Updating . .   

Anxiety, depression, isolation: Bay Area students struggle amid spiking mental health crisis -- Ninth-grader Andrew Taate felt like he was in a deep hole, one he dug himself from his San Francisco bedroom as he procrastinated for months on school assignments, his motivation absent. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

In California, a million English learners are at risk of intractable education loss -- Aida Vega’s 13-year-old daughter, who has attended Los Angeles schools since kindergarten and is in eighth grade, still struggles to read and write English. Paloma Esquivel in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

No marijuana billboards allowed? California is making it hard on legal weed -- California — birthplace of the Grateful Dead, Snoop Dogg and the Weedmaps app — is still uptight about marijuana, more than four years after voters legalized it for adult recreational use and 25 years after they OKd medicinal herb. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Alameda County's first Black public defender is trying to fix the problem with juries -- Brendon Woods started banging the drum for jury reform in 2018. Justin Phillips in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Biden infrastructure bill could be California high-speed rail’s ‘lifeline’ -- The $2.3 trillion infrastructure package President Joe Biden rolled out last week has backers of the California bullet train dreaming of what could be. Nico Savidge in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/4/21

Newsom asked for a fracking ban. He may get more than he bargained for with ambitious plan -- When Gov. Gavin Newsom voiced his support last year for a ban on hydraulic fracturing by oil and gas companies, an effort long fought by the industry and trade unions alike, he gave Democrats a green light to send him legislation to achieve that goal as they saw fit. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

A formerly homeless artist made a gift to Los Angeles. What happened next was a surprise -- How that image got on that utility box is a tale of two strangers who were drawn together by a newspaper article, collaborated for months without once meeting in person and beat down every barrier of bureaucracy and bad luck that would have blocked their plan. Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

California Policy and P  olitics Sunday Morning  

‘Vaccine passports’ are coming to California, but some residents could be left behind -- California crossed a major threshold last week: For the first time, state officials moved to adopt a policy that that would give residents who are vaccinated access to different events and activities than those who aren’t. Fiona Kelliher, Leonardo Castañeda in the San Jose Mercury$ Meghan Bobrowsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Line around the block for COVID vaccinations in East Oakland -- An effort to ensure the COVID vaccine is equitably shot into arms made its way Saturday to East Oakland, where a line to get vaccinated outside the Brookins AME Church stretched down 73rd Avenue, around the corner and halfway down Arthur Street. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Scripps, UCSD focus on ‘long haul’ COVID-19 symptoms -- Scripps Health is the latest local health provider to tighten its focus on patients whose COVID-19 symptoms linger, joining UC San Diego Health in creating its own clinic to offer holistic services to patients whose coronavirus cases have turned into medical marathons. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 4/4/21

Opening  

Bar owners weigh reopening as Los Angeles moves to orange tier -- On Monday when Los Angeles County moves into the next tier of reopening guidance, bars without food service can begin pouring drinks again — some for the first time in more than a year. Stephanie Breijo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

Staying Afloat  

Confused about the new unemployment tax break? We answer your questions -- Here’s the easy part: If your modified adjusted gross income is less than $150,000, you don’t have to pay federal income tax on the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits you got last year. And if you live in California, regardless of income, you don’t have to pay state tax on any of those benefits. David Lightman in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/4/21

COVID Economy  

Marin business survey finds dire pandemic outlook -- More than a third of Marin County business owners polled in a recent survey said they have dipped into personal savings, racked up credit card debt or borrowed money from family members to keep their enterprises alive during the coronavirus pandemic. Matthew Pera in the Marin Independent Journal -- 4/4/21

Policy & Politics 

Walters: California sheriffs are feeling the heat -- A half-century ago, I was the editor of a small daily newspaper in Northern California and one of my reporters dug up a terrific story. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 4/4/21

Street  

San Jose’s Little Saigon, Japantown see increased police foot-patrol presence -- Walking among shoppers purchasing jewelry and stores selling religious statues, Vietnamese snacks and more, San Jose’s newly minted Police Chief Anthony Mata bumped elbows and passed out police badge stickers to patrons at the city’s Grand Century Mall on Saturday as part of an outreach effort amid a rise in anti-Asian American hate in the Bay Area and beyond. Robert Salonga, Leonardo Castañeda in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/4/21

Stockton police sued over alleged ‘pack of wolves’ beating of Black student, 17 -- A new lawsuit accuses four Stockton policemen of beating a Black high school student so severely he was left with a broken nose, black eyes and a boot print on his cheek. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Education 

Stanford, UC warn of massive data breach -- Stanford University and the University of California are warning users of their computer systems to take extra caution following a nationwide cyber attack that affects its computer systems. Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

S.F. school board may reverse its vote to rename 44 schools -- Just over two months after voting to rename 44 schools, the San Francisco school board is poised to reverse that decision Tuesday to avoid costly litigation over the issue. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Six Los Angeles Catholic schools to close, victims of pandemic hardship, years of struggle -- After a difficult year of pandemic-accelerated enrollment losses and hobbled fundraising, six elementary schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will close in June as one of the nation’s largest private educational systems struggles to keep many of its schools afloat. Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

Closing   

After almost a century, landmark Sears store in Boyle Heights will soon close -- For generations of Boyle Heights residents, Sears was a place to buy the mundane necessities — khaki pants, refrigerators. It was there for families as they grew, from baby clothes to prom dresses to business casual outfits for first jobs. Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

Homeless  

California took 35,000 homeless people off the street for 1 year. Did the program work? -- It took a pandemic for Bennie Rogers to get healthy, housed and happy. Rogers, 68, was living in a tent along the river in Old Sacramento last summer when he got the chance to go inside with help from a state-run emergency program set up to house vulnerable homeless people during the COVID-19 crisis. Hannah Wiley in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/4/21

Smith: A week later, here’s what happened to some of the homeless people booted from Echo Park -- A week ago, Olga was living in a tent along Echo Park Lake. I’d reached her at the hotel to which she had been relocated after being ousted from the park — along with roughly 200 other homeless people who had built a commune-like encampment that, depending on whom you ask, was either a safe space or a haven for criminals. Erika D. Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/4/21

Environment  

Rush to rescue thousands of endangered abalone buried in Big Sur landslides -- Wendy Bragg knew California’s abalone population was in bad shape. The UC Santa Cruz researcher had been leading surveys of black abalone along the remote Big Sur coast, one of the last strongholds of the endangered mollusk. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/4/21

Push to reduce plastic waste gains traction in Sacramento, D.C. -- If the mountain of proposed legislation is any indication, lawmakers are increasingly primed to crack down on the plastic waste that is littering roadsides, washing onto beaches and into oceans, being digested by fish, and ending up in our own bellies. Martin Wisckol in the Santa Cruz Sentinel -- 4/4/21

Cannabis  

Will freeze on cannabis permits in North Sacramento stall city’s equity push? -- Saying his district is saturated with cannabis outlets, North Sacramento Councilman Sean Loloee is asking the city of Sacramento this week to impose an emergency moratorium on new marijuana permits in that area, to give the city time to rethink zoning rules. Marcus D. Smith and Tony Bizjak in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/4/21

Also . . .   

Suspect’s wife says she ‘can’t understand’ California attack -- The estranged wife of the man who allegedly went on a shooting rampage in a Southern California office building earlier this week that left four people dead — including a 9-year-old boy — said Saturday that she couldn’t fathom why her husband targeted people who had treated her like family for more than a decade. Amy Taxin and Stefanie Dazio Associated Press Sean Emery in the Orange County Register -- 4/4/21

Bridge-builders gather in Santee to move beyond political polarization -- The event in a Santee park Saturday afternoon had all the trappings of a picnic with friends. The sun was out, music played, food was on the table. It was a nice day to talk about hate. John Wilkens in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 4/4/21

Families look for closure in final report on deadly Marine AAV training accident -- This time last year, Sarah Villanueva was trying to get up the nerve to ask her parents for their blessing to marry an infantry Marine at Camp Pendleton. Erika I. Ritchie in the Orange County Register -- 4/4/21

Teen missing from Oakland found dead near Weed -- A hiker found the body of Tatiana Dugger, 19, of Los Angeles on March 28 on U.S. Forest Service land in a remote area about eight miles northeast of Weed, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said. Her body appeared to have been in the location for an extended period, the Sheriff’s Office said. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/4/21

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