Updating . .   

Authorities: Hate against Taiwanese led to church attack -- A gunman in deadly attack at California church was Chinese immigrant motivated by hate for Taiwanese people, authorities said. The shooting killed Dr. John Cheng, 52, and five others were wounded in an attack at a Southern California church, authorities said at a Monday news conference. Amy Taxin and Deepa Bharath Associated Press Hannah Fry, Richard Winton, Anh Do, Luke Money in the Los Angeles Times$ Todd Harmonson, Josh Cain and Teri Sforza in the Orange County Register -- 5/16/22

Judge Strikes Down California Law Mandating Women on Boards -- Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis of the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles ruled that the 2018 law was unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the state’s constitution, according to a copy of the verdict. Theo Francis in the Wall Street Journal$ Brian Melley Associated Press -- 5/16/22

Behind Newsom’s $301 billion budget, big financial concerns -- Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers have less than a month to reach an agreement on how they should spend $300.7 billion — an exercise in compromise every bit as existential as it is financial. Emily Hoeven CalMatters -- 5/16/22

Skelton: I covered the first $3-billion budget in 1963. Now Newsom could crack $300 billion -- The two most striking things about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised state budget proposal are the immense size and mad money. He’s seeking the first state budget to crack $300 billion — $300.6 billion to be exact. Billion with a “B.” George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Walters: Newsom hops on inflation and abortion issues -- The two hottest political issues this year are inflation and abortion and California Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted his response to both while unveiling a revised state budget. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 5/16/22

In rural California, Republican Brian Dahle plants the seeds of a campaign for governor -- With no water to irrigate his crops, Brian Dahle’s success as a farmer depends heavily on the whims of rain clouds drifting over the grassy valleys and frostbitten mountains of California’s northeastern frontier. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Who will become Sacramento County’s next DA? Election puts career prosecutor against reformer -- In the race to succeed Anne Marie Schubert as Sacramento County district attorney, candidates Thien Ho and Alana Mathews are both banking on their experience, but of different types. Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/16/22

Barabak: Fight or find common ground? Oregon race a referendum on the direction of Democrats -- Kurt Schrader, a seven-term congressman from central Oregon, has belittled Nancy Pelosi, defended Donald Trump and voted against many of the Democratic Party’s top priorities. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Election 2022: 7 things to know for California’s primary election -- Your ballot has made its way from the mailbox to the kitchen counter or coffee table. Now it’s time, California voters, to start wrapping your brain around how to vote in next month’s primary election. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 5/16/22

How much does Yvonne Yiu want to be California controller? Count the cash -- In the crowded primary for California controller, Yvonne Yiu is betting that spending millions of her own money is her ticket to the top two. But the track record of self-funding candidates in statewide races is mixed. Sameea Kamal CalMatters -- 5/16/22

Goldberg: A decade ago, California adopted a strange top-two primary system. How’s it working out? -- It’s no secret that we’re living in a moment of extraordinary political polarization and government dysfunction. Growing rancor, distrust and partisan disagreement among elected officials have led to an unwillingness to compromise or forge solutions to pressing policy challenges. Nicholas Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Garcetti’s nomination remains stalled in Senate -- Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office issued an informal “temperature check” to Democratic senators on May 6 to see where lawmakers stood on the nomination coming to the floor for a vote. Several of them indicated concerns, according to Democratic aides. Jennifer Haberkorn in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Homeless  

Homeless populations surge 11% in San Jose and 8% in Marin County during COVID -- San Jose’s homeless population surged 11% and Marin County’s rose more than 8% over the past three years amid twin public health and affordability crises, according to new data released Monday. Lauren Hepler, J.D. Morris, Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/16/22

New data shows fewer people are homeless in San Francisco -- Despite expert predictions that local homelessness rates have soared due to the pandemic, new data released Monday showed that San Francisco’s unhoused population has fallen 3.5% since 2019, the first such decline the city has reported in years. Andres Picon, J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/16/22

Staying Afloat   

With inflation, California worries about progress on poverty -- As the state’s Democratic leaders weigh how to spend a record $97.5 billion budget surplus, they also are grappling with how best to keep many vulnerable Californians out of poverty with federal stimulus dollars waning and high inflation devouring household budgets. Alejandro Lazo CalMatters -- 5/16/22

COVID  

With COVID cases rising, how close is California to new mask rules, restrictions? -- The numbers suggest such action is still some ways away, because infection and hospitalization rates are still far from what officials consider the danger zone. While coronavirus-positive hospitalization rates in some parts of California are starting to rise, overall rates remain relatively low. Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

U.S. reaches 1 million COVID deaths — and the virus isn’t done with us -- David Dowdy hunches in front of his laptop at his kitchen table as he watches COVID-19 data trickle in. One death. Then another. And another. And another. That’s a typical day for the Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist, his screen propped up on board game boxes and magazines, the clock progressing through another 12-hour day. Emily Baumgaertner, Kurtis Lee in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

How Often Can You Be Infected With the Coronavirus? -- A virus that shows no signs of disappearing, variants that are adept at dodging the body’s defenses, and waves of infections two, maybe three times a year — this may be the future of Covid-19, some scientists now fear. Apoorva Mandavilli in the New York Times$ -- 5/16/22

Also . . .   

After plane crashes and close calls, pressure mounts to close this L.A. airport -- The day the plane fell from the sky, Eva Avalos was sipping coffee under her Mulberry tree. Metal flashed in the corner of her eye as the Cessna 182 hit the ground in front of her house and exploded. The tree went up in flames and the heat singed her hair. Her two dogs vanished. Rachel Uranga in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

 

California Policy and Politics Monday Morning  

Churchgoers tackled, hogtied gunman after deadly Laguna Woods church shooting -- A gunman attacked a lunch banquet at a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, killing one person and wounding five others Sunday before congregants tackled him, hogtied him with an extension cord and grabbed his two weapons, authorities said. Hannah Fry, Richard Winton, Laura Newberry, Jeong Park, Anh Do, Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ Eric Licas, Erika I. Ritchie and Josh Cain in the San Jose Mercury$ Damian Dovarganes Christopher Weber and Deepa Bharath Associated Press -- 5/16/22

‘Why? Why our community?’: Laguna Woods shattered by mass shooting at church -- Cindy Frazier was running errands Sunday afternoon when she heard the overwhelming sound of police and fire engine sirens as they raced to Geneva Presbyterian Church. It was an unusual scene in the south Orange County suburb known as the home for the sprawling Leisure World retirement community. The shooting at the church left one dead, five wounded and the surrounding community stunned and in mourning. Hannah Fry, Anh Do, Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Smith: Buffalo shooting is an ugly culmination of California’s ‘great replacement’ theory -- In many ways, this truly ugly conspiracy theory has some roots right here in the Golden State of the 1990s. That’s when Republicans, desperate to hold on to political power, were spreading fear and paranoia about millions of Mexican immigrants wanting — how dare them! — resources and rights, and the inevitable decline of the state’s white population. Erika D. Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

A Fringe Conspiracy Theory, Fostered Online, Is Refashioned by the G.O.P. -- Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators. Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish in the New York Times$ -- 5/16/22

Policy and Politics  

Walters: Newsom’s electric car nirvana collides with reality -- Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board publicly boasted last week about making great strides toward eliminating fossil fuels and their greenhouse gases. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 5/16/22

Education  

Snapchat co-founder pays off college debt of new graduates at L.A. art and design school -- Charles Hirschhorn, Otis president, made the announcement during the commencement ceremony at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel, drawing gasps and cheers from the audience. Some graduates hugged, cried and jumped for joy. “I’m speechless,” Velazquez-Medina said, tears streaming from her eyes. Teresa Watanabe, Rachel Uranga in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/16/22

Also . . .   

Mom evacuates Ukraine for Bay Area, thanks to efforts of Air Force daughter -- Months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Air Force Capt. Zlatoslava Karga started to get worried. The 42-year old psychiatric nurse practitioner at Travis Air Force Base in Vacaville grew up in Ukraine, and said she just had a feeling that something bad was looming. She urged her mother, Luba Karga, who was living in Kyiv, to get her documents ready — just in case. Kellie Hwang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/16/22

Bay to Breakers reverses course, provides award for nonbinary runners -- Bay to Breakers honored the race’s top nonbinary finishers this year, reversing course from earlier plans to give awards only to runners in traditional male and female categories. Tony Bravo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/16/22

 

Sunday Updates   

Garofoli: ‘Democrats had better get their act together’: Efforts to combat inflation aren’t resonating with Latino voters -- Democrats are blowing their opportunity to show voters how they’re taking on inflation — and their fumbling is tuning out the voters they desperately need to win: Latinos. “Democrats,” Jacqueline Martinez Garcel, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation told me, “had better get their act together.” Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/15/22

Millennials vs. boomer. Who will succeed L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl? -- That set the stage for Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and Henry Stern (D-Malibu), state senators who represent parts of the Valley, to mount campaigns. They are running against West Hollywood City Council Member Lindsey Horvath, who is backed by Kuehl, and three other candidates in a race where homelessness and crime have emerged as defining issues before the June 7 primary. Andrew J. Campa, Jeong Park in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/15/22

Walters: Newsom’s electric car nirvana collides with reality -- Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board publicly boasted last week about making great strides toward eliminating fossil fuels and their greenhouse gases. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 5/15/22

COVID  

How the Bay Area kept its death rate low -- Six-hundred-fifty-thousand Americans would still be alive. If the United States had the Bay Area’s death rate from COVID-19, 350,000 people would have died so far — not 1 million, the astounding number of deaths the country will reach this month, about as many as the entire population of San Jose. Harriet Blair Rowan and John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 5/15/22

Climate  

Rice is Sacramento Valley’s gift to the world. Can it withstand California’s epic drought? -- Don Bransford has been growing rice in the fertile Sacramento Valley for 42 years. Not this summer. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/15/22

Wildfire  

In California’s high-risk fire country, Airbnb offers guests no warning or escape plan -- The cellphone began buzzing before dawn. Becca Rutledge looked outside and saw the orange glow of the Woolsey fire as it roared toward her family’s Airbnb rental home in the Santa Monica Mountains. Ben Poston, Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/15/22

Homeless  

Sacramento County to propose rules limiting where homeless can camp, supervisor says -- Although specific ordinance language is still being drafted, the proposal would prohibit camping near “sensitive infrastructure,” which could include flood-control facilities and highway overpasses, and near sites the county creates to house homeless residents, such as tiny home communities, Supervisor Rich Desmond said in an interview last week. Patrick Riley in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 5/15/22

Sacred Ground  

The fight against COVID, a chaplain says, unfolded on ‘sacred ground’ -- Like any hospital, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center is filled with operating rooms, examining rooms, nurses’ stations and labs. But to Kevin Deegan, the hospital’s senior chaplain, it also contains sacred places — places where profound, heartbreaking and loving things occurred as the pandemic took hold. Francine Orr in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/15/22