Your guide to California policy and politics by
Emily Hoeven
Presented by Dignity Health, SoCalGas, Dairy Cares and Western Plant Health Association
Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, September 21.
Big 2022 campaign issue
Assemblymember Marc Levine speaks about the need to restore PG&E power at Las Casitas mobile home park in American Canyon on Oct. 30, 2019. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters
Levine: “This can’t be a backwater job at a time when this is the one position that has the ability to affect the most Californians.”
Lara: “Climate change-fueled wildfires continue to devastate homeowners and communities. My moratorium orders help provide short-term relief as we address the root causes of these ever-intensifying natural disasters.”
To put the destruction stemming from California’s fires into perspective: From July 1 to Sept. 10, the state spent $849.1 million fighting major fires, H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance, told me. And last week, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services asked Congress to appropriate at least $7.7 billion for California’s wildfire response and recovery efforts, as well as tax relief for those affected by the blazes.
Later this week, the California chapter of the national group Elected Officials to Protect America will call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a climate emergency — citing the state’s devastating drought and the more than 2.3 million acres scorched by wildfires so far this year — and push him to accelerate the phaseout of fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, Monday’s hot, dry winds pushed the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia National Park closer to the Giant Forest, but the beloved forest — home to General Sherman, the largest tree on the planet — remained relatively unscathed. However, the Windy Fire in Sequoia National Forest began to attack other ancient groves containing trees over 1,500 years old.
The coronavirus bottom line: As of Sunday, California had 4,422,085 confirmed cases (+0.1% from previous day) and 67,612 deaths (+0.01% from previous day), according to state data. CalMatters is also tracking coronavirus hospitalizations by county.
The California Assembly chamber. Photo via Creative Commons
Californians who want to know how much progress the state unemployment department has made on crucial reforms will now likely have to wait until Oct. 13 — after state lawmakers postponed for the third time a key hearing tentatively scheduled for today, I’ve exclusively learned. Staffers told me the holdup was primarily due to finding a room in which to hold the hearing, a process complicated by COVID safety protocols that require physical distancing and a lack of available large meeting spaces amid construction at the Capitol.
The news contradicts a statement from Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, a Los Angeles Democrat and chairperson of one of the committees holding the Employment Development Department hearing: “My colleagues and I will return to Sacramento in September to ensure that it is done,” she told me in late August, after the hearing had already been delayed twice.
Nicole Jessie brings her daughter to the Valley Specialty Center in San Jose for her second COVID shot on July 27, 2021. Photo by Anda Chu, Bay Area News Group
West Contra Costa Unified School District, one of the largest in the Bay Area, canceled a vote scheduled for today on whether to mandate vaccines for staff and eligible students. The superintendent decided to postpone the meeting after speaking with the district’s attorney and learning more about the “gaps” in Los Angeles Unified’s recent vaccine requirement, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The move underscores the legal and logistical challenges facing schools as they hammer out vaccination policies — and as more kids become eligible for the shot. Pfizer and BioNTech announced Monday that their coronavirus vaccine is safe and highly effective in children ages 5 to 11, meaning that if it wins emergency-use approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, millions of elementary school students could be inoculated by Halloween.
Coronavirus case rates are declining among California’s children more slowly than in the adult population, though kids’ hospitalization rates are far lower, according to a Mercury News analysis. Wednesday, Oakland Unified is scheduled to vote on a vaccine mandate for staff and eligible students.
3.Port logjam imperils supply chain
The Port of Los Angeles. Image via iStock
Yes, it’s only September, but you may want to start doing your holiday shopping now. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which handle about 40% of U.S. imports, have so much backlogged cargo that they’re expanding employee work hours in an attempt to build a 24/7 supply chain, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Every day last week, the two ports set a new record for the number of ships waiting to unload electronics, toys, clothes, furniture and other goods. What’s causing the massive logjam? COVID safety protocols, a surge in people shopping online and a persistent worker shortage, especially of truckers to transport the items away from the ports, experts say. The situation has gotten so dire that companies such as Target have chartered private container ships to make sure people get their orders on time.
