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On the afternoon of May 8, 2017, the family of 32-year-old Mikel McIntyre called 911 for help in dealing with his increasingly erratic and threatening behavior. The former high school and college athlete, who lived in Antioch and had briefly played baseball in the minor leagues, had been showing signs of serious mental illness, and his mother was concerned. She hoped a visit with family in Sacramento might help. The first call, shortly after 3 p.m., indicated a possible mental-health crisis: McIntyre had locked himself in a vehicle and was being “slightly combative,”
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The 2021 redistricting has begun in earnest with the seating of the first eight members of the California Citizens Commission, the so-called “Lucky Eight” because they were seated after a random draw of ping-pong balls. In the quarantine era, this drawing, carried live, likely qualified as riveting entertainment.
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California’s most heavily populated counties are drawing the most attention as COVID-19 spikes and spreads, with Los Angeles reporting more than 140,000 cases and nearly 3,900 deaths since March. But California’s rural counties also face immense challenges. And while their populations are less dense and the infection levels lower overall than the larger counties, the available health services often are scant.
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Proposition 209, the constitutional amendment intended to prevent discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex in areas like public education and contracting, was approved by California voters a generation ago. In November, they will decide whether to get rid of it.
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In recent months, mystery has surrounded the ownership of a controversial e-cigarette company that has reaped millions of dollars in sales of flavored, kid-friendly nicotine products by exploiting a loophole in federal regulations.
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As protests mount over police misconduct in California and across the country, attention is turning to a largely obscure policy that has long shielded law enforcement officers — qualified immunity. At least one member of California’s congressional delegation — a Republican — has joined with a number of House Democrats in seeking to overturn qualified immunity.
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For more than a decade, California’s bullet train has faced obstacle after obstacle. The latest hurdle: the pandemic. Last week, the Authority postponed the approval of its 2020 business plan until Dec. 15 in order to assess the impacts of COVID-19.
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In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a multimillion-dollar state initiative to bring COVID-19 testing to the people and places with the least access: rural towns and disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. California is now halting its expansion, citing costs, even as the state is getting walloped by record-setting spikes in new infections and double-digit increases in hospitalizations.
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California’s stem cell agency last week awarded $750,000 to a New Jersey firm to help finance a clinical trial for the firm’s proposed Covid-19 treatment — a therapy that has been hailed by President Trump’s personal attorney as having “real potential.” The firm is Celularity, Inc. Its president and co-founder is Robert Hariri, who describes himself as a longtime friend of Rudy Giuliani.
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Geeta Anand, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author, has been named interim dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, replacing Edward Wasserman, who stepped down after serving seven years as dean.
A modified image from a dash cam video taken at the May 2017 shooting of Mikel McIntyre. (Sacramento Sheriff's Department video) 
