Also: A remembrance, and walks.
 | | A man walking his dog Tuesday night in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles.Richard Vogel/Associated Press |
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(Here’s the sign-up, if you don’t already get California Today by email.) |
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It’s Friday and the reopening of California has officially begun. |
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But you may not notice much of a difference. |
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There won’t be masses of people pouring into bars and restaurants, which are still supposed to be closed except for takeout. In-person church services are still off. |
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“These are meaningful modifications,” he said on Thursday. “We’re moving away now from essential or nonessential to lower risk or higher risk.” |
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Some retail businesses, like florists — in time for Mother's Day — as well as clothing, toy, book, music and sporting goods stores, will be able to start operating today, as long as they serve customers with curbside pickup and take other precautionary measures. |
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Manufacturers and suppliers for those kinds of businesses also fell under the change. |
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On Thursday, state officials released updated guidelines for various kinds of workplaces to prepare to reopen, including requiring facilities to implement disinfecting processes and to provide sanitation materials for delivery drivers. |
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Officials also laid out criteria for counties that hope to open sooner than the state more broadly, including opening restaurants for dine-in service. |
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- There has been no more than one Covid-19 case per 10,000 residents in the past 14 days.
- There has been no Covid-19 death in the past 14 days.
- Testing is available for at least 75 percent of residents within a 30 minute drive in urban areas and an hour in rural ones.
- At least 15 people are trained and ready to work as contact tracers per 100,000 residents. In small counties, there should be at least one.
- Temporary housing is available for at least 15 percent of the county’s homeless population in case of an outbreak.
- Hospital capacity can accommodate a surge of 35 percent as a result of new Covid-19 cases.
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Although the criteria are aimed at counties where leaders want to ease restrictions sooner than the state, the list gives more shape to the six indicators that officials said they’ll be tracking to determine when it’s safe to lift the stay-at-home order. |
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 | | Gov. Gavin Newsom at the Display California store in Sacramento on Tuesday.Pool photo by Rich Pedroncelli |
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Mr. Newsom was clear on Thursday about the fiscal disaster facing the state as large parts of the economy are shuttered. |
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He announced that California is now facing a staggering $54.3 billion budget shortfall. |
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In January, Mr. Newsom said, the state had projected continuing job growth, low unemployment, a budget surplus and billions in rainy day money. |
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“In so many ways, it’s not surprising,” he said. But the state would need the federal government’s help to ensure its economy, the fifth largest in the world, can keep running. |
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Most of the losses are expected to come from a plunge in tax revenues. According to The Associated Press, lawmakers are considering new taxes, including one on vaping. |
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Next week, Mr. Newsom is set to release a new proposed budget that will show in more detail where cuts may be coming. |
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Here’s what else we’re following |
We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can. |
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- It’s grim but clarifying: See which companies in the Bay Area have laid people off, and in which cities, with this tracker. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
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If you missed it, here’s more about who’s likely to become unemployed. [The New York Times] |
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- “If the City Council intends to move forward with another reading on a gas ban I can assure you there will be no social distancing.” A utility union president threatened to bus hundreds of protesters into San Luis Obispo to oppose the city’s proposal to encourage all-electric building construction. [The Los Angeles Times]
- Wineries have proposed guidelines for reopening tasting rooms. [Napa Valley Register]
- With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down most productions for now, TV makers are now primarily TV viewers. Here’s what they’re bingeing as they shelter in place. [The New York Times]
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Today’s piece, about Mark D. Neal, was written by Brian Perlman: |
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Mark D. Neal taught third grade for more than two decades in Shasta County. And yet when he bumped into former students, he recognized every single one. He received wedding invitations from students he had taught years before. |
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“He saw the good in every single person,” one of his daughters, Alexandra Neal, said. “It didn’t matter if they were homeless or the richest person — he would treat them the same.” |
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Mr. Neal seemed to be in excellent health until late February, when he showed up in an emergency room with pneumonia and was sent home with antibiotics. Weeks later, he learned he had acute myeloid leukemia, and soon after tested positive for Covid-19. He died on April 4. He was 62. |
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A week before he was admitted to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, he sent a screenshot of his Apple Watch to one of his daughters to show her that he had topped 20 miles on his bike that day. Mr. Neal, a father of three, loved riding his bike on Shasta County’s river trails. He had a hunger for travel, taking trips to Croatia and Western Europe. He built his own computers. He got a thrill each time he spotted an eagle. And he worked hard to encourage students from low-income backgrounds. |
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“He made everyone feel so loved and accepted,” Ms. Neal said. |
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 | | Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times |
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I have friends who run marathons. They track their miles, and assiduously plan their routes. The pandemic jogging habit I’ve taken up is categorically not that. |
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Sure, I exercised before all this started, but I’ve always hated running. It felt at once utilitarian and aimless. |
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Now, though, it’s a way to leave my apartment, my laptop and the news. I see parents playing on their postage-stamp lawns with their kids, I breathe in the scent of jasmine. When I get winded (pretty much immediately), I stop to look at interesting flowers, satisfied I may never know their names. |
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All this is to say, just putting “one foot in front of the other” — as my colleagues put it in this photo essay inspired by readers’ walks — can be a meditative act; I hope you get a chance to enjoy something like that this weekend. |
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 | | Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times |
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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter. |
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California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. |
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