Category Archives: Vallejo CA

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Fairfield CA, Solano County CA, Vacaville CA, Vallejo CA

COVID-19 in Solano County – 15 new cases over the weekend, curve continues up, partial city listings, fewer tests

UPDATE: See today’s latest information

Monday, April 6 – 15 new cases – 3 on Saturday, 9 on Sunday, 3 more on Monday, total now 88:

Solano County Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Updates and Resources, April 1, 2020.  Check out basic information in this screenshot.   IMPORTANT: Note the County’s interactive page has more.  On the County website, you can click on “Number of cases” and then hover over the charts for detailed information.

Last report (Friday, April 4):

Summary:

Solano County reported 15 NEW POSITIVE CASES over the weekend and today – total is now 88.  No new deaths in Solano County – still only 1.

For the first time, County officials are disclosing case numbers for Solano cities.  Larger cities show numerical data: Vallejo 28 cases; Fairfield 26 cases; and Vacaville 14 cases.  Smaller cities are not assigned numerical data: all show <10 (less than 10).  Residents and city officials have been pressuring County officials for city case counts for the past two weeks.  Today’s response is welcome, but incomplete.

As of today, 63 positive cases were individuals between the ages of 19 and 64 (72% of the total – up 2% since last report), and 25 were 65 were older, (28% of the total – down 2% since last report).  35 of the 88 are active cases (2 more than previously reported), and 23 of the total cases have resulted in hospitalizations (1 more than previously reported).

TESTING seems to be minimal in Solano County and most recently somewhat on the decline.

Most recent numbers for specimens collected are:

    • 3 on Saturday, April 4
    • 4 on Friday, April 3
    • 6 on Thursday, April 2.

Check out basic information in the screenshots here on Benicia Independent.  IMPORTANT: Note the County’s interactive page has more.  On the County website, you can click on “Number of cases” and then hover over the charts for detailed information.

Solano’s steep upward curve

The chart at right gives a clear picture of the infection’s trajectory in Solano County.  Our coronavirus curve is on a steep uphill climb!

Everyone stay home and be safe!

Coronavirus, Covid 19, Vallejo CA

Vallejo emergency orders: curbside medical marijuana, essential businesses, no evictions

Greg Nyhoff issues emergency orders for medical weed, evictions, and essential businesses

Vallejo Times-Herald, by John Glidden, March 18, 2020 at 6:02 p.m.
Nyhoff

Allowing the city’s cannabis businesses to offer curbside pick-up of medical marijuana is one of three orders issued Wednesday by Vallejo City Manager Greg Nyhoff, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nyhoff’s orders also included keeping essential businesses open to the public, while limiting residential and business evictions in the city.

The orders come just two days after the Vallejo City Council approved a proclamation declaring a local state of emergency as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The move also gives Nyhoff emergency powers as Vallejo’s director of emergency services.

“These three orders really help to keep the city safe,” Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan said by phone on Wednesday. “They also keep the city up and running.”

The city’s 11 cannabis storefront businesses are now allowed to “conduct curbside pick­-up of medical cannabis goods under video surveillance or under monitor of the retailer’s security personnel,” the order states. Retailers are still required to check a customer’s age under state law.

Nyhoff stated that such businesses are essential health care operations. His second order listed almost every type of business as essential, including grocery stores, certified farmers’ markets, food banks, convenience stores, and other establishments engaged in the retail sale of canned food, dry goods, fresh fruits, businesses that provide food, shelter, and social services, and other necessities of life for economically disadvantaged or otherwise needy individuals.

Also listed as essential were newspapers, and other media services, gas stations and auto-supply, auto-repair, and related facilities, banks and related financial institutions, hardware stores, plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety, sanitation, and essential operation of residences.

The order further identifies businesses providing mailing and shipping services, including post office boxes, educational institutions, laundromats, dry cleaners, and laundry service providers, restaurants and other facilities that prepare and serve food, airlines, taxis, and other private transportation providers providing transportation services necessary for essential activities and other purposes expressly authorized in Nyhoff’s order.

The order stipulates that Nyhoff is “to assist continuing services of an Essential Business and to support its operations to maintain financial feasibility, that any Essential Business is able to provide delivery services of its products to all residents of the City of Vallejo.”

Finally, Nyhoff declared that all residential and business evictions based on a tenant’s loss of income or need to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses due to COVID-19 are prohibited.

All three orders stay until the council rescinds the emergency proclamation they approved on Monday.

For more information, visit cityofvallejo.net/NCOV.

Benicia CA, Local news media, News deserts, Vallejo CA

“LOSING THE NEWS – The Decimation of Local Journalism…”

[Editor: The report below, “Losing the News,” is a really important work for our times.  My home town of Benicia, California, population around 28,000, has suffered cutbacks in all of our local news providers.  Our Benicia Herald is limping along with very little staff, prints on only 3 days per week.  Our next door neighbor, Vallejo, California, population around 122,000, was unable to sustain a Benicia reporter several years ago, and rarely covers news in Benicia.  The Contra Costa Times / East Bay Times quit covering Benicia and other small Bay Area communities long ago.  “News Deserts” are appearing all across the country.  “Losing the News” is a formidable analysis of the phenomenon, including important “big picture solutions” and recommendations.  The report is copyrighted and can’t be reproduced here. Check out the contents below and click to read the report at https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Losing-the-News-The-Decimation-of-Local-Journalism-and-the-Search-for-Solutions-Report.pdf  – R.S.]

LOSING THE NEWS
The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solutions

November 20, 2019, by PEN America

CONTENTS

LETTER 4
INTRODUCTION 5
WHAT IS A LOCAL NEWS ECOSYSTEM? 7
WHY LOCAL NEWS MATTERS 8
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM SOUTHEASTERN N. CAROLINA  18
THE DECIMATION OF LOCAL NEWS   24
SYSTEMIC INEQUITY IN U.S. NEWS MEDIA  33
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DETROIT  37
INDUSTRY ADAPTATION AND INNOVATION  43
CASE STUDY: VIEW FROM DENVER  49
BIG PICTURE SOLUTIONS  56
RECOMMENDATIONS 76
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 80
ENDNOTES 81

Read the report at https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Losing-the-News-The-Decimation-of-Local-Journalism-and-the-Search-for-Solutions-Report.pdf

Cover image: a decommissioned newspaper box abandoned in an alley in California; credit: Robert Alexander / Archive photos via Getty Images

The report was generously funded by Peter and Pam Barbey.

Benicia CA, Donald Trump, Impeachment, Vallejo CA

Benicia and Vallejo residents’ thoughts on impeachment vote


[BenIndy Editor: Thanks to Times-Herald reporter John Glidden for including my comment in his report.  – Roger Straw]

Locals mostly positive toward historic vote

By John Glidden, Vallejo Times-Herald, December 18, 2019 at 6:36 pm

As President Donald Trump became just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, many residents in the local area reacted favorably to Wednesday’s impeachment proceedings.

“We cannot allow a sitting president to usurp the United States Constitution, and use his office as a political weapon,” said Thomas Bilbo, chairman of the Solano Pride Center Board. “Donald Trump has failed the American people by using the power of his office in a way that threatens to destroy our democracy, and the Republican Party seems to be willing to let him do it.”

The House of Representative impeached the president on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Impeachment proceedings began after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a formal inquiry into the president’s dealings with Ukraine.

“The divisions we’re seeing on Capitol Hill is based on one party using facts to determine actions by our President damaged our democracy and credibility around the world,” added Bilbo, who is also a candidate for the Solano County Democratic Central Committee. “The other party is just blustering and name calling because they are unwilling to look past party politics and see that the validity of the US Constitution is at stake.”

Supportive of the impeachment, local Gretchen Zimmermann said she was still worried for the future of the country.

“Never before in my lifetime have we been so far removed from being able to agree on basic facts. People now feel entitled to believe any version of reality that pleases them,” Zimmermann said prior to the House votes. “I’m not hearing any rational debate from the Republicans in the hearings, only loud declarations of a different version of reality. Orwellian dystopia is here now.”

Zimmermann said she didn’t feel the lead-up to Wednesday’s House votes had the same energy when President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998.

“I’m old enough to remember (President Richard) Nixon, too. I was a kid, but, by this stage of the Nixon impeachment (process), people who paid attention to the evidence raised during the hearings, including Nixon’s supporters, came around to thinking Nixon had done wrong,” she added. “We had the Fairness Doctrine back then. We didn’t have Fox News screaming alternative facts.”

Vallejoan and business owner Ken Ingersoll also spoke about the parallels between the Clinton and Trump impeachments.“I think the impeachment is political theater,” he said. “No different than what the Republicans did to Clinton. Back then, Republicans took their best shot in a good economy, well today, the way I see it, it’s just desserts for them.”

Benician Roger Straw said he wasn’t surprised by Wednesday’s votes.

“Trump’s uncivil, ignorant and malign leadership and lack of leadership has been on display constantly over the last three years, and the clarity of Trump’s actions involving Ukraine and his open contempt of Congress give no other recourse but to impeach,” he said. “Congress and the public have remained vigilant throughout, and stand by the Constitution’s right — and responsibility — to hold no one above the law, including a corrupt president.”

With Trump’s impeachment, a trial in the Senate will take place. Two-thirds of the Senate must be present to agree to remove Trump from office.