UC to scrutinize UCLA’s Pac-12 exit after Newsom and regents demand clarity on the deal
LAT, TERESA WATANABE/BEN BOLCH: “The University of California announced Thursday it will scrutinize UCLA’s Pac-12 exit and issue a public report on the effect on student-athletes and the ripple effect on UC Berkeley and other campuses.
The request for a review came from the UC Board of Regents and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who demanded an explanation from UCLA on its planned move in August 2024 after he attended a closed-door regents meeting Wednesday about the matter in San Francisco. He has expressed concern about what he views as a lack of transparency by UCLA, which informed UC President Michael V. Drake about its conversations with Big Ten officials but did not consult with regents. Only a handful of UC regents were notified just before the decision was announced.
UC Berkeley — the only UC campus that will be left behind in a weakened conference without UCLA and USC — will probably take a big financial hit.”
Indoor mask rules expected next week as L.A. coronavirus wave worsens
LAT, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: “Los Angeles County is poised to impose new indoor mask rules next week as data show the hyper-infectious BA.5 Omicron subvariant is pushing coronavirus case counts higher and sending increasing numbers of people to the hospital.
A new mask mandate would mark a significant escalation in the response to the new subvariants, which have fueled a spring-and-summer surge and can cause people to quickly be reinfected with the coronavirus. L.A. County would be the first county in Southern California to bring back masks this year, and it remains unclear whether other areas would join. Alameda County issued a mask mandate June 3 and rescinded it three weeks later.
Although a final decision is still days away, the likelihood of a mask rule has sparked growing debate in a society weary of both the pandemic and its restrictions.”
COVID in California: Over 97% of U.S. counties have high or substantial transmission
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: “Bay Area doctors are preparing for the arrival of the recently approved Novavax vaccine, which uses a more traditional medical technology that might persuade some skeptics to get protective shots.
The fourth vaccine option arrives amid an historic surge in cases that hasn’t yet resulted in moves by local health officials to tighten policies on masking or social distancing. At this point, most Americans seem to think that COVID will never go away, but it’s unclear how they plan to adapt to that.
More than 97% of U.S. counties have high or substantial COVID transmission”
Supreme Court orders Biden administration to enforce Trump’s deportation policy
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “The Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration Thursday to enforce, at least for the rest of this year, former President Donald Trump’s policy of arresting and deporting all immigrants who illegally enter the United States.
The court agreed to consider the current administration’s challenge to the Trump policy, but, in a 5-4 order, kept the policy in effect until the case is heard in December. That order suggested the court was prepared to grant states new authority to intervene in federal immigration policy.
While federal law requires the government to hold immigrants who have entered the nation without authority, and to deport them if they lack legal grounds for remaining, such as fear of persecution in their homeland, federal officials lack funds to detain all undocumented immigrants and have tried to prioritize holding those who pose particular dangers of crime or flight.”
Taps have run dry in Monterrey, Mexico, where there is water for factories but not for residents
LAT, KATE LINTHICUM/GARY CORONADO: “Three months pregnant and queasy with morning sickness, Yasmin Acosta Ruiz pushed a cart laden with buckets of water through the scorching July heat. As she and her 7-year-old son eased the cart over a speed bump, water sloshed onto the pavement. They both winced.
Here on the outskirts of Monterrey, a sprawling industrial city that has become the face of Mexico’s water crisis, every drop counts.
Drought has drained the three reservoirs that provide about 60% of the water for the region’s 5 million residents. Most homes now receive water for only a few hours each morning. And on the city’s periphery, many taps have run completely dry.”
California’s Asian American Pacific Islanders push for political clout
Capitol Weekly, LOLA WATTS: “Asian American Pacific Islanders, or AAPI, are a rising political force, but they have yet to flex their full muscle.
Despite their status as the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S., AAPI are simultaneously under-represented in politics: About 16 percent of the nation’s 22 million people identified as Asian and Pacific Islander Americans live in California, according to the latest census, but the community’s elected share of legislative officeholders are less than their numbers suggest.
Eight members of the 120-member Legislature are members of the AAPI Legislative Caucus, or about 7 percent. Of the state’s eight constitutional officers, two are of the AAPI community — Treasurer Fiona Ma and Controller Betty Yee.”
S.F. Mayor Breed vetoes law to end single-family zoning, arguing it will actually hurt housing production
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH/JD MORRIS: “Mayor London Breed vetoed legislation that would have eliminated single-family zoning in San Francisco to allow fourplexes everywhere and six-unit homes on all corner lots, saying it sabotaged a state law meant to increase density.
In her veto letter Thursday, Breed wrote that it was with “great disappointment” that she rejected the law but argued that new requirements and financial barriers added by supervisors “will make it even less likely for new housing to be built under the ordinance’s provisions” than under current state law.
“While I support the original intent of the ordinance to add new desperately needed housing options for San Franciscans struggling with the high cost of housing, especially for our middle-income families, after many amendments, this ordinance no longer achieves the goal intended to actually produce more housing,” she said. “Instead, it is fair to say that this ordinance, as amended, will set back housing production.””
S.F. D.A. Brooke Jenkins fills more key positions. Here’s who will investigate police misconduct
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: “San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Thursday announced the promotions of three veteran prosecutors who will serve on her leadership team, filling some of key positions made vacant last week after she fired 15 employees who worked under former D.A. Chesa Boudin.
The appointments are Julius DeGuia, who will oversee homicide, domestic violence and child abuse cases; Darby Williams, who will manage prosecutions of police officers; and Greg Flores, who will manage the office’s resentencing and victim restitution work.
More shuffling within Jenkins’ office was still expected: In the past two weeks, at least six other employees in the D.A.’s office announced they would leave voluntarily. Everyone who was fired was hired by Boudin, whom Jenkins helped to eject from office with a successful recall campaign.”
Amazon bought One Medical. People are worried about their privacy
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: “Amazon’s $3.9 billion acquisition San Francisco’s One Medical swiftly raised privacy concerns about what the online retail giant might have planned with the health care company’s medical data.
One Medical, a membership-based health care provider that has benefits like same and next day appointments as well as 24 hour access to virtual care, is the latest move in Amazon’s push into health care — and a move that could make health care “accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable,” One Medical’s CEO Amir Dan Rubin said in a statement.
But the company’s sale, which is still subject to regulatory approval, also opened up questions about whether the move gives Amazon access to medical data — a potential issue already concerning many One Medical members, many of whom are in the Bay Area. According to its last earnings report in March, One Medical had about 767,000 members and 188 medical offices in 25 markets. Nearly 40 of those medical offices are in the Bay Area — the most of any of the metro areas it serves.”
UC tracking drop in students returning after Covid start, especially for low-income and first-generation students
EdSourced, MICHAEL BURKE: “Fewer first-year and transfer students returned to the University of California this past fall after enrolling the previous year, a trend that system President Michael Drake said he is watching “very carefully” but predicted will rebound.
Across the university’s nine undergraduate campuses, 92% of undergraduates who enrolled as freshmen in fall 2020 returned to their UC campus in fall 2021, down from 93% the previous year. The percentages measure what are called retention rates.
The drops were steeper for first-generation students, students who receive Pell Grants and underrepresented students, which includes Black, Latino and Native American students. The retention rates dropped from 92% to 88% for first-generation students, from 91% to 88% for underrepresented students and from 93% to 89% for Pell recipients. Pell Grants are federal financial aid awards available to low-income students.”
Will billions close California’s educational equity gaps?
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: “That’s the double-edged sword facing California as it pours an unprecedented amount of funding into a public school system grappling with declining enrollment, persistent shortages of educators and substitute teachers, and educational achievement gaps that only widened during the pandemic.
And it was the unspoken backdrop to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s much-publicized trip last week to Washington, D.C., where he accepted an award recognizing California’s approach to public education, including its “historic financial investments to ensure educational equity.”
“The education budget in California was $170 billion” last year, Newsom said at the start of his acceptance speech. “I think it’s larger than the entire budgets of all but two states in the country. I say that not to impress you, but to impress upon you that what we do has consequences.””
S.F. was a ‘failed city’ last month. Now it's one of ‘World’s 50 Greatest Places of 2022’
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: “San Francisco residents have been through a lot in the last two years: the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, many restaurants and businesses shuttering, rising costs of living, the growing fentanyl and homelessness crises, and two historic recall elections.
But despite all its woes, San Francisco still has its charm. Music and cultural festivals have returned to the city’s streets and entertainment venues, and new parks, restaurants and art exhibitions abound this summer.
And just like that, a month after being declared a “failed city” by one national publication, San Francisco has gotten the nod from two others as a prime destination for travelers: Time magazine named it one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Places of 2022,” and New York Times Travel also recommended it as a destination in its “What’s New in 2022” series.”
‘Unbridled destructive energy’: Takeaways from Thursday’s hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection
LAT, ARIT JOHN: “The House Jan. 6 committee offered new details Thursday about the 187 minutes — from 1:10 pm to 4:17 pm — that elapsed between the end of President Trump’s speech to supporters near the White House and the video he put out urging the mob storming the Capitol to go home.
The committee showed that Trump spent most of those three hours in the White House dining room. As Fox News played in the background, the former president called senators to urge them to help delay the electoral count and ignored pleas from his advisors to help end the insurrection.
“For 187 minutes on January 6, [2021], this man of unbridled destructive energy could not be moved,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) said at the start of the hearing.”
Jan. 6: Trump spurned aides' pleas to call off Capitol mob
AP, LISA MASCARO/FARNOUSH AMIRI/ERIC TUCKER: “Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.
The next day, he declared anew, “I don't want to say the election is over." That was in a previously unaired outtake of an address to the nation he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.
The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.”
