Title 42 immigration policy expires, bringing an end to pandemic-era restrictions at border
LA Times, ANDREA CASTILLO, PATRICK J. MCDONNELL, HAMED ALEAZIZ, KATE MORRISSEY: "U.S. immigration policy Title 42 expired Thursday night, marking the end of restrictions implemented by the Trump administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed the government to prevent asylum seekers from entering the country.
In the hours leading up to Title 42’s termination, migrants continued to gather near ports of entry on the southern border with Mexico, hoping for a new opportunity to enter the U.S. as confusion over the imminent policy changes and their impact persisted.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas issued a warning Thursday that “starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum.” He noted that 24,000 Border Patrol agents and officers had been deployed to work alongside “thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws.”"
What Title 42’s end means for California
CALMatters, LYNN LA, WENDY FRY: "A pandemic-era public health policy known as Title 42, used to turn away asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border, is coming to an end just before 9 p.m. tonight, prompting concerns about unprecedented migration flows.
Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants have been waiting outside between border walls in San Ysidro for days, sometimes with nothing more to eat all day than a single granola bar handed out by Border Patrol officers.
Federal, state and local officials have had more than two years to prepare for this moment. But officials running migrant shelters on both sides of the border say they have very little information about how to handle the anticipated increase in asylum seekers trying to cross from Mexico into California and other states."
Feinstein breaks stalemate over three judges in return to Judiciary Committee
The Chronicle, SHIRA STEIN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein returned to the Judiciary Committee Thursday to break the stalemate on three judicial nominees, an issue at the heart of calls for her to return to the Senate or resign.
Feinstein’s absence had left the Senate Judiciary Committee evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, preventing more liberal judicial nominees from moving forward. Her return allowed three nominees whose committee votes had been delayed for at least three hearings to move forward to the full Senate — Charnelle Bjelkengren, nominee for the Eastern District of Washington; Marian Gaston, nominee for the Southern District of California; and S. Kato Crews, nominee for the District of Colorado. One nominee, Bejelkengren, had been unable to get a committee vote since Feb. 16.
Feinstein, who returned to the Senate Wednesday after a nearly three-month absence, was wheeled into the Senate Judiciary Committee over an hour late to a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle and met by the flock of reporters and photographers that have closely followed her return."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is back at work but needs a lot of helping hands
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES, NOAH BIERMAN: "An hour into a Senate Judiciary hearing on Thursday, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was wheeled into the chamber by a staff member. She grabbed his arm tightly to steady herself as she rose to her feet and received a standing ovation after she made the short walk to her seat.
The San Francisco Democrat’s first day back at the Judiciary Committee after an extended absence recuperating from shingles was short. She said little beyond voting on three nominated district court judges who lacked Republican support and thus required backing from every Democrat to advance to the full Senate.
“I’m glad to welcome our colleague, Sen. Feinstein, back to our committee,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, before adding that she was abetting “several nominees who are so extreme and so unqualified that they couldn’t have a prayer of getting a single Republican vote on this committee.”"
Will CA force Big Tech to pay news organizations for co-opting content?
Capitol Weekly, BRIAN JOSEPH: "With news organizations nationwide struggling to stay afloat, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D) has proposed legislation to force Big Tech companies to compensate newspapers and other news outlets for the content they aggregate and use to attract advertising dollars.
Assembly Bill 886, known as the California Journalism Preservation Act, would require large, digital platforms like Facebook and Google to enter into binding arbitration with digital journalism providers to determine an appropriate percentage of the platforms’ advertising revenue, which would be paid to the news organizations for using their content.
The idea is to make Big Tech companies pay journalism organizations for the content they repurpose to help generate advertising revenue – a dynamic that has been undercutting the bottom lines of news outlets for years, leading, at least in part, to numerous newspapers and other news organizations closing across the nation."
77 tons less trash made it into the ocean thanks to this experimental L.A. County device
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "After a historic winter hit California with dozens of atmospheric rivers, the last line of defense protecting the Pacific from much of L.A.’s trash held strong.
In the first storm season of a two-year pilot project, Ballona Creek Trash Interceptor 007 stopped nearly 155,000 pounds of garbage from flowing out to the ocean.
“Its performance has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Boyan Slat, founder and chief executive of the The Ocean Cleanup. The Dutch nonprofit partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works to introduce the interceptor in October."
Newsom restores floodplain funds, adds $290 million to flood control budget
CALMatters, ALASTAIR BLAND: "Four months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom yanked $40 million in funding to restore San Joaquin Valley floodplains from his proposed budget, angering legislators from both parties and conservationists. Today, he gave all of the money back as part of a $290-million package to increase flood protection funding statewide.
The funding comes in addition to $202 million already included in Newsom’s 2023-24 budget proposal in January. That makes a total of $452 million in investments that Newsom is proposing to protect Californians from flooding in the wake of winter storms that inundated towns in the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast.
“California is facing unprecedented weather whiplash — we just experienced the driest three years on record, and now we’re dealing with historic flooding,” Newsom said in a written statement today. “Our investments must match this reality of climate-driven extremes. We’re committing even more resources to support communities up and down the state as they continue responding to the impacts of this year’s storms.”"
El Niño is coming: What it means for California weather
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "El Niño conditions — the warming of ocean waters off South America that can alter weather across the globe, including California’s summer temperatures and the amount of rain it might receive next winter — are emerging in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 4 years.
While El Niños do not automatically guarantee wet weather for California, historically, the stronger they are, the more likely it is that the state will have a rainy winter season. And after the dramatic series of storms this past winter that ended the drought and filled nearly empty reservoirs, another one back-to-back could increase flood risks.
“The climate models are in strong agreement that there will be an El Niño,” said Michelle L’Heureux, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who led a new report out Thursday. “At this point it’s looking likely.”"
Monsoon-like weather? How a rare atmospheric setup will impact California
The Chronicle, GERRY DIAZ: "A rare, summerlike weather pattern is shaping up for the Western United States next week, with a hot high-pressure system building to the north of the Bay Area and a low-pressure system to its east.
Together, these systems will likely create an atmospheric conveyor belt that could reel in rounds of unstable air and moisture toward California. Depending on how much instability makes it north of Los Angeles, parts of the Bay Area could experience monsoon-like thunderstorms by next week, which usually don’t arrive in Northern California until mid-June.
A low-pressure system will develop over New Mexico and Texas this weekend, spinning against the usual atmospheric current of west-to-east flow and settling over the Four Corners region. Its counterclockwise flow has a good chance of synchronizing with the clockwise flow of a strong high-pressure system in the Pacific Northwest, carving out a pathway for moisture to reach California."
California’s revived Tulare Lake threatens to flood this city. Will help arrive too late?
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "For the past two months, floodwaters have been lapping at the edges of a city in the San Joaquin Valley and its prison complex, and efforts to finance a levee upgrade had hit a wall – until this week.
On Thursday, after weeks of pleas for money, Gov. Gavin Newsom committed to help pay the roughly $17 to $21 million cost of raising the city of Corcoran’s nearly 15-mile levee.
The funding couldn’t come soon enough. The giant snowpack in the Sierra Nevada continues to melt, and a historical lake that reappeared with the wet weather and threatens to flood Corcoran is expected to grow with the mountain runoff."
5.5 quake centered in Plumas County shakes up NorCal
The Chronicle, JOEL UMANZOR: "A 5.5 magnitude earthquake, with an epicenter in Plumas County, shook up Northern California on Thursday afternoon -- knocking items off shelves and rattling nerves.
The quake hit at 4:19 p.m. and was followed by a swarm of smaller quakes, which several registering above 2.5 and one reaching 3.8. The quake was centered in Lake Amador, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It was wild,” said Darren Jilbert, a worker at Lake Almador Ace Hardware, who added that the shaking lasted about 10 seconds. “The building started shaking – stuff started falling off the shelves. It was crazy cool to feel it but it probably wouldn’t have been that cool if stuff had broken.”"
Gray whale that spent record-breaking 75 days in San Francisco Bay washes ashore dead
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "The whale that broke a record for the longest-known time in the San Francisco Bay was identified Thursday as one of two gray whales that washed up dead at Point Reyes National Seashore over the weekend.
Scientists said a 39-foot adult male gray whale that they had been tracking in San Francisco Bay for over 75 days likely died of injuries from two separate ship strikes as well as from starvation. The cause of death for the second whale, a 37-foot male that appeared to be in good condition, is still unknown.
“To respond to two known gray whales on consecutive days, including one that our team has been actively monitoring for months in San Francisco Bay, is challenging and concerning to say the least,” Dr. Pádraig Duignan, director of pathology at the Marine Mammal Center, said in a press release. The Sausalito marine mammal hospital worked with the California Academy of Sciences and the National Park Service to determine the cause of death."
University of California’s undocumented students push for right to campus jobs
EdSource, MICHAEL BURKE: "Following months of urging by undocumented students, the University of California next week will consider a proposal to allow the hiring of those students for jobs across the 10-campus university system.
If the UC board of regents takes that step, UC would become the first known institution to argue that a federal statute’s ban on the hiring of undocumented persons does not apply to states. The issue could result in a court challenge, experts said.
If the proposal is adopted, the students say it would greatly benefit undocumented immigrant students who currently can’t work on-campus jobs because they don’t have legal status. Not only does that make it more difficult to afford college, but those students also miss out on job opportunities that are critical to their learning experiences, such as research positions and internships."
Hundreds more tech, biotech layoffs hammer Bay Area: Lyft, Dropbox, Sangamo
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "Hundreds more Bay Area job cuts have jolted tech and biotech workers in the region, official state filings show — staffing reductions that have shoved total tech industry layoffs beyond a forbidding new milestone.
Lyft, Dropbox and Sangamo Therapeutics have revealed plans to chop a combined 622 jobs in the Bay Area.
Here are the details of the locations for the layoffs the three companies have revealed in new filings with the state Employment Development Department (EDD):"
Remains of missing tech CEO found on abandoned property in Santa Monica
LA Times, SUMMER LIN: "Human remains found last month on an abandoned property in Santa Monica have been identified as the body of a tech founder and chief executive who was missing for a year and a half, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said.
Beau Mann, 39, was last seen Nov. 30, 2021, at a convenience store in the 11000 block of Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
He had gotten into an Uber outside a 7-Eleven store near the L.A. offices of Sober Grid, a community platform he founded for people in addiction recovery, the company said Monday in a statement. He texted 911 from inside the Uber and was dropped off in Santa Monica, according to Sober Grid."
UC Berkeley loses developer for homeless housing at People’s Park
The Chronicle, SARAH RAVANI: "The property builder for the homeless housing portion of UC Berkeley’s planned development of People’s Park has pulled out of the project citing recent court delays.
Berkeley-based nonprofit developer Resources for Community Development said in a statement Thursday that it would quit the project after a California appeals court ruled in February that the university’s plan failed to adequately address environmental concerns.
RCD was supposed to build units available for unhoused people as part of the university’s controversial plan to develop the park site for student dormitories."
D.A. moves to dismiss charges against S.F. officer in 2019 shooting
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has asked a judge to dismiss charges against a police officer accused of unlawfully shooting and wounding a man in the Mission District four years ago, one of several high-profile law enforcement prosecutions brought by Jenkins’ predecessor, Chesa Boudin.
In a motion filed Thursday afternoon, Jenkins said she could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting was not a justifiable act of self-defense. A San Francisco Superior Court judge is expected to rule on Jenkins’ dismissal request next week.
“That is the lens through which I looked at this case: Did we believe the officer was acting in self-defense,” the district attorney said in an interview. “We know the defense is going to come in arguing self-defense, and did we have the evidence to overcome that?” In this instance, she said, the answer was clearly no."
