NPR: Calif. Backs Off Legal Threats Over GOP Ballot Drop Boxes 
The state of California appears to be backing off legal threats against the California Republican Party over its use of unauthorized ballot drop boxes. ... At a press conference Friday, Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, both Democrats, didn't announce any additional enforcement action against the party, saying the California GOP agreed to modify how they were collecting ballots. (Sprunt, Rodd and Gringlas, 10/16)

AP: California Disputed Ballot Boxes Removed, Arguing Continues
The state Republican Party has removed their unstaffed, unofficial ballot drop boxes that state officials deemed illegal, California’s secretary of state said Friday, and subpoenas are being issued to get more information about them as the state attorney general looks into possible election law violations. Republicans confirmed they had yanked boxes that were improperly labeled “official” but say they will continue to use dozens of other boxes without the labels that have been sent to various counties. (Taxin, 10/16)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Voters Weigh Measure O As Mental Health, Homeless Services Funding Solution
Sonoma County voters are weighing in on a ballot measure that would bolster county spending on mental health and homeless services by adding a new quarter-cent, countywide sales tax — one of eight local revenue measures on local ballots in the Nov. 3 election. Measure O is expected to generate at least $25 million a year over 10 years for the county to use in mental health programs and to help curb chronic homelessness in the county. (Silvy, 10/17)

Bay Area News Group: Eight Months In, California Is Containing COVID-19 As Other States Spike. Here’s Why.
Eight months into the coronavirus pandemic, California has become a rare case: a state that has contained the transmission of COVID-19 and isn’t experiencing another surge — yet, at least. Nationwide, daily infections are up one-quarter in the last two weeks, and the country just reported its most in a single day since July. Lightly populated North Dakota is seeing 85 new cases a day per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks. California? Ten new cases per 100,000, up just 2 percent in two weeks. (Webeck, 10/18)

Bay Area News Group: Coronavirus: Hospitalizations, New Cases Remain Flat In California 
New cases of COVID-19, and the number of patients hospitalized with the virus, have largely remained flat in California in October, as more Bay Area counties progress in the state’s tiered reopening schedule. On Friday, California counties reported 3,092 new cases, slightly fewer than the seven-day average of 3,164 daily new cases. That average has remained largely the same throughout the month — it was 3,218 on Oct. 1. (Castenada, 10/17)

LA Daily News: L.A. County Reports 358 New Coronavirus Cases, 13 Deaths 
Los Angeles County reported 358 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 additional deaths on Sunday, Oct. 18, bringing the county’s totals to 288,451 cases with 6,876 fatalities. Officials said the lower number of cases and deaths reflects reporting delays over the weekend and problems with the state’s data feed. (10/18)

The Desert Sun: San Bernardino County Reports 94 New COVID-19 Cases, 23 Additional Deaths
San Bernardino County health officials on Sunday reported 94 new coronavirus cases and 23 additional virus-related deaths, bringing the county’s totals to 59,696 cases and 1,021 virus-related deaths. San Bernardino County has not yet moved out of the state's most restrictive purple tier, where it's sat since California introduced its color-coded, four-tier reopening plan. (Atagi, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Some People Still Don’t Wear Masks In The Bay Area. They Probably Won’t Be Fined 
Take a walk through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and on any given day a small but notable percentage of joggers and walkers are cruising along John F. Kennedy Drive without masks — despite plenty of signs to encourage covering up. It’s not exactly the White House, pre-outbreak. And it’s not Shasta County, where the head of a local college has scoffed at masks — and the college has had a major outbreak. But it’s still a cause for concern, since mask-free types often come within 6 feet of others — in violation of a statewide health rule. (Mena, 10/18)

The Bakersfield Californian: State Grant Money To Pay For COVID-19 Awareness, Media Blitz In Struggling Kern Communities 
In an effort to ensure Kern County's most disadvantaged communities don't see disproportionate rates of COVID-19, the county will use several million dollars in state grant money to fund two community groups to do outreach and awareness initiatives. Building Healthy Communities Kern will receive $1.2 million to do a public awareness campaign in four languages — English, Spanish, Mixteco and Punjabi. It will also train outreach coordinators to go door-to-door to provide advice and tips on proper COVID-19 precautions and encourage testing even when not symptomatic. (Shepard, 10/16)

The Bakersfield Californian: Nurses Reflect On The Height Of COVID-19 Locally 
Anna Leviyeva, 34, was on the front lines of the local COVID-19 crisis this summer as an intensive care nurse at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. When she first spoke to The Californian in late July, the number of hospitalized patients had reached its peak and the stress of the surge was mounting. Memorial Hospital had two intensive care units solely dedicated to COVID-19 patients. In the weeks that followed, Leviyeva recalled, so many of them died. (Shepard 10/17)

The Bakersfield Californian: The Pandemic Effect: CSUB Sees Record Enrollment While KCCD Numbers Decline
When the job market gets tough, a general rule of thumb is that people go back to school, hoping to emerge with stronger credentials and a better job once the tough times are over. But there was little place for conventional wisdom in a pandemic that erupted just as students were applying for programs in spring. “I think everyone nationwide was concerned,” said Dr. Dwayne Cantrell, chief enrollment officer at Cal State Bakersfield. There’s been room for the conventional wisdom in Kern County: Students went to grad school in record numbers this year. But the pandemic has taken its toll on community college students, which saw a notable dip. (Gallegos, 10/16)

Fresno Bee: COVID-19 Further Delays California Immigration Court Backlog 
Many central San Joaquin Valley immigrants will live with uncertainty for months or even years after having their immigration cases pushed back to as far as 2024 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hearing delays due to recent court closures compound a long-standing backlog of pending immigration cases that have more than doubled under the Trump administration, federal data shows. (Amaro, 10/18)

The Bakersfield Californian: Meals On Wheels Seeing A Significant Surge In Need During COVID-19 Pandemic
"We are delivering more meals now than at any other time in the history of the Meals on Wheels program," said Lito Morillo, director of Kern County Aging and Adult Services, which oversees the county's program. According to Kristian Besnard, the department's senior nutrition program coordinator, Bakersfield has seen the need among seniors increase by 64% since the COVID-19 outbreak. (Mayer, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Family’s Battle With COVID-19 Shows Why Illness Is Spreading Faster Among Latinos 
Paulina Barajas was the first in her family to get sick, with a sore throat that seemed to spread outward, numbing her sense of smell and taste. Stress was already mounting for the Concord mother of five before she fell ill on Sept. 18, after spending the spring and summer mostly cloistered in her family’s three-bedroom townhouse. Living off her husband’s part-time restaurant salary of $1,200 a month — along with a patchwork of government subsidies and donations from the local diocese — Barajas spent her days cooking and overseeing her sons’ distance learning. (Swan, 10/19)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: 'Million Dollar Makeover’ Upgrades Life For Addiction-Haunted Moms And Their Kids
That indoor spaces were worn and cramped at the tucked-away Women’s Recovery Services in Santa Rosa was less bothersome to the moms and kids who are helped there to heal their addiction-bedeviled lives than to the caring types who run the place. Though it’s a constant challenge to find sufficient dollars to treat the women and to shelter them and their children, volunteers on the nonprofit’s board and building committee resolved to bring in about $1 million for a construction project to make the treatment and common areas more spacious, inviting and uplifting. They succeeded. Tapping into the caring of the community, volunteers of the 45-year-old Women’s Recovery Service between 2016 and last year secured donations of $934,000. (Smith, 10/17)

LA Daily News: Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Chief Hopes Sheriff Will Assess Actions Of Deputy Who Shot Patient Inside Hospital 
Officials at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center said Friday that they hope Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva will conduct an assessment of law enforcement’s actions after a patient, who was acting erratically, was shot by a deputy inside the hospital more than a week ago. (Percy, 10/16)