THE BUZZ: What’s it going to look like — and how will business be different — when the California Legislature finally returns to Sacramento next week?
WHAT WE KNOW: The Legislature is champing at the bit to return to work on May 4. And that’s both because they’re facing the intense pressure of a June 15 budget deadline — and the reality check that their absence has given Gov. Gavin Newsom unprecedented executive power over the state’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, including his nearly $1 billion purchase of 200 million masks a month.
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REMOTE VOTING PUSH? Carla’s story this weekend detailed how Assemblyman Bill Quirk, in a letter to Speaker Anthony Rendon, has made a strong argument for remote voting. He wrote that “failure to make accommodations for legislators who are over 65 years old, pregnant, immunocompromised, or care for children or loved ones who are at risk or otherwise vulnerable raises serious concerns around democracy, representation, and equity,’’ according to a letter obtained by POLITICO. (There are 25 lawmakers in the state Legislature over age 65, which is considered a vulnerable group.) Sources told POLITICO 20 members to date have signed on to back Quirk’s concerns.
THE SPEAKER’S RESPONSE: But the speaker clearly remains committed to having the Assembly hold in-person hearings and floor sessions — believing it is a state constitutional obligation, spokesperson Katie Talbot told us Friday night.
“This letter is part of an ongoing dialogue among Members, but we believe that the Constitution necessitates the physical presence of Members to vote, and provides the right for the public to attend legislative proceedings in person,” Talbot said in a statement. “The Assembly is providing accommodations to Members with medical conditions, just as we always have. In addition, we have instituted unprecedented physical distancing protocols to help keep Members, staff, and the public safe.”
LOBBYISTS’ CONCERNS: Some intriguing issues were also raised last week in a call between Assembly staff and representatives of the Institute of Governmental Advocates, a nonpartisan group representing lobbyists and lobbying organizations in Sacramento. according to a memo of the call obtained by POLITICO.
Alf Brandt — a senior counsel to the speaker — and Assembly Floor Director Brian Ebbert, representing the speaker, noted that the legislators are now faced with the “tricky balance” of protecting both constitutional rights and public health in the midst of the pandemic, according to the memo. But Brandt also reiterated to the lobbying group that “members will not be participating remotely.”
One of the biggest changes would involve limiting the in-person presence of those testifying. Brandt and Ebbert floated the idea of requiring supporters and opponents of a bill to agree upon “two lead persons testifying” and deciding whether they want to participate in person or remotely, according to the memo. All other advocates and experts would participate by phone or videoconference and provide their name, organization and position in advance to speed proceedings.
TEMPERATURE CHECK: And as Jeremy wrote, that’s another possible change: testing state lawmakers’ temperatures before they return to Sacramento.
BUENOS DIAS, good Monday morning. Today is the one year anniversary of the Poway shooting, when a gunman with an AR-15 assault weapon killed one and injured three in the Chabad of Poway synagogue. A good day to read a remembrance from Devorah Marcus, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of San Diego, who reminds: “We are one humanity.” Via the San Diego Union Tribune.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that’s what they need to learn from America. They don’t need to learn quantum computing.” Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton — who apparently has never been to Silicon Valley — proposes restricting Chinese students from studying science and tech at U.S. universities. (Senator, for starters, meet Bay Area-based “Zoom, the app started by a Chinese immigrant, now used by millions at home.”)
BONUS QOTD: “The governors are impatient. … My own governor, Gavin Newsom, has been spectacular, my mayor, Mayor Breed. The state and local have done their jobs magnificently. They should be impatient. Their impatience will help us get an even bigger number.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on CNN Sunday to Jake Tapper on more stimulus funding.
TWEET OF THE DAY: CA Democratic Party chair @rustyhicks on the investigation of ex-chair Eric Bauman: “1st, the CDP will retain Altshuler Berzon LLP, a nationally-recognized public interest law firm, & a leading & respected trauma expert to actively engage w/ survivors and/or their counsel to determine what portions of the investigation report should/should not be released.” Read the thread here.
LISTEN UP: Inside Golden State Politics — Bill Boyarsky and Sherry Bebitch Jeffe talk voting by mail — and the other big election question: Where’s Joe Biden?
WEBINAR OF THE WEEK: Loyola Law School’s Jessica Levinson moderates a Hammer Forum discussion, exploring economic comeback in the age of pandemic: “Can $2 Trillion Prevent Another Great Depression?”
WHERE’S GAVIN? His daily #NewsomAtNoon briefing, to be livestreamed on @CAGovernor Twitter feed, will update Covid-19 news in California.
Sign up for POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition, your daily update on how the illness is affecting politics, markets, public health and more.
SCOOP from SFChronicle team — “Coronavirus caused heart to rupture in nation’s first known victim, autopsy shows,” by the SF Chronicle’s Matthias Gafni and Jill Tucker: “The autopsy, performed by medical examiner Susan Parson, found COVID-19 viral infection in [Patricia Dowd’s] heart, trachea, lungs and intestines.” And here’s the autopsy report also scooped by the Chronicle.
REINSTATEMENT? — “Navy Leaders Recommend Reinstating Roosevelt Captain Fired Over Virus Warning,” by NYT’s Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Thomas Gibbons-Neff: “But Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who was briefed on the recommendations, has asked for more time to consider whether to sign off on reinstating the captain of the nuclear-powered carrier.”
INTERNET INSANITY — “Amid The Pandemic, U.S. Militia Groups Plot ‘The Boogaloo,’ AKA Civil War, On Facebook,” by HuffPost’s Christopher Mathias: “Thousands of armed right-wing militants are plotting a violent uprising against the U.S. government during the coronavirus crisis, a new report finds, and Facebook is providing them a platform to prepare and organize.”
GRACIAS, LUPE — “Did a Bakersfield nursing student invent hand sanitizer? Coronavirus reignites the Lupe Hernandez debate,” by the LA Times’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Gustavo Arellano.
READ THIS TO YOUR KIDS — “Kaiser study finds coronavirus seriously affects people regardless of age,” by the SF Chronicle’s Erin Allday.
SUN, SAND, SYMPTOMS? — “After #FloridaMorons, Californians also crowd beaches,” by the LA Times’ Alex Wigglesworth, Kevin Baxter and Cindy Chang.
MORE DISTANCING CHALLENGES GROWING: Several weekend stories underscored how Californians are clearly tiring of — or outright ignoring — the pleas for social distancing as the pandemic enters its second full month of shutdown. Among the place where the sunny weekend saw crowds: SFChronicle’s Rachel Swan documented the crowds in Sausalito; Phil Matier reported on the uptick in traffic on Bay Area roads in the SFChronicle; and the LATimes staff looked at the crowded Orange and Ventura County beaches where crowds converged to beat the heat.
— “Perfect storm clobbers California cities,” by Dan Walters for CalMatters: “While [the CARES Act] may help big cities to avoid fiscal meltdowns, it does nothing for California’s other 400-plus municipal governments, which are coping with many of the same issues, especially big drops in sales tax from shutdowns of retail businesses.”
— “Coronavirus: Would you volunteer to be exposed? These Stanford grads did,” by The Mercury News’ Lisa M. Krieger.
UH OH… “A Stanford Professor’s Wife Recruited People For His Coronavirus Study By Claiming It Would Reveal If They Could ‘Return To Work Without Fear,’” by BuzzFeed’s Stephanie M. Lee.
DEEP DIVE — “Life and Death, But No Trash Pickup: Diary of a Young COVID-19 Nurse,” by ProPublica’s Ryan Gabrielson: “When a 27-year-old critical care nurse volunteered for Santa Clara Valley Medical Center’s COVID-19 unit last month, she knew that caring for patients with failing lungs and an untreatable disease would be frightening and heartbreaking. What she didn’t expect was to be shunned by fearful workers in other departments, surrounded by uncollected trash and forced to use up health benefits on a technicality.”
— “Mission District mass-COVID-19 testing could blow up the city’s data. But that’s okay,” by Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi.
— “LAPD now has 79 employees who tested positive for coronavirus,” via City News Service.
CALIFORNIA GAMBLE? — “‘Playing Russian Roulette’: Nursing Homes Told to Take the Infected,” by NYT’s Kim Barker and Amy Julia Harris: “Homes are allowed to turn patients away if they claim they can’t care for them safely — but administrators say they worry that refusing patients could provoke regulatory scrutiny, and advocates say it could result in a loss of revenue.”
FAIRLY A BUMMER — “California State Fair canceled to stem coronavirus spread. First closure since World War II,” by The Sac Bee’s Dale Kasler.
BAD NEWS: “Several” Hanford, CA meat packing workers infected with coronavirus,’’ via Fresno Bee’s Robert Rodriguez.
With the help of The COVID Tracking Project — a volunteer-run accounting of every coronavirus test conducted in America — POLITICO is monitoring how many Americans have been tested in all 50 states. Our live tracker will continue to update with the latest numbers across the country as they come in.
THE AG CHALLENGE — “USDA let millions of pounds of food rot while food-bank demand soared,” by POLITICO’s Helena Bottemiller Evich: “While other federal agencies quickly adapted their programs to the coronavirus crisis, the Agriculture Department took more than a month to make its first significant move to buy up surplus fruits and vegetables — despite repeated entreaties.”
— “Trump called PPE shortages ‘fake news.’ Health care workers say they’re still a real problem,” by POLITICO’s Tucker Doherty and Brianna Ehley: “Without a more robust supply of personal protective equipment, or PPE, the fast-moving virus will continue to pose an unprecedented threat to America’s health care workforce, having already sickened at least 9,282 medical workers and killed 27.”
SF MAYOR LONDON BREED PUSHES BACK: On “Face the Nation” Sunday, Breed described her own struggles to secure PPE and testing supplies, and argued federal efforts are desperately needed: “There was a shipment that was on its way that we had purchased that was actually diverted from China to France. … FEMA has the ability to confiscate some of the PPE at the border, which has occurred. It’s been very difficult, and then sometimes getting things through customs or needing to use a ship rather than a plane and so we have been resourceful…the fact is, this should be a federal coordinated effort. Watch her appearance.
BIDEN TOWN HALL WITH KAMALA HARRIS — Release: Joe Biden to hold a virtual town hall with Sen. Kamala Harris “on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color.” Moderated by Biden Campaign Senior Advisor Symone Sanders. Details: Monday, April 27, 12:30 p.m. PT. Members of the public who wish to join can RSVP HERE.
— “Chummy Senate Democrats jump into veep stakes,” by POLITICO’s Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett: “After seven Democrats ran for president, no fewer than six Democratic women senators are in the mix to be former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate.”
ONE TO WATCH — “Rep Katie Porter is a watchdog, and a single mom, at the same time,” by the SF Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli: “Porter is a rare combination in Washington: She is both an experienced watchdog who isn’t afraid to call out anyone — including Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and someone who is living a life that is closer to what many Americans are experiencing.’
LOOMING QUESTION — HOW TO DO HOUSING? POLITICO’s Debra Hahn was the first to explore the critical issue of how the Covid-19 crisis will affect California’s goal of building dense housing near transit, finding that the pandemic could “absolutely impact people’s appetite for housing density.” Now here’s LATimes’ Liam Dillion’s take on that problem: “Building dense cities was California’s cure for the housing crisis. Then came coronavirus.’’
THE GAP’S GAP — “’We are facing a period of uncertainty’: Gap stops paying rent at North America stores,” by SFGATE’s Amy Graff: “The San Francisco-based clothing retailer that also owns Banana Republic and Old Navy is running out of cash and may not be able to continue operations without an infusion.”
PRISON PICTURE — “‘I don’t deserve a death sentence’: Coronavirus outbreaks bring fear inside California prisons,” by the LA Times’ Richard Winton.
CATALINA CRIPPLED — “California’s ‘island of romance’ crippled by virus,” by The AP’s John Rogers and Chris Carlson: “The stay-at home order instituted across California isolated tiny Santa Catalina Island from the virus that was spreading rapidly on the mainland.”
THE MYSTERY — “Has Coronavirus Been in California Since the Fall? Researchers Investigate,” by WSJ’s Preetika Rana: “The theory, that the first U.S. cases could have occurred undetected months earlier, has been used to support arguments that social distancing, as being practiced in California and many other places, might be unnecessary.”
— “In Reversal, California Farm Town Approves ICE Detention Centers,” by NYT’s Miriam Jordan: “Up to half of the 15,000 residents of McFarland are undocumented, according to some estimates, meaning they could face confinement in the same cells that have been holding convicted criminals.”
— “Judge won’t require protective gloves, gowns for ICE detainees ordered to clean their quarters,’’ by SFChronicle’s Bob Egelko.
Q&A WITH PANDEMIC HERO — Santa Clara Co’s “Dr. Sara Cody answers San José Spotlight readers,” by the San Jose Spotlight’s Nadia Lopez.
BACK IN BLACK — “Tesla reportedly plans to recall some workers to its California plant this week,” by The Verge’s Kim Lyons.
NELLIE BOWLES via NYTimes — “I Used to Make Fun of Silicon Valley Preppers. Then I Became One“: “The coders and founders long snickered at for stockpiling flour and toilet paper were absolutely right.”
ARNOLD TO BE A GRANDDAD! — “Chris Pratt, Katherine Schwarzenegger Expecting First Child Together,” via TMZ.
— “Virus Crisis May Spur More Hollywood Studio Mergers, Analyst Says,” by The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai: “‘We have a strong belief that the production and distribution of media content will be permanently changed by this crisis,’ Michael Nathanson wrote about the coronavirus pandemic in a Friday report entitled ‘Say Goodbye to Hollywood.’”
— “How Much Does It Cost California Cannabis Growers to Safety Test?” via UC Davis.
— CONGRATS: Ace San Francisco politics reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez announced he was ending his SF Examiner column — but he’s not going far, joining KQED.
— “Looking to escape ‘endless’ litigation, L.A. is open to federal oversight for homelessness,” by the LA Times’ Benjamin Oreskes and David Zahniser.
HELP IS ON THE WAY — “IRS fixes errors, adds features to tool for getting faster stimulus payments,’’ by SFChronicle’s Kathleen Pender: The Internal Revenue Service on Sunday announced “significant enhancements” to its “Get My Payment” online tool that many Americans can use to track and speed up their tax-free $1,200 economic impact payments.
— “Birthday boy Marshawn Lynch bumps Dru Down while distributing masks,” by the SF Chronicle’s Nick Lozito.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — California Women Lead has announced four new board members — Dr. Diandra Bremond, Cannabis Appeals Control Panel Chair; Nora Vargas, president of the board of the Southwestern Community College District; Malia Cohen, Board of Equalization member, District 2 and Oakland City Council member Sheng Thao.
BIRTHDAYS: Mebus Behrle of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute … Facebook’s Shannon Mattingly … POLITICO’s Carla Marinucci … David Hudson of the Motion Picture Association … Anna Soellner of Reddit … Lee Brenner
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REMOTE VOTING concerns for CA Legislature — TEMPERATURE CHECKS ahead? — TESLA workers heading back this week? — GOP’s COTTON proposes restrictions on Chinese students
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