The Roundup

Sacramento, 12 other California counties move to CDC’s ‘high’ COVID level. Is it mask time?

MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee: "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday placed more than a dozen California counties into the “high” community level for COVID-19 danger, including the entire four-county region of Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo counties, as well as several Bay Area counties.

That means federal health officials are calling for people in those counties to mask up in public indoor settings.

The move into the high classification for Sacramento County also automatically triggers a return to an indoor mask requirement at Sacramento City Unified School District.

READ MORE on coronavirus: Alameda County reinstates mask order as coronavirus cases soar -- CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ, RONG-GONG LIN II, LA Times; 

Sacramento school district returns to indoor mask mandate due to local COVID-19 surge -- MICHAEL McGOUGH, SacBee; L.A. County moves closer to possible mask requirement as coronavirus hospitalizations rise --  RONG-GONG LIN II, LA Times

Cruise gets state permit to offer paid driverless taxi rides in San Francisco

ANDRES PICON, Chronicle: "California regulators on Thursday issued a first-of-its-kind permit to robot-taxi company Cruise, which will make San Francisco the first major city in the country in which people can hail a paid ride from a driverless taxi, officials said.

The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously Thursday to grant Cruise its permit, more than six months after the San Francisco-based company first applied to be able to charge for rides in its autonomous vehicles, without a backup driver.

The company has been offering free driverless rides since February and will begin rolling out paid rides in its 30 electric vehicles in the coming weeks, officials said."

Bitterness over speakership fray permeates the Assembly

JOHN HOWARD, Capitol Weekly: "The clock is ticking: Timing is crucial in politics, and the battle over the Assembly speakership is no exception.

A stormy, six-hour closed-door meeting ended with an ostensible peace accord — Assemblyman Robert Rivas, the challenger, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon acknowledged in a joint statement that Rivas had a majority of the votes of the current Democratic caucus. And they both acknowledged that Rendon would retain the speakership.

Surprisingly, no definitive speakership vote was actually taken during the meeting, according to a number of participants."

Covid challenges, bad student behavior push teachers to limit, out the door

DIANA LAMBERT, EdSource: "Lynda White, who taught English, creative writing and social studies at El Monte Middle School in the small Central Valley town of Orosi for 21 years, started having panic attacks this school year as she drove to the campus.

“I would sit in my car, taking slow breaths, trying to calm myself down because I knew when I got on campus it would be horrible,” White said.

The veteran educator was among thousands of California teachers who quit their jobs before this school year ended. Some teachers left because of the challenges of teaching during a pandemic, while others were fearful they would contract Covid-19 and some were offered higher-paying jobs. Many just burned out."

Claims that five San Diego State football players raped a girl were followed by months of silence

ROBERT J. LOPEZ and COLLEEN SHALBY, LA Times: "The reports to campus officials late last year revealed disturbing allegations about players from San Diego State University’s winning football team.

Claims were rapidly spreading among the school’s athletes that five players had raped an unconscious girl and left her bloodied and bruised at a house party off campus.

“I am very scared and worried that nothing is being done about this,” one student-athlete told university officials in a message sent through an anonymous reporting system, which was reviewed by The Times along with other internal campus records in the case."

Newsom, Bonta way ahead as California voters lean partisan, Times poll finds

HANNAH WILEY and PHIL WILLON, LA Times: "Voters will likely stick with their partisan preferences in two of California’s most consequential state primary races, giving Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta an easy leg up in the June 7 election, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

Newsom’s massive lead not only suggests that he’ll swamp the field of 25 challengers in next week’s gubernatorial primary but also that none of the candidates, at this point, has amassed enough support to be a credible threat in a one-on-one match in the Nov. 8 general election.

According to the poll, half of likely voters support Newsom — including 83% of Democrats and 46% of voters registered as having “no party preference.”

State officials draw fire after approving new oil wells in L.A. neighborhood

TONY BRISCOE, LA Times; "Los Angeles residents and environmental advocates are decrying a decision by state officials to allow new oil drilling in their Harbor-region neighborhood, saying the decision was based in part on expired city documents.

In the latest broadside against petroleum extraction in Los Angeles — the nation’s largest urban oil field — residents of Wilmington have accused Warren E&P of in effect evading proper environmental review. They are demanding that city officials block construction of up to six new wells approved by the state.

“We are surrounded by industries that are polluting our communities and have polluters right next to our homes, schools and parks,” resident Nizgui Gomez told reporters recently as she stood beside a community baseball diamond owned by Warren. “When I go on bike rides near this baseball field behind me and see the children exercising next to literal oil drilling operations that you could smell, I think about how dangerous it is on their health.”

Appeals court says California district attorneys must follow three-strikes law regardless of political beliefs

BOB EGELKO, Chronicle: "Prosecutors who oppose California’s three-strikes law — like George Gascón of Los Angeles and, to some extent, Chesa Boudin of San Francisco — are still required to charge sentence-lengthening “strikes” when a defendant has serious prior convictions, a state appeals court ruled Thursday. But the court said the prosecutor could then seek dismissal of strikes “in the interests of justice,” a decision for the trial judge.

The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles was a mixed verdict for the state’s 1994 law and prosecutors who want to roll it back. In a separate case Thursday, the same court said a law providing sentencing increases of up to 10 years for the use of a gun in a violent crime was not mandatory and could be rejected by a judge, at the prosecutor’s request, under the same interests-of-justice standard.

Three strikes, passed by the Legislature and approved by the voters, imposes sentences of 25 years to life in prison for defendants convicted of a third serious or violent felony. Convictions for a second such felony carry twice the usual sentence."

Thirty-year-old Medi-Cal income limit leaves some seniors without needed care

ANA B. IBARRA, CalMatters: "California living is expensive. So imagine having to get by on $600 a month. That’s essentially what some seniors and people with disabilities have to do in order to access Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income residents. 

Individuals with significant medical expenses — but whose income is too high to qualify for free Medi-Cal — may still access the program if they pay some of the costs.

That share of cost works like a monthly deductible; people are allowed to keep $600 for personal use and must spend the rest of their income on health care expenses before their Medi-Cal coverage kicks in."

Placer County CEO faces discipline or dismissal in wake of fatal Rocklin car crash

MOLLY SULLIVAN, SacBee: "The Placer County Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting Friday to decide the fate of Todd Leopold, the county’s executive officer, who was placed on paid administrative leave weeks after being involved in a fatal Rocklin collision earlier this year.

An agenda posted to the county’s website says the meeting will contain an “evaluation of performance, discipline or dismissal” of the county executive in a closed session, meaning it will not be open to the public.

Last week, the Board of Supervisors placed Leopold on paid administrative leave during another special meeting, seven weeks after he was behind the wheel in a crash that killed 18-year-old Anthony Williams."

Santa Clara County sheriff’s proposal to close courts causes uproar

ROBERT SALONGA, Mercury News: "Citing overworked staff, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith has written a memo saying that she will pull her deputies from their security assignments at courthouses in Palo Alto and Morgan Hill by the middle of June, telling Superior Court officials to close the facilities until they get more help.