Essential California Week in Review: Mask guidelines loosen throughout L.A.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California publication. It is Saturday, Feb. 26.

Here’s a have a look at the highest tales of the final week

Ukrainians in California decry Russia’s assault. As phrase unfold that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an invasion, California’s diaspora watched, shocked however not shocked. They worry for family members almost 6,000 miles away and are able to spring into motion to supply help.

Mask guidelines loosen throughout L.A. Health officers say totally vaccinated people can shed their masks indoors, and the L.A. Unified School District dropped its out of doors masks mandate Tuesday. But that doesn’t imply face coverings will out of the blue disappear or that the pandemic is over, specialists say.

But the CDC nonetheless recommends masks. While many Americans can shed masks in public indoor settings underneath new federal well being steering unveiled Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nonetheless recommends Los Angeles County residents put on them due to excessive ranges of COVID-19.

L.A. should add extra properties to zoning plan. Los Angeles should rezone to accommodate an extra quarter-million new properties by mid-October after state housing regulators rejected town’s long-term plan for development. And the price of failure may very well be excessive, specialists say.

Larger and extra damaging wildfires pose new threats to water provide. Researchers decided that rising forest fireplace exercise is “unhinging” western U.S. stream move. But an excessive amount of water comes with hazards, together with elevated erosion, flooding and particles flows.

Bill would exempt UC, Cal State from environmental evaluate. In the wake of a potential scholar enrollment disaster at UC Berkeley, a brand new invoice would exempt public universities’ housing developments from California’s arduous environmental evaluate course of.

Meanwhile, UC smashes data for first-year fall functions. For the second straight yr, the University of California shattered data for first-year fall functions, drawing the largest and most numerous applicant pool ever regardless of pandemic challenges.

Storm brews round Spitzer movies. Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer is dealing with rising scrutiny after a video of him saying the N-word whereas quoting an instance of hate speech surfaced this week. The video comes on the heels of racist feedback he allegedly made whereas discussing the case of a Black homicide defendant.

Fatburger household underneath investigation. Federal authorities have been investigating CEO Andrew Wiederhorn and analyzing one in all his member of the family’s actions as a part of an inquiry into allegations of securities and wire fraud, cash laundering and tried tax evasion.

Beekeepers flip to sting operations. Each yr, honeybees are trucked to California for almond tree pollination. But that additionally leaves them weak to theft, and beekeepers at the moment are turning to GPS monitoring units, surveillance cameras and different anti-theft expertise.

A 500-pound drawback in South Lake Tahoe. He has many names: Hank the Tank, Jake, the Big Guy. To wildlife officers, he’s a “severely food-habituated” bear who was alleged to have damaged into almost 30 properties — till DNA proof revealed they had been the work of a number of bears.

ICYMI, listed here are this week’s nice reads

Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama on policing. In the newest installment of his sequence on police chiefs of coloration, Justin Ray spoke with Balderrama about misconceptions about policing, how being an individual of coloration does (and doesn’t) have an effect on the best way he does his job, and a controversial second in his tenure involving a protester.

Even freeways that don’t get constructed depart a scar. Just over a decade in the past, the state of California gave up on plans to construct the proposed 238 Freeway within the East Bay metropolis of Hayward. But blight and resentments linger.

Where’s the love? Here’s why Kamala Harris’ California ballot numbers stink. What could also be shocking — not less than superficially — is the truth that Harris isn’t doing higher amongst those that presumably have a rooting curiosity in her success, her fellow Californians, writes columnist Mark Z. Barabak. But there’s no such factor as a favourite son or daughter in California politics.

He thought it was a date. Instead, he walked right into a lethal MS-13 lure. On Jan. 19, somebody selecting by the trash at La Tuna Canyon got here throughout the physique of a younger man. Court data and interviews illustrate the untethered and precarious existence shared by MS-13 members, one outlined by crude, subsistence-level crimes and punctuated by flashes of maximum violence.

Today’s week-in-review publication was curated by Laura Blasey. Please tell us what we will do to make this text extra helpful to you. Send feedback, complaints and concepts to [email protected]