CNBC: Biden Urges Congress To Pass Hate Crime Legislation Over Violence Against Asian Americans
President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to “swiftly pass” hate crime legislation to address the rise in discrimination and violence against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act aims to increase Justice Department oversight of coronavirus-related hate crimes, provide support for state and local law enforcement agencies, and make hate crime information more accessible to Asian American communities. (Miao, 3/19)

EdSource: California Schools, Universities Condemn Anti-Asian Attacks, Offer Support To Students 
As violence against Asian Americans surges across the country, education leaders in California strongly condemned the racist attacks and underscored schools’ crucial roles in combating xenophobia and teaching tolerance. While racism against Asian Americans has always existed, especially in California, the recent increase began a year ago, as former President Donald Trump falsely blamed the Covid-19 epidemic on China. In the past few weeks, Asian Americans have been attacked in Oakland, San Francisco and other cities, and last Tuesday, a man in Georgia killed eight people, six of them Asian women. Police are still investigating. (Jones and Smith, 3/22)

The Washington Post: Nationwide Protests Supporting Asian Americans Unfold After Biden, Harris Condemn Recent Attacks 
Demonstrations unfolded across the country Saturday as activists and officials linked the massacre in Atlanta to a surge in violence against Asian Americans amid the covid-19 pandemic. In San Francisco’s Chinatown, children drew chalk butterflies on sidewalks to symbolize the people killed. In Atlanta, Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) issued a call for solidarity: “To my Asian sisters and brothers,” he said, “we see you. And, more important, we are going to stand with you.” (Kaplan, Bella, Bellware and Wang, 3/20)

AP: Pope Decries Shame Of Racism, Like ‘Virus’ Lurking In Wait 
Pope Francis on Sunday denounced racism, likening it to a virus that lurks in waiting and only to emerge and show that “our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive” as people think. Francis tweeted on racism on the date that the United Nations marks as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The pope likened racism to a “a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.” ((3/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: After Discussions And Delays, San Diego Joins Blue Shield’s Statewide Vaccine Program 
Long after San Diego was supposed to join a statewide coronavirus vaccine effort led by Blue Shield, the county has at last struck a deal with the health insurance company. The county signed a memorandum of understanding with the state acknowledging that it is joining a network of vaccine providers overseen by Blue Shield, according to documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune. (Wosen, 3/20)

The Bakersfield Californian: 'Today Is A Victory': BC Hosts First Mass Drive-Thru COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution In Kern 
They're not celebrating at Disneyland quite yet, but you might have thought those at Bakersfield College on Sunday had already arrived at the happiest place on earth. Cars and trucks lined up to make their way into the parking lot abutting University Avenue for a poke in the arm in the form of one of 1,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses. The event was dubbed the first mass drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Kern County, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn't smiling. This vaccine requires just one dose, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna versions that require two. (Peterson, 3/21)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Sonoma County Vaccination Data Shows Disparity Among Income Levels, Geographic Areas
Despite a sustained and vocal effort to distribute the coronavirus vaccine equitably among Sonoma County residents without regard to their wealth or race, there are significant gaps in immunization rates among local neighborhoods, forcing the county to make up ground from the start of its campaign to improve health equity during the pandemic. A Press Democrat analysis of vaccination numbers in 32 ZIP codes that either wholly or partially fall within the county reveal an unmistakable disparity between some of Sonoma County’s wealthier neighborhoods and its more socioeconomically disadvantaged. (Barber, 3/20)

San Diego Union-Tribune: A Deadly Reality: By Almost Every Metric, COVID-19 Is Proving Much Worse For Latinos Than Whites 
Nearly half the 267,000-plus San Diego County residents sickened by the novel coronavirus over the past year are Latino, but barely 1 in 5 people vaccinated so far are Latino, according to public health data. Perhaps no two statistics more clearly reveal the disparities between people of color and Whites than these by-products of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many other points of disparity. (McDonald, 3/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Kids Can't Get The COVID Vaccine Yet. So What Are The Risks Of Traveling With Children?
Despite CDC guidelines that still discourage nonessential trips, air travel is on the rise in the U.S. as states have loosened pandemic restrictions and millions are getting vaccinated by the day. More than one-third of San Francisco adults and more than 22% of all Californians had received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose as of Thursday. Increases in the state and across the country are prompting more people to contemplate taking both vacations and trips to see family and friends for the first time in more than a year. (Vainshtein, 3/22)

LA Daily News: Sunday’s Numbers Show LA County’s Coronavirus Growth Still On Decline 
Los Angeles County’s coronavirus numbers continue to fall, with officials reporting 423 new cases of COVID-19 and 20 additional fatalities on Sunday, March 21. The number of county residents hospitalized with the virus continued to decline, dropping from 792 Saturday to 750, with the number of those patients in intensive care declining from 216 to 191, according to state figures. (3/21)

Los Angeles Times: Falling Coronavirus Numbers In L.A. Raise Hope For More Reopenings 
Los Angeles County public health officials continued to report a decline in coronavirus case numbers Sunday, raising hope that more restrictions on businesses might soon be relaxed. New cases and deaths are always lower on the weekends because not all laboratories report results. Still, the county recorded just 438 new cases and 20 related deaths, according to the public health department, capping several weeks of sustained declines. (Wigglesworth, 3/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Here's What Will Be Allowed In S.F. Under Orange Tier Reopening Next Week
San Francisco will most likely move into the state’s orange tier next week, which means offices, outdoor bars without food, live entertainment and festivals may reopen with restrictions. The city has slowly flickered back to life over the past few weeks, as cases continue to fall. San Francisco officials have mostly reopened in line with what is allowed by the state, although there are a few added restrictions to capacity in some instances. (Bobrowsky and Thadani, 3/19)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Indoor Visits Resume At Sonoma County Nursing And Long-Term Care Homes
Before Friday, Patty Feerick would visit her brother Tommy Phillips, 74, at Windsor Care Center nursing home about once a week. Between them was always a window and walls — barriers meant to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Phillips was inside his room and Feerick, 70, was outside the building. They talked over the phone. But on Friday afternoon, Feerick got to sit down with her older brother in a special space the Petaluma nursing home has converted for in-person visits, now allowed under state public health rules and returning to nursing homes across Sonoma County. (Espinoza, 3/19)

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: Most Californians Get 2 Weeks Of Paid Sick Leave Under New COVID Law
Millions of California workers will get up to two weeks of supplemental paid sick leave to take time off to get vaccinated, isolate themselves from potential exposure to the coronavirus, or deal with the effects of COVID-19, under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday. "Paid sick leave gives workers the time they need to care for themselves and loved ones while keeping their coworkers, families and communities safe," Newsom said in a statement. ""Even as case rates and hospitalizations decline and vaccinations ramp up, we can't let our guard down and must do all we can to stop this virus from spreading." (Park, 3/20)

Los Angeles Times: California Adopts 3-Foot-Spacing Rule For Classrooms, Changing Reopening Equation 
Students in California are now allowed to sit three feet apart in classrooms — instead of four or six feet — in guidelines state officials issued over the weekend, a major change in policy that will exert pressure on local officials to consider a faster and more complete reopening of campuses that have been closed for over a year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Local education leaders, however, will have the final say — and Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner said Sunday that the L.A. Unified School District would keep the six-foot rule. (Blume, 3/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland Teachers Union Approves School Reopening Agreement
Members of the Oakland teachers union have approved a tentative agreement with the Oakland Unified School District to get some elementary school students back into classrooms by the end of the month, the district announced late Saturday. Under the deal, preschool through second-grade students would return to school on March 30, with all elementary and at least one middle or high school grade back in schools by April 19. High-needs students across all grades, including homeless students, foster youth, English learners, disengaged students and those with special needs, among others, would also be able to return by mid-April. (Sanchez, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Schools Have Been Open For Months. Here’s What They Learned.
Parents, cities and teachers in many places continue to wrangle over how to reopen their schools safely. Meanwhile, teachers and administrators whose buildings have been open for many months have come to some hard-earned conclusions about how to make it all work. ... “We were watching how outbreaks were happening around the country and world,” said Gary Krahn, the principal at La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla, Calif., which has been open since early fall. Over time, “we were able to gain enough information to make informed decisions.” (Toy and Belkin, 3/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Without Data, COVID-19's Impact On Some San Diego Minorities Is Overlooked, Advocates Say
There were signs early in the pandemic that led Maria Araneta, a professor of family medicine at UC San Diego, to believe COVID-19 was overwhelming San Diego’s Filipino community. She wasn’t looking at statistics — something an epidemiologist usually relies on for surveilling health issues — because those weren’t available about Filipinos. (Lopez-Villafana, 3/20)

The Bakersfield Californian: Hospitals Ponder What Changes May Linger After Pandemic 
Now that hospitals are no longer overrun with COVID-19 patients, administrators are taking stock of some changes brought on by the pandemic. One of the most noticeable is the plunge in emergency room visits that began at the start of the pandemic but has continued, at some facilities, even as COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases taper off. The drop in ER volume has been attributed to both concern about being exposed to COVID-19 at the hospital and adherence to stay-at-home orders, which has reduced the spread of illnesses other than the coronavirus. (Shepard, 3/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Nursing Home Administrator Worked To Give Residents What They Missed 
Laurie Godfrey faced a daunting challenge. As director of nursing for the Birch Patrick Skilled Nursing Facility at Sharp Chula Vista, she was responsible for protecting nearly 100 elderly, frail residents and about 130 staff members from COVID-19. She found that trying to keep the deadly virus at bay came at great cost, and not just for those who became infected. (Mapp, 3/20)

Modesto Bee: Too Much Screen Time During COVID-19 Impairing Kids’ Sight
Almost all aspects of life have been altered by the pandemic. Now, we have to add how children see the world, literally. Myopia, or nearsightedness, among young children is on the rise, and the pandemic is making things worse. “It’s a big deal,” said Dr. Nancy Shoji, a Modesto optometrist and owner of Village Faire Optometry, “because kids are stuck indoors on their computers and screens all day.” (Mink, 3/22)

LA Daily News: Senior Living: Standing Tall As You Age 
For the first three decades of your life, your bones are in a constant state of renewal. But by the time “people enter their 40s and 50s, more bone may be broken down than is replaced,” according to the National Institute on Aging. Osteoporosis is a condition that occurs when new bone growth doesn’t keep up with bone loss. It results in weakened and brittle bones – making them more susceptible to fractures, especially in the hip and wrist. (Angela Sie, M.D., 3/22)

PBS NewsHour: Stockton Gave Residents A Guaranteed Income—Here’s What Happened 
Former Stockton mayor Michael Tubbs joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the findings of this social and economic experiment — and what it could mean for America’s future. … We found that, number one, people did not stop working. In fact, we found that those who received the guaranteed income were more likely to find full-time employment and were less likely to be unemployed than they were before the guaranteed income. ... We also found health, mental health impacts, from something as small as $500. We saw that depression decreased. We saw that cortisol levels decreased. We saw that stress and anxiety decreased. And according to the Kessler scale, comparable to clinical trials of Prozac, which doesn't mean that medicine isn't important. But I think it does mean that economic insecurity has a huge mental health cost and so much of the anxiety and stress we see is due to economic insecurity. (Sreenivasan, 3/21)