California in for wet, white, potentially wild Christmas as Pineapple Express storm looms
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II: "A powerful Pineapple Express storm could deliver a wet, white and potentially wild Christmas to California, with the possibility of snow in the Sierra Nevada and plenty of rainfall across the Southland.
Although the forecast is still coming into focus, the incoming atmospheric river system is shaping up to be the strongest in years to hit the Los Angeles area on the holiday — and threatens a soggy slog for those hitting the road to visit friends or family."
READ MORE -- Northern California could see 8 straight days of rain. Here’s when it kicks off -- Chronicle, GREG PORTER
These hidden rules reveal how California insurers undercut wildfire claims, leaving families in damaged homes
Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON/MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "As flames incinerated whole blocks in Southern California, fierce winds pushed dark, speckled ash through Rossana Valverde’s door frames, windows and vents. Her home stood a short drive from the worst destruction caused by January’s Eaton Fire, but she had gotten lucky: Apart from a singed tree, her property appeared unscathed.
Yet the acrid stench in the bungalow she shared with her husband suggested otherwise. The remains of other people’s homes now permeated hers."
READ MORE -- After Palisades failures, is LAFD prepared for the next major wildfire? -- LAT, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN/NOAH GOLDBERG
Trump gives a partisan address insisting the economy is stronger than many voters feel
LAT, JOSH BOAK: "President Trump delivered a politically charged speech Wednesday carried live in prime time on network television, seeking to pin the blame for economic challenges on Democrats while announcing he is sending a $1,776 bonus check to U.S. troops for Christmas.
The remarks came as the nation is preparing to settle down to celebrate the holidays, yet Trump was focused more on divisions within the country than a sense of unity. His speech was a rehash of his recent messaging that has so far been unable to calm public anxiety about the cost of groceries, housing, utilities and other basic goods."
A chilling narrative of the Rob Reiner slayings is emerging: What we know
LAT, RICHARD WINTON/HANNAH FRY: "Five days after Rob and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Brentwood home, a basic timeline is emerging about the killings and the arrest, hours later, of their son Nick.
Reiner, 32, was charged with two counts of murder on Tuesday. He appeared in court Wednesday, when a judge postponed his arraignment until January."
Rob Reiner’s children speak out about ‘horrific and devastating loss of our parents’
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Days after the fatal stabbings of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, two of their children spoke publicly for the first time, pleading for privacy as their brother faced a judge on murder charges.
In a joint statement released through a family spokesperson on Wednesday, Dec. 17, Jake, 34, and Romy Reiner, 27, described a grief that, they said, had made ordinary language feel inadequate."
Should California codify additional interpretive directives?
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "The more I delve into statutory interpretation, the more I am confronted from a legislative drafting perspective whether interpretive guidance should be provided to the courts in this state by placing additional directives in statute. The California courts already use a number of judicial principles when interpreting ambiguous statutes.
As a general rule, our courts rely upon the plain meaning of the statutory language. However, when there is ambiguity, the judiciary will turn to the goal of determining the intent of the Legislature. As a result, it raises with me whether the Legislature should codify this goal and others for the courts to follow when interpreting an ambiguous (i.e., when statutory language is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation)."
L.A. Councilmember John Lee hit with $138,000 fine in Las Vegas gift case
LAT, DAVID ZAHNISER: "L.os Angeles City Councilmember John Lee is facing a steep fine for his notorious 2017 trip to Las Vegas, with the city’s Ethics Commission saying he must pay $138,424 in a case involving pricey meals and expensive nightclub “bottle service.”
On Wednesday, the commission decided 4 to 0 that Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, committed two counts of violating the city’s gift law and three counts of violating a law requiring that such gifts be disclosed to the public."
S.F. report suggests cutting almost half of city commissions. But streamlining fight isn’t over yet
Chronicle, ALYCE MCFADDEN: "A committee created to curb the city's overabundance of committees, a very San Franciscan solution to a very San Franciscan problem, will on Thursday begin to consider an initial report from city staff recommending the elimination of nearly half of the city’s 150 commissions.
Most of the 61 groups the report would see disbanded are inactive and the rest are redundant or ineffective, the report found."
California’s first elected insurance commissioner says Ricardo Lara has ‘failed’
SacBee, NICOLE NIXON: "A Democratic congressman and twice-elected state insurance commissioner on Wednesday slammed the current officeholder, Ricardo Lara, who he accused of failing in his duty to California consumers.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, became the first person elected to the office in 1990 after voters turned it into an elected position instead of one appointed by the governor. He served until 1995 and held a second term as the state’s insurance watchdog from 2003-2007."
UCSF buys former biotech headquarters in Mission Bay expansion
Chronicle, LAURA WAXMANN: "UCSF is doubling down on San Francisco’s Mission Bay, snapping up two adjacent buildings in a strategic expansion that will relocate its School of Dentistry near its vast health-sciences hub in the booming waterfront neighborhood.
The university closed a deal Wednesday to purchase 409 Illinois St., the former headquarters of struggling drug maker FibroGen Inc., and an adjacent building that UCSF already occupies at 499 Illinois St. from Alexandria Real Estate Equities, one of Mission Bay’s biggest landlords."
What the Chevron fire tells us about failures in air quality monitoring
LAT, TONY BRISCOE: "More than two months after an explosion erupted at the Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo, neither the company nor the regulators responsible for monitoring the facility have released details on the cause and the extent of the environmental fallout.
Here’s what we do know so far: Around 9:30 p.m.on Oct. 2, a large fire broke out in the southeast corner of the refinery, where Chevron turned crude oil into jet fuel. The resulting violent blast allegedly wounded several workers on the refinery grounds and rattled homes up to one mile away."
The Bay Area is losing the data center race. Economists say that could be a good thing
Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "A few blocks away from San Jose’s airport, an empty concrete and glass structure is waiting to be turned on.
Work began six years ago on the four-story data center, called SJC37 and owned by Digital Realty, one of the world’s biggest data center landlords. The tan exterior is finished, but there’s no equipment installed — and it could be years before the project gets the power it needs to start operations."
Once a pariah, Saudi Arabia is now Hollywood’s hot cash source
LAT, STACY PERMAN/AUGUST BROWN/SAMANTHA MASUNAGA: "Earlier this month, when billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison needed more money to bolster Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, he and his family turned to a lucrative source: Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund backed a $24-billion financing package in support of Paramount Skydance’s $78-billion play for Warner, which had already accepted an offer from Netflix for its film and TV studio, HBO and HBO Max."
How a speeding ticket can be worse than killing someone with your car in California
CALMatters, ROBERT LEWIS/LAUREN HEPLER: "In California, you can kill someone with your car and not even have a point on your license.
That’s because of a criminal justice reform law passed in 2020, allowing judges to effectively erase a misdemeanor case from existence. It shields people accused of “low-level” crimes from the stigma of having a conviction on their record, something that can limit work and housing opportunities."
CARE Court was created to help California’s toughest homeless cases. Why that’s been so hard
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "Every time Jennifer Farrell got close to her brother, he slipped through her fingers.
As she walked the railroad tracks on the border of San Lorenzo and Hayward last month, searching for signs of her homeless younger sibling, she thought she caught a glimpse of him on a discarded mattress. But it turned out to be someone else."
Is the death penalty legal in California? Capital punishment’s complex history
SacBee, DON SWEENEY: "The deaths of director Rob Reiner and his wife have drawn attention to California’s long and tangled history with the death penalty.
Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead of stab wounds Sunday, Dec. 14, at their Brentwood home, The Sacramento Bee previously reported."
