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In California | A SPOTLIGHT ON ALL THINGS GOLDEN STATE | Tuesday, March 30 | | |
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| In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it free, straight to your inbox. I'm Julie Makinen, California editor for the USA Today Network, bringing you Tuesday's key headlines. |
| But first, Berkeleyside takes a look at folks who have found solace during the pandemic by exploring the area's secret stair walks. My friend Charles Fleming has written books about these hidden gems in the East Bay as well as others like them in the L.A. area. A budget adventure, not to be missed! |
A deeper look at who's signed on for the recall |
 | | Hastin Zylstra is a Santa Ana Democrat who owns Lucky Laundry in Garden Grove, California. Zylstra voted for Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2018 but signed the recall petition, saying he's frustrated by the governor's inconsistent policies affecting small businesses during the pandemic. | | Courtesy Hastin Zylstra | |
| Gov. Gavin Newsom is framing the burgeoning effort to remove him from office as a Republican movement backed by right-wing extremists, Trump supporters and QAnon conspiracy theorists. But California Healthline reporters Angela Hart and Samantha Young say the governor isn't telling the whole story about who supports his recall. |
| Democrats and independents have also signed the recall petition, frustrated with Newsom's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even some who voted for Newsom in 2018 are angry over prolonged school closures, business closings and openings and closings, the vaccination rollout and turmoil at the state's unemployment agency — which has been plagued with fraud, website failures and devastating backlogs. |
| "I'm not anti-mask, I'm not anti-science," said Hastin Zylstra, 34, a Santa Ana Democrat who owns a laundromat and voted for Newsom in 2018. He signed the recall petition earlier this year, in part because he feels Newsom hasn't done enough to help struggling small businesses. Read more about who signed the petition and why. |
COVID-19: L.A. and Orange counties moving to orange tier |
| Get out your bowling shoes, Angelenos. With vaccinations rising and infections holding steady or declining, Los Angeles and Orange counties officially moved into California's orange tier, the L.A. Times reported, clearing the way for them to further lift restrictions on businesses and activities beginning Wednesday. In Northern California, Alameda and Santa Cruz counties moved into the orange tier, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. |
| The latest round of progress means 17 of the state's 58 counties, which are home to roughly half the state's residents, are now in the orange tier. At the beginning of March, only two sparsely populated counties had made it that far. |
 | | Brittnee Wiliams, a licensed practical nurse, administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Rachael Kantor of Palm Desert at a Riverside County vaccine clinic in Indio, Calif., on February 10, 2021. | | Taya Gray/The Desert Sun | |
| California counties that reach the orange tier can allow bars to reopen outdoors with some modifications. Bars will no longer be required to also serve food. Bowling alleys can reopen with modifications at 25% capacity. Card rooms and satellite wagering sites can also reopen indoors at 25% capacity. |
| Capacity restrictions can also be lifted in stores, although social distancing and other pandemic safety modifications still apply; houses of worship, museums, zoos and aquariums can raise their indoor capacity from 25% to 50%; restaurants and movie theaters can raise indoor capacity from 25% or 100 people (whichever is fewer) to 50% capacity or 200 people; and indoor gyms and yoga studios increase from 10% to 25%. |
| L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said a revised health officer order allowing many of the reopenings outlined in the orange tier would go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 5. |
| What's your favorite L.A. bowling alley? I'm partial to the Shatto 39 Lanes in Koreatown. |
| Another place that I love — the Monterey Bay Aquarium – will reopen in May. |
Investigatory report on 2018 Carr Fire released |
 | | Photo from the Investigation Report for 2018 Carr Fire showing the general area where the fire started by a trailer along Highway 299 on July 23, 2018. | | National Park Service | |
| Cal Fire lists the 2018 Carr Fire as the ninth most destructive fire in modern history. The blaze burned parts of Shasta County, including sections of west Redding, and Trinity County, destroying 1,614 structures and leading to eight deaths, including three firefighters and five civilians. |
| A long-awaited report released Tuesday about the blaze is sure to stir emotional memories for the hundreds of North State residents who experienced the inferno. It's available at https://bit.ly/3dn7skj. |
| The approximately 2,500-page report contains findings from an exhaustive multiagency investigation that lists the cause of the 229,651-acre blaze as the mechanical failure of a travel trailer, which already had been reported. The report goes into detail about a blown tire and what led to its failure on the side of Highway 299 within Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. |
| Josh Hoines, superintendent of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, said Cal Fire "really went to every structure and calculated percent damage, took photos. It's probably the document that will cause the most turmoil and bring up feelings for people because you could in theory go find your address and see your house." |
| Anticipating another devastating year for wildfires in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced he was setting aside more than $80 million in emergency funding for firefighting in preparation for this year's fire season, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Some 1,400 firefighters will be hired, Sacramento Bee reports. |
Bodies buried in wrong graves spark uproar in Tulare |
 | | The Tulare Cemetery office is closed and all burials this week were canceled after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. The gates on the City's two cemeteries will remain open for visitors. | | Ron Holman | |
| Reports that the remains of two Tulare residents had been buried at the wrong gravesites have prompted an outcry in the central valley city. A Tulare cemetery district meeting was temporarily suspended and an officer was called to maintain order after the meeting's public comment session erupted into chaos. |
| Univision broke the news that Silvano Martinez was buried at the incorrect plot on Feb. 12. His remains were disinterred and buried at the correct plot a month after his death, on March 8. "Our family suffered double the grief having to bury our grandfather twice," his daughter Maricela Martinez told the Spanish-language network. "No one deserves that." |
| A second disinterment happened on the same day. Justinana Sagisi Jacinto's remains were disinterred and relocated following her Feb. 19 service, cemetery officials said. On Thursday, Board President Xavier Avila announced that the cemetery had reached a $3,058 settlement with the Jacinto family. Negotiations are ongoing with the Martinez family. |
| "We take it very seriously," Avila told the Tulare Advance-Register. "To me, it's been a nuclear bomb. I can't overstate how badly this has affected us, whenever you see a family experience that kind of trauma." |
| In California is a roundup of news from across USA Today network newsrooms. Also contributing: Berkeleyside, San Francisco Chronicle, L.A. Times, California Healthline. |
Julie Makinen is California editor for the USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @Julie_Makinen |
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