California in a jam after borrowing billions to pay unemployment benefits
LAT's DON LEE: "California’s massive budget deficit, coupled with the state’s relatively high level of joblessness, has become a major barrier to reducing the billions of dollars of debt it has incurred to pay unemployment benefits.
The surge in unemployment brought on by the COVID pandemic pushed the state’s unemployment insurance trust into insolvency. And over the last year California’s joblessness has been on the upswing again, reaching 5.3% in February, the highest among all states. The March job numbers come out Friday."
Media groups urge feds to investigate after Google limits California news in search results
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "Two journalism trade organizations representing thousands of publishers this week called on California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google, after the tech giant announced Friday that it was pulling California news articles from its search platforms for some users.
Google’s actions were in response to a bill being considered by the state Legislature that would require platforms such as Google and Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay news publishers for content they link to."
Signatures roll in for tough-on-crime ballot measure to reform California’s Proposition 47
LAT's ANABEL SOSA: "A coalition backing a tough-on-crime statewide ballot initiative to toughen penalties for retail theft and some drug offenses on Thursday submitted more than 900,000 voter signatures backing the measure, a strong indicator that it may come before California voters in November.
The ballot initiative, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, seeks to change Proposition 47, which voters passed in 2014. It would toughen penalties for retail theft and require drug treatment for those charged with simple drug possession. It was largely funded by corporate retailers including Target and Home Depot."
California insurers must give discounts for wildfire mitigation. Have homeowners benefited?
Sacramento Bee's STEPHEN HOBBS: "In 2022, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced he would force companies to offer discounts to people who take specific steps to protect their homes from wildfires.
It was part of an effort, he said at the time, to “reward the hard work that California consumers do” to make their properties, families and communities safer."
Anxious California teachers with pink slips await word on jobs next school year
EdSource's DIANA LAMBERT: "Second-grade teacher Jacob Willis has worked in the San Diego Unified School District in different roles since he graduated from high school in 2016. Now, he is one of hundreds of California teachers waiting to see if they will still have a job when campuses reopen next school year.
Declining enrollment, expiring federal funds for Covid relief, plus a proposed state budget with no new money for education made school leaders in 100 of California’s 1,000 school districts nervous enough about balancing their districts’ budgets to issue layoff notices to 1,900 teachers — 16 times more than the 124 that were issued last spring, according to the California Teachers Association."
Did USC set ‘very bad precedent’ by cancelling valedictorian speech over safety threats?
LAT's JENNY JARVIE: "Five months ago, USC cited safety as a rationale for banning economics professor John Strauss, who is Jewish, from campus after student activists said they felt threatened when he approached them at a protest and said “Hamas are murderers. ... I hope they all are killed.”
“Our north star is protecting the safety of our community,” a USC spokesperson said at the time."
READ MORE -- ‘Let her speak!’ USC campus reels after valedictorian’s speech is canceled -- The Chronicle's STAFF
Google fires 28 employees following Sunnyvale, New York protests
BANG*Mercury News's STEPHANIE LAM: "Google has fired 28 employees for participating in Tuesday’s protests at company facilities, a spokesperson confirmed to the Mercury News.
Roughly 80 employees protested outside Google complexes in Sunnyvale, demanding the company drop Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract that provides computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Five were arrested by Sunnyvale police for criminal trespassing after a sit-in at one of the company’s building. Similar sit-ins and protests were held at Google office in New York."
Insurers won't renew some Bay Area homes due to risk of earthquake-induced fires
The Chronicle's MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "The magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, toppled buildings, brought down power lines and fractured water mains. The front page of the Chronicle the next day read “San Francisco in ruins.” But 80% of the property damage, according to a 1972 federal report, was from the massive fires that ripped through the city afterward.
One hundred eighteen years later, memories of the fire have come to the forefront amid the state’s ongoing insurance crisis. Two major insurers, State Farm and Safeco (which is owned by Liberty Mutual), have cited the risk of earthquake-induced fires when cutting back on policies in the Bay Area and beyond. That’s happening even though local and state officials say they’re confident they can prevent such a devastating fire from happening again."
Newsom calls for increased oversight of local homelessness efforts
LAT's TARYN LUNA: "Frustrated over the lack of progress on homelessness in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for increased oversight of cities and counties that receive state funds in an effort to hold them accountable to deliver results.
Newsom’s more aggressive stance is the latest example of the governor wanting local governments to do more to lessen homelessness, which has worsened in his tenure despite more than $20 billion in state funds spent on programs to help over the last five years."
Supreme Court tackles homelessness crisis. What that means for California
LAT's DAVID G. SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court is poised to hear its most important case ever on the homelessness crisis, and to decide whether cities in California and the West may enforce laws against camping on sidewalks or other public property.
Homelessness has often been cited as the most intractable problem for cities in the West, and it has grown worse in the last decade."
READ MORE -- California leaders take sides in monumental Supreme Court case on homelessness -- CALMatters's MARISA KENDALL
‘Definitely still a shortage’: Data shows the S.F. real estate market stuck in the mudx
The Chronicle's CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "The Bay Area housing market is heating back up — but not by much, with the mortgage rate drops that many home buyers were awaiting showing little sign of materializing anytime soon.
More homes in the San Francisco metropolitan area are selling this year compared to early 2023, and properties are entering the market slightly faster. But those numbers are still far lower than they were prior in 2021 and 2022, and behind pre-pandemic levels."
S.F. DA Jenkins has a message for anyone delayed during Golden Gate Bridge protest
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins urged anyone delayed by protests that shut down the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday to file a report to authorities because they may be victims of false imprisonment and entitled to restitution.
The bridge was closed for several hours after demonstrators chained themselves to parked cars to prevent vehicles from passing, part of coordinated regional protests to oppose U.S. support for Israel that also temporarily blocked Interstate 880 in both directions."
S.F. plans to dramatically redesign streets at site of deadly West Portal crash
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "When Supervisor Myrna Melgar and other San Francisco leaders took a walking tour last month of the maze of streets near the West Portal Muni station, they had no inkling that a horrific crash would occur there days later.
City planners, residents and officials — including Melgar — had long scrutinized the three-way crossing at Ulloa Street and West Portal Avenue, where drivers waiting to make turns create bottlenecks for Muni trains, and pedestrians have to stay on high alert in the crosswalk."s
