Updating . .  

Rick Caruso closes in on Karen Bass as L.A. mayor’s race tightens, poll finds -- The race for mayor of Los Angeles was tightening rapidly as it entered its final week, with Rick Caruso cutting deeply into Rep. Karen Bass’ lead, putting him within striking distance in the contest to run the nation’s second-largest city. Benjamin Oreskes in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Hire officers? Abolish the police? L.A.'s election reveals deep divisions over the LAPD -- When community activist Eunisses Hernandez ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council this year, she made clear she thinks L.A. needs fewer police. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Fact check: Does Sacramento Senate candidate want to take away Medicare in California? -- California interest groups are using the last days of the November election to seize on voters’ concerns about healthcare costs with misleading ads claiming that a Sacramento state Senate candidate wants to take away Medicare. Lindsey Holden in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/4/22

These California districts voted big for Biden, but Republicans are optimistic about their chances -- As the sun set behind rows of modest homes, Republican Matt Jacobs knocked on doors urging voters in Oxnard to ditch their incumbent Democratic congresswoman and pick him to improve their quality of life. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Money pours in as ads and barbs fly in tight San Jose mayoral race -- More than $1 million has poured into San Jose’s mayoral race in recent weeks, pushing what was already a record amount raised closer to $8 million and suggesting the race to lead the Bay Area’s most populous city is neck and neck down the stretch. John Woolfolk, Harriet Blair Rowan in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/4/22

One way to understand San Francisco’s political factions? Follow the money -- What do Brooke Jenkins, Matt Dorsey and Joel Engardio have in common? Besides being as candidates on the San Francisco ballot Nov. 8, they share many of the same donors. Leila Darwiche, Nami Sumida in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

Knight: Two crucial S.F. measures on streets and transit could go down on Tuesday. Here’s what the city would lose -- When people are tired, ticked off or tuned out, they tend to vote no. But when it comes to a couple of city propositions that would shape San Francisco’s streets and the way we move around them, voting no could prove devastating to the city’s effort to give pedestrians and bicyclists space to move safely and strengthen its public transit system. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

Villanueva claims Gascón withheld announcing decision on deputies to hurt him in election -- With less than a week to go before the Nov. 8 election, embattled Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Thursday, Nov. 3, accused District Attorney George Gascón of refusing to announce that he declined to prosecute the deputies involved in three controversial shootings and an in-custody use-of-force. Josh Cain in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 11/4/22

Biden to plug tech bill in California, campaign in Illinois -- President Joe Biden on Friday is set to tour a southern California communications company that is expected to benefit from his legislative push to bolster American semiconductor manufacturing — and he’s taking a vulnerable Democratic congressman with him. Aamer Madhani Associated Press -- 11/4/22

Homeless

Tensions rise between Newsom, mayors over homelessness -- As voters cast ballots in the last few days leading up to California’s Nov. 8 election, who will they blame for the state’s persistent housing and homelessness crises? Emily Hoeven CalMatters -- 11/4/22 

Inside San Diego’s surprising success housing homeless people -- The federal government unveiled a housing voucher program to house the most vulnerable people during the pandemic. This is what happened in San Diego. Anumita Kaur in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Lopez: A skid row response to mayoral homeless promises: Bring not words, but deeds and truth -- One night on skid row, many years ago, I asked a homeless person if he’d seen a guy pushing a violin and cello around in a shopping cart. I told him I’d hooked up with a nonprofit that was trying to get my musician friend into an apartment. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

L.A.’s winter homeless shelter gets an upgrade: motel vouchers -- In the past, when the weather turned cold and wet, people living on the street had two choices: hunker down or get to one of the winter shelters spread across Los Angeles County. Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Twitter   

Former employees sue Twitter over layoff, alleging violation of labor laws -- Former Twitter employees have sued the social media giant, alleging that the company violated and planned to violate federal and state laws that govern mass layoffs. Samantha Masunaga in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Twitter spent years building its staff. Under Musk, half may lose their jobs within days -- Hiring is challenging for every industry, but especially tech. Samantha Masunaga in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Twitter layoffs begin as Elon Musk seeks to steady wobbly tech firm -- It wasn’t clear, however, whether Musk-led Twitter was following California labor regulations that oblige employers to provide their workers with advance notice of widespread job cuts. As of Friday morning, the state Employment Development Department had not received any WARN notifications from Twitter regarding layoffs at the company, an EDD spokesperson told this news organization. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/4/22

How a massive Twitter layoff — and mandatory return to office — would impact S.F. -- As Elon Musk strode into Twitter’s headquarters last week, cementing his $44 billion takeover of the company, there was one clear beneficiary amid the uncertainty. Chris Foley, who owns the Market grocery store and food hall on the ground floor of the headquarters building, said daily sales jumped from around $9,500 to $12,000, thanks to an influx of Twitter workers. Chase Difeliciantonio, Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

Elon Musk Says Twitter Has Had Massive Revenue Drop as Layoffs Begin -- Twitter Inc. has suffered “a massive drop in revenue” because of advertisers cutting back on using the social-media platform, new owner Elon Musk said Friday, as the company started sweeping layoffs just over a week after the billionaire took it over. Sarah E. Needleman and Alexa Corse in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 11/4/22

Elon Musk’s mass Twitter layoffs turn the page on a Silicon Valley era -- The new CEO and owner has announced he wants to charge for blue check marks and employees are working on a new plan for paywalled videos. Advertisers are getting cold feet, while civil rights and activist groups are calling for boycotts. Others are worried about the fallout for the midterms. Faiz Siddiqui and Naomi Nix in the Washington Post$ -- 11/4/22

Workplace   

University of California teaching assistants, researchers set Nov. 14 strike date -- Nearly 48,000 postdoctoral and academic researchers, graduate student researchers and teaching assistants, tutors and readers, represented by four bargaining units of the United Auto Workers, will walk off the job unless they can reach an agreement with UC before then. Maya Miller in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/4/22

Street  

Inside L.A. County sheriff’s dubious corruption probe of Sheila Kuehl, another watchdog -- Long before detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department showed up at Sheila Kuehl’s house with a search warrant, it was clear this was no ordinary corruption investigation. Michael Finnegan, Laura J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Inside the hunt for a serial killer stalking Stockton: ‘This person’s on a mission’ -- When it became clear that someone was killing random people on the streets of Stockton, police were blunt about who they were dealing with. “This person’s on a mission,” Police Chief Stanley McFadden said. Christian Martinez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

US jails rife with violence, abuse and overcrowding -- In California, lawyers accused staff at the Los Angeles County jail of chaining mentally ill detainees to chairs for days at a time. Keri Blakinger Associated Press -- 11/4/22

Education  

‘One pill can kill’: Tragic teen deaths spur California schools to finally battle fentanyl crisis -- Laura Didier has lost count of the number of times she’s described her son’s death. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

Some fear being Asian American is a disadvantage when applying for college -- The question of whether Asian Americans experience bias in college admissions captured the national spotlight this week during intense arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether to abolish affirmative action. Teresa Watanabe, Anh Do, Jeong Park in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Jury awards $45 million over alleged abuse of two autistic students by Malibu school aide -- The family of two twins who are nonverbal has won a $45-million judgment against the Santa Monica-Malibu school system after suing over alleged physical abuse by a teacher’s aide who, they said, used hand sanitizer to inflict pain on the autistic children. Jonah Valdez, Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Also . . .   

Californians voted for permanent Daylight Saving Time. So why are we setting clocks back Sunday? -- The U.S. Senate, a rare unanimous vote, earlier this year passed Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act, which would permanently lock in Daylight Saving Time. But the bill has languished in the U.S. House of Representatives. Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/4/22

California Policy and Politics Friday  

Newsom rejects every California city's homelessness plan in stinging rebuke -- Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a blanket rejection of local California governments’ plans to curb homelessness, putting on hold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid — a sharp rebuke to how cities and counties are tackling the metastasizing issue. “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” Newsom said in a statement Thursday. Jeremy B. White Politico Sophia Bollag, Mallory Moench, Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Adam Beam, Janie Har Associated Press Sophia Bollag, Mallory Moench, Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Marisa Kendall in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/4/22

A gusher of campaign cash: Industry groups give big in California legislative races -- Independent expenditure committees — political spending groups that are legally required to be unaffiliated with the candidates they’re trying to support — have spent nearly $40 million since Sept. 1 trying to influence competitive legislative races across California. Ben Christopher, Sameea Kamal CalMatters -- 11/4/22

Rep. Bass is backed by several high-profile Democrats for L.A. mayor, with one notable exception -- “I have deep respect for both of them, and I have not gotten involved in that race,” Mr. Newsom said in a television interview this summer after a runoff narrowed the field in the officially nonpartisan race to the two contenders. Shawn Hubler in the New York Times$ -- 11/4/22

Paul Pelosi released from hospital after skull fracture from hammer attack -- Paul Pelosi is recovering from what officials said was a successful surgery at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital “to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.” Richard Winton, Hamed Aleaziz in the Los Angeles Times$ Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Paul Kane, Holly Bailey and Ben Brasch in the Washington Post$ Luke Broadwater and Kellen Browning in the New York Times$ Elliot Spagat Associated Press -- 11/4/22

Your guide to Prop. 29 on California kidney dialysis centers -- This is the third time in four years that California voters are being asked to weigh in on how kidney dialysis centers operate in the state, with previous attempts in 2018 and 2020 both failing. The item is in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Workplace   

Elon Musk begins mass layoffs at Twitter -- An email went out to the company’s employees late Thursday notifying employees of plans to cut jobs, informing them that by 9 a.m. Pacific time Friday, workers would receive an email with the subject line: “Your Role at Twitter.” Those keeping their jobs would be notified on their company email. Those losing them would be told via their personal email. Faiz Siddiqui in the Washington Post$ Kate Conger in the New York Times$ -- 11/4/22

Elon Musk Revamps Twitter With Help From Tesla Staff -- The Tesla employees have reviewed the coding work of Twitter engineers, including how much code they had produced, according to people familiar with the matter. The evaluations of employees’ work came as Mr. Musk’s team was drafting plans for job cuts, the people said. Alexa Corse, Rebecca Elliott and Robert McMillan in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 11/4/22

On eve of mass layoffs, Twitter employees say goodbye after being abruptly cut off from work emails, Slack -- Twitter employees took to the social media site Thursday night to say they’d unexpectedly lost access to their work email and internal work communications accounts on the eve of massive layoffs planned by the company’s new CEO Elon Musk. Jordan Parker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

With Twitter layoffs set to start, employees worry about getting their severance -- After the completion of Musk’s $44-billion takeover a week ago, there has been widespread concern among employees about what severance benefits they might receive and how Musk might seek to reduce the expected payout. Jaimie Ding in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

What we know so far about the anticipated University of California system strike -- University of California academic workers are getting ready to go on strike in an effort to get higher wages and child care subsidies. On Wednesday, 36,558 votes were cast from union workers and 97% voted yes to authorize a strike. Jacqueline Pinedo, Maya Miller in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/4/22

Buses aren’t running in Orange County due to maintenance worker strike -- About 100,000 bus riders across Orange County found themselves stranded Thursday after maintenance workers called for a strike amid stalled labor negotiations with the Orange County Transportation Authority. Salvador Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Taxes / Fees  

Your guide to L.A.'s ‘mansion tax’ proposal to build more housing, Ordinance ULA -- The so-called documentary transfer tax would generate an estimated $600 million to $1.1 billion a year, according to a city analysis, and the proceeds would fund affordable housing construction, rental subsidies and tenant defense, among other things. The item is in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Housing 

Here’s how much Bay Area home prices would have to fall to offset rising mortgage rates -- So how low would home values need to drop to get similar monthly payments from five months ago? In San Francisco, home values dropped 6.2% from May to September. They would have to drop an additional 10.4% — from $1.49 million to $1.33 million — to get a monthly payment close to May’s $8,000 level. Kellie Hwang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/4/22

Climate  

Tear out your lawn, get more free cash. LADWP ups rebates for customers -- With water supplies continuing to tighten, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday that the city’s Department of Water and Power will pay homeowners and businesses significantly more to remove their grassy turf. Approved applications will receive $5 per square foot, a 67% increase from the previous $3-per-square-foot incentive. Jon Healey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Wildfire  

Researchers share what they’ve learned in the aftermath of the Mosquito Fire -- On one side of this road, he said, the forest had previously been treated with various methods aimed at minimizing wildfire danger, like reducing fuels on the forest floor. On the other side of the road lay vast, untreated wildland. While treated areas often slow down the spread of fire coming in from an untreated area, Collins said that wasn’t the case in this particular section. Here, the fire had continued to spread into the treated area and burned trees to a crisp. Manola Secaira Capital Public Radio -- 11/4/22

COVID  

What public health experts expect for COVID-19 in California this winter -- Two California public health experts said a surge of COVID-19 could be coming soon and pleaded with all Californians to get vaccinated, including older adults and young children under 5. Kate Wolffe Capital Public Radio -- 11/4/22

Street  

Jury returns guilty verdicts on all counts in Santa Clara County sheriff corruption trial -- A jury reached guilty verdicts on all counts in the civil corruption trial of now-former Santa Clara County sheriff Laurie Smith, capping a monthlong trial that Smith sought to upend with her abrupt resignation from office, though a judge ultimately ordered the case to continue. Robert Salonga in the San Jose Mercury$ Gregory Yee in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/4/22

Santa Cruz hospital responds to worst-case scenario after hoax -- While a massive law enforcement presence converged on the Santa Cruz High School campus last week for what turned out to be a hoax school shooting report, a similar response played out at an emergency room 4 miles away. Jessica York in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/4/22

AG won’t seek charges in LAPD shooting of man with fake gun -- California’s attorney general said Thursday that he will not seek criminal charges against Los Angeles police officers who fatally shot a man on Hollywood Boulevard last year, even though it turned out the gun he carried was fake. The shooting caused panic on the busy street, with tourists and bystanders ducking for cover. Don Thompson Associated Press -- 11/4/22

Hyperloop  

SpaceX dismantles Hyperloop prototype in Hawthorne, puts up a parking lot -- The demise of the test tunnel — a roughly mile-long white cylinder running along Jack Northrop Avenue near the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. office in Hawthorne — is symbolic of a larger retreat. While Musk still says he wants to build a Hyperloop, the project has been indefinitely shelved. Sarah McBride Bloomberg -- 11/4/22

Education  

Tiny house construction training has Fresno students dreaming big about their futures -- At Fresno City College’s Career and Technology Center, tucked away in an industrial neighborhood near the city’s southern border, a dozen students gathered around the wood framing of a small exterior wall. Ashleigh Panoo EdSource -- 11/4/22

Also . . .   

The mystery of the buried car in Atherton might just have been solved -- After a lengthy investigation, investigators have determined that the vehicle was buried for insurance fraud purposes, they wrote in a statement Thursday. The owner of the car, Johnny Bocktune Lew, was the former owner of the mansion at 351 Stockbridge Ave. He was accused in 1999 of hiring people to sink a yacht worth $1.2 million to cash in on the insurance. Annie Vainshtein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Jason Green in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/4/22

Former Rep. Norman D. Shumway, a six-term California congressman, dies at age 88 -- Born in Phoenix before graduating from Stockton High School and earning an associate’s degree from Stockton College, Shumway served in local, state and federal government for more than two decades, first taking office on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors in 1974 and winning re-election in 1978. Michael Mcgough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/4/22