As COVID wave wallops California, new vaccines arrive this week. Will it be turning point?
LAT's RONG-GONG LIN II: "New COVID-19 vaccines are expected to be available as soon as this week, a promising development amid California’s potent and enduring summer wave of the disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the distribution of the updated Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for the 2024-25 season on Thursday. And in preparation for winter, when COVID typically surges again, federal officials said Americans will soon be able to register to receive four free tests in the mail."
Newsom’s hands-on approach to crime in California cities gains critics in Oakland
CALMatters's FELICIA MELLO: "Gov. Gavin Newsom’s letter to Oakland city leaders last month urging them to change the city’s policy on police vehicle chases seemed out of the ordinary: a governor weighing in forcefully on a somewhat-obscure element of local policing.
But it’s part of a larger, slowly unfolding effort to exert state influence on law enforcement in Oakland and other California cities as crime concerns rise during an election year. In the past six months, Newsom has deployed California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland, then quadrupled their shifts; sent National Guard prosecutors to help the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office with drug cases, then chastised D.A. Pamela Price for not accepting the assistance quickly enough."
Trump’s foreign strategy still rests heavily on courting autocrats
LAT's TRACY WILKINSON: "When El Salvador’s autocratic president, Nayib Bukele, celebrated his inauguration this summer, guests of honor included Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson and Rep. Matt Gaetz, the firebrand Republican from Florida."
The right-wing celebrities attended the swearing-in ceremony at the Salvadoran National Palace, joined in the sumptuous black-tie dinner that followed and posed for numerous photos with Bukele, who wore a gold-embroidered black suit somewhere between a military uniform and a Nehru jacket."
Kamala Harris put abortion at the center of the election. What her California record shows
CALMatters's KRISTEN HWANG: "At a fundraiser in San Francisco last week, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke bluntly about the future of reproductive rights: California is not immune to a national abortion ban, she said.
“The stakes are high,” Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said to a cheering crowd at the Fairmont Hotel that included Gov. Gavin Newsom and other high-profile Democrats. She continued the theme this week at the Democratic National Convention, where delegates have stressed their fears that reproductive rights could be curtailed nationwide."
The Townsend Plan: The forgotten movement that shaped Social Security (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "In September 1933, in the depths of the Depression, Dr. Francis Townsend wrote a letter to his local newspaper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram. He had an idea that would end the Depression and alleviate the endemic poverty for the nation’s elderly. His plan was simple: the Federal Government should give each American 60 years and older a pension of $200 a month (equivalent to about $4700 today) – with the requirement that they HAD to spend the money within a month. The pensions would be paid for by a nationwide 2% transaction tax.
The idea caught on, spawning 8000 Townsend Clubs with a peak of two million members – 1% of the US population at the time – and roughly 10% of the nation’s senior citizens. California congressman John McGroarty introduced the first Townsend Plan bill in 1935, much to the dismay of the Roosevelt administration, which was then working to pass the Social Security Act. By the late thirties there were over 100 members of a Townsend caucus in congress, and individual states – including California – proposed Townsend-inspired initiatives of their own."
Have questions about the San Francisco election? Here's all you need to know
The Chronicle's EMILY FANCHER: "San Francisco’s November election is fast approaching with big decisions ahead for voters. On top of a consequential presidential election, voters must choose a mayor and weigh in on over a dozen ballot measures.
Six districts will also choose a supervisor. With only two incumbents in those races, the political makeup of the Board of Supervisors could shift. The school board has four seats up for grabs with one incumbent running and one former board member trying to regain her seat as the district faces a host of challenges."
Technically, California won’t delay an oil well protection law — but Newsom axes funding to enforce it
CALMatters's JULIE CART: "Gavin Newsom’s late session proposal to extend deadlines — by more than four years in one case — for oil companies to comply with a new law fizzled and died late this week.
But environmental groups didn’t have a chance to cheer a rare victory over California’s fossil fuel interests: When the governor’s administration withdrew the proposal, it also eliminated from the budget bill any funding to implement the 2022 law — a law that prohibits new oil operations within 3,200 feet of homes and schools and calls for a robust monitoring system to track leaks and air and water quality."
Rancho Palos Verdes faces ‘unprecedented new scenario’ over landslide danger
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY: "The forces behind the relentless land movement plaguing Rancho Palos Verdes appear to be more complicated, and possibly more widespread, than originally thought — forcing the city to once again rethink how it can limit some of the mounting damage.
Officials confirmed a very deep and active landslide plane — previously considered dormant — during exploratory drilling this summer, a discovery that has upended emergency efforts aimed at stabilizing the Portuguese Bend area."
They delivered 5,600 babies. They blame California rules for putting them out of business
CALMatters's KRISTEN HWANG: "Colorful collages line the hallways of Best Start Birth Center in San Diego, the squishy faces of hundreds of newborns carefully cut out and framed. A picture of executive director Karen Roslie’s son, born in 2003, hangs among the smiling, crying and squinting babies.
Thirty years ago, Roslie’s mother, Roberta Frank, opened Best Start after training to become a certified nurse midwife. Since that time, state agencies and national organizations have recognized the birth center as a model for alternative birth practices. The Canadian health ministry even visited in the 1990s as it developed plans to fund midwifery services, Roslie said."
When should police be involved at school? A California bill would let teachers make the call
CALMatters's JENNA PETERSON: "During Zuleima Baquedano’s first year as a teacher, she faced an important choice.
One of her students had difficulty controlling her emotions. One day, she had a meltdown and kicked Baquedano down."
These elite California colleges could soon hit a sticker price of $100K. Here’s how they compare
The Chronicle's NAMI SUMIDA: "When students arrive at the University of Southern California this fall, some will have paid more than $95,000 to be there. That’s the full sticker price for the 2024-25 academic year — an amount that has increased by $17,000 from just five years ago. Soon, it may even hit six figures.
USC is one of many universities with rapidly increasing costs. The Chronicle analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education and university websites and found the average attendance cost at California’s elite private universities, not accounting for financial aid, increased by 20% since 2019."
Q&A: How one Cal State professor plans to teach politics during ‘the most important election since 1860’
EdSource's AMY DIPIERRO: "David McCuan is no stranger to strong disagreements in his political science classes.
“Everything is framed as a life or death struggle and decision, in a very serious way,” said McCuan, a professor at Sonoma State University. “So what I do tell students at the beginning of the class is, ‘We're going to work hard. We're going to disagree. And everything is going to be OK, because politics is a game for adults.’”"
Column: Newsom and lawmakers bow to Google, sticking it to the news industry (COLUMN)
LAT's GEORGE SKELTON: "Gov. Gavin Newsom once talked big about forcing internet giants to pay for the products they heist and profit off. But last week he scuttled legislation to require payment for news stories.
The governor read “tax increase” in the legislation and sent word he’d veto it. And that’s politically understandable."
Maps show California ZIP codes where home insurance is hardest to find
The Chronicle's MEGAN FAN MUNCE, HARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "California’s expensive FAIR Plan has gone from an “insurer of last resort” to one of the largest insurers in the state — and new data shows exactly where it has grown.
In the 94567 ZIP code in northern Napa County, nearly 60% of homes were insured by the FAIR Plan as of June. That’s about 15 times the state average of just over 4%, and up from 25% of homes there five years ago. In the Ben Lomond area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, about 22% of the approximately 2,500 homes in the 95005 ZIP code are insured through the FAIR Plan, up from less than 2% in 2019."
Long Beach moves on homeless sites even as officials say they fear causing more harm
LAT's RUBEN VIVES: "In a small, oil-stained alley in Long Beach, under a yellow bedsheet tied to a chain-link fence, Fernando Gonzalez sat cross-legged, fighting off sleep amid the summer heat.
Until recently, the 55-year-old had been living with about a dozen homeless people at Gumbiner Park, a tiny green space nearby, across from the Museum of Latin American Art."
Burning Man now attended primarily by women, a dramatic change from previous years
The Chronicle's CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "When tens of thousands of Burning Man attendees gather in the Nevada desert this week to mingle, attend events and, of course, watch the titular burning of a wooden effigy known as the “Man,” there’s a chance that most of them will be women.
That was the case at last year’s event, when slightly more people who attended Burning Man identified as female than male — the first time for the event since at least 2013, according to a demographic survey conducted by organizers."
