Los Angeles Times (August 19)
“With more than a million acres burned fairly early in the fire season, California is entering uncharted territory as the record dry conditions that have fueled so much destruction will soon combine with seasonal winds that fire officials fear will bring unprecedented dangers.” Many experts fear for the *fire-prone state” as the *impending arrival of strong Santa Anas and Diablos — which typically move in around mid-September — could mark even more misery for weary residents and beleaguered fire crews.”
Tags: Beleaguered, Burned, California, Dangers, Destruction, Dry, Early, Fire crews, Fire officials, Fire season, Million acres, Misery, Seasonal winds, Uncharted, Unprecedented, Weary
Newsweek (August 2)
“The price of bacon could soar by up to 60 percent in California when an animal welfare proposition kicks in at the start of next year.” Proposition 12 takes effect January 1. It “mandates space requirements for confining certain animals and prohibits the sale of meat and eggs from animals that are kept in places that do not meet this standard.”
Tags: Animal welfare, Bacon, California, Confining, Eggs, Meat, Price, Prohibits, Proposition 12, Sale, Space requirements
LA Times (July 23)
Covid-19 cases are “reaching levels in Los Angeles County not seen since the waning days of the winter surge…. Though L.A. County’s indoor mask mandate remains the most expansive in the state, about 60% of Californians now live in a county that either advised or instructs universal face coverings in places such as grocery stores, retail outlets, movie theaters and at restaurants when not eating or drinking.”
Tags: California, COVID-19, Expansive, Grocery stores, Indoor, Mask mandate, Movie theaters, Winter surge
San Francisco Chronicle (July 14)
“With nearly half of California residents still not fully immunized against COVID-19 and the highly infectious delta variant in wide circulation, the state could be facing a surge up to two-thirds the size of last summer’s wave of infection despite generally high vaccination rates.” Any new surge will likely prove “far less deadly and disruptive than what the state endured over the winter when more than 22,000 Californians died between Thanksgiving and the end of January and the state was largely shut down for several months.”
Tags: California, COVID-19, Deadly, Delta variant, Disruptive, Immunized, Infectious, Shut down, Surge, Vaccination rates
San Francisco Chronicle (June 16)
“California shrugged off 15 months of pandemic restrictions Tuesday and emerged into an appropriately sunny day to take a celebratory—if cautious—collective leap toward a post-COVID normal.” This historic day marks the first time “life could return to some semblance of what it used to be, a future bolstered by vaccines that will likely forestall another deadly surge.”
Tags: California, Cautious, Celebratory, Deadly surge, Forestall, Future, Normal, Pandemic, Post-Covid, Restrictions, Shrugged, Vaccines
New York Times (April 28)
“California is awash in cash, thanks to a booming market. In a single year, the state’s financial outlook has gone from surplus to deficit to surplus as capital gains tax collections have risen amid a soaring stock market and I.P.O. boom.” At the worst, the state “anticipated a $54 billion shortfall,” but it now expects a $15 billion surplus in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Tags: Booming, California, Capital-gains, Cash, Deficit, Market, Outlook, Soaring, Stock market, Surplus, Tax collections
Los Angeles Times (April 22)
“California has entered another drought.” But some researchers now suspect “the last one may never have really ended.” They posit “California and other Western states are actually more than two decades into an emerging ‘megadrought’—a hydrological event on par with the worst dry spells of the last millennium. Except this time, they say, human-caused climate change is driving its severity—and will make it that much harder to climb back out of.”
Tags: California, Climate change, Drought, Emerging, Human-caused, Megadrought, Millennium, Researchers
Los Angeles Times (April 12)
“The COVID-19 death toll in California has surpassed 60,000, an alarming statistic that comes even as conditions in the state continue to improve.” Though grim, California’s per capita death toll is lower “than that of the other most populous states” and there is cause for hope. Deaths are now down to 104 – 120 per day and the state will open vaccinations up to everyone 16 or older from April 14.
Tags: Alarming, California, COVID-19, Deaths, Grim, Hope, Populous, Statistic, Vaccinations
Mercury News (February 17)
“Despite an unprecedented 2.4 million jobs lost in the spring, Californians joined fellow Americans in paying down interest-heavy debt such as credit card bills while acquiring wealth-building loans by taking out mortgages…. But looks can be deceiving.” Aggregate figures can obscure real suffering. “Millions of Californians suffering job losses have accumulated crippling debt that goes uncounted in national measures: unpaid rent, utility bills, borrowed money from loved ones and, in some cases, predatory loans.”
Tags: California, Credit card, Debt, Interest, Jobs, Loans, Mortgages, Predatory, Rent, Suffering, U.S., Uncounted, Unprecedented, Utility bills, Wealth-building
The Denver Post (January 27)
“With a mass vaccination campaign underway, the U.S. is facing a moral dilemma as officials from California to New Jersey decide who gets the shots first. Everyone from older people and those with chronic medical conditions to communities of color and front-line workers are clamoring for the scarce vaccine—and each group has a compelling argument for why they should get priority.”
Tags: California, Campaign, Clamoring, Mass vaccination, Moral dilemma, New Jersey, Officials, Scarce, Shots, U.S.
