Big shift in weather is headed to California. Here’s a timeline for upcoming rain and snow
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "May is set to start off a lot like February, as chances for rain and snow return to parts of the state — along with the risk for isolated thunderstorms. Metaphorically speaking, winter doesn’t seem to be done with California, as weather models hint at more low-pressure systems on the horizon.
The outlook for the first half of the month is riddled with unsettled, winter-like conditions, though weather models also indicate a return of another setup: the May Gray. Long-range weather models are trending toward a pattern where the next few weeks will feel a lot like a hodgepodge of winter weather mixed with the more typical ebb and flow of marine fog, depending on where you are in the state."
Projected losses from a major California earthquake soar. What’s behind seismic inflation?
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II: "The expected annual cost from earthquake damage for California is climbing sharply amid an increase in property values and better understanding of how soft soils could result in greater damage during shaking.
California is projected to lose an average of $9.6 billion a year from earthquake damage, the new estimates show. That’s a 157% increase from the last estimate, in 2017, when the price tag was $3.7 billion a year, according to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“In any given year a big earthquake strikes ... you can easily anticipate a $100-billion loss,” USGS research structural engineer Kishor Jaiswal, the principal investigator for the report, told The Times."
Yosemite Valley to reopen as ‘Big Melt’ flood concerns persist across California
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "Even as the spring heat wave that’s thawed California’s record Sierra Nevada snowpack comes to a close, communities across the Central Valley and the state’s northeastern mountains are continuing to prepare for potentially dangerous flooding.
Already, near-overflowing rivers triggered the closure of much of Yosemite National Park on Friday. The Yosemite Valley, home to many of the famous cliffs and waterfalls in the park, was expected to reopen for day-use only on Sunday morning before a full opening Monday morning, when a flood warning for the area was set to expire.
Indefinite flood warnings were also in effect for areas near rushing rivers in parts of Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, where some 60,000 acres of farmland are under about 3 feet of water brought by last month’s powerful atmospheric river storms."
How will court’s rebuke of Berkeley’s natural-gas ban affect the national movement it began?
BANG*Mercury News, KATIE LAUER: "When Berkeley became the first U.S. city to ban construction of new natural gas lines in 2019, it pioneered an approach to reducing carbon emissions and pollutants that has since spread around the Bay Area and across the country.
Now Berkeley has become a pioneer of a different sort, as an April appellate court ruling against the city’s ban is imperiling similar restrictions on natural gas and challenging the growing national electrification movement.
While Berkeley’s ordinance winds its way through the courts, laws like it are stuck in legal crosshairs — including municipal code amendments in Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco. Cities intent on restricting the use of natural gas may need to find a different approach, said Amy Turner, a senior fellow at the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School."
California phases out diesel trucks: What happens next?
CALMatters, NADIA LOPEZ: "In a move that will transform California’s economy and end diesel’s decades-long dominance in goods movement, the Air Resources Board today unanimously approved an ambitious, contentious mandate to shift big rigs and other trucks to zero-emissions.
California’s newest effort to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles is arguably one of the most meaningful steps the state has ever taken to clean up its severe smog and toxic diesel exhaust, reduce greenhouse gases and wean itself off fossil fuels.
The mandate is the first in the world to ban new diesel trucks and require a switch to zero-emission big rigs, garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles."
SMUD is paying some residents who lost power during California winter storms. Do you qualify?
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers who lost power during California’s winter storms have until June to submit a claim for food spoilage or hotel bills.
January’s extreme weather came in waves, one storm more aggressive than the other, whipping out power to thousands of people at a time.
You could claim up to $500 for food loss if your power was shut off for 12 hours or more and you have proof of economic loss, said SMUD spokeswoman Lindsay VanLaningham. Those who moved to a hotel to wait out a more than 48-hour power outage could be compensated $150 per day for lodging expenses."
Lawmakers must avoid band aid approach to stemming alcohol abuse (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, ROBB LAYNE: "As California policy makers, community leaders and advocates work to address the state’s growing problem of addiction, it is critical that alcohol use disorder, also known as alcoholism, is taken under equal consideration as opioid and methamphetamine abuse. Left unchecked, alcohol use disorder – the most common type of substance abuse in the U.S. – will continue to devastate families and communities, incurring huge humanitarian and financial costs to our state.
A medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse impacts, the disease is a public health emergency that continues to pose a significant threat to all Californians. AUD causes more than 15,000 deaths in the state each year, and this figure growing. Research reveals that during the Covid pandemic, alcohol use disorder-related deaths increased by 25 percent in 2020 and by 22 percent in 2021. And while the Covid state of emergency has been lifted, increased alcohol use related to the pandemic lingers, impacting the physical and mental health of millions."
Is this the most underrated park in S.F.? It survived a century of stupidity to get here
The Chronicle, PETER HARTLAUB: "It was 1968, and Bayview Park was enduring its latest near-death experience.
Chronicle Sports Editor Art Rosenbaum led a charge to remove the entirety of the hill looming above Candlestick Park, claiming the move would quell ballpark winds and make it easier for Willie Mays to catch fly balls. And besides — who in the world would miss it?
“The city’s part of Bayview Hill is listed as a park, but in fact it is a lonely top where only explorers and neckers and car thieves go,” legendary editor and columnist Rosenbaum wrote. “Police recently surprised a gang stripping down six stolen Chevies.”"
Q&A with Dr. Carolina Reyes, wife of health secretary Xavier Becerra, on disparities in health care
KFF Health News, SAMANTHA YOUNG: "Dr. Carolina Reyes, a Harvard-trained physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, got into medicine to help women obtain health care, especially underserved or marginalized people who face systemic racism. She’s seen progress, albeit slow, over three decades, yet the number of maternal deaths each year continues to rise.
Luckily, she’s got the ear of President Joe Biden’s health secretary.
Reyes, 64, is married to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is championing the administration’s initiative to require all states to provide Medicaid coverage to mothers for a year after giving birth. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing a 40% increase in U.S. maternal deaths from 2020 to 2021. The mortality rate among Black women was 2.6 times that of white women, no matter their economic status."
Long COVID in California: ‘A pandemic of loneliness and social isolation and rejection’
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "A bout with COVID-19 two years ago left Mindy Lym with such severe sensitivities to light and sound that she and her partner left their San Francisco home and moved to rural Washington, where there were fewer triggers. In the past two months, she has paid more than $7,500 out-of-pocket for medical care. Although she can afford it, she knows few people can do the same.
Stephen Mintz gets just $60 per week from disability, which he receives after the chronic fatigue from COVID-19 kept him from regular work. He spent all of his savings and borrowed money from family. Without more relief payments from the state, he doesn’t know how he’ll pay his bills.
COVID-19 sent Janine Loftis to the hospital in 2020. She relies on a caretaker after lingering symptoms like brain fog, pain and fatigue keep her from cooking or cleaning. But when Loftis’ caretaker took a month-long leave of absence, shortages ravaging the health care workforce made it impossible to find a replacement."
Transgender women face prostate cancer risk, says first-of-its-kind study from UCSF
The Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "Transgender women have a small but meaningful risk of prostate cancer, but traditional screening tools may not work well for them, especially if they’re taking estrogen for gender-affirming care, according to a national study led by UCSF researchers.
The research, published Saturday in the journal JAMA, is the first in the U.S. to look at prostate cancer in transgender women. It underscores the need to improve overall health care for transgender people, who are underrepresented in medical research and who experience worse outcomes than cisgender patients for all kinds of health issues.
“There’s a misperception, both by patients and clinicians, that because these are women — they identify as women, they look like women — you don’t necessarily think you should check for prostate cancer,” said Dr. Stephen Freedland, a urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and an author of the paper. The study was a collaboration between UCSF and Cedars-Sinai, using records from Veterans Affairs."
As fentanyl deaths climb, bill would require drug education in schools
EdSource, CAROLYN JONES: "Zach Didier, a senior at Rocklin High School, was a straight-A student, athlete, star of his school musical and Eagle Scout. Two nights after Christmas 2020, he took what he thought was a Percoset that he bought through Snapchat, an out-of-character move for a student with no history of drug use.
The pill contained the opioid fentanyl, and by the time Zach’s father found him the next morning, the 17-year-old was dead.
Now Zach’s parents are among those pushing for legislation requiring drug education and naloxone in California’s public schools, in order to stem the soaring number of young people dying of fentanyl overdoses."
Regulators seize First Republic Bank, sell to JPMorgan Chase
AP, KEN SWEET: "Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank and sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a bid to head off further banking turmoil in the U.S.
San Francisco-based First Republic is the third midsize bank to fail in two months. It has struggled since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and investors and depositors had grown increasingly worried it might not survive because of its high amount of uninsured deposits and exposure to low interest rate loans.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said early Monday that First Republic Bank’s 84 branches in eight states will reopen Monday as branches of JPMorgan Chase Bank."
Column: A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this?
LA Times, BILL SHAIKIN: "It’s almost time for Dodger baseball. You’re rolling west along Sunset Boulevard, visions of Mookie Betts and Clayton Kershaw and Julio Urías happily dancing through your mind.
You’re one block from turning onto Vin Scully Avenue and into Dodger Stadium when you notice a black billboard, looming ominously above an auto repair shop called Fernando’s Tires. The billboard features this name, in bright white letters: Frank McCourt.
That guy?"
Sheriff’s Department investigates memo alleging captain wouldn’t promote ‘angry Black’ sergeant
LA Times, KERI BLAKINGER: "The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has launched an investigation into a memo claiming that the captain overseeing the troubled East L.A. station allegedly schemed to give valued detective bureau positions to Latinos to avoid promoting an “angry Black” sergeant.
According to several pages of the January memo reviewed by The Times, Capt. Pilar Chavez also said the Black sergeant in question — Sgt. Reginald Hoffman — had “nothing coming to him” at the station ever since he’d testified to an oversight committee about the existence of deputy gangs within the department.
The allegations echo concerns Hoffman raised months earlier when he sued the county, saying that for years he’d been denied promotions and subjected to racial discrimination and whistle-blower retaliation by both Latino gang members and the leaders who tolerate them at the East L.A. station."
Far from Russia, a pro-Moscow sliver of land tries to cling to its identity — and keep war at bay
The Chronicle, NABIH BULOS: "The hammer-and-sickle still flutters proudly over the park-lined thoroughfares in this capital of a country that doesn’t exist. The top of City Hall bears the Soviet star. And the street names — Strada Karl Marx, Strada Yuri Gagarin — hark back to bygone days of Soviet glory.
When you visit Transnistria, the unrecognized breakaway republic carved out of a strip of land between Ukraine and Moldova, the first impression is of a Soviet Union in the smartphone era, a place where couples take selfies near giant Lenin statues, and paeans to Communist leaders hang near billboards advertising “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”
It’s one of the reasons why Transnistria, often portrayed as little more than a Soviet time capsule, has become a popular destination among travel bloggers and adventure tourists. But beneath the Communist kitsch lies a real affinity with Russia among the region’s 300,000 or so people, which up to now has been to their advantage."
Ernst slams Biden administration plan to electrify military fleet: ‘You don’t fight a war that way’
The Hill, JULIA SHAPERO: "Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) slammed the Biden administration on Sunday over its push to electrify the U.S. military fleet.
"You don't fight a war that way," Ernst told radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM's "Cats Roundtable."
"This administration has taken it to the extremes with this climate agenda," she continued. "We are not focusing on the lethality of our American military. Instead, they are focusing on green energy and climate change. This is not how we project power around the world.""
Sanders warns lawmakers not to ‘go to war on the working class’ during debt negotiations
The Hill, JULIA MUELLER: "
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said he's open to some spending cuts as Congress works out how to deal with the debt ceiling and the threat of default, but knocked House Republicans' recent proposal and warned lawmakers not to "go to war against the working class."
"I think we can move toward cutting military spending. We're now spending 10 times more than ... any other country on Earth, massive cost overruns in the Pentagon. I'm certainly open to demanding that the largest corporations in this country and the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes," Sanders said on CNN's "State of the Union," when asked whether he'd consider other spending cuts as part of an ultimate deal.
"And I'm willing to look at any other proposals. There's a lot of waste within government. Let's go after it. But don't go to war against the working class of this country, lower-income people. Don't tell kids that they can't afford to go to college or cut back on public education in America. We have already too much inequality in America. Let's not make it worse," he added."
