Updating Saturday . . .

Outcry over recycling plant next to Watts high school appears to gain traction -- A mediator and attorneys for all parties are projecting a completed settlement by later this year in the legal battle over the Atlas Metals recycling facility, located next to Jordan High School. Marissa Evans in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

What’s the cost to cool Los Angeles? City explores a cooling mandate for all rental units -- Heading into the peak of summer, Los Angeles officials want to know what it would take to require every rental unit in the city to have an air conditioner or central air. Nathan Solis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

American Cities Are Starting to Thrive Again. Just Not Near Office Buildings -- By contrast, in the residential areas of South Glendale and Highland Park near Los Angeles and in Chicago’s residential Logan Square neighborhood, visitor foot traffic has been rising and is nearly back to prepandemic levels. Konrad Putzier, Kate King in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/3/23

Education

Deal extends L.A. school year, restores 3-week winter break -- A sweeping agreement announced Friday between unions and Los Angeles school officials will result in a longer school year, a return to a three-week winter break and a reboot of controversial acceleration days. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

Campus jobs are a lifeline for these CSU students. Some are looking to form a union -- With costs rising, student assistants across CSU’s 23 campuses, working in jobs from IT support to receptionist, are pushing to unionize. Debbie Truong in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

Housing

There’s a way to build thousands more housing units on San Francisco’s west side — and neighbors actually like it -- As San Francisco stares down a state mandate to build 82,000 new housing units within eight years, an 80-something retired architect has a great solution. It’s called Domicity. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Owning a home in the Bay Area now costs twice as much renting -- The region has the biggest cost differential of any U.S. population center. Ethan Varian in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/3/23

Workplace

Elon Musk Is All About the Nonstop Grind. And He Can’t Stop Talking About It -- Billionaire tries to motivate workers with focus on sacrifice as many push for work-life balance. Tim Higgins in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/3/23

Insurance

California’s Homeowner Insurance Shakeout Is About Interest Rates, Too -- Higher rates are driving shifts in how the insurance market handles climate risk. Telis Demos in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/3/23

Street

Whistleblower loses $26-million lawsuit over ‘Executioners’ deputy gang -- “We disagree with the jury’s decision, but we respect it,” Lt. Larry Waldie’s lawyer says. “We are going to avail ourselves of all appropriate remedies under the law.” Keri Blakinger in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

Inmate worker tests positive for hepatitis A at Men’s Central Jail; L.A. County warns of possible exposure -- Jail officials said Friday that there are no other suspected cases, but it’s unclear how many people might have been exposed during the two-week viral incubation period. Keri Blakinger in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

Murder convictions overturned for alleged prison gang members in Antioch ‘money block’ takeover -- A California appeals court has overturned murder convictions against two Bay Area men, six years after they were sentenced to life in prison for killing a 23-year-old man in what the lead detective called a dispute over an Antioch “money block,” court records show. Nate Gartrell in the East Bay Times$ -- 6/3/23

Also

Lopez: She’s multidegreed and overachieving. Her career choice? Geriatric dentistry -- USC gerontology grad, with two degrees in hand and another in the works, wants to serve older adults in her underserved community. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/3/23

California Policy and Politics Saturday

Dockworkers disrupt Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, highlighting tough contract talks -- Southern California dockworkers disrupted cargo activity Friday at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports — major entry points for the country’s imports — as well as at some other West Coast ports after contract talks deteriorated in recent days. Helen Li in the Los Angeles Times$ Donna Littlejohn in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 6/3/23

Union worker actions cause shutdown of Oakland port -- Operations at the Port of Oakland were shut down Friday after members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union staged “concerted and disruptive work actions,” according to the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents over 70 multi-national ocean carriers and other maritime companies in the contract negotiations with the union. Jordan Parker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Critics blast Mayor Breed’s proposed cuts to early child care department, tenant rights program -- Mayor London Breed is facing pushback on some of the trims she proposed in her record-high San Francisco budget plan, including cuts to a nascent early child care department and a tenants’ rights program, as she works to close the city’s massive $780 million deficit over the next two fiscal years. J.D. Morris, St. John Barned-Smith in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Fight erupts at anti-Pride Day protest outside L.A. school where trans teacher’s flag was burned -- A fight erupted outside a North Hollywood elementary school Friday morning as more than 100 parents rallied against a Pride Day assembly, bringing to a head weeks of turmoil that saw a transgender teacher’s LGBTQ+ Pride flag burned. Summer Lin, Andrew J. Campa, Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 6/3/23

Kevin McCarthy’s first stop after debt limit vote: pricey S.F. fundraiser -- Hours after averting economic catastrophe with a vote to raise the country’s debt limit, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was in the deep blue Bay Area on Thursday for two high-dollar fundraisers. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Hotel Tax

Will city of San Diego win legal fight to revive Measure C’s hotel tax hike? -- Backers of a 2020 ballot measure that sought to finance an enlarged convention center, homeless services and road repairs will go to court next month in hopes of reversing a judge’s ruling that the city erred when it claimed the initiative passed. Lori Weisberg in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 6/3/23

Short Term Rental Tax

California wants to increase affordable housing. A bill would tax AirBnb, VRBO to pay for it -- Social housing developments include a range of incomes, from extremely low to moderate and even above average, with the idea that the higher rents will subsidize lower ones. Maya Miller in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 6/3/23

Water Bills

These San Jose residents’ water bills could jump big time in July -- Over a tenth of San Jose’s population may soon see their water bills significantly jump if councilmembers approve an increase on Tuesday, making it one of the largest rate hikes in the Bay Area this coming year. Gabriel Greschler in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/3/23

HMPV

COVID ‘runner-up’: What to know about under-the-radar virus that just surged in California -- Cases of human metapneumovirus jumped during the late winter and spring nationwide, including in California. Here’s what to know about HMPV and how it compares to other respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2, influenza and RSV. Kellie Hwang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Cancer letters

Software snafu leads to 400 Grail patients getting bogus letters saying they might have cancer -- Grail, owned by San Diego’s Illumina, said erroneous letters were triggered by a software problem at a third-party telemedicine vendor. Patients have been contacted alerting them that the notification was inaccurate. Mike Freeman in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 6/3/23

Education Cyber Breach

San Diego Unified cybersecurity breach affected more people and more sensitive data than known -- Breach also compromised current and former employees’ bank accounts and Social Security numbers, the district said Friday evening. Sam Schulz in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 6/3/23

Parcel 36

Video shows battle over disputed S.F. lot turn violent. No one knows what comes next -- The battle over a vacant lot in the Mission District boiled over last week, with a green space activist punching the co-founder of an Internet company in the face. Nora Mishanec in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Street

S.F. police crack down on public drug use ahead of Mayor Breed’s command center targeting dealers -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed will soon open a unified command center with city and state agencies in a location on Market Street near the Civic Center to address drug dealing as the city grapples with epidemic overdose deaths and open-air drug markets, the city confirmed Friday. Mallory Moench in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Suspect who stabbed, rammed victims from San Jose to Milpitas had violent, “delusional” past, police say -- Suspect Kevin Parkourana, 31, was arrested on suspicion of hate-crime assault against a transgender person in January but was not charged. Aldo Toledo, Julia Prodis Sulek, Austin Turner, Jason Green in the San Jose Mercury$ Joel Umanzor in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

Ex-Beverly Hills underwear model gets 2 years, 8 months for role in Capitol riot -- A federal jury in Washington, D.C. last year found John Strand guilty of a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding, as well as several lesser counts that included entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct. Sean Emery in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 6/3/23

Also

Can 100 S.F. women break a running world record — for the fourth time since 1977? -- In 1977, Peggy Lavelle, then a 16-year-old junior in high school, and 99 other women each ran 1 mile of a 100-mile relay, averaging mile times of just over six minutes and setting the world record for the fastest women’s 100 x 1-mile relay. Danielle Echeverria in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/3/23

California Moves Toward the Next College Sports Disruption: Sharing Revenue With Athletes -- The state Assembly has passed a bill that would require schools to pay players, setting off alarm bells for college sports officials around the country. Louise Radnofsky, Laine Higgins in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/3/23

He’s One of Sports’ Most Influential Performers. No One Has Seen His Face -- Five decades ago, a 20-year-old was plucked from a group of San Diego State students to squeeze into a chicken costume. Then, he never took it off. Zach Buchanan in the New York Times$ -- 6/3/23