The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation order because of the Fawn Fire burning in the unincorporated Mountain Gate area north of the city of Redding at the far north end of the Central Valley.

Residents were told to temporarily gather in a parking lot at Shasta College in Redding. The number of residents affected was not immediately known. People living in other areas were warned to be prepared to leave. Some 2,000 structures were threatened.

The fire has grown to nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) since it started Wednesday afternoon and was just 5% contained. The fire was burning in heavy timber on steep, rugged terrain amid hot, dry and gusty conditions.

Statewide, more than 9,000 firefighters remained assigned to 10 large, active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

California fires have burned 3,671 square miles (9,507 square kilometers) this year, destroying more than 3,200 homes, commercial properties and other structures.

Those fires include two big forest blazes growing in the heart of California’s giant sequoia country on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Smoke from those fires raised air quality concerns for the southern end of the Central Valley and flowed over greater Los Angeles, causing mistaken reportsof mountain fires.

On Wednesday, officials showed reporters how Sequoia National Park’s famous Giant Forest has been protected from the KNP Complex fire by years of using carefully set and controlled fires to burn away vegetation that can serve as wildfire fuel.

The bases of some of the most famous giant sequoias were also wrapped in fire-resistant materials. Giant Forest has 2,000 sequoias and includes the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world by volume.

The fear of catastrophic fire coming through that section of the national park has been greatly reduced because of the combination of the prescribed burns and the low intensity of the fire that moved into part of the forest, said Ed Christopher, deputy fire director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“And because of that we feel that the majority of the trees in this Giant Forest area should come out of this event like they have for the past thousands of years,” he said.

Historic drought tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

The KNP Complex began as two fires ignited by lighting on Sept. 9. The fires later merged into one and have scorched more than 51 square miles (132 square kilometers). Sequoia and adjacent Kings Canyon National Park have been closed. Several communities are under evacuation orders or warnings for people to be prepared to leave.

Nearby, the Windy Fire has burned through nearly 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) on the Tule River Indian Reservation and in Sequoia National Forest, including Giant Sequoia National Monument.

Also ignited by lightning on Sept. 9, the Windy Fire has forced the evacuation of of small forest communities, but no privately owned structures had burned as of Thursday morning. A fire lookout structure and a radio repeater site on a peak were destroyed by the blaze.

The fire has moved through several groves of giant sequoias and damaged one of the big trees on the famed Trail of 100 Giants. An expert from Yosemite National Park was expected to examine the groves on Thursday.

California spent $3.4 billion on wildfire protection last year, more than quadruple the level 15 years ago. But state officials have spent most of that money on extinguishing fires, a job that has become harder as the fires have gotten bigger and hotter because of climate change.

Thursday’s action brings California’s total wildfire prevention budget this year to more than $1.5 billion. It’s the final piece of the state’s record-setting $262.5 billion operating budget, a spending plan augmented by soaring state revenues from a rising stock market and unprecedented federal assistance because of the pandemic.

About 16,000 fires have burned in California since the start of 2020, scorching more than 10,000 square miles (25,899 square kilometers). That’s about 6.5% of California’s land. Nine states are smaller than that.

Six of the seven largest fires in state history have occurred since August 2020. This year, for the first time, two wildfires crested the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said. One of those fires forced the first complete evacuation of the city of South Lake Tahoe, shuttering the major tourist attraction.

The fires are so intense they are even threatening 3,000-year-old Sequoia trees that are largely resistant to fires. In Sequoia National Park, officials had to wrap the base of the General Sherman — the world’s largest tree by volume — in fire-resistant material to save it from an encroaching wildfire.

“You can’t rebuild a giant Sequoia in a few years and have a groundbreaking. I mean, you can replant it and come back in 3,000 years to enjoy,” Newsom said. “That’s why we’re here with a deep sense of urgency, appreciation, humility, as human beings.”

Scientists have long warned that the weather will get wilder as the world warms. Climate change has made the West hotter and drier in the past 30 years.

Earlier this year, lawmakers approved $500 million in emergency spending for wildfire prevention, an unusual move prompted by a severe drought that has dried the state’s forests, leaving them more vulnerable to wildfires.

This month, largely because of a record-breaking budget surplus, lawmakers added nearly $1 billion in new spending to that total — money that Newsom approved Thursday.

Most of it will pay for things like clearing brush and dead trees that act as kindling when fires start, causing them to quickly burn out of control before firefighters can contain them.

There’s money to hire inspectors to make sure newer homes built in the state’s wildfire-prone areas comply with building codes requiring fire-resistant materials. And there’s money for the state to intentionally set fires when conditions are right to burn away fuel that would otherwise help larger fires burn during the dry season.

The funding is part of a $15 billion spending package on climate, which Newsom called the largest commitment in the state’s history. The spending includes money approved earlier this year and commitments to spend more in the future.

Also on Thursday, Newsom approved $1.2 billion for things like water recycling projects, cleaning up contaminated water sources and grants to help communities pan for climate change.

Republicans have criticized the spending because it does not include money for water storage projects, like building new reservoirs. California voters approved about $2.7 billion in 2014 for water storage projects. But so far, none of those have been built.

And some environmental groups bemoaned the budget for not doing more to wean the state off its dependence on fossil fuels.

“Fifteen billion dollars is a lot of money, but if the governor really wants to future-proof California as he said, then he must know that throwing money at the problem while continuing to approve new fossil fuel permits that are driving the climate chaos, is nonsensical,” said Amy Moas, a senior climate campaigner affiliated with Greenpeace USA. “It is like trying to mop up an overflowing bathtub without first turning off the faucet.”

California has more than 60,000 active oil wells, but permits for all types of oil drilling have declined considerably this year. The Newsom administration denied 21 fracking permits in July, a process used to extract oil and gas from deep underground.

In April, Newsom signed an executive order aimed at banning all oil extraction in California by 2045.

Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane said the shooting broke out at a Kroger store in his suburban community about 30 miles east of Memphis.

NBC News reports at least 12 were taken to local hospitals and one person walked into a hospital to receive treatment. Some victims appeared to be taken to Regional One Health Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center, NBC affiliate WREG reported.

He said a police SWAT team and other officers went aisle to aisle in the store to find people who sought cover or were in hiding, removing them to safety. He said the shooter was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“We found people hiding in freezers, in locked offices. They were doing what they had been trained to do: run, hide, fight,” the chief said without elaborating.

The identities of the shooter and the victims were not immediately released.

Lane said it was a sad day for his department as he spoke at a news conference after the shooting near the scene.

“I’ve been involved in this for 34 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” he told reporters.

He added investigators are working to sort out what happened and added, “It’s going to take a little bit before we know what happened.”

“Let’s get through the investigation,” Lane said at the Thursday afternoon news conference. "Remember, we’re two hours away from the most horrific event that’s occurred in Collierville history.”

Elsewhere, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee tweeted that her office was in touch with local authorities and with agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. She added that she was “closely monitoring the situation” and offered prayers for the victims.

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California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state is considering the requirement during a Thursday morning media briefing.

The update from Ghaly comes after several school districts, including Oakland Unified and Los Angeles Unified, announced a similar mandate for students.

“We’re watching the experience in Los Angeles, understanding what it means for students and families alike, staff as well, and watching as other counties consider the same,” Ghaly said. “So, that conversation is happening certainly as part of what we’re considering at the state, but no definitive action or decision is being made at the moment.”

Ghaly said there is a “long tradition” in California and many other states, if not every state, of having student vaccination requirements.

“This is not something that is a new part of a conversation,” he said. “There’s been a long conversation about vaccines in schools and their role in protecting students. We, of course, are always looking at the data, understanding where there are opportunities to ensure that California’s vulnerable, those who can be protected, are protected through getting vaccinations.”

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Oakland Unified School Board Approves Vaccine Mandate for Students

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• Check the air quality in your neighborhood

Smoke from fires in Southern and Central California is expected to reach the Bay Area, causing hazy skies but not necessarily unhealthy air. The pollution level likely won’t exceed federal standards that typically prompts a Spare the Air alert, the air district said.

If they smell of smoke, Bay Area residents should avoid exposure, officials said. Stay inside with windows and doors shut, if temperatures allow. Also, set air conditioning units and car vent systems to recirculate.

Check here for air quality readings at baaqmd.gov/highs.

The CDC sets final U.S. policy on who qualifies for the extra shot. And the CDC’s advisers voted Thursday on how many of the roughly 26 million Americans who had their last Pfizer shot at least six months ago should go ahead and get that third dose. The CDC advisory panel backed the decision for Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans.

The U.S. vaccination drive against COVID-19 stands on the verge of a major new phase: Government advisers on Thursday recommended booster doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for millions of Americans.

The advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the extra doses for people 65 and older, nursing home residents, and people who are 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions. It also said boosters can be offered to people 18 to 49 with underlying conditions.

The shots would be given at least six months after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

The CDC panel stressed its recommendations will be changed if new evidence shows more people need a booster.

The CDC advisers expressed concern over the millions more Americans who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots early in the vaccine rollout. The government still hasn’t considered boosters for those brands and has no data on whether it’s safe or effective to mix-and-match and give those people a Pfizer shot.

“I just don’t understand how later this afternoon we can say to people 65 and older you’re at risk for severe illness and death but only half of you can protect yourselves right now,” said Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University.

But for most people, if you’re not in a group recommended for a booster, “it’s really because we think you’re well-protected,” said Dr. Matthew Daley of Kaiser Permanente Colorado. “This isn’t about who deserves a booster, but who needs a booster.”

The CDC presented data showing the vaccines still offer strong protection for all ages, but there is a slight drop among the oldest adults. And immunity against milder infection appears to be waning months after people’s initial immunization.

Late Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration signed off on extra shots of the Pfizer formula for a broad swath of Americans: those 65 and older, people at high risk of severe illness, and health care workers and others in danger of becoming infected on the job.

They also wrestled with how to tell when a booster is needed. While an extra dose revs up numbers of virus-fighting antibodies, those naturally wane over time and no one knows how long the antibody boost from a third Pfizer dose will last — or how much protection it really adds since the immune system also forms additional defenses after vaccination.

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The U.S. has already authorized third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Other Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by asking.

The widespread dispensing of the boosters would represent an important new phase in the nation’s vaccination drive. Britain and Israel are already rolling out a third round of shots over strong objections from the World Health Organization that poor countries don’t have enough for their initial doses.

The priority still is to vaccinate the unvaccinated. About 182 million Americans, or 55% of the population, are fully vaccinated.

The COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death, but immunity against milder infection appears to be waning months after people’s initial vaccination.

The FDA rejected a sweeping Biden administration plan announced a month ago to offer boosters to the general population, instead embracing a more targeted approach for now. Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock cautioned that booster decisions could very well change as real-world data come in.

“As we learn more about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, including the use of a booster dose, we will continue to evaluate the rapidly changing science and keep the public informed,” Woodcock said.

The World Health Organization and other global health advocates are opposed to wealthy nations dispensing a third round of shots when poor countries don’t have enough vaccine for their first doses. And many independent scientists say that the vaccines continue to perform well against the worst effects of COVID-19 and that their ability to curb the overall trajectory of the epidemic is uncertain.

The U.S. is dispensing around 760,000 vaccinations per day on average, down from a high of 3.4 million a day in mid-April. About 182 million Americans are fully vaccinated, or 64% of those who are eligible.

The San Francisco Chronicle citing NBA sources reports there is “increasing concern among the Warriors” about Wiggins’ availability during the season due to local COVID health requirements surrounding arenas and so-called mega events.

San Francisco and New York are currently the only cities with an NBA team requiring full vaccination for indoor events like a Warriors game at the Chase Center.

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NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole recently broke down why the Warriors could have a home-court disadvantage this season and discussed the Wiggins situation:

If Wiggins can’t show proof of vaccination by Oct. 13, he won’t be allowed in the building and will miss a game check with a pre-tax value of roughly $360,000.

If Paul George does not have proof of vaccination when the Los Angeles Clippers visit Chase Center for Opening Night on Oct. 21, he will be allowed to play — under three conditions.

Read more of Poole’s column.

The measure was passed in a 5-1 vote.

Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell and her team will work out the logistics of how and when the requirement will take effect, but Johnson-Trammell indicated the when would be no earlier than Jan. 1 so as not to disrupt the fall semester and to give students time to get the vaccine, the district said.

The district is expected to present a plan to the school board by next month.

All exemptions required by law and a “personal belief exemption” will be included in the plan, according to the board’s resolution.

The most unique perspectives on the mandate came from the student members of the school board — some voiced their support, and others worry it might be too strict. 

“Particularly considering that parents and guardians have the ultimate decision-making power whether or not to receive the vaccine,” said Samantha Pal, student board director.

This leaves the student in an uncomfortable intersection if they themselves want the vaccine and their parents or guardians do not. 

Among the other concerns is when students and staff would have to comply.

Adopting a vaccine mandate in public schools is still controversial. Only Oakland and Los Angeles public schools have done it so far in California. Oakland, being the first school district in Northern California to pass such measure.

Piedmont Unified reportedly also approved a vaccine mandate Wednesday, while Berkeley Unified and West Contra Costa Unified proposals were still under consideration.

It’s an issue that’s garnering lots of attention from parent groups and community organizers, with one group in Oakland holding a news conference as the school board meeting started.

“We have to have mandatory vaccines in order to make sure that the schools are safe,” said Mark Airgood.

During Wednesday’s meeting, every opportunity for public comment was dominated by parents and students wanting to voice their perspective on mandatory shots.

“We have the opportunity to prevent and to stop further spread of this disease, and we have to give our kids that opportunity,” said Ismael Almendares.

“I am opposed to vaccine mandates,” said parent Sean Wong. “Vaccine mandates will not get rid of COVID-19 in the schools. Vaccinated and unvaccinated can both get infected and transmit.”

No injuries have been reported, but residences and businesses along the Highway 87 corridor have reported shattered windows and some structural damage. The District Attorney’s Crime Lab has been struck eight times, the DA’s office said.

SAP Center and the San Jose Museum of Art also are among the buildings damaged. One woman had the windows in her car blown out, officials said.

“We are asking for the public’s help to stop this destructive and dangerous spree,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “This is not just property damage. People live and work behind those windows.”

There have been at least 20 incidences in 2021, and investigators believe the ball bearings are being launched by a slingshot at speeds that could cause a person severe injuries or even death, the DA’s office said.

Anyone with information about the crime can submit an anonymous tip using Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers P3TIPS mobile app, by calling the tip line at 408-947-STOP, or online at www.svcrimestoppers.org.

In the wake of an NBC Bay Area investigation into the issue, Khanna, chair of the House Environment Subcommittee, said he now intends to call for a hearing on the matter next year.

“We will make sure people read your reporting and we will have this conversation in public,” said Khanna, who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, which includes communities in Santa Clara and Alameda counties. “We finally are going to have the forest management sitting right there, under oath — they’re going to hear from scientists who have deep concerns by about commercial logging.”

Post-fire logging, which has been utilized by the Forest Service over the past century, allows lumber companies to buy and haul away burned and dead trees, at a discount, following forest fires.

Supporters of the practice, including scientists at the federal government, believe removing those trees reduces potential fuel for future fires, thus, reducing the likelihood of higher severity wildfires in the future.  An increasing number of scientists, however, worry removing burned trees often creates bigger, hotter forest fires. 

“If you’re making the wildfires worse because you’re taking down trees and you’re increasing the spread and you’re increasing the severity, then that is putting, by definition, more peoples’ lives at risk,” said Khanna during an exclusive interview with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.

Many of those burned logs and dead trees have commercial value. In selling trees to commercial logging companies, the Forest Service collects about $45 million year for its budget.

Despite repeated requests, the Forest Service declined to comment on the ongoing debate over post-fire logging and the increased criticism surrounding the agency’s financial stake in the practice.

“What I want to make sure is that commercial interests aren’t dictating our policy, that science is dictating our policy,” said Khanna.  “My concern is that the forest management hasn’t taken into account the broad scientific opinion.”

Khanna said in an effort to reach a consensus on the best way to slow down California’s catastrophic fires, he will hold a hearing in Washington D.C. next year, summoning top officials at the Forest Service and opposing scientists from across the country to testify before members of Congress. While a date for the hearing has not yet been set, Khanna said he hopes to hold it early enough in the year to give the federal government time to review and reshape its policies before the start of next year’s fire season.

A 2019 report by the Investigative Unit, first prompted Khanna to write a letter to the U.S. Forest Service, asking the agency to review its logging policies.

Since then, numerous reports from scientists have challenged the effectiveness of post-fire logging.  The Investigative Unit got a first look at the latest study from Dr. Chad Hanson, founder of the John Muir Project.  Hanson analyzed last year’s Creek Fire, south of Yosemite National Park.  He found areas that were previously logged following past forest fires ultimately burned fastest and most intensely during the Creek Fire. 

“Even though it seems counterintuitive for a lot of people, removing both dead trees and live trees from the forest actually tends to make fires burn faster and hotter,” he said.  “That oftentimes occurs near towns, and when that happens, you can have tragic consequences.”  

At one point, the Creek Fire advanced 45,000 acres in a single day, trapping hundreds of tourists at the Mammoth Reservoir.  Some had serious injuries after running from what eyewitnesses describe as a ‘wall of fire.’  Hanson’s findings show dead, fallen trees actually absorb moisture from the soil.  Instead of being “fuel,” he contends these trees serve as fire breaks, slowing down a wildfire. 

Watch More in this Investigative Series

Investigative Unit 17 hours ago

Scientists Spar Over Whether Burned Trees Fuel or Calm Future Wildfires

california wildfires Sep 21

Raging Debate Over Burned Trees Could Leave California Vulnerable to Disastrous Fires

Despite the new research, supporters of post-fire logging maintain the process is essential to reducing fuel on the forest floor and are convinced that unless more logging is done, wildfires will eventually wipe out parts of California’s forests.  

“The only way to deal with it, in some cases, is to do post-fire logging in some areas to disrupt the continuity of fuel into from the next fire,” said Dr. Brandon Collins, a forest science researcher. Collins works with the U.S. Forest Service, but spoke with NBC Bay Area only in his capacity as a professor at UC Berkeley.

“If you play this out long enough, we can lose a large portion of our forests.” said Collins.

Khanna says he will bring scientists, the U.S. Forest Service and lumber companies together to develop a new, science-based plan for reducing the threat of wildfire to lives and property across the state.

“I don’t think it’s for Congress to choose which scientist is right, but what we can make a push for is that commercial interests aren’t dictating this, that all of the scientific perspectives are being considered,” he said.  “If there are disagreements on the science, fine, let’s resolve that.”

Follow @BigadShaban

Contact The Investigative Unit

submit tips | 1-888-996-TIPS | e-mail Bigad Shaban

Watch Our Entire Investigative Series

• Part 1: Federal Government to Blame for Faster, More Destructive Wildfires in California, Scientists Say
• Part 2: Raging Debate Over Burned Trees Could Leave California Vulnerable to Disastrous Fires
• Part 3: Scientists Spar Over What’s Fueling Fast-Moving Wildfires
• Part 4: Rep. Khanna Calls for Govt. Hearing After NBC Bay Area Investigation

At issue is what’s known as post-fire logging, the practice of removing dead and burned trees in the wake of a fire.  Supporters see the burned logs as eventual fuel for future fires and believe selling off those trees to lumber companies is a necessary tool to reduce high severity fires in the future.  Opponents, however, argue the dead trees should be left in the forest, where they can absorb moisture from the soil and eventually become akin to natural sponges that can work to actually slow down fires. On Monday, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit continued its series of reports on the issue by highlighting new research that casts doubt on the effectiveness of post-fire logging. The study, authored by forest and fire ecologist Dr. Chad Hanson, found areas previously logged were three times as likely to burn at higher intensities during last year’s Creek Fire, about 80 miles south of Yosemite National Park.

The U.S. Forest Service and top scientists across the country remain at odds over post-fire logging and whether it fuels or calms wildfires.

Hanson, who opposes post-fire logging, joined Dr. Brandon Collins, a UC Berkeley forest science professor who supports post-fire logging, on Tuesday to debate the issue live on NBC Bay Area Tonight at 7pm, moderated by NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai and Bigad Shaban.

california wildfires Sep 21

Raging Debate Over Burned Trees Could Leave California Vulnerable to Disastrous Fires

Watch Our Entire Investigative Series

• Part 1: Federal Government to Blame for Faster, More Destructive Wildfires in California, Scientists Say
• Part 2: Raging Debate Over Burned Trees Could Leave California Vulnerable to Disastrous Fires
• Part 3: Scientists Spar Over What’s Fueling Fast-Moving Wildfires
• Part 4: Rep. Khanna Calls for Govt. Hearing After NBC Bay Area Investigation

Follow @BigadShaban

Contact The Investigative Unit

submit tips | 1-888-996-TIPS | e-mail Bigad Shaban

Foul play isn’t suspected in the death, which closed the station about 6 a.m., BART officials said.

Trains are being turned back at the El Cerrito Del Norte station and there is a 10 minute delay on the Richmond line, BART officicals said shortly after 8 a.m.

AC Transit bus 72M is providing service between Richmond and El Cerrito Del Norte stations.

The resolution asks Alameda County to allocate money from the COVID-19 stimulus package to the city of Oakland Department of Violence Prevention.

Earlier this week, Oakland approved the creation of a new police academy, which will put more officers on the streets. With the relief money, the city also would be able to fund more mental health services, medical clinics within the community, housing support and, among other things, help small minority owned businesses.

“When we talk about gun violence in Oakland, the majority of those who are losing their lives are … Latino men and our Black Men,” City Councilmember Treva Reid said. “So this resolution is to uplift the crisis we are in with 100 lives lost, the majority of which are Black and brown men and women dying on our streets.”

The Oakland officer who was shot and wounded in the line of duty early Wednesday was in stable condition. He and another officer responded to a report of a man with a gun in the 2100 block of Telegraph Avenue and when they arrived were met with gunfire, police said. Both officers fired back, and the suspect, a 50-year-old man, also was wounded and last reported in stable condition.

Oakland officially recorded its 100th homicide Monday. Ten of those homicides happened in just the past week, with four occurring last weekend.

Father and daughter drive west an hour where they deliver the 35-foot (11-meter) RV to its new owner — a volunteer firefighter who lost his home in August when the Dixie Fire leveled most of historic downtown Greenville, a tiny Northern California mountain town dating to the gold rush era.

The vehicle is the 95th that Faircloth has delivered to wildfire victims. Run entirely on volunteer efforts and donated RVs, the nonprofit EmergencyRV.org fills a gap for victims who often wait months for emergency housing, Faircloth said.

“We’re grassroots; we can move a lot faster than that. It’s people helping people. … We can get there almost immediately,” he said.

And Faircloth has a long list of people who need help. Thousands of wildfires have burned in California and the U.S. West this year as a historic drought makes the flames harder to fight.

His mission began Thanksgiving week in 2018. Recently divorced and home in Denver with Luna, then 6, Faircloth watched news coverage of a man fleeing in an RV as the nation’s deadliest wildfire in a century — the Camp Fire — burned his California home. Despite losing his house, the man was grateful to have the RV to call home for Thanksgiving. That struck Faircloth.

He had never been in an motorhome before, but he turned to Luna and asked, “Why don’t we get an RV and drive it out there and give it to a family that lost their home? What do you think about that?”

Her reply: “Aw, Dad, God and Santa Claus are gonna be proud of us.”

“That kinda sealed the deal,” Faircloth said.

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Within three days, with Luna riding shotgun, Faircloth steered west from Denver in a $2,500 motorhome he found on Craigslist. They celebrated Thanksgiving on the road and delivered the vehicle the next day to a victim of the Camp Fire, which nearly destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.

As social media posts about the trip spread, donors started offering Faircloth their RVs. Some offered to deliver the vehicles themselves, but Faircloth makes many of the drops personally.

He tries to schedule the trips on weekends but often dips into vacation time from his full-time job at telecom company Comcast. Faircloth has traversed thousands of miles over the past three years, often with Luna at his side. Last year, she joined him more often as COVID-19 precautions had her going to school remotely.

While those who are given RVs own them outright, Faircloth estimates 5% to 10% return them once they’re on their feet so they can be donated to other fire victims.

Faircloth and Luna spent three weekends in the last two months making the 20-hour drive from Denver to rural Northern California, where the more than 1,500-square-mile (3,898-square-kilometer) Dixie Fire has destroyed 1,329 homes, businesses and other buildings since mid-July. They have delivered three RVs to firefighters and one to a sheriff’s deputy.

One of them was firefighter George Wolley. He was battling the Dixie Fire on Aug. 4 when the flames, whipped by strong winds and bone-dry vegetation, descended from the hills and leveled most of central Greenville, including Wolley’s house.

“We fought the fire until we couldn’t fight it no more. We couldn’t stop it. We did our best,” he said.

Wolley parks the RV near an air base where he’s still helping load fire retardant into air tankers to battle the blaze.

“Before I got that RV, I felt like I was a burden on everybody that helped me,” Wolley said. “I slept a lot in tents and in my car. It gave me a place to go.”

Faircloth and Luna recently delivered their 95th motorhome to John Hunter. An assistant chief with the Indian Valley Fire Department, Hunter has been fighting blazes for 46 years. The same day Wolley’s house burned, flames destroyed Hunter’s home and Hunter Ace Hardware, the Greenville store his family has operated since 1929. It also gutted a building he owned next door, a former medical clinic where the 69-year-old was born.

Hunter and his girlfriend, Kimberly Price, 57, will call the RV home as they decide whether to rebuild or start over elsewhere.

“It’s been really hard because our town’s gone, and this is all John’s known all his life,” Price said, wiping away tears as she watched a video of the family who donated the motorhome.

Price said they will park in a lot near Greenville Junior/Senior High School, one of the few buildings still standing in the town center. That will allow her to keep visiting ruined homes each day to feed cats that were left behind as owners evacuated.

Although Faircloth said it’s challenging to balance work, family and his nonprofit, he hopes to expand the volunteer effort. He envisions staging RVs in hurricane and fire zones in the future to respond even faster during disasters.

For now, there are more than 100 families on EmergencyRV.org’s waitlist. He plans to drive to California in the next two weeks to make his next delivery.

Big retailers aren’t the only ones dealing with theft — small businesses are getting hit too. The owner of Hot Cookie on Polk Street said several successful break-ins and attempted break-ins have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. 

Videos of people running out of department stores and drug stores with fists full of valuable merchandise have gone viral, and now have the attention of the mayor. 

“We can’t continue to allow lawlessness to dominate our city and have an affect on closures and people feeling unsafe,” said Breed. 

The mayor and police chief announced the organized retail theft unit will go from two officers to six.

And the police department is hiring more retired officers to walk neighborhoods.

“We can’t take the financial hit because of these burglaries,” said Hot Cookie owner Ryan Jones.

He hopes the focus on retail theft will help stop a costly cycle of burglaries and thefts at small businesses like their Polk Street Store.

“Opened in February of last year and in that time five successful break-ins, several attempted break-ins and other property damage to our windows and doors,” said Jones.

At The Gallery of Jewels in Noe Valley, the sign on the boarded up windows says thieves broke in on Labor Day — the third burglary since the beginning of the pandemic.

Business owners say the break-ins are financially and emotionally draining.

“How is this gonna disrupt my business? What did they take? Is everyone safe? Is someone still here? Is my safety a concern?” said Jones, who hopes the police department’s new plan makes a difference.

The department already deployed an electric patrol vehicle program last year and has over forty electric and hybrid cars in use to cut emissions.

But the Model Y, set to make its first appearance at the Fremont Street Eats Public Safety Night on October 1, can last up to two patrol shifts on one charge and will add 61 more miles per charge compared to the Tesla Model S 85, the model that they began using in 2019.

Residents can meet the new patrol care at the Fremont Main Library next Friday from 5 to 9 p.m.

Cousins approved the settlement preliminarily at an 11 a.m. virtual hearing Wednesday before attorneys for both sides. 

“I am inclined to approve the settlement,” Cousins told the attorneys and others present at the hearing. 

The judge also agreed to extend the date for the final approval to Jan. 19. The hearing for the final approval was previously set for Dec. 15. The extended time will give attorneys more time to educate the jail’s incarcerated people on the agreement and more time for people to raise objections to the settlement if they choose to. 

The settlement will require sweeping changes at the jail, not only for people with psychiatric disabilities but for incarcerated people in general. Changes will be made over the next two years and the agreement will be in effect for six years, depending on the progress made. 

Besides mental health care, changes will be made to out-of-cell time, ADA accommodations at the jail for people with mental health disabilities, use of force, discharge planning and among other things suicide prevention. 

Recent suicides at the jail prompted the lawsuit. Nineteen people died by suicide since 2014 and 31 more died at the jail from other causes. Fifty deaths are a lot for a jail with a population the size of Santa Rita, attorneys for the incarcerated people at Santa Rita said. 

Attorney Jeff Bornstein, one of the attorneys representing the jail’s incarcerated people, said significant changes need to be made and they are underway. 

Already, a lot fewer people are in restrictive housing, he said. 

But, he said, “We have a long way to go.”

“We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. 

The goal is to make things right at the jail rather than simply meeting the minimum requirements for the treatment of the incarcerated people there, Bornstein said. 

He said it would be great if people with mental illness didn’t have to go to jail at all. 

A big issue addressed in the agreement is how incarcerated people are treated when they are released. In the past, incarcerated people have been turned out onto the streets. 

Under the settlement, incarcerated people with serious mental health issues will get a “warm handoff” to community-based providers who can help secure needed resources for the formerly incarcerated people when they are released.

Besides the provision of adequate mental health care, the agreement calls for adequate out-of-cell time each day, including increasing out-of-cell time in the first three months of the agreement. 

The agreement also calls for measures to prevent suicide and self-harm among incarcerated people, including limiting the use of safety cells, a small room with nothing but a grate in the floor. The county will be building suicide-resistant cells as part of the agreement and limiting the use of and hopefully phasing out safety cells, Bornstein said. 

In all, seven major changes are in store for incarcerated people at the jail. Progress at the jail will be monitored by joint neutral experts and attorneys. 

“Our agency is in full support and agreement,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said. “This has been an extensive process that will make our jail safer for staff and those in custody while addressing the specific needs of our population. 

“The agreement will bring much needed improvements and resources to our criminal justice system in Alameda County,” he said.

In a statement to NBC Bay Area Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson said Good Samaritan Hospital does not discuss personnel issues but “the intensity of the pandemic during the past year and a half has made it common for healthcare professionals to re-evaluate their life priorities, choosing to spend more time with their loved ones or furthering their careers.”

NBC Bay Area obtained an internal hospital memo sent out Wednesday showing Good Sam’s CEO Tomi Ryba told providers “the departures were entirely voluntary as well as normal in the course of operations for any large hospital.”

The two departures come shortly after a series of investigative reports by NBC Bay Area exposing severe staffing shortages, patient care problems and allegations of blatant lack of care. Nurses initially came forward earlier in the year protesting in front of the hospital; then patients and family members contacted NBC Bay Area sharing their experiences at Good Sam that they described as “inhumane” and “horrific.”

In June, the Investigative Unit first reported on the concerns. The issues ranged from a broken elevator delaying a patient’s emergency care to flies in the facility’s intensive care unit. One state inspection report noted flies and maggots inside a patient’s nose and failure by staff to report the insects.

In July, regulators with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) blasted Good Sam’s upper management team saying systemic and re-occurring failures by hospital leadership put patients in harms way repeatedly. Federal regulators hit Good Samaritan Hospital with a “notice of termination,” which places the facility’s Medicare contract in jeopardy. The hospital is still working with CMS to correct the violations.

Neither Good Samaritan Hospital or CMS have publicly released the report but the 65-page report was leaked to NBC Bay Area by a high-level hospital source. The report also includes the hospital’s plan of correction.

View the 65-page CMS “Notice of Termination” here

In August, the Investigative Unit broke the story of Good Samaritan Hospital and its sister facility Regional Medical Center mishandling and even losing several patient bodies. NBC Bay Area spoke to a woman whose mother’s body, she said, was stacked under another large body for days at the hospital and a young mother who accuses Good Samaritan Hospital of “throwing away” her baby’s remains.

In a statement, the hospital acknowledged the problem calling it rare; it also apologized to the families affected.

Then in September, the Investigative Unit obtained an internal hospital memo dated September 20 where Good Sam’s CEO Tomi Ryba confirmed Dr. Thaler’s pending resignation. She wrote he will be joining his family on the East Coast.

“Klaus came to us 18 months ago, taking over a key role at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she wrote. “His leadership during the pandemic effectively rewrote the book for Good Samaritan Hospital on how we care for COVID-19 patients.”

On a call Wednesday, Dr. Klaus told NBC Bay Area he had no comment. Good Sam’s former associate chief nursing officer, Damian Gulbransen, never responded to our requests for comment.

The hospital recently embarked on a public relations campaign across the Bay Area. Over the weekend it took out a full-page newspaper ad to release an open letter to the community. In the letter, the hospital said it is expanding safeguards, adding more nurses, recruiting more doctors and investing millions on new equipment and patient care supplies.

Ryba also touted her transparency and ability to talk about tough challenges in several pre-produced videos posted on social media.

After months of repeated requests for an interview, Ryba nor anyone from Good Samaritan Hospital or its parent company, HCA Healthcare, has ever agreed to an interview with NBC Bay Area.

Ryba told staff in the internal memo she would be providing an update on Dr. Thaler’s replacement “in the coming days.”

Watch Our Entire Investigative Series

• Part 1: Dangerous Patient Care at Good Samaritan Hospital: Inspection Records, Inside Sources
• Part 2: ‘Nothing’s Changed’: Good Samaritan Nurses Picket Hospital Over Staffing, Safety Concerns
• Part 3: Good Samaritan Hospital, Regional Medical Center to Add Staff After Violations, Complaints
• Part 4: Medicare Agency Hits Good Samaritan Hospital With “Notice of Termination”
• Part 5: Details of the 65-page report from regulators not yet publicly available but leaked to NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit
• Part 6: South Bay Hospitals Accused of Losing and Mishandling Patient Bodies
• Part 7: Good Samaritan Hospital Chief Medical Officer Resigning after Nursing Officer Exit

Candice Nguyen is an investigative reporter with NBC Bay Area. To contact her about this story or others, e-mail candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.

One law makes it a crime to film people within 100 feet (30 meters) of an abortion clinic for the purpose of intimidation — a law abortion rights groups believe to be the first of its kind in the country. The other law makes it easier for people on their parents’ insurance plans to keep sensitive medical information secret, including abortions.

The laws, coupled with Newsom’s comments, have only intensified the political rivalry between the nation’s two most populous states. California and Texas have become bastions of their respective political ideologies, with each state carving out opposing positions on issues including health care, immigration and the environment.

That rivalry has come into sharper focus recently with a new Texas law that bans abortions once a heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant. The U.S. Supreme Court decided to let the law take effect for now, banning most abortions in the state.

“These are dark days. I don’t think one can understate the consequential nature of the moment that we are living in,” Newsom said. “It becomes of outsized importance that California assert itself.”

It’s already illegal in California to post personal information about abortion providers or their patients online. But that law hasn’t been updated since the mid-2000s, before the proliferation of smart phones with high-tech cameras that can rapidly post to social media websites.

The new law authored by state Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat from Orinda, makes it a misdemeanor to film someone without their consent for the purpose of intimidation. Offenders can be punished by up to one year in a county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.

The law also requires extensive training for local law enforcement agencies on how to enforce it.

“We’re upping the ante. We’re saying in California we will not accept that our reproductive health care providers and patients be subject to threats both online and in person,” Bauer-Kahan said.

The Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative legal defense organization, opposed the bill. In a letter to lawmakers, the group said violence is “outside the bounds of legitimate political discourse regardless of who perpetrates it.”

“At the same time, spirited debate must not be punished or stifled by merely relabeling it as intimidating or threatening, based on the viewpoint of the speaker,” the group wrote.

Newsom also signed a law on Wednesday making it easier for people who are still on their parents’ health plans to keep their medical treatment secret. State and federal law already provide privacy protections for people who are not the primary policyholder on a health insurance plan. But state Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat from San Francisco, said patients had to request that confidentiality, and the law has not been consistently enforced.

This new law, authored by Chiu, requires insurance companies in California to automatically keep certain medical procedures confidential — including abortions. Chiu said the bill is important now because the federal Affordable Care Act lets people stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26.

“This violation of privacy has put them in a terrible and, in some instances, an even dangerous position,” Chiu said. “If you’re receiving sensitive health services, only you should get confidential communications about it.”

Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, said the bill should have distinguished between a 25-year-old on their parents’ health plan and a 12-year-old.

“Parents should be consulted before their minor children are given life-altering medical treatment,” he said. “It’s deeply concerning that the Legislature and the governor continue to usurp parental authority.”

The measure also bars Amazon, the online retail giant, and similar companies from disciplining workers for following health and safety laws and allows employees to sue to suspend unsafe quotas or reverse retaliation. The bill applies to all warehouse distribution centers, though proponents were driven by Amazon’s dominance.

“We cannot allow corporations to put profit over people,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a news release announcing he had signed the law.

The law, AB 701, was authored by Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a lawyer and former labor leader. She accused Amazon of disciplining warehouse workers at the direction of “an algorithm” that tracks employees’ activities and can determine that anything not directly related to moving packages is “off-task.”

“Amazon is pushing workers to risk their bodies for next-day delivery, while they can’t so much as use the restroom without fearing retaliation,” Gonzalez said when the Legislature passed her bill.

Amazon did not respond for requests for comment on her legislation or allegations. The law gives large warehouse employers 30 days to disclose quotas to employees.

Workers who think their quotas lead to unsafe behavior can ask for 90 days’ worth of documentation of how their work speed meets or fails the quota. Any discipline within that 90 days is presumed to be retaliation, as is any discipline within 90 days of an employee complaining to the company or a state agency about an unsafe quota.

Gonzalez cited reports from several labor advocacy groups including the Warehouse Worker Resource Center and the Strategic Organizing Center to assert that Amazon employees are far more likely to suffer serious injuries than those working in other warehouses.

California’s workplace regulators would have to consider investigating if a worksite or employer has an annual employee injury rate at least 1.5 times higher than the warehousing industry’s average annual injury rate, under her bill.

Yesenia Barrera, a former warehouse employee who is now an organizer with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, recalled the constant pressure to perform and “carrying, bending, reaching, twisting and packing items from 30-60 pounds for hours a day.”

But 27 business organizations led by the California Retailers Association objected that California is home to thousands of warehouse distribution centers that together “provide quality jobs to hundreds of thousands of working-class Californians.”

The groups in a letter to lawmakers cited U.S. Department of Labor data that wages in the transportation and warehousing sector have risen more than 17% in the last year.

Amazon alone says it employs more than 150,000 Californians, including at dozens of “fulfillment centers.”

The legislation is “both burdensome and needlessly overbroad,” the business groups said, arguing that workers are protected by existing occupational safety standards.

In a statement, California Retailers Association President Rachel Michelin said the measure “will exacerbate our current supply chain issues, increase the cost of living for all Californians and eliminate good-paying jobs.”

“With California’s ports facing record backlogs of ships waiting off the coast and inflation spiking to the fastest pace in 13 years, AB 701 will make matters worse for everyone — creating more backordered goods and higher prices for everything from clothes, diapers and food to auto parts, toys and pet supplies,” Michelin said.

Warehouse workers in California are a disproportionate 54% Latino and 9.5% Black, according to the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which co-sponsored the bill.

It argued those groups also have fewer job options and were more likely to suffer during the coronavirus pandemic that increased consumers’ reliance on on-line shopping and boosted retailers’ profits.

The report also found the university retaliated against employees who tried to protect the victims.

Now, one of the critical whistleblowers, who was fired for speaking up is now sharing his story exclusively with NBC Bay Area.

Steve O’Brien was the former deputy athletic director at San Jose State.

San Jose State University Sep 21

San Jose State University to Pay $1.6M to Students Assaulted by Employee

San Jose State University May 21

San Jose State Athletic Director Reassigned Amid Sexual Assault Scandal

He told NBC Bay Area in 2019, swim coach Sage Hopkins shared concerns about an investigation going back more than a decade, looking into suspected sexual abuse by head trainer Scott Shaw.

“That he had mistreated and sexually abused multiple swimmers and that the university’s thin records were not maintained,” he said.

Hopkins took his complaints to the NCAA and O’Brien said top administrators asked him to discipline the swim coach without clearly explaining why.

“I was bring directed to carry that out and it struck me as wrong in an active Title IX investigation. I couldn’t be a party to that,” O’Brien told NBC Bay Area Wednesday.

Then, O’Brien took his concerns to CSU legal counsel. Weeks later, former SJSU athletic director Marie Tuite fired him.

“I knew I did the right thing,” he said. “I knew I would have severe professional consequences for me but I thought mostly about the student athletes and the ongoing abuse and the efforts of the swim coach to call them to light and put an end to it.”

Federal investigators concluded 23 student athletes were inappropriately touched by Shaw and blasted San Jose State for allowing him to continue to work with female athletes.

The federal report says he is accused of sexually harassing a student athlete as recently as February 2020. The justice department also admonished the university for retaliating against two employees including O’Brien.

“It does make me grateful I came forward because if I hadn’t, I wonder how much longer it’s would have gone on,” he added.

NBC Bay Area reached out to San Jose State, which provided a statement which said in part: “We thank all the individuals who courageously came forward during the investigation. To the affected student- athletes and their families, we deeply apologize.”

Earlier this week, San Jose State University agreed to pay $1.6 million to the victims and overhaul its Title IX office and its process for responding to sexual harassment complaints.

As, for O’Brien, he and his attorneys are pursuing legal action against the CSU claiming wrongful termination.

“Steve O’Brien acted to protect another whistleblower in a Title IX investigation and he was fired three weeks later,” said Tamarah Prevost, O’Brien’s attorney.

O’Brien told NBC Bay Area that even though his professional reputation took a hit, he would make the same decision again in a heartbeat.

“I have a family. I have to be able to look at them and tell them i did the right thing independent of the consequences,” he said.

Residents said their community has been overrun by recreational vehicles and people living in cars – and now the city wants to make it permanent.

A line of RVs and cars being used as homes can be seen throughout Hunters Point Expressway.

“These unfortunate brothers and sisters who are facing economic calamity at this time, this is a city and county of San Francisco problem,” San Francisco resident Anthony Alan Simon said. “This is not a Bayview problem.”

During the pandemic people lost jobs and the areas unhoused population skyrocketed. But neighbors said the problems are piling up as more RVs move in.

One resident reports a pile of medical waste and needles they have to walk through in the neighborhood.

Residents said there are real concerns about the conditions with generators that run all night, propane tanks, dumping and waste. Now neighbors are worried about a proposal for a vehicle triage center or safe parking site with 150 spaces by Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in a community with challenges.

“Until we rebuilt Candlestick and the issues listed above are not resolved, we are not in a position to accept or in agreement to organizing a vehicle triage center in the Bayview community district,” San Francisco resident Cynthia Bell said.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Shamman Walton, who represents District 10, said the proposal addresses the reality of the situation with so many people living in vehicles.

“We aren’t going to be moving folks and sending them back to the streets in the middle of a pandemic. What we are proposing is a vehicle triage site,” Walton said.

Walton added the site would have restrooms and sanitation support, security around the clock and janitorial services. The proposed triage site would also work with organizations that connect people to housing, according to Walton.

The goal? “Do everything we can to get people back on track to where they don’t have to live in vehicles,” Walton said.

Revealing these text messages was part of the prosecution’s efforts to show that Holmes knew what was going on at Theranos even as things were falling apart.

About 12,000 text messages sent between Holmes and former Theranos Executive Sunny Balwani were extracted from phones and computers, including one where Balwani referred to a Theranos lab, with an expletive, as a “disaster zone.”

Other text messages showed Holmes expressed concern that a Wall Street Journal reporter was showing up to see the lab.

“For a lack of a more legal term, they want to show the two were in kahoots,” said Esquire Digital Legal Analyst Aron Solomon.

Holmes and Balwani were working together, and worrying together, about their machines including one dubbed “Edison.”

“These messages show intimacy, a knowledge of how the company was operating and not operating,” said Solomon, “and they’re absolutely text messages that show that the Edison black box wasn’t where it needed to be.”

Also on the stand on Wednesday was retired four-star general and former Theranos board member James Mattis.

He said he was impressed by Holmes and hoped to use Theranos machines in the field of battle on soldiers, but was ultimately disappointed that he was not allowed to test the machines.

General Mattis said he left the Theranos board when former President Donald Trump nominated him for Defense Secretary.

Mattis said he invested $85,000 into the company and was granted Theranos stock options. His board salary would’ve been $150,000 a year.

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The FDA authorized booster doses for Americans who are 65 and older, younger adults with underlying health conditions and those in jobs that put them at high risk for COVID-19. The ruling represents a drastically scaled back version of the Biden administration’s sweeping plan to give third doses to nearly all American adults to shore up their protection amid the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.

However, more regulatory hurdles lie ahead before the dispensing of boosters can begin.

Coronavirus Pandemic Coverage:

booster shots Sep 22

CDC Panel Grapples With Who Needs a COVID-19 Booster Shot

coronavirus vaccine Sep 22

US Doubles Global Donation of COVID-19 Vaccine Shots

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened a two-day meeting Wednesday to make their own, more specific recommendations about who should get the extra shots and when. And in their first day of discussions, some experts were so perplexed by the questions surrounding the rationale for boosters that they suggested putting off a decision for a month in hopes of more evidence.

The uncertainties were yet another reminder that the science surrounding boosters is more complicated than the Biden administration suggested when the president and his top aides rolled out their plan at the White House last month.

The FDA decision Wednesday was expected after the agency’s own panel of advisers last week overwhelmingly rejected the Biden plan. The panel instead recommended boosters only for those most vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19.

FDA acting commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement that the FDA authorization would allow for boosters in health care workers, teachers, grocery workers and those in homeless shelters or prisons.

“As we learn more about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, including the use of a booster dose, we will continue to evaluate the rapidly changing science and keep the public informed,” Woodcock said.

Under the FDA authorization, vaccinated Americans are eligible for a third dose six months after receiving their second Pfizer shot. That’s different than the Biden proposal announced in August, which called for boosters after eight months.

“Today’s FDA decision is a major step forward in our effort to provide Americans with additional protection from COVID-19,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Wednesday night. “We have been preparing for weeks to administer booster shots to eligible Americans and are ready to do so following CDC’s final recommendation later this week.”

The timing of the FDA decision was highly unusual given that the agency typically takes action before the CDC convenes its own experts.

The CDC panelists heard a series of presentations Wednesday outlining the knotty state of science on boosters. On one hand, the COVID-19 vaccines continue to offer strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death. On the other hand, there are signs of more low-grade infections among the vaccinated as immunity wanes.

Ultimately the committee must decide who is considered at high enough risk for an extra dose. Data provided by Pfizer and the Israeli government suggests a strong case for boosters in people 65 and older, but there is less evidence that extra shots provide much benefit for younger people with underlying health conditions.

Several CDC advisers agreed boosters are also important for keeping health care workers on the job.

“We don’t have enough health care workers to take care of the unvaccinated,” said Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University. “They just keep coming.”

The CDC has already said it is considering boosters for older people, nursing home residents and front-line health care workers, rather than all adults.

The World Health Organization and other global health advocates are opposed to wealthy nations dispensing a third round of shots when poor countries don’t have enough vaccine for their first doses. And many independent scientists say that the vaccines continue to perform well against the worst effects of COVID-19 and that their ability to curb the overall trajectory of the epidemic is uncertain.

U.S. regulators will decide at a later date on boosters for people who have received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. They indicated the Pfizer shots would not be recommended for people who got a different brand of vaccine initially.

The across-the-board rollout of boosters proposed by the White House was supposed to have begun this week. Some questioned whether President Joe Biden had gotten ahead of the science by announcing his plans before government regulators had reached any conclusions.

Despite the resistance in recent days, some top U.S. health officials said they expect boosters to eventually win broader approval in the coming weeks or months. Dr. Anthony Fauci said over the weekend that “this is not the end of the story.”

Other administration officials noted that the FDA decision covers tens of millions of Americans and that seniors and other high-risk groups would have been the first to get boosters even if extra shots had been authorized for the entire population. Seniors were in the first group of Americans eligible for vaccination last December.

The U.S. has already authorized third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for certain people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Other Americans, healthy or not, have managed to get boosters, in some cases simply by asking.

The U.S. is dispensing around 760,000 vaccinations per day on average, down from a high of 3.4 million a day in mid-April. About 180 million Americans are fully vaccinated, or 64% of those who are eligible.

The blaze was burning in the area of Fremont Drive and Napa Road, according to Cal Fire. At least 40 acres burned.

No evacuations had been issued as of 3:07 p.m., according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

Further information was not immediately available.

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In an oversimplified interpretation, the scene could be taken to represent that Fernández is not afraid to get messy for her art. But her work bears that out. 

To wit — Fernández is an artist who has challenged federal authorities by painting a section of the Mexican border wall sky blue while dressed in a tango outfit —  beautified the gritty wooden walls of San Francisco cardboard collector trucks — and created an art installation in a drug-infested neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa. 

“For me, it’s how can you bring awareness and visibility through these actions that can be poetic?”  Fernández said in between bouts of painting. 

It’s likely Fernández developed her artistic fearlessness growing-up in her native Tampico, Mexico — where she noted one could be taken-out any minute by a mango falling from a tree or by crocodiles that live in the town’s lake. As a kid, she learned the kind of life skills that could only come from a place like Tampico. 

“If you get chased by a crocodile,” she explained, “you have to run in a zig-zag because they can’t turn because their hands are so short.” 

In Tampico, what people lacked in means, they made up for with creativity. She recalled people using the lids from coke cans to fortify the corners of cardboard houses, employing old garage doors as walls and discarded car seats as furniture. 

“What’s allowed there is ingenuity,” Fernández said. “People make something out of nothing.” 

It’s understandable that the town’s maker mentality would rub-off on an artist whose bold projects around the world have earned her international recognition.  

Fernández was eleven-years-old when her father, a doctor, took a job in San Diego and relocated the family to the United States. In San Diego, she was exposed to life along the Tijuana border which would become a central theme in her art. In school, she met girls who waited in line every day to cross the border to attend classes in the U.S. and then return home at night.  

“They would wait in line sometimes almost two hours,” she said. 

If her Tampico upbringing manifested in her thinking, it came out in her passion for sculptures and drawings. She was drawn to learning languages, but wasn’t as enthusiastic about learning in school. 

She was turned down by the universities she applied to and began taking art classes in community college. A sculpture teacher urged her to submit her work to a team from San Francisco’s Art Institute visiting the area to recruit new students. She was stunned when the school not only accepted her, but also awarded her a scholarship. 

Through her art, coupled with the activist spirit of the Bay Area, she began to address inequalities — such as what she viewed as a lack of opportunities for women in her native Mexico. She employed the metaphor of the tango dancing she’d become involved with, where compression between partners is required to sustain the dance — thus emphasizing the importance of equal contribution.  As a statement, Fernández began to don her tango outfit and videotape herself doing domestic chores like ironing or sweeping. From there she created paintings from the images. 

To draw attention to the inequities of the U.S.-Mexican border, she hatched a plan to “erase” a section of the border wall by painting it sky blue — also while dressed in her tango dress and heals. She managed to not only paint a large swath of the wall, but also avoid arrest by the border patrol agents who eventually showed up. 

In another border-themed project, she and her husband wrapped their heads in silver blankets — the kind given to immigrants in border holding facilities —  and attempted to kiss.  

“We could only do so for about a minute because it would start asphyxiate you,” she said. 

During the pandemic as people flooded to grocery stores to clean the shelves of toilet paper, Fernández instead raced to the art store to buy several large canvases which she filled with images of the space blanket project. Even as the pandemic shut down life across the world, Fernández stayed perfectly content in her studio, covering the canvases, and collaterally,  herself with paint. 

“I love the solitude, I love the isolation,” she said flanked by a large painting of the two heads wrapped in silvery material. “I have no problem spending five to seven hours completely in silence.” 

In a sense Fernández’ work is a tribute — and maybe even an airing of grievances toward the city and country of her birth. Hers is a complicated relationship with a place she recalls with fondness, while also observing its shortcomings of opportunity and gender equity. She remains shackled to it both in memory and in art. Like her work clothes, her version of Tampico is covered in layers of paint, which she peels at with each project. 

“I wouldn’t be who I am without having grown up there,” Fernández said before returning to her canvas. “I think that growing up in Tampico, it provided me that sense of magic that I carry with me all the time.” 

On the day the oldest park ranger in the United States turned 100 years old, the West Contra Costa School District renamed Juan Crespi Middle School in El Sobrante as Betty Reid Soskin Middle School.

Though confined to a wheelchair at Wednesday’s ceremony, Soskin is still a park guide at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond. She is also known for her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, co-founding Reid’s Records in Berkeley, and working for state Assembly members Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock.

Betty Reid Soskin Aug 30, 2020

Civil Rights Pioneer Betty Reid Soskin Talks About Current Political Climate

Contra Costa County Sep 14

School District to Name School for Richmond Park Ranger Betty Reid Soskin

Soskin was also part of the planning and development of the park where she still works.

“I don’t know what one might do to justify a long life; I think that you have pretty much got it made,” Soskin said, after cutting the red ribbon officially marking the name change. Because of COVID-19, organizers encouraged people to watch through the district’s Facebook Live feed, which cut off during Soskin’s remarks.

The event brought out state and local education officials, local county Supervisor John Gioia and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek.

Gioia recalled, during meetings to establish the national park, how Soskin emphasized telling the truth of what happened in the shipyards during World War II. 

“I remember one of the first conversations I had with Betty about the new national park in Richmond, and she said ‘I’m not sure how I feel about this park yet. I have sort of a love-hate relationship with it.'” 

The park was meant to celebrate the war effort, Gioia said. “But there was a lot of racism and injustice that happened on the home front, like in the Kaiser shipyards. And Betty experienced some of that.” 

“But Betty, as we know, doesn’t stop at just telling the truth,” Gioia said. “It’s been about changing that inequity and making it fair, and just, and equitable. So when you have someone that calls out the problems that other people don’t want to talk about, then moves to change that situation for the better – whether in her own personal role as an activist in the East Bay or representing a state legislature and making policy – that’s really the true sign of commitment. What’s being recognized here is everything that Betty stood for.”

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said he wanted to name Soskin as an ambassador and spokesperson for California public education.

“It is probably difficult for Miss Betty Reid Soskin to be here and hear all these accolades showered upon here, one of the things I have been privileged to learn about Miss Betty Reid Soskin is she is a humble leader, a modest leader, whose actions speak louder than anyone’s words.” 

“But thank you for giving us this honor, because what you call something does matter,” Thurmond said, getting emotional while pointing out state legislators just passed AB-101, a bill requiring all state public high school to teach ethnic studies.

“We have a champion. We have someone who has fought for civil rights, for women’s rights, for racial justice, and our children deserve to have someone to look up to,” said Thurmond, who said his child attended the school. “I’m proud to be the parent of an alum of Bettey Reid Soskin Middle School.”

Principal Guthrie Fleischman described a staff meeting last November, when the idea of changing the school’s name came up. From there momentum picked up and once the decision-makers laid out criteria for a new name – a local connection and an inspiring name connected to racial equality and social justice – “It was not a long debate, to be honest with you.” 

“I can’t think of another time when I’ve seen a community as inspired as this community is, by attaching themselves to your name,” he told Soskin.

Now that schools have welcomed students back to classrooms, they face a new challenge: a shortage of teachers and staff the likes of which some districts say they have never seen.

Public schools have struggled for years with teacher shortages, particularly in math, science, special education and languages. But the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem. The stress of teaching in the COVID-19 era has triggered a spike in retirements and resignations. Schools also need to hire staffers like tutors and special aides to make up for learning losses and more teachers to run online school for those not ready to return.

Teacher shortages and difficulties filling openings have been reported in Tennessee, New Jersey and South Dakota, where one district started the school year with 120 teacher vacancies. Across Texas, the main districts in Houston, Waco and elsewhere reported hundreds of teaching vacancies at the start of the year.

Several schools nationwide have had to shut classrooms because of a lack of teachers.

In Michigan, Eastpointe Community Schools abruptly moved its middle school back to remote learning this week because it doesn’t have enough teachers. The small district north of Detroit has 43 positions vacant — a quarter of its teaching staff. When several middle school teachers resigned without notice last week, the district shifted to online classes to avoid sending in unqualified substitutes, spokeswoman Caitlyn Kienitz said.

“You don’t want just an adult who can pass a background check, you want a teacher in front of your kids,” Kienitz said. “This is obviously not ideal, but we’re able to make sure they’re getting each subject area from a teacher certified to teach it.”

According to a June survey of 2,690 members of the National Education Association, 32% said the pandemic drove them to plan to leave the profession earlier than expected. Another survey by the RAND Corp. said the pandemic exacerbated attrition, burnout and stress on teachers, who were almost twice as likely as other employed adults to feel frequent job-related stress and almost three times more likely to experience depression.

The lack of teachers is “really a nationwide issue and definitely a statewide issue,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of California’s State Board of Education.

A school district in California’s West Contra Costa County is considering hiring out-of-state math educators to teach online while a substitute monitors students in person.

“This is the most acute shortage of labor we have ever had,” associate superintendent Tony Wold said. “We opened this year with 50 — that’s five-zero — teaching positions open. That means students are going to 50 classrooms that do not have a permanent teacher.”

There are an additional 100 openings for non-credentialed but critical staff like instructional aides — who help English learners and special needs students — custodians, cafeteria workers and others, Wold said.

California’s largest district, Los Angeles Unified with 600,000 students, has more than 500 teacher vacancies, a fivefold increase from previous years, spokeswoman Shannon Haber said.

Schools try to fill in with substitutes, but they’re in short supply, too. Only about a quarter of the pool of 1,000 qualified substitutes is willing to work in Fresno Unified, said Nikki Henry, a spokeswoman for the central California district with 70,000 students and 12,000 staffers.

At Berkeley High School, a shortage of substitutes means teachers are asked to fill in during their prep periods, leading to exhaustion and burnout typically not felt at the start of a school year.

“We are absolutely strained. This has been an incredibly stressful start to the year,” said Hasmig Minassian, a ninth-grade teacher who describes physical and mental exhaustion as she tries to juggle staffing needs and the emotional needs of students who are showing signs of more mental fragility and learning loss.

“It doesn’t feel like there are enough adults on these campuses to keep kids really safe. We feel short-staffed in a way we’ve never felt before,” she said. “You know the early videos of nurses crying in their cars? I kind of expect those to come out about teachers.”

The California shortages range from dire to less severe in places that planned ahead and beat the competition, but those are the minority, said Darling-Hammond of the board of education.

In a new twist, money is not the main problem. School districts have the funds to hire additional staff, thanks to billions in federal and state pandemic relief funding. There just aren’t people applying.

“We’re all competing for a shrinking piece of the pie,” said Mike Ghelber, assistant superintendent at the Morongo Unified School District in the Mojave Desert, which has more than 200 openings for special education aides, custodians, cafeteria workers and others. “I don’t know if everybody is getting snatched up, or if they don’t want to teach in the COVID era, but it’s like the well has dried up.”

The district of 8,000 students has ads in newspapers, radio and social media. Teachers are packing “now hiring” flyers into kids’ lunchboxes, with a long list of openings so families can spread the word. In the meantime, everyone is pitching in.

“Principals and administrators are out being crossing guards. Secretaries are directing traffic because we’re short on supervisors,” Ghelber said.

The shortages raise concerns that schools will hire underqualified teachers, particularly in low-income communities where it’s already harder to fill positions, Darling-Hammond said.

Class sizes also are expanding.

Mount Diablo Unified School District, which serves 28,000 students east of San Francisco, has had to fill several elementary school classrooms at the maximum capacity of 32 students. It’s not ideal for social distancing but frees up teachers for online school.

About 150 kids initially signed up for distance learning, but with spiking infections blamed on the highly contagious delta variant, the number ballooned to 600 when school reopened. The same happened in Fresno, where enrollment in remote learning exploded to 3,800 from 450.

Superintendent Adam Clark said the Mount Diablo district is offering $5,000 signing bonuses for speech pathologists and $1,500 for paraeducators who help students with learning needs.

San Francisco Unified is offering a similar starting bonus for 100 paraeducator jobs. Nearby West Contra Costa County Unified has set $6,000 signing bonuses for teachers, with a third paid out after the first month and rest when the teacher enters year three.

Districts in Oklahoma, North Carolina, New Jersey and elsewhere are offering a range of cash incentives for new teachers, particularly in low-income and low-performing schools.

Of a dozen officials interviewed in California districts, only one said it was facing no shortages.

Long Beach Unified, the state’s fourth-largest district with over 70,000 students, anticipated the need last spring for a hiring spree of about 400 jobs.

“We went full aggressive,” assistant superintendent David Zaid said, including beefing up human resources for a 24-hour turnaround on contract offers.

A virtual interview team worked through the summer. Recruitment events drew hundreds of applicants, and as HR employees met hiring benchmarks, they got rewards like catered breakfasts and an ice cream truck.

“We probably would have experienced the same shortages as others,” Zaid said. “But we became much more assertive, and as a result, we are not in the same position.”

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo said she wants to sentence Peterson in November before deciding whether he deserves a new trial over alleged juror misconduct. She set an Oct. 6 hearing to set a date for resentencing him to a life term with no chance of parole.

The California Supreme Court overturned Peterson’s death sentence last year because jurors who personally disagreed with the death penalty but were willing to impose it were improperly dismissed.

Prosecutors said they won’t seek the death penalty if Peterson gets a new trial.

The high court found there was considerable circumstantial evidence incriminating him in the first-degree murder of Laci Peterson, 27, who was eight months pregnant, and the second-degree murder of the boy they planned to name Connor.

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Prosecutors said Peterson took his wife’s body from their Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped her in San Francisco Bay from his fishing boat. The body of his wife and the boy’s fetus washed ashore in April 2003.

Peterson’s lawyers are seeking a new trial on allegations a juror committed misconduct by falsely answering questions during the selection process.

Defense lawyers said the woman, who coauthored a book on the case, eagerly sought to be a juror in the case and did not disclose she had been a crime victim.

The woman known as Juror 7 did not reveal during jury selection that she had been beaten by a boyfriend while pregnant in 2001. She also didn’t disclose that during another pregnancy she had obtained a restraining order against a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, whom she feared would hurt her unborn child.

The judge denied a defense request to take depositions of the juror and witnesses to those crimes against her but said she could be questioned during an evidentiary hearing.

The juror, however, has said she won’t testify at a hearing unless she is granted immunity from prosecution on a possible perjury charge, attorneys said. If not, she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.

Nearly 91% of Marin County residents 12 and over have been fully vaccinated, according to the county’s COVID-19 vaccination dashboard. In San Mateo County, just over 90% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated.

Here’s a look at the percentage of fully vaccinated residents in the remaining Bay Area counties:

• Napa County: 85%
• Santa Clara County: 83%
• Contra Costa County: 81%
• San Francisco County: 81%
• Alameda County: 77%
• Sonoma County: 76%
• Solano County: 65%

The quake, centered about 5.5 miles east of Milpitas and about 9 miles northeast of San Jose, struck at 10:16, the USGS said.

No other information was immediately available. Updates to come.

OPD was working two crime scenes, the first in the 2100 block of Telegraph Avenue, where the officer was shot and a gun was recovered, police said. The injured officer returned fire and struck the suspect.

The injured officer was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said.

“Had a chance to talk to him, had a chance to hear from him, so that was good,” OPD Chief LeRonne Armstrong said.

The second scene was in the 2100 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, where the suspect was barricaded in a housing complex for veterans and armed with a knife for a brief time before being taken into custody, police said. A knife was recovered at that scene.

Sherlyn Wilson, who lives on the fifth floor of the complex, was worried the situation would trigger one of her neighbors to step in.

“I was just worried that he would come to our floors, and I didn’t know if he had a weapon because a lot of us are holding weapons, so that was the biggest worry,” Wilson said.

OPD called in its crisis intervention unit, mental health responders, negotiators and a tactical unit to persuade the man to come out peacefully.

Both shootings, including the one that injured the suspect, are under investigation, police said.

The suspect was identified only as a man in his 50s. The wounded officer was not identified.

The standoff used so much of OPD’s shrinking manpower that the department had to call in mutual aid from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Berkeley police, California Highway Patrol and San Leandro police to help respond to other 911 calls.

“Obviously we have staffing shortages,” Armstrong said.

The countywide health order is aimed at countering a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations this summer due to the highly infectious delta variant and unvaccinated residents.

County health officials estimate unvaccinated residents account for 95.9% of the county’s deaths so far.

“This order is necessary now to save lives, protect our overburdened healthcare system, and slow the pandemic enough to keep our schools open,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County Health Officer said in a news release.

The new order applies to businesses where people remove masks to eat or drink indoors, and to gyms and other indoor fitness facilities where patrons breathe more heavily due to exercise.

The order also requires workers in indoor areas of the businesses to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 by Nov. 1 or test weekly for COVID-19.

To show proof of vaccination, patrons need to show a photo ID and their vaccination record cards from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), or copies or pictures of their cards. Documentation from healthcare providers will also be accepted, as will digital COVID-19 vaccine records issued by the State of California.

A link to a digital vaccination, which can be downloaded onto a smartphone, can be found myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov.

More information about the health order is available at cchealth.org/coronavirus.

The current ordinance is set to expire Sept. 30, the same date the county’s temporary prohibition on rent increases expires.

Supervisors voted 3-2 to discontinue the ordinance, with District 1 Supervisor John Gioia and District 5 Supervisor Federal Glover voting to continue.

Gioia argued the pandemic is still disproportionately affecting residents of color and of lower-income, and wanted to extend the ordinance until at least the end of the year.

Board chair Diane Burgis said she was sympathetic to the people that are still hurting, but “I believe we need to move on. The economy hasn’t fully recovered and everywhere I go, all the business people I speak with, people are trying to hire, and we need to get people back to work.”

San Francisco also will see its eviction moratorium end this month. City leaders voted to extend the temporary ban through December, but a new state law set the deadline at Sept. 30, superseding the local ordinance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Contra Costa board did unanimously adopt an agreement authorizing the county administrator to enter into an agreement with the California Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency to administer the county’s share of federal emergency rental assistance program 2 funds. According to a staff report, the program’s next round of funding would provide more than $70 million in relief to county households behind on rent or utilities.

Crews responded to an 8:10 p.m. report of a residential fire in the 2900 block of Sherbrooke Way, according to a 9:29 p.m. tweet from San Jose Fire Department.

The fire was under control by 8:59 p.m., but crews found a person dead inside the house. No additional information was provided.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

“Vaccination is one of the strongest tools out there to prevent infections,” said Oakland Unified board member Sam Davis.

Davis helped write the proposed policy that would require students get vaccinated in order to attend school.

The vote on this proposal is expected Wednesday.

“We would be the next big city to require vaccinations for 12 and up, it’s still a broad policy goal at this point,” said Davis. “We don’t have all of the details in our resolution that Los Angeles has in theirs.”

Berkeley Unified and Piedmont Unified school districts also are expected to vote Wednesday on similar vaccine mandates for students.

On Sept. 9, Los Angeles Unified School District became the first large school district in the country to require students to be vaccinated by January 2022.

The rules down south are strict — with no alternatives to vaccination. And the vaccine idea is spreading.  

A proposal for a vaccine mandate will be on the school board agenda in Berkeley too. 

That district’s vaccine requirement proposal is in the early stages. It’s not as strict as the mandate in Los Angeles, allowing students to get a shot or submit to weekly testing.

West Contra Costa schools are also exploring the possibility of a student mandate. All have one unanswered question — what happens to the kids who refuse?

Not all families are in favor of their kids getting COVID-19 shots. But one family feels it’s the only way to fight the deadly virus. 

“It’s there, kids are at risk, their parents are at risk, grandparents are at risk and it’s the best over all options it’s a win win,” said a supporter of the mandate.

PG&E has been faulted by a federal judge for not cutting power sooner in the massive Dixie Fire, which has burned more than 960,000 acres is now 90% contained. The fire has been tied to a rotted tree that fell onto a powerline several hours before flames erupted on the afternoon of July 13.

Since that disaster, the company adopted what it calls a “more aggressive”  shutoff policy – which involves recalibrating automatic switches to automatically cut off power at the sign of a blown fuse or power influx often associated with fire.

Since the new policy was put in place at the end of July across 11,500 miles of its highest risk power lines, the company says it has logged 279 outages, but just one small fire.

“PG&E believes this program has already prevented ignitions,” the company told U.S. Judge William Alsup.

While it did not detail what specific fires may have been avoided, the company said the new policy coincides with a 62% drop in fire ignitions over the same timeframe last year and a 50% drop in the average ignitions tracked between 2018 and 2020.

PG&E says it’s still working out the kinks in the system, resulting in “repeated and extensive outages” that have “become a significant cause of concern for those impacted individuals and organizations.” Part of the problem, it says, is that responding crews not only have to make repairs but must check the entire line before power can be restored. The company says it has adopted a 60 minute response time goal so as to get power back faster.

Communities in both Marin and the Santa Cruz mountains have complained that the utility’s new program has lead to dozens of what they call “unnecessarily long” outages. A Los Gatos neighborhood says they’ve suffered more than a dozen outages this year, due to the utility’s sensitivity switches. Neighbors say they understand the need to mitigate fire risk, but don’t understand why it takes PG&E so long to verify there is no fire, and turn the power back on. In some cases the outages have lasted days. PG&E has said it understands the frustration but must prioritize public safety. 

In response to other questions about the Dixie Fire, the company acknowledged to the judge that at least one of its system operators had considered, but rejected, shutting off the line that day.

The utility said its operator saw “no other indication of an emergency—such as an indication of a hazard or fire—that would have caused him to de-energize the line.”

But the judge cited electronic data – indicating a power fluctuation and that two fuses had blown on the line – in pressing the utility on whether it should have cut power as a precaution.

“In the circumstance of an outage without a known cause,’’ the company told the judge, “PG&E’s policies do not require distribution lines to be de-energized.”

“It made a horrible racket!” she recalled. 

Janet, who lives in Pleasanton, discovered someone had stolen the catalytic converter from her Prius. 

Her story is not uncommon. The Pleasanton Police Department received 27 reports of catalytic converter thefts in 2019, 64 reports in 2020, and 70 reports in 2021 so far. 

This mirrors a spike in catalytic converter thefts across the Bay Area, across California, and across the country since the start of the pandemic. 

“Since 2019, we’ve seen a 300% increase in the theft of catalytic converters,” said David Glawe, the president and CEO of the National Insurance Crime Bureau. 

Why Converters Get Stolen

Catalytic converters contain precious metals like rhodium, platinum, and palladium. Thieves can pocket hundreds of dollars for each stolen converter by selling them to recyclers and auto repair shops.

“The supply chain and the mining of these precious metals is difficult, which has caused the price to go up exponentially over the last year,” Glawe said, noting that the increase in thefts coincides with the increase in the prices of these metals.

It can take criminals two to three minutes using tools from a hardware store to swipe your converter, leaving you with a several thousand dollar part to replace. 

In California, it’s a violation of the state vehicle code to steal a converter. The penalty is a misdemeanor offense.

“You will go to jail,” emphasized Ryan Tujague, the Crime Prevention Officer with Pleasanton police, adding that there are more severe penalties if you’re found stealing multiple converters.

Tujague pointed out that while your converter may be easy to steal, there are also easy ways you can prevent your car from becoming a target.

Park Smart

The easiest (and cheapest) recommendation Tujague has to curb your risk is to think carefully about where you park. Garages are the safest option, but if that’s not possible, aim for driveways, well-lit areas and places with video surveillance. 

Etch Your Converter

Tujague said etching your catalytic converter with your license plate number, driver’s license number or phone number can deter thieves. You can buy an etcher for around $20 and do it yourself or you could ask a mechanic to do it for you. Some law enforcement agencies will help you do this etching for free. 

Cage Your Converter

A muffler shop can help you weld a rebar cage around your converter. Tujague explained that the metal cage will stop thieves from trying to saw off your converter. The rebar work may cost you several hundred dollars. 

Lock Your Converter

For more protection, Tujague recommends installing locks on your converter. You can buy locks designed to go on your converter. They typically sell online for between $100 and $400. Some locks you can install yourself, while others might require a mechanic’s help.

“It’s absolutely worth the money,” Tujague said. 

Will Insurance Cover Locks or Cages? 

An NICB spokesperson told us “it isn’t typical” that insurers would cover anti-theft device installation. However, NICB noted that installing an anti-theft device might earn you a discount on your overall insurance that could be packaged with other discounts such as a safe driver discount. 

Insurance Coverage

Look into what your insurance would cover should your converter be stolen. NICB explained that catalytic converter theft is generally only covered by insurance if the vehicle owner has “comprehensive insurance,” which is optional in California. Check to see what your deductible would be to repair a stolen catalytic converter.

 Which Vehicles Are Most At Risk? 

In Pleasanton, the vehicles targeted most are Ford F-150s, panel or transportation vans, Honda Accords, Honda Elements, and the most frequent target of all: the Toyota Prius. 

The Highway Loss Data Institute published a report this spring on theft losses for 2004-2009 Toyota Prius models and found that theft loss for these cars increased “substantially” in 2020. A spokesperson said HLDI believes a spike in catalytic converter theft is what is driving the increase in theft losses for Prius owners.

Many law enforcement agencies believe the Toyota Prius is targeted because the converter is used less frequently and is easy to access.  

NBC Bay Area reached out to Honda and Ford for comment on this story but did not hear back. 

Toyota did respond to us with a statement saying, “Catalytic converter theft is an industry-wide challenge.”

Toyota went on to say, “While not the solution to the problem as a whole, taking preventative measures like smart parking and adding the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) to the catalytic converter can help protect drivers from theft.”

“I don’t want to keep dealing with it”

As for Janet, she feels grateful that her insurance wound up covering the $2,700 it cost to replace her catalytic converter. 

But now she is afraid that the thieves will return and steal her catalytic converter again. 

Her intuition is correct, Pleasanton police say many catalytic converter theft victims wind up having their converters stolen again once they’ve replaced the part. 

“Now I’m really thinking about just selling the car because I don’t want to keep dealing with it,” Janet said of her Prius.

The Fremont Unified School District, home to one of the largest Afghan populations in the country, is preparing  for the challenge. 

“When we saw turmoil in Afghanistan, our staff immediately started gathering resources and started to begin putting together a network of support for families that might be coming to us,” said Superintendent Christopher ‘CJ’ Cammack.

He added the refugees can expect resources such as translators readily available from the district’s diverse staff. 

The superintendent said language acquisition would be the top priority for the new students and the structure will be different depending on the developmental level of the child.

“They would be in the same classroom as the other students,” said Cammack. “They may receive additional support in English language development but they’ll have the same curriculum, same classroom. And we’ll find materials translated into their home language.”

As for how current students will adapt to the new students from Afghanistan, that’s a lesson taught both at school and at home. 

“Not judge people by their color as long as they’re a good person, they’re getting along, it’s good for him, it’s good for them,” said mother Tanya Ohri.

“The message to send to our community is ‘welcome them with open arms with grace and empathy,’” said Cammack.

In the South Bay, it was a group of women during what was called the Chicano Movement that created a template for political and social activism. Some of those women are still fighting for justice today.

Rachel Silva and Shirley Trevino are some of the fiercest women one will meet.

“They are the powerhouses of the Chicano Movement in San Jose,” professor and historian Nannette Regua said.

The Chicano Movement – a fight for social justice in the 1960s and 70s – began amid reports of police harassing and wrongly arresting Chicanos who visited Hellyer Park in San Jose. They called it La Raza Park.

“We patrolled the police on the Fridays and Saturdays,” Trevino said.

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The Chicanas marched to city hall in protest.

Day in and day out, the fight for justice and equality drove them to protest at school board meetings or at grocery stores, anywhere they felt social injustice was taking place.

“I sacrificed my family,” Silva said. “Two of my sons died. I only had three sons. Two of them died. I neglected them a lot because you have to be ready to go 24 hours.”

The fight for justice also faced another hurdle. The Chicanas were fighting an internal battle.

“The Chicanas experienced sexism within the Chicano organizations here in San Jose,” Regua said. “Even though they were equally committed to the movement, they experienced degradation.”

They did what they had always done. They found a way to overcome, forming their own group called the Mujeres of Aztlan, or women of Aztlan.

They advocated for better streets and sidewalks, for equal treatment in schools, for district elections, and for better health care all while fighting to end oppression and brutality in the community.

“So that we could let the community know, especially the male Latinos know, that we wanted a voice at the table,” Trevino said.

For the iconic civil rights leaders, the Chicano Movement may have ended, but the fight has not. They still sit on community boards, continuing the mission they pioneered decades ago: to ensure justice for all.

The event used to draw hundreds of thousands but this year, it looked a lot different with COVID-19 and security requirements are some of the strictest ever seen. 

Even in their opening presentation, Salesforce made sure the message is clear to the millions watching digitally around the globe – strict COVID rules are in place for the roughly 1,000 people attending Dreamforce in person.

Each attendee had to go through multiple security checks, show vaccination cards and undergo daily COVID-19 testing — four tests in all.

“Indeed, there is a huge change going on,” said Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff.

In his keynote address, Benioff told employees and clients around the world they’re “trailblazers” in a “trusted enterprise,” and the conference shows a pathway for collaborating successfully and safely moving forward. 

“So, it’s all going to happen here physically, and it’s all going to happen digitally as well – and this is part of the new world we are in and we already know that,” said Benioff.

Attendees said the testing and paperwork are both necessary and acceptable, especially with the delta variant threatening even the vaccinated population.

“I think that is good for everyone as well, because we want to keep secure our entire ohana,” said Rakesh Gupta, automation champion.

Something that attendees are happy with. 

“The good thing is that I feel secure, because all of the people here, everyone’s covid tests are done four times,” said Amit Chaudhayr of Information Services. 

The rules are so strict that even the man who designed the trailhead concept used in the outdoor conference couldn’t get in.

“It’s amazing. I mean, even my boss can’t get in. It all has to do with COVID protocol,” said Tim Mohr, San Francisco creative marketing director. 

He said he completely understands the need for safety with the virus still spreading and he was elated Dreamforce 2021 is still on – albeit with a much smaller crowd.

The conference runs through Thursday afternoon at the Moscone Center.

CVS said it plans to add 25,000 employees nationwide this week to prepare for a potential surge in the demand for COVID booster shots.

In the Bay Area, hospitals are scrambling to get more healthcare workers to help get shots into arms.

More than 1.4 million people ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated in Santa Clara County. Healthcare workers are

The possible spike in the demand for COVID booster shots comes after the FDA advisory committee recommended boosters for people age 65 and older and for those with underlying complications.

“What we are really concerned about in the healthcare field is that we have boosters and then we have the pediatric population being able to be vaccinated,” said Jo Coffaro, Hospital Council of Northern and Central California vice president. “And then we also have flu season happening at the same time. And in addition, we have the fatigue of our healthcare workers.”

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Coffaro said a wave of healthcare workers are burned out and leaving the profession or retiring. And while hospital s are trying to hire traveling nurses to fill spots, that has been a challenge too because many of them are already in demand in other parts of the country where COVID is still overwhelming hospitals.

“Everyone is competing for the same resources,” Coffaro said.

Healthcare workers will also be tasked with giving people flu vaccines — a potentially tall order with people now going back to work and school. Doctors said that process could not be streamlined.

“You can definitely get a flu shot and COVID vaccine at the same time,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF infectious disease specialist. “There should be no confusion. It is very safe and very effective.”

In fact. Chin-Hong said Moderna is even looking at combining the flu and COVID vaccines together in the future.

Newsom had asked people in July to voluntarily cut back their water consumption by 15% to help address a severe drought that has left some of the state’s reservoirs at dangerously low levels.

But in the three weeks after Newsom’s announcement, residents reduced their water consumption just 1.8%, according to new data released Tuesday and reported by the Sacramento Bee.

“On conservation, we’re going to be needing to do more,” board chair Joaquin Esquivel said.

Still, Esquivel was hopeful the state’s conservation numbers will improve. Newsom declared a drought emergency in the Russian River watershed along the state’s north coast in April. Data from that region shows people reduced their water consumption by 17% compared in July compared to 2020.

“We see that it takes time for conservation to boot up,” Esquivel said, adding that the 17% figure “shows the responsiveness of communities” to appeals for conservation.

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Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said the numbers “represent a promising start in reducing water use,” saying water agencies are “ramping up public information campaigns to build on that progress.”

The numbers released Tuesday represent only about three weeks’ worth of data. And Californians are using about 15% less water per capita than they were in 2014.

But this drought has strained water resources like never before. Several of the state’s largest reservoirs are already at record lows. The water level is so low in Lake Oroville that officials had to shutter a hydroelectric power plant for the first time ever.

Still, Newsom has declined to impose mandatory water restrictions. Newsom’s predecessor, former Gov. Jerry Brown, imposed mandatory 25% water restrictions during the previous drought. The Newsom administration has signaled water restrictions could come if the drought persists.

Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said officials are planning for “a worst-case scenario in terms of water availability” for the state’s three largest reservoirs.

The city debated whether to add more police officers to the dwindling force after the department reported its 100th homicide.

Despite the shortage, some community members insisted this was not the answer to fight crime in the area.

Councilmember Sheng Thao wanted to add two more police academies in order to beef up Oakland Police Department’s staffing numbers and dozens of Oakland residents participated in the meeting to let the council know where they stand. 

“I am calling like many callers to push back against a new police academy. We do not need it. We do not want it,” said Amanda, Oakland resident.

On the other hand, other residents like Paula Hawthorn said they support the addition of police academies.

“We believe this is the only sensible thing to do at this point in order to address where we are with the violence,” she said.

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On Monday, Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong lamented the staffing shortage.

“We’ve lost over 46 officers in the last four months, that is a difficult gap to fill,” he said. “So we need these academies to fill that gap and we need more officers in the ranks.”

Cadets must go through 27 weeks of training and pass several tests in order to become sworn police officers.

“Yeah of course. If it was a good opportunity, I would check it out,” said San Ramon resident Davonne Riddick.

Riddick is 22-years-old and was raised in Oakland. He said if the district voted to approve more police academies, it’s a career choice he would consider.

“It would be interesting to see people like me from the community, maybe, join Oakland police.”

Those against adding more police academies urged the council to look into the recent shooting of Michael Jonathan Cortez, who was shot and killed by a FBI agent in East Oakland last week. The FBI said Cortez was armed at the time.

According to a Go Fund Me page, Cortez was a father of three.

“More cops do not equate to less crime,” said Cat Brooks with the Anti-Police Terror Project.

Riddick thinks the gap between community and police officer should be bridged as, “I think there’s a big gap right now with like, trust and support in the community,” Riddick said.

“So much violence, so many guns, so many senseless lives lost,” Chief Armstrong said in a news conference Monday. “If this is not a calling to everybody in this community that there is a crisis, I don’t know what is.”

The payment is part of a settlement between the university, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which conducted a Title IX investigation that found the university failed to adequately respond to reports of sexual harassment and assault that started in 2009, exposing additional student-athletes to harm for over a decade.

Federal investigators also found the university retaliated against two employees, including one who repeatedly alerted school officials about the trainer. Female swimmers said he subjected them to repeated, unwelcome sexual touching of their breasts, groins, buttocks and pubic areas during treatment in the campus training facilities, federal prosecutors said.

“With this agreement, San José State University will provide relief to survivors and transform its Title IX process to ensure accountability in its athletics program and create a safer campus for all its students,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

University officials said they cooperated fully with the investigation by the Department of Justice and that the findings by federal prosecutors are similar to what an external investigation ordered by the university in 2019 and completed earlier this year found about the allegations against former Director of Sports Medicine Scott Shaw.

Both investigations identified 23 student-athletes who were inappropriately touched by Shaw but of those, only 13 have accepted to receive $125,000 each, the university said.

“We thank all the individuals who courageously came forward during the investigations. To the affected student-athletes and their families, we deeply apologize,” university officials said in a statement.

In April, Mary Papazian, president of San Jose State University, said in a campus wide letter to students, faculty and staff members that the external investigation found that the allegations were substantiated and that more recent allegations were raised in the course of the investigation.

Shaw resigned last year after allegations that from 2006 to 2009 he inappropriately touched swimmers during physical therapy resurfaced in the news media. He has denied misconduct, and no criminal charges have been filed against him.

Shaw’s attorney, Lori Jeanne Costanzo, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

As part of the settlement, the university must also implement major reforms to address sexual harassment complaints, bolster its Title IX office, train student-athletes and university employees on giving and receiving consent before medical treatment, prevent retaliation, and provide support to current and former student-athletes who were sexually harassed by the athletic trainer.

The university said it already has restructured its Title IX office, added Title IX experts on gender equity, and launched a new chaperone policy that will give students and staff the right to request a third party be present for any type of sports medicine treatment.

San Jose State said it looked forward to partnering with the Department of Justice to build a stronger Title IX program.

“The health and safety of our campus community remains our top priority,” the university said. “We will continue to learn from the past so we never repeat it.”

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — The first patient to take the stand in trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes said that the company’s blood test inaccurately showed she was suffering a miscarriage when in fact she had a healthy pregnancy.

Brittany Gould, who had already miscarried three times testified on Tuesday that in September 2014 she took a Theranos blood-test at a Walgreens store in Arizona after learning that she was pregnant.

After reviewing the results of the Theranos hCG test, which measured a pregnancy hormone, Gould’s nurse practitioner, Audra Zuchman, delivered some alarming news.

“She told me your numbers are falling, unfortunately, and that I was miscarrying,” Gould said, getting emotional on the stand.

Two Theranos hCG blood-tests indicated Gould was miscarrying. However, tests taken two and four days later through a different lab, Quest Diagnostics, confirmed that Gould was still pregnant. She eventually had a healthy baby.

“I remember communicating to Brittany that it was looking as though this was a non-viable pregnancy which would make it her fourth loss,” Zuchman testified, later adding “there isn’t a medical explanation in a pregnancy loss for the value to go from 100 way back into the thousands or to go up at all really.”

After filing a complaint with Theranos, Zuchman said she stopped sending patients there. “I felt very uncertain of the validity of the results and felt uncomfortable as a provider continuing to have my patients use it,” she recalled.

Gould testified that after giving birth, she never used a Theranos product again. “You can’t provide accurate patient care with inaccurate results,” she said.

Holmes is facing a dozen charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with what prosecutors call a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors and patients. She has pleaded not guilty.

The one-time wunderkind of Silicon Valley dropped out of Stanford at 19 years old with the idea of revolutionizing healthcare. With Theranos, she promised to run hundreds of tests with just a finger-prick of blood. In 2015 a series of damning reports by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou exposed the blood-testing technology fell short.

Among the government’s next witnesses is Justin Offen, an employee from PricewaterhouseCoopers, who will testify about private text messages between Holmes and Balwani. Prosecutors said they have obtained 12,000 messages between the two but plan to show a small portion to the jury.

Cross examination of former scientist

Earlier in the day, during cross examination of Surekha Gangakhedkar, a longtime senior scientist at Theranos, Holmes’ defense attorneys brought up a September 2013 email that Sunny Balwani, Theranos COO and for a time Holmes’ romantic partner, sent to her team and Holmes.

The email suggested Gangakhedkar’s team wasn’t working hard enough.

“Please note that the software team was here till 3:07am – and is already here now at 10am…” Balwani wrote, adding that the Edison devices were “all sitting idle.”

“In the email he essentially boasts about the oppressive hours his team was working as though that was a badge of honor or something,” said Lance Wade, an attorney for Holmes. “He’s trying to make you feel guilty about the fact that you weren’t working, wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” replied Gangakhedkar.

“And he was trying to make your whole team feel guilty,” said Wade.

“Yes” she testified.

“Were you aware that Mr. Balwani criticized Ms. Holmes about that since she was the supervisor?” asked Wade.

It was the first time during witness testimony that Holmes’ attorneys began shifting blame to Balwani.

Gangakhedkar worked in a Theranos lab for eight years and reported directly to Holmes. She quit in 2013 over increasing concerns about the Edison blood-testing technology capabilities. Gangakhedkar testified that she repeatedly flagged the inaccuracy issues and her concerns to Holmes yet the CEO pushed ahead with the rollout in Walgreens stores.

“In research and development sometimes you have to fail before you can succeed, right?” Wade asked.

“Yes,” Gangakhedkar said.

A 2500-square-foot home, engulfed in flames on the 400 block of Ormsby Lane, sent up black smoke seen for miles around. The fire quickly spreading to grass, and then into eucalyptus trees.

“It very quickly went to a three alarm fire.” said firefighters “We knew we had that need because of the winds and the very dry conditions.”

A woman broke out a garden hose to try and stop the spread. She was joined by six fire agencies, while the Sonoma County Office of Emergency Services worked with law enforcement to evacuate 900 homes.

The evacuation order applied to Zone 5K1, which includes the area north of Corona Road, south of Old Redwood Highway, east of Petaluma city limits and west of Adobe Road.

“The sheriff was going up and down the lane with the siren on to start evacuating,” said Lisa Baswell, who lives 1,000 feet from the burning home.

She was shaken by the aircraft dropping flame retardant.

“They kept going flying back and forth and circling,” said Baswell. “It’s just a hop skip and a jump from our house. It was very very scary.”

Neighbor Erica Arent saw flames burning from some of her security cameras.

“We have always appreciated that we’ve been away from the fires here in Petaluma and the Penngrove area,” she said. “So it was a little eye-opening today that we have to be alert and be careful.”

When it was over, Cal Fire crews broke out the chain saws. A total of 10 to 15 acres burned , along with a large house and several out buildings. 

Evacuations were lifted after 3 p.m.

Cash Ebright was body surfing Monday in the area of Laguna Creek State Beach near Davenport, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said. He was last seen wearing black swim trunks.

Monday’s search came up empty. Crews returned to the coastline on Tuesday.

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The new requirement is the first in the nation for an airport, according to Breed’s office.

“We know that vaccines are the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 transmission and reduce hospitalizations and deaths,” Breed said in a statement. “This new requirement supports our aggressive measures to protect the health and safety of our region and our continued economic recovery.”

Airport Director Ivar Satero said, “As SFO prepares for the upcoming holiday travel season, and the return of pre-pandemic passenger levels, we have an obligation to provide a safe airport facility for the traveling public and our on-site employees.”

The new rule applies to all airlines staff, service workers, concession employees, and construction workers. Free vaccines are available to workers at the SFO Medical Clinic.

Some employees could be exempt from the rule for medical or religious reasons. The exempt employees, however, will be required to get tested for COVID-19 weekly.

Failure to comply with the new rules could result in fines, city officials said.

The air district had issued a more serious Spare the Air alert for Tuesday with pollution levels expected to exceed federal health standards in some parts of the region, but the pollution was forecasted to lessen Wednesday.

If people smell smoke, the air district advises them to stay inside with windows and doors closed, and to set their air conditioning and car vent systems to recirculate to prevent outside air from coming inside.

People can find the latest air quality readings in the Bay Area at baaqmd.gov/highs.

At Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood, skiers and snowboarders will not need to make reservations, lifts and gondolas will operate at normal capacity, and masks will only be required indoors.

Anyone 12 and up will have to show proof of vaccination to eat indoors at the lodges on the mountains.

The current policies could change depending on the state of COVID-19 during the winter months.

Vail Resorts, which owns Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood, is requiring all employees to be vaccinated.

For additional information regarding COVID-19 safety protocols at the three resorts, click on the links below.

• Heavenly
• Northstar
• Kirkwood