive. They said the two drivers of the region’s stratospheric $1.4 million median home price aren’t going away: tech fortunes and low inventory.”
Kyiv reels from new attack during U.N. visit as NATO beefs up forces
LA Times, LAURA KING, NABIH BULOS, JAWEED KALEEM: “Far from the war’s front lines, central and western Ukraine were on high alert Friday after Russian missiles rained down on the capital, Kyiv, killing at least one person and shattering a relative return to calm that saw the United Nations chief visit mass graves on the city’s outskirts.
In a video address overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the aerial attack Thursday near the center of Kyiv after his smeeting with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was a sign of “Russia’s true attitude to global institutions” and would provoke “a strong response.”
“We still have to drive the occupiers out,” Zelensky said, citing recent bombings in the capital as well as in Fastiv — southwest of Kyiv — and Odesa, a strategic port city on the Black Sea that’s increasingly become a target of missiles, including one that struck a major bridge and railway link this week.”
