Lawmakers want investigation, hearings into ‘Wild West’ of California cannabis and farm work
LA Times, PAIGE ST. JOHN./ADAM ELMAHREK: "California lawmakers are calling for a sweeping investigation into corruption in the state’s cannabis industry, legislative hearings on the exploitation of farmworkers and new laws to thwart labor trafficking in response to revelations of rampant abuses and worker deaths in a multibillion-dollar market that has become increasingly unmanageable.
The proposals follow a series of Times investigations last year showing that California’s 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis spurred political corruption, explosive growth in illegal cultivation and widespread exploitation of workers. The Times found that wage theft was rampant and that many workers were subjected to squalid, sometimes lethal conditions.
A spokesperson for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations told The Times last week that the agency is examining the deaths of 32 cannabis farmworkers — never reported to work safety regulators — uncovered by the newspaper."
Join Jerry Brown for an ATV tour of his ranch and memories of his famous corgi Sutter
Sacramento Bee, XAVIER MASCARENAS: "Gov. Jerry Brown, California’s former and longest-serving governor, talks about China, gives an ATV tour of Colusa County ranch to The Sacramento Bee’s Jack Ohman, shares memories of Sutter the corgi, on Dec. 21, 2022."
Biden, McCarthy to discuss debt limit in talks on Wednesday
AP, HOPE YEN: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday he is looking forward to discussing with President Biden a “reasonable and responsible way that we can lift the debt ceiling ” when the two meet Wednesday for their first sit-down at the White House since McCarthy was elected to the post.
McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said he wants to address spending cuts along with raising the debt limit, even though the White House has ruled out linking those two issues together as the government tries to avoid a potentially devastating financial default.
The speaker pledged that cuts to Social Security and Medicare would be off the table."
The Pelosi video is a snapshot of a broken America. But for many, it’s just more fake news
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "At roughly the same time Friday that the world saw the video of a QAnon believer bludgeon Paul Pelosi unconscious with a hammer, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel was telling delegates gathered in Orange County why they were meeting in deep blue California.
Because, McDaniel said, “I just wanted to rub Nancy Pelosi’s face in it one more time.”"
Will California keep getting hit with rains this year? Here's what to expect
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "The new year started off with a parade of storms, leading to San Francisco and the wider Bay Area seeing one of its rainiest time frames since the Gold Rush era. This onslaught of storms seemed a bit out of place with the trend of La Niña, an outlook that traditionally brings warm, dry conditions to most of California. Instead, the first half of the 2022-23 winter season was marked by atmospheric river-enhanced storms and notable reductions in drought conditions across the state. And chances persist for some rain showers to hit California in the coming days to weeks.
For meteorologists in both the Bay Area and across the Western US, this January’s shift toward wet and stormy conditions brings with it questions over what other factors might be stomping out the typical La Niña outlook. It also raises concerns over the flip to an El Niño pattern that long-range weather models are forecasting for the second half of the year.
Both El Niño and La Niña are two sides of the same coin, relating to the large-scale weather pattern that’s known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation — or ENSO. This pattern is marked by a difference in water temperatures off the coast of South America."
Bay Area, Sierra Nevada hit with hazardous cold front
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "A cold front slammed into Northern California on Sunday, bringing dangerous temperatures for homeless people in the Bay Area and a winter storm in the Sierra that may snarl weekend travel.
Moisture moved in before the cold, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brayden Murdock. Although the Bay Area will see little to no precipitation, a winter storm hit the mountains around 4 a.m. Sunday.
The system is expected to bring 3 to 8 inches of snow and up to 60 mph winds in northern Sierra Nevada counties, including Interstate 80 over Donner Pass and Highway 50 over Echo Summit, until 7 p.m. Sunday."
How Las Vegas declared war on thirsty grass and set an example for the desert Southwest
LA Times, MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE/IAN JAMES/SEAN GREENE: "Fountains still shimmer opulently at casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, but lush carpets of grass are gradually disappearing along the streets of Sin City.
Despite its reputation for excess, the Mojave Desert metropolis has been factoring climate change into its water plans for years, declaring war on thirsty lawns, patrolling the streets for water wasters and preparing for worst-case scenarios on the Colorado River, which supplies 90% of the area’s water.
Las Vegas has emerged as a leader in water conservation, and some of its initiatives have spread to other cities and states that rely on the shrinking river. Its drive to get rid of grass in particular could reshape the look of landscapes in public and private spaces throughout the Southwest."
Iconic California state park with waterfall onto beach closed by storm damage
Sacramento Bee, DON SWEENEY: "Storm damage has closed a Big Sur state park famous for its spectacular views of a waterfall onto the beach, California officials say.
Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park along Highway 1 will remain closed until further notice “due to storm damage and unsafe conditions,” state parks officials said.
Fallen trees and landslides have damaged trails in the park, including a half-mile walk to an overlook of McWay Falls, which plunges 80 feet down a cliff to the beach below."
Why desert golf courses and artificial lakes remain untouched by the Colorado River crisis
LA Times, IAN JAMES/CAROLYN COLE: "Golf courses. Ponds. Acres of grass. Cascading waterfalls. Displays of water extravagance zip past each day when Sendy Hernández Orellana Barrows drives to work.
She said these views seem like landscapes that have undergone “plastic surgery,” transforming large parts of the Coachella Valley’s desert into scenes of unnatural lushness.
From La Quinta to Palm Springs, the area’s gated communities, resorts and golf courses have long been promoted with palm-studded images of green grass, swimming pools and artificial lakes. The entrepreneurs and boosters who decades ago built the Coachella Valley’s reputation as a playground destination saw the appeal of developments awash in water, made possible by wells drawing on the aquifer and a steady stream of Colorado River water."
Our psychological armor helps us cope with mass shootings, but numbs us to the destruction
LA Times, THOMAS CURWEN: "The news of the mass shooting in Monterey Park broke early last Sunday morning and crashed into the expectations of a new day. Details were slow to develop — a gunman still at large — but soon enough the scope of the tragedy was laid bare.
Ten people were killed and at least 10 others were injured when a gunman opened fire at a ballroom dance studio….
The shooting occurred off a main thoroughfare of Monterey Park, Calif., that earlier in the day had hosted a festival celebrating the eve of the Lunar New Year, a major holiday in many Asian communities …."
Victims identified as mystery surrounds Benedict Canyon shooting that left 3 dead
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON/CORINNE PURTILL/ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN/MATTHEW ORMSETH: "When Rachel David arrived at her Benedict Canyon home early Saturday morning after a night out, she thought the rows of flashing police cars were part of a film shoot, which is fairly common in the area.
She soon found out it wasn’t a movie set. Police said three people were shot to death inside a car and four wounded outside during a gathering in the 2700 block of Ellison Drive, a quiet cul-de-sac tucked away in a secluded neighborhood north of Beverly Hills. Authorities on Sunday identified the victims as Nenah Davis, 29, of Bolingbrook, Ill.; Destiny Sims, 26, of Buckeye, Ariz.; and Iyana Hutton, 33, of Chicago.
The shooting capped a deadly week in California. A gunman killed 11 people in a mass shooting in Monterey Park on Jan. 21, and two days later, another assailant fatally shot seven people at two farms near Half Moon Bay."
Half Moon Bay mass shooting illuminates ‘deplorable’ conditions for farmworkers
BANG*Mercury News, MARISA KENDALL/SCOOTY NICKERSON/ALDO TOLEDO: "Leaking roofs, rain-soaked bedding, ankle-deep flood waters. Camp stoves for cooking and mattresses in shacks jacked up off the ground by wooden pallets.
Such were the tiny, meager dwellings some of Half Moon Bay’s mushroom farmworkers called home.
Long before mass shootings killed their friends and co-workers this week and tore their lives apart, workers at two farms in this coastal California city endured living conditions that a county official, referring to one of the farms, decried as “deplorable.” It took a tragic episode of mass violence to shine a national spotlight on the issue this week, but experts say such conditions are hardly an isolated case. Those we depend on to grow our food are living in overcrowded, unsanitary and unsafe situations all over the state."
Half Moon Bay needs more homes for farmworkers. Experts blame an ‘anti-housing constituency’
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "The 9,000-square-foot lot at 555 Kelly St. in Half Moon Bay is not much to look at. On the edge of downtown, across from a Boys & Girls Club, it features a small house and a parking lot shaded by a couple of ficus trees.
Yet, for the 1,700 farmworkers who toil in the fields and greenhouses along the San Mateo coast, the property offers a faint glimmer of hope. That’s because nonprofit developer Mercy Housing is in the early stages of a plan to build 40 units of housing there for senior farmworkers.
“So many of the seniors are still out working in the fields,” said Tim Dunn, project manager for Mercy Housing. “What we mostly hear from residents is, ‘What is taking so long? We need the housing now.’”"
Homebuyers are fleeing California. But one city in the state is defying the exodus trend
Sacramento Bee, RYAN LILLIS: "The capital region is defying the California exodus.
A net of more than 41,000 Californians searching for a home on Redfin over the last three months of 2022 looked to leave the state, the company reported this week, by far the highest number of any state in the nation. Among metropolitan areas, San Francisco and Los Angles were ranked first and second, respectively, in the number of Redfin users looking to relocate.
However, the Sacramento region remained the top destination on the site for people looking to buy a home in a new city, just as it was for much of 2022. About 5,700 more people looked to move here than leave between October and December, according to Redfin, placing the region ahead of other fast-growing areas such as Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix."
Medieval Italian bridge was pedestrian-only — until California tourist arrived, cops say
Sacramento Bee, ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT: "Italy’s Ponte Vecchio Bridge has withstood centuries of heavy use, a retreating destructive army in WWII — and tourists.
The medieval bridge was constructed in 1345 and stretches across the Arno River in Florence, according to Britannica. The pedestrian-only bridge has a lower level with shops and an upper level with walkways connecting art galleries and palaces on either side of the river."
Trump campaigns in early-voting states, says he’s ‘more committed’ than ever
AP, MEG KINNARD/HOLLY RAMER/JILL COLVIN: "Former President Trump kicked off his 2024 White House bid with stops Saturday in early-voting states New Hampshire and South Carolina, his first campaign appearances since announcing his run more than two months ago.
“Together we will complete the unfinished business of making America great again,” Trump said at an evening event in Columbia to introduce his South Carolina leadership team.
Trump and his allies hope the events in states with great influence in selecting the nominee will offer him a show of force after a sluggish start to his campaign that left many ques- tioning his commitment."
