Huge Trump car caravan disrupted some voters in Temecula, authorities say

A massive caravan of President Trump supporters paraded for 60 miles through Riverside County on Sunday afternoon before converging on a large Temecula sports park, snarling traffic and upsetting some voters, officials there said.

The winding caravan of pickup trucks and other vehicles adorned with pro-Trump signs and American flags began at a Riverside restaurant and sped west along the 91 Freeway and then south on Interstate 15. They had been organized under a Twitter hashtag associated with similar events in other states.

The destination was the Ronald Reagan Sports Park in Temecula, a sprawling community center with soccer fields, a skate park and a voting location. An estimated crowd of roughly 4,000 people crowded the facility about 2 p.m., officials said.

Capt. Zach Hall with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said his officers made no arrests but did field a few complaints from intimidated voters — and scrambled to unwind a massive traffic jam in an area where officials weren’t prepared for so many vehicles at once.

“They kind of caught us off guard,” said Hall, who heads the department’s Temecula station. “We had a lot of traffic issues. The infrastructure there is not really designed for that kind of traffic.”

The caravan, which was peaceful if boisterous, caused a disturbance for some voters at the Temecula Recreation Center, a voting location. The partisan signs, shirts and other materials near the center prompted complaints to authorities about potential violations of the 100-foot electioneering rule in state law.

“Law enforcement was contacted to ensure that access to the parking lot and voter assistance center were clear,” said Brooke Federico, a spokeswoman for Riverside County, said in an email. “The Sheriff’s Department responded and cleared access to the parking lot and voter assistance center.”

Hall said deputies investigated the complaints and talked to poll workers, concluding that the Trump supporters had largely kept their distance.

The parade and mass gathering came the same day Trump supporters gathered in vehicles at another park near Grandview Drive and Newhall Ranch Road in Santa Clarita. Videos of the event on Twitter showed dozens of pickup trucks and vans, some painted with pro-Trump slogans, slowly moving and honking at the intersection.

The events came a day after hundreds of Trump supporters rallied in Beverly Hills. Wearing “MAGA” hats, waving U.S. flags and shouting “four more years” and “turn California red,” the demonstrators gathered at the intersection of Beverly and Santa Monica boulevards.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-01/trump-supporters-rally-outside-voting-center-in-temecula

Coronavirus: Failing grades spike in Bay Area schools with distance learning

The first round of progress reports are being sent home for students caught in California’s experiment with online distance learning this fall, and for many, the grades are not good.

Districts around the Bay Area are reporting sharp spikes in failing grades so far this fall during a term that has largely been taught online over computers to students stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City this week reported that the percentage of students with more than one failing grade this fall jumped to 29% from 19.7% in 2019, a nearly 50% increase. Mt. Diablo Unified School District in Contra Costa County reported a similar rise in high school students failing more than one grade — 30.66% from just over 19% the previous two academic years.

“We’re obviously concerned about that increase,” said Allen Weiner, president of the Sequoia district’s school board. “I’m not sure this is shocking or entirely unanticipated. We know the general challenges of trying to do distance learning have manifested themselves in greater struggles for a lot of our students.”

The reported grades are progress reports, and school officials say they are working to reach out and help students falling behind so they don’t end up with failing grades that for high school seniors could prevent them from graduating.

But while many districts around the Bay Area like Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose have yet to complete progress reports, the experience in Sequoia and Mt. Diablo don’t appear to be outliers.

In Sonoma County, superintendents convened a special meeting last week after similar spikes — with 37% of students across its 10 districts with high schools having at least one failing grade compared to 27% at the same time last year.

At Healdsburg Unified School District, the number of high school students with failing grades at this point in the fall roughly doubled to 39% from 20% in a typical year, said Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel.

“I was alarmed,” Vanden Heuvel said. “I reached out to other superintendents and found they were encountering the same thing.”

At Santa Rosa City Schools, Superintendent Diann Kitamura said they are seeing 30% to 50% more “F” grades this year than at the same time last year.

California schools were forced into sudden closure and remote teaching in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic grew rapidly and Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered residents to stay in their homes. Schools adopted policies of not grading students for the remainder of the year, because many lacked access to computers, internet connections and suitable study space at home.

State officials expected to reopen classrooms in the fall, but after a summer surge of cases and objections from teacher unions over safety, they ordered districts in most of the state that were seeing uncontrolled outbreaks to start the fall term online. But to counter concerns about learning loss from the spring, they insisted this term that schools take online attendance and grade assignments.

Parents and teachers generally agree the fall version of distance learning is better than it was in the spring. Even so, there’s widespread agreement that kids learn better in classrooms.

And the emergence of fall progress grades provides the first clear window into how kids’ education is suffering with remote learning, and adding new urgency to the debate over reopening classrooms.

“It is massively affecting our kids,” said Sequoia board trustee Georgia Jack. “And this is just inexcusable.”

Educators and students say a big part of the problem with distance learning is that it’s harder for kids to focus on class when it’s a Zoom meeting on their screen at home than it is in the classroom, and that they aren’t getting as much instruction time in class as they did on campus.

Sathvik Nori, 17, of Atherton, the Sequoia district’s student board trustee, said that while the spike in failing grades was “definitely alarming,” it was “not entirely surprising.” He said the reduced online instructional time makes it harder for students to keep up in difficult subjects like math and science.

“If they don’t see their teacher as much, it’s harder to ask questions,” said Nori, a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School, adding that “in most of my classes, it’s pretty obvious 10% of the class is not participating” online.

School officials and students said students throughout the district are having trouble, including those who had earned high marks before. But they said those from families with less money and poorer districts suffer more, exacerbating the achievement gap that has hampered students from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/11/01/coronavirus-failing-grades-spike-with-fall-term-distance-learning/

UC president orders all on-campus students, faculty, staff to get flu shot by Sunday

All students, faculty and staff living, learning or working at any University of California location must receive a flu vaccine by Sunday unless they are given an exemption, UC President Michael Drake announced in an executive order.

UC community members can apply to receive a medical exemption or a disability or religious accommodation to forgo the flu vaccine requirement. In the event of an active outbreak, individuals granted an exemption may not be allowed on campus, Drake said in a statement.

The order revises an existing executive order issued July 31 by the UC Office of the President to reduce overcrowding and use of resources in hospitals in anticipation of this year’s flu season.

Although the number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in California has fallen steadily during the last two months, health officials worry that hospitals may become overwhelmed if virus cases increase during the cold winter months, when people are more likely to be indoors together. Officials also worry this surge may coincide with the regular flu season.

“During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, where COVID-19, like influenza, results in respiratory symptoms, it is even more critical than usual to assure widespread vaccination,” Drake said in the statement. “As California progresses through its roadmap, the possibility of an outbreak or surge that overwhelms the health care system and causes hospitals to adopt crisis standards of care necessarily increases.”

Hospitals set aside extra beds every year ahead of the flu season. During the 2018-19 flu season, 2,037 people were hospitalized with influenza in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, according to the state Department of Public Health.

As part of the executive order, Drake also “encouraged” the universal vaccinations of all students, faculty, staff, and their families by Saturday.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UC-president-orders-all-on-campus-students-15690037.php

Hundreds of vehicles parade through Humboldt County in support of Donald Trump

Hundreds of vehicles decorated with flags and signs supporting the re-election of President Donald Trump paraded up U.S. Highway 101 on Sunday afternoon.

The rally began in the Fortuna Safeway parking lot, where more than 200 vehicles lined Fortuna Boulevard from Starbucks up to Ray’s Food Place. Rally participants, many of whom were unmasked, honked and waved U.S., Trump 2020, Blue Lives Matter and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags as they waited for the caravan to take off.

Onlookers in Fortuna stationed themselves in lawn chairs along the parade route while volunteers helped to direct traffic in and out of the Safeway parking lot. Once the clock struck 1:30 p.m., the honking crowd headed north to McKinleyville.

The Humboldt County Republican Central Committee outline guidelines for the rally in a Facebook post: “As patriots, please respect our law enforcement and obey all laws of the road including seat belts. Please no standing or hanging out windows unsafely etc.”

Humboldt County Republicans also asked participants to avoid driving through the Arcata Plaza.

Humboldt County Republicans did not respond to a request for comment by Sunday’s publishing deadline.

A small group of approximately 10 countered the parade rallying outside of Taco Loco in Fortuna holding Black Lives Matter and Biden-Harris 2020 signs. A second group of about 20 stood outside of the Humboldt County courthouse with signs and a large banner reading “No fascism in our community.”

Both groups remained peaceful, although this reporter witnessed some obscene hand gestures made by Trump supporters in the direction of the Biden-Harris supporters.

Law enforcement was present along the parade route but did not interfere with the rally.

https://www.times-standard.com/2020/11/01/photos-hundreds-of-vehicles-parade-through-humboldt-county-in-support-of-donald-trump/