smell the desperation in their continued fear mongering, they are losing control…

Gov. Newsom says Californians need to ‘wake up’ to spread of coronavirus

Nearing the end of one of the most disheartening months for California’s coronavirus response, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday once again implored Californians to take the pandemic seriously.

California — once seen as a model for preventing the spread of COVID-19 — is now averaging 9,859 new cases per day. Hospitals and intensive care units across the state are filling up. The state’s average deaths per day rose from 91 last week to 109 on Monday.

“What more evidence do you need than that about how deadly this disease can be,” Newsom said during a news briefing from the Diamond Nuts facility in Stockton on Monday. “Please, let’s wake up to that reality.”

A survey released from the Public Policy Institute of California on Monday found that more than three in four Californians are worried about themselves or someone in their family getting infected by COVID-19.

The governor’s “watch list” of counties showing concerning coronavirus trends, which just last month included a small fraction of the state, has grown to 37 counties that make up 93% of the state’s population. Santa Cruz County on Monday became the latest in the Bay Area added to the list.

Of particular concern are counties that make up the state’s Central Valley, including Fresno, Kings, Kern, Merced and Stanislaus, where community spread is disproportionately affecting residents there.

While initially public health experts were focused on stopping the spread in densely-populated urban areas of the country, the disease now transmitting at record levels across the agriculture centers in the state — from Kern County all the way up to Yuba County.

Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert, said the only way to break the cycle is to create places where people can isolate when isolating at home isn’t a practical option, especially among the state’s low-income Latino population that makes up a large portion of essential workers in the state.

“It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure that people are being bussed out to work, pretty tightly packed in, and then go back to dense housing at night either with multigenerational housing or lots of roommates,” Rutherford said. “That’s the newer pattern of transmission that we’re seeing now and we have to identify the people infected and isolate them.”

The rate at which coronavirus tests are returning positive results in the Central Valley range from 10.7% to nearly 17.7% — far higher than the statewide average of 7.5%, according to data from the department of public health. Many of the hospitals in the region have requested additional staffing from the state to help meet surges in their facilities.

Newsom announced Monday that the state will provide $52 million to help support the hard-hit region. The money — part of a $199 million federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant — will be used to improve quarantine and testing protocols and hire more healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, California health officials are no longer encouraging everyone who wants a test to get one because of testing shortages and delays, said Dr. Gil Chavez, co-chair of the state’s testing task force. As the number of tests conducted across the state has risen to record highs, so has the time it takes to get results. Across the state, many residents aren’t getting their results for nearly two weeks after taking a coronavirus test — causing a significant hurdle for disease control.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/27/gov-newsom-says-californians-need-to-wake-up-to-spread-of-coronavirus/

Protest calls for SF police union to stand down in blocking any department reforms

Outside of the San Francisco police union headquarters Monday, a coalition of about twenty-five workers and labor leaders gathered to denounce incidents of racism and brutality in policing and call on the union representing the city’s officers to stand down in attempting to block reform efforts.

The protest — led by the labor alliance group Jobs with Justice San Francisco — united five local labor groups against the city’s Police Officers Association, a union that protesters said has amassed disproportionate power compared to other city unions and shielded officers from accountability for racism and violence on the job.

“Unions are here to support their members,” said Michelle Cody, a Bayview middle school teacher representing United Educators of San Francisco. “Unions are not here to make sure their members can commit crimes and not be held accountable.”

In recent weeks, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other elected officials have committed to slashing law enforcement’s budget, investing that money into the city’s Black community and revising use-of-force policies following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. On Monday, Breed outlined preliminary plans to redirect police funds to programs serving Black communities, including after-school programs, mental health services and home subsidies.

But as contractual obligations with police unions stymie swifter change in cities in the East Bay and nationwide, the group of self-identifying essential workers that gathered Monday called on San Francisco’s police union not to stand in the way of more drastic reforms.

Monday’s speakers included food service workers, pharmacy technicians, airport workers and college professors. They criticized the police union for propping up what they described as a racist culture predicated on spreading fear throughout the city, while also calling attention to a lack of investment in schools, hospitals and other public services.

Many spoke about their own harrowing experiences with police.

So far, San Francisco police have issued statements of support for the city’s reform plan. In June, Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya and Police Chief Bill Scott both endorsed Mayor Breed’s proposal to redirect some of the department’s $740 million budget to social services.

The department also recently unveiled plans to create a “bias-free policing policy” and stopped releasing mug shots to curb racial stereotyping.

However, this month the union sued the city’s civilian-led Police Commission for changing use-of-force policies without going through the contractually obligated meet-and-confer process.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Protest-calls-for-SF-police-union-to-stand-down-15438008.php

Protesters chain themselves to Gov. Newsom’s home, urge prison release and end to ICE transfers

The California Highway Patrol on Monday arrested about a dozen protesters who chained themselves together in front of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Fair Oaks home, imploring him to release prison inmates and halt inmate transfers from prisons to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

“There was 10 to 14 people that were chained to themselves and the gate that were obstructing public access,” said Greg Zumstein, CHP public information officer. “All of those people are going to be arrested for trespassing.”

The protest comes as prisons, jails and U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention centers in the state face COVID-19 outbreaks.

“Gov. Newsom, you are responsible for the COVID crisis that’s happening in prisons and jails,” one demonstrator yelled. “You must act now to save lives.”

Some demonstrators chained themselves to Newsom’s gate in front of his driveway in front of a sign that read, “Your actions save lives. Free them all.”

The demonstrators, which included some undocumented community organizers and immigration attorneys, are part of a group called the California Liberation Collective. Protesters called for mass clemency for people in state prisons.

Earlier this month, 60 state and local elected officials and 108 community organizations released a letter urging the governor to issue an executive order halting transfers to ICE detention centers from prisons and jails during the state of emergency caused by the pandemic. The letter described how detainees in three of California’s immigration detention centers have organized hunger strikes to call attention to overcrowding, and the lack of cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment.

Newsom’s administration has been releasing thousands of California prison inmates early as the corrections department seeks to free up space. Earlier this month, the department announced a plan to release up to 8,000 more before the end of August.

Newsom responded to the protest at his home during his virtual COVID-19 press briefing on Monday afternoon. He said the state was working diligently and methodically to address the issue.

“The worst thing we could do is mass release, where people are just released out to the streets and sidewalks, and end up in benches and up in parks, on the side of the road.” he said. “That’s not compassion, that would be … making the problem, in fact, worse.”

There have been 1,033 new coronavirus cases reported in the state’s prisons over the last two weeks, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Currently, the San Quentin State Prison and the California Correctional Institution have the highest number of active coronavirus cases in the state, 537 and 253 cases, respectively.

Overall, 47 inmates have died from COVID-19, according to the corrections department. The highest number of deaths have come from the San Quentin State Prison and the California Institution for Men.

More than 1,500 California prison employees have tested positive for the virus. Of that number, 645 have returned to work.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article244517132.html