With California's moratorium on evictions about to expire, some 240,000 homes or two million people across the state are at risk of losing their homes, so a group of legislators is seeking to prevent this catastrophe at least until the end of this year.
AB-15, introduced in December by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu, would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants who have been economically harmed by the pandemic until December 31, 2021.
This project expands and improves on AB-3088, an agreement also proposed by Chiu, approved by the state legislature and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on August 31, 2020, which left some gaps on the issue of evictions, and whose deadline is January 31.
Thus, the AB-15 proposal would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants economically harmed by the pandemic until December 31, 2021, and they would have until that date to pay 25 percent of the back rent they have accumulated.
"The possibility that tens of thousands of people will be forced to leave their homes would increase the likelihood that COVID-19 will spread and have devastating health consequences. We cannot allow that to be the fate of California," Chiu said.
For her part, Debra Carlton, a lobbyist for the California Association of Apartments, said that with such a measure the owners will not be able to survive this year, so a more dynamic proposal or the guarantee that they will receive financial aid is needed.
It should be noted that California tenants owe about $1.7 billion in rent arrears, according to a Federal Reserve Bank estimate, and this amount could grow significantly in the coming months.
If the current moratorium expires at the end of January, tenants who can pay 25 percent of the rent due since September will be able to stay in their apartment.
Chiu also introduced a second bill, AB-16, which would provide unspecified rent relief for those facing debt from complying with AB-15, if it is enacted into law.
AB-16 would require tenants to pay 25% of their rent due between September 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, to avoid eviction, and any remaining amount owed to the landlord would become a civil debt.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said the bed capacity of the Intensive Care Units (ICU) in the Bay Area is 7.9 percent, while for Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley it is 0 percent.
"The 0 percent does not represent that there are no ICU beds available, but only that we are in a phase of overcapacity in terms of the search strategy for these units," the official said at his first press conference of the year.
Gavin Newsom, governor of California.
Newsom explained that this Sunday, January 3, 29,633 cases of COVID-19 were registered in the state, while the seven-day average is 37,845 new cases, and the positivity rate is 12.4 percent.
He said hospitalizations grew 18 percent, a seven-fold increase in the past two months, while the state is seeing six times the number of ICU patients in this period.
He noted that the average number of cases in the last 7 days dropped significantly, but this was mainly because the holidays - such as December 25 and January 1 - were not tested.
In the state, 97 deaths were recorded on Jan. 3, while the average for the last few days was 336 people who died from the disease. These figures may also be lower due to the holidays, since the average for the last 14 days is 3,959 deaths.
After Kaiser Permanente Hospital officials reported Jan. 2 that between Dec. 27 and Jan. 1, 43 medical staff members in the unit's emergency department in San Jose tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, one of them has died.
That was reported by NBC News, which noted that the COVID-19 outbreak at that San Jose hospital was probably caused by a staff member who dressed up as a red-nosed Christmas tree in the emergency department.
The costume, which was air-powered through a fan, was used with the intention of bringing joy to the medical center on Christmas Day, which could have circulated drops containing the coronavirus, The Washington Post noted.
In a statement to The Post, Irene Chavez, senior vice president and area manager of the hospital, said that "obviously, this is a 'very unusual' situation involving a well-meaning staff member acting on his or her own without notice or approval.
"Any exposure, if it had occurred, would have been completely innocent and quite accidental, as the individual had no symptoms of covid," he added.
The outbreak is under investigation and contact tracing, to notify those patients or staff who may have been exposed to the virus.
The situation comes after a spike in COVID-19 cases in Santa Clara County after many disobeyed warnings from health experts during the holiday season.
"It's quite possible that we'll see an increase after the season, in the sense of Christmas, New Year, and as I've described it, as one increase after another"
Dr. Anthony Fauci to CNN
A mutant strain of the coronavirus that is believed to be more contagious than the existing strain has public health experts concerned that the new wave could have catastrophic consequences.
It should be noted that during the weekend, the U.S. exceeded 350,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The capacity of the Bay Area's Intensive Care Units (ICUs) as of Sunday was 8.4 percent, according to the state's COVID-19 website.
Los Angeles County, which has positioned itself as the epicenter of COVID-19 nationally, is part of a Southern California region that reports 0.0 percent ICU capacity, as does the San Joaquin Valley region, which also has zero ICU capacity.
One South Bay hospital reported that it maximized its capacity last week and sent patients to extra beds.
Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center, Opened April, 2017, is LEED Platinum Certified see: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/sd-me-kaiser-new-20170417-story.html
Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Officials at Kaiser Permanente Hospital reported Saturday that 43 medical staff members in the unit's San Jose emergency department tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between Dec. 27 and Jan. 1, so the outbreak is being investigated.
In a statement, the hospital said that in addition to the investigation, contact tracing is being used "to personally notify and assess any staff or patients who were exposed during this period, according to CDC and public health guidelines.
The hospital is already investigating an incident in which a staff member briefly appeared in the emergency department on Christmas Day in an air costume that included a ventilator, a situation that may have caused air drops to spread throughout the hospital.
In response, Kaiser Permanente said it will no longer allow air costumes at any facility, noted NBC Bay Area.
While the hospital said it is open and safe for patients to receive care, it is already working on screening all of its employees and emergency department doctors for the virus that causes VIDOC-19.
He said that any person who tests positive or has symptoms of VOC-19 will be quarantined according to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Similarly, the statement details that the emergency department is undergoing a thorough cleaning.
He added that even though the vaccine has already begun to be administered in communities, given the prevalence of the virus, we are all still vulnerable.
That is why "it remains critical that everyone use the methods to help protect ourselves and others, especially wearing masks, washing hands, avoiding meetings and social distancing.
In order to be much more environmentally friendly, residents of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties can recycle their Christmas trees through the Recology and GreenWaste Recovery collection service.
Santa Clara County residents, including Mountain View and Cupertino, will be able to recycle their trees this January, where property managers can call to arrange for tree pick-ups from a central location.
It should be noted that people who want to recycle their trees should remove all the tinsel, lights, decorations and supports from their trees, cut the tree into smaller pieces and leave it next to their compost carts to be picked up on regular service days.
It also mentions that the trees must be cut down to five feet or less, while the cut pieces can also be placed in the compost carts once the lid can be closed for Recology to accept them.
Meanwhile, for San Mateo County residents, whose service area includes cities such as East Palo Alto to Burlingame, tree collection is from January 1 to 31.
In this case, trees longer than two and a half meters should be cut down before they are placed next to a collection cart. Also, apartment or condominium managers in the county can schedule tree pick-ups between January 2 and January 31 for the entire complex.
This weekend, the news The Washington Post published a phone call where the current US President, Donald Trump, called Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia to "find" those 11,780 votes needed to turn around the result of the last general election held on November 3; the same one where his Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, was finally elected to the US presidential succession.
In the call, which lasts just over an hour, you can hear US President Donald Trump trying to persuade Secretary Raffensperger to avoid a "big risk".
However, Brad Raffensperger remained stoic in front of the president when he told him that, in the state of Georgia, "a fair election" was held and that the vote count figures "are correct".
As President Trump threatened Georgia's Secretary of State, social networks began to react to the leak of The Washington Post with the hashtag #TrumpTapes-replicated more than 400,000 times before midnight on Sunday- and trends such as#TrumpBegged and #TrumpMeltdownwhere Twitter users mocked the tycoon for "begging" Raffensperger, managed to get to the top of the general trends -"trending topics"- of Twitter in the US.
In states like Georgia and Washington, trends showed terms like "Secretary of State"that they reached more than 1 million tweetsminutes before midnight on Sunday. "Ga SoS" - "Georgia Secretary of State", with 35,000 results, Fulton County -127,000 tweets-, #ImpeachTrump, Nixon -by the Watergate case, also exposed by The Washington Post- also reached high positions already reached at night by exceeding the barrier of 6,000 tweets.
Let's start with outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, who, via his Twitter account, stated "I spoke with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwell or unable to respond to issues such as 'ballots under the table', ballot destruction, out-of-state 'voters', deaths and more. He has no idea!".
However, Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, before The Washington Post leak the call, he said on Twitter: "With all due respect, President Trump, what you say is not true. The truth will come out."
Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out https://t.co/ViYjTSeRcC
- GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) January 3, 2021
At noon, The Washington Post, leaked the call held between Trump and Raffensperger.
Exclusive : "I just want to find 11,780 votes": In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor https://t.co/NTT3hTvcrR
Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General, said: "While listening to the recording, please note this federal criminal statute"and attached title 52 of the U.S. Code, which establishes criminal liability in electoral matters.
American writer Don Winslow called in several tweets to ask what other calls the president might have made that could be linked to acts of corruption during his time in the White House, adding that "Any Republican who does not demand Trump's immediate resignation is a perpetual accomplice.".
Any Republican who doesn't demand Trump's immediate resignation is forever complicit.
Daniel S. Goldman, attorney at the U.S. House of Representatives Congregation, who also participated in the trial of impeachment to Donald Trump pointed out that the recording could be considered a direct threat to Raffensperger: «“This can be expensive for you.”. I've handled extortion cases within the mafia with similar words."
"It's gonna be costly to you." I've charged extortion in mob cases with similar language. https://t.co/wB0jV9Mkhl
"Your best defense should be your dementia»said attorney Michael R. Bromwich:
Unless there are portions of the tape that somehow negate criminal intent, "I just want to find 11,780 votes" and his threats against Raffensperger and his counsel violate 52 U.S. Code § 20511. His best defense would be insanity.https://t.co/ZAtRgiRQmz
Senator David Shafer, president of the Republican Party in Georgia, despite evidence by The Washington PostThe president, who is also a member of the U.S. Congress, said the released recording "is substantially edited and omits the stipulation that all discussions were for the purpose of resolving a dispute and were confidential under federal and state law.
The audio published by @TheWashingtonPost is heavily edited and omits the stipulation that all discussions were for the purpose of settling litigation and confidential under federal and state law.
Amy Gardner, from The Washington Post responded to Shafer: "This is false. We published the entire call, from beginning to end. There's no mention of it being a confidential settlement meeting. None."
This is false. We published the entirety of the call, from start to finish. There is no mention of it being a confidential settlement meeting. None. https://t.co/1Q9btWZmep
Bernie Sanders, a state senator from Vermont, also spoke out on the issue, saying, "No, Donald Trump, there are no votes I have to find. The American people have spoken, and at 12:01 p.m. on January 20, you will no longer be president:
No, Donald Trump, there are no votes for you to find. The American people have spoken and at 12:01 pm on January 20, you will no longer be president. https://t.co/ae9eT9ekIR
Prominent U.S. political journalists equated the election results with an attempted coup by the Republicans themselves in the U.S. Senate against Donald Trump:
There are 11 Republican senators in the United States who will not recognize the result of the presidential election that Donald Trump overwhelmingly lost on January 6. In Latin America, we call this an "attempted coup d'état". What will they call it in the United States? https://t.co/16Q42wwdmU
It should be noted that no multimedia material was uploaded to Twitter from The Washington PostHowever, it was Keith Edwards, advisor to John Ossoff, who uploaded the video recording, whose reproductions, only in the social network reach more than 12 million reproductions, 84 thousand times marked as "I like" and generated a discussion of more than 16 thousand responses:
Wow. WaPo just released a recording showing President Trump attempting to blackmail Georgia's Secretary of State to overturn the election.
California Governor Gavin Newsom launched the "Safe Schools for All" program, which will provide a $2 billion budget to support various safety measures so that schools can reopen for learning in person this spring.
The budget represents providing a one-time payment of 450 per student to school districts offering in-person instruction to help cover additional costs related to the virus, such as testing and purchasing protective equipment for teachers, primarily mouth guards.
"As a parent of four children, I know firsthand what parents, educators and pediatricians continue to say: in person is the best environment to meet not only the learning needs, but the mental health and social-emotional needs of our children," Gov. Newsom said in a statement.
"My administration focuses on getting students back into the classroom in a way that cares for the health of students and teachers. By taking a phased approach with virus mitigation and prevention, we can get our children back into school to support learning needs and restore the benefits of in-person instruction," he added.
It should be noted that the administration's strategy focuses on ensuring implementation and building confidence by bringing back the youngest children - TK-2 - and then gradually at other grade levels during the spring.
This statement recognizes that younger children are at less risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19, although distance education will also continue to be an option for parents and students who prefer it and for those whose health condition does not allow them to return to school in the short term.
Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino), chair of the Senate Education Committee, said it is "a step forward in ensuring that all children, regardless of where they live or are enrolled in school, have the ability to receive quality instruction in California.
Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell, D-Long Beach, and chair of the Assembly's Education Committee, added that providing in-person instruction to as many California students as safely and quickly as possible should be a team effort.
"We agree that, even during a global pandemic, learning is non-negotiable and students learn best when they can be taught in school safely. The Governor's plan is a first step toward reopening schools safely and I look forward to continuing discussions with him and the Legislature on this critical issue," he said.
About 50 mouth covers made by residents of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, along with hundreds of messages of gratitude and hope, have given new life to two trees in this place under the project called "Gratitude Trees.
The intervention is an effort by community residents Connie Chuang, David Peng and Debra Cen, who wanted to honor the employees - the frontline health workers, teachers and essential workers who have risked their own lives to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It should be noted that the trees have been decorated since 2012, when a resident began decorating them almost every month for the holidays starting with Halloween. While a sign posted on the site encourages people to add their own unused masks and write their own messages on the trees on Bryant Street and Lowell Avenue.
"I thought decorating these two famous trees in our neighborhood would be a great way to honor tradition and show love and care during the pandemic. So we came together to start the project," according to Debra Cen.
For his part, Chuang, who declares that he was skeptical of the use of the mask at the beginning of the pandemic, but that he is the creator of several of the masks, points out that the joint work of the community has become something artistic, significant, brilliant and joyful, with positive intentions of promoting art, community health and solidarity.
The messages that people have left reflect hope, gratitude, although they are also a tribute to the human losses: "Your life was marked by joy: go enjoy your coffee, a walk, your family", you can read in one of them.
The masks also change continuously, as some people have taken them away and have had to keep replacing them. But there have also been many others who have added their own mask.
The $900 billion stimulus, which was recently approved by the U.S. Congress to help address the COVID-19 crisis, also includes $14 billion in compensation for public transportation systems across the country, of which about $975 million is expected to go to the Bay Area.
Bay Area public transportation agencies had warned of possible service and job cuts after the coronavirus left severe impacts on their budgets, which could be overtaken by the stimulus that the region's operators are prepared to receive.
However, there is still an unclear picture of when passengers will return to buses, trains and ferries in large numbers, so the long-term future of the transit system network linking the Bay Area is far from secure.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said they will work in coordination with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to distribute the funds, which will be of great help to "avoid the need to send out layoff notices at the moment.
For his part, San Francisco's transportation director and head of the city's Muni system, Jeffrey Tumlin, noted through his Twitter account that "mass layoffs and more service cuts are off the table.
So it will now be up to the MTC to distribute the funds among the region's approximately two dozen public transportation agencies, a process expected to take place in early 2021.
It should be noted that public transport in the country has faced a serious crisis in the months since widespread closures took most passengers off the roads, although local buses and trains have continued to carry thousands of essential workers and those unable or unwilling to drive.
BART has been among the most vulnerable transport systems because it depends on passenger fares for most of its budget. While bus systems have had a relatively more stable base because they are financed primarily by tax revenues that have remained strong, they have also lost millions of dollars in passenger revenue.
A first federal aid package in March 2020 bolstered transit agencies' finances for a while, but as the pandemic dragged on and funds dried up, agencies warned of job and service cuts that would lead to more traffic, more vehicle emissions and a stalled economic recovery if aid did not arrive.
World receives 2021 in the midst of a peak for COVID-19
Different countries around the world welcomed the year 2021 with fireworks displays, but with empty streets and little celebration, in the face of restrictions imposed by states, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The celebrations were held without crowds, amid fears about the circulation of a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus, which has mainly affected the UK and Germany, but has already been detected in other countries, such as the US.
2020, a year that was marked by this new disease, ends with more than 83.1 million new cases worldwide, as well as 1.8 million deaths.
UK and EU reach historic Brexit agreement
After months of arduous negotiations, the United Kingdom and the European Union reached an agreement on the Brexit, which is beneficial to both parties, and which will serve to regulate trade and security relations in the future.
It should be noted that the deadline for the formal completion of Brexit ended on December 31st as a result of a referendum organised in 2016, where 52 percent of UK voters decided that the nation should disassociate itself from the European bloc.
This new agreement, which is expected to enter into force on 1 January, has yet to become law, and the British and European Union parliaments must ratify it, which is expected to happen in the next few days.
Earthquake in Croatia leaves material and human losses
An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 left at least 7 people dead and considerable material damage in the city of Petrinja, in Croatia, a phenomenon that was also felt in the country's capital, Zagreb, as well as in other latitudes of Central Europe.
The mayor of Petrinja, Darinko Dumbovic, commented last Tuesday that the town "is in ruins. There are dead, wounded and missing. There is no house that has not been damaged. Ambulances can't reach everywhere. It is chaos.
Pierre Cardin, fashion revolutionary, passes away
French fashion designer Pierre Cardin died last Tuesday, December 29, 2020, at the age of 98, in a hospital in Neuilly, near the French capital.
Cardin is considered a promoter of the revolution at the end of the 60s and 70s of the last century, due to his futuristic designs. He was also a pioneer in business, licensing his name on other products.
