Saturday, September 26, 2020

9-26: San Clemente as ground zero; OC Mayors: ‘Mask up to open up OC’; the Labor Day surge


Orange County Coastal Enclave Becomes Ground Zero of Police Violence Controversy and Protests
—Voice of OC 
     In under 30 hours, San Clemente went from a quiet, wealthy coastal enclave to the epicenter of local anger, protests and confrontations in Orange County over police violence after an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy, tasked with homeless outreach, shot and killed a Black homeless man in the city. 
     Early morning demonstrations and arrests on Thursday, Sept. 24 prompted some organizers to discourage further attendance at protests planned for the city later in the day, fearing clashes between protesters and counter protesters. 
     That didn’t stop more than 50 people from gathering on that late afternoon and picking up signs to march from San Clemente City Hall to the Hotel Miramar — where a deputy on Wednesday, Sept. 23 shot 42-year-old Kurt Andras Reinhold twice, killing him. 
     The march began around 5:40 p.m., and ended at 7 p.m. A 9 p.m. “civil unrest” curfew was ordered by City Council members earlier in the day. 
     Throughout the march, passing cars, people walking out of bars, and even trucks hoisting American flags yelled things like “go home,” or “fuck you,” or chants like “all white lives matter.” 
     Some people out of passing cars told demonstrators to “get out of San Clemente.” 
     Yet when demonstrators reached their final destination, the Hotel Miramar where the parking lot entrance became a flowery memorial for Reinhold, there were also passing cars who honked their horns in support or gave thumbs up out their windows as they drove past. 
. . . 
     Some speakers pointed to an incident last year where San Clemente high school students hurled racist slurs like the N-word at a visiting high school team during a football game.
. . . 
     Officials on Thursday insisted Reinhold tried to grab a deputy’s gun when the afternoon encounter outside San Clemente’s Hotel Miramar turned into an altercation. 
     During a news conference that day, the department passed out a grainy image captured from surveillance video to reporters that Barnes said shows Reinhold reaching for the gun. 
     Yet Reinhold’s killing has put new focus on Orange County’s role in race and police relations, coming at the same time that Kentucky grand jurors sparked nationwide unrest yet again by opting not to level direct charges on police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a Black woman and medical worker, in her own home. 

—OC Reg 

Mayors gathered across Orange County to create the video with a unifying message. 
—OC Reg 

California to create its own consumer financial protection agency -- California will create a state consumer financial protection agency to fill a void left by federal regulators, who have pulled back on oversight during the Trump administration. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/25/20 

Gov. Newsom Signs Law To Grow Mental Health Coverage -- Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law on Friday that for the first time in California defines “medical necessity," a move aimed at requiring private health insurance plans to pay for more mental health and drug addiction treatments. Adam Beam Associated Press -- 9/25/20 

How UC Berkeley handled a regent’s ‘inappropriate’ support letter to get student admitted --Documents released late Friday provided new details on how UC Berkeley handled what a recent state audit called an “inappropriate letter of support” from University of California Regent Richard Blum to get an applicant admitted despite the student’s “uncompetitive” ranking by admission readers. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/20 

LA County reports coronavirus bump; state officials worry Labor Day surge may have arrived -- Friday's 1,401 cases was the biggest bump over two weeks, officials said. It comes as state officials warn of a near 90% increase in hospitalizations over the next month. Ryan Carter in the Orange County Register -- 9/25/20 

Unemployment crisis hits Latino, Black and Asian Californians at higher rates than whites -- As unemployment ticks down, some groups of Californians are still hurting worse than others. A new report from the California Budget and Policy Center shows unemployment rates for Latinos, Blacks, Asian Americans and other Californians of color continue to exceed jobless rates for white residents. Kim Bojórquez in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/25/20 

As O.C. campuses bring back students, here’s how schools in other countries are handling reopening -- Schools in Orange County are beginning to reopen. For parents trying to gauge the safety of their school’s plan, it may be useful to put the county’s numbers and procedures in context with how places around the world have handled school reopenings. Ada Tseng in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/25/20 

OC sheriff’s deputies who lied on reports testify that they didn’t know it was illegal -- Two fired Orange County sheriff’s deputies convicted of lying on their police reports testified recently before a grand jury that they didn’t know it was illegal to falsify the documents, transcripts show. Tony Saavedra in the Orange County Register -- 9/25/20 

In an affluent Orange County neighborhood, echoes of a skid row shooting -- Big questions loomed Friday over the death of Kurt Andras Reinhold, who was fatally shot by Orange County sheriff’s deputies in the beachfront town of San Clemente. Richard Winton, Anh Do, Gale Holland, Maria L. La Ganga in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/26/20 

Welcome to Zoom University. That’ll be $500 -- Some University of California campuses are charging new students hundreds of dollars for orientation sessions even though they take place entirely online. Janelle Marie Salanga CalMatters -- 9/25/20 

California passes first-in-nation plastics recycling law -- In a move aimed at reducing huge amounts of plastic litter in the oceans, along roadways and other parts of the state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a first-in-the-nation law requiring plastic beverage containers to contain an increasing amount of recycled material. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/25/20  

—NYT 
     Voters are facing a deluge of misinformation about voting by mail, some prompted by the president. Here’s a guide to those false claims. 

—CHE



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