Speculation had swirled in recent weeks about who’d get the nod to join Kennedy, the son of the late New York U.S. senator and attorney general who was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.

Many political oddsmakers believed it would be Shanahan, a lawyer and mega-donor with Silicon Valley connections as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The 38-year-old has no political experience but helped fund an RFK Jr. Super Bowl ad that riffed on a famous 1960 ad for his uncle John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. But Shanahan may best be known for a relationship with Elon Musk that led to her divorce from Brin and severed his friendship with the Tesla founder.

Kennedy praised Shanahan as an ally for voters who are disappointed with today’s political leaders and welcomed her to a campaign that polls show could have a major impact on stripping crucial votes from President Biden and former President Trump. A Real Clear Politics average of recent polls in five battleground states showed Kennedy polling with 12.3% of the vote behind Trump’s 40.7% and Biden’s 35.3%.

“Like many of us, Nicole assumed the U.S. government was working for the people, that the Democratic Party was on the side of the middle class and the working poor,” Kennedy said. “I too used to believe those things. Do you remember those days?”

Kennedy used the build up to his vice presidential pick to spark attention around a campaign largely built around his opposition to vaccines. Top contenders included NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, known to share Kennedy’s vaccine criticisms, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Kennedy campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said the vice presidential announcement allows Kennedy to begin collecting signatures in 20 states that require a vice presidential candidate to qualify the ticket for the ballot. They have been gathering signatures in 16 states.

Inside the Kaiser Center auditorium, a pair of musicians with a Fender guitar and electric keyboard played rock music while vintage black-and-white photos of Robert F. Kennedy and color nature shots flashed on two large screens flanking the stage. Kennedy’s wife, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Cheryl Hines, introduced him to the crowd.

“Our campaign is a spoiler, I agree, a spoiler for President Biden and President Trump,” Kennedy said, arguing that voters are hungry for an alternative to choosing between “two tired heads of the uni-party.”

“Nicole and I are going to give those millions another choice,” Kennedy told the crowd. “Now I have a governing partner who will fight for you and your family”

Shanahan talked about growing up in Oakland, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant mother and an Irish-German father who struggled with substance abuse and joblessness, in a family that often was forced to rely on public assistance.

“This city will always have a special place in my heart,” Shanahan said. Though she’d been a longtime Democrat and party donor, she said she became disillusioned with a party she said has “lost its way” and become beholden to corporate interests. A friend persuaded her to listen to Kennedy, and she said he won her over. As the mother of a child with autism, she shares his concerns that exposure to poorly regulated drugs, chemicals, electro-magnetic fields are contributing to a chronic illness epidemic.

“I saw a person with intelligence and compassion and reason,” Shanahan said. “For the first time, I felt hope.”

“It’s time, as Bobby Kennedy says, to focus on our unifying values,” Shanahan said.

Ann Ratsep, 56, of San Francisco, said she trusted Kennedy to pick a good running mate.

“I’m excited about her,” said Ratsep, who voted for Marianne Williamson in the 2020 Democratic primaries and said Shanahan struck her as “very honest.” “I think her youth will be a good thing.”

Scott Rewick and Laura Taylor, who came to Oakland from Sonoma for the veep reveal, agreed. Rewick said he’s a Republican and Taylor a Democrat, but both are disillusioned by their party’s choices. Rewick said he hasn’t voted in years. Taylor said she voted for Biden in 2020, but she agreed with Kennedy that people shouldn’t vote for the major-party candidates “out of fear.”

“This is the kind of guy that can get me back into voting,” Rewick, 55, said. “We need someone who can really heal this country. I walk away with hope.”

Among the gathering wearing a Kennedy 2024 button and ballcap was Joanie Jones. The 70-year-old Richmond woman said she didn’t vote for either Biden or Trump in the 2020 election “because I was so disgusted” by the choices. But Kennedy won her over with his commitment to “medical freedom,” including not forcing people to get vaccinated.

“That’s all he had to do to get my vote,” said Jones, who said she remembers Kennedy’s father and uncle from her childhood and suspects the government had something to do with their deaths but that Kennedy is carrying on their tradition. “He’s the freedom candidate.”

The plan is part of yearlong effort to overhaul regulations and ease the insurance market crisis in the wildfire-stricken state.

Insurers use catastrophe models to calculate rates in every other state, but California has instead required the companies to use only historic loss experience based on the past 20 years. Insurers say that keeps them from pricing the growing risks from a warming climate into policies. In recent years, many insurers have stopped offering new coverage and dropped customers in wildfire risk areas, forcing them to buy bare-bones, last-resort policies at two or three times the cost.

“We can no longer look solely to the past as a guide to the future,” Lara said in a statement Thursday. “My strategy will help modernize our marketplace, restoring options for consumers while safeguarding the independent, transparent review of rate filings by Department of Insurance experts, which is a bedrock principle of California law.”

The second-term elected commissioner has been in a political vice as a growing number of homeowners in and around wildland areas from the Bay Area and beyond face soaring premiums and cancelled coverage due to escalating wildfire losses. The state has experienced 14 of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires over the past 10 years. It has only aggravated the state’s worsening problems with housing affordability, a top voter concern.

Consumer advocates behind the 1989 Proposition 103 voter initiative that set the state’s current insurance regulatory framework have criticized computer modeling as proprietary “black box” formulas that amount to fancy risk estimates insurers would use to drive unwarranted rate hikes.

Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield, Prop 103’s author, has noted that catastrophe modeling hasn’t helped hurricane-wracked Florida, which is facing a home insurance crisis of its own while homeowners there already pay some of the highest premiums in the country. He’s not necessarily opposed to them but said there must be transparency around their use. Consumer Watchdog says such models have helped push Florida rates two to three times higher than in California’s.

“Black box catastrophe models are notoriously contradictory and unreliable, which is why public review and transparency are key before insurance companies are allowed to use them to raise rates,” Rosenfield said Thursday. He said Lara’s plan “appears drafted to limit the information available to the public about the impact of models on rates in violation of Proposition 103.”

Insurers, however, applauded Lara’s proposal and argued that it will go a long way toward stabilizing the California home insurance market.

“As Californians grapple with record inflation and become increasingly vulnerable to climate-driven extreme weather, including catastrophic wildfires, this is a critically needed tool to help identify future risks more accurately and set rates that reflect our new reality,” said Mark Sektnan, vice president of state government relations for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. “More accurate ratemaking will help restore balance to the insurance market and ensure all Californians have access to the coverage they need.”

The Department of Insurance is inviting public comment on the proposed catastrophe modeling regulation ahead of an April 23 meeting. That will help shape the final regulation expected by the end of the year.

It is the second initiative in a plan Lara announced last fall, spurred by Gov. Gavin Newsom, for what he called the biggest overhaul of the state’s insurance regulations in three decades. He expects to complete the plan by December.

Last month Lara unveiled a proposal to speed approval of requested rate increases, but both consumer advocates and insurers voiced concerns about that plan. A public hearing is scheduled March 26.

Faster rate approval and predictive catastrophe modeling are two of three key demands insurers have insisted are needed to stabilize the insurance market and provide homeowners with more coverage options. A third, allowing insurers to bill policy holders for reinsurance — coverage insurers buy for themselves to limit their catastrophic loss exposure — is expected to be announced soon.

Lara has promised that in exchange for granting insurers’ ratemaking wishes, they must agree to provide 85% of their statewide home insurance market share in wildfire-risk areas. Rosenfield and independent industry analysts have been skeptical that such a commitment is feasible or enforceable.

Catastrophe modeling already is being used in the state to set policy rates for earthquakes and fires caused by them, Lara said. The new proposal would expand the use to include wildfire, terrorism and flood protection for homeowners and commercial property.

Commercial insurance policies to cover terrorism are offered separately, while standard homeowners policies cover fire, smoke and explosion, which could include acts of terrorism. Terrorism is too infrequent in the U.S. to base risk on historical losses, but the department said catastrophe modeling could provide a tool to better assess that risk.

Rosenfield said the proposed rule could lead to even further expansion of catastrophe modeling to boost rates for car insurance and coverage of other risks unrelated to wildfires and that it “fails to spell out whether or how the Department of Insurance would assess a model’s bias, accuracy, or the validity of the science.”

The commissioner said that the proposal allows for sufficient public oversight because the catastrophe models used by insurers would be reviewed by a panel of experts overseen by his department. The models, he said, would stabilize rates over time and also take into account homeowner and community “hardening” efforts to lower fire risk.

In addition to Baker, the toothpick-chewing former manager of the San Francisco Giants, Lee this week announced her campaign is backed by Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson — team members during the Oakland A’s glory days, and Shooty Babitt and Tye Waller, who also have connections to Lee’s district hometown team, which is planning a move to Las Vegas. Baker and Stewart are former Los Angeles Dodgers teammates of Steve Garvey, one of Lee’s rivals in the Senate race who has rocketed past her in the polls since joining the contest in October.

“Barbara Lee has always fought the good fight to keep all Americans safe and protect our civil liberties, to keep our country moving forward in the right direction,” said Stewart, who pitched on World Series winning teams for the Dodgers in 1981, the A’s in 1989 and the Blue Jays in 1993. He was teammates with Garvey on that 1981 World Series winning team in LA.

Garvey, a first baseman for the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres over a major league career from 1969 to 1987 in which he was a 10-time All Star, four-time Gold Glover and 1974 National League MVP, has said the endorsements that matter most to him are from public safety first-responders. His supporters include the San Diego Police Officers Association and El Monte Police Officers Association.

Garvey has criticized the Democratic members of Congress in the race — Reps. Adam Schiff of Burbank, Katie Porter of Irvine and Lee — for problems with the border, housing costs, homelessness and crime that have worsened under their watch. Lee has been in Congress since 1998, Schiff since 2001 and Porter since 2018.

Polls have consistently put Lee in fourth place behind Schiff, Garvey and Porter, and a new poll out Friday put Garvey in front of the pack as he consolidates the votes of Republicans and independents frustrated with the state’s problems.

Lee will attend a campaign event Saturday in San Diego with Waller, a former MLB third baseman and an A’s coach from 2007 to 2015.

Baker, a two-time World Series champion as both a player and manager, played in MLB from 1968 to 1986 for the Atlanta Braves, Dodgers, San Francisco Giants and A’s. He went on to manage the Giants, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, and now is an advisor to the Giants.

Henderson, also a two-time World Series champion, was an outfielder in the majors from 1979 to 2003 in which he was a 10-time all star and set career and single-season stolen base records.

Babitt played as an infielder for the A’s in 1981 and went on to become a scout and TV analyst.

Schiff, who has led the race in fundraising and polling and was in a statistical tie with Garvey in Friday’s poll, has the endorsement of Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker; former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer; and more than 300 other California elected officials including 80% of the state’s Democratic congressional delegation. He also is backed by 18 statewide labor unions.

Porter is endorsed by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, California Rep. Robert Garcia, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and several state lawmakers including Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Assembly members Buffy Wicks of Oakland and Alex Lee of Milpitas, as well as the California Labor Federation and Consumer Federation of California.

But while Bay Area fans of the Red and Gold are being bombarded with pitches from major sportsbooks online and on TV, they won’t actually be able to get in on the action unless they hop a flight to Sin City or motor over the border to Nevada or another nearby state.

“There’s no legal sports betting in California yet, no authorized state-regulated way to just bet on San Francisco to win the game,” said Geoff Zochodne, an analyst for sports betting information hub Covers.

A number of states — including California’s nearest neighbors, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon — have allowed commercial sports gambling since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way in a 2018 decision. But with the notable exception of horse racing and fantasy sports, California remains among a dozen or so states that outlaw commercial sports betting, even at tribal casinos. And that’s not likely to change soon.

Gaming interests spent heavily on a pair of competing 2022 initiatives to allow sports betting either online or on-location at tribal casinos, and voters rejected both by large margins.

Late last year, a small group of entrepreneurs proposed a pair of initiatives aimed at the 2024 ballot that would legalize sports betting through California’s tribal casinos. But the state’s gaming tribes weren’t consulted and weren’t on board. Though the state says the proposed initiatives remain clear to begin signature-gathering, proponents have stopped responding to questions about them and the gaming tribes say they’ve been withdrawn.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be other efforts in the near future — California remains the biggest potential prize in the U.S. sports betting market — but legal sportsbooks in California remain years away.

“It’s too big of a market and there’s too much revenue and profit for people to not find some way to get it off the ground,” said Robert Linnehan, sports betting regulation expert and editor of Sports Betting Dime. “Tribes have said 2026 is another year they’d be interested in taking a look at it.”

For now, California tribes are closely watching how a legal battle plays out in Florida, where an effort to legalize sports betting through the Seminole tribe in 2021 is being challenged in court.

But 49ers fans who want to throw money at the game shouldn’t feel too left out. Missouri, home of the Chiefs, also bans sports betting. New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania remain the top U.S. sports-betting states.

That this year’s Super Bowl is being played in Las Vegas wasn’t lost on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who warned league players and staff this week that “betting on NFL games or inside information or anything that would negatively impact the integrity of our game is absolutely off limits.”

Dr. Timothy Fong, an addiction psychiatrist and co-director of the University of California-Los Angeles Gambling Studies Program, said it’s hard to tell whether the growing presence of sports betting is spurring gambling addiction. A 2007 study indicated about 1% of people in California suffer from it. But he said even though California outlaws sports betting, its nearly overtaken slot machines as the state’s main avenue to addiction.

“Every year the Super Bowl does a lot to bring out those addictions,” Fong said.

So what are the options for Niners fans who feel lucky enough to bet what will be Grammy-winning halftime headliner Usher’s last song? For those who stay in California, there are unregulated offshore sportsbooks online, but the experts say beware.

“Nobody’s going to be knocking down your door if you bet $20 on an unregulated sports book,” Linnehan said. “But basically you have no consumer protection. Consumers are pretty much on their own giving their personal information and banking numbers to these books. If you get your identity stolen, who are you going to complain to?”

For those willing to travel, online sportsbooks operated by the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics and Caesars are available in many neighboring states. Those who set up accounts outside of California cannot place bets while they’re in the state, but can do so as soon as they cross the border.

Industry insiders like Raphael Esparza, global oddsmaker from Doc’s Sports Service, say there’s been intense interest in Super Bowl LVIII, with two teams closely matched and engaging “storylines.”

Will the 49ers avenge their loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV? Can Kansas City pull off back-to-back Super Bowl wins, something that’s only happened eight times? How will the Niners’ Mr. Irrelevant quarterback Brock Purdy stack up against the dynamic KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes? The sizzling romance between KC tight end Travis Kelce and pop phenom Taylor Swift — will she and Mahomes’ wife Brittany wear the same thing?

“It would not shock me if it breaks records for the most-bet Super Bowl,” Esparza said.

Fox Sports reported someone in Michigan bet $1 million on the Red and Gold, for which a win would net $833,333.

There also are myriad proposition or “prop” bets on just about anything imaginable. Fox Sports reported somebody in Michigan bet $100,000 on the pregame coin flip being tails, for which a win would net $95,238. And don’t forget the Swift factor — what she’ll wear, whether she’ll be shown on TV during the halftime show or mentioned in the postgame Most Valuable Player speech.

Esparza is betting the Grammy-winner will be driving more money into the sportsbooks. Why?

“There are more Swifties,” he said of Taylor’s devotees, “than 49ers fans.”

The California Department of Public Health advises that if you or someone you love is affected by gambling disorder, there is no-cost, confidential help available by phone at 1-800-GAMBLER, by texting SUPPORT to 53342 and online at 800gambler.chat

That’s right. You can vote — and mail it in (no postage necessary) — as soon as you get yours. There are just some weird rules to keep in mind on who you can vote for and how — especially at the top of the ticket. Here’s a primer.

Q. What’s on the ballot?

A. Voters will choose presidential candidates — depending on your party — and narrow down crowds of contenders to a final two to succeed the late Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate and veterans Anna Eshoo and Barbara Lee in the House of Representatives. And there’s a multibillion-dollar mental health bond measure and countless local school bonds to decide and municipal offices to fill.

“Early voting starts on Feb. 5, the day we begin mailing out vote-by-mail ballots,” said Steve Goltiao, a communications officer with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters.

Q. Will former President Donald Trump be on my ballot?

A. Only if you’re registered as a Republican — which you can do just for the primary. Quirks in California’s primary election system mean there are some special rules for voting at the top of the ticket that you’ll want to pay special attention to. Political parties may restrict voting for their presidential nominees and central committee members to their registered voters, the way it was done in the old days.

Q. What if I’m registered but not with any political party?

A. If you’re among the more than 1 in 5 California voters registered with no party preference, the ballot you receive will have no presidential nominees listed for you to choose from.

The Democratic, Libertarian and American Independent parties do allow “crossover” voting by “no party preference” voters — but not by those registered with other parties. No-party voters may request a Democratic, Libertarian or American Independent crossover ballot from their local elections office to vote for those candidates without registering with their parties.

No-party voters who want to vote for the Republican, Green or Peace and Freedom party presidential candidates, however, must register with one of those parties to get their ballots. For those asking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., he’s running as an independent and looking to be listed on November ballots.

Q. What about those hot races for Congress?

A. Everyone gets to vote in those — regardless of your party. For partisan congressional and state races, candidates of all political stripes will appear on ballots. And because California’s “top two” primary system adopted in 2011 is in play, voters can choose among all party candidates, with the two who get the most votes March 5 advancing to the November election, even if they’re from the same party.

Q. What else do I have to study up on?

A. Candidates for local races as well as state and local measures also will appear on ballots. For local races, a candidate can win the seat outright with more than half the vote in the primary, otherwise, the two top finishers face off in November.

A few places in California including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Leandro have adopted “ranked choice” voting in which voters rank their choices among candidates and a winner is determined from that election. Alameda County has only one ranked choice office to fill, for Oakland auditor, and there is only one candidate.

Q. So what do you need to do to vote?

A. Make sure you are registered. Not sure? You can check with the Secretary of State’s office online at RegisterToVote.ca.gov. If you are not, or want to change your registration, you can do it online through Feb. 20 at that same online link. You will need your California driver license or identification card number, your social security number and date of birth.

To register or change your registration after Feb. 20 through Election Day March 5, you will have to appear in person at your local polling place, vote center or county elections office.

Q. OK, I’m registered and got my ballot, now what?

A. Once you’re registered and have the ballot you want, just follow the instructions to fill it out and either drop it in the mail by election day — again, no postage necessary — or in a marked election office ballot drop box, or at a vote center, polling place or county election office.

Ballots must be postmarked by March 5, so make sure if you take it to a post box or office that day that the mail hasn’t already been collected. Election offices must receive ballots within 7 days of election for it to be counted. If you received a new replacement ballot, destroy your old one.

You can track your ballot online to see that it arrived and got counted through the Secretary of State’s WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov.

Q. Still confused?

A. State and local election officials worried about voter confusion over the different rules have been taking extra steps to make sure they understand. The California Secretary of State’s toll-free voter information hotline — (800) 345-VOTE (8683) — has been receiving hundreds of calls a day.

“We do want to make sure that everybody is aware,” Goltiao said

A bill introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, would require new cars to be equipped with technology that would prevent them from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit — wherever they are.

Weiner’s bill, SB 961, will be considered by lawmakers this spring. If approved, starting in 2027, new cars would be equipped with “speed governors” or an “intelligent speed limiter system” that would tap into the same geolocation technology that provides real-time mapping and traffic information to motorists to limit the vehicle’s ability to exceed local speed limits. Popular apps such as Waze and Garmin GPS display the posted speed limit and how fast a car is traveling.

“This is an idea whose time has come,” said Wiener. “It does not make sense to allow people to drive 20-30 miles over the speed limit.”

Though the technology would limit cars to driving no more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit, it calls for a temporary override feature for emergency situations where the driver may need to go faster. It would not apply to emergency vehicles — ambulances, fire trucks and police patrol cars.

Wiener said he introduced the bill out of safety concerns, noting an alarming rise in roadway fatalities. State figures from the California Highway Patrol and California Office of Traffic Safety show statewide traffic fatalities rose from 2,835 in 2011 to 4,285 in 2021.

The state’s mileage death rate — fatalities per 100 million miles traveled — has risen from 0.87 in 2011 to 1.38 in 2021, a concerning trend in rates that had been declining from the 1930s through 2010.

The National Transportation Safety Board, after investigating a multi-vehicle pileup in North Las Vegas that killed nine, recommend a requirement for intelligent speed assistance technology in all new cars and said speeding-related crashes killed 12,330 in 2021, about a third of all U.S. traffic fatalities.

“This crash is the latest in a long line of tragedies we’ve investigated where speeding and impairment led to catastrophe, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the time.

New York City a year ago announced that a test program using the technology on city fleet vehicles improved speed-limit compliance and reduced incidents of “hard braking” that indicate unsafe driving. The city’s pilot program allowed a 15-second override of the speed-checking technology.

Wiener said he’d “be happy to drop the bill” if there’s a federal requirement for the technology nationally. But he said he’s not too worried about California car buyers motoring over the border to neighboring states to get their hands on a car with unlimited potential to earn them a speeding citation.

“We hear that argument every time we have a new safety regulation in California,” Wiener said. “There’s always a certain number of people who will do that, but generally people won’t. It will at some point be a federal requirement.”

The California New Car Dealers Association has not yet taken a position on the newly introduced legislation, which Wiener said has no formal opposition yet.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the trade association for U.S. automakers, said in a statement Thursday that it would accept a requirement to include such technology on vehicles as part of a broader “safe system” approach advocated by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Wiener said the public has accepted roadway safety requirements that initially got some pushback, such as seat belts, infant car seats and motorcycle helmets.

One such law that didn’t gain acceptance, however, was the national 55 mph speed limit. U.S. officials imposed the National Maximum Speed Law in 1974 in response to the 1973 oil embargo as a fuel-saving measure, restricting speeds to a maximum 55 mph on federal interstate roadways. In its first year, road fatalities declined 16.4%, according to a 2009 American Journal of Public Health study.

But over the years it was routinely ignored and Congress passed legislation in 1987 allowing states to raise the speed limit to 65 mph, and in 1995, removed federal speed limits altogether. The 2009 study concluded that higher speeds led to a rise in road deaths and said “our data support reinstating lower speed limits.”

Drivers weighing in Thursday at a San Jose Chevron station on Wiener’s “speed governor” were split on the idea.

“If you’re going more than 10 over, that’s probably a little too quick,” said Jake Maroney, 19, of San Jose, as he gassed up his black Chevy Camaro. “I don’t think I’d have a problem with it.”

But Mansour Mohamadi, who was filling his black Mercedes CL 500 at a nearby pump, wasn’t so sure. Such a requirement in California would likely prompt him to shop for his next car out of state, he said.

“A lot of people in the Bay Area love their cars,” said Mohamadi, a San Jose State University engineering student. “It would cause a big uproar in the car community.”

The California Department of Public Health says the new guidance — shortening the isolation period from five days to one — aligns COVID-19 recommendations with those for other circulating respiratory viruses such as influenza while acknowledging the disease poses a lower risk today with so many people having been vaccinated or recovered from past infection.

“The reason for these changes is that we are now at a different point in time with reduced impacts from COVID-19 compared to prior years,” the California Department of Public Health said.

The Jan. 9 guidance shift “did represent some significant changes,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.

But while he said the new guidance “does make sense,” given the reduced threat of the virus today, it’s also made some disease experts uncomfortable, given the timing.

“COVID is a more serious illness than influenza — that observation makes me pause about these recommendations,” Swartzberg said. “Another thing that makes me pause is that they came out at a time after students were back in school and at a time when COVID cases are increasing, and hospitalizations up until last week had been increasing.”

The CDPH reported that there were 563 new COVID-19 hospital admissions in California as of Jan. 5, numbers not seen since last January. Wastewater samples in Santa Clara County indicate high concentrations of the virus countywide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa and Solano counties have moderate levels of new hospitalizations while other Bay Area counties are low. Butte County is low as well, with 10 hospital admissions of confirmed COVID from Jan. 7-13. The CDC reports that 62% of cases nationally are likely the JN.1 subvariant, a newer member of the virus’ omicron family that’s been dominant since late 2022. The current vaccines are based on earlier omicron subvariants and continue to offer protection.

Health officials say protection from vaccines and past infections fades over time and urge people to get the shots. But the CDC reports only about 21% of U.S. adults and 24% in California have had the updated shots that were rolled out last fall. The CDC said among children under 18, just 8% nationally and 7% in California have had the updated shots.

The new CDPH guidance advises those with COVID-19 symptoms to stay home until they are fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication and other COVID-19 symptoms​ are mild and improving, a move away from the previous recommendation for five days of isolation even if someone has no symptoms.

CDPH still advises those with COVID to wear face masks when around other people indoors for 10 days after becoming sick or testing positive, though they don’t need a mask if they have two negative tests at least one day apart.

The CDPH also urges those with COVID to avoid contact with people at higher-risk for severe disease, such as the elderly, people with weakened immunity or those living in congregate care facilities, for 10 days.

Bay Area school districts have begun notifying parents about the new guidance. Oakland Unified School District sent notices Monday advising that the district will no longer issue COVID-19 isolation notifications that provide the first possible date staff or students can return to school after testing positive. Staff or students who test positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms can continue to come to school as long as they wear masks indoors for 10 days after their last positive test and avoid contact with higher-risk people, the district said.

Fremont Unified School District Superintendent CJ Cammack said the new state guidelines “will go into effect on January 22.”

Santa Clara Unified School District spokeswoman Jennifer Dericco said the district has already switched to the new guidance, calling it “a welcome change” for the district’s staff. She added that absence rates have been about the same as this time last year.

San Ramon Valley Unified School District spokeswoman Ilana Israel Samuels said the district has updated its advice to families, and that since winter break there have been 37 reported COVID cases districtwide.

For those who have had rough experiences with the virus, the change was unsettling. Grace Stetson, a freelance writer in Santa Cruz, still hasn’t regained her sense of smell and says she has more trouble fighting off colds since a COVID infection last May. She does her best to avoid the virus and said the revised rules, at a time when virus levels are high, was “very discouraging.”

“It really doesn’t make sense and leaves me at loss for words,” said Stetson, 30. “I’m still dealing with the ramifications of having COVID.”

Swartzberg said that he’s seen both praise and condemnation for the new guidance among health professionals.

“I’ve talked to people in public health who support it, and I’ve talked to people in public health who think it’s terrible,” Swartzberg said. “I don’t think it’s great or terrible. CDPH is trying to find that sweet spot.”

Newsom attributed the rosier deficit outlook in Wednesday’s proposed budget to his office using more optimistic revenue expectations than the legislative analysts who estimated last month’s higher figure.

With that shrunken shortfall, Newsom unveiled a proposed $291.5 billion budget for 2024-25, including a $208.7 billion general fund that covers operating expenses for most programs including education, health and human services, criminal justice and transportation. But the gap is still daunting.

“For decades and decades we’ve come to expect the volatility in our tax system,” Newsom said, where revenue “goes up during good times, goes down very badly in the bad times.

“This is a story of correction and normalcy, and one that we in some respects anticipated, and one we’re certainly prepared to work through.”

The governor said his proposed budget maintains promised multi-year funding commitments, including $15.3 billion to tackle homelessness, $8.7 billion for mental health, $109.1 billion for transitional kindergarten through community college and $1.1 billion for public safety.

The plan calls for “modest but not significant cuts to the vast majority of those programs,” Newsom said, without new taxes like a “wealth tax” on rich California residents that some lawmakers have proposed.

Among the moves the governor’s budget proposes to fill the $37.9 billion deficit:

• $13.1 billion from reserve funds
• $8.5 billion in reduced spending for things like climate and housing programs and school facilities, and freezing new contracts, cell phones, technology equipment and nonessential fleet purchases and travel.
• $5.1 billion in funding delays, including $1 billion for transit and inter-city rail projects and $550 million in kindergarten facilities grants.
• $2.1 billion in spending deferrals, including $499 million for the University of California and California State University systems.

Republican leaders who have criticized the state’s spending were skeptical.

“Welcome to year six of ‘Gavinomics’ where his budgets turn surpluses into deficits and his policies push Californians to flee,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, a San Diego Republican and vice chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee.

Democrats countered that their caution in socking away reserves has paid off.

“In anticipation of an inevitable downturn, we have diligently prepared for leaner times, accumulating record level budget reserves that will allow us to adopt a budget that protects the gains we’ve made over the last decade,” said Assemblyman Marc Berman, a Menlo Park Democrat.

California’s budget is subject to wild fluctuations in revenues because of the state’s heavy reliance on income taxes, particularly from the wealthy whose taxable earnings are largely driven by investment returns. Personal income tax provides about two-thirds of the state’s general fund revenues, with 1% of tax returns — 180,000 — accounting for half of income taxes paid.

A year ago, California saw an unprecedented $97.5 billion budget surplus flip into a $22.5 billion deficit, a figure that swelled to $31.5 billion by May when the governor released his revised proposal for the budget lawmakers had to approve in June.

But even that figure proved wildly off. Due to an unusual delay in tax filings — winter storm disaster declarations prompted the IRS last year to extend 2022 tax filing deadlines into November — state leaders didn’t get a clear picture of income tax revenue filings until December.

The non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office reported Dec. 1 that revenues were $58 billion below assumptions for the 2022‑23 through 2024‑25 budget years. A few days later, the LAO projected a $68 billion deficit for the 2024‑25 budget, with additional yearly shortfalls of around $30 billion through 2027-2028.

Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek said Wednesday that about half the difference between the two deficit projections involves assumptions about minimum school funding requirements under 1988’s Proposition 98, and the other half is revenue projections. The governor’s office, he said, assumes legislative action on school funding and is more optimistic on revenues.

But Petek said there is no “correct” deficit estimate, and that “both are almost certain to be wrong to some extent.”

The governor will revise the budget in May after income taxes are filed and the legislature must approve it in June.

The state’s Republicans, whose votes the Democratic majority hasn’t needed to pass a budget, say Democrats are overspending, noting the state budget has more than doubled in a decade, from $152 billion to $311 billion last year, an increase from $108 billion to $226 billion in the general fund.

While homeless advocates were relieved Newsom declined to propose significant cuts to homelessness spending, service providers “still face an uncertain future when it comes to funding services and affordable housing development,” Bring CA Home, a coalition of advocates and providers, said in a statement.

The proposed budget keeps funding levels flat for transitional kindergarten through junior college education, the single largest state program, and above Prop 98 guaranteed levels, including the transitional kindergarten rollout, student mental health and special education.

Albert Gonzalez, president of the California School Boards Association, said that while they were “concerned to see a reduction in school facilities funding and a cost-of-living adjustment below 1 percent,” school boards “understand a $38 billion deficit demands tradeoffs.”

Environmentalists were disappointed that many of the cuts are coming from programs to address climate change, particularly after this past year, which is expected to rank as the hottest in recorded history.

Newsom committed in 2021 to a landmark $54 billion on climate programs over five years — including expanding electric car charging stations, boosting solar and wind power incentives, and thinning forests to reduce wildfire risk. His proposed Wednesday budget trimmed that to $48 billion over seven years, with the hopes that some funding will come from the federal government.

“We had hoped for a more courageous proposal,” said Mary Creasman, CEO of California Environmental Voters, a non-profit group in Sacramento. “Every penny we pinch now is going to have exponential costs for Californians in wildfires, floods and other disasters.”

Staff Writer Ethan Varian contributed.

Newsom’s legislative framework adds teeth to prosecution of people he says are “professional thieves.” He called for increasing felony penalties and prison time for those who resell stolen goods. He also called for new penalties for auto burglary and for possession of items stolen from a vehicle, locked or not, with intent to resell.

“Building on California’s existing laws and record public safety investments, I’m calling for new legislation to expand criminal penalties for those profiting on retail theft and auto burglaries,” Newsom said in a statement. “These laws will make California safer and bolster police and prosecutor tools to arrest and hold professional criminals accountable.”

But Republican leaders said the Democratic governor is partly to blame for supporting criminal justice reform laws like Proposition 47, the voter approved 2014 initiative that softened penalties for drug and property crimes. Newsom’s proposal notably didn’t include rollbacks to the initiative, as many critics are calling for.

“You cannot effectively address property crime without reforming Prop 47 and at least having the threat of real accountability for thieves,” Assemblyman James Gallagher, the state’s Assembly Republican Leader, said Tuesday in a post on social media site X. “Cite and release doesn’t work.”

California’s Little Hoover Commission, an independent state watchdog agency, last month heard testimony from retailers and law enforcement officials about brazen store thefts, at the request of Republican lawmakers. The commission is expected to hold more meetings this year before making a recommendation.

Retailers, who in many areas have had to lock up items to keep thieves from clearing out shelves, testified that thefts have gotten out of control and they feel helpless because police are reluctant to respond to low-level crimes for which arrested suspects are often given a court date and released from jail. They noted that it wasn’t just career criminals clearing out store shelves to resell goods on the black market but often people filling up a basket and leaving without paying.

But commissioners, mostly Democrats, pushed back, questioning whether data demonstrate there’s a problem and whether Prop 47 or other reform measures are to blame. Law enforcement officials who testified said the retail robbery trend is real, though data tend to mask the rise in property crimes because retailers often give up on calling police. Those officials also said that Prop 47 has made enforcement more challenging.

It remains to be seen whether Newsom’s fellow Democrats will try and go farther. Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, who chairs a Select Committee on Retail Theft that held a hearing on the issue last month, has raised the prospect of modifying Prop 47. But Zbur applauded Newsom on Tuesday for “prioritizing the fight against retail theft with his release of a strong legislative package.”

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association, said that “this framework will close loopholes criminals have exploited and increase felony penalties for smash and grabs, retail theft, and auto burglaries.”

Tinisch Hollins, executive director of Californians for Safety and Justice, a criminal justice reform group, praised Newsom for avoiding rolling back measures like Prop 47, which she said “have been critical in safely moving California away from the era of failed ‘tough on crime’ policy that resulted in a mass incarceration crisis.”

California Retailers Association President and CEO Rachel Michelin called the proposal “another huge step in the right direction on tackling this problem” and said retailers “appreciate that the Governor and his team listened to our concerns.”

Previous efforts have failed to repeal or modify Prop 47 and other recent criminal justice reform measures such as Proposition 57, a 2016 initiative that increased parole eligibility, and AB 109, which allowed many felons to serve their sentences at county jails instead of prison.

Voters in 2020 rejected Proposition 20, which would have rolled back provisions of those measures. Assemblyman Juan Alanis, a Modesto Republican, introduced a Prop 47 repeal a year ago that was turned into a request for the Little Hoover Commission report on the retail theft problem.

Alanis on Tuesday called Newsom’s proposal “a good first step.”

“But a lot of work still needs to be done,” Alanis said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues and the governor on these important issues. But we as a legislature must have a serious conversation about the continued impacts Prop 47 has had across the state of California.”

Letters of each word gracefully flowed from one to the next in a style familiar to those of a certain age. But to to the Rivera sisters, it might as well have been Latin.

“I didn’t know how to read it,” said Sierra, 8, a third-grader at Dublin Elementary School. “I thought it was like a different language.”

The girls’ father, Steve Wynn, translated Grandma’s cursive handwriting into more familiar block letters for them and before long they all had bellies full of the warm, tasty treats. But it was stories like theirs that led lawmakers this year to conclude that learning cursive still has value — even in the iPhone age.

Gov. Gavin Newsom this fall signed a bill, AB 446, by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, a Fullerton Democrat and former schoolteacher, requiring cursive instruction in elementary grades starting this year.

Cursive began fading from classrooms after California and 40 other states adopted the 2010 Common Core State Standards for English and math, which didn’t include the out-of-fashion script. But the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation said several states have been adding it back, with more than 26 requiring some cursive instruction.

California kept cursive in its state standards for 3rd and 4th grades, but it wasn’t enforced, Quirk-Silva said, leaving it up to the discretion of districts and often individual teachers. Quirk-Silva told lawmakers based on her own surveying of districts around the state that about half of California’s students are now taught cursive.

“Why in this age of technology should we even be talking about cursive?” Quirk-Silva asked Assembly members as she pitched her bill. “As a teacher for 30 years, there’s a lot of research that shows that cursive handwriting enhances a child’s brain development, including memorization, and improves fine motor skills.”

Many historical documents, famous diaries and letters and family histories are penned in cursive, said said.

“Many of our private schools teach cursive writing,” Quirk Silva said. “I want the balance, that all of our students can access historical information.”

Around the Bay Area, some districts said they’re still teaching cursive, including Palo Alto Unified and Menlo Park City School District, both upscale districts in the heart of Silicon Valley.

“Cursive is a highlight for many third graders,” said Dana Russell, a third grade teacher at Menlo Park City School District. “It’s amazing to see how seriously they take learning cursive and fun to feel their excitement.”

For one assignment, she asked them to write in cursive what they like about it, and got responses like, “Because it looks fancy and better than printing.”

But many other schools said they no longer teacher cursive consistently districtwide, including San Jose Unified, Santa Clara Unified, Milpitas Unified, Oakland Unified, Hayward Unified, San Ramon Valley Unified, Dublin Unified and Sunnyvale School District.

AB 446 wasn’t Quirk-Silva’s first attempt to enforce a cursive requirement, an idea she said she was encouraged to pursue by former Gov. Jerry Brown. But a similar bill she carried died in committee in 2018.

This time around, AB 446 met with little resistance.

That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone’s thrilled. Some school officials noted privately that it’s unusual for such a mandate to take effect in the middle of the school year, and that there’s been no guidance from the state Department of Education, leaving districts little time and no roadmap to comply.

“This feels like a pathetic pander to Baby Boomers more than a serious and necessary reform to education policy,” a contributor wrote in a Reddit thread on the new bill.

Laura Gan, a Dublin Unified substitute, said she’s observed students losing fine motor skills, and teaches cursive to help develop them. When she made cursive part of her instruction in an eighth grade class though, one parent complained, noting it’s not part of that grade’s curriculum.

Gan said that for many younger teachers, adding cursive to the curriculum might be more challenging, as they may not have taught it before or even learned it themselves.

“I think there’s a generation of teachers that themselves were not taught cursive,” Gan said.

But she and others said adding cursive to the curriculum won’t necessarily come at the expense of teaching other important skills.

“Teachers are successfully wrapping cursive into the curriculum,” Gan said, “and it’s not taking away instruction.”

Carlee Brazil, a fourth grader at Frederiksen Elementary School in Dublin, said she’s glad her teacher taught her to write cursive, which she said helped make her handwriting larger and more legible.

“I love it,” said Carlee, 9. “Now I can write my name in cursive with my eyes shut, I call it my signature. It also helped me to write quicker and it improved my writing.”

The new law, which takes effect in January and adds cursive to the definition of handwriting in the course of study for grades 1 through 6, means Sierra will now be taught the skill in coming years. But her 13-year-old big sister may have to learn it on her own — there’s no provision for schools to add cursive instruction for older kids who missed out.

Wynn said his older daughter Dahlia found it would be a useful skill when she recently was asked to sign a student contract to participate in a drama program and realized she hadn’t developed a signature.

“She felt left out,” Wynn recalled. “That prompted her to think, I want to learn this.”