California bar suspends 1,600 attorneys for violating rules set up after Tom Girardi allegedly stole millions
LA Times, SUMMER LIN: "More than 1,600 attorneys have been suspended by the California State Bar for violating rules about client trust accounts that were set up after disgraced L.A. attorney Thomas Girardi allegedly stole millions of dollars from his clients.
The Client Trust Account Protection Program, which went into effect last year, requires attorneys to register their client trust accounts annually with the state bar, complete a yearly self-assessment of their practices managing client trust accounts and certify with the state bar that they comply and understand the requirements for safekeeping funds."
Why California is having its best wildfire season in 25 years
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "It’s nearly August, but one familiar summer trend has been very scarce this year: wildfires.
California is off to its slowest start to fire season in 25 years."
California Salmon Festival will be missing something this year: Salmon
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA: "The Yurok Tribe has held its annual Klamath Salmon Festival in Northern California for more than half a century. But this August, salmon won’t be on the menu.
Tribal leaders say that’s because the Klamath River’s forecasted fish run is one of the lowest on record."
Wildfire burns at California-Nevada border, spawning fire tornadoes, torching desert landscape
LA Times, TARYN LUNA, LOUIS SAHAGUN: "The 70,000-acre wildfire that started in California’s Mojave National Preserve before sweeping across the border into Nevada remained 0% contained Sunday night as firefighters faced dangerous “fire whirls” — a product of intense heat and turbulent winds, officials said.
Firefighters struggled Sunday to slow the blaze, which was rampaging across a Mojave Desert landscape that is a vast, delicate and vital ecosystem rich in wildlife — tortoises, foxes, badgers, bobcats, bighorn sheep — and Joshua trees, and the animals and plants are vulnerable to wildfires."
Earthquake rumbles Silicon Valley Sunday morning
BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA MIOLENE: "A 3.6 magnitude earthquake occurred southeast of San Jose on Sunday morning, according to reports from the United States Geological Survey.
The quake happened at 6:49 a.m., with its epicenter near Morgan Hill, 15½ miles southeast of San Jose. Though an earthquake of that magnitude typically does not cause any damage to property, most people near the epicenter can feel light shaking from the tremors, according to the United States Geological Survey."
Healing a shattered community: Monterey Park shooting survivors return to dance
LA Times, SUMMER LIN: "Lloyd Gock was struggling with depression.
His clothing company wasn’t doing well. Sometimes, he would think about ending his life. He went to a doctor and was prescribed medication. Nothing was working."
S.F.’s cool climate a summer escape for those sweltering elsewhere in the Bay Area
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC, ELENA KADVANY: "People seeking respite from soaring temperatures across the Bay Area are flocking to San Francisco, where the cooler climate is an increasingly enticing summertime draw.
“It’s one of the things that we promote in the summer,” said Joe D’Alessandro, chief executive of SF Travel, the city’s tourism bureau."
The emotional toll of studying reparations: A look into California’s journey
The Chronicle, JUSTIN PHILLIPS: "When Black folks testified before the state’s reparations task force about the long-term financial disadvantages they have faced because of slavery’s legacy in California, Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer of Los Angeles said he could close his eyes and “almost see that person’s enslaved ancestor standing beside them, guiding their souls.”
He called the time he spent studying reparations over the last two years a “life-changing” experience."
How a demolished community became the epicenter of the Bay Area reparations debate
BANG*Mercury News, WILL MCCARTHY: "On a recent afternoon, Priscilla Figueroa played “Solamente Una Vez,” a melancholy song about love and loss, on the piano at her home. The music echoed in the dining room, where old photo albums depicted life as it once was in Russell City, a town in which she was married decades earlier. A town where her husband grew up. A town that no longer exists.
“I used to play piano in the churches there,” said Figueroa, 80, who now lives in Hayward."
First RSV vaccines arrive next month. Here’s who should get one, and when
The Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "This fall is the first time vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, which lands thousands of infants and older adults in the hospital each year, will become available. They could provide some relief after an unusually severe RSV season last year that led to a spike in pediatric hospitalizations in the Bay Area and around the country.
RSV is typically mild for healthy children and adults, causing symptoms similar to those of the common cold. But it can cause serious respiratory infections for older adults and infants, who have the highest and second highest mortality rates from the virus, respectively."
An emerging vaccine in the arsenal to fight Hepatitis C (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, BENEDETTA PELOSI, WILLIAM M. REMAK, PATRICIA PERKINS: "The COVID-19 pandemic has played a crucial role in altering the health landscape by delaying disease management for many. While statistics are questionable because of limited hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 2.4 million Americans harbor HCV, a major cause of liver disease and cancer, with costs estimated at more than $10 billion. Nearly 50% of liver cancer cases are attributed to this blood-born RNA virus despite the availability of effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). These barriers to care and the fact that HCV is often undiagnosed since acute infection is generally asymptomatic until severe damage has already started only compound the challenge when knowing there is inadequate access to testing for people who inject drugs and other high-risk populations such as marginalized communities who have been historically underserved. The major health concern, which most undiagnosed and untreated patients have, is that they are unaware of potential transmission of the virus. If detected earlier and diagnosed in-time, we can avoid tangible social costs, which continue to burden individuals, families, communities, health providers and payers.
The Biden-Harris administration, as part of his fiscal year 2024 budget, has asked Congress to fund an $11.3 billion program to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV). The ambitious program aims to significantly expand screening, testing, treatment, prevention, and monitoring of HCV infections to save tens of billions in a few years and achieve the eradication of the disease by 2030. In an interview with HCPLive, Kris V. Kowdley, MD, director of the Liver Institute Northwest, commented “the goal might be delayed because of the opioid epidemic.” We concur with Dr. Kowdley’s implication – it would be a win-win for patients and public health if Americans were treated in a holistic and comprehensive manner with advanced prophylactic options in addition to treatment modalities."
How Bay Area public health schools were rocked by the COVID pandemic
The Chronicle, GABE CASTRO-ROOT: "Months into the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the national reckoning over the murder of George Floyd, Andrea Jacobo underwent a transformation.
Then a doctoral student at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, Jacobo began to look critically at why a disproportionate number of Black, Latino and Indigenous people were being hospitalized and dying from the coronavirus, and how to address those disparities."
When culture wars rip through California school boards, should the state intervene?
CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES: "Last week’s tussles between state officials and a pair of Southern California school boards may have died down, but they’ve thrown a spotlight on deeper tensions over who makes decisions for local schools — a rift that’s likely to grow as the culture wars escalate.
Both incidents, which garnered national attention, centered on LGBTQ issues and the state’s ability to rein in local boards that it says may have violated California’s education and civil rights laws."
His job is helping small California school districts with their unique needs
EdSource, CARA NIXON: "The Covid-19 pandemic, wildfires, floods — California’s schools have faced it all over the past few years, with rural communities, due to their remote locations, higher rates of poverty and limited access to resources, often facing the brunt of it.
Tim Taylor’s role as the executive director of the Small School Districts’ Association has been largely defined by these events. The SSDA works to address the unique needs of small school districts, most in rural areas, with an average daily attendance of 2,500. Formed in 1983, the SSDA began with 23 districts and now represents 538 — two-thirds of the state’s small districts and more than half of all districts. It also counts as members 38 of the 58 county offices of education."
Furor grows over ‘unsafe’ giant X sign atop Twitter building
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, blocked a San Francisco building inspector from accessing its newly installed rooftop sign both Friday and Saturday, according to the city’s building complaint tracker.
The city issued a notice of violation, indicating illegal work, for an “unsafe sign” and work without a permit for the large X sign at 1355 Market St., which blasted neighboring apartment buildings with light on Friday night. (The sign was dark on Saturday night, as of around 10:30 p.m.)"
Swarmed by Swifties: Bay Area businesses reap rewards with Taylor Swift’s shows
The Chronicle, ELENA KADVANY: "The Taylor Swift effect swept the South Bay over the weekend, with the pop star’s sold-out concerts at Levi’s Stadium bringing record-breaking business for some restaurants and fully booked hotels.
Swift, who hadn’t played the Bay Area since 2018, drew more than 68,500 fans both Friday and Saturday nights to the shows at the 49ers’ stadium, causing traffic jams and attracting followers a day early for tour merchandise. Secondary markets were selling tickets to see the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter for $1,000 to $6,200 in the days before the show."
Sonoma County Fair moves forward with controversial wrestling show despite calls to cancel it
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Despite calls from disability rights groups to cancel the controversial event, the Sonoma County Fair plans to host a show featuring wrestlers with dwarfism next weekend for the second year in row.
The Marin Center for Independent Living and Little People of America, along with several disability and little people organizations around the state and country, wrote in a letter to the Santa Rosa fair’s organizer that the inclusion of the New York group Midget Wrestling Warriors reinforces stereotypes and promotes “exploitation” of little people."
L.A. looks to tighten rules for single-family homes in part of Santa Monica Mountains
LA Times, DAKOTA SMITH: "The growth of megamansions in Bel-Air and other hillside L.A. neighborhoods sparked new city rules over the last decade aimed at stopping overdevelopment.
Now, the city is poised to crack down again on home-building in the hills, this time in the name of preserving wildlife habitats."
How Texas shrank its homelessness population — and what it can teach California
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "Sending someone from the street into permanent housing is the ultimate goal for Darden and legions of other outreach workers like him all over America. But it seems to happen more often in Houston, where the homeless population shrank by more than half over the past decade. Compare that to California’s major cities, where the population surged by double-digits, and in some cases triple-digits.
It’s not just Houston. Texas as a whole last year recorded a 28% drop in homelessness since 2012, while California’s homeless population grew by 43% over the same period. In Texas, 81 people are homeless for every 100,000 residents. In California, the rate is more than five times worse."
Dozens of former Trump Cabinet officials won’t publicly support his 2024 reelection bid
The Hill, LAUREN SFORZA: "Dozens of former Cabinet officials under former President Trump’s administration declined to publicly support the former president’s third bid for the White House, NBC News reported.
NBC News reached out to 44 people who previously served in Trump’s Cabinet during his four years in office to gauge whether they would support the former president during the 2024 presidential election. The outlet reported that most of the people declined to comment or ignored the requests and that only four said publicly they would support Trump for the presidency."
A bomb at a political rally in Pakistan kills at least 44 people and wounds nearly 200
AP, ANWARULLAH KHAN, RIAZ KHAN: "A suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally in a former stronghold of militants in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 44 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack that a senior leader said was meant to weaken Pakistani Islamists.
Senior police officer Nazir Khan said the workers’ convention of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party was taking place on the outskirts of Khar, the capital of Bajur district, when the explosion took place. AP video showed wounded people being carried from the scene in the chaotic aftermath of the explosion."
