California Policy & Politics Sunday Morning
Sonoma County could close indoor dining, bars, wine tasting as soon as Monday -- Sonoma County restaurants, wineries and bars could be forced to shut down indoor service if the county’s coronavirus numbers fail to improve by Monday, officials said. Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Alameda County regresses, will no longer allow outdoor dining -- Outdoor dining will not be allowed after all in Alameda County after county health officials were informed that state regulators were not relaxing the dining rules for so-called “non-variance counties.” Steve Rubenstein and Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Multiple Alameda County cities will support outdoor dining in spite of new state guidance -- Multiple cities in Alameda County will continue to close streets to allow for expanded outdoor dining despite Alameda County's announcement that a new state guidance requires the county to limit restaurants to takeout and delivery. Eric Ting in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Contra Costa County bans indoor religious services after positive test rate tops 8% -- After a spike in the rate of positive coronavirus tests, Contra Costa County will ban indoor worship services and tighten face mask rules, officials said Saturday. Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
As rate of positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rise, Contra Costa bans indoor worship services, tightens mask rules -- Effective 11:59 p.m. Sunday, indoor worship services will be temporarily banned, officials from Contra Costa Health Services announced Saturday afternoon. Outdoor worship services or cultural ceremonies will continue to be allowed, along with social protests, with no limit on size, as long as people keep distance between them and wear face masks. Annie Sciacca in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/12/20
Frustration grows with the Bay Area’s patchwork of quickly changing coronavirus rules -- The Bay Area’s coronavirus response, once a model of regional coordination whose aggressiveness against the virus outpaced California’s, has devolved into a patchwork of competing and at times conflicting rules, leaving business owners and elected officials frustrated and confused nearly four months after the lockdown orders first went into effect. Leonardo Castañeda, Fiona Kelliher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/12/20
‘It seems unjust’: Sutter County supervisors question business closures as infections surge -- Sutter County officials are questioning the rationale behind closing down businesses in the area, despite recent surges in coronavirus infections. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/12/20
‘People don’t seem very scared up here’: Escaping to Tahoe amid rising COVID-19 cases -- In May, all nonessential travel into the El Dorado County portion of the Lake Tahoe basin was banned as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order and county regulations. When restrictions lifted several weeks ago, California vacationers returned to Lake Tahoe’s shores. Maria Heeter in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/12/20
L.A. County reports 2,900 new coronavirus cases, 57 related deaths as surge continues -- Los Angeles County health officials on Saturday confirmed 2,916 new coronavirus cases and 57 more related deaths, as the region struggles with a surge of cases in the ongoing pandemic. Leila Miller, Carlos Lozano in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/12/20
San Diego County to restrict COVID-19 testing, citing nationwide supply shortage -- News of an 80 percent reduction in critical supplies had San Diego County poised to start closing many of its COVID-19 testing sites Saturday, but a midnight phone call provided a little breathing room. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/12/20
Someone might call claiming to be a coronavirus contact tracer. Be vigilant, says Cal OES -- The latest worry for Californians this year comes in a relatively innocuous form. You might get a call from someone claiming to be a coronavirus contact tracer, notifying you of a potential exposure to the highly-contagious virus — not a great start, admittedly, but it gets worse: then they ask you for money. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/12/20
Lopez: A retired teacher leads the masked resistance in Newport Beach -- Lynn Lorenz, a retired teacher who lives on a bluff above the Newport Beach harbor, emerged from her home Thursday morning wearing a mask. Nobody turned and stared, as if she were wearing a lampshade over her head. But Lorenz definitely stood out. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/12/20
Policy & Politics
Willie Brown: Trump is down, but not yet out -- It was a very bad week for President Donald Trump. The coronavirus is running wild, especially in key states for the November election. The Supreme Court, including his appointees, has proved not to be decision proof for the president and handed New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance the right to see Trump’s tax and bank records. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
California Republicans drop suits against governor’s plan to send mail ballots -- Three Republican lawsuits seeking to block Gov. Gavin Newsom from sending mail ballots to every active California voter this fall through an executive order have disappeared, victims of a Democratic bill that the governor has signed into law. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Walters: Imperial County, the COVID-19 epicenter -- Even as a boy, I knew there was something unusual, even other-worldly, about living in the Imperial Valley. We seemed so isolated, more connected to Mexico than California. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 7/12/20
Race
Tech CEO resigns after video shows racist rant in California restaurant -- Michael Lofthouse said Saturday that he stepped down earlier this week from his position as CEO of Solid8, a Los Gatos information technology strategy company, in response to the July 4th incident. Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Street
Amid a national movement to defund the police, LAPD officers rally outside downtown headquarters -- Calls to defund the police have been swiftly answered by the City Council, which slashed the LAPD budget by $150 million, saying the money will be channeled into services for Black, Latino and disenfranchised communities. Officers say they are demoralized by the cuts, which will deliver a huge hit to overtime pay and hiring in the 10,000-member department, when they have worked hard to build ties with community members and are willing to risk their lives to keep people safe. Cindy Chang in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/12/20
Faulty test leads Sheriff’s Department to mistakenly claim no evidence of bias in policing -- The San Diego Union-Tribune identified mistakes in the department’s methodology and consulted with experts who confirmed the errors. After being informed of those errors, sheriff’s officials removed the report from the department’s website. They plan to redo that portion of the analysis. Lyndsay Winkley, Alex Riggins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/12/20
Education
Fremont schools to begin year with distance learning -- In a special meeting Friday afternoon, the Fremont Unified School District Board of Education voted 3-2 to start the school year with distance learning, which means teachers will use virtual instruction and classrooms will remain off-limits. Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Knight: SF school district already flunked distance learning. Why haven’t officials spent the summer cramming to ace it? -- It’s the rare San Francisco public schoolkid, parent or teacher who thought our emergency experiment with distance learning in the spring went well. While everybody gave it a good old college try because they had no other choice, the overall results deserved a failing grade. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Transit
Jeffrey Tumlin was hailed as SF’s transportation savior. Now the Muni chief faces a leadership test -- When Jeffrey Tumlin stepped in as transportation chief of San Francisco, activists prayed he’d be a savior as well as a department head. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Homeless
Mentally ill homeless may have a harder time finding help -- For DeRon Cary, a treatment counselor in San Francisco, the thought of people trying to kick drug addictions in the outside world — where they would be isolated and on the streets — is unimaginable during this pandemic. But inside a rehab facility where he works, he feels his clients at least have a chance. They have routines, three meals a day and a community looking out for them. Trisha Thadani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/12/20
Real Estate
Bay Area home sales plummet during coronavirus, but prices rise -- Bay Area home sales plummeted in May, falling by more than one-third in most counties and by nearly half in San Francisco as COVID-19 fears chilled buyers and sellers. But the slowdown in transactions did little to slow prices — median sale prices rose noticeably in Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, according to Zillow data. The median home sale price for seven counties came in at $866,900. Louis Hansen in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/12/20
POTUS 45
Trump dons mask in public for the first time, months after public health experts said everyone should -- President Trump wore a mask in public for the first time Saturday, more than three months after public health officials from his own administration recommended that all Americans cover their face when social distancing was not possible. Toluse Olorunnipa in the Washington Post$ -- 7/12/20
The once-mocked ‘Never Trump’ movement becomes a sudden campaign force -- The grainy first-person testimonial arrived at 2 a.m. in late June. A 40-year-old man with a thick Southern accent — shirtless, the red ember of his cigarette glowing in the green twilight between drags — looked into his smartphone and began talking. Ashley Parker and Robert Costa in the Washington Post$ -- 7/12/20
Beltway
'Historic corruption': 2 Republican senators denounce Trump's commutation of Stone -- Sens. Mitt Romney and Pat Toomey condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of his longtime confidant Roger Stone — the first elected Republicans to denounce the president’s Friday night move. Andrew Desiderio Politico -- 7/12/20
Robert Mueller defends Russia probe — and points out Roger Stone remains a felon -- Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Saturday fervently defended the prosecution of Roger Stone as part of his investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, a day after President Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime friend and advisor. Jennifer Haberkorn in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/12/20
-- Saturday Updates
‘Nothing can be off the table’ as California coronavirus deaths surge toward 7,000 -- As of Saturday morning, the state’s coronavirus-related death toll stood at 6,958. Daily death totals have begun to increase after a month of spiking cases and hospitalizations tied to businesses reopening and people getting back to old habits and social gatherings. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti again warned residents that the city could reimpose a mandatory stay-at-home order should conditions continue to deteriorate. Luke Money, Leila Miller in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
California reports record-high ICU usage and hospitalizations -- California hit all-time highs in the number of patients hospitalized or in intensive care unit beds with COVID-19, while county health departments reported 9,522 new COVID-19 cases and 95 deaths on Friday, Leonardo Castañeda in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/20
Fauci: United States ‘is in the middle, right as we speak, of a very serious problem’ -- Living with the coronavirus until a vaccine is developed will require unprecedented community engagement along with onerous individual sacrifices for the common good, global infectious disease experts said Friday at the first major conference on COVID-19. Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/20
California prison workers forced to transfer to San Quentin as coronavirus outbreak rages -- California’s prison system is forcing Sacramento-area correctional officers and mental health care nurses to transfer to San Quentin State Prison, the site of the system’s largest COVID-19 outbreak. Wes Venteicher in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/11/20
Coronavirus outbreak hits Los Angeles Apparel with more than 300 infections, 4 employee deaths -- A coronavirus outbreak has struck the operations of Los Angeles Apparel, with more than 300 infections and four virus-related deaths among the manufacturer’s workers, county public health officials announced Friday. Leila Miller in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
SF has nation’s strictest hotel and office cleaning rules. Not everyone’s happy -- On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the emergency Healthy Buildings ordinance, which mandates multiple daily cleanings and the disinfection of common areas in hotels and office buildings over 50,000 square feet. Daily hotel room cleanings and disinfection are required unless the guest declines. Anna Kramer and Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/20
Inside California courts, lawyers fume that mask wearing is mixed during pandemic -- Although Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a statewide mask order, compliance in some California courthouses has been spotty, particularly among sheriff‘s deputies, public defenders and court officials say. Kroger made it her mission to ensure that masks were worn in the San Joaquin County courthouse. Maura Dolan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
‘They wanted to live.’ Inside a California nursing home as COVID-19 swept through its doors -- Donna Scully said a last goodbye to her mother on March 19, as California closed its doors in hopes of slowing the spread of the new coronavirus. Scully didn’t know that at her mother’s funeral that day she would also say a final farewell to her father. Jason Pohl and Elaine Chen in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/11/20
Movie theaters face ‘existential’ threat from COVID-19: ‘Without new movies, it’s over’ -- After months of being shuttered, Texas movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse published a blog post from founder Tim League last month detailing the company’s new coronavirus safety protocols, including mandatory masks and employee temperature checks. The maverick exhibitor’s message to nervous moviegoers was that its theaters would be “safer than a supermarket.” Ryan Faughnder in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
This one California county has zero coronavirus cases. What’s its secret? -- In the far northeastern reaches of California, where Oregon and Nevada meet, lies Modoc County, a place so remote and starkly beautiful that it has long billed itself “the last best place.” Julia Prodis Sulek in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/20
Virus and Classes
San Jose teachers will not return to the classroom until conditions are safe -- San Jose Unified on Friday announced their teachers will not return to the classroom in August, citing the recent spikes in coronavirus cases in the state. Wes Goldberg in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/20
Open dorms, online classes: How University of California campuses are opening this fall -- University of California campuses will offer mostly online instruction this fall, but each school has the power to set its own rules and at least two of them are already revising early plans to account for new coronavirus outbreaks. MacKenzie Hawkins in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/11/20
Reopen
Here’s what can reopen in Santa Clara County starting Monday -- Starting Monday, a slew of businesses will reopen in Santa Clara County for the first time in months as the county moves away from its blanket stay-at-home order. Fiona Kelliher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/20
Unemployment Struggle
‘It takes 150 redials’: Horror stories from Californians filing unemployment claims, getting no results -- Barry Levine has blown through two-thirds of his life savings while waiting for his unemployment insurance claim to be processed. He figures that, by sometime in September, he will have nothing left. Maria L. La Ganga, Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
Street
Questionable tactics by deputies in Andres Guardado killing put pressure on sheriff -- Andres Guardado had surrendered and was lying facedown on the ground when a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who had been chasing him down a driveway holstered his weapon and approached the 18-year-old to put him in handcuffs, the deputy would recount. Alene Tchekmedyian, James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
And . . .
Knight: SF school district already flunked distance learning. Why haven’t officials spent the summer cramming to ace it? -- It’s the rare San Francisco public schoolkid, parent or teacher who thought our emergency experiment with distance learning in the spring went well. While everybody gave it a good old college try because they had no other choice, the overall results deserved a failing grade. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/20
Smith: California wants to make it legal to sue Karens. Why aren’t we prosecuting them? -- If there’s one thing I can count on as a Californian, it’s that every time there’s an injustice in society — especially if it stays in the news for more than a week — some lawmaker in Sacramento will propose a bill to try to fix it. Erika D. Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
They worked in the U.S. on visas. But coronavirus and Trump’s new order split these Indian families apart -- Last March, Poorva Dixit booked an emergency flight to her native India to visit her ailing mother. The trip was supposed to be quick: She’d left behind her family in the East Bay, where Dixit and her husband, both software engineers, have lived for more than a decade while working on H-1B visas. Sarah Parvini in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
Bay Area property tax rolls are up 6.7% this year. It’s next year assessors worry about -- The total assessed value of taxable property in all Bay Area counties except Contra Costa hit $1.72 trillion as of Jan. 1 — up $108 billion or a healthy 6.7% over last year — but growth could slow significantly this year as demand for office space slows, home sales plunge and inflation subsides. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/20
Massive fire at historic San Gabriel Mission destroys roof and much of interior -- Authorities received a call at 4:24 a.m. reporting that the mission’s fire alarm had been triggered, Negrete said. When an engine arrived to investigate, firefighters saw flames and smoke coming from the corner of the mission. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/20
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