Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. Alameda County Public Health Director Muntu Davis contends that gentrification should be examined in terms of health impacts because of the displacement and stress it causes for low-income residents, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. “We’re not saying that development shouldn’t happen,” Davis told the news organization. “We’re saying that development should happen, but it should also maintain the stability of housing for the existing residents.” Davis’ comments coincided with the release of a new report on gentrification that concludes that it’s displacing African-American families in Oakland and San Francisco and is worsening income inequality. The county health department collaborated on the report, which was produced by the tenants’ rights organization Just Cause/Causa Justa.
[jump]
2. Tech billionaire Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne are donating $100 million to Children’s Hospital Oakland and its new health-care partner UC San Francisco, the Chron reports. Children’s Hospital Oakland is also being renamed: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. In 2010, the Benioffs donated $100 million to help build the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.
3. The state Assembly is taking up a bill today that would prohibit amusement parks from keeping orcas, the Chron reports. If passed, the legislation also would force SeaWorld in San Diego to close its killer whale breeding facility. The legislation was inspired by the documentary film Blackfish.
4. Controversy over a measure that sought to reestablish affirmative action in UC admissions has created a deep split among Democrats in the state legislature, with black and Latino politicians who supported the measure at odds with Asian-American lawmakers who successfully tabled it, the SacBee$ reports.
5. And despite his low approval ratings nationwide, President Obama remains quite popular in California, with 53 percent of state residents saying they approve of his job performance, the Bay Area News Group$ reports, citing a new Field Poll.
$ = news stories that may require payment to read.
