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California Officials Raided Preschool, Interviewed 2-Year-Olds Over Mask Policies

March 11, 2022 By Jessica Chasmar Leave a Comment

California state regulators conducted an investigation at a San Diego preschool and privately interviewed children as young as 2 without their parents’ consent about their masking practices.

Officials with the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) visited all three locations of Aspen Leaf Preschool in January after receiving a complaint that the school was not enforcing the state’s mask mandate, according to the CDSS’ response to a complaint by the preschool’s owner, Howard Wu.

According to the CDSS letter, which Wu shared with Fox News Digital, officials with the agency’s Community Care Licensing Division entered the three preschool locations on Jan. 19, separated the children from their teachers and interviewed them privately about their masking practices.

In his complaint to the agency, Wu described the investigation as a “simultaneous, multi-school raid” that resulted in “unnecessary and inappropriate child interviews.”

“Every family we heard from after the inspections were furious about the interviews,” Wu told Fox News Digital. “We were open the whole pandemic about not masking children and the reasons why. The policy was on our website. Put simply, the mask guidance says children can NOT mask when eating and sleeping. In full day child care that’s 3 hours, so masking at other times offers no health benefit. All the families (except 1 in January) supported the policy.”

Wu also argues that the CDSS does not have the authority to enforce a mask mandate instituted by another agency, in this case the California Department of Public Health.

“We believe in good faith that the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction to enforce another agency’s mask guidance,” he said. “They could have issued us a citation in 5 minutes and let us take our challenge up through the proper channels. The simultaneous multi-school raids and the child interviews just felt like a power play.”

In its response to Wu, the CDSS said it holds the authority to “enter and inspect a licensed child care facility at any time, with or without advance notice, to secure compliance with, or prevent a violation” of state laws, as well as “interview children without prior consent and, when necessary, conduct the interviews in private.”

“Based on their personal observations and interviews of the facility directors, staff and children, CCLD staff determined that the licensee failed to ensure that staff and children used face coverings as required by the State Public Health Officer Order of June 11, 2021, thus violating the children’s personal right to safe and healthful accommodations,” the letter said.

The agency has issued Aspen Leaf a Type A citation, the most severe violation type, Voice of San Diego reported.

In response to the citation, which Aspen Leaf said it is appealing, the school has updated its COVID-19 policy to require masks on all children over 2 until the state’s mandate ends on March 11.

In his official complaint, Wu included multiple complaints by parents who were outraged over the CPSS investigation.

“I do not feel this interview served my child’s safety or well-being,” wrote one parent, “and I believe it may have given a harmful impression about her obligations to speak with strange adults in private without known caretakers present.”

“I understand that while the licensing agency is authorized to conduct private interviews with the children – this authority was put in place and intended for use when there is a situation of possible abuse, which is ENTIRELY absent from this situation,” wrote another parent. “Therefore, this agency has blatantly overstepped their authority.”

“Frustrated. Angry. Aghast. Confused,” another parent wrote. “These are only a few of the words that describe what we felt as parents of a 3.5 year old who was questioned by government officials at his preschool regarding mask-wear indoors.”

Wu said he believes his preschool was unfairly targeted because he challenged the CDSS’ authority.

“After it all happened I actually pulled every licensing report issued in California during the pandemic to get the data to show we were treated more harshly than any other center,” he told Fox News Digital.

Click here to read the full article here at Fox11

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California Politics, masks, school unions

Newsom Wants Tax Rebate, Touts ‘California Way’ Of Governing

March 10, 2022 By Adam Beam and Dan Thompson 7 Comments

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed sending money back to taxpayers to offset record-high gas prices but rejected calls to increase oil drilling, saying he wants to free the state “once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators.”

The average price for a gallon of gas in California is the nation’s highest at $5.44, according to AAA — a number that is likely to increase after President Joe Biden banned Russian oil imports on Tuesday in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Newsom’s proposal, announced during his annual State of the State address, would likely come in the form of a tax rebate. But the governor gave no specifics, saying he will work with legislative leaders “to put money back in the pockets of Californians to address rising gas prices.”

Dee Dee Myers, Newsom’s senior adviser, told reporters one option is to send the rebate to California residents who have a car, including people who are living in the country illegally. The money could go out as soon as this spring, pending legislative approval.

In a wide-ranging address, Newsom also warned that authoritarianism isn’t just rising overseas, using his election-year speech to offer “a California Way” as the antidote to what he called the “agents of a national anger machine.”

Newsom, a Democrat who handily beat back a mid-term recall campaign last year, also touted his administration’s progress on homelessness, the economy, education and climate change in a speech to assembled lawmakers in an auditorium near the state Capitol. By contrast, last year’s speech — given mid-pandemic — was delivered outdoors in an empty Dodger Stadium, which was being used as a mass-testing site.

This year, coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations are plummeting and the nation’s attention is drawn to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the accompanying spiraling gas prices. Republicans nationally and in California want to see the Biden administration increase drilling. Newsom rejected that call.

“Drilling even more oil,” he said, “only leads to even more extreme weather, more extreme drought, more wildfire.”

“We need to be fighting polluters, not bolstering them,” Newsom said. “And in the process of so doing, freeing us once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators.”

As he did throughout the speech, Newsom offered “California’s leadership” as the alternative, calling clean energy “this generation’s greatest economic opportunity.”

California is one of the nation’s most oil-rich states and Republicans, who are a small minority in the Legislature and hold no statewide offices, see high gas prices as an election year issue they can exploit. California taxes gasoline at 51.1 cents per gallon, second only to Pennsylvania, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators.

“Gas prices are out of control. Let’s suspend the gas tax, stop using foreign oil and focus on energy independence policies that don’t place new burdens on working families,” Assemblymember Suzette Martinez Valladares said in the Republican “prebuttal” to Newsom’s speech.

Newsom has additionally proposed pausing a slight increase in the state gas tax scheduled to take effect this summer. But Democratic leaders in the Legislature have balked at that proposal, arguing it would make it harder to maintain the state’s roads while only providing barely noticeable relief at the pump.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said Republicans, while critical of Newsom in other areas, can work with him on the tax rebate.

“If we have nearly a $60 billion surplus in the state, it means that people are overtaxed and we should be giving the voters and citizens of this state back some of their money, especially in the trying times that we’re in when the cost of living is through the roof,” Gallagher said.

The governor otherwise has been pushing to wean California, famous for its car culture, from the internal combustion engine.

Newsom has ordered the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 and halt all in-state oil drilling by 2045.

The Newsom administration has issued 632 oil drilling permits in 2021 and so far this year, but about 300 of them have not been used yet, according to the governor’s office.

Several environmental groups said Newsom should impose an immediate moratorium on oil and gas development.

Click here to read the full story at AP News

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: budget, Gavin Newsom, Newsome

Nearly All Major Crimes Increased Last Year In San Diego, Police Say

March 10, 2022 By Lindsay Winkley and David Hernandez Leave a Comment

Biggest increases seen in hate crimes, which saw a 77 percent spike, and vehicle thefts, which increased 25 percent. The increases mirror those seen across the country.

SAN DIEGO —

The city of San Diego saw increases in nearly every category of major crime in 2021, police officials said, mirroring a trend seen in other large cities across the nation.

Police leaders presented the findings at a San Diego City Council meeting on Tuesday.

Across the city, crime increased about 13 percent, according to the latest figures. The year’s violent crime rate of 4.2 crimes per thousand residents was the highest the city had seen in nearly a decade, and the property crime rate of 19.6 crimes per thousand residents was the highest since 2016, department officials said.

Vehicle thefts spiked 25 percent when compared with 2020 figures, and rapes increased by 18 percent. Aggravated assaults and thefts also saw double-digit jumps, while burglary and homicides rose a couple of percentage points each. Many of the increases persisted when comparing 2021 and 2019 — the year before the coronavirus pandemic prompted widespread lockdowns.

Hate crimes also saw a 77 percent increase last year, a surge that alarmed council members.

Robbery was the only major crime to see a decrease, falling about 10 percent when compared with 2020.

San Diego police Chief David Nisleit said the havoc wrought by the pandemic likely fueled some of last year’s increases — both locally and nationally.

“It’s COVID. It’s people being out of work, kids being out of school, just the anger and the frustration levels of everything over the last two years,” Nisleit said. “I think we need to acknowledge the last two years have been difficult on everybody.”

Still, experts say crime in San Diego remains at near-historic lows when compared with the rates seen in the 1980s and 1990s. Both violent and property crime rates have held fairly steady over the last decade, and, despite the increases seen in 2021, current crime rates are comparable to the late 1950s, when the city’s population was much smaller, police officials said.

Click here to read the full article at the San Diego Union Tribune

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California Politics, Crime, San Diego

Newsom Mental Health Plan Needs Full Airing

March 9, 2022 By Dan Walters 3 Comments

Beginning in the 19th century and continuing well into the 20th, California maintained an extensive network of state mental hospitals to which people deemed to be dangers to themselves or others were committed, often for decades.

In the mid-20th century, however, the concept of involuntary commitments came under fire with critics saying that the hospitals were more like prisons than treatment centers, with their patients denied basic civil rights.

The upshot was legislation, signed by Ronald Reagan shortly after he became governor in 1967, with a declared goal to “end the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of persons with mental health disorders.”

The Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, named for Republican Assemblyman Frank Lanterman and Democratic Senators Nick Petris and Alan Short, set forth an elaborate process that would have to be followed for involuntary commitments, limiting them to the profoundly disabled.

Companion legislation was aimed at replacing the hospitals with community-based mental health programs. The package drew support from those who wanted to reduce the hefty costs of the hospitals, such as Reagan, and advocates for the rights of the mentally ill.

It never worked out as planned because successor governors and legislators didn’t provide enough financial support for local mental health services and the process for commitment essentially allowed the mentally ill to refuse treatment.

One by one, the state hospitals were closed, some converted to other uses, such as California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, and others razed.

In some measure — we’ll never know how much — what followed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act contributed to California’s explosion of homelessness, because many of those living on the streets of the state’s cities are severely mentally ill.

The debate over the situation has raged for years, pitting those who believe that forcing the mentally ill into treatment is a regrettable necessity against those who contend that involuntary commitments violate civil rights.

Click here to read the full article at CalMatters

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: California Politics, Dan Walters, Homelessness

Hundreds Turn Out To Honor HB Officer Nicholas Vella At Honda Center Memorial Service

March 9, 2022 By Matthew Cunningham Leave a Comment

Hundreds of police officers from all over California gathered at the Honda Center in Anaheim today to honor their fallen comrade Nicholas Vella, the Huntington Beach police officer who died in the line of duty on February 19 when the HBPD helicopter he was flying crashed offshore in Newport Beach.

The nearly four-hour memorial service was a homage to Officer Vella’s character, love of family, devotion to law enforcement and community, given by his family and fellow officers.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange, Kevin Vann, presided over the memorial service inside the Honda Center. Vella was eulogized by a procession of family and fellow officers.

One of Vella’s friends and fellow officer, Francisco Jimenez, told the assembled throng how Vella always “sticking up for the little guy, the underdog.”

“Nick hated bullies and wanted to protect those who were not able to protect themselves. Protecting people was in Nick’s DNA, and he loved helping others,” said Jimenez. “So it’s easy to see why Nick decided to take the path that he did.”

A common theme in every eulogy was Vella’s smile.

“Every time you saw him, he had this infectious smile on his face,” recalled Jimenez. “That smile, that little smirk with those sad puppy dog eyes, looking at you that smile that I can’t get out of my head. And I will never forget.”

READ: Huntington Beach Police Chopper Crashes In Water In Newport; One Officer Dead, Another Seriously Injured

Vella’s father-in-law, Ron Tovar, spoke of how Vella changed his family when he married Tovar’s daughter Kristi.

“When he came into our family, he just changed our family. It became different. Right away, he became a stable pillar,” said Tovar. “He always just had this peaceful thing about him. He showed us by way of his actions and his deeds. He demonstrated honesty, integrity and patience.”

Tovar talked about Vella’s special devotion to his teenage daughter Dylan, and what he did, few days before his death, to make Valentine’s Day special for her.

“He went to Dylan’s school and stood there in the parking lot with a rose. To give to Dylan,” said Tovar. “I wish I would have thought of that when my kids were in school. But how heartfelt. How loving. How caring.”

Read the full article at the OC Independent

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: Law Enforcement, Police, Vella

Divisions Plague California Democratic Party

March 8, 2022 By Emily Hoeven 1 Comment

When Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his annual State of the State speech on Tuesday, he’ll face the same challenge that confronted the California Democratic Party at its convention this weekend: uniting many fractured groups under one umbrella.

However, Newsom is in a more politically stable place than he was last year, when he used his State of the State address to kick off his campaign against the recall attempt that he soundly defeated. But despite their iron-clad grip on state politics, the same can’t be said for California Democrats, who are rushing to energize voters ahead of key midterm elections expected to result in Republicans gaining control of Congress.

Here’s a look at a few key takeaways — and controversies — from the convention, some of which illuminate the political fissures that can make or break a bill’s fate in California’s supermajority-Democratic legislature:

Labor leaders clashed with party leaders on numerous fronts. Andrew Meredith, president of the powerful State Building and Construction Trades Council, accused the party of forgetting its “blue-collar roots,” adding, “We must refrain from being the mouthpiece for unrealistic policy goals that hurt the working class or hurt the working poor” — an apparent reference to certain housing and environmental policies.
Meanwhile, Art Pulsaki — the outgoing leader of the California Labor Federation — slammed some Democrats for being influenced by corporate interests: “They don’t just count on Republicans to carry their water anymore. They turn to Democrats to do their dirty work,” he said.
And tensions are still running high with the party’s progressive wing over policy and political donations: “The Party exercised every opportunity … to silence progressive voices and the policies supported by the majority of Californians,” tweeted Amar Shergill, who leads the progressive caucus. “In the coming months, (we) will chart an organizing path outside of the Party where progressive activists are valued.”
Rusty Hicks, chairperson of the California Democratic Party, told CalMatters political reporter Alexei Koseff: “I’m not focused on the things that we solely disagree on. I’m focused on those things that unite us. … Some make too much of the rambunctious nature of a democratic institution when people disagree with one another on approach or direction or objective.”

Meanwhile, as San Francisco political columnist Joe Garofoli notes, few top Democrats addressed issues top of mind for many voters, such as crime, homelessness and rising inflation rates that pushed California’s average price for a gallon of gas to a record $5.29 on Sunday.

One notable exception: Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta, who denounced his “right-wing opponents” — including Republican Nathan Hochman and no party preference candidate Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who recently secured endorsements from powerful law enforcement groups — for refusing to say whether they support strengthening gun control laws or protecting abortion rights.

The party also approved endorsements for the June 7 primary, including for some closely watched Dem-on-Dem races:

Click here to read the full article at CalMatters

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California Politics, Democratic Party, Gavin Newsom

He’s Been Convicted, Disbarred And Called A Slumlord. Now He’s Endorsed By The California Democratic Party

March 8, 2022 By Michael Cabanatuan 1 Comment

An 84-year-old San Diego man with an ignominious past won the endorsement of the state Democratic Party over the weekend, despite a history that includes spousal abuse, legal sanctions for being a slumlord and a restraining order keeping him away from an actor on a beloved TV sitcom.

Michael “Mike” Schaefer, who calls himself “The Equalizer,” is running for re-election to the state Board of Equalization, a post he first won in 2018. Schaefer represents five Southern California counties — San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial. The largely unknown board regulates and administers property taxes, alcoholic beverage taxes and taxes on insurers.

The oldest Californian to hold a state constitutional office, Schaefer has a lengthy political past — much of it unsuccessful. An attorney by training, Schaefer has also run afoul of the law multiple times, and has been disbarred in California and Nevada.

The California Democratic Party did not weigh in on the race in 2018, when Schaefer faced Republican Joel Anderson, who was fresh off his own scandal in which he was reprimanded by state Senate leaders for confronting a Capitol lobbyist and threatening to “bitch slap” her. Anderson went on to win a seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 2020.

But during its convention held over the weekend, the Democratic Party voted to support Schaefer in his re-election bid.

In his speech to the convention, he said that he deserved the party’s endorsement because he spent the last four years fighting for “tax justice and equity for all Californians” and that he worked with Newsom to help small businesses avoid tax penalties during COVID.

“When the pandemic struck, I worked with Gov. Newsom to initiate an executive order that helps small businesses by delaying penalty statements for property tax statements and lead deadlines and that helped to keep many small businesses afloat during trying times,” he said. “I co-led a 50 person statewide COVID tax force that created many innovative solutions to protect our taxpayers and reform our tax laws.”

Click here to read the full article at the SF Chronicle

Filed Under: Trending News Tagged With: California Politics, Democratic Party, Legislature

Polls Show California Democrats’ Agenda Is Increasingly Losing the Backing Of Voters

March 7, 2022 By Diane Pearce 8 Comments

George Gascon, Los Angeles County’s progressive, Soros-funded district attorney, has lost the support of 98% of his prosecutors’ union members. Three “woke” members of the San Francisco Board of Education were recalled by more than 70% of the vote. This is not a California I have been familiar with in recent years. Could it be that voters are waking up to llife under the progressive agenda? Is it possible that they are finally ready to consider an alternative because they understand that it is the Democrat’s liberal policies that have brought about this unlivable reality? My optimism is triggered, but my breath is not held.

While these examples show voters are willing to break from the blind loyalty that has been shown to Democrats, two things remain to be seen. First, can this newfound independence apply more broadly in circumstances that are less personal? What I mean is, can San Franciscans who were fed up with these elected officials translate that outside their own county and consider different candidates statewide? And can Angelenos who might give the boot to Gascon because of what he has done in their own backyard think beyond a Democrat for state Attorney General?

Unless these voters understand that what the state desperately needs is new policies, not simply different faces, there can be no meaningful change.

There is additional cause for a positive outlook. A new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll shows Gov. Newsom’s approval ratings slipping. As the pandemic wanes, voters are turning their attention back to the serious issues still gripping our state. Of the 10 issues specifically posed to voters, who were asked how well Newsom has handled them, he fairs abysmally on nearly every one. On the issue of crime, respondents were two and a half times more likely to disapprove of the governor’s handling of the issue than approve. On homelessness, his unfavorable number was six times his favorable number. When asked about education, the state budget, drought, wildfires, and health care, disapproval bested approval by more than 10 points. Health care and the economy were not far behind, with 9 and 7-point spreads, respectively, favoring disapproval. Only climate change saw a Newsom advantage and that was by just one point (within the two-point margin of error).

And Newsom’s overall job approval rating has declined to 48%. However, Newsom only had 50% approval in September 2021, but beat the recall effort that month with 62% of the vote.

The problem is that, while many do not approve of the job Newsom is doing, they just cannot see themselves voting for a Republican. It is going to take an exceptional candidate who can articulate an effective message of change and optimism without allowing the left to distract voters with Trump, abortion (which is enshrined in our state’s Constitution regardless of challenges to Roe v. Wade), or anything else that takes the focus off the dumpster fire they have turned this once “Golden State” into.

Click here to read the full article at the Fresno Bee

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: California Politics, Gavin Newsom, Voting

What Will It Take For S.F. Public Schools To Drop The Mask Mandate? Officials Won’t Say

March 5, 2022 By Jill Tucker , Annie Vainshtein 2 Comments

San Francisco private schools and many Bay Area districts expect to abandon mask mandates later this month, but the city’s public school district has decided against the change and declined to provide details or dates for when their 49,000 students will be able to drop face coverings.

District officials say they will continue to require masks indoors, noting that county and state health officials “strongly recommend” students and staff continue to use them.

But require and recommend are not the same, and many families and health experts are asking for clarity on what criteria the district is using to decide when it will lift the mandate.

The district said masking is part of the current discussions with the union.

The San Francisco Unified’s stance will leave its public school students following a different set of rules than many if not most private school students in the city, as well thousands of other students across the Bay Area, where officials in most counties have already announced they will lift the mask requirement as of March 12.

While some families felt relief that masks would stay on in San Francisco public schools, others expressed frustration at the lack of clarity and metrics.

Districts in Contra Costa, San Mateo, Solano, Marin, Santa Clara counties as well as many others across the state announced this week they would follow the state’s lead and leave mask use up to individuals, including Santa Clara Unified, San Ramon Unified, Mill Valley Elementary and Mt. Diablo Unified.

Alameda County and Berkeley health officials announced Thursday they would also lift the mandate, which would likely mean some districts there would also make masks optional, although Oakland and other districts had not yet said what they will do.

In San Francisco, at least a handful of private schools have also said they will stop requiring masks, including Sacred Heart Cathedral, Adda Clevenger School and all of the city’s Archdiocese schools, which serve 23,000 students.

In addition, city health officials announced public buildings will no longer require masks either, except during public meetings.

That means public school students can go into city libraries, City Hall, boba shops, malls, restaurants and virtually any other venue or retail establishment without a mask. Classrooms will be virtually the only place they will have to wear one.

Bay Area infectious disease experts say that while SFUSD’s decision to maintain the mask mandate is not in lockstep with many other districts, it has both positives and negatives — and overall, is a complicated issue.

“I see both sides,” said UCSF infectious disease Peter Chin-Hong, saying the current “gray zone” of the pandemic has led to a lot of confusion and frustration, especially as it relates to schools.

Click here to read the full article at the San Francisco Chronicle

Filed Under: Top Stories Tagged With: Covid-19, masks, san francisco