Updating Saturday. .   

New storms move into Southern California, bringing wet, hazardous holiday weekend -- Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties were expected to see showers throughout the day Saturday, with the heaviest rain in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. The rain is expected to continue through Monday. Rong-Gong Lin II, Christian Martinez, Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

With the Salinas River rising, Monterey County stocks up on sandbags and supplies -- Twenty-two members of the California Conservation Corps scrambled to fill hundreds of sandbags at Toro Park near Salinas on Friday as a new round of storms thrashed the coastal region, forcing thousands to evacuate along the Salinas River. St. John Barned-Smith, Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/23

Floods and downed power lines expected as another storm slams Bay Area -- After a few days break from the downpour, another storm moved into the Bay Area on Saturday with wind gusts topping over 45 miles per hour in the morning. Those winds could topple trees, sending them tumbling into power lines. Scooty Nickerson in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/14/23

Floods, landslides, sinkholes: See the devastation of heavy rain in California -- After weeks of relentless rainfall, the toll is coming into view. Communities faced flash floods, mudslides, debris damage and a range of other hazards as the storms, known as atmospheric rivers, have whipped across the landscape. At least 19 people have died. Derek Hawkins in the Washington Post$ -- 1/14/23

Why were California’s storms so deadly? Flooded roads and falling trees posed greatest risks -- As another round of storms rolls in over the weekend, the state’s flood control system — already battered by persistent rainfall — will be put to the test. Seven rivers are likely to jump their banks this weekend, and the Monterey Peninsula could temporarily become an island, state officials said on Friday. Ariane Lange and Kaytlyn Leslie in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/14/23

The rain paused, but the work hasn’t for road crews battling nature’s wrath -- The 11-man crew assembled at the Felton office of Santa Cruz County’s Department of Public Works, waiting to hear what physical and mental toil they were going to be assigned. Susanne Rust in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Frustrated by waiting, some hikers return to potentially hazardous trails -- The ominous message was taped to an 18-inch orange traffic cone. “Danger. Flash flood area. Do not enter,” it read. Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Policy and Politics  

California should plan for bigger deficit and more budget cuts, new analysis says -- The analysis, released by the Legislative Analyst’s Office on Friday, said there is “a good chance” that California revenues will come in lower than Gov. Gavin Newsom has projected. Lindsey Holden, Maggie Angst in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/14/23

The top 10 Republican presidential candidates for 2024, ranked -- The 2024 Republican presidential race is technically two months old. We say “technically” because there’s really only one candidate and very little sign that he’s running a bona fide campaign at this point. Aaron Blake in the Washington Post$ -- 1/14/23

Homeless

He raised 4 kids in Sacramento. He died homeless of hypothermia this winter -- Six days after Thanksgiving, a man froze to death on a sidewalk just north of downtown Sacramento. He was the second homeless person to die of hypothermia in the capital city this winter. Theresa Clift in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/14/23

L.A. to keep downtown hotel open as homeless housing for another year -- A 13-story hotel that has served as a cornerstone of Los Angeles’ fight against homelessness, a facility that had been set to cease operations in less than three weeks, will be kept open for an additional year, city officials said Friday. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Oakland says it needs to clear huge Wood Street homeless camp — or lose money for affordable housing -- Before Jared DeFigh moved to the sprawling Wood Street homeless encampment under Interstate 880 in West Oakland he lived on the side of the freeway in Berkeley. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/23

Workplace   

Sacramento judge blocks California from enacting first-in-the-nation fast-food labor council -- California will again pause implementation of its first-in-the-nation council that would set pay and working standards for fast-food employees. Maya Miller in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/14/23

Street  

For Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, police violence hits close to home -- Patrisse Cullors is used to being the one consoling families of people who died at the hands of police, not the other way around. But there she was, fielding voicemails, DMs and WhatsApp messages from well-wishers as she grappled with the sudden loss of Keenan Anderson, a distant cousin who died earlier this month after a Los Angeles police traffic stop. Libor Jany in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Knight: She failed to save her daughter from fentanyl’s grip. A year later, her daughter and S.F. remain stuck -- Dealers clustered at Seventh and Mission streets, openly selling drugs. At their feet, people smoked fentanyl off tinfoil while others nodded off. Tents dotted the sidewalks. Piles of food scraps, trash and feces filled the gutter. Pedestrians, including a woman pushing a baby in a stroller, nearly swerved into traffic on Seventh Street to get past. Laurie Steves, 57, stood amid the commerce and the chaos, waiting. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/23

L.A. traffic deaths rose in 2022, surpassing 300 fatalities for first time in two decades -- Traffic deaths climbed again in Los Angeles last year, with 300 people killed on city streets — the highest number in at least two decades, said city officials. Dakota Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Several Torrance police officers linked to racist text scandal no longer employed by city -- Several Torrance police officers linked to a racist text messaging scandal — including two who shot and killed a Black man in a controversial 2018 incident — are no longer employed by the troubled law enforcement agency, records show. James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/23

Also . . .   

The Circus Came to Town—and Bought the Place -- What happens when a circus buys a town? The small community of Nipton, Calif., is living through the experiment. Kirsten Grind in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 1/14/23

California Policy and Politics Saturday  

Rain Train  

‘Not out of the woods yet’: Latest California storm brings fresh dangers and worry -- A National Weather Service meteorologist says heavier rains, strong winds and more snow for the mountains are expected Saturday. Susanne Rust, Summer Lin, Grace Toohey, Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ Erin Allday in the San Francisco Chronicle$ John Woolfolk, Austin Turner in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/14/23

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass declares local state of emergency over storms -- The city is expecting another storm to move in by Saturday, raising not only the possibility of more damage from the rain, but hindering officials’ ability to address the damage already caused. Salvador Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

Sacramento loves its trees. But will we ever recover from the damage they’ve inflicted? -- An estimated 1,000 trees have fallen in the city of Sacramento since the New Year’s Eve storm. Hundreds more toppled in the suburbs. The carnage tore holes into historic midtown homes, split cars in Orangevale and knocked out power to thousands. Two homeless people died when trees fell on their tents. Ryan Lillis, Benjy Egel in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/13/23

California’s Redwood Forests Don’t Mind Wet, Windy Weather -- Though some trees may be toppled in storms, experts say that redwood trees, which can live for centuries, are adapted to a wide range of weather events. Amanda Holpuch in the New York Times$ -- 1/13/23

‘Without power for 10 days’: 49ers star, others see multi-day PG&E outages -- Wells is among more than 20,000 Californians who were still without power on Friday afternoon as a series of atmospheric storms continue to pummel the state. While PG&E successfully restored power to 2.4 million people over the past two weeks, others, including star 49ers tight end George Kittle, are still blacked out. Eliyahu Kamisher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/13/23

Pesky potholes: Bay Area storm brings rash of new roadway damage -- While torrential storms bring catastrophic floods, downed trees and mass power outages to the Bay Area, water is also seeping into asphalt causing cracks to morph into one of the region’s peskiest — and costly — problems: potholes. Eliyahu Kamisher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/14/23

Policy and Politics  

California’s EDD faces questions from Congress on state’s unemployment fraud -- The California Employment Development Department found itself on the receiving end of a letter from Congress demanding documents and explaining why the state saw, what the letter called, “the worst unemployment fraud in the nation during the pandemic.” Chase DiFeliciantonio in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/13/23

Deal or no deal? A corruption case spins out of control with a judge’s last-minute change of heart -- For more than a decade, tax consultant Ramin Salari fought charges that he had bribed former Los Angeles County assessor John Noguez in a pay-for-play conspiracy. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

Workplace  

Supreme Court appears set to expand workers’ right to time off for religious observance -- The justices voted to hear an appeal from a former U.S. postal worker and evangelical Christian who was disciplined and eventually quit because he refused to deliver packages on Sundays. David G. Savage in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

Homeless

Bass’ Inside Safe program quickly moves almost 100 homeless off Venice streets -- Venice residents couldn’t believe their eyes on Friday morning, Jan. 13, as they traveled to well-known restaurant The Rose for a community meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and city councilmember Traci Park: the streets long lined with trash, tents and human suffering were miraculously clear. Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 1/13/23

Mental Healthcare  

L.A. County on track to join Newsom’s sweeping mental health plan a year early -- Los Angeles County is on track to join the first wave of counties this year launching a sweeping new plan backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to address severe mental illness by compelling treatment for people who are in serious crisis. Hannah Wiley, Thomas Curwen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

Climate  

Atmospheric rivers won’t end California’s drought -- Even after six atmospheric river driven storms, a majority of the state is still in a drought that began three years ago. Why rain alone doesn’t solve dry conditions has much to do with what happens to that rain once it falls and how climate change is disrupting that cycle. Daniel Wolfe, Szu Yu Chen and Laris Karklis in the Washington Post$ -- 1/13/23

Water  

California storms: A 2-inch fish is limiting how much water can be captured for cities and farms -- Environmental regulations aimed at protecting a two-inch-long fish, the endangered Delta smelt, have required the massive state and federal pumps near Tracy to reduce pumping rates by nearly half of their full limit, sharply curbing the amount of water that can be saved for farms and cities to the south. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/14/23

Street  

Riverside County sheriff’s deputy is killed in shooting near Lake Elsinore -- A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed Friday near Lake Elsinore, just two weeks after another deputy was fatally shot while on duty, authorities said. “We are devastated to announce the passing of Deputy Darnell Calhoun who was killed in the line of duty this afternoon,” the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said in a tweet shortly before 8 p.m. Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ Brian Rokos, Monserrat Solis in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 1/13/23

After deaths, L.A. police face new questions about excessive force -- Three men have died after encounters with Los Angeles police officers in recent days, adding pressure on a new mayor who has called for police reform. Scott Wilson in the Washington Post$ -- 1/13/23

Independent investigators reject innocence claim from death row inmate Kevin Cooper -- The special counsel appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to look into the case of Kevin Cooper, a death row inmate whose decades-old murder conviction fell under fierce scrutiny in recent years, released a report Friday casting aside the prisoner’s long-standing claims of innocence. “The evidence of Cooper’s guilt,” the report reads, “is extensive and conclusive.” Marisa Gerber in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

Faced with shrinking ranks, LAPD looks to rehire retired officers -- The Los Angeles Police Department is making a simple but unusual pitch to its retired cops: Come back. Please. Libor Jany in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

LAPD’s repeated tasing of teacher who later died appears excessive, experts say -- Videos released this week of a teacher who died after Los Angeles police discharged a Taser on him at least six times on a Venice street raises serious concerns about the officers’ tactics, law enforcement experts who reviewed the tapes said. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23

New report says California’s parole process could lead to inequitable outcomes -- Advocates say the current parole process unfairly denies parole to Black and brown inmates as compared with white inmates; the Board of Parole Hearings disagrees. Sarah Mizes-Tan Capital Public Radio -- 1/13/23

Environment  

Burning Man touts sustainability. Now it’s suing to block clean energy -- The Burning Man Project, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that holds the festival every year, filed a lawsuit Monday against the federal government in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, arguing that regulators at the Bureau of Land Management failed to properly take into account the environmental impact of the geothermal exploration project when they approved it. Dino Grandoni in the Washington Post$ -- 1/13/23

Also . . .   

‘Here I am’: Redondo Beach WWII veteran is oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor -- Joseph Eskenazi, the oldest living survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, was told by his doctor that a heart condition would prevent him from flying on an airplane to attend a ceremony this week at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Nathan Solis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/13/23