California storm: Overnight forecast sees gusty winds up to 80 mph
The Chronicle, STAFF: "The eye of the “bomb cyclone” bringing an intense winter storm to California remained offshore, but its impacts landed ashore with full force on Wednesday. Much of the Bay Area saw extended periods of heavy rain as the front moved eastward through the region.
Wind warnings remain in effect overnight, with gusts of up to 80 m.p.h. in the hills. And while the main front has already passed through, pockets of heavy rain will persist into Thursday morning, with thunderstorms, lighting and small hail possible.
Emergency services have been out in full force responding to dangers like downed trees and power lines. Some school districts are closing Thursday, though San Francisco Unified announced it would remain open."
SEE PHOTOS OF LIFE DURING THE STORM IN THE BAY AREA ...
Massive storm lashes Northern California, killing toddler and raising dire flood dangers
LA Times, SUMMER LIN/HANNAH FRY/RONG-GONG LIN II/JESSICA GARRISON: "A powerful winter storm unleashed pounding rain and strong winds across Northern California on Wednesday, leaving a small child dead, triggering evacuations and power outages, and heightening fears of widespread flooding and debris flows.
The intense downpours — coming after an earlier deluge days ago — pushed some rivers toward flood stage, prompting a string of evacuations from towns along the Russian River to communities in Santa Cruz County and beyond. The force of the wind left tens of thousands without power and knocked over a gas station canopy in South San Francisco.
In Sonoma County, a child who was believed to be younger than 2 was killed by a falling tree in the creekside community of Occidental, the Press Democrat reported. Occidental Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ronald Lunardi said paramedics tried to resuscitate the injured toddler but declared the child dead at the scene after the tree fell on a double-wide trailer, according to the news organization."
Massive storm poses lethal danger for homeless people. California is scrambling to help
LA Times, HANNAH WILEY/JESSICA GARRISON/SUMMER LIN/RUBEN VIVES: "Ahead of a massive storm expected to drench an already sodden state, officials throughout California are rushing to bring some of the tens of thousands of people living on streets and along waterways into shelters.
In Sacramento, which is still recovering from flooding caused by a brutal New Year’s Eve storm, city officials have launched an extensive effort to convince unhoused people along the American River to relocate to safer ground.
The storm hit late Wednesday afternoon and was expected to continue into Thursday. Two to 4 inches of rain are expected in some metro areas, with 4 to 8 inches in some mountain areas. The National Weather Service has warned of “widespread flooding and damaging winds.”"
More atmospheric river storms are headed for the Bay Area. What that means for flood risk and the drought.
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "The atmospheric river storm that was bearing down on the Bay Area Wednesday night and Thursday morning raised concerns about mudslides, power outages and other problems. And a series of new storms headed our way this weekend means the end is not yet in sight.
The mid-week storm was the third atmospheric river storm since last Friday. Scientists said conditions are lining up for a series of additional “pineapple express” storms in the next few days that could create conditions not seen since 2017.
That year, multiple atmospheric river storms drenched California in succession, culminating with a massive one in mid-February that ended the 2012-16 drought, wrecked the spillway at Oroville Dam and caused $100 million in flood damage in downtown San Jose."
Bay Area homeless people tough out storm outside despite push to fill shelter beds
The Chronicle, NOAH ARROYO: "Bay Area cities were racing to get unsheltered homeless people inside Wednesday, but many unhoused residents in the region chose to stay outdoors despite flooding and intense winds, saying shelters didn’t meet their needs.
Frank B., a 42-year-old homeless man who declined to give his last name, said San Francisco’s offer of temporary shelter wasn’t good enough to draw him inside from his tent on Minna Street in SoMa, where he’s been camping for two months.
To gain entry to a shelter, he worried that he’d either have to ditch most of his belongings or leave them out on the street overnight, vulnerable to theft and ransacking, though officials said shelter occupants are able to bring some belongings with them."
Kevin McCarthy’s troubles winning the House Speaker could mean trouble for California
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/GILLIAN BRASSIL: "California’s massive congressional clout had already been diminished when Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped down and Democrats lost control of the House.
Now comes a fresh, largely unexpected new punch: the weakened position of Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican, is struggling to win the speakership. His so-far unsuccessful bid bled into a second day of balloting, the first time in 100 years that it’s taken more than one vote to choose a speaker."
Alameda County stays silent on how to resolve election error that flipped one Oakland race
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "A week after Alameda County announced that a computer error had incorrectly decided a local school board race, officials still had not explained how they plan to address the voting snafu or whether they intend to swear in the rightful winner.
On Dec. 28, election officials said the error had led to a miscount across all ranked-choice contests in the county’s November elections. New calculations reversed one race: Mike Hutchinson, a current board member, defeated Nick Resnick, the CEO of an education company, who was previously declared the winner of the tightly contested seat."
College admissions scandal: Mastermind Rick Singer gets 3.5 years for ‘a scheme that was breathtaking in its scale’
BANG*Mercury News, JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "Three weeks before he headed to Boston to be sentenced Wednesday as the mastermind in the largest college admissions scandal in history, Rick Singer asked a handyman to screen in the front porch of his mobile home in Florida.
He hoped to be home soon, on probation.
Instead, his home for the next 3.5 years will have a much sturdier enclosure: prison bars."
Cal State teaching assistants and other student employees could follow UC to a strike
EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH: "When graduate students and researchers at the University of California launched the nation’s largest strike of academic workers in American history, they may have set an example for what California State student employees might do this spring semester at the state’s other massive university system.
Cal State academic student employees, support staff and service workers in the nation’s largest university system have been demanding better wages and compensation for years. And multiple studies have concluded that CSU staff — including those who perform important teaching and grading functions — are underpaid.
“We will be fighting for a lot of the similar things that the UC folks have been fighting for,” said Lark Winner, president of UAW 4123, which represents more than 11,000 teaching assistants, graduate assistants and instructional student assistants across the 23 campus system. “Many of our members are rent-burdened, the vast majority of them have limited access to transit support, and our wages are not satisfactory to cover our living expenses.”"
High schools call off games as massive Bay Area storm arrives
BANG*Mercury News, JOSEPH DYCUS: "As an atmospheric river threatened to slam the Bay Area on Wednesday, high school administrators took proactive measures and called off games scheduled for the afternoon and evening.
From the Peninsula to Contra Costa County, schools scrambled to adjust schedules as the storm rolled in.
Liberty boys basketball coach Jon Heinz told the Bay Area News Group that his team’s game against Benicia, scheduled for Wednesday night, was postponed until Feb. 11."
Amazon laying off over 18,000 workers in biggest tech downsizing of the pandemic
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Amazon will lay off over 18,000 workers in the biggest tech downsizing of the pandemic, CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday.
The cuts began last year and came after the company saw one of the biggest hiring sprees in modern U.S. history, with 1.5 million corporate and warehouse workers as of last September. The 18,000 layoffs affect corporate workers in divisions including devices and books, technology services and its stores."
Cisco decides to slash scores of jobs in Bay Area as layoffs mount
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Cisco Systems has sketched out plans to slash well over 100 jobs in the Bay Area, according to an official filing that the legendary tech titan provided to state labor officials.
The company’s job cuts are slated to occur over the next few weeks or months, Cisco stated in a WARN letter filed with the state’s Employment Development Department.
“We regret to inform you that Cisco Systems will lay off certain employees at its Milpitas facility located at 560 McCarthy Blvd.,” read the WARN notice to the EDD, the mayor of Milpitas and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors."
Deadlocked House adjourns until Thursday after Kevin McCarthy racks up three more defeats
LA Times, NOLAN D. MCCASKILL: "The House adjourned without electing a speaker Wednesday after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy failed in his fourth, fifth and sixth attempts to secure the post he has long desired.
McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who also fell short in three votes Tuesday, now has more time to negotiate a compromise in an effort to win the support of some of the 20 hard-right Republicans who have blocked him from the speakership.
Former President Trump had called in a series of social media posts Wednesday morning for members to back McCarthy — but that had little effect on the day’s action, with McCarthy ultimately losing ground as a member who had previously supported him instead voted “present.”"
Thousands mourn Benedict XVI at a funeral presided over by Pope Francis
LA Times, NICOLE WINFIELD/GIADA ZAMPANO/.FRANCES D'EMILIO: "With bells tolling, thousands of the faithful, political leaders and Pope Francis on Thursday mourned Benedict XVI — the German theologian who made history by resigning the papacy — at a rare requiem Mass for a dead pope presided over by a living one.
The crowd applauded as pallbearers carried Benedict’s cypress coffin out of the fog-shrouded St. Peter’s Basilica and rested it before the altar in the vast square outside. Francis, wearing the crimson vestments typical of papal funerals, opened the service with a prayer and closed it an hour later by solemnly blessing the simple casket, which was decorated only with Benedict’s coat of arms.
Heads of state and royalty, clergy from around the world and thousands of faithful flocked to the Vatican, despite Benedict’s requests for simplicity and official efforts to keep the first funeral for a pope emeritus in modern times low-key."
Putin’s Top Priest Urges Ceasefire to Russia-Ukraine War
Newsweek World, ISABEL VAN BRUGEN: "The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has called for a ceasefire in Ukraine on Orthodox Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7.
Kirill, 76, who has justified Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 on spiritual and ideological grounds, issued an appeal on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church on Thursday.
"I, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and of all Rus, appeal to all parties involved in the internecine conflict with a call to cease fire and establish a Christmas truce from 12:00 on January 6 to 00:00 on January 7 so that Orthodox people can attend services on Christmas Eve and on the day of the Nativity of Christ," he said."
Hong Kong to start reopening border with China on Sunday
AP, KANIS LEUNG: "Hong Kong will start to reopen its border with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross from each side every day without quarantine, the city's leader said.
The city's land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years under China's “zero-COVID” strategy, which has restricted entry to the country, isolated infected people and locked down areas with outbreaks. The reopening is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong’s economy.
Thursday's announcement came as China is easing some of the world’s toughest anti-virus controls. From Sunday, China will also gradually increase the number of flights between Hong Kong and the mainland and scrap the limit on passenger numbers for flights from the city, the Chinese government said in a statement."
