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California faces the challenge of COVID: is that policy helping or hindering efforts to get out of the pandemic?
Go to school. As reported by Joe Hong and Elizabeth Aguilera of Cal Matters, state legislators are preparing for a major battle over controversial vaccine proposals. By January 1, 2023.
Still, the steady flow of campuses already facing a rapidly diminishing enrollment delays their obligations to avoid forcing thousands of non-compliant students into distance learning or completely different districts. Is excluded.
- On Wednesday, Sacramento City Unified became the latest district to postpone the vaccination deadline on January 31st. This is a result of 44% of eligible students not reporting at least partial vaccinations.
- Also on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times editorial board approved an increase in pediatric vaccination, but “if there is no clear evidence that the current vaccination rate of students is leading to a significant number, it is” fully approved. Needing no vaccine is overkill, “declared hospitalization or death. ”
At the same time, many teachers and students say they need stricter protection. The West Contra Costa Teachers Union has threatened to strike if the district does not strengthen its COVID security measures by Friday. The teachers’ union and the district have reached the 10th pandemic safety agreement.
Illness, confusing quarantine and quarantine rules, poor working conditions, mandatory vaccines, and a persistent labor shortage exacerbated by burnout have also sparked intense debate about what constitutes an effective COVID policy. ..
- In Santa Clara County, six unions representing county workers issued a health order to the supervisory board in a letter on Monday asking employees in high-risk environments to obtain booster shots by January 24. I asked you to reconsider. Despite the “very serious staffing crisis,” about 80 nurses were “sitting at home,” despite being granted a booster shot exemption.
- Despite a serious shortage of educators, more than 70 San Diego Unified employees recently received a retirement notice due to lack of vaccination.
- There are also questions about public security. Byrhonda Lyons of CalMatters found that more than 30 law enforcement agencies across the state were forced to increase overtime, reduce services, or reroute non-urgent phone to online portals.
- And, as Manuela Tobias of Cal Matters reports in this beautifully written article, COVID, burnout, and low wages are rushing the outflow of homeless service workers in California.
“Is this really possible without people?” Fara McDade Ting, senior legislative representative of the California County Association, asked Manuela. “I think there are real restrictions.”
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Coronavirus Revenue: As of Tuesday, California 7,569,687 Infected (number) (+ 1.2% from the previous day) When 78,316 Dead (number) (+ 0.3% from the previous day), According to the state data. CalMatters also tracks county-specific coronavirus hospitalizations.
California managed 68,875,337 Vaccine dose, When 72.7% Of the eligible Californians, they are fully vaccinated.
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Other stories you should know
1.1. Is Kluger heading to the US Supreme Court?
According to numerous Wednesday reports, one Californian (Judge Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court) will retire from the U.S. Supreme Court at the end of the term, another Californian tells him. Can you replace it? President Joe Biden has pledged while running to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court, and Judge Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Court is said to be on his candidate list. .. The 45-year-old Kluger is familiar with the US Supreme Court. She was a former judge of the US Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens, and filed 12 proceedings in front of the court while working for the Obama administration’s directorate-general of solicitors. Kluger, appointed to the bench by former Governor Jerry Brown, has a reputation for working more conservatively than fellow Democratic judges.
- Kluger told the Los Angeles Times in 2018: “My approach reflects the fact that we operate on a system of precedent. I am how to increase the predictability and stability of the law and the public confidence and confidence in the work of the court. I aim to get the job done at. “
However, the front runner in this position is believed to be Federal Judge Ketangi Brown Jackson. But even if Kluger isn’t elected as the country’s next Supreme Court judge, California still plays a huge role in deciding who it is. Both senses. Dianne Feinstein Alex Padilla will join the Senate Judiciary Committee and hold a confirmation hearing for Biden’s candidates. If the Senate splits with a 50-50 vote, Vice President Kamala Harris will be the tiebreaker.
2.2. Affordability of health care emerges as an important issue
According to a state-wide survey released this morning by the California Healthcare Foundation and NORC, more than eight in ten Californians are “very much” about Newsom and the Legislature working to make healthcare more affordable this year. It states that it is “to” or “very” important. At the University of Chicago. A poll conducted before Omicron began to dominate the state also found that 51% of Californians were worried about paying their monthly health insurance premiums and 49% were worried about paying prescription drugs. ..
- Timing is everything: The findings will be made before voting on either today or Monday for a controversial proposal to create a state-funded single-payer healthcare system.
- Single payers are also an election issue. A strong supporter of the single payer proposal, the California Nurses Association announced Wednesday the only approval of San Rafael’s Democrat Mark Levine for state insurance commissioners. It’s a sharp bargain of Democratic incumbent Ricardo Lara, who professed his “strong support” for a single payer’s proposal in a letter to its author, Democratic Rep. Ash Kara, on Monday. ..
- Other Healthcare News: Covered California, the state health insurance market, announced on Tuesday that a record 1.8 million people were insured before the general enrollment deadline on January 31st. Month.
3.3. Will Newsom’s college plans be reduced?
From CalMatters Higher Education Reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn: There is a budgetary turf war over the future of higher education in California.
In a report Wednesday, a nonpartisan legislative analyst office argued that Newsom’s higher education funding program had “a fundamental problem of avoiding the government’s legislative sector,” a fiscal year beginning in July. Roasted Newsome’s budget proposal. Beyond that, the report found Newsom’s “long list of expectations, strange inconsistencies between segments, lack of key cost estimates, and lack of enforcement mechanisms.” And it overturns the governor’s plans in many other ways:
- No additional funds To help the University of California, California State University, and community colleges tackle rising pension costs.
- California State University Short Change By proposing that the system increase registrations within the state, it provides less money needed to pay for all those new students and other programs, but within other commitments.
- Link more state money promises to 55 deliverables, I haven’t created a “specific impact” yet If the goal has not been achieved.
- And have a “strange contradiction” For example, UC expects to “reduce the cost of all undergraduate textbooks” by 2025-26, but community colleges do not.
The report also observes that Newsom’s budget blueprint gives UC more money than its operation technically requires, as the system approves a multi-year tuition increase that will generate more income. doing.
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Cal Matters columnist Dan Walters: Another fierce conflict over vaccines is brewing at the California State Capitol. And once again, Newsome is about to straddle the fence.
California needs to create a medical technology assessment. You can save about $ 30 billion annually in health care without compromising patient outcomes, but California hasn’t considered the effectiveness of the program, so you don’t know where or how to reduce it, says the USC Schaeffer Center. Darius Lakdawalla of the for Health Policy argues. & Economics and Dana Goldman, Dean of the USC Price School of Public Policy.
A More Successful Way to Contain the Homeless: The True Housing First Program provides homes without the need for drinking or treatment, and-decisively-provides strong personalized support and treatment services, Sam Tsemberis of the Pathways Housing First Institute writes. ..
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Others worth your time
Gun rights group sues San Jose city Over the new liability law. // Associated Press
A gun was stolen from a railroad car Raises LAPD concerns. // Los Angeles Times
San Francisco gun violence increased last year, Shooting increased by 33%. // San Francisco Chronicle
Why was the CHP officer committing suicide? Did you return his gun? // Sacramento Bee
State investigating deadly shootings of suspected fentanyl dealers According to a gang officer in Riverside County. // Los Angeles Times
The city allows people to use drugs In the new Tenderloin Treatment Linkage Center. // San Francisco Chronicle
Fentanyl’s second Bakersfield baby overdose Within a week. // KGET 17
AG Bonta says California could receive more than $ 2 billion From large national opioid settlements. // San Francisco Chronicle
California State University is preparing to drop SAT and ACT. // Associated Press
Amazon paid for a high school course in California. This is what they teach. // Deputy
COVID accused few high school students in California File FAFSA application. // EdSource
Bill will demand California For payment of school buses and tickets. // Mercury News
What is the Federal Government’s “Surprise Ban Law”? Means in California. // California Health Line
Residents will get a 10-day warning period prior to the move-out notice Under the new city law. Will the landlord file a proceeding? // San Francisco Chronicle
1 in 11 California Homeowners I’m having a hard time paying my mortgage. // Southern California Newsgroup
Homeless camp near SoFi has been cleared As the Super Bowl approaches. // KTLA
Los Angeles City Council Approves the phasing out of oil drilling. // Associated Press
Climate solution With compost and crops in California. // The Verge
Evacuation was lifted due to flames Located on the Big Sur coast of California. // Associated Press
See you tomorrow.
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