Updating . .   

California’s increased water use paves way for more penalties -- California water use is going up despite repeated calls for conservation, increasing penalties and pressure on Gov. Newsom. Emily Hoeven CalMatters -- 5/11/22

L.A. is taking a different path on severe watering restrictions. Here’s how it will work -- Los Angeles residents now know the plan for significantly cutting water use beginning June 1. The Department of Water and Power differs in some key ways from other local agencies that are struggling with unprecedented water restrictions due to the drought. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Staying Afloat   

Bay Area consumer prices skyrocket and remain at 21-year highs -- Consumer prices in the Bay Area skyrocketed in April and nearly matched the annual increase posted in February, which was a 21-year high, a grim new government report revealed on Wednesday. The Bay Area inflation rate jumped at an annual pace of 5% in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 5/11/22

Gas  

California gas rebates may not arrive until late summer. Or even later -- After missing multiple self-imposed deadlines, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders remain at odds over how to offer relief from California’s high gas prices — criticizing one another’s plans and prolonging an already lengthy process that stands in the way of residents’ cash payments. MacKenzie Mays, Taryn Luna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Policy and Politics  

Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones reignites fight with Black Lives Matter in new ad for Congress -- A new campaign advertisement shows images of protests on downtown Sacramento streets and freeways, while a man’s deep voice says: “In our cities, on our border, politicians created chaos. Even though his home was targeted, his family terrorized, Sheriff Scott Jones stood up to BLM and stopped the riots. It takes courage to stand up to a mob. Theresa Clift and David Lightman in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Knight: This S.F. tech billionaire says he backs Chesa Boudin and criminal justice reform. So why is he giving police $1 million? -- In a city that can’t agree on much, it’s widely acknowledged that San Francisco’s cops are down in the dumps. Dispirited. Disheartened. Suffering from low morale. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/11/22

‘He held my hand.’ Bontas share abortion story, push for California reproductive rights -- Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, revealed at a news conference Tuesday that she had an abortion at age 21, as she was finishing her degree at Yale University and starting her first job. Lindsey Holden in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

A socialist, a billionaire, a podiatrist: Alex Padilla’s Senate challengers in California -- Twenty-three candidates are on the California secretary of state’s certified list to run for a full, six-year term. Of those, eight are also running to fill the remainder of his current term and thus will appear on the ballot twice. Sen. Alex Padilla, the Democratic incumbent, is running both to finish this term and serve the next one. He is strongly favored to win both. Gillian Brassil in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Anne Marie Schubert’s gamble: After ditching the GOP, can she win a statewide office? -- Anne Marie Schubert didn’t listen to her friends. As the Sacramento County District Attorney mounted a campaign to become California’s next attorney general, some of them told her she should register as a Democrat to capitalize in a deep-blue state. Others tried to persuade her to return to her Republican roots. Patrick Riley in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Republicans took away Disney’s special status in Florida. Now they’re gunning for Mickey himself -- It all began with a mouse, and now that big-eared rodent is in the middle of a turf war between conservatives and one of the world’s most influential media companies. Hugo Martín in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Lopez: things Gov. Newsom got wrong in supporting Huntington Beach desalination plant -- Gov. Gavin Newsom has weighed in again. He supports the massive Huntington Beach desalination plant that comes up for a vote Thursday before the Coastal Commission. I’ve weighed in, too. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Placer County CEO quiet on group’s accusation he was involved in deadly vehicle accident -- Placer County Executive Officer Todd Leopold at a public meeting this week did not address an accusation that he was the driver in a fatal vehicle and pedestrian collision that left an 18-year-old man dead. Molly Sullivan and Rosalio Ahumada in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

COVID  

California again faces rising anxiety about coronavirus spread as summer approaches -- Although case rates are climbing, experts note they are doing so at a more modest pace than the first Omicron surge, which began spiking in December. California’s numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations are also lower than some states on the East Coast. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

California spent millions to boost COVID vaccination rates of Medi-Cal members — but they lag even more -- Gaps in COVID vaccination rates among the state’s Medi-Cal population persist. Five Medi-Cal plans still have vaccination rates under 50%. Ana B. Ibarra CalMatters -- 5/11/22

Street  

Skid row is an overdose ‘epicenter.’ But methadone can be miles away -- To shake off the grip of addiction, Loretta Elias tries daily to get to the unassuming clinic in Boyle Heights where she waits to down a meticulously measured cup of red liquid. Emily Alpert Reyes in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Sacramento mayor names racial equity adviser, charges her with building reparations initiative -- Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg this week announced a newly created position to help address racial equity in city government. Kelly Fong-Rivas, Steinberg’s current chief of staff, will assume the role of racial equity adviser beginning May 16. Marcus D. Smith in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

New fraud charge in California Office of AIDS scandal targets third state worker -- Federal prosecutors have charged a third California Office of AIDS worker in connection with a conspiracy that officials say siphoned off more than $2 million in state funds for vacation trips, sporting events and personal expenses. Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Sacramento DA brought domestic charges against cop after S.F. filed a case. What happened? -- A case involving a former Sacramento police officer accused of abusing and threatening his girlfriend has brought renewed attention to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office at a time its elected leader is running for attorney general. Patrick Riley in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Education  

Glendale third-grade teacher showed gay pride videos. A year later, furious debate erupts -- A Glendale third-grade teacher who nearly a year ago showed videos celebrating gay pride to her students has been involuntarily transferred from her classroom for safety reasons after receiving threats — a local chapter in the nation’s furious debate over what should be taught in schools about gender identity. Howard Blume, Melissa Gomez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Why California law requires teaching about LGBTQ Americans in public schools -- Gay pride videos shown in a Glendale third-grade classroom have fueled a debate over how and when lessons on gender identity should be broached in public schools. At recent Glendale Unified School District board meetings, some parents and activists have asserted a right to parental control over education, particularly when it relates to topics they consider sensitive. Howard Blume, Melissa Gomez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Sacramento students could be in class until late June to make up for time in teacher strike -- The Sacramento City Unified School District has yet to finalize its school calendar with less than six weeks of scheduled classes. It has proposals to extend the academic year on the table, leaving many parents wondering how to move forward with summer plans. Sawsan Morrar in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

Climate  

State unveils new climate change blueprint packed with strategies tackling fossil fuels -- Under the new scoping plan, California would almost eliminate oil and shift to renewable sources. But where’s the update on the controversial polluting-trading market known as cap and trade? Nadia Lopez CalMatters -- 5/11/22

May gray and June gloom are threatened by climate change. Enjoy them while they last -- Anyone who has shivered through an overcast Memorial Day at the beach knows that Southern California has a tendency to serve up gray days at this time of the year. Locals call it May gray and June gloom. But the heavy-looking gray clouds that blot out the sun aren’t just the bane of beachgoers. They serve an important environmental role. Paul Duginski in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Solar  

Sforza: Blistering rooftop solar debate reopened by California regulators -- After clamming up for nearly five months, California’s all-powerful utility regulator took the unusual step Monday of reopening the highly contentious battle — um, we mean, “proceeding” — over rooftop solar electricity rates. Teri Sforza in the Orange County Register -- 5/11/22

Housing   

California Legislative Leader Wants to Spend $10 Billion to Help Families Buy Homes -- Democratic State Senate Leader Toni Atkins on Wednesday unveiled details of a proposal she’s pushing to create a revolving fund that would provide interest-free loans for up to 30% of the purchase price of a home for low- and middle-income households. Christine Mai-Duc in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 5/11/22

Walters: How Santa Ana discourages new housing with hefty fees -- California’s 400 cities have reacted in myriad ways to pressure from the state to encourage housing construction. Some – very few, really – have enthusiastically embraced new laws and decrees requiring them to zone more land for housing and remove barriers to development, such as onerous architectural rules. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 5/11/22

Exodus  

Immigration shortfalls, like soaring housing prices, fuel California’s population drop -- When people call Aquilina Soriano Versoza looking for at-home caretakers to hire, she often has to tell them she doesn’t have any available workers to refer. Sarah Parvini in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/11/22

Ukraine  

These Californians trained with Ukrainian troops. Now they’re sending supplies to war -- Thousands of miles away in California’s capital, California National Guard and Governor’s Office of Emergency Services are sending tools to help support Ukraine’s fighting forces: field hospitals and medical supplies to treat the wounded, helmets and ballistic vests by the thousands donated by state guards across the country to fit and protect forces in the field, and more supplies on the way. Darrell Smith in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/11/22

 

California Policy and Politics Wednesday Morning  

‘Significant uptick’ in California coronavirus outbreaks brings new warnings -- Coronavirus conditions are likely to worsen, with case rates continuing to rise and hospitalizations starting to increase, according to the top health official in the San Francisco Bay Area’s most populous county. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

L.A. school board delays student COVID-19 vaccine mandate without any discussion -- The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a delay of a student vaccine mandate for COVID-19 that had been scheduled to take effect next fall, under a recommendation from Supt. Alberto Carvalho. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Workplace   

McDonald’s hiring thousands of workers across Southern California -- McDonald’s is looking to hire thousands of Southern California workers as it gears up for the busy summer season, but filling those slots amid the current labor shortage might be tough. Kevin Smith in the San Bernardino Sun$ -- 5/10/22

Amid global chaos, the tech industry takes a rare tumble -- Tech companies were the darlings of the pandemic economy. Now, with skyrocketing inflation, rising interest rates, a war in Europe and uncertainty in China, the biggest tech behemoths are dragging down the stock market, while Silicon Valley start-ups are laying off employees — a dramatic downturn for an industry considered a barometer for the global economy. Reed Albergotti, Nitasha Tiku and Joseph Menn in the Washington Post$ -- 5/10/22

Policy and Politics  

Bass campaign calls police union ad ‘defamatory,’ demands that TV stations stop airing it -- Bass, running in the June 7 primary election to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti, said through her lawyer that the 30-second campaign commercial, produced by the union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles police officers, contains “false, misleading and defamatory” information about her and her voting record in Washington, D.C. David Zahniser, Julia Wick in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Garofoli: Why backers of Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta are trying to help the most anti-abortion candidate in the race -- Hours after word leaked that the Supreme Court planned to overturn Roe v. Wade, supporters of Attorney General Rob Bonta created radio ads to show how he’d be the strongest defender of abortion rights in a state that wants to be a national haven for the procedure. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

What would Steve Glazer do as California controller? -- In a 70-minute interview with CalMatters, state Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat running for California controller, says he knows “where the bodies are buried” from his legislative experience. And he vows to stand up to fellow Democrats in power so he can be an independent watchdog. Sameea Kamal CalMatters -- 5/10/22

Recall of Chesa Boudin just got its first endorsement from an elected S.F. official -- District Two Supervisor Catherine Stefani became the first San Francisco elected official to publicly support the removal of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a progressive prosecutor facing a highly contentious recall election on June 7. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

Lopez: Grassley’s probe slams Garcetti. Partly deserved, but partly a partisan hit? -- Things haven’t been looking so good lately for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The campaign to succeed him is fueled by blistering critiques of the city’s failures in addressing its massive homelessness crisis. His prospects for higher elective office aren’t particularly bright. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Digital Divide  

Looking for free broadband in Southern California? Here’s how to find it -- On Monday, the White House revealed that 20 broadband providers across the country, including five of the largest cable TV and telephone companies, had agreed to provide “sufficiently high-speed” connections at no more than $30 a month to qualifying homes. Eight of those serve communities in Southern California: AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, Mediacom, Spectrum, Starry and Verizon. Jon Healey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Street  

Once again, LAPD upholds zero biased policing complaints against its officers -- The Los Angeles Police Department in 2021 continued its yearslong streak of upholding zero complaints of biased policing by its officers, according to a new internal affairs report. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Prosecutor vows to refile murder charge against woman who delivered stillbirth -- A Central Valley district attorney is defying the attorney general with his plan to pursue a new murder charge against a woman who used methamphetamine and delivered a stillbirth. Nigel Duara CalMatters -- 5/10/22

Defendant at center of Gascón controversy now faces murder charge in Kern County -- A transgender woman whose case prompted renewed criticism of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s policies after she was ordered to serve two years in juvenile custody for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl in Palmdale pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a murder charge in neighboring Kern County. The item is in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 5/10/22

S.F. boba shop was a front for an international car-burglary operation, D.A. Boudin says -- An unassuming boba tea shop in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is suspected to be a front for an international fencing operation, where street-level car burglars sell stolen goods before the property is shipped off to countries as far away as Vietnam and China, prosecutors said Tuesday. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

Case dismissed against former D.A. Jackie Lacey’s husband, who pointed gun at protesters outside home -- A misdemeanor firearms case against the husband of former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey has been dismissed, his attorney said Tuesday, after he finished a diversion program to resolve charges that he had aimed a gun at three unarmed protesters in March 2020. Gregory Yee, James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Advocates say California isn’t defending a law allowing transgender prison transfers strongly enough, ask judge to intervene -- Advocates of transgender rights say California prison officials are hostile to a recent state law that allows inmates to transfer to a prison facility that matches their gender identity, and can’t be counted on to defend it in court. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

ICE Spying   

Immigration officials created network that can spy on majority of Americans, report says -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement has crafted a sophisticated surveillance dragnet designed to spy on most people living in the United States, without the need for warrants and many times circumventing state privacy laws, such as those in California, according to a two-year investigation released Tuesday by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. Cindy Carcamo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Education  

Cal State L.A. president gets no-confidence vote after professor removed from debate -- The Cal State Los Angeles Academic Senate overwhelmingly approved a no confidence resolution against university President William Covino following outcry over the forcible removal of a Black Lives Matter leader and Cal State L.A. professor during a mayoral debate more than one week ago. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/10/22

Good news for S.F. classrooms: More than 300 teachers to be spared from imminent layoffs -- The combination of staff attrition and a better outlook for state revenue allows the district to eliminate nearly all the layoff notices sent in March, according to the school board resolution up for a vote Tuesday. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

How a Florida public university helps more students to graduate sooner -- University of South Florida can count Nicholas Bennett as one of its victories in its campaign to bolster the Tampa school’s graduation rates over the past decade. As the pandemic pushed classes online, Bennett fell into a downward spiral of poor grades. He stopped, started and stopped attending classes. But then, counselors and campus advisers helped get him back on his degree path. Larry Gordon EdSource -- 5/11/22

Climate  

California’s new plan for carbon neutrality will make our lives radically different -- More organic farming. Less driving. No more natural gas in new buildings. Electric off-road vehicles. For the first time in five years, California regulators have released an ambitious plan for tackling climate change. Kate Galbraith, Tara Duggan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

Environment  

Divers pulled 25,000 pounds of trash from Lake Tahoe. Now they want to clean more Sierra lakes -- A first-of-its-kind project to remove underwater litter and junk along Lake Tahoe's 72-mile shoreline concluded on Tuesday as scuba divers complete the final leg of their garbage-collecting circuit in the waters near Stateline, Nev., where they began a year ago. Gregory Thomas in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/10/22

 

Tuesday Updates