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Coronavirus: A month-by-month look at our path forward -- Even in this dark moment, as coronavirus cases surge to even more alarming levels and new lockdowns are imposed, there is a path forward to guide us out of this pandemic, experts say. Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/15/20

How to make sure winter is welcoming in the time of COVID -- With temperatures dropping and the days growing short, the Bay Area’s new landscape of parklets and shared outdoor spaces needs to be adapted to the realities of the season. John King, Santiago Mejia in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/15/20

The coronavirus pandemic is hitting Black-owned businesses especially hard -- Walter Wilson co-founded the Minority Business Consortium to create more economic opportunities for people sidelined by institutionalized racism. Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/15/20

Policy & Politics 

Making history: Three Korean American women, two representing California, win seats in Congress -- By text, by phone and by social media, they trumpeted the news from California to Asia: Late Friday, Young Kim had joined her “sister” Michelle Steel in making history as two of the first three Korean American women ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Anh Do in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/15/20

Without Trump in the White House, what’s next for California Republicans? -- California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson will be the first to tell you that, before last year, state Republicans were losing steam. Lara Korte in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/15/20

Republicans made gains in California but missed San Diego County: Where does the local GOP go from here? -- While not quite the resurgence they may have hoped for, California Republicans made significant gains around the state in this election and are on pace to pick up three of the state’s 53 congressional seats, putting them at 11. Unfortunately for local Republicans, San Diego County was not part of that trend. Charles T. Clark in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/15/20

Harris’s allies wonder anxiously: Will she have real clout? -- But while Black activists remain excited about Harris’s ascent, many now worry that the administration will not deliver much beyond her historic election — a fear sharpened by Democrats’ disappointing performance in congressional races, which has dramatically limited Biden’s maneuvering room. Chelsea Janes and Sean Sullivan in the Washington Post$ -- 11/15/20

Trump actually increased his vote total in San Francisco over 2016 -- As of Friday, President Trump had gotten 56,321 votes in San Francisco — 18,633 more votes than he got in 2016, according to results from the San Francisco Department of Elections. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/15/20

Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election with this coalition -- The former vice president held on to Barack Obama’s vaunted coalition of college-educated liberals, young people and Black voters. He slightly narrowed the gap with the white working class, particularly women. Among Latinos, well, it’s complicated. Melanie Mason in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/15/20

Education 

Charter schools could find it tougher to win approval in San Diego -- San Diego Unified is proposing adding dozens of standards for new and expanding charter schools after a new state law gives districts more leeway to deny charters. Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/15/20

San Diego universities will increase testing for COVID-19 after Thanksgiving -- A new surge of coronavirus infections is sweeping the nation, just as San Diego colleges prepare to send students off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/15/20

Cheers and Applause   

Wayne Thiebaud turns 100 today: Sacramento celebrates its best-known artist -- The influences on Wayne Thiebaud, the legendary Sacramento artist who marks his 100th birthday Sunday, are vast: there’s Willem DeKooning’s abstract expressionism, Richard Diebenkorn’s figurative works as well as commercial and comic art. But don’t forget the Sacramento region where Thiebaud made his home and his name in the art world. Darrell Smith in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/15/20

 

California Policy and P  olitics Sunday Morning  

L.A. County sees highest number of coronavirus cases in one day since the summer -- Los Angeles County public health officials reported 20 new deaths and 3,780 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, the highest number of positive cases in one day since the summertime. Liam Dillon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/15/20

COVID-19 shutdowns spark defiance and grim compliance among San Diego businesses -- State and county orders for a wide swath of San Diego businesses to close indoor operations yet again took effect after the stroke of midnight Saturday, as the region struggles to control the spread of COVID-19. Jonathan Wosen, Phil Diehl, Karen Pearlman in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/15/20

Bay Area’s coronavirus spike underscores risks of holiday gatherings -- The Bay Area has seen a significant rise in coronavirus cases in past weeks, with one activity consistently cited by health officers as the main factor driving the spread. Annie Vainshtein and Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/15/20

Riverside, San Bernardino counties plead for people to get tested for coronavirus -- Record numbers of people in the Inland Empire have been tested for the novel coronavirus in recent weeks, one positive trend as case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 climb toward all-time peaks. Ryan Hagen in the Riverside Press Enterprise$ -- 11/15/20

USC will continue mostly online classes in spring due to coronavirus surge -- USC will likely continue to hold classes almost entirely online during the spring semester as coronavirus cases continue to spike in Los Angeles County, the school announced Friday. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/15/20

UC Davis looking into fraternity gathering that may have exposed 20 to coronavirus -- UC Davis officials are looking into a gathering that may have been held at an off-campus fraternity house Thursday, potentially exposing 20 students to the virus that causes COVID-19 after one fraternity member tested positive for the coronavirus. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/15/20

 

Policy & Politics 

Largely Out of Sight in Washington, Kamala Harris Preps for White House -- At a chic cafe in the West End neighborhood here, a young waiter knew that the incoming vice president lived “upstairs,” as he noted by gesturing to an upscale condominium building overhead, but said he had not actually seen her lately. Michael Crowley in the New York Times$ -- 11/15/20

Walters: What will tax increase advocates do now? -- Proposition 15, which would have boosted property taxes on commercial real estate by billions of dollars a year, finally bit the dust last week. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 11/15/20

Willie Brown: Donald Trump will still run the GOP — it’s the fear factor -- Donald Trump is not going away. He will leave the White House when the U-Haul pulls up on Jan. 20, but he won’t be leaving the national stage. Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/15/20

San Francisco’s Central Subway delayed again, until 2022 -- Tom Maguire, the agency’s deputy director, said large construction crews who often work shoulder to shoulder had to be quarantined after three separate outbreaks of the coronavirus. Delivery of materials and equipment was delayed, with many suppliers shut down or slowed by coronavirus restrictions. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/15/20

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After ambitious campaign promises, Biden faces a governing grind -- President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on a transformational liberal policy platform, calling for “revolutionary institutional changes” and $7 trillion of new spending to remake the American economy as he styled himself a modern-day FDR. Michael Scherer and Matt Viser in the Washington Post$ -- 11/15/20

POTUS 45  

Trump and his White House minimize pandemic surge as he focuses on denying election loss -- President Trump finally received some good news this past week: Amid spiking coronavirus cases nationwide — more than 100,000 new cases a day since Nov. 4, with deaths rising, too — pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its experimental coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 percent effective. Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Philip Rucker in the Washington Post$ -- 11/15/20

Trump lost at the ballot box. His legal challenges aren’t going any better. -- Rather than revealing widespread — or even isolated — fraud, the effort by Trump’s legal team has so far done the opposite: It’s affirmed the integrity of the election that Trump lost. Nearly every GOP challenge has been tossed out. Not a single vote has been overturned. David A. Fahrenthold, Emma Brown and Hannah Knowles in the Washington Post$ -- 11/15/20

-- Saturday Updates

California coronavirus surge worsens, prompting new pleas to avoid travel -- With California staring down the barrel of another significant coronavirus surge, health officials are recommending residents avoid unnecessary travel — including for Thanksgiving — and urging those who do head out of state to self-quarantine for 14 days when they return. Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/20

A season of disappointment and depression as COVID-19 rages into holidays -- Business is booming for Maria Mir. Under normal circumstances, she takes little time off in November and December; the holidays are her busy season. But this is 2020. Nothing is normal. And everyone seems to need her at once. Mir is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Maria L. La Ganga, Sonja Sharp, Julia Barajas in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/20

In California, fate of tax hikes depends on who is asking -- This 2020 election, California voters narrowly defeated a $12.5 billion statewide business property tax increase that would have benefited schools and local governments, offering a rebuttal to the state’s reputation as a liberal paradise dominated by tax-and-spend Democrats. Adam Beam Associated Press -- 11/14/20

Staying Afloat  

Poorest Households Bear Biggest Burden of Steep Bay Area Sales Taxes -- As a share of income, the poorest group of Bay Area residents pay three times more in sales tax than the wealthiest ones do. Matthew Green KQED -- 11/14/20

‘Unlike anything we’ve ever seen’: Bay Area charities brace for a pandemic Thanksgiving -- Like so many things this year, Thanksgiving will look a little different — particularly for the thousands of people expected to line up for free holiday meals at charitable kitchens all over the Bay Area. Steve Rubenstein and Vanessa Arredondo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/20

EDD logjam prevents many Californians from appealing denials of unemployment benefits -- More than half of Californians who are denied unemployment compensation and appeal that decision win their case and are awarded benefits. Kathleen Pender and Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/20

Knight: The war on drugs destroyed people. But S.F.’s passive approach to the drug crisis is costing lives, too -- Two bodies a day continue to arrive at the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office, laid to waste by drugs, usually fentanyl. With 516 people dying from overdoses through September, the city might hit 700 deaths by the end of the year, up from 441 last year and 259 the year before. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/20

Also . . .

Elderly residents face homelessness after eviction from West Sacramento mobile home park -- When she received a 60-day eviction notice, Rhoda Davison, a 91-year-old resident who’s lived in her West Sacramento mobile home park for over three decades, was sent into a panic. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/20

Novato declares climate change emergency -- The emergency declaration, adopted unanimously on Tuesday, is largely symbolic, but the council plans to review more detailed strategies in the coming months. Will Houston in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/14/20

Lopez: ‘I hope you die a miserable death’ and other words of encouragement from my readers -- As the tally of COVID-19 cases and deaths surged across the United States over the last week, President Trump seemed not to notice because he was too busy insisting he had won reelection. And through it all, Trump’s Jim Jones-like cult of true believers remained as loyal as ever. I know this because some of them reached out to me. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/20

Biden won the election, but doomscrolling is here to stay -- About six weeks ago, Kurt Thorn began feeling a pain in his left arm. It started as a burning sensation in his tendons. Then there was a cyst in his left thumb. Lily Janiak in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/20

At 100, artist Wayne Thiebaud is still painting what he knows best, amid a transformed pop culture -- The paintings of Wayne Thiebaud — the slices of pie, slabs of cake and sloppy spheres of ice cream — are almost shamefully tactile. You want to touch them, run your fingers across the gooey dollops of paint that represent his classic foodstuffs and seem to be made of the same high-caloric icing, cream and corn syrup. Philip Kennicott in the Washington Post$ -- 11/14/20