San Bernardino County Reports 260 More Coronavirus Cases, No New Deaths – San Bernardino Sun

San Bernardino County reports 260 more coronavirus cases, no new deaths – San Bernardino Sun

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LOCAL NEWS • News San Bernardino County reports 260 more coronavirus cases, no new deaths

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By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 3:58 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 3:58 p.m.

Another 260 novel coronavirus cases have been confirmed in San Bernardino County, but no new deaths were reported Friday, June 19.

According to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, 8,714 people have tested positive and 230 have died from the disease. The number of confirmed cases was up 3.1% from Thursday, June 18, the dashboard shows.

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As of Friday, the county was no longer on the state public health department’s watch list, but neighboring Riverside County was. Last week, San Bernardino County made the list after an increase in new cases and hospitalizations.

Once a county meets the state’s standards for the number of positive tests and hospitalizations for three days, it is removed from the list, according the public health department.

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READ MORE In ‘Mr Jones ’ director Agnieszka Holland tells the true A projected 5,218 people have recovered from the disease, according to the county.

Testing was up 1.9% from the day before. An additional 1,903 people have been tested in the county of 2.1 million residents, while 101,622 have been tested so far. Of those tested, 8.6% were positive, according to the county’s data.

The time it takes for the virus to double in the community was 18.6 days.

1 of 3 A screenshot of San Bernardino County’s COVID-19 dashboard Friday, June 19, 2020. (Courtesy of San Bernardino County) 

On Thursday, June 18, there were 253 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in county hospitals, and 60 suspected to have the disease, according to the state’s data. Positive patients were up by 20, while the number of those suspected to have the virus was down from 64 reported Wednesday, June 17.

There were 87 patients with the disease in intensive-care units, up from 76 the day before, the state’s data shows. There were eight intensive-care patients suspected of having the disease, up from 76, the day before, according to the data.

See a list of community-by-community cases here. RELATED LINKS

Newsroom Guidelines San Bernardino County again sees record News Tips jump in coronavirus cases Contact Us Map shows updated coronavirus cases in Report an Error San Bernardino County cities

https://www.sbsun.com/...o-new-deaths/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/19/2020 4:20:29 PM] San Bernardino County adds 245 COVID-19 cases, three deaths on Saturday By Matthew Cabe Staff Writer Posted Jun 20, 2020 at 6:47 PM San Bernardino County on Saturday reported 245 new coronavirus cases and three additional virus-related deaths, bringing its totals to 8,959 and 233, respectively.

Saturday’s newly reported cases follow the 260 added Friday and the 440 recorded Thursday, which was the county’s highest single-day total since reporting began.

Combined, cases added in the last three days represent 10.5% of the county’s total cases. Projected recoveries stand at 5,313.

Saturday’s update from health officials follows an announcement Friday that 21 Sheriff’s Department employees and nine county jail inmates had also tested positive for COVID-19.

The infected department employees are self-isolating at home. In total, 55 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, while 14 have recovered. They county said other employees are expected to return to work in the next few weeks.

Of the nine inmates, three each are at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga and the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. Two are at the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center and one is from the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto, according to the county.

A total of 120 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. The county said many of them are only experiencing minor symptoms. All told, 83 inmates have recovered from the illness.

Among all cases in the county, nearly 1,700 are among people ages 30 to 39, more than 1,500 are among people ages 40 to 49, about 1,500 are among people ages 50 to 59, and nearly 1,600 are among people ages 20 to 29.

County officials on Saturday reported an additional 2,605 tests conducted, increasing the total number of COVID-19 tests to 104,227. The county broke the 100,000-test threshold on Friday. About 8.6% of the total tests were positive.

The county has not updated its hospitalization data since Tuesday. As of that day, there were 229 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, a 3.6% increase from the previous day. It reported that 36 of its 1,138 surge capacity beds, or 3.2%, were in use at that time.

In the High Desert, cases broke 1,000 on Saturday, totaling 1,010. The vast majority of those — 880, or 87.1% — were in Victorville, Hesperia, Adelanto, Apple Valley and Barstow.

The Victor Valley’s four cities and Barstow have 17 of the High Desert’s 21 COVID-19-related deaths.

Here is the list of cases and deaths in the High Desert. Changes from Thursday are in parentheses:

Adelanto: 121 cases (+7), 3 deaths

Apple Valley: 117 cases (+15), 2 deaths

Barstow: 32 cases (+1), 2 deaths

Fort Irwin: 2 cases

Hesperia: 230 cases (+19), 2 deaths

Joshua Tree: 16 cases, 2 deaths

Morongo Valley: 7 cases Oak Hills: 33 cases (+2), 1 death

Phelan: 30 cases

Twentynine Palms: 12 cases

Victorville: 380 cases (+19), 8 deaths

Yucca Valley: 30 cases (+1), 1 death

Here is the list of cases and deaths in mountain communities:

Big Bear City: 4 cases

Big Bear Lake: 7 cases

Blue Jay: 1 death

Crestline: 18 cases (+1), 2 deaths

Rimforest: 1 case

Running Springs: 5 cases

Wrightwood: 2 cases

Total: 37 cases, 3 deaths

Across California, 175,152 have been infected and 5,493 have died, according to the Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus tracker. Experts say the true number of people infected is unknown and likely much higher than official tallies, the Times reported.

In the United States, cases totaled more than 2.25 million on Saturday. Deaths stood at 119,654, while recoveries were 617,460.

Worldwide, the virus has infected more than more than 8.75 million people. Nearly 463,300 have died and more than 4.3 million have recovered.

City Editor Matthew Cabe can be reached at [email protected] or 760-490-0052. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe. 197 new coronavirus cases in San Bernardino County reported Sunday – Daily Bulletin

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NEWS • News 197 new coronavirus cases in San Bernardino County reported Sunday

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By JAVIER ROJAS | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 4:15 p.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2020 at 9:12 p.m.

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San Bernardino County reported 197 new coronavirus cases but no new deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, June 21.

The new numbers bring the county total to 9,156 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, a 2.2% increase from Saturday, June 20. The total includes 5,382 people who the county projects have recovered, according to a log of daily cases on the county coronavirus dashboard.

There were 1,797 new cases since Sunday, June 14, with the county averaging 257 new cases in the last seven days. The latest figures come in a week when the county set a one-day record for new

https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:52:39 AM] 197 new coronavirus cases in San Bernardino County reported Sunday – Daily Bulletin

cases, 281, on Tuesday, June 16, only to be broken two days later with 440 new cases on Thursday, June 18. S

There have been 233 county residents who died due to COVID-19, 2.6% of the confirmed total cases, with five new deaths in since last Sunday. H

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READ MORE Here’s when Disneyland and other Southern California Since June 1, the county has confirmed more than 3,700 new cases with 29 more deaths as well.

Map shows updated coronavirus cases in San Bernardino County cities

See a daily by-the-numbers update of COVID-19 testing, cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

San Bernardino Sun 0

Testing was up 2.6% on Sunday, bringing the total of county residents tested for the coronavirus to 106,905, with 8.6% of those testing positive. County data also shows that 13,269 people tested for antibodies that reveal if an individual had the virus previously and could be immune. Of those, 1.2% came back positive.

The latest data on county hospitals shows that there 229 RELATED LINKS patients with confirmed COVID-19 and 64 suspected

cases, totaling 293 as of Tuesday, when those numbers A second wave of coronavirus cases? were last updated, compared to 217 on June 1. Experts say we’re still in the 1st

San Bernardino County reports highest one-day jump in coronavirus cases

Californians required to wear masks in most public settings, Newsom says

Why are Inland Empire coronavirus cases climbing?

State prison inmate coronavirus deaths rise, including 1 more from Chino

The number of patients currently in intensive care beds and ventilators also was not updated since Tuesday.

See a list of community-by-community cases here.

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https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:52:39 AM] Coronavirus testing up in Riverside, San Bernardino counties – Daily Bulletin

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LOCAL NEWS • News Coronavirus testing up in Riverside, San Bernardino counties

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https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[6/22/2020 8:51:11 AM] Coronavirus testing up in Riverside, San Bernardino counties – Daily Bulletin

A driver awaits a coronavirus test at a drive-thru testing center at The Diamond stadium in Lake Elsinore on Saturday, March 21, 2020. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) S

By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] and NIKIE JOHNSON | [email protected] | The Press-  T Enterprise PUBLISHED: June 22, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: June 22, 2020 at 6:01 a.m. By

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Novel coronavirus testing in the Inland Empire is on the upswing.

Riverside County is seeing an increase in recent days after testing volume stayed flat for weeks, while

San Bernardino County reports a steady rise in the number of people tested since May, an analysis of recent data shows.

More testing is welcome news for Inland public health officials seeking a clearer picture of where the virus has spread in two counties with a combined population of more than 4 million. And the increase comes as both counties report spikes in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, with Riverside and San Bernardino counties setting one-day records Thursday, June 18, for new cases.

“The more people who are tested, the better public health is able to track where the disease is currently and where it is not,” county spokeswoman Brooke Federico said via email. “Testing gives us valuable information about outbreaks and ensures residents have important information about their health.”

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READ MORE Here’s when Disneyland and other Southern California It’s hard to compare Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ testing numbers because the counties https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[6/22/2020 8:51:11 AM] Coronavirus testing up in Riverside, San Bernardino counties – Daily Bulletin

report tests differently. Riverside County’s statistics reflect the total number of tests, while San Bernardino County’s show the number of people tested, spokespeople have said.

That means, for example, if a health care worker was tested weekly for a month, it would show up as four tests in Riverside County’s tally but as one person in San Bernardino County’s.

Federico defended the Riverside County’s way of counting tests — which is the same method Orange County uses too.

“If someone tests negative for the active infection today, that same person can test positive next week,” she said. “This is an adequate measure of testing as it is a point-in-time snapshot. The snapshot constantly changes as the disease moves through the community.”

As of Friday, June 19, San Bernardino County had 8,714 confirmed cases and 230 COVID-19 deaths, while Riverside County reported 12,778 cases and 410 deaths.

Since Riverside County started releasing testing numbers in mid-April, the daily numbers have gone up and down, but the seven-day averages remained pretty flat. In the week ending May 1, the county was averaging just under 2,200 test results per day. For the week ending June 1, it was just over 2,200 per day.

This week came on strong, though, pushing the average to 3,915 tests in the seven days ending Friday. Riverside County has now received results of more than 175,000 tests since the pandemic began.

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“While we don’t know exactly why testing was level for a few weeks, we think some factors include quarantine fatigue, and that those who wanted to be tested already did so,” Federico said. “We’ve also heard from community members who primarily want antibody testing, which the county is only conducting as a study and the participants cannot self-register for the study.”

Early in the pandemic, the county set up appointment-only, drive-thru testing sites for those showing symptoms in Indio and Riverside. Today, at least 16 sites throughout the county offer testing by appointment with no out-of-pocket costs to anyone — whether or not they have symptoms.

County officials also have used social media and news conferences to emphasize the need for residents to get tested. A special emphasis has been placed on testing children ahead of schools reopening.

Brandon Brown, an associate professor at UC Riverside with a background in epidemiology, said he noticed a drop in testing in Riverside County between June 5 and 12, but an increase in confirmed cases.

“So fewer people got a test, but a higher proportion tested positive, which points to the continuous circulation of the virus in the community,” he said via email. “(As of Thursday), the week is not yet over, but we already have several hundred new cases compared to June 12.”

Through Friday, San Bernardino County has received test results for more than 101,000 people since the pandemic began.

The county’s testing numbers have been accelerating — from an average of about 750 new people tested per day in the week ending May 1 to almost 1,700 a day in the week ending June 1, then surging to about 2,700 per day in the week ending Friday.

Unlike its neighbor to the south, San Bernardino County at first relied more heavily on pop-up testing sites that operate for several days before moving on. County spokesman David Wert said via email that his county’s testing numbers might have risen because the county was able to set up stationary sites in May once it got more supplies and personnel to do tests.

The state wants counties to have the capacity to test 1.5 people per 1,000 residents each day. That comes out to 3,288 tests a day in San Bernardino County and 3,660 a day in Riverside County.

It’s the capacity that counts, even if fewer people than that are actually being tested, and officials in both counties have said they meet their targets. But for the first time ever on Thursday, Riverside County’s one-week average of tests exceeded its goal, too. San Bernardino County has never maintained that level of testing for a week, though it has hit its target on a couple of individual days, including Thursday.

Cases rising

While Inland coronavirus testing is on the rise, so are the number of new cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19.

Riverside County set a one-day record for new cases on Thursday — the second time that happened this week — as COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a new high. San Bernardino County also set a new single-day record for new cases Thursday.

As the number of tests climbs, health officials hope that the RELATED LINKS percentage of them coming back positive will go down. If

more than 8% of a county’s tests over a one-week period Riverside County coronavirus are positive, the state will flag the county as not meeting hospitalizations hit high for third straight one of its objectives. day; 311 more cases reported

As of Friday, state figures show Riverside County’s test- San Bernardino County reports 260 more coronavirus cases, no new deaths positivity rate at 8.8%. San Bernardino County’s rate was

not flagged, meaning it’s below 8% but the exact Riverside County placed on state percentage wasn’t available. coronavirus watch list

Still, Wert, the San Bernardino County spokesman, said the San Bernardino County officials urge county is concerned about the high positive test rates it’s caution after coronavirus cases, seen recently. He said the county hopes the statewide hospitalizations increase

face-covering order announced Thursday, as well as a Riverside County urges young people to county program to help businesses comply with COVID-19 get coronavirus tests guidelines, will drive that rate down.

GETTING TESTED

Riverside and San Bernardino counties both offer coronavirus testing to residents in an effort to get a firm handle on where the disease has spread.

Riverside County information: www.rivcoph.org/coronavirus/testing

San Bernardino County information: sbcovid19.com/community-drive-through-events/

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Jeff Horseman | Reporter Jeff Horseman got into journalism because he liked to write and stunk at math. He grew up in Vermont and he honed

https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[6/22/2020 8:51:11 AM] State prison inmate coronavirus deaths rise, including 1 more from Chino – Press Enterprise

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NEWS • News State prison inmate coronavirus deaths rise, including 1 more from Chino

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An image from a video tour of the California Institution for Men in Chino that is part of a court filing shows the dormitory-style living quarters of the prisoners. A state receiver ordered the transfer of almost 700 prisoners who have tested negative for coronavirus to

https://www.pe.com/...-chino/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:53:08 AM] State prison inmate coronavirus deaths rise, including 1 more from Chino – Press Enterprise

facilities where there have been no positive tests. (Courtesy of CDCR and Prison Law Office)

By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2020 at 11:01 a.m.

Two more state prison inmates, one of them from the California Institution for Men in Chino, have died from complications from coronavirus, officials said.

As of Sunday, June 21, there were 19 California inmate deaths associated with COVID-19.

The death of the CIM inmate was June 17th at a hospital outside the prison, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said on June 18.

California Institution for Men has the most inmate deaths in the 35-facility prison system associated with COVID-19, with 16.

The prison has 507 current inmates who have been diagnosed with the disease. No other information S was given from CDCR about the inmate who most recently died.

On Saturday, the CDCR announced the death of an inmate from Avenal State Prison in Kings County L from apparent coronavirus complications. The inmate from the men’s prison died at a hospital outside By the facility. No other information was available.

The other deaths from COVID-19 complications were one each at the California Institution for Women, also in Chino, and at Chuckawalla State Prison, near Blythe. Chuckawalla has the highest number of M current inmates diagnosed with COVID-19, at 1,011, the CDCR reported.

RELATED ARTICLES What Your Dog Is Trying To Warn Here’s when Disneyland and other About If They Southern California theme parks plan to reopen by Dr Marty

See More Coronavirus testing up in Riverside, San Bernardino counties

Newsroom Guidelines Coronavirus state tracker: California News Tips passes 5,500 deaths as of June 21 Contact Us Graduation 2020: La Sierra University Report an Error https://www.pe.com/...-chino/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:53:08 AM] Inland Empire reports highest 1 day jump in coronavirus cases - Los Angeles Times

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Inland Empire counties report highest ever one-day jump in coronavirus cases

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/counties-in-inland-empire-report-highest-ever-one-day-jump-in-coronavirus-cases[6/19/2020 4:20:06 PM] Inland Empire reports highest 1 day jump in coronavirus cases - Los Angeles Times

Riverside County residents watch video monitors of an emergency Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting last month. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

By KRISTI STURGILL

JUNE 19, 2020 | 12:51 PM

Riverside County and San Bernardino County this week reported their highest ever one- day increase in coronavirus cases. On Thursday, Riverside added 516 cases to their total count, and the San Bernardino count jumped by 440 cases.

Both Inland Empire counties beat out records set earlier in the week. Riverside County’s previous one-day record was set on Tuesday with 409 cases, while San Bernardino’s previous heigh was 281, reported on the same day.

“Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, protests -- there’s no one event or no one occasion that we can point to” for the uptick in cases, said Felisa Cardona, a spokesperson from San Bernardino.

Riverside County has now recorded a total of 12,467 coronavirus cases and 408 related deaths, the county reported. The hardest-hit areas include the city of Riverside, with a total of 1,854 cases, followed by Moreno Valley with 1,060, Indio with 894 and Coachella with 791.

The highest per-resident concentration of cases lies near La Quinta, where 3.6% of Thermal residents have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said. Cases and deaths in that area continue to increase faster than in any other Riverside County region.

Riverside County has administered over 170,000 total tests, of which about 7.9% have yielded positive results for the coronavirus, officials said.

As of Thursday, 285 people remained hospitalized with the coronavirus in the county, a 10.9% increase from the previous day, officials said. There were 75 COVID-confirmed

patients being treated in intensive care units.

Though the number of patients treated in the hospital has grown, fewer patients are being treated in the ICU, officials. About 80 patients were treated in intensive care during late April and early May.

In San Bernardino County, there were a total of 8,454 coronavirus cases and 230 related deaths, officials said. The city of San Bernardino reported the largest number of cases, with 1,348. Other hard-hit regions include Chino with 1,139 cases, Fontana with 901 and Ontario with 797. Death counts are highest in Redlands, 37, and Ontario, 30.

Of the almost 100,000 coronavirus tests administered, 8.5% have turned out positive, officials said. More tests were given Thursday than ever before, which Cardona says could be a reason for the increased case count.

In San Bernardino County, there were 229 confirmed coronavirus patients and 64 suspected coronavirus patients who were hospitalized, officials said. This is the highest- ever number of confirmed patients in San Bernardino County hospitals. About 90 coronavirus patients are being treated in ICU beds.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/counties-in-inland-empire-report-highest-ever-one-day-jump-in-coronavirus-cases[6/19/2020 4:20:06 PM] Why are Inland Empire coronavirus cases climbing? – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS • News Why are Inland Empire coronavirus cases climbing?

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https://www.pe.com/...limbing/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[6/22/2020 8:50:45 AM] Why are Inland Empire coronavirus cases climbing? – Press Enterprise

Most shoppers at the Galleria at Tyler wear masks Friday, June 19, 2020. Coronavirus cases continue to rise in Riverside and San Bernardino counties and experts cite several reasons. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka/The Press-Enterprise)

By SANDRA EMERSON | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2020 at 8:58 a.m.

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Three months after businesses closed and Inland Empire residents were told to stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus, life is starting to return to normal.

Some people are back to work, eating in restaurants and working out at the gym. Families have S celebrated moms and grads, while thousands took to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism.

L But none of this means COVID-19 is gone. By Just this week, Riverside and San Bernardino counties set records for one-day increases in new cases and hospitalizations. While it’s hard to pinpoint any specific reason for the increases, health officials say they expected cases would rise as the economy reopened and now that more testing is M being done.

1 of 8 Ontario resident JC Oh dons a masks near the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside on Friday, June 19, 2020. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka/The Press-  Enterprise)

They also cite the end of mask requirements in each county, protests and family gatherings as possible causes for the disease’s continued spread.

“It’s a whole combination of things,” said Dr. Troy Pennington, an emergency room physician at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. “We expected to see an uptick. It hasn’t been an exponential growth, but it’s been coming up slowly.”

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Both Inland counties set one-day records for new cases on Tuesday, June 16 — 409 in Riverside County and 281 in San Bernardino County — only to see them fall Thursday to even higher numbers: 516 in Riverside County and 440 in San Bernardino County.

The counties also set records for the most cases in a seven-day span. In the week ending Friday, San Bernardino County had 66% more new cases than it did the previous week. Riverside County had 34% more new cases this week than last.

Testing has also accelerated in both counties. In the week ending Friday, San Bernardino County got 56% more test results than the previous week, while Riverside County received 61% more.

Hospitalizations of COVID-positive patients are also reaching all-time highs: 291 in Riverside County on Thursday, up 22% from a week before, and 253 in San Bernardino County, up 31% from a week before, according to a hospital survey from the state.

“Right now is the perfect time to constantly remind people about physical distancing, washing their hands and using masks all the time now that we’re reopening,” said Brandon Brown, a public health professor at UC Riverside who specializes in infectious diseases.

One bright spot is that, despite the rise in confirmed cases and hospitalizations, more people have not been dying. San Bernardino County reported only two new deaths in the past week, whereas a month ago, it was averaging about five deaths a day. Riverside County is averaging about four deaths per day, down from six or seven per day a month ago.

More cases, more hospitalizations

While San Bernardino County has seen increases in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 positive patients in recent days, which landed it on a state watch list, the county is now meeting state benchmarks for positivity rate and hospitalizations, Pennington said. As of Friday, the county was not on the list, but Riverside County was.

San Bernardino County contact tracers, who identify people with whom a sick person may have come in contact, linked increases to family gatherings over the Mother’s Day and Memorial Day weekends and people spreading the virus among coworkers after returning to work. Travelers failing to self- quarantine after returning to the county have also spread the virus, public health officials have said.

“The virus is as contagious now as it has ever been,” San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman said.

Both counties have seen outbreaks at state prisons, including at those in Chino and the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison near Blythe, and dozens of skilled-nursing facilities.

“We expected there to be an increase as the economy opened and there were more people interacting with each other and, in some cases, not practicing the face coverings and social distancing,” said Jose Arballo Jr., Riverside County health department spokesman.

Riverside County officials haven’t pinpointed the source of other increases, but hope expanded

contact tracing can identify patterns and infection sources, Arballo said.

“At this point, we haven’t specifically nailed down anything,” he said. “I will say that we are continuing to look at it because we believe that there are particular areas, maybe businesses or locations, that eventually will show that some outbreaks might have started there.”

Cases were expected to climb as more people get tested, RELATED LINKS public health officials have said.

San Bernardino County officials urge The number of tests recently conducted in Riverside caution after coronavirus cases, County went up after weeks when the volume of tests was hospitalizations increase flat. San Bernardino County has seen a jump in the number of people tested since May. Riverside County sets another record for one-day jump in coronavirus cases Riverside County reported its highest number of San Bernardino County again sees record hospitalizations Thursday, June 18, with 291 COVID-19 jump in coronavirus cases positive patients. Californians required to wear masks in San Bernardino County also saw its highest number of most public settings, Newsom says hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 253, on Thursday, according to state data. That day, 60 patients were San Bernardino County being watched by suspected to have the disease, for a total of 313 state as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations rise hospitalizations. However, that’s still lower than the 451 total hospitalizations seen April 10, which included 156 with the disease and 295 suspected to have it, Pennington said.

Part of the increase in recent hospitalizations has been the transfer of patients from Imperial County to hospitals in both Inland counties.

At least 63 patients from Imperial County were treated in Riverside County hospitals; at least 20 went to San Bernardino County hospitals.

Eleven of the 167 positive patients seen in San Bernardino County hospitals on May 16, a previous high, were from Imperial County, Pennington said.

Some also point to the lifting of the mandatory mask order in both counties.

San Bernardino County on May 8 lifted its order requiring residents to cover their faces in public, while Riverside County’s public health officer did so May 9 at the direction of the Board of Supervisors.

On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a new order requiring masks in public settings, after growing research showed masks’ effectiveness and the need for more precautions as businesses reopen.

Even in the month when face coverings were not required in both Inland counties, health officials still recommended them.

“I think what happened is people took it as a signal that it’s safe because now the public health department is saying we don’t have to wear a mask,” Brown said.

Hagman said he has seen more people out without masks, but businesses are doing a good job following guidelines, such as requiring employees to wear masks and asking customers to do so.

“I’ve seen a lot of residents, almost in defiance sometimes, not want to wear it even though there’s a sign on a wall to wear masks,” Hagman said. “That’s really on us, to really try to keep emphasizing that we all have to do our part to make sure that we’re successful as a county and to have respect, if not for yourself, then your family members, your fellow residents and neighbors.”

What can be done?

It’s unclear if businesses will be asked to close again, but public health officials warn that residents must take precautions to keep them open and allow for future openings of businesses and the return of other activities.

They still urge residents to wear masks in public, stay at least six feet apart and wash their hands frequently.

“Just by doing those three simple things, we believe we can really help reduce the spread of the virus,” Arballo said.

Hagman said county health officials have the authority to set more restrictions if they see increases continue or certain patterns. However, he doesn’t see a return to a complete lockdown.

“I don’t think society would stand for it. They’ve already suffered enough over three months of lockdown,” He said. “I’m hoping it’s just a period of time where we get used to wearing masks and get used to these new norms.”

Among the reasons behind stay-at-home orders and RELATED LINKS business closures were to prevent coronavirus patients

from overwhelming local hospitals. That bought hospitals Riverside County placed on state https://www.pe.com/...limbing/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[6/22/2020 8:50:45 AM] Why are Inland Empire coronavirus cases climbing? – Press Enterprise

time to increase capacity, stock up on personal protective coronavirus watch list equipment and establish protocols for treating COVID-19 San Bernardino County reports 260 more patients while ensuring safety. coronavirus cases, no new deaths Both Inland counties readied alternate care sites, such as Riverside County coronavirus the National Orange Show in San Bernardino and the hospitalizations hit high for third straight former Sears in Riverside, in case of a future surge in day; 311 more cases reported patients. Inland Empire nail salons, tattoo parlors, “We are well ready for a surge if that happens,” Arballo other businesses reopen Friday said.

There might not be a political appetite to order more closures, but a public campaign educating residents on why face coverings and social distancing work should happen, said Dolores Green, executive director of the Riverside County Medical Association.

But, because of the political divide, Green said, not everyone is listening to science and medicine.

“I would hope that people would again look at the scientific evidence and listen to the health experts and the medical experts on what the recommendations are,” she said.

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Sandra Emerson | Reporter Sandra Emerson covers San Bernardino County government and politics for the Southern California News Group.

[email protected]

 Follow Sandra Emerson @ReporterSandraE

https://www.pe.com/...limbing/?utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[6/22/2020 8:50:45 AM] San Bernardino County school, law enforcement officials to discuss ‘Policing, Protesting and Perspective’ – San Bernardino Sun

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LOCAL NEWS San Bernardino County school, law enforcement officials to discuss ‘Policing, Protesting and Perspective’

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By STAFF REPORT | |  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 1:20 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 1:20 p.m.

The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools will host a webinar called “A Watershed Moment — Policing, Protesting and Perspective” 1:30-3 p.m. Thursday, June 25.

The webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

The online event will bring together educators, law enforcement and school-based safety officers to discuss the aftermath of the death of Minnesota resident George Floyd and the worldwide protests on systemic racism, inequality and injustice that followed, according to a news release.

https://www.sbsun.com/...d-perspective/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[6/19/2020 1:41:59 PM] San Bernardino County school, law enforcement officials to discuss ‘Policing, Protesting and Perspective’ – San Bernardino Sun

Cherina Betters, chief of Equity and Access for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS), and Daniel Marmolejo, safety compliance manager for SBCSS Intergovernmental Relations, will facilitate the webinar. Superintendent Ted Alejandre will welcome participants.

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READ MORE In ‘Mr Jones ’ director Agnieszka Holland tells the true Panelists expected to intend include Jason Anderson, San Bernardino County district attorney; Cuauhtémoc Avila, superintendent of the Rialto Unified School District; Hardy Brown, member of the San Bernardino County Board of Education; Olivia Dahlin, SBCSS program manager for Clinical Services; and Shannon Dicus, undersheriff with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Others are Will Greer, director of Equity and Targeted Student Achievement for San Bernardino City Unified School District; Al Jackson, police chief for San Bernardino Community College District; Joseph Paulino, police chief for San Bernardino City Unified School District; Wes Simmons, Chino

police chief; and Derek Williams, Ontario police chief.

To register, go to sbcss.k12oms.org/1784-186697.

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https://www.sbsun.com/...d-perspective/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun[6/19/2020 1:41:59 PM] COVID-19 impacts Hesperia’s nances By Rene Ray De La Cruz Staff Writer Posted Jun 21, 2020 at 12:57 AM HESPERIA — Earlier this week, the City Council approved its yearly fiscal budget, but not before hearing how public health restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted revenue, expenditures and the general fund.

Unlike previous budget presentations where the mood was light and the city had plenty of reserves, Tuesday night’s Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget presentation from Director of Finance Casey Brooksher was solemn.

Brooksher reviewed the $90.8 million budget and the $36.2 million general fund budget, which he called “not structurally balanced” due to the pulling of an estimated $1 million in general fund reserves. He said the street maintenance fund will also utilize $677,911 of its own reserves.

“In the end, we do have a balanced budget, but we did have to use our reserves to get there,” said Brooksher, in a follow-up call with the Daily Press. “Our estimated cash balance for the end of the new fiscal year is $6.4 million, which is about 2.1 months of cash reserve.”

When the state, in March, attempted to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by implementing restrictions on gatherings and limiting guests at hotels to essential workers, that inevitably affected commerce, especially at those businesses where Hesperia has freeway frontage, Brooksher said.

“When Las Vegas shut down, it affected travel on Interstate 15 through Hesperia,” Brooksher said.

The restrictions soon began limiting the city’s revenue as it relates to sales, fuel and transient-occupancy taxes.

“We also saw the unemployment rate in April in Hesperia hit 15%, which slowed local development and other parts of the economy,” Brooksher said.

The FY 2020-21 budget also includes $17.4 million earmarked for law enforcement, up nearly $900,000 over the previous year.

Law enforcement services contracted through the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department are the general fund’s largest expenditure and will increase approximately $246,000 for each Sheriff’s deputy added. The cost also covers equipment and vehicles.

Total water district revenue, excluding the Proposition 84 Drought Relief grant and Prop. 1 grant related to the reclaimed water distribution system project, is expected to increase nearly $1.4 million from the FY 2019-20 budget to $28.3 million.

Brooksher’s presentation included actions taken by the city to lessen the negative impact on expenditures by $2.1 million. Those actions include 10% furloughs, no cost of living adjustments and reductions to operations.

Other steps include Hesperia Council members and City Manager Nils Bensten voluntarily reducing their salaries by ten 10% and the freezing of merit steps and bonuses for non-represented employees. Also, 12 vacant positions, of which seven are full-time and five are part-time positions, will not be budgeted.

The city said it will continue to identify other savings throughout the year to lessen the need for reserve funding and monitor the revenue for a return to pre-pandemic levels.

A new schedule was added for the general fund, which is titled “Financial Impact from the Pandemic.” The schedule details the revenue loss, as well as the expenditures reduced from the FY 2020-21 budget. Additionally, the schedule projects the general fund budget had the pandemic not occurred.

Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227, or by email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz. 7 day-use and camping sites reopened in San Bernardino National Forest – Daily Bulletin

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NEWS • News 7 day-use and camping sites reopened in San Bernardino National Forest Visitors to Big Bear, Idyllwild and Running Springs areas of the forest are increasing

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https://www.dailybulletin.com/...utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[6/19/2020 4:20:38 PM] 7 day-use and camping sites reopened in San Bernardino National Forest – Daily Bulletin

FILE PHOTO: A view of Lake Hemet during high-water levels on Saturday, May 27, 2017. The lake was reopened June 19, 2020, after being closed for several months due to COVID-19. (Photo by Frank Bellino/Press-Enterprise/SCNG).

By STEVE SCAUZILLO | [email protected] | San Gabriel Valley Tribune  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 3:55 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 3:57 p.m.

A record number of visitors within the San Bernardino National Forest and nearby national monuments soon may increase, as the U.S. Forest Service reopens seven additional recreation areas this weekend.

With the rolling back of shelter-in-place, hotel and restaurant closure orders that were in effect for three months to flatten the curve of the coronavirus, more people are taking to the local mountains for day outings or longer stays, forest officials report.

“Everyone was cooped up. Then the restrictions were starting to lift. And what we are hearing is people are canceling longer distance trips and everyone is traveling locally,” said Zach Behrens, a

spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service representing the 680,000-acre San Bernardino forest. S

“We are experiencing unprecedented levels of people,” he said on Thursday, June 18. L https://www.dailybulletin.com/...utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin[6/19/2020 4:20:38 PM] 7 day-use and camping sites reopened in San Bernardino National Forest – Daily Bulletin

1 of 6 Eric Gandolfi, U.S. Forest Service fire prevention patrol captain, right, and Lisa Cox, U.S. Forest Service public information officer, roam the San  Bernardino National Forest near Kilkare Road and Mountain Home Village on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Forest Service has re-opened seven more day use and campgrounds in the forest in and around Idyllwild, Big Bear and Running Springs starting June 19, 2020. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

With the reopening of additional campgrounds and day sites within the forest, as well as in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains national monuments, people will have more choices and more space to spread out, thereby increasing social distancing.

The following areas reopened Friday, June 19:

• Fern Basin Campground: Located 6.5 miles north of Idyllwild in San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. About 22 sites. Cost: $10 per night. Information: Idyllwild Ranger Station, 909-382-2921

• Lake Fulmor: Located off Highway 243 about 10 miles north of Idyllwild. Day-use area features lake, easy hikes, fishing, pier, picnic tables, toilet.

• Lake Hemet: A day-use area and reservoir in the San Jacinto Mountains. Open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Check with Lake Hemet Municipal Water District for campground information.

• Keller Peak Yellow Post Sites: Access via paved road near Running Springs off Rim of the World Highway. Nine remote camping sites, available on first-come-first-served basis only. No restrooms or drinking water. Information:l Big Bear Discovery Center, 909-382- 2790.

• Marion Mountain Campground: Located 7 miles north of Idyllwild. Hiking, views. About 25 sites. In forested area; elevation 6,400 feet. Cost: $10 per night. Information: Idyllwild Ranger Station, 909-382-2921.

• Pinyon Flat Campground: Located in the Santa Rosa Wilderness, with Palm Desert the closet town. About 18 sites. Cost: $8 per night. Information: Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains Monument Visitor Center, 760-862-9984.

• Thurman Flats Picnic Area: Located at 9025 Highway 38, Mentone, 92359, about 3.5 miles northeast of the Mill Creek Ranger Station. Good for picnicking, bird-watching, walking. Includes large shade structure covering picnic tables. Barbecue grills provided. Information: Mill Creek Ranger Station, 909-382-2882.

These areas were reopened on May 22: Barton Flats RELATED LINKS Campground, Big Pine Flat Family Campground, Crab

Flats Family Campground, Dogwood Family Campground, Illegal campfires in San Bernardino, Green Valley Family Campground, Hanna Flat Family Angeles forests fuel wildfire worries Campground, Heart Bar Family Campground, Holcomb LA County, city open trails Saturday but Valley Campground, Jenks Lake Day Use Area, North will hikers obey rules? Shore Campground, Pineknot Family Campground, San Gorgonio Family Campground, Serrano Campground, Hikers, bikers, golfers hit the trails and South Fork Family Campground and Wildhorse Equestrian courses again as LA County reopens outdoor spots Campground.

Chino Hills reopening 48 miles of trails The Forest Service reminds visitors to practice social closed by coronavirus distancing and keep at least 6 feet away from others and

refrain from gathering in groups. On a trail, visitors are ‘Discovering Griffith Park’ sheds light on urged to let others pass, and they’re asked to pack up and trails, curses and history of LA’s largest remove trash. park

For more information, visit the San Bernardino National Forest website at www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf.

Campsite reservations can be made at www.recreation.gov. Most areas require an Adventure Pass ($5 per day; $30 per year).

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https://www.sbsun.com/...of-state-street/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/19/2020 3:19:12 PM] Redlands approves al fresco dining in the middle of State Street – San Bernardino Sun

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READ MORE In ‘Mr Jones ’ director Agnieszka Holland tells the true Caprice Cafe owner Chris Pepino is one of about 10 East State Street restaurateurs to have signed on, and more than that, he garnered support for the plan from more than 60 non-restaurant businesses in the area.

“We can only seat every third table, and this is a way for us to, at least over the weekend, seat a full restaurant again,” Pepino said over the phone Thursday.

Where Market Night is a jumble of bustling and booths and food trucks, this proposal, Pepino said, will have a different feel.

“It’s going to be so pretty in there,” he said. “… it’s like the State Street Promenade.”

Requirements include making sure fire hydrants are not blocked, trash is picked up and that tables are 6 feet apart. Groups of 10 or more are not permitted at one table, and face coverings are required for

employees and patrons, except those who are eating or drinking.

Alcoholic beverages can only be consumed if associated with a food order.

“We thought it would be appropriate, that it wouldn’t just be a bar scene,” Duggan said at the meeting.

The owners of some restaurants outside the downtown core were also consulted, but they decided against participating, Mayor Paul Foster said.

The city will charge participating restaurants $30 to $60 per day to pay for the street closures. Closing State costs about $600 per day for towing and street cleaning, and the city typically requests 50% reimbursement. The other half would come from the city’s general fund, though the increased sales tax revenue is expected to offset a portion or all of that balance, according to city staff.

In a report to the council, staff noted the downtown area has been a “significant source of revenue for the city,” generating about $2.2 million annually in sales tax before 2020.

Besides supporting local businesses, the move would facilitate local employment opportunities and help preserve an active downtown during the economic recession, the report said.

Staff estimate about 50 tables could be provided on both blocks of State, and another 34 on two blocks of Fifth Street.

Foster called the plan “an exciting opportunity” and “another way in which we can assist and support our business community with limited resources that we have.”

So far, the proposal is to close State between Orange and RELATED LINKS Sixth streets, and Fifth between Redlands Boulevard and

Citrus Avenue at 5:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays to Teddy bears don’t need to social distance

allow tables to be set up. at Caprice Cafe in Redlands

The bustling Market Night, which usually occupies Redlands reopens Saturday morning downtown streets on Thursday nights has been “canceled farmers’ market until department of public health restrictions have been Here’s how one Redlands theater is rescinded,” according to the city’s website. bringing shows to the stage

Dining would run from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., with the streets As coronavirus cases rise, Inland Empire reopening by 11 p.m. The city intends to continue the gyms, bars reopen arrangement through Halloween or until Gov. Gavin San Bernardino County again sees record Newsom releases restaurants to operate at a larger jump in coronavirus cases capacity.

“It’s all through the summer, so it will be nice and breezy,” Pepino said. “… by that time, most of the heat of the day is gone. It will be a nice place for people to hang out, enjoy a drink and have a meal.”

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Tags: business, Coronavirus, coronavirus closures, coronavirus economy, dining, government, restaurants, Top Stories RDF

Jennifer Iyer | Staff writer A lifelong Inland resident, Jennifer Iyer started working in journalism at The Press-Enterprise in 2000. She has written (and shot photos for) stories on wildflowers, camping with a dog, and many community events, and as a videographer covered wildfires and war games to blimp rides and camel racing from Temecula to Big Bear Lake, Twentynine Palms to Jurupa Valley.

[email protected]

 Follow Jennifer Iyer @Jen_Iyer

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https://www.sbsun.com/...of-state-street/?utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/19/2020 3:19:12 PM] California’s war with Amazon has Inland implications – Press Enterprise

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OPINION • Opinion Columnist California’s war with Amazon has Inland implications

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https://www.pe.com/...ications/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/22/2020 8:51:20 AM] California’s war with Amazon has Inland implications – Press Enterprise

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, holds a press conference at Indian Springs in San Bernardino, Feb., 21, 2020. (Photo by John Valenzuela, Contributing Photographer)

By ROGER RUVOLO | [email protected] |  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 8:48 p.m. | UPDATED: June 21, 2020 at 8:49 p.m.

In California, it’s best not to get on the wrong side of the political class. They have all the power and they have fangs. Witness the investigation the state has launched against Amazon, wondering if the retail giant is defrauding vendors whose products it carries.

Coupled with legal actions and public expressions of hostility toward Amazon, both statewide and locally, you might be persuaded that there’s an inherent bias against a company that, despite flaws and failed initiatives over several years, has carved out a big chunk of the consumer market and become one of the largest and most successful companies in the world.

This is of no small concern to the Inland area. For good or ill, the region has become something of a logistics center, not just regionally, but on a much wider plain. Amazon isn’t the only player in this arena, but it’s a major one – especially in the Inland area, where it operates numerous fulfillment and distribution facilities.

Several factors make logistics a good match. Geographically, the Inland area is near two of the biggest ports in the eastern Pacific; it’s within 60 miles of tens of millions of consumers, and from here it’s an easy link by rail, air and road to points east.

The region also matches well to logistics because of our general educational level. S

Despite its self-image as a “nation-state” and a vanguard of all things progressive, California’s L “investigation” is basically piggybacking on a national effort. By The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are pursuing antitrust inquiries against Amazon, Google parent Alphabet, Apple and Facebook. And House Democrats won’t settle just for testimony by those companies’ CEOs, but they want to see reams of documents about their business M practices.

The tech titans must know such ostensibly confidential information, if it serves a political purpose, has a bad habit of getting leaked from sources in the House. For example, the Washington Post is a leading recipient of such ill-gotten information, which as a reliable “resistance” paper it has used as Democrats would counsel — in attacks on their common political opponents, especially President Trump. Bezos owns the Washington Post. The irony.

Alphabet, Apple and Facebook may have their own antitrust or business-practice problems, but at least one big knock on Amazon is that it is alleged to have stolen ideas from people who sold items on Amazon to use for its own private-label products. If Amazon committed an unlawful act, it should be charged.

Run unlimited apps with Power Apps

by Microsoft

In a rare sighting of a California Democrat expressing concern about market competition, Attorney General Xavier Becerra told Ryan Tracy of The Wall Street Journal: “It would be hard to believe that you’re not going to look at a company like Amazon, given how pervasive it is. Are they using all of this data in ways that allow them to essentially kill real competition?”

Since that December 2019 comment, Amazon has been RELATED ARTICLES confirmed as the major tenant in a big air-cargo operation

We can maintain a free society while being built at San Bernardino International Airport. After the effectively addressing pandemics project got the required local approvals, the Federal Aviation Administration added its OK in late December. In Democrats’ support for police union bill February, Becerra sued to stop construction, appealing to undermines their commitment to reform the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the FAA CalPERS gambles on risky investment approval. No ruling yet. move But other big hitters have chimed in. Including Sens. ACA25 is wrong for California Kamala Harris, D-California, and Bernie Sanders, I- Vermont. Area unions and “justice” activists have been The bookish parade of paycheck patriots vehement foes, as well.

In a one-party state, what the political class says carries big weight. California’s top leaders are vigorous and vocal foes of Amazon, and many just dislike logistics generally. To be sure, if Amazon or others are breaking the law, they should be prosecuted. If not, they’re still pariahs and that carries implications for the Inland job market.

Reach Roger Ruvolo at [email protected]

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https://www.pe.com/...ications/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/22/2020 8:51:20 AM] ‘Go to h—,’ San Bernardino councilman tells colleague after vote on moving offices – San Bernardino Sun

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LOCAL NEWS • News ‘Go to h—,’ San Bernardino councilman tells colleague after vote on moving offices A majority of San Bernardino employees moved into Vanir Tower three years ago

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https://www.sbsun.com/...oving-offices/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[6/19/2020 4:20:47 PM] ‘Go to h—,’ San Bernardino councilman tells colleague after vote on moving offices – San Bernardino Sun

The Vanir building reflects the beautiful cloudy day in its yellow mirror glass walls in San Bernardino on Tuesday, Mar 17, 2020. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

By BRIAN WHITEHEAD | [email protected] | San Bernardino Sun  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 3:40 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 3:43 p.m.

A San Bernardino councilman hurled expletives at a colleague this week after a majority of elected officials agreed to vacate their offices on the eighth floor of Vanir Tower to save the cash-strapped city more than $160,000 in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Following robust discussion Wednesday, June 17, on a handful of proposed lease agreements, Councilman Jim Mulvihill, who opposed the plan to vacate the eighth floor, told Councilman Theodore Sanchez to “Go to hell. F—— a——” after Sanchez offered to help him move.

“This is not a … joke,” Mulvihill continued, using another expletive. “We’ve gone through this before and it’s hell.”

While admitting a councilman “really shouldn’t lose it like that” and apologizing to citizens who were offended by his outburst, Mulvihill said in a phone interview Friday the anger he displayed was an appropriate response to “the provoking and the lack of taking serious” his concerns about moving.

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READ MORE In ‘Mr Jones ’ director Agnieszka Holland tells the true “The last several decades I’ve been the professorial type, the guy doing the lecturing and the research papers,” Mulvihill said. “But down there inside, there’s still that sergeant from Vietnam, and when you rip the scab off, he pops up again.”

Mulvihill, who received the Bronze Star for his service as a radio operator in Vietnam from July 1969 to August 1970, said he would not apologize to Sanchez.

“If we were out in the street,” he said, “I’d say the same words.”

A majority of San Bernardino employees moved into Vanir Tower three years ago after experts

concluded the historic City Hall building could suffer significant structural failure in the event of a major earthquake.

Sold as a temporary move at the time, city leaders and staffers still work out of the D Street tower, a few feet from City Hall.

The latest lease agreement expired April 15, prompting renegotiations.

In the past, San Bernardino has rented office space on the first and third floors, as well as the eighth, where the offices for the mayor and City Council are located. Policymakers last month broached removing all office space from the eighth floor to help eliminate a projected $10.3 million budget deficit ahead of fiscal year 2020-21.

Wednesday, Sanchez and council members Sandra Ibarra, Henry Nickel and Bessine Richard favored the arrangement as part of a new one-year lease.

Mulvihill, who said the move would be “just a mess” and create “chaos,” and colleagues Juan Figueroa and Fred Shorett dissented.

“There needs to be some stability here,” Mulvihill, who visits RELATED LINKS his office daily to take constituents’ calls and meet with

staffers, said ahead of the vote Wednesday. “To say we’ll San Bernardino commits $18,000 more wipe out the eighth floor, for people who don’t use the for investigation of mayor’s alleged space, that’s one thing. But for people who do use their misbehavior space, it will be an absolute mess.” San Bernardino to increase cap on commercial cannabis business licenses While moving elected officials down to the third floor will

take about a month and carry relocation costs, the move Proposed cut to San Bernardino mayor’s will save money and give staffers 12 months to find city travel budget to be reconsidered https://www.sbsun.com/...oving-offices/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[6/19/2020 4:20:47 PM] ‘Go to h—,’ San Bernardino councilman tells colleague after vote on moving offices – San Bernardino Sun

employees a permanent home. Tensions rise as San Bernardino leaders As for their old one, an assessment of the state of City Hall propose cuts to mayor’s travel budget is expected next month. San Bernardino shaves $7.3 million from “We can’t continue to spend taxpayer money year after budget, $3 million more to go year for office space and say we’ll figure it out next year,” Nickel said. “We’ve got to figure it out this year. … Let’s get to work. Let’s find a permanent home. It’s getting difficult to explain to residents year after year why we haven’t figured out where City Hall is.”

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Tags: city council, government, local politics, Top Stories Sun

Brian Whitehead | Reporter Brian Whitehead covers San Bernardino for The Sun. Bred in Grand Terrace, he graduated from Riverside Notre Dame High and Cal State Fullerton. For seven years, he covered high school and college sports for The Orange County Register. Before landing at The Sun, he was the city beat reporter for Buena Park, Fullerton and La Palma.

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 Follow Brian Whitehead @bwhitehead3

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https://www.sbsun.com/...oving-offices/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[6/19/2020 4:20:47 PM] http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_7c9e8942-b324-11ea-8b77-135a9e582dce.html

FEATURED Yucca Valley reduces staff, keeps sheriff’s contract intact

By Jenna Hunt Hi-Desert Star Jun 20, 2020

Nicholas Christensen, of Yucca Valley, asks the council to look into reinvesting funds and pursuing criminal justice reforms. Jenna Hunt Hi-Desert Star

YUCCA VALLEY— The town’s budget for the next scal year shows deep cuts with canceled programs, but avoids taking money from the contract with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

The nancial fallout from the shutdown due to COVID-19 will hit the town of Yucca Valley hard in scal year 2020-21, which begins July 1. Even with the dramatic loss in money, the town staff reported they were still able to balance the $10.8 million budget.

Expected spending includes $5.6 million in public safety — the full amount requested by the county Sheriff’s Department to provide police in Yucca Valley.

The town fully funded its contract with the sheriff by cutting spending for operations and supplies and eliminating cost-of-living adjustments for staff, according to Town Manager Curtis Yakimow.

“It was a collaborative effort on behalf of your entire staff to bring you this budget,” Yakimow said. “We all need to live within our means.”

Sales taxes and transient occupancy taxes make up the bulk of the town’s revenues. Both are expected to drop — by 25 percent for sales taxes and 50 percent for transient occupancy taxes, which hotels charge their guests and then pass on to the town.

One full-time and one part-time position at the animal shelter will be eliminated, but no one will be laid off there. A part-time kennel technician recently left and that job will not be lled. The full-time animal control eld ocer is transferring to an unlled but budgeted position.

The town will reduce its aquatics program, concerts in the park, senior events, snow play day, museum exhibits, code enforcement and park and pool maintenance next year.

Earth Day, adult softball and the Yucca Valley Film Festival are all eliminated.

The budget passed with a 5-0 unanimous vote.

Councilman Rick Denison praised the staff’s efforts but said it is important to realize “we are not out of the woods yet.”

“Thank you for the excellent work on the budget,” he said. “Measure Y was our safety net. These aren’t easy decisions.”

Sarann Graham, of Yucca Valley, praised the budget.

“I am really pleased with your budget,” she said. “We really need our safety program.” Town Clerk Lesley Copeland reported that ve people emailed the town to support the budget and oppose cutting spending in the sheriff’s contract.

Nicholas Christensen, of Yucca Valley, spoke out against public safety funding and asked for “reinvesting” funds and improving criminal justice reforms. He added that everyone wants to keep the community safe, but he asked the council to do research for the “voices not in this room.”

“We need to have hard conversations on policing communities,” Christensen said.

“This is an issue that touches every aspect of society. I’m still learning too. Thank you for hearing me.”

Councilman Robert Lombardo said he opposes defunding the police — a term that means moving money from law enforcement to other programs that could prevent crime, like education and addiction treatment.

“The idea to defund the police is a little bit dangerous and misguided here,” Lombardo said.

Yakimow read a statement from the International City Managers Association supporting policing but suggesting police may “develop new ways” of doing things.

“We arm our commitment to support the professional ocers and staff that serve our communities and will work with them to develop new ways to reect ideals that value all people,” Yakimow read.

“We are the ones who stand in the public square. As leaders in our own communities, it is up to each of us to make our voices heard, but more importantly, to listen, to learn and to use our voices to amplify the voices of others.”

Sheriff’s Capt. Lucas Niles cautioned the council last month that cutting just 5-10 percent of the contract with the Sheriff’s Department would have major effects in Yucca Valley.

The town could lose both of its sheriff’s safety specialist positions, a deputy and a clerical position, he warned.

Niles also said each deputy responds to about 2,010 calls per year. He said the ideal number for a community of Yucca Valley’s size is about 1,800 calls per deputy. Niles also said violent crime increased by 33 percent in 2018-2019 in Yucca Valley. http://www.hidesertstar.com/news/article_bc10d370-b331-11ea-a16f-5b8e099615de.html

FEATURED Marine vet is new sheriff’s LT

By Jenna Hunt Hi-Desert Star Jun 20, 2020

Lt. Michael Walker, the new second in command at the Morongo Basin sheriff's station, leads the Pledge of Allegiance at the Yucca Valley Town Council meeting Tuesay. Jenna Hunt Hi-Desert Star

YUCCA VALLEY — Mike Walker, the Morongo Basin sheriff station’s new lieutenant, was welcomed at the beginning of the Town Council meeting Tuesday.

Walker also led the council and public in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Walker, who lives in Yucaipa, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then followed in his uncle’s footsteps in 2005 and joined the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. In 2012, Walker was promoted to detective and worked at the Morongo Basin station and in the Specialized Investigations Division.

A promotion to sergeant in 2015 took him to Big Bear.

Walker’s promotion to lieutenant brings him back to the Morongo Basin sheriff’s station, where he is now second in command.

“Welcome back,” Councilman Rick Denison said. “The skill set you bring is appreciated.” Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself – San Bernardino Sun

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY • News Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself

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https://www.sbsun.com/2020/06/19/video-shows-malcolm-harsch-hung-himself/[6/22/2020 8:53:26 AM] Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself – San Bernardino Sun

Malcolm Harsch in an undated photo. (Malcolm Harsch family, De’Avery Richardson via AP)

By BRIAN ROKOS | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 5:19 p.m. | UPDATED: June 20, 2020 at 12:30 a.m.

A Black man whose hanging death in Victorville on May 31 prompted concerns that he had been lynched actually died by suicide, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Friday, June 19.

Sheriff’s officials played for reporters a video from a nearby vacant building that showed Malcolm Harsch, 38, wrapping a blue electronics cable around his neck, tying the ends to a tree limb and then letting himself fall.

The tree, rustling for several minutes before it became still, was adjacent to the tents where he and a former girlfriend lived in a dirt field, at Circle and Victor drives.

Harsch had been on suicide watch in two of his recent bookings in San Bernardino County jails on

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/06/19/video-shows-malcolm-harsch-hung-himself/[6/22/2020 8:53:26 AM] Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself – San Bernardino Sun suspicion of minor crimes, Sgt. Steve Allen said.

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READ MORE Here’s when Disneyland and other Southern Then, on May 31 at about 3:15 a.m., a deputy stopped to question Harsch, who was seen walking down a street, shouting to nobody in particular. The deputy asked Harsch why he had blood on his shirt, according to an audiotape played for reporters. Harsch said he had cut his hand. He told the deputy he was walking away from someone.

The deputy checked Harsch’s name against the criminal warrants database and let Harsch go on his way.

Just past dawn, Harsch and his girlfriend broke up amid mutual allegations of infidelity. “I’m going to make one of your homeboys my new boyfriend,” Allen said she told investigators.

Harsch and the woman argued, and the video showed Harsch throwing donuts at her tent.

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/06/19/video-shows-malcolm-harsch-hung-himself/[6/22/2020 8:53:26 AM] Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself – San Bernardino Sun

Minutes later, with the woman still in her tent and another transient apparently watching, Harsch hanged himself.

It was just after 6 a.m. No one summoned help for Harsch until just after 7 a.m., when the woman emerged from the tent, grabbed a man’s phone and called 911, Allen said. Before medics arrived, other transients pulled Harsch down from the tree and ran to the nearby Victory Outreach church to get assistance. Two people from the church performed CPR on Harsch for 15 minutes, Allen said.

Harsch was pronounced dead at the scene. The coroner’s official finding of the cause of death is pending the results of a toxicology test.

Harsch’s brother, Ft. Irwin soldier D’Avery Richardson, viewed the video at the Victorville sheriff’s station Thursday and showed it via Zoom to his two sisters in Ohio, Allen said. Richardson was located after Harsch mentioned him in a social media post early this year.

A spokesman for the family issued a statement on Friday.

“On behalf of the family of Malcolm Harsch unfortunately it seems he did take his own life,” said the spokesman, Najee Ali.

“The Victorville Police Department officials released new video evidence to family members,” Ali said. “The family wants to sincerely thank everyone for their support and prayers.”

Allen said the family was ok with officials showing the video to reporters.

Harsch, who family members said was an aspiring rapper and artist, left Ohio about 14 years ago. Allen said there were warrants for his arrest and that he owed child support there. Allen said he doesn’t know why Harsch wound up in Victorville.

https://www.sbsun.com/2020/06/19/video-shows-malcolm-harsch-hung-himself/[6/22/2020 8:53:26 AM] Video shows Malcolm Harsch of Victorville was not lynched, but hanged himself – San Bernardino Sun

Authorities initially said no foul play was suspected in Harsch’s death. But family members and others were skeptical. Roughly 200 people gathered outside Victorville City Hall on Tuesday to demand a thorough investigation and police accountability for using deadly force in other cases.

Word of the blood on Harsch’s shirt led some people to conclude he had been slain. Allen said people in Victorville called the Harsch family in Ohio with some “pretty outlandish allegations.”

Harsch’s death came a week before another Black man, Robert Fuller, was found dead near Poncitlán Square, just east of Palmdale City Hall. Fuller’s death was also a hanging and was initially described by officials as a suspected suicide. Coroner’s investigators have yet to rule on a final cause of death pending the investigation and toxicology results.

In a news conference on Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there wasn’t any evidence the deaths were linked, but that his detectives would talk with San Bernardino County detectives.

The investigations into what some people worry were lynchings came amid protests nationwide about racial and social justice after the May 25 death of a Black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis police custody. The four officers involved in the arrest were fired and charged with crimes.

Allen said investigators planned to do a large-scale probe even if protesters had not demanded one because there were reports of blood on Harsch’s shirt. Those turned out to be spots of his own blood, Allen said a DNA test confirmed. The case binder that detectives thumbed through Friday was an inch thick, and they predicted the size could double.

The Sheriff’s Department does not normally share so much information about a suicide, Allen said, but did so in this case because of public concerns.

“What I’m trying to prevent is any violent protests in the name of Malcolm,” he said.

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https://www.sbsun.com/2020/06/19/video-shows-malcolm-harsch-hung-himself/[6/22/2020 8:53:26 AM] Missing woman’s car found in Twentynine Palms area; police asking for help By Martin Estacio Staff Writer Posted Jun 20, 2020 at 3:08 AM Authorities are asking the public’s help in finding a missing Northern California woman whose car was found abandoned in the Twentynine Palms area earlier this week.

Erika Ashley Lloyd, 37, a resident of Walnut Creek, was last seen in person Sunday and was reported missing by her family on Wednesday. On Tuesday, her car was found near State Route 62, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

A missing persons flier circulating on Facebook gave a more specific location near the highway’s intersection with Shelton Road, which is north of Joshua Tree National Park.

Sheriff’s officials said Lloyd was “believed to be traveling” to the park to camp. It was unclear whether she was camping by herself or with a group. Searches are being conducted on the ground and from the air, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Photos have been posted to assist in identifying her.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Alan Pennington at the Morongo Basin Station at 760-366-4175 or 760-366-4180. His email is [email protected].

The Morongo Basin California Highway Patrol Office can be contacted at 760-366-3707. The Walnut Creek Police Department can be contacted at 925-935-6400.

Callers wishing to remain anonymous can contact the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-782-7463 or online at www.WeTip.com.

Martin Estacio may be reached at [email protected] or at 760-955-5358. Follow him on Twitter @DP_mestacio. 2 arrested in slaying of man in Colton – San Bernardino Sun

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY • News 2 arrested in slaying of man in Colton

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By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 9:44 a.m. | UPDATED: June 22, 2020 at 8:09 a.m.

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted robbery in the death of a man found shot to death on a street in Colton, the city’s police department said.

The man who died, identified by police as Jimmy Nelson, was found by officers shortly after 11:30 p.m. on June 18 when they were called to the 300 block of North Rexford Street in Colton. He had been shot at least once, police said in a news release.

Detectives developed information that led them to identify Antonio Mastas-Kibe and Jourden Wilson as suspects in the death of Nelson.

Mastas-Kibe was put under surveillance in Rancho Cucamonga and arrested in the 9000 block of 5th street of that city on Saturday. Wilson was also arrested Saturday at a residence in the 1100 block of Runaway Circle in Colton. Police said he was hiding there.

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https://www.sbsun.com/...an-in-colton/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:53:19 AM] 2 arrested in slaying of man in Colton – San Bernardino Sun

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READ MORE Here’s when Disneyland and other Southern No ages of the arrested men or Nelson were available. M

1 dead after shooting in Colton

Man arrested on suspicion of DUI, murder and manslaughter after Menifee crash kills 1

San Bernardino police ask for public’s help in solving slaying of 14-year-old girl

14-year-old San Bernardino girl fatally

https://www.sbsun.com/...an-in-colton/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tw-sbsun&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social[6/22/2020 8:53:19 AM] Replica handgun reported found in San Bernardino shooting - Los Angeles Times

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CALIFORNIA

Replica handgun found at scene of police shooting in San Bernardino, police say

By ALEX WIGGLESWORTH | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 19, 2020 | 9:45 AM

A replica handgun was recovered from the scene where San Bernardino Police officers shot and killed a man outside a gas station last Saturday, police said this week.

Authorities identified the man as Anthony Angel Armenta, 21, of San Bernardino.

Armenta was seen using a flashlight to dig through the trash shortly before the fatal police encounter, and some witnesses said they believed officers mistook the flashlight for a gun.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/replica-handgun-found-at-scene-of-police-shooting-in-san-bernardino-police-say[6/19/2020 1:43:27 PM] Replica handgun reported found in San Bernardino shooting - Los Angeles Times

Anthony Angel Armenta, 21, of San Bernardino. (San Bernardino Police Department) But in a news release Thursday night, San Bernardino police described the object as a replica handgun and said Armenta had pointed it at an officer before police opened fire.

Officers had responded to the gas station in the 2700 block of North Del Rosa Avenue shortly before 8:30 p.m. for a report of a man with a gun, the police department said in the release.

They said that Armenta was armed with what appeared to be a black handgun and ignored multiple commands to drop it. He allegedly raised the object and pointed it at an officer, prompting that officer and a second to open fire, according to investigators.

Armenta was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Police did not initially say whether a gun was recovered at the scene but released several photographs that showed a man holding an object that resembled a handgun.

Bystander video of the incident was also posted to YouTube. Officers can be heard shouting at Armenta to “drop the gun” as he stands with his arms at his sides. The video captures the sound of gunfire, but Armenta was out of the camera frame when the shooting took place.

San Bernardino police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call Det. Silva at (909) 384-5762 or Sgt. Al Tello at (909) 384-5613.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/replica-handgun-found-at-scene-of-police-shooting-in-san-bernardino-police-say[6/19/2020 1:43:27 PM] CHP seeks suspects in 10 Freeway road-rage shooting in Ontario – Daily Bulletin

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NEWSCRIME + PUBLIC SAFETY • News CHP seeks suspects in 10 Freeway road-rage shooting in Ontario

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By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 3:11 p.m. | UPDATED: June 22, 2020 at 8:10 a.m.

California Highway Patrol officers are looking for a couple in a black Cadillac Escalade they said were involved in a road-rage shooting that left a woman in another vehicle wounded early Tuesday evening on the 10 Freeway in Ontario.

The victim, seated in the right-front seat of a gray Ford 150 pickup, was struck by bullet fragments, the CHP said in a release about the shooting that happened on the westbound lanes of the 10, west of Milliken Avenue, at 5:42 p.m. on June 16.

https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[6/22/2020 8:52:47 AM] CHP seeks suspects in 10 Freeway road-rage shooting in Ontario – Daily Bulletin

The woman suffered what were described as moderate injuries.

The CHP did not give details of what may have caused the gunfire.

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READ MORE Here’s when Disneyland and other Southern California The shooter was a man seated in the right-front passenger seat of the Escalade, and fired one round from a semi-automatic pistol at the right side of the F-150 truck, a release from the CHP said.

The Escalade left the scene heading westbound. Its driver was described by the CHP as an adult woman, and the shooter as a man with facial hair. Both are between 15 to 35 years old. There was no license plate number for the Escalade, the agency said.

The CHP asked anyone with information about the shooting to call their Rancho Cucamonga office at 909-980-3994.

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SPONSORED CONTENT Life Today- 6 Ways to Support Your Local Businesses https://www.dailybulletin.com/...tm_content=tw-ivdailybulletin&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com[6/22/2020 8:52:47 AM] Fireghter suers heat-related injuries in Sunday morning re By Angela Stevens For the Daily Press Posted Jun 21, 2020 at 3:43 PM PHELAN — A Cal Fire firefighter suffered heat-related injuries while dispatched to a structure fire Sunday morning.

The firefighter was transported for additional medical care and an update on his condition was not immediately available Sunday afternoon.

Firefighters responded to reports of a structure fire in the 10700 block of Riggins Road at approximately 6:45 a.m., San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesperson Mike McClintock said.

Firefighters responded on scene seven minutes later and found heavy smoke coming from a detached garage with extension to the home. Fire crews contained the fire to the garage by approximately 7:15 a.m.

McClintock said Cal Fire assisted as the fire would possibly spread to nearby vegetation.

A total of four fire trucks, an ambulance, battalion chief and investigator arrived on scene.

McClintock said the cause of fire was under investigation.

Angela Stevens is a freelance reporter for the Daily Press. Riverside County placed on state coronavirus watch list – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS • News Riverside County placed on state coronavirus watch list

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By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 3:07 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 3:07 p.m.

This critical coverage is being provided free to all readers. Support reporting like this with a subscription to The Press-Enterprise. Only 99¢ for a 4-week trial.

Support local journalism

Riverside County has landed on a state watch list for the novel coronavirus following a surge in new cases and hospitalizations from the disease.

https://www.pe.com/...cialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&__twitter_impression=true[6/19/2020 3:16:54 PM] Riverside County placed on state coronavirus watch list – Press Enterprise

The county made the California Department of Public Health list after a spike in new cases and a higher percentage of positive tests for COVID-19. As of Friday, June 19, the county had 103.3 cases per 100,000 residents. The state goal is 100 per 100,000, according to a state database.

The county’s 8.8% positive test rate exceeds the state goal of 8%, while 11.4% of the county’s intensive-care beds are currently available. The state wants at least 20% of ICU beds free.

Riverside County can get off the list if its metrics improve for three days. If hospitalization and infection rates don’t improve in two weeks, the county could potentially be forced to take more restrictive measures or risk losing a special status that allows county businesses shuttered by the pandemic to reopen more quickly.

To get that status, the county had to meet certain benchmarks for hospital and testing capacity and caseloads. In recent days, the county has set single-day records for new cases and seen a new high in hospitalizations of patients confirmed to have COVID-19.

On the state public health website, officials list several factors that could contribute to Riverside County’s higher numbers, including:

Outbreaks at state prisons and skilled-nursing facilities in the county The possibility of the virus spreading during recent protests. The county, like the rest of the nation, has seen protests over George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police custody. S Patients seeking care from Northern Baja California and traveling into the Coachella Valley Transfers of COVID-19 patients from Imperial County L

By San Bernardino County made the watch list June 12 but is no longer on it.

https://www.pe.com/...cialflow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&__twitter_impression=true[6/19/2020 3:16:54 PM] Riverside County coronavirus hospitalizations hit high for third straight day; 311 more cases reported – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS • News Riverside County coronavirus hospitalizations hit high for third straight day; 311 more cases reported

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By JEFF HORSEMAN | [email protected] | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 19, 2020 at 3:32 p.m. | UPDATED: June 19, 2020 at 3:32 p.m.

This critical coverage is being provided free to all readers. Support reporting like this with a subscription to The Press-Enterprise. Only 99¢ for a 4-week trial.

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https://www.pe.com/...reported/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[6/19/2020 4:20:55 PM] Riverside County coronavirus hospitalizations hit high for third straight day; 311 more cases reported – Press Enterprise

The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Riverside County grew 2.5% while the county’s COVID-19 death roll rose by two as hospitalizations from the virus reached a new high for the third straight day in the county’s update posted Friday, June 19.

The county now has 12,778 cases and 410 deaths blamed on the virus. Friday’s update reflects cases and deaths that happened over the past few days, as it takes time for that information to reach the public health department.

Twice this week, the county set single-day records for new cases added to the overall total. The county is now on the state’s coronavirus watch list.

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Countywide, 6,625 have officially recovered from the virus, up 1.6% from Thursday’s numbers. Official recoveries are those who are no longer in isolation, show no symptoms and have had their public health cases closed.

COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by six to 291 — the most ever in Riverside County — with 76 of

those patients in intensive care, up one from Thursday. The county numbers reflect patients confirmed to have the virus; suspected cases are not included.

Ten patients in county hospitals are from Imperial County, Riverside County emergency management director Bruce Barton said in an emailed statement. S

“Imperial County hospitals continue to experience a large number of patients that overwhelm their hospital capacity,” he said. L By Contrary to public speculation, Riverside County has not been ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom to accept coronavirus patients, county spokeswoman Brooke Federico said.

The three state prisons in Riverside County have a M RELATED ARTICLES combined 864 active cases, according to the California

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County jails report 245 cases with 207 recoveries. Countywide, long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, have 1,590 cases, including 997 among patients and 593 among staff.

More than 175,000 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the county.

To see a full list of community-by-community cases, click here.

Newsroom Guidelines News Tips Contact Us Report an Error https://www.pe.com/...reported/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com[6/19/2020 4:20:55 PM] Riverside County libraries will offer express pickup service – Press Enterprise

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LOCAL NEWS • News Riverside County libraries will offer express pickup service

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By STAFF REPORT | The Press-Enterprise  PUBLISHED: June 21, 2020 at 5:45 p.m. | UPDATED: June 22, 2020 at 8:08 a.m.

The Riverside County Library System will begin offering express service at many of the county libraries beginning Monday, June 22.

The express service will allow library patrons to continue to reserve books and other materials online as well as by calling their library. Patrons may call their library to schedule a date and time to retrieve reserved materials. Book drops will also be open for returns.

“Online resources and services continued and thrived through the pandemic as well as popular programs such as story times,” Barbara Howison, county librarian, said in a news release.

https://www.pe.com/...-service/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/22/2020 8:52:07 AM] Riverside County libraries will offer express pickup service – Press Enterprise

“Our priority remains keeping Riverside County Library System patrons, volunteers and employees safe and well-informed while doing what we can to help minimize the potential spread of the coronavirus,” Howison said.

The Riverside County Library System asks all patrons, volunteers and employees to wear face coverings and continue to follow health and safety standards when entering the facilities.

After this phase of re-opening the county libraries, in-person services will gradually be brought back, according to the news release.

To see which county libraries offer express service, go to www.rivlib.net or call 951-369-3003.

The Riverside County Library System is a division of Riverside County Business and Community Services.

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https://www.pe.com/...-service/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_content=tw-pressenterprise&utm_campaign=socialflow[6/22/2020 8:52:07 AM] L.A. has a plan to move away from jails. Let's put it in action - Los Angeles Times

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OPINION

Editorial: L.A. County has a plan to move away from jails and toward public health. What are we waiting for?

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-19/time-for-alternatives-to-incarceration-and-policing-is-now[6/19/2020 1:42:06 PM] L.A. has a plan to move away from jails. Let's put it in action - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, speaking at right, is joined by Supervisors Sheila Kuehl, Hilda L. Solis and Kathryn Barger. The supervisors adopted the Care First, Jails Last Alternatives to Incarceration program on March 10 but have yet to hire a director or fund it. (Los Angeles Times)

By THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

JUNE 19, 2020 | 3 AM

A broad rethinking of the criminal justice system in Los Angeles began in earnest a year and a half ago when county supervisors heeded the demands of activists and dropped plans to open two new jails.

They may now need a reminder of what they accomplished — and how fruitless their work will be if they don’t push forward.

The supervisors’ 2019 pivot followed years of organizing by young advocates for fundamental change — people whose families and neighbors, or who themselves, had been injured and abused by a law enforcement system too focused on punishment and insufficiently directed toward healing, recovery and reconciliation. They presented their case to the supervisors, who after years of skepticism embraced the new vision.

Stopping jail construction was merely the beginning of the historic shift. What followed

was a sometimes tense but remarkably productive year-long series of meetings at which community members, service providers, advocates and county officials hammered out proposals to create a health-based system that would direct people in crisis to mental health care, substance abuse treatment, housing, job training and peer counseling instead of arrest and incarceration.

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In a historic vote, the Board of Supervisors adopted the resulting framework for a Care First, Jails Last program March 10, setting the stage for the county to hire a program director and craft a budget and implementation plan. But then the coronavirus intervened, shutting down California and shooting a $2-billion hole in the Los Angeles County budget.

The question before the supervisors now is whether to wait, hold tight to their money and shelve the Care First program until the day comes when the disease is vanquished, the recession is over and the budget is flush.

The answer must be an emphatic “no.” This is the time to move forward — swiftly and decisively.

This is the moment when jails have reduced their inmate populations because of the disease, and when a comprehensive effort is needed to ensure that those jails are not refilled with people who need not be there to protect public safety.

And this is the time, despite the budget emergency, when the county is deciding how to spend $1 billion in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding.

There is money as well that previously had been allocated for one of the jails that was not built.

This too is the moment when national attention is focused on police abuse and institutional racism, and on demands to redirect funding for police and prisons to social services. Some cities are taking up that call, attempting to transfer money from police departments to social service programs. They are quickly discovering that real policy change takes time.

Advocates and service providers in Los Angeles County, however, have already successfully pressed the county to join with them in designing a comprehensive framework for moving forward. Most of these community members are the same ones protesting on the streets, demanding fundamental change to policing in Los Angeles. The Care First, Jails Last Alternatives to Incarceration program includes alternatives to policing and alternatives to prosecution, while also looking further than that, to the justice system as a whole.

Some building blocks for the Care First plan have already been operating successfully for several years, including the county Office of Diversion and Reentry, which provides care and housing in lieu of jail to people who qualify. Other elements of the plan are more recently established, such as the Office of Violence Prevention. The county has mobile psychiatric teams already responding to calls for help with mental health emergencies and partnering with sheriff and police departments when appropriate.

Soon to come: The county is moving forward swiftly on a behavioral health center on the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center campus and on a restorative care village for people in need of housing, psychiatric help, job training and other supportive services on the County-USC Medical Center campus.

But we need more — more capacity, more diversion, more healthcare. More commitment. More funding. We need outpatient clinics in more communities, peer-led rehabilitation and reentry services, and more county support for tried and tested but underfunded job- training and counseling programs.

We need L.A. County’s Care First, Jails Last Alternatives to Incarceration program moving forward, fully funded and at the top of the county’s agenda, fulfilling its fundamental task of serving people in need. This is the time when they will need it most, with disease

rampant, the economy in shambles and competition for affordable housing fierce.

The plan will not by itself stop all crime, serve all psychiatric patients, house all homeless people, eradicate racism or end poverty. But it will be an powerful answer to the nationwide demand to rely less on policing and imprisonment and more on care to keep our communities safe. It can be the crucial next step toward doing the work that these five supervisors came here to do. It could be a model for the nation.

So supervisors, move forward. Hire an Alternatives to Incarceration director. Don’t miss this moment. It likely won’t come again in this generation.

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https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-19/time-for-alternatives-to-incarceration-and-policing-is-now[6/19/2020 1:42:06 PM] Los Angeles County reports 1,784 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths - Los Angeles Times

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Los Angeles County reports 1,784 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/coronavirus-los-angeles[6/22/2020 8:52:51 AM] Los Angeles County reports 1,784 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths - Los Angeles Times

A pedestrian adjusts her face covering while walking along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

By ALEX WIGGLESWORTH | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 21, 2020 | 2:38 PM

Los Angeles County public health officials on Sunday reported 1,784 new cases of the coronavirus and 11 related deaths.

The county now has recorded more than 83,000 cases of the virus and over 3,120 deaths.

The continued rise in new cases came amid the first weekend of more businesses sectors reopening, as bars, card rooms and some personal care services were given the green light to resume operations Friday, provided they take certain precautions.

They include ensuring that customers practice physical distancing and wear face coverings.

“These are the actions that allow us to continue our recovery journey, and these actions will be essential to ensure that we don’t overwhelm our healthcare system and see increased numbers of deaths from COVID-19,” Barbara Ferrer, the county health director, said Sunday in a statement.

The average number of daily deaths in L.A. County continues to decrease, while average daily hospitalizations have also declined slightly, according to the Department of Public Health dashboard that tracks reopening metrics.

Nearly 945,000 people had been tested for the virus and received their results, with about

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/coronavirus-los-angeles[6/22/2020 8:52:51 AM] Los Angeles County reports 1,784 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths - Los Angeles Times

8% testing positive, officials said. That rate has remained steady for the past several weeks.

Still, L.A. County continues to report high numbers of new cases each day. Officials have said that is a result of both stepped-up testing and an increase in community transmission as more establishments reopen, putting more people in contact with one another.

Orange County has also seen an increase in new coronavirus cases, reporting its highest one-day total on Saturday and then again on Sunday.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/coronavirus-los-angeles[6/22/2020 8:52:51 AM] Thirteen test positive for COVID-19 at L.A. County juvenile camp - Los Angeles Times

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Thirteen test positive for COVID-19 at L.A. County juvenile camp

By JAMES QUEALLY | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 19, 2020 | 4:14 PM

Thirteen people have tested positive for the coronavirus at an L.A. County juvenile camp this week, marking the first time youths already in custody have contracted the illness, officials said.

Seven juveniles and six Probation Department employees assigned to the Dorothy Kirby Center in Commerce have tested positive since June 15, officials announced in a weekly report on the virus’ spread in juvenile facilities.

Six of the youths were asymptomatic, and one became mildly ill, officials said. The status of the employees who tested positive was not immediately clear, said Adam Wolfson, a spokesman for the Probation Department. The employee who first tested positive has not been at work since June 11, Wolfson said.

Until this week, all of the juveniles who had tested positive for COVID-19 found out they were sick during the Probation Department’s intake process, meaning they contracted the disease before they were in custody. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/thirteen-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-l-a-county-juvenile-camp[6/19/2020 4:25:31 PM] Thirteen test positive for COVID-19 at L.A. County juvenile camp - Los Angeles Times

The Dorothy Kirby Center houses youths struggling with mental illness or addiction whose cases have already been adjudicated. There are roughly 55 youths at the facility, living in “cottage"-style housing, Wolfson said.

Eight juveniles were living in the cottage where the sickened staffer was assigned, said Wolfson, who added that officials are testing the rest of the facility’s population.

Since the pandemic began, 23 juvenile detainees and 39 probation employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, records show. None have died or been hospitalized, and 15 of the probation employees have since returned to work.

Some advocates and attorneys have expressed frustration that at-risk youths were not being released from custody early at a time when most rehabilitative and education services have been suspended. Overall, records show the Probation Department has lowered the population of its juvenile halls and camps from 840 in early March to 520 as of June 12.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-19/thirteen-test-positive-for-covid-19-at-l-a-county-juvenile-camp[6/19/2020 4:25:31 PM] Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces new racial equity initiatives in city government, signs executive order - ABC7 Los Angeles

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POLITICS Garcetti announces new racial equity initiatives in LA city government, signs executive order

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Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an executive directive to address racial equity in Los Angeles by requiring city departments to plan for the reinstatement of affirmative action in California.

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"We have a lot of work to do to correct the inequities that are baked into a system much bigger than just the city of Los Angeles, but L.A.

https://abc7.com/6256473/[6/19/2020 2:06:39 PM] Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces new racial equity initiatives in city government, signs executive order - ABC7 Los Angeles

will -- make no mistake -- we will be the ones to march into a better future,'' Garcetti said. If there's one thing that the demonstrations for racial justice have done, it's to lay bare the urgent and overdue demands and structural racism and to right the wrongs of the past.'' US Politics "Los Angeles departments will not be able to implement the affirmative action changes unless Proposition 209 is repealed, which since 1996, has outlawed government and educational agencies from considering race, gender and other factors when hiring people.

The California Assembly voted 58-9 last week to put on the November ballot the question of repealing the affirmative action ban. The question would be added if the state Senate approves the measure by June 25.

play "This entire City Council, and with the lived experiences and dedicated leadership provided by councilmembers of color, is focused on taking definitive actions to bring about real change and racial and social play justice for people of color,'' Council President Nury Martinez said.

"The City Council last week voted in favor of a supportive resolution to play repeal Prop. 209, which Martinez said is built on a false narrative that racism magically did not exist in 1996. It wasn't true then and, as demonstrations throughout the world have shown, it is not true in 2020."

Garcetti said he is also calling for a charter amendment on a future ballot to allow Los Angeles to implement affirmative action if Prop. 209 is repealed to allow for preferential contracting.

"With this change, if ratified by voters, we will give preference to minority-owned businesses and other underrepresented groups in our city for contracts,'' Garcetti said. That will extend the reach of From CNN Newsource affiliates opportunity to all of our communities.'' TOP STORIES

The executive directive will require that every department general manager and head of city offices to name a racial equity representative who will be tasked with developing and overseeing their respective department's racial equity plan.

Each plan would outline the department's policies on recruitment and hiring, training, retention, promotions and contracting, as well as describe efforts to promote and hire from a robust pool of qualified candidates to promote diversity,'' Garcetti said.

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https://abc7.com/6256473/[6/19/2020 2:06:39 PM] Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces new racial equity initiatives in city government, signs executive order - ABC7 Los Angeles

factors in hiring, like the adversities an applicant has overcome, whether they're a first-generation graduate in their family, neighborhood demographics, leadership potential and other circumstances.

Simply put, we can't leave brilliance on the sidelines,'' the mayor said. We can't keep perspectives away from the way we plan our city, and there are departments that have been working very hard in the past few years together with me to do just that."

Garcetti said the city's Planning Department, for example, has taken steps to ensure planners are hired from across all areas of the city.

The implicit-bias training will be headed by the city's Personnel Department, and it will be required to be attended by every city employee, the mayor said.

Garcetti also announced Brenda Shockley, who has worked in his office as the deputy mayor of economic opportunity, as the city's first chief officer of the recently established Office of Racial Equity.

"I welcome this opportunity to continue to fight for racial equity and equal opportunities and against systemic racism and injustice,'' Shockley said. Racial equity in city government is a much-needed and MORE TOP STORIES NEWS valuable tool and a way to truly identify and measure progress toward a fair and equitable Los Angeles.''

Shockley said the directive also ordered a study on hiring data, which will be used as the baseline to track how the city hires its employees.

"I'll be looking at what (departments have) done ... to advance racial equity and justice inside their department and in our city,'' Shockley said. "Each year, we'll be looking at the baseline studies that we do, whether it's wages in our internal operations or impacts of our city policies."

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Nine ideas for making our city’s public space more race equitable

https://www.latimes.com/...inment-arts/story/2020-06-18/cities-are-built-on-public-space-but-it-isnt-equitable-nine-ideas-for-making-it-better[6/19/2020 1:42:42 PM] Reopening L.A.: How cities can be more race equitable - Los Angeles Times

Customers at an al fresco area improvised for the COVID-19 era in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood have a beer as marchers protest the death of George Floyd in late May. (Nick Swartsell / CityBeat)

By CAROLINA A. MIRANDA | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 18, 2020 | 11:51 AM

It was a photo that captured the divide. Late last month, Nick Swartsell, news editor at the Cincinnati alt weekly CityBeat, snapped an image of a group of young, white urbanites in the city’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood enjoying a round of beers in an alfresco dining space improvised along the street for the age of COVID-19. Just beyond the group was another sight: a flurry of masked marchers, fists raised, protesting the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The image, first published as part of CityBeat’s protest coverage, went viral after it was disseminated by television writer Ziwe Fumudoh on Twitter, where she wrote: “There are two Americas: one fights for Black lives and the other fights for brunch.”

It’s been retweeted more than 150,000 times and received almost half a million likes. (Though, to be clear, the photo was taken in the evening and not during brunch hour.)

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately claimed Black and Latino lives, and the uprisings, which have thrown into stark relief the way in which Blacks and Latinos die in disproportionate numbers at the hands of law enforcement, have forced a national debate about structural racism. (The BBC has a good roundup of charts that show the disparities between Black and white wealth accumulation, educational attainment, political representation, wages and employment.)

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This same debate is roiling the world of design and urban planning, where conversations can often get tied up on issues such as bike lanes and height limits, without considering the larger inequities our cities perpetuate — such as the ways in which the public space is policed.

“Every week in America, people like Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd have their lives stolen because their visibility in public space goes against the ways we’ve come to

understand who should have access to ‘outside,’” anthropologist and urban planner Destiny Thomas writes in an essay published recently by the website CityLab.

Artist Theo Ponchaveli painted a mural of Ahmaud Arbery in Dallas. Arbery was gunned down while out for a jog in Georgia. Three white men have been charged in the homicide. (Associated Press)

It was a point proved yet again when a young Black entrepreneur named Malachi J. Turner led a group of college students on a walking tour of a pair of upscale communities outside Sacramento last week. Several residents called law enforcement. Others took to Facebook to speculate that protesters had landed in the area, with one person stating: “Where are all my Second Amendment peeps at?”

Erin Kerrison, a scholar in the school of social welfare at UC Berkeley, noted in the Sacramento Bee how the default setting for public space is frequently white. “They imagine what is theirs, their streets, their grocery stores, their sidewalks, and what they claim is theirs against a Black threat.”

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So how to build a city that is more equitable? One in which public space can be accessed by African Americans without threat or fear? The Times spoke with nine architects, planners and advocates for their ideas.

‘Stop killing Black people’

Tamika Butler is the director of planning for California at Toole Design, a North American planning and design company. Based in Los Angeles, she has worked on planning and equity initiatives for the city of Los Angeles.

Urban planner Tamika Butler tackles issues of equity and inclusion in her work for municipalities around California. (Serena Liu / Serena Grace Photography)

Stop killing Black people. If we’re going to talk about how we are going to change public space, it’s stop killing Black people and stop criminalizing us.

I am a Black woman and I identify as a Black woman. (I always joke that if there’s a natural disaster, I’m going to find a Black woman because I know we will all be OK. We hold a lot on our shoulders.) But I’m also gender-nonconforming. I wear a suit and a tie and I have short hair. Many people see me as a Black man. So I understand the ways in which Black men are perceived in the system — and how women are erased.

My wife is white, and we’ve been pulled over in our car in downtown Los Angeles, leaving happy hour from her office. She’s a partner at a law firm. And she’s been pulled out of the car by police asking if she is with me by force — even if she says, “That’s my wife.”

The color of my skin scares people. And if Black scares you, it doesn’t matter what an architect or an urban planner does to design the city. If that officer has his foot on George Floyd’s neck, it doesn’t matter if there is a bike lane.

George Floyd’s casket arrives at the memorial service in his honor in Minneapolis on June 4. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Reckon with history

Mabel O. Wilson is a graduate architecture professor at Columbia University and co-editor of “Race and Modern Architecture: A Critical History From the Enlightenment to the Present,” published by the University of Pittsburgh Press last month.

Talking to architects, planners and architectural historians, many of whom are people of color, one of the things they say is that we need to recognize the entanglements of these fields in regimes of white supremacy. Until we do that work, we are just setting the scene for these events to happen again.

For example, we knew what redlining was, but now it’s back in other forms: gated communities, or the fact that there is no public housing but affordable housing that relies on private financing, or subprime mortgages pushed on people of color. You also have poisoned water in Flint [Mich.]. And you have a pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color. It’s not just one thing, but a constellation — and it can be deadly.

The [design] field is 90% white in America. The built environment, it emerges from European encounters of colonialism. In the West, that’s what Mabel O. Wilson of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. (Mabel architecture is — the European project O. Wilson) that reached out and developed a kind of system of domination economically, politically, racially. So architects need to understand that when you talk about racism or anti-Black racism, the cause is white supremacy. They have to reckon with this legacy.

A protester holds up a bottle of tap water from Flint, Mich., at a 2016 demonstration outside then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s office calling for his resignation. Gretchen Whitmer is the current governor of Michigan. (Jake May / The Flint Journal)

Redress is needed

Rosten Woo is an L.A. artist who uses graphic design to render complex public policy issues in visual ways. He helped create the historical signs in Los Angeles State Historic Park and a mini-golf installation about zoning for the arts group the Los Angeles Poverty Department.

I think [planners] tend to have an ahistorical sense of how they move forward. Most planners can tell you a laundry list of injustices like redlining and disenfranchisement and freeways destroying neighborhoods. But people tend to compartmentalize that and say, “OK, we learned the lesson. When we move forward, we won’t do that again.” But you can’t just move forward. You have to reckon with it. We have built our environment on these super inequitable foundations.

The intersection of the 105 and 405 freeways. Freeway building projects often divide communities of color. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

One thing where that gets concrete is the park and open space piece. If you look at high- need neighborhoods versus low-need neighborhoods, it’s basically a map of whiteness. A tiny percent of the community parkland is in communities of color. The Los Angeles County average is about 3.3 acres per 1,000 people. But there are neighborhoods that have 52 acres and others that have 0.7.

It’s really extreme how inequitably those green spaces are distributed. So you can’t just be like, “How do we make parks wherever they happen to be more equitable?” The actual location of the parks is the bigger problem. It’s trying to think proactively of how you redress these inequities.

Explore temporary solutions

Faiza Moatasim is an assistant professor of urbanism and urban design at USC’s School of Architecture.

Oftentimes, when you are dealing with architecture and design professionals, there is this assumption that it’s a design problem. Well, it’s not bad design that is the cause of our unequal Public artist and activist Rosten Woo works have engaged zoning and history. (Rosten Woo) cities — cities are manifestations of our social values. Cities are unequal because our society is unequal.

Broadly speaking, how can we make cities more equitable? It’s finding ways to support the now. The big picture is important. In thinking about the unhoused population, you need housing — that’s important. But what can you do right now? In Los Angeles, for example, it’s illegal to sleep in a car but legal to sleep on a sidewalk. So how can we transform our cities in a proactive way so that people who are forced to sleep in cars have access to safe parking?

Lawrence McCue, left, and Carla McCue bed down in their car in 2018 as part of a safe-parking initiative organized by Safe Parking L.A. The pair have since found housing. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

That forces us to rethink parking lots and parking structures — not just as a place to park, but as a place that someone might sleep. The biggest cost in those types of operations is security and bathroom facilities. And that is still pretty low when you compare it with building an actual building. But for the people who are forced into those situations, being able to sleep peacefully at night, with security, that is the No. 1 priority.

We are often scared of the temporary, that it will take away from the larger mission. But there is power in the temporary. You can do a lot with a lot less.

Faiza Moatasim teaches architecture and urban design at USC. (USC School of Architecture)

Reuse rather than rebuild

Christopher Hawthorne is the chief design officer for the city of Los Angeles and The Times’ former architecture critic.

One direct and positive step the city can take is to become a more thoughtful (and self- critical) client and patron when it comes to bringing emerging architects, particularly Black architects and architects of color, into the public-sector design process. We’re working on two initiatives right now — one with our Department of Building and Safety, the other with the Bureau of Engineering — to examine and update the range of ways that we hire and work with architecture firms.

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I’m also increasingly convinced that building equitable spaces means getting past the idea of always going for a brand-new, tabula rasa solution when we’re thinking about the future of a park or other open space. Instead, let’s redouble our commitment to taking care of, improving and re-imagining the spaces we’ve already built, with meaningful input from the people who use them every day. One of many things the Black Lives Matter protests should teach us about public space is that any street can operate as an effective plaza or gathering place if we want it to.

The right to be left alone

Leslie Kern is an urban geographer based in New Brunswick, Canada, who is the author of “Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World,” due out in July from Verso.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, center, walks with demonstrators during a silent march to end New York’s stop-and-frisk program in 2012. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

A lot of what we talk about when we talk about public space is the right to gather and the right to protest, a place where people should be able to have all of these social interactions. But from a gendered perspective, I think about the right to be left alone in public space. The ability to be left alone, to just be another person, that right is not often granted to women. People will speak to us, yell at us, harass us.

Expanding that to black people — think about Christian Cooper, who goes out to bird-watch and encounters a woman with a dog and has the threat of police violence leveraged against him. Or the story from a couple of years ago of the two men in a Starbucks arrested on suspicion of trespassing while waiting at https://www.latimes.com/...inment-arts/story/2020-06-18/cities-are-built-on-public-space-but-it-isnt-equitable-nine-ideas-for-making-it-better[6/19/2020 1:42:42 PM] Reopening L.A.: How cities can be more race equitable - Los Angeles Times

a table for a business associate. Things like stop-and-frisk policing, where the police randomly stop you, it’s about surveillance of youth and people of color.

The creeping privatization of public space is part of the problem in terms of levels of surveillance, with private Leslie Kern is an urban geographer who examines cities from the feminist perspective. (Mitchel Raphael) security that disproportionately affects poor people, homeless people, people of color. Anything that is viewed as a disorder becomes a target, and this view of disorder is shaped by race and class. So it raises the question of who are cities for? And whose presence are we questioning in one way or another?

Support community groups that exist

Adonia Lugo is an urban anthropologist based in Los Angeles and also the author of “Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance.” She helped found the transportation equity group People for Mobility Justice.

In L.A., there’s an emphasis on development as a way forward. The idea is if you build it,

they will come. But adding rail infrastructure doesn’t necessarily increase ridership, and the people who rely on it get pushed out. There have been clear calls for removing police from Metro for quite some time, since there has been a lot of policing of behaviors. And across the country, there is a well-documented phenomenon of biking while Black. But it’s difficult to get urban planners and elected officials to see this as a problem of more than built systems.

To view this video please VIDEO | 3:07 enable JavaScript, and consider Peaceful bicycleupgrading demonstration to a web browser in that South L.A.'s Leimert Park

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Video of a bicycle demonstration in Leimert Park to protest the killing of George Floyd.

There has been a lack of investment in developing robust organizations and programming in communities of color around sustainable transportation and being able to advocate for the type of transportation that makes sense. While there are some standout examples — like Ride On in Leimert Park and the East Side Riders Bicycle Club in Watts — people have had to have these total uphill battles to keep riding going.

What happens is that POC groups often have to figure out how to mold themselves to fit whatever funding is available, rather than the funding being crafted to support where this great community-rooted stuff has emerged.

Reinvent planning meetings

James Rojas, founder of the urban planning practice Place It!, is an independent planning consultant who leads workshops at the community level. Based in Los Angeles, he has worked in cities around the U.S., including Phoenix, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore.

You can’t talk about equity or race without talking about place. They are so intertwined. Planners often approach planning as engineers. It’s solving a problem. But it’s more about emotions. If you ask people what they need, they’ll say, “We need more parking.” But planning has no way of thinking of the fine-grain details. We need to plan for bodies, not just issues. What does our body need to make it feel healthy?

What was once an empty lot became a community garden in Koreatown. (Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)

The format of planning meetings is wrong. Rather than producing a checklist, you let people articulate it with objects. If instead of “What do you want?,” you’re asked, “What is https://www.latimes.com/...inment-arts/story/2020-06-18/cities-are-built-on-public-space-but-it-isnt-equitable-nine-ideas-for-making-it-better[6/19/2020 1:42:42 PM] Reopening L.A.: How cities can be more race equitable - Los Angeles Times

an ideal street?” You might be able to say, “I like a street with trees.” So in my sessions, I bring objects, and people work together to build a place that is built on memory of what makes them feel good. It’s about the details that make people happy: gardens and community centers and art museums. You get a different outcome that way.

Deep listening with community

Karen Mack is executive director of the community arts group LA Commons and a member of the L.A. City Planning Commission.

What I observe in public process is that there is not a great understanding of what it means to partner with community. It’s coming at this from the perspective of, “We have this toolkit of options and we want to check off the box that we engaged community.”

One of my favorite projects that we’ve done [with LA Commons] is a mural, “Heart of Hyde Park.” The mural is beautiful. [Painter] Moses Ball did a great job. But really it was about the process of creating the mural. We found leaders in the community who were invested in what we were doing — there’s a group called Hyde Park Organizational Partnernership for Empowerment, H.O.P.E., and they took on parts of the project. Moses is from L.A., but not from the neighborhood. They wanted someone local, so we made budget to hire a second artist.

A detail from “Heart of Hyde Park,” a mural organized by LA Commons, and led by artists Moses Ball and Dezmond Crockett. (Rafael Cardenas / LA Commons)

We recruited youth, and they were able to gather stories that served as the basis of the mural. They were having these intergenerational dialogues — those connections are a fiber that creates strength in the neighborhood. And now one of the youth artists that worked on that project is running other projects.

It’s that deep community work. Deep listening. This made the public space more reflective of the people who live there. That’s equity.

ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS How should L.A. be redesigned for coronavirus? Are doorknobs out? We asked the

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Mysterious deaths of infants, children raise questions about how early coronavirus hit California

Maribeth Cortez, with her husband, Jerry, wonders if her son Jeremiah DeLap, 39, died of COVID-19 after a four-day illness in early January. The Orange County coroner wants to know too. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

By PAIGE ST. JOHN, ANNETTE CHOI

JUNE 21, 2020 | 7 AM UPDATED 8:22 AM

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/babies-children-december-deaths-join-the-wait-for-covid-19-testing[6/22/2020 8:51:02 AM] December deaths of California kids may be coronavirus related - Los Angeles Times

A cluster of mysterious deaths, some involving infants and children, is under scrutiny amid questions of whether the novel coronavirus lurked in California months before it was first detected. But eight weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide hunt for undetected early COVID-19 deaths, the effort remains hobbled by bureaucracy and testing limits.

Among those awaiting answers is Maribeth Cortez, whose adult son, Jeremiah DeLap, died Jan. 7 in Orange County while visiting his parents. He had been healthy, suffering on a Friday from what he thought was food poisoning, and found dead in bed the following Tuesday, drowned by fluid in his lungs.

For the record: 10:10 AM, Jun. 21, 2020 In an earlier version of this post, Maribeth Cortez was erroneously referred to as Maribeth Ortiz.

China didn’t announce its first COVID-19 death until four days later. But by DeLap’s Feb. 1 funeral service, frightening stories of a deadly new virus in Wuhan dominated the news.

“Everybody that knew him when they were talking to me after this all started would say, ‘Do you think he died from that?’” Cortez said.

“And I said, ‘I don’t know.’”

She still doesn’t.

Preserved samples of DeLap’s lungs are among tissue from more than 40 California deaths waiting for a decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on whether to test for COVID-19. Orange County has nine of the cases, as does Los Angeles County. Kern County has identified two respiratory deaths that might suggest COVID-19, both of young women, one of whom died Dec. 21.

Interviews and internal documents show medical examiners in Shasta, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties, meanwhile, are scrutinizing the deaths of children and babies, amid growing recognition of COVID-19 infection rates in children who show mysterious inflammatory symptoms.

A positive finding in any of the cases could dramatically rewrite the narrative of COVID-19 in the United States.

Researchers tracking the virus’ genetic mutations peg its jump from an unknown animal host to humans as occurring in November. China’s first documented illnesses began in early December.

It was well into March before most California coroners and medical examiners began to routinely test decedents who fell under their jurisdiction for COVID-19, using now-familiar nasal swab tests that must be done within days of death. Even then, testing is limited to a fraction of cases — those who had symptoms of respiratory failure, traveled to China or died without witness.

Checking for missed cases of COVID-19 requires examining preserved tissue, a test available only through the CDC. It took months for CDC pathologists to realize the virus had already killed people in the United States in early February. At the time, U.S. health officials believed they could control the spread of the virus by monitoring international travelers and isolating a dozen known infected individuals in California and four other states.

CALIFORNIA The silent, deadly spread of coronavirus in California began far earlier than first reported

April 23, 2020

DeLap, 39, worked as a house painter in Basalt, Colo., near the Aspen ski area. He returned to his inland Riverside County hometown for Christmas, and was at the home of his roommate’s parents in nearby Orange County on Jan. 3 when he became sick. He thought the cause was something he ate the night before. DeLap believed he was on the mend, even going for a walk Monday, but was worsening again Tuesday morning when he spoke to his mother.

“He was having trouble breathing and I told him he should try and go to the urgent care,” Cortez said. “He told me he’d talk to me later and he went and [lay] down.”

He was found dead in bed hours later, his lungs filled with fluid and his body still burning from fever.

The sudden January death of Jeremiah DeLap, 39, is among cases now considered for COVID-19 testing. (Family photo)

The Orange County coroner ruled DeLap’s death the result of severe acute lobar pneumonia, one lung so congested it had doubled in weight. But the coroner did not identify the organism infecting DeLap. The thought that it might have been the coronavirus haunted Cortez as she heard story after story of similar deaths. DeLap was an organ donor, so four weeks ago Cortez called the organization that received his tissue to ask if they were going to test it for COVID-19.

Unknown to Cortez, the Orange County coroner harbored similar questions. DeLap’s death is among nine cases from late December to March that the county has asked the California Department of Public Health to consider. The deceased range in age from 33 to 61 and include an elderly homeless man found in his RV and a young surfer who

collapsed. Initial autopsies attributed their deaths to congested lungs, pneumonia or blood clots.

If the state agency agrees, the cases will be forwarded to the CDC for more review before preserved tissue is tested for COVID-19. Los Angeles County’s medical examiner has forwarded nine cases for review, but county lawyers blocked the release of details. Tissue from a 10th Los Angeles death, a 17-year-old boy who died March 18, was sent two months ago to the CDC for COVID-19 testing. It came back last week positive for two other viruses: streptococcal pneumonia and human metapneumovirus.

After the CDC confirmed a Silicon Valley tech worker’s Feb. 6 death as the nation’s first known COVID-19 fatality, Newsom called on medical examiners statewide to hunt for missed cases extending back to mid-December.

But the CDC is limiting California — a state of 39 million people — to just eight to 10 cases a week. The state Health Department has stepped in as a gatekeeper between county morgues and the federal lab.

By the end of May, the state agency had forwarded only two cases to the CDC and had 40 other deaths under state review.

Such restrictions did not exist before the COVID-19 pandemic. They are new to Dr. Deirdre Amaro, the Shasta County sheriff’s forensic pathologist who relies on the CDC lab for infectious disease workups when someone dies inexplicably in her rugged, deeply forested Northern California county.

Amaro was jolted this winter by the back-to-back deaths of two children, one an infant, and local accounts of other sick children. She called a Jan. 29 meeting with county health and hospital officials. She remembered someone in the room theorizing that it was a “bad year” for respiratory syncytial virus, usually referred to as RSV. It is a common childhood disease that seldom kills.

“Since I’ve been here ... we have never had sequential cases that are pediatric deaths. I do NOT want to practice forensic pathology in a setting where that is the norm,” Amaro said. “The emotional/psychological toll is too great.”

She had already sent tissue from one of those pediatric deaths to the CDC for testing when the California Health Department set up hurdles. She has since sought virus testing for another pediatric death and is awaiting a decision on whether the CDC will accept the

cases.

Early reports out of China and California suggested COVID-19 had very low infection rates among children.

“What has emerged now, the experience we’ve had on the East Coast and in Europe has been markedly different,” said Dr. Roberta Lynn DeBiasi, chief of the pediatric division at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and a co-author of several studies on COVID-19 and children.

DeBiasi is among researchers who in May began documenting growing numbers of hospitalized children with COVID-19 and symptoms normally associated with an otherwise rare inflammatory illness called Kawasaki disease. Some had high fever, joint pain and rashes. Others had abdominal pain. An alarming number showed organ failure and heart damage, DeBiasi said.

Amid those reports, a California Health Department physician phoned Amaro, who in addition to her own two deaths told her of others — two infants sent from Shasta County to hospitals in Sacramento.

Dr. Chante Buntin, the state Health Department medical consultant, wrote to Sacramento County’s coroner expressing interest in infants and children who died with what might have been “COVID-like symptoms, Kawasaki-like symptoms in California during the period of December to present.”

Sacramento County’s coroner has sent a single case to the CDC for testing but has not provided further details.

California has no confirmed child deaths from COVID-19. The CDC in early April listed three suspected virus-related deaths of children nationwide, but has since not updated that information. The federal health agency has, however, alerted pediatricians to watch for signs of what it now calls “multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children,” or MIS-C.

The California Department of Public Health did not answer questions about its hunt for child deaths, and gave only limited responses to broader questions about postmortem testing. The agency did provide an email exchange in which a state epidemiologist offered to intervene on a “flood of requests” from California medical examiners, health departments and pathologists seeking COVID-19 testing for both deceased adults and children.

CALIFORNIA The pandemic’s toll: Lives lost in California

May 2, 2020

Dr. Shua Chai told the CDC that California would narrow its criteria for testing the dead, based not on the questions arising in morgues but to fit the number of cases the CDC lab would take.

“The capacity will really help drive our prioritization,” Chai said.

At first the federal agency said it could handle only three to four cases a week and that it could take as long as two months to send back results. On May 1, the head of the CDC’s COVID-19 mortality team suggested the federal lab would take as many as 10 a week.

“I’m not saying this will be acceptable by my leadership,” warned Dr. Sarah Reagan- Steiner, clinical lead on the CDC’s COVID-19 mortality unit. There was no response to repeated questions sent to the CDC public affairs office over several months regarding postmortem testing.

The state Health Department’s press office defended the state’s reliance on the CDC and the federal agency’s 10-case weekly limit. Medical examiners in other states are not only testing many more dead, but also using other methods such as postmortem testing for antibodies.

The state agency’s press office said the CDC testing was “highly specialized and requires careful validation.”

“Other types of testing may not provide results that are as reliable as CDC testing.”

In Seattle, the King County medical examiner considers death itself as a reason to test on the spot for the virus with a nasal swab.

“COVID-19 is so new as an infection, and it probably affects different people in different ways,” associate Medical Examiner Dr. Sharon Yarid said. “So anyone who dies basically had, you know, already some reason to be tested.”

King County is scanning funeral homes for cases to test and checking blood serum from older cases for signs of COVID-19 antibodies. Family members have only to ask to have a death tested for the virus.

The liberal guidelines have led to the identification of 58 additional COVID-19 deaths, including young adults, and accounting for more than one out of 10 local deaths attributed to the virus. That’s nearly double the 29 coronavirus deaths identified under the more restrictive policies of the Los Angeles County medical examiner, though Los Angeles County has more than five times the number of COVID-19 cases. (The medical examiner handles only violent, sudden or unusual deaths, which account for a relatively small percentage of overall COVID-19 deaths.)

Yet when it comes to testing preserved tissue, Yarid is also at the mercy of the CDC. She said she had asked the federal lab to evaluate a troubling Feb. 6 death. As of last week, Yarid said she had not received an answer.

Those frustrated by the hurdle in answering the question — was it COVID-19? — include family members of a man found dead on a Los Angeles bus bench in late January. The Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office classified the death as “complications of alcohol abuse,” though there was no sign of recent alcohol use.

The man’s brother, who asked not to be named in order to preserve family privacy, said the medical examiner had refused repeated requests to test the body for COVID-19.

“They have not, they haven’t really gotten off of that February, March, early April mindset that we live in an environment of testing scarcity,” said the brother.

Los Angeles County supervisors cited such complaints this month in telling the medical examiner’s office to provide COVID-19 testing for families who ask for it. A spokeswoman for the medical examiner said the office was still working out a procedure.

Not all California medical examiners are seeking CDC testing for missed COVID-19 deaths.

“So you found that there were several cases that were not identified early on ... what does that tell you?” Ventura County Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Young said. “How does that add to where we’re at with dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic right now?”

San Diego officials told The Times that a paper review of more than 700 deaths had

turned up none that met the state’s written criteria — deaths from Dec. 17 to March 16, with signs of respiratory failure, fever or cough, or known exposure to COVID-19 or international travel.

San Mateo County, a part of Silicon Valley home to California’s earliest COVID-19 cases, identified one suspect death.

According to agency emails, a county pathologist checked the freezer for tissue to send to the CDC, and discovered the samples had been “tossed,” along with tissue from everyone else who died prior to March 11.

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Paige St. John

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Paige St. John covers criminal justice, disasters and investigative stories for the Los Angeles Times from Northern California.

Annette Choi

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Annette Choi is the data and graphics intern for the Los Angeles Times. Her work has been featured in FiveThirtyEight, the New York Times, and PBS Nova Next. She recently graduated from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-21/babies-children-december-deaths-join-the-wait-for-covid-19-testing[6/22/2020 8:51:02 AM] f t m Tracking how the coronavirus crushed California’s workforce

4.8 million

3.0 million

Stay at Governor home order eases restrictions

350,000 receiving assistance

Feb. March April May June

3 million on unemployment 16.3% unemployment rate 240,665 new claims last week

By Los Angeles Times Staff Updated June 19, 7 a.m. Pacific

The coronavirus outbreak decimated California's economy. Millions of workers lost their jobs following business closures and mass layoffs. Unprecedented numbers of people sought government assistance to pay their bills.

The Times is tracking the fallout as businesses begin to reopen. Here's what the data show: Widespread damage The state's unemployment tally has towered in all 58 counties. The largest losses are in urban areas like Los Angeles, but workers in rural regions, such as the state's interior and far north, have also lost work due to the lockdown.

á Hover for more information.

Change in Redding unemployment rate

Size of labor force

Sacramento

San Francisco

Los Angeles

San Diego

Unemployment by county County Total Change Rate Change

Los Angeles 968,400 +762,500 20.3% +16.3

San Diego 231,300 +185,600 15.0% +12.1

Orange 211,800 +171,200 13.8% +11.3

Riverside 168,800 +128,000 15.3% +11.6

Santa Clara 118,800 +95,300 11.7% +9.5

San Bernardino 126,700 +93,500 13.4% +9.9

Alameda 112,500 +90,300 14.1% +11.4

Sacramento 99,300 +75,200 14.7% +11.2

Contra Costa 77,600 +61,900 14.5% +11.7

San Francisco 69,400 +57,700 12.6% +10.6

Ventura 57,400 +44,100 14.0% +10.9

Fresno 76,500 +42,400 16.7% +9.1 County Total Change Rate Change

San Mateo 48,900 +40,500 11.4% +9.5

San Joaquin 58,000 +39,100 18.3% +12.4

Kern 69,800 +38,300 18.6% +10.4

Sonoma 35,900 +29,400 15.2% +12.7

Stanislaus 40,800 +25,900 17.0% +10.9

Monterey 41,800 +25,900 20.2% +13.1

Solano 30,300 +22,900 14.9% +11.4

Santa Barbara 29,500 +22,000 13.7% +10.3

Placer 23,400 +18,000 13.3% +10.3

Tulare 38,100 +17,900 19.0% +9.1

Santa Cruz 23,100 +15,400 17.4% +12.1

San Luis Obispo 18,600 +14,900 13.8% +11.1

Merced 21,800 +11,800 18.7% +10.1

Marin 14,300 +11,400 11.1% +9.0

El Dorado 13,500 +10,400 15.3% +11.9

Napa 11,500 +9,600 15.8% +13.2

Butte 14,600 +9,600 14.9% +9.8

Imperial 20,000 +9,300 28.0% +12.4

Yolo 11,900 +7,700 12.0% +8.1

Shasta 11,200 +7,700 15.9% +11.1

Humboldt 8,600 +6,400 13.7% +10.2

Madera 10,500 +6,000 16.6% +9.2

Kings 9,800 +5,000 16.8% +8.4

Nevada 6,530 +4,970 14.5% +11.3

Sutter 8,300 +4,500 18.0% +9.5

San Benito 6,100 +4,500 19.8% +14.7

Mendocino 5,520 +3,940 14.8% +10.8

Yuba 4,800 +3,000 15.8% +9.7

Lake 4,310 +2,850 15.2% +10.2

Tuolumne 3,750 +2,790 17.2% +12.6

Tehama 3,660 +2,220 14.5% +8.8

Calaveras 2,730 +1,950 13.3% +9.6

Mono 1,810 +1,540 22.2% +19.0

Amador 2,050 +1,500 14.2% +10.5

Siskiyou 2,630 +1,410 15.9% +8.6

Colusa 2,960 +1,260 26.4% +11.2 County Total Change Rate Change

Mariposa 1,390 +1,030 17.8% +12.9

Glenn 1,830 +1,000 16.2% +9.8

Inyo 1,120 +810 13.7% +10.1

Del Norte 1,240 +720 13.1% +7.6

Plumas 1,410 +670 20.5% +10.8

Lassen 1,040 +550 11.6% +6.5

Trinity 560 +280 12.9% +6.8

Modoc 440 +200 14.5% +6.7

Sierra 180 +100 14.6% +8.3

Alpine 110 +90 22.9% +19.5

Show less

Source: California Economic Development Department, Times analysis

How to file for unemployment in California ì

Lost your job? Had your hours reduced? Consult our guide to filing for unemployment benefits.

Some sectors hit harder While every major sector of the state's economy has shed jobs, some have lost more than others. The lockdown measures designed to slow the spread of the virus have been especially hard on businesses in food service, hospitality and retail sales.

California jobs lost since February, by category Massive ‘temporary’ layos COVID-19 prompted an explosion of mass layoffs and plant closings by California companies, according to a Times analysis of notices filed under state and federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification laws.

More than 563,432 workers have been affected — about 4,581 per day — since February 1, when the recession began, the records show.

California employees affected each day by mass layoffs

50,000 Governor's statewide Peak on April 7: stay-home order 45k employees 40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

0 Jan. Feb. March April May June

Source: California Economic Development Department, Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom Last updated: June 1

Most of these 5,142 mass layoff notices have been labeled as “temporary.” Tesla told state regulators that some or all of the 10,000 workers it furloughed in April could eventually return, according to a letter obtained by The Times.

About 80% of the employees affected statewide were the result of similar moves by firms. Still, that leaves at least 56,368 workers with “permanent” job losses — most of which can be attributed to COVID-19, according to the analysis.

Employees affected by permanent, temporary and indefinite layoffs

600,000

400,000

Temporary

200,000

0 Feb. March April May June

Source: California Economic Development Department Dates reflect the dates listed on notices by companies. Employee totals are cumulative, by type. Last updated: June 1 As of June 1, more than 2,494 companies in 52 counties had sent such notices to the state. The Times added up employees affected by each company and location. About 170,385 employees were hit in Los Angeles County, the records show.

Filter to see top 25 companies by county: Statewide

Company name Total employees

Ross Stores 14,651

Olive Garden 13,666

Tesla 11,239

Kohl's Department Stores 9,636

The Cheesecake Factory 7,756

YMCA 7,665

Levy Premium Foodservice 6,533

Fitness International 6,489

Abercrombie & Fitch 5,911

Bj's Restaurants 5,545

Burlington 5,365

Best Buy 5,249

Aramark 4,894

Sea World 4,475

Hyatt Regency 4,337

Western Dental Services 4,228

California Pizza Kitchen 4,226

Goodwill Industries 3,965

Corepower Yoga 3,741

Forever 21 3,738

Fox Sports Productions 3,595

Carmax 3,395

The Ritz-Carlton 3,341

Club Demonstration Services 3,220

Pacific Dental Services 3,057

Show less

Source: California Economic Development Department

Last updated: June 1

Tracking the coronavirus Accommodation and food service 804,700

Retail trade 282,100

Health care and social assistance 265,200

Other services 170,200

Administrative and support 169,400

Arts, entertainment and recreation 156,400

Construction 150,500

Government 99,300

Professional, scientific, technical 83,800

Durable goods manufacturing 72,500

Wholesale trade 59,100

Nondurable goods manufacturing 58,200

Transportation, warehousing, utilities 56,400

Information 42,400

Educational services 40,500

Real estate 26,900

Management of companies and enterprises 13,900

Finance and insurance 3,200

Source: California Economic Development Department

Tracking the coronavirus outbreak ì

Follow the latest data on the spread of COVID-19 in California with our coronavirus tracker. California counties Alameda Contra Costa Fresno Imperial Kern Kings Los Angeles Monterey Orange Riverside Sacramento San Bernardino San Diego San Francisco San Joaquin San Mateo Santa Barbara Santa Clara Sonoma Tulare Ventura

Other trackers Beach closures Housing homeless people Reopenings by county Statewide totals The lives lost

More coverage Symptoms How it spreads Get our newsletter

About the numbers This page was created by Lorena Iñiguez Elebee, Thomas Suh Lauder, Ryan Menezes and Matt Stiles.

Unemployment data are provided by the California Department of Economic Development and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

WARN notice totals for cities and counties were calculated based on geographic locations provided by the California Economic Development Department, with some standardization according to U.S. Census Bureau place definitions. In an effort to clarify statewide figures for the number of employees affected, The Times attempted to standardize the names of employers that have issued WARN notices.

Please contact Data and Graphics Editor Ben Welsh at [email protected] if you spot any incorrect or out of date information.

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More coverage The pandemic’s toll: Lives lost in California

Behind the scenes of The Times tracking eort Why officials aren't alarmed by spiking coronavirus cases - Los Angeles Times

Sections Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA

Alarmed by spiking coronavirus numbers? Here’s why officials insist they aren’t worried

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-22/alarmed-by-spiking-coronavirus-numbers-heres-why-officials-insist-they-arent-worried[6/22/2020 9:04:14 AM] Why officials aren't alarmed by spiking coronavirus cases - Los Angeles Times

Shoppers wear masks at the Orange Circle on Thursday in Orange. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

By ALEX WIGGLESWORTH | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 22, 2020 | 5 AM

Bartenders over the weekend began mixing drinks, gyms turned on elliptical machines and nail salons began polishing away as Los Angeles County reopened more of its economy even as coronavirus cases continued to rise.

The county, a hotbed of COVID-19 in California, now has reported more than 3,000 deaths and 80,000 confirmed cases. The rising case numbers have sparked some worry about whether the economy is reopening too quickly and that easing stay-at-home orders could cause new outbreaks.

But health officials continue to discount those concerns, saying total new cases is not the best measure of community spread because of aggressive levels of new testing. They point to other metrics they say show that the local outbreak has stabilized — even though the number of new cases increased by nearly 20,000 in the last two weeks and by more than 3,600 just over the weekend.

1/50 Jair Guido, 36, a veterinarian visiting from Durango, Mexico, right, wearing a sombrero with an American flag draped over his shoulders, walks with other pedestrians along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Guido said that he wore this outfit to show people that he is proud to be a Mexican and that he loves America. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Two key indicators — the positivity rate and average number of daily hospitalizations — have continued to remain relatively steady, while average daily deaths have declined, L.A. officials said. It is always possible these numbers could start going up, either from spread

from reopening businesses, from recent protests over the police killing of George Floyd or other reasons. Officials said they are monitoring the metrics closely and could impose new restrictions if needed.

“The most important data continues to be looking at our death data and our hospitalization data and our rate of positivity, and ... all of the indicators really point to the fact that we are fairly stable and that we in fact continue to slow the spread of COVID-19,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s health director, said Friday.

As of Sunday, there were 1,426 confirmed coronavirus patients in county hospitals, with 29% in intensive care and 21% on ventilators. That was a slight increase from the day before, when there were 1,406 patients. The average daily number of hospitalizations has been decreasing since late April, Ferrer said Friday, although she did note there has been a slight increase over the past three days. That could be because most hospitals are now testing all patients for COVID-19, even those who are being treated for unrelated issues, she said.

Nearly 945,000 people in the county have been tested for the virus and have received their results, with about 8% testing positive, officials said. That rate has remained steady for the past several weeks.

The seven-day average of daily deaths has also been trending downward since April 12, Ferrer said. The average reached its highest peak in early May, when 45 to 46 people were dying each day. In early June, the rate had slowed to 20 to 30 deaths a day, she said. The seven-day average stood at 28 on Friday, according to the Department of Public Health dashboard that tracks reopening metrics.

That came two days after both the county and the state recorded their largest single-day totals of new coronavirus infections. California reported 4,291 new cases Wednesday, with 2,129 of them in L.A. County. Health officials said the total was fueled by a backlog of test results that accounted for roughly 600 of the new L.A. County infections.

A Times data analysis found that hospitalizations remain flat statewide, but they are inching up in some areas including Ventura County, Orange County and parts of the Central Valley.

Orange County on Sunday reported its highest one-day total of new coronavirus cases for

the second day in a row.

Public health officials recorded 434 new cases Sunday, which was preceded by 412 cases Saturday. Previously, the county reported a high of 297 new cases on June 14.

With the increases, the total number of cases reported by Orange County reached 10,422. Two more deaths were reported Sunday, bringing the total to 269 countywide.

As the number of cases has ticked upward, testing has also increased, with the county performing an average of 3,800 per day as of Thursday, compared with 2,200 tests per day in early May.

Still, the seven-day average number of daily hospitalizations has also been rising steadily, from 202 in early May to 319 on Friday. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis, Orange County also experienced a 76% jump in ICU hospitalizations in the last six weeks.

As of Sunday, a total of 332 COVID-19 patients were in county hospitals, with 133 in intensive care. That was a slight drop from Tuesday, when county hospitals saw a high of 345 COVID-19 patients.

Los Angeles County public health officials on Sunday reported 1,784 new cases of the coronavirus and 11 related deaths.

The county now has recorded more than 83,000 cases of the virus and over 3,120 deaths.

The continued rise in new cases came amid the first weekend of more business sectors reopening, as bars, card rooms and some personal care services were given the green light to resume operations Friday, provided they take certain precautions.

They include ensuring that customers practice physical distancing and wear face coverings.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-22/alarmed-by-spiking-coronavirus-numbers-heres-why-officials-insist-they-arent-worried[6/22/2020 9:04:14 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

Sections Los Angeles Times

POLITICS

COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat, experts warn

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-21/covid-19-surge-in-south-and-southwest-poses-threat[6/22/2020 9:04:24 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

Returning from a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., early Sunday, President Trump crosses the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press)

By LAURA KING | STAFF WRITER

JUNE 21, 2020 | 2:09 PM

WASHINGTON — Infectious disease experts expressed alarm Sunday over the pace of new coronavirus infections in several states in the South and Southwest, with one likening the spread in parts of the country to a “forest fire.”

At the same time, President Trump’s surrogates insisted he was joking on Saturday when he told rally-goers he had ordered a testing slowdown because the results painted an overly dire picture of the pandemic.

With the United States now reporting a quarter of the world’s coronavirus cases, and daily new-infection counts exceeding 30,000 nationwide on at least two recent days, eight states — California among them — last week hit single-day new-case highs, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

In California, much of the increase in the total number of cases does appear to be a result of more testing, health officials say. That does not fully explain the overall caseload increase in several other states, however, public health experts said, directly contradicting a major talking point by the president and some of his aides.

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In some of the most affected states, such as Florida and Arizona, not only are larger proportions of tests coming back positive, but more of the afflicted are becoming sicker, Thomas Inglesby of Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-21/covid-19-surge-in-south-and-southwest-poses-threat[6/22/2020 9:04:24 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

“What we are seeing is increased positivity in testing, and in many cases increased hospitalization,” Inglesby said. “That’s not just because we’re doing more testing in a state; that’s because there is more serious disease in a state.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) conceded that point at a news conference on Saturday in Tallahassee, the state capital, saying that even with test rates flat or increasing, “the number of people testing positive is accelerating faster than that.”

Although death rates in the U.S. from COVID-19 have continued to decline after the peak hit in New York in April, the number of people hospitalized has climbed sharply in several states, and health officials fear that deaths could start rising again soon.

“This is going to be hard to get under control,” said Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration earlier in Trump’s tenure. “These are big states that have a lot of cases; they’ve been building.”

In addition to California, other states that recently have reported highs in single-day new infections include Florida, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah, according to Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus tracker. Several of those states were among the earliest to allow businesses to fully reopen.

Interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Gottlieb said that while “we’re not going to want to shut down business again,” there were “not a lot of tools we can reach for” as the spread of the virus continues.

Trump has largely ignored the growing signs of an increase, focusing almost exclusively on pushing states to reopen. At his rally Saturday in Tulsa, held amid a spike of coronavirus cases in Oklahoma, he called testing for the virus “a double-edged sword,” adding: “When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people; you’re gonna find more cases.”

Trump has often suggested that more testing fuels an inflated sense of the seriousness of the crisis. But addressing the relatively thin rally crowd — the Tulsa Fire Department on Sunday put attendance at 6,200 in a 19,200-capacity stadium — he went further, saying: “So I said to my people, ‘Slow down the testing, please.’”

The president’s aides quickly declared he was making a humorous aside, a line they stuck

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-21/covid-19-surge-in-south-and-southwest-poses-threat[6/22/2020 9:04:24 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

with in television interviews Sunday.

Trade adviser Peter Navarro, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” called Trump’s testing remark “tongue-in-cheek” and “a light moment.”

Pressed as to why Trump would make a jocular reference to a pandemic that has cost at least 120,000 American lives, he responded testily: “Asked and answered.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said on ABC’s “This Week” that while many of Trump’s remarks on a variety of subjects stem from “a humor standpoint,” the rally comment also reflected “frustration” over media coverage of the coronavirus outbreak.

“All they want to focus on is an increasing test count — we know that’s going to occur when you’re testing more,” he said.

Critics of the president, who in recent weeks have primarily focused on his seeming indifference to the nationwide upheaval over racial injustice, found the remark unfunny. Black people and Latinos are disproportionately sickened and killed by the virus, and in his rally speech, Trump referred to COVID-19 using an anti-Asian slur.

“This is no time to joke,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, asked on CNN about the president’s slow-the-testing comment. “Even if it were a joke, which it was not, it was an inappropriate joke. Do you think the people, the 120,000 families out there who are missing their loved ones, thought it was funny?”

The campaign of Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive opponent in November, seized on the president’s remark as more proof he does not take the virus threat seriously. Senior adviser Symone Sanders, interviewed on Fox, called the comment “an appalling attempt to lessen the numbers only to make him look good.”

Throughout the coronavirus crisis, Trump has largely focused on economic recovery, and public health experts stressed they were not urging a return to the lockdowns that began in mid-March and continued for weeks, sending unemployment soaring.

But too many parts of the United States are acting as if the pandemic is over, said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-21/covid-19-surge-in-south-and-southwest-poses-threat[6/22/2020 9:04:24 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

University of Minnesota.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Osterholm said he saw less likelihood now of a lull between the initial outbreak and a possible second wave later this year.

“I’m actually of the mind right now — I think this is more like a forest fire,” he said. “I don’t think that this is going to slow down.”

Without referring specifically to the Trump administration, he said the lack of a coordinated overall policy was worsening the crisis.

“We’re at 70% of the number of cases today that we were at the very height of the pandemic cases in early April, and yet I don’t see any kind of a ‘This is where we need to go, this is what we need to do to get there’ kind of effort,” Osterholm said. “And that’s one of our challenges.”

Most experts are counseling greater adherence to health guidelines including use of face coverings, physical distancing and caution when in public indoor spaces. At Trump’s rally, most participants were without masks, and many clustered close together. Participants had to sign a waiver saying they would not seek legal redress if they contracted the virus.

Wolf, asked on NBC whether the rally set a bad example and endangered attendees, said “activities like this are allowed” and pointed out that masks and hand sanitizer were available and temperature checks conducted.

“I think it’s important. It’s also a personal choice that people are making,” he said.

Some Trump critics suggested that the rally’s relatively low turnout might have reflected unease about the risk of catching the virus. On Fox News, senior campaign adviser Mercedes Schlapp, told interviewer Chris Wallace that worries about hostile protesters kept some people away, at the same time denying turnout had been disappointing.

“The fact is, people didn’t show up,” Wallace said. “Oh, absolutely they did,” Schlapp retorted.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-21/covid-19-surge-in-south-and-southwest-poses-threat[6/22/2020 9:04:24 AM] COVID-19 surge in South, Southwest poses growing threat - Los Angeles Times

Gov. Gavin Newsom last week ordered Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings, including while shopping or taking public transit. Inglesby, in his Fox interview, said simple measures could still make a big difference.

“We should be encouraging people to wear face coverings, to stay at a distance, to avoid large gatherings, to use hand sanitizer or wash your hands,” he said. “Those are the things that we have seen work, and will work.”

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Laura King

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Laura King is a Washington, D.C.-based reporter for the Los Angeles Times. A member of the Foreign/National staff, she primarily covers foreign affairs. She previously served as bureau chief in Jerusalem, Kabul and Cairo.