California says this climate program could hike gas prices 50 cents a gallon. Here’s how
Sacramento Bee's ARI PLACHTA: "A nearly two decades-old program to slash climate-warming emissions from transportation could cause California gasoline prices to spike as much as 50 cents a gallon in the next two years.
That’s according to staff of the state’s leading air quality regulator, who provided the estimate ahead of that agency’s decision to strengthen the program created to discourage gasoline and diesel production in favor of cleaner alternatives."
Trump as the candidate of stability? That’s how many voters now see it
The Chronicle's DAVID LAUTER: "Just over a century ago, in a country reeling from a decade of war, political turmoil and a deadly pandemic, Sen. Warren G. Harding promised voters a return to “normalcy.” He won the presidency in a landslide.
Joe Biden made a similar case in 2020 — telling voters that he could return the country to normal after years of partisan strife and the trauma of COVID-19. That argument was key to his victory over then-President Trump."
Poll shows Porter, Garvey in dead heat behind Schiff in California’s U.S. Senate race
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "The latest poll in California’s U.S. Senate race shows Democratic Rep. Katie Porter and Republican former baseball star Steve Garvey neck and neck for second place behind frontrunning Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff with less than two weeks before the March 5 primary.'"
In ‘very serious trouble’: Chronicle poll shows S.F. Mayor Breed’s reelection bid is in danger
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "Mayor London Breed is at serious risk of losing her reelection bid, with a pair of challengers in close competition to unseat her and a majority of San Francisco voters holding negative views of her, a new poll commissioned by the Chronicle shows.
More than eight months out from Election Day and as about 40% of the electorate remains undecided, the poll found that former Mayor and Supervisor Mark Farrell — who officially announced his candidacy the day before polling began — would have the most support in the first round of ranked-choice voting, though his lead is within the poll’s margin of error."
EPA orders action at Chiquita Canyon landfill, says leaks pose imminent endangerment to nearby communities
LAT's TONY BRISCOE: "Federal officials have ordered operators of Chiquita Canyon landfill to take immediate steps to protect human health and the environment, saying the smoldering Castaic facility poses an imminent danger to nearby communities due to noxious odors and hazardous liquid waste.
The action taken Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency comes amid growing calls to shut down the facility."
California’s polluted communities could miss out on billions under state’s flawed system
CALMatters's ALEJANDRO LAZO: "The system that California uses to screen neighborhoods at risk of environmental harm is highly subjective and flawed, resulting in communities potentially missing out on billions of dollars in funding, according to new research.
The study, by researchers who began the project at Stanford University, investigated a tool that the California Environmental Protection Agency developed in 2013 as the nation’s “first comprehensive statewide environmental health screening tool” to identify communities disproportionately burdened by pollution."
Large swath of California’s Central Coast land to be preserved with $10.3 million grant
The Chronicle's SAM WHITING: "A large swath of ranchland just inland along California’s Central Coast has been designated for preservation through a $10.3 million grant that will protect a wildlife corridor for threatened and endangered species, the California Wildlife Conservation Board announced.
The grant, awarded by the state agency to the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, will allow the nonprofit to purchase a conservation easement for Camatta Ranch, a working cattle ranch — adding to protected lands its 27,512 acres, an area more than than three times the size of nearby San Luis Obispo."
Monster avalanche on California mountain forms 60-foot walls of snow
The Chronicle's MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "An avalanche at Mount Shasta over Presidents Day weekend moved a “mind-boggling” amount of snow, forming 60-foot-tall walls, according to the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center.
The center’s forecasters estimated the slab avalanche happened around 2 p.m. Monday, two days into a heavy storm that brought snow for four straight days, dumping upward of 2½ feet on Mount Shasta, according to the avalanche center. A backcountry skier discovered its aftermath two days later and reported it, according to Nick Meyers, director of the avalanche center."
Californians’ safety hinges on supreme court’s ballot measure decision
Capitol Weekly's BRIAN K. RICE: "As a nearly 30-year career firefighter, responding to countless man-made and natural disasters, I know better than most Californians how crucial stable funding is in our ability to remain fully staffed and prepared at all times. Californians count on our readiness to minimize injury, property damage and loss of life in a crisis. If a dangerous ballot initiative prevails in November, California’s public safety response will be in peril."
Firefighters are gravely concerned that the so-called “Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act” on the November 2024 ballot would severely constrain local government operations like fire and disaster response. We are counting on the State Supreme Court to disqualify this reckless revision of our state constitution before its corporate funders further mislead the public with the millions they have raised for a campaign."
CTA-sponsored legislation would remove one of state’s last required tests for teachers
EdSource's DIANA LAMBERT: "Newly proposed legislation sponsored by the California Teachers Association would eliminate all performance assessments teachers are required to pass, including one for literacy that it supported three years ago. The result could leave in place an unpopular written test that the literacy performance assessment was designed to replace.
Senate Bill 1263, authored by state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, would do away with the California Teaching Performance Assessment, known as the CalTPA, through which teachers demonstrate their competence via video clips of instruction and written reflections on their practice."
Teachers union halts support for LAUSD candidate, citing offensive social media activity
LAT's HOWARD BLUME: "The influential Los Angeles teachers union has suspended its campaign on behalf of school board candidate Kahllid Al-Alim amid rising criticism over his social media posts and likes that expressed antisemitism, glamorized guns and celebrated pornographic images, officials announced early Friday morning.
United Teachers Los Angeles acted after an emergency leadership meeting Thursday night. The suspension represents a blow to Al-Alim’s campaign for the District 1 Board of Education seat that represents much of South Los Angeles and southwest L.A. The teachers union has poured more than $650,000 into an independent campaign supporting Al-Alim and had organized field workers on his behalf."
A scholar’s Native American heritage was questioned. Who gets to decide her identity?
LAT's NOAH GOLDBERG: "The dilemma arose just a few days before the book was set to go to press.
Two contributing authors confronted their editor, Larry Gross, an associate professor of race and ethnic studies at University of Redlands, who had worked for months to assemble the anthology, “Native American Rhetoric.”"
Narcan at California colleges: Are students getting overdose medication?
CALMatters's LI KHAN: "When Mel McKernan moved in with her new roommate Braedon Ellis, they bonded quickly. Every night she would stay up until 1 a.m. just waiting for Ellis to get back from her job so they could watch TV together. McKernan, 19, was a second-year student at Seattle University. Ellis was 20 and working as a Domino’s delivery driver.
“She genuinely was the light of my life,” recalled McKernan, who has since transferred to UC Berkeley. “She had this beautiful purple hair. I felt like that was just an aura that she carried around with her.”
The battle brewing over California workers’ unique right to sue their bosses
LAT's SUHAUNA HUSSAIN: "California workers who believe they have been victims of wage theft or other workplace abuses have for more than two decades relied on a unique state law that lets them sue employers not only themselves but also for other workers.
Now a battle is shaping up over the law, known as the Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA. An initiative seeking to replace PAGA will appear on the ballot in California in November, the culmination of long-standing efforts by corporate and industry groups to undo the law."
Restaurants say they must cut jobs, raise prices thanks to new California law. Labor experts are wary
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "A new California law, passed after negotiations between restaurants and labor unions, will require national fast-food chains to increase their workers’ minimum wages to $20 an hour on April 1. But some restaurants are already taking steps to protect their bottom line — either by cutting workers or raising prices — including at least one chain of dine-in restaurants that is not covered by the new mandates.
Last year, Pizza Hut laid off its 1,200 delivery drivers in the state in anticipation of the law."
Traffic stops in San Francisco are about to fundamentally change — unless police block the move
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "The San Francisco Police Commission voted Wednesday to restrict officers’ ability to pull over drivers for low-level infractions, a form of traffic stop disproportionately used against people of color.
Commissioners approved the policy on a narrow 4-3 vote, despite threats of litigation from the Police Officers’ Association, whose leaders may seek to block the city from implementing it. The move could fundamentally shift law enforcement tactics in San Francisco while intensifying an already bitter debate about public safety, represented in the stark division among the seven commissioners."
