Updating . .   

L.A. County sheriff’s deputy acquitted at manslaughter trial -- Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Luke Liu has been acquitted of manslaughter in the 2016 killing of an unarmed man at a Norwalk gas station, marking a bitter defeat for prosecutors in their first attempt to convict a law enforcement officer in a shooting in more than two decades. James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Thousands of giant sequoias killed in California wildfires -- Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, adding to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday. Brian Melley Associated Press -- 11/19/21

COVID  

COVID ‘hotspots’ – including Lancaster, Palmdale, Studio City, Santa Clarita – fuel surge fears -- An array of local cities and neighborhoods are among the 10 hotspot communities. Officials say one common theme is the relative youth among those catching the disease. Ryan Carter in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 11/19/21

Placer, El Dorado school districts ask state to keep COVID vaccine belief exemptions -- Education officials in Placer, El Dorado and Yuba counties recently sent letters to Gov. Gavin Newsom, legislators, the California Department of Public Health and other state leaders, urging them to maintain religious and personal belief exemptions for the student COVID-19 vaccination mandate expected to take effect starting in mid-2022. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/19/21

Moving on from a COVID trend: Placer County city removes downtown outdoor dining spaces -- As other cities in the region double down on outdoor dining, Roseville removed its temporary outdoor dining decks from its downtown corridor last week. Molly Sullivan in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/19/21

FDA authorizes Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccine boosters for all adults -- The agency expanded emergency use authorization for booster doses of both the mRNA vaccines beyond who was previously eligible; boosters had been authorized for anyone 65 and older who was vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines at least six months ago and for certain adults at high risk of infection or of severe disease. Jamie Gumbrecht and Jacqueline Howard, CNN -- 11/19/21

Kaiser  

Kaiser nurses, mental health staff strike in sympathy with engineers -- After a sympathy strike on Thursday left some Kaiser Permanente patients stranded without care, nurses and mental health clinicians walked off the job Friday morning in solidarity with striking engineers. Summer Lin in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/19/21

Street  

One garage. Two days. Nine break-ins. S.F.’s surge in burglaries is driving residents ‘hopping mad’ -- Jenna Smith was in Chicago last month attending her grandmother’s funeral when her boyfriend began scrolling through home security footage on his phone. Suddenly, he noticed a figure that didn’t belong there. Someone had broken into the garage of their Mission District apartment building. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

L.A. County juvenile detention halls are ‘suitable’ for housing youths, for now -- A state corrections board decided Thursday that Los Angeles County’s juvenile halls are “suitable” to house youths after previous inspections had placed the facilities in danger of closing. Jaclyn Cosgrove in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Unemployment  

California jobless rate falls in October as hiring picks up -- Following a lull in September, California employers bounced back in a big way last month as they added 96,800 new jobs and lowered the state’s unemployment rate to 7.3% Adam Beam Associated Press -- 11/19/21

Employment  

Trucker school bustles amid US driver shortage -- On a recent afternoon, Tina Singh watched nearly a dozen students at a suburban Los Angeles truck-driving school backing up their practice big rigs into parking spaces. Many had never operated a manual transmission before. Eugene Garcia Associated Press -- 11/19/21

Homeless  

A plan to give homeless people the right to housing roils Sacramento -- For years, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg has spoken out about the need for more housing and shelter for homeless people in his city. Benjamin Oreskes in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Breathe  

A sport-fishing boat pollutes ‘as much as 162 school buses.’ Will boat businesses survive regulation? -- The California Air Resources Board meets Friday to consider a measure that would require sport-fishing, whale-watching and other excursion boat owners to install the newest and cleanest diesel engines and potentially also a filter to reduce exhaust pipe emissions. Hugo Martín in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Education  

S.F. Mayor Breed offers to forgive a $26.6 million loan to the school district — with conditions -- A $26.6 million city loan to the San Francisco’s school district would be forgiven under legislation proposed by Mayor London Breed, but only if the school board comes up with a comprehensive plan to get its budget under control. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

Understanding the debate behind California’s new math framework -- In the push to help more students thrive in science, tech, engineering and math, California is working to change the way its schools teach math. But the suggested new framework has sparked widespread criticism. Joe Hong CalMatters -- 11/19/21

 

 

California Policy and Politics Friday Morning  

California won’t mandate COVID vaccines for private sector workers just yet -- A Cal-OSHA board is holding off on requiring workers in large California companies get vaccinated or regularly tested for the coronavirus, citing the court’s recent ruling temporarily blocking a similar proposed federal mandate. Jeong Park in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/19/21

California’s coronavirus cases top 5 million as hospitalizations continue to drop -- California has now reported 5 million coronavirus cases, a sobering total that underscores the pervasiveness of the COVID-19 pandemic during its nearly two-year rampage through the state. Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Mexico sends some minors to US to get coronavirus vaccine -- Scores of Mexican adolescents were bused to California on Thursday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as efforts get underway across Mexico to get shots in the arms of teens. Julie Watson Associated Press -- 11/19/21

Navy secretary signals some leniency for Marines who miss vaccine deadline -- Active-duty Marines who do not comply with the directive to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the department-mandated Nov. 28 deadline will be counseled and given the chance to comply before being forced out of the military, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told reporters Wednesday. Andrew Dyer in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/19/21

Policy and Politics  

San Diego facing steep future deficits because of state mandates, plans to boost neighborhood services -- San Diego is facing nearly $600 million in projected budget deficits over the next five years despite estimates that city revenues will fully bounce back from the pandemic and surpass $2 billion per year for the first time in 2027. David Garrick in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/19/21

Barabak: Republican Kevin Faulconer flopped as a candidate for California governor. So why not try again? -- Kevin Faulconer looked like any other sightseer as he paused recently in the middle of Market Street to snap a photo of the city’s graceful Ferry Building. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

California redistricting: Which incumbents are in tough spots? -- The state’s redistricting commission isn’t supposed to consider where current elected officials live. And the preliminary maps put some House members and state legislators into less politically friendly districts, or in the same district as another incumbent. Sameea Kamal CalMatters -- 11/19/21

Kaiser  

Kaiser strike shutters some services Thursday. Friday could be worse -- In San Jose, Richard Marsh and his swollen foot were turned back at the shuttered X-ray department. In Redwood City, Victoria Villegas couldn’t get her blood drawn. Summer Lin in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/19/21

Kaiser strike in Northern California: Engineers uplifted as thousands picket in solidarity -- Stationary engineer Sal Fonseca and about 20 of his co-workers have been picketing daily at Kaiser Permanente’s South Sacramento Medical Center for 62 days, but their ranks swelled Thursday morning as members of three unions joined them as part of a two-day sympathy strike. Cathie Anderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/19/21

Street  

BART’s safety procedures investigated in NTSB probe of S.F. woman dragged to her death -- Federal officials are focusing on BART’s safety procedures and public awareness of them as they investigate the cause of an incident in September in which a woman leashed to her dog stepped off of a departing BART train and was dragged down the station platform to her death. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

Trial of L.A. County sheriff’s deputy charged with manslaughter now in hands of jurors -- Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday afternoon in the manslaughter trial of L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Luke Liu, who could face up to 11 years in prison for fatally shooting Francisco Garcia in a Norwalk gas station in February 2016. James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Gunshots on I-80 approach to Bay Bridge toll plaza kill SUV passenger -- A passenger in an SUV was killed Thursday morning when she was struck by a bullet during a shooting on I-80 near the Bay Bridge toll plaza in Oakland, marking the city’s third homicide of the day, officials said. Andres Picon in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Rick Hurd, Harry Harris in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/19/21

OC sheriff’s reserves leader charged with $17 million in workers’ comp fraud -- A former volunteer reserve captain for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has been charged with defrauding the state workers’ compensation program of $17 million. Simon Semaan faces a maximum 16 years in state prison if convicted of seven felony counts of fraud and seven enhancements of committing a white collar crime of more than $500,000. Tony Saavedra in the Orange County Register -- 11/19/21

Homeless  

‘Betrayal of the Haight’: Leaders clash over why homeless drop-in center was killed -- The debate over why the city killed plans at the last minute for a controversial drop-in center for homeless youth in the Haight-Ashbury continued Thursday when city officials defended the abrupt move during a contentious hearing. Mallory Moench in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

Housing  

S.F. approves plan to allow fourplexes be built on 110,000 city parcels -- The San Francisco Planning Commission Thursday unanimously approved a plan to allow fourplexes to be constructed on more than 110,000 parcels currently zoned for single-family homes or two-unit buildings. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

Education  

Stanford’s biggest diversity survey reveals ‘very troubling’ harassment, discrimination -- Draven Rane was overwhelmed by all the possibilities when he arrived at Stanford’s sunny, palm-lined Silicon Valley campus in August 2018. Lauren Hepler in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

UC slams the door on standardized admissions tests, nixing any SAT alternative -- The University of California has slammed the door shut on using any standardized test for admissions decisions, announcing Thursday that faculty could find no alternative exam that would avoid the biased results that led leaders to scrap the SAT last year. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

California community college students choosing jobs over class likely fuel enrollment drop -- California’s precipitous drop in undergraduate college enrollment — driven largely by big declines in community college attendance — has continued for a second straight year, a trend fueled by a declining population and pandemic pressures drawing young adults to the workforce, not classrooms. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/19/21

Proposed transgender restrictions at Chino Valley Unified fails after student outcry and state warning -- After an outcry from dozens of students, as well as faculty and state lawmakers, an attempt by two Chino Valley Unified school board members to challenge state law with an anti-transgender policy failed last night at a school board meeting. Ali Tadayon EdSource -- 11/19/21

Water  

The drought is going to stick around for a third year in California, federal scientists project -- California is likely to emerge from the winter with little relief from drought, federal climate experts said Thursday, setting the stage for a third year of dry weather and continuing water shortages. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/19/21

Four San Joaquin Valley groundwater plans deemed inadequate -- State officials warn some of the state’s most powerful and largest agricultural districts that their plans fail to address how over-pumping could harm local communities’ drinking water supplies. Rachel Becker CalMatters -- 11/19/21

San Jose: New drought rules and water fees go into effect — what they mean for your bill -- The California Public Utilities Commission has given final approval for San Jose Water Company to impose the first drought restrictions in its service area since 2016, during California’s last major drought. The restrictions, approved late Wednesday, are the most stringent in any major city in California. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/19/21

Climate  

Decarbonization framework aims to eliminate greenhouse emissions in San Diego County -- The San Diego Regional Decarbonization Framework, delivered to county Supervisors, explores choices the region faces as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and ways to coordinate efforts among the county and its 18 cities. Deborah Sullivan Brennan in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/19/21

 

Thursday Updates   

L.A. schools will relax some student mask rules, ease COVID-19 testing. What to know -- The Los Angeles Unified School District is making tweaks to its coronavirus protocols and is pushing new strategies to persuade more students to get vaccinated before critical deadlines. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

Stressed school leaders urge California lawmakers to keep student vaccine exemptions -- Some California school leaders are urging lawmakers to preserve Covid vaccine exemptions for students, warning of a logistical nightmare that could push thousands of children out of classrooms. Mackenzie Mays Politico -- 11/18/21

Updated California workplace safety guidelines delayed because of federal legal challenges -- Earlier this month the Biden administration released sweeping COVID-19 workplace safety rules including a vaccine-or-test mandate for tens of millions of workers nationwide. Chase Difeliciantonio in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

S.F. woman gets 18 months in prison for creating a fake company to receive $370,000 in pandemic-relief loans -- A San Francisco woman was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges that she fraudulently obtained nearly $370,000 worth of federal pandemic-relief loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Ryce Stoughtenborough in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

California’s MyTurn site allows all adults to get COVID booster appointments -- As of Thursday morning, the MyTurn.ca.gov site has stopped asking adults who were originally vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots and are now seeking boosters whether they are in certain high-risk groups before allowing them to book an appointment. Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money in the Los Angeles Times$ Kellie Hwang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/18/21

L.A.’s COVID rules: Mask and vaccine guidance for out-of-town visitors -- The good news is that if you’re fully vaccinated — and can prove it — there’s little you can’t do as a visitor to L.A. County. Jon Healey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

Workplace   

Kaiser will ‘spend significantly’ to bolster operations, guard reputation amid huge strike -- Kaiser Permanente faces two days of massive strikes in Northern California starting Thursday, and the company and experts in labor and finance told The Bee on Wednesday that the walkouts could pose a risk to both Kaiser’s reputation and its bottom line. Cathie Anderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

Kaiser workers walk out in solidarity on Thursday with striking engineers. ‘They’re not asking for the moon’ -- At least 40,000 members of unions SEIU-UHW, OPEIU Local 29 and IFPTE Local 20, representing healthcare workers, optometrists, phlebotomists, X-ray technicians, clinical lab scientists and other employees, were scheduled to participate in the walk-out. Some of them started picketing at 7 a.m. at Kaiser facilities in the Bay Area. Summer Lin in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/18/21

California libraries now offering free online classes to help people learn new job skills -- While she’s in between accounting jobs, Leslie Fong is working to enhance her Excel skills through advanced online classes at the South San Francisco library. Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

Policy and Politics  

A bigger tax deduction for Californians making up to $550K? The Senate’s thinking about it -- Democratic senators are seriously considering a plan to lift the cap on state and local tax deductions entirely for people who earn between $400,000 and $550,000. Some sort of adjustment to the SALT cap on federal income tax, which was set at $10,000 by the 2017 tax cut law, is probably coming. David Lightman in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

Asian community groups: Sacramento supervisors trying to ‘stifle our power’ in redistricting -- Despite considerable public input to establish a supervisor district that joined Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in south Sacramento together, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors are finalizing a redistricting map that fails to do so. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

California’s $1.2 billion Capitol renovation is underway. Activists are still trying to halt it -- Dozens of environmental and preservation activists on Wednesday protested the demolition of the California Capitol annex, a 69-year-old structure attached to the historic statehouse that lawmakers consider outdated and dangerous. Hannah Wiley in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

Skelton: Column: Don’t blame politicians for California’s sky-high gas prices. Blame COVID-19 -- Who can we blame for record-high gasoline prices? Sorry. No one in particular. The worst culprit is COVID-19. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

‘A drinking club with a charity problem’ -- How a launchpad for young leaders enabled Dominic Foppoli and a culture of sexual violence. Alexandria Bordas, Cynthia Dizikes, Jessica Christian, Yalonda M. James, AJ Mast, and Maddie McGarvey in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

Education  

Race in the classroom? Ethnic studies have been taught at Sacramento schools for years -- Public and charter high school students in California will soon be required to take an ethnic studies course before graduation, a mandate that marks the end of a protracted political debate and charts a new course in the education of millions of students in one of the most diverse states in the country. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks and Sawsan Morrar in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

S.F. schools see $123 million windfall after final ruling in tax case as district faces big shortfall -- San Francisco schools will get $123.4 million collected from property owners that has been frozen for three years while the state’s courts decided whether the parcel tax was legally authorized by voters. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

Housing  

‘It’s still not easy’: SoCal home prices rise 14% as buying frenzy cools slightly -- Southern California’s cutthroat housing market has cooled in recent months, with some home shoppers — tired of losing bidding wars — putting their search on hold. Price drops became more common. Andrew Khouri in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

California holds 70% of the country’s priciest ZIP Codes for home buyers -- Home prices across the country soared during the pandemic, but at the top of the market, California kept its crown as the priciest state in the nation — by far. Jack Flemming in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

He’s been blamed for killing housing, but credited with keeping SoMa affordable. Meet S.F.’s most influential housing advocate -- In 2018, San Francisco political campaign manager Jen Snyder was in the early stages of running a ballot measure to provide free legal aid to tenants facing eviction when she got a phone call “out of the blue” from someone she had never met before: veteran South of Market nonprofit housing boss John Elberling. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

Water  

San Jose: New drought rules and water fees go into effect — what they mean for your bill -- New mandatory drought rules, the first since 2016, will give San Jose the toughest water rules of any big California city. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/18/21

Supply Chain  

From Alabama to California, a trip along the broken supply chain -- The great American supply chain has hit the skids. Once a marvel of logistics that hummed with scheduling rigor and pricing predictability, the fount of goods has slowed to a trickle as key supply links have broken down in recent months. Connor Sheets in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

Supply-Chain Snarls Deliver Windfalls to Wall Street -- Global supply-chain bottlenecks are creating headaches for retailers, delays for consumers—and big gains for financial firms that invested in container ships before the pandemic upended the logistics business. Juliet Chung and Costas Paris in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 11/18/21

Street  

String of LAPD shootings exposes L.A.’s broken mental health system, officials say -- When a 19-year-old tourist from Singapore was stabbed in the abdomen on Hollywood Boulevard last month, witnesses and the victim quickly pointed out the suspect to police. Police already knew the man, Grisha Alaverdyan, from prior encounters. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

Bay Area teenager abducted from Santa Rosa gas station, police say -- Santa Rosa police and California Highway Patrol officials issued an Amber Alert asking for the public’s help in locating Georgiana Chozmana Bambaloi, who police said was forced into a dark-colored vehicle “by several adult males.” Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/18/21

Roseville official charged with directing taxpayer money to hire woman, pay law school tuition -- Kenneth James Glotzbach, 54, Roseville’s assistant director of wastewater utilities and the executive director of the wastewater authority, was charged in Superior Court on Nov. 8 by Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire’s office and an arrest warrant was issued, court files say. Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

California fentanyl deaths spiked during the pandemic. What Biden wants to do about it -- California could get some relief for its rising overdose deaths as the Biden administration moves to better control the opioid epidemic. Gillian Brassil in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/18/21

Suspected Shadow Hills prowler captured after days-long manhunt -- An intense, days-long manhunt for a suspected serial burglar in the San Fernando Valley ended with an arrest late Wednesday, authorities said. A police K-9 captured the man, identified as 25-year-old Benjamin Renteria, in dense brush near Hansen Dam around 10:40 p.m., according to Officer Lizeth Lomeli with the Los Angeles Police Department. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

Canadian kid arrested in eight-figure Bitcoin theft after investigation aided by South Bay tech crime team -- A Canadian youth has been arrested in connection with an eight-figure Bitcoin theft reported last year, following an FBI and Secret Service investigation aided by a tech-crime team run out of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Robert Salonga in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/18/21

Guns  

Outgunned: The story of a woman, an abuser, and California’s failing gun control -- What happened to Calley Garay – a story that culminated this week in the Madera courthouse – is about more than one woman. It’s about California’s inability to disarm abusers, a longstanding failure that judges, advocates and law enforcement have been warning about for years. Robert Lewis CalMatters -- 11/18/21

Also . . .   

Sixty-foot waves exploded off the Pacific Coast during October’s bomb cyclone -- The bomb cyclone and atmospheric river that pummeled Northern California in late October produced exceptionally heavy rain and high winds. But it also battered the California coast with some epic ocean waves. Paul Duginski in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/18/21

San Jose to pay $750,000 to victims of the disastrous 2017 Coyote Creek flood -- Hoping to put one of the city’s worst natural disasters behind them, San Jose leaders this week quietly approved a $750,000 settlement for a group of about 240 renters and homeowners who suffered significant losses in the disastrous 2017 Coyote Creek flood. Maggie Angst in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/18/21