‘Evil,’ ‘delusional,’ ‘Benedict Arnold’: In Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield, Matt Gaetz draws ire
LA Times, LAURA J. NELSON: "Minutes before the vote that cost California’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy his job as speaker of the House, three Republican voters lunching in his hometown cursed the scorched-earth politics in Washington.
The conservative women said McCarthy had been left with two bad choices in the days before his ouster: Risk a revolt from the hard right and cut a deal with Democrats to pass a funding bill, or acquiesce to the hard-liners and shut down the federal government, wrecking the economy."
Nancy Pelosi: What I’ll always remember about Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco’s Forever Mayor
The Chronicle, NANCY PELOSI: "On Dianne Feinstein’s final flight home to San Francisco this past weekend, her daughter, Katherine, and I reminisced about a personal visit the late senator once made to her Catholic high school, the Convent of the Sacred Heart. At the event, Dianne spoke about how, as a Jewish student, she felt welcomed and respected by the community there, despite their different faiths. On that memorable day, she was beautiful, articulate, dignified and strong.
Vintage Dianne Feinstein: the iconic, indomitable leader with whom I had the privilege of serving and sharing a beautiful friendship."
‘She was unshakable’: Sen. Dianne Feinstein lies in state at San Francisco City Hall
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "Under the gilded dome of San Francisco City Hall, Bay Area residents paid their respects Wednesday to Dianne Feinstein, the longest-tenured female U.S. Senator and a towering figure in the city’s politics, having served as mayor through one of its most turbulent decades.
Feinstein, who died last week at the age of 90, lay in state as hundreds of mourners lined up throughout the day to view the closed casket draped in an American flag. A public funeral service is set for Thursday at City Hall and is expected to be attended by Feinstein’s close friend and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer."
California workers will get more paid sick days
CALMatters, LYNN LA: "Starting next year, workers in California will be entitled to at least five days of paid sick leave — up from the current three days.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature is a win for labor groups, for whom the bill authored by Sen. Lena Gonzalez was a top priority. But it falls short of the seven days in the original bill."
Making water conservation a ‘California way of life’: Controversial state rules could cost $13 billion
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "Saying the targets to cut water use in cities and towns will be costly and difficult to achieve, water agencies throughout California have raised concerns about an ambitious state proposal that would require more water conservation statewide beginning in 2025.
The State Water Resources Control Board’s proposed regulations would mandate conservation measures by more than 400 cities and water agencies that serve about 95% of Californians. The measure could wave about 413,000 acre-feet a year by 2030, enough to serve about 1.2 million households per year."
The largest dam removal in history stirs hopes of restoring California tribes’ way of life
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "At first, the dead floated downstream a few at a time. Then they came by the hundreds, and then the thousands.
For mile after mile, the Klamath River was filled with tens of thousands of dead salmon. As Annelia Hillman paddled a canoe with a friend one September day 21 years ago, her heart sank when she saw the carcasses floating past. She and other members of the Yurok Tribe say they will never forget the stench of death."
Kaiser Permanente workers are on strike. Here’s what makes it such a unique health care company
CNN: "On Wednesday, thousands of unionized health care employees walked off the job after failed contract negotiations with their employer, Kaiser Permanente, a company whose business model is distinctive, compared to most health care providers in the United States.
Here’s what you should know about the medical system."
UC Davis, Musk fight release of ‘particularly gruesome’ monkey research photos, report says
Sacramento Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "UC Davis is in possession of hundreds of photos of monkey test subjects — graphic images of at least a dozen macaques that were “poisoned, maimed, and ultimately killed” — but neither the university nor billionaire Elon Musk wants the public to see them, according to an investigative report from tech news outlet Wired that published Wednesday.
The macaques, which came from UC Davis’ Primate Center, were part of a research program in partnership with Musk’s company Neuralink."
School board opponents in Orange Unified turn in signatures for recall election
EdSource, JOHN FESTERWALD: "Organizers seeking the ouster of two conservative members of the Orange Unified school board announced last week they had collected more than enough signatures to put the recall to a vote in the next several months.
The effort seeks the recall of board President Rick Ledesma and board member Madison Klovstad Miner, who was elected last November after defeating 22-year incumbent Kathryn A. Moffat by 0.2% — 221 votes out of 61,845 votes cast. Her election was pivotal in establishing a four-member conservative majority that had run on a uniform platform of parental rights. Ledesma and Miner had the financial backing of pro-conservative political action committees, including the Lincoln Club of Orange County, and the support of Jack Hibbs, an influential politically active pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, an evangelical megachurch."
LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "LGBTQ+ students are the latest target in a campaign to promote conservative policies in California schools under the banner of parental rights. Over the last two months, seven school boards have passed policies that require school district staff to inform parents if their children are transgender.
Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County, Murrieta Valley Unified and Temecula Valley Unified in Riverside County, Orange Unified in Orange County, Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County, and Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in Placer County all require that teachers and other school staff inform parents, generally within three days, if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun, or to take part in a program, or to use a facility associated with a gender other than the one they had at birth."
Mass resignation at CapRadio board of directors in wake of scathing financial audit
Sacramento Bee, SAM STANTON: "A week after a scathing audit of Capital Public Radio’s finances was released, 13 members of its board of directors resigned Wednesday night over what they said was a failure by Sacramento State leadership to “engage with the board in good faith.” I
n a brief resignation letter addressed to Sac State President Luke Wood, the board members — including prominent business leaders and lawyers — said they were leaving because of disagreements over how to address CapRadio’s financial woes."
San Francisco asks U.S. Supreme Court to immediately overturn homelessness ruling
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Citing San Francisco’s frustration with court orders restricting its authority to remove homeless encampments from the streets, the city and Mayor London Breed are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately overturn an appellate ruling requiring local governments to provide shelter for their entire unhoused population before clearing the encampments.
“San Francisco’s compassionate efforts to address the homelessness crisis have been severely hamstrung” by the September 2022 decision of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, City Attorney David Chiu’s office said in a filing on behalf of the city and Breed."
West Virginia has the nation’s worst drug problem, but much less homelessness than L.A.
LA Times, NOAH BIERMAN: "Signs advertising drug rehab or access to emergency overdose kits are easy to spot here. It’s harder to find the downtown homeless encampment, a discrete cluster of three tents along the Ohio River, squeezed by a bridge and a construction site.
To people who believe drug addiction is to blame for the mushrooming tent cities in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, Ore., West Virginia presents a paradox. It leads the nation in overdose deaths per capita — by a wide margin. But this state best known for coal mines and the leafy Appalachian Mountains has one of the country’s lowest rates of homelessness."
These affordable S.F. apartments were threatened, then a city attorney stepped in
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "A South of Market landlord’s efforts to convert 76 affordable apartments to market-rate units has been rejected by an arbitrator. It’s a victory for City Attorney David Chiu, who had argued that the property owner had a legal obligation to preserve the housing for low- and moderate-income households.
The property owner, Rincon Towers LLC, had argued that an 1985 agreement between the developer and the now-defunct redevelopment agency — which required that 76 apartments in the 320-unit Rincon Center complex be affordable — had expired in 2021 following the sunsetting of the Rincon Point-South Beach Redevelopment Plan."
Berkeley’s patchwork policies show how state housing goals complicate ADU rules
BANG*Mercury News, KATIE LAUER: "On paper, it’s never been easier to get plans for accessory dwelling units approved in California.
But state lawmakers’ ongoing effort to streamline development of ADUs, which include in-law units and granny flats, frequently butts up against local concerns, especially in places like Berkeley where housing is in short supply, as are plots of land suitable for safely building these minuscule homes."
Recent controversies test LAPD Chief Michel Moore in the final years of his tenure
LA Times, LIBOR JANY: "While Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore grappled with the LAPD’s latest gang scandal last week, another crisis was brewing on the 10th floor of department headquarters.
Just days before, an officer had accused Assistant Chief Al Labrada of stalking her using an Apple AirTag — the same style of GPS tracker department sources say Mission Division gang officers used for surveillance of suspects without the required search warrants. Labrada has since been put on administrative leave, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation."
One of BART’s most ambitious rail projects is getting a new price tag and delivery date
The Chronicle, RICARDO CANO: "BART’s long-awaited extension to downtown San Jose is now estimated to cost as much as $12.2 billion and take until 2036 to complete — a sticker price that reflects an almost 80% increase since 2020.
It’s not uncommon for transit capital projects in the Bay Area to face delays and run over budget, and it’s not the first time costs have gone up for the ambitious rail project, one of the nation’s most expensive."
Baby spiders are falling from the sky in white clumps around the Bay Area
The Chronicle, MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "Baby spiders are falling from the sky, sprinkling parts of the Bay Area with early Halloween decorations.
On social media, residents reported seeing gobs of white spider webs floating and sticking to surfaces in San Francisco, San Jose, Danville, Gilroy and more."
