Hackers release data after LAUSD refuses to pay ransom
LAT, HOWARD BLUME: “Hackers released data from Los Angeles Unified School District on Saturday, a day after Supt. Alberto Carvalho said he would not negotiate with or pay a ransom to the criminal syndicate.
Some screenshots from the hack were reviewed by The Times and appear to show some Social Security numbers. But the full extent of the release remains unclear.
The release of data came two days earlier than the deadline set by the syndicate that calls itself Vice Society — and happened in apparent response to what it took as Carvalho’s final answer. Hackers demand ransom to prevent the release of private information and also to receive decryption keys to unlock computer systems.
Gas keeps costing more. Would an emergency oil supply help cut prices?
DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "California gasoline prices are soaring again — up more than a dollar over the last month — and the latest big congressional idea for relief involves creating an emergency oil supply that Washington would tap when prices soar.
It’s called the Economic Petroleum Reserve. Experts, however, aren’t enthusiastic, and the plan is unlikely to ease prices anytime soon. “It’s a non-starter,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, which tracks price trends, of the reserve idea.
“I’m not sure this really helps the problem,” said Sanjay Varshney, professor of finance at California State University, Sacramento."
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: “Anchored by the cities of Eureka and Arcata and known for its redwood forests, cannabis tourism and cool, misty beaches, Humboldt Bay also has an unwelcome distinction: It has the fastest rate of sea level rise on the West Coast.
Tectonic activity is causing the area around the bay roughly 300 miles north of San Francisco to sink, which gives it a rate of sea level rise that is about twice the state average. Compared to 2000, the sea in the area is expected to rise 1 foot by 2030, 2.3 feet by 2050 and 3.1 feet by 2060, according to California Ocean Protection Council.
Residential areas, wastewater treatment plants and a segment of Highway 101 that connects Eureka and Arcata are all at risk — especially when the frequent and intense storms associated with climate change trigger more flooding. There are even long-term worries about a nuclear waste storage facility on the bluffs. Yet the region also has become a test case for how to adapt to a problem that faces all of coastal California, including by restoring wetlands that were filled in for logging and farming in earlier eras
Newsom signs bill to police California doctors on COVID-19 misinformation
JOHN WOOLFOLK, Mercury News: "Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will subject doctors to discipline and possible suspension of their licenses to practice for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic to patients, one of the most controversial pieces of pandemic legislation lawmakers sent to his desk.
AB 2098 by Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Campbell, was co-sponsored by the California Medical Association to tamp down COVID-19 misinformation, often spread through social media, promoting untested or ineffective treatments and cures and questioning the effectiveness of face masks and vaccines.
“Many health professionals, including physicians, have been the culprits of this misinformation and disinformation effort,” the California Medical Association lamented to lawmakers. Vaccine advocacy group and co-sponsor ProtectUS added that “licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust” that if abused can undermine public confidence in effective health measures.
“They have a professional and ethical obligation to counsel and treat patients based not on their own opinion or beliefs, but on medical guidelines and peer-reviewed scientific evidence,” ProtectUS told lawmakers. “When they choose to spread inaccurate information and lend credibility to conspiracy theories, physicians discourage patients from accessing life-saving vaccines.”
Gavin Newsom said this little-known program makes him ‘more proud ... than anything’ else he’s done
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: “Gavin Newsom notched big legislative wins recently on abortion rights, housing construction and climate change policy. But Newsom is most proud of an-under-the-radar program that is just getting started: California’s College Corps program.
It pays low-income college students $10,000 annually in exchange for service-oriented jobs like tutoring under-served youth or working on climate change projects or distributing food to needy families. Begun as a pilot program last year, it is ramping up with 3,200 students on 46 campuses — roughly the size of the U.S. Peace Corps.
On Friday, when California’s chief service officer Josh Fryday swears in the first class of College Corps fellows, it will be another sign of how California experiments with new ideas long before the rest of the nation. No other state has a student debt-relief program of this scale that uses a private-public partnership to provide help for 600 different community organizations.”
COVID in California: Bill restricting misinformation by doctors signed by Newsom
The Chronicle, DOMINIC FRACASSA: “A troubling number of adult Americans have heard little or no information about bivalent booster shots, a new report found. Tens of millions of people who suffered a COVID-19 infection may endure a long-term loss of smell or taste, new research suggests.”
Garcetti deputy being named to high-level U.S. diplomatic post, sources say
LAT, TRACY WILKINSON: “A senior aide to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will be appointed the first ever U.S. State Department special envoy for linking local governments to national foreign policy, sources told The Times.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is expected Monday to name Nina Hachigian as the country’s first special representative for subnational diplomacy.
“Subnational” diplomacy refers to government entities at local levels— cities and counties instead of nations.”
Caruso cuts into Bass’ lead, poll finds, as L.A. mayoral race heads into final weeks
LAT, BENJAMIN ORESKES: “Rick Caruso has made significant progress in the race for mayor, closing a large part of the gap with Rep. Karen Bass since August, but the billionaire businessman still trails by double digits among the people who are likeliest to vote.
Those findings from the latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, sponsored by The Times, highlight key dynamics as the mayoral race heads into its final weeks.
Bass, backed by most of the elected Democratic leadership in California, has a strong hold on her fellow partisans, who make up the bulk of the Los Angeles electorate. Caruso, backed by tens of millions of dollars from his personal fortune, has a path forward, but one that depends on getting potential supporters who are not frequent voters to show up for a mayoral election with few other major draws on the ballot.”
Why these 7 Bay Area cities saw the most dramatic shift to remote work in California
The Chronicle, LEILA DARWICHE: “In 2019, only 4% of workers in Mountain View primarily worked from home. But by 2021, that t number had jumped to 50% — the largest increase of any city in California.
Mountain View wasn’t the only Bay Area city that saw dramatic growth in its number of residents working from home. Bay Area cities accounted for seven of the top 10 California cities with the highest shares of employed people who primarily worked from home in 2021, according to a Chronicle analysis of recently released U.S. census data that included cities with at least 65,000 people .
San Francisco had the fifth highest work from home rate of any California city at 46%, up 38 percentage points from 2019.”
Here’s how Bay Area residents really feel about returning to the office
The Chronicle, CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: “The sudden switch to working from home was an unexpected change for millions of people during the early days of the pandemic. But, after years of working remotely, the push to bring workers back to their offices has been full of stops and starts, marked by the threat of new virus variants and employee outcry.
Now, as more companies blow the proverbial return to office conch than ever, many are taking a harder line on time spent back in the office, upending the routines people have built during the last two-plus years.
Some are finding everything from childcare to dog walking has to be overhauled as they return to the office. Workers nudged back to desks and meeting rooms and finding that commutes can still be as harrowing as ever. And others just don’t feel safe in the work environment, and want to choose for themselves.”
Rafael expected he would go to a university — the system never did
EdSource, NICK FOURIEZOS: “With just a few months before graduation, Rafael Lopez-Librado sat down with his high school counselor — a man he didn’t remember ever meeting before.
Rafael was planning to attend a university, and he had come to complete his financial aid forms. He had no idea just how far away he was from his dream.
“South G Street,” he wrote, filling out the address to his family home, where the heater never worked and the rent had risen from $600 to $900 per month the past two years.”
An L.A. journalist’s death by suicide still confounds years later. “Can we ever understand that?”
LAT, THOMAS CURWEN: “Three years after her husband took his life, Sara Scribner wants to talk. She knows it won’t be easy, but the time is right. Suicide and mental illness have long been the subject of whisper campaigns and conjecture, but the pandemic, she believes, has changed that.
“Scott’s suicide has been the background noise every minute of my life,” she said, “but whenever I bring up his name in conversation, people get uncomfortable.”
In the age of COVID, however, the language of loss and vulnerability has become familiar, and expressions of grief, worry — even fear — are more easily shared.”
‘I’ve given up on all my dreams’: Dread in Germany deepens over war in Ukraine
LAT, ERIC KIRSCHBAUM: “Kati Pannwitz spends her evenings at home alone in a darkened and unheated apartment, watching old movies while worrying about the new reality of life in a country that is being drawn ever closer to the war in Ukraine.
Surging inflation and fears about an energy crisis are hitting home for Pannwitz, 34, taking a heavy toll on her finances and the futures of both her and her 17-year-old son.
No more vacations, no more trips abroad, no more going out, no more saving and an outlook that has grown increasingly bleak for Pannwitz — and millions of fellow Germans — since Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine seven months ago.”
