California now the COVID-19 epicenter of the US; ICU space at 0%
Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "California enters the final week of 2020 as the U.S. epicenter of the coronavirus crisis.
The state of 40 million people has seen more than 2.1 million test positive and at least 24,220 die of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the California Department of Public Health.
More than 570,000 of those cases and 3,250 of the deaths have come in the past two weeks — averages of about 41,000 cases and 231 deaths per day, both record highs for the state. California has reported the highest number of new cases per capita in the past week of any state, according to data from Johns Hopkins University."
San Diego hospital morgues overflow as coronavirus surge increases
PAUL SISSON, LA Times: "San Diego County’s healthcare system reached a stark milestone over the weekend as dwindling hospital morgue capacity forced the county medical examiner to begin storing the deceased.
A medical examiner transport vehicle removed five bodies from Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa over the weekend, officials confirmed in an email, after the facility’s morgue filled past capacity.
Dr. Steven Campman, San Diego County’s interim medical examiner, said in an email Monday that four hospitals have notified his office recently that their morgues were near capacity. The situation has unfolded as San Diego County experiences its most significant surge in COVID-19 deaths to date."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: LA County issues most dire warnings yet: Hospitals in absolute crisis as death toll surges toward 10,000 -- LA Times's LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II/HAYLEY SMITH; COVID-19 has stolen lives, broken families, widened the wealth gap and rewired life in East LA -- LA Times's MARISA GERBER/ANDREA CASTILLO/JULIA BARAJAS/ANDREW J CAMPA; How SF's coronavirus case rate compares to other US cities right now -- The Chronicle's KELLIE HWANG
Oxygen supply shortages bedevil hospitals already overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients
RONG-GONG LIN II, LUKE MONEY and HAYLEY SMITH, LA Times: "One of the myriad challenges facing Southern California’s medical system, which is overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, involves one of the most basic staples of any hospital.
Oxygen.
Officials are having problems getting the amount of oxygen needed by critically ill COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe as their inflamed lungs are being damaged or destroyed."
Federal judge dismisses Devin Nunes' first lawsuit against The Washington Post
Sac Bee's KATE IRBY: "A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has dismissed California Rep. Devin Nunes’ first lawsuit against The Washington Post, saying Nunes’ complaints about a Post article did not constitute defamation.
Nunes, R-Tulare, first sued The Post over an article it published in December 2019. The article said Nunes had informed President Donald Trump about a briefing given to members of the House Intelligence Committee that said Russia preferred that Trump win the 2020 presidential election.
Nunes sued The Post shortly after the article was published claiming defamation and an alleged conspiracy with congressional Democrats. On Christmas Eve, D.C. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed the entirety of Nunes’ lawsuit, saying he’d failed to specify any actual defamation."
Fate of Trump's $2000 checks now rests with GOP-led Senate
AP's LISA MASCARO/JILL COLVIN: "President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks now rests with the Senate after the House voted overwhelmingly to meet the president's demand to increase the $600 stipends, but Republicans have shown little interest in boosting spending.
The outcome is highly uncertain heading into Tuesday's session. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declined to publicly address how he plans to handle the issue. But Democrats, sharing a rare priority with Trump, have seized on the opportunity to force Republicans into a difficult vote of either backing or defying the outgoing president.
After bipartisan approval by the House, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warned, “There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to stand in the way.”"
READ MORE related to Economy/Pandemic Stimulus/Relief: Why the new COVID-19 stimulus means California workers won't have to repay unemployment aid -- Sac Bee's JEONG PARK; New stimulus payments that may come to the Bay Area: Here's what's changed and what hasn't -- The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER; Ceiling fans recalled after reports of detaching blades, injuries -- The Chronicle's VANESSA ARREDONDO
What's the Defense Production Act? Biden plans to use it for COVID vaccine production
Sac Bee's BAILEY ALDRIDGE: "President-elect Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act when he takes office to boost coronavirus vaccine production, one of his advisers says.
Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, said Monday on CNBC’s Squawk Box that the act will be used to ensure the country has enough pandemic-related supplies.
“The idea there is to make sure that the personal protective equipment, the test capacity and the raw materials for the vaccines are produced in adequate supply,” Gounder told Squawk Box."
READ MORE related to Vaccine: 'You will be sanctioned.' Newsom warns against vaccine line-skipping -- Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER; A hospital gave a COVID-19 vaccine to a Disney employee. It may be permitted under state guidance -- LA Times's COLLEEN SHALBY
Sex offenders can qualify for early parole, California Supreme Court rules
AP: "The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that inmates who have been convicted of nonviolent sex crimes may be eligible for early parole consideration as part of a ballot measure that nearly two-thirds of voters approved of four years ago.
“The initiative’s language provides no indication that the voters intended to allow the (Corrections) Department to create a wholesale exclusion from parole consideration based on an inmate’s sex offense convictions when the inmate was convicted of a nonviolent felony,” wrote Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in the unanimous decision.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, who championed the 2014 initiative as a way to reduce prison populations and costs by speeding up chances for parole, has repeatedly said he and other proponents never intended for it to cover sex offenders."
Santa Cruz County woman caught in Social Security bureaucracy wins court ruling
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "A Santa Cruz County woman was denied federal disability benefits in 2017, appealed and said she heard nothing until her lawyer contacted the Social Security Administration nearly two years later and learned she had been turned down. But federal officials insisted they had notified Julie Ashe promptly and said she had forfeited the right to appeal further.
A federal magistrate agreed and dismissed the disability claim. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Monday that Ashe apparently had done everything she could and was entitled to pursue her appeal unless the government comes up with evidence, which it has yet to produce, that it had actually contacted her.
Ashe, of Aptos, sought Supplemental Security Income benefits for a disability that is not disclosed in the public record, was denied by a hearing officer in November 2017 and promptly appealed. The administration’s Appeals Council ruled against her in April 2018 and said in later court filings that it had immediately mailed notices of the denial to Ashe and her attorney."
California must burn more of its forests to saved them. Is the public ready?
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "Bill Tripp was 4 years old when he began studying the benefits of fire, an education steeped in ancestral traditions many generations older than modern-day California.
After Tripp tried to build a fire in the wood stove of his family home one day to keep his great-grandmother warm, she scolded him. Flames were not something to mess around with, she said.
Then she led him toward some oak trees outside her home in a remote Karuk Tribe village near the border of Siskiyou and Humboldt counties. There, she told him to burn a small line in the leaf-strewn ground, a task at which, after some struggle, he succeeded."
Disease is decimating California's wild ducks and shorebirds. What's really responsible
Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW: "Even through my face mask, I could smell botulism and decay as the mallard baked under the midday sun. The duck floated on its back near a patch of tules. It was writhing with maggots.
I reached over the side of the airboat to pluck it out of the muddy water with a pair of four-foot grippers, trying not to gag. I dropped it into a garbage bag at my feet filled with a half-dozen ducks and shorebirds. Maggots, mud and viscera splashed my chest waders.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” shouted the pilot, John Vradenburg, over the roar of the engine powering the airboat’s propeller. “The ones with the maggots are the problem.”
READ MORE related to Air/Climate/Environment: Thunderstorm slams Southland -- LA Times's STAFF
New lawsuit could delay UC Davis' $1.1B Aggie Square project in Sacramento
Sac Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "A Sacramento community group has filed a lawsuit that could delay or kill UC Davis’ $1.1 billion Aggie Square project, set to start construction next year near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood.
The lawsuit — filed last week by Sacramento Investment Without Displacement against the University of California Board of Regents — claims the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act by failing to properly mitigate the air pollution and housing displacement issues it could cause the surrounding neighborhoods. It asks a judge to issue an order to halt all work on the project until it comes into compliance.
“Unless the deficiencies in the UC’s (environmental impact report) are corrected, the UC’s actions will exacerbate existing housing inequities and drive displacement in some of Sacramento’s most historically underserved communities,” the lawsuit, filed Dec. 21 in Sacramento County Superior Court, stated."
Ex-SFPD cop pleads not guilty to manslaughter in fatal shooting case
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "The former San Francisco police officer facing manslaughter charges in the fatal 2017 shooting of carjacking suspect Keita O’Neil pleaded not guilty Monday in a virtual appearance in San Francisco Superior Court.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin charged Christopher Samayoa, 31, last month, marking the first time in modern history that a police officer was criminally charged in a line-of-duty killing.
Samayoa spoke only to answer procedural questions, and waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 26."
Biden warns of Trump officials' 'roadblocks' to transition
AP's ALEXANDRA JAFFE: "President-elect Joe Biden is warning of massive damage done to the national security apparatus by the Trump administration and “roadblocks” in communication between agency officials and his transition team that could undermine Americans’ security.
During remarks Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said his team has faced “obstruction” from the “political leadership” at the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget as they’ve sought to gather necessary information to continue the transition of power.
“Right now we just aren’t getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. It’s nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility,” Biden said."
READ MORE related to POTUS-E #46: History holds Biden may be the right man for the moment -- LA Times's DAVID M. SHRIBMAN/KEN GORMLEY
As Trump loses ground in Washington, House votes to override defense bill veto
LA Times's CHRIS MEGERIAN/SARAH D WIRE: "He promised to bring deal-making savvy to the nation’s capital, yet President Trump is poised to end his term with back-to-back embarrassments — caving to sign a coronavirus relief compromise he’d called “a disgrace” and facing the likelihood that Congress will override his veto of an annual military operations bill.
In a bipartisan vote on Monday evening, the House took the first step in rebuffing the president’s veto of the defense bill, which had passed overwhelmingly in both chambers this month. The override vote, which required a two-thirds margin, was 322 to 87.
“The troops, the country, indeed the world is watching to see what we will do, whether we can tune out other differences, and still come together to support the men and women of the military and American national security,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said before the vote. “I would only ask, as members vote, they put the best interests of the country first. There is no other consideration that should matter.”"
