Friday’s Briefing: Federal Government to Shut Down Over DACA; Women’s March Expected to Draw Big Crowds Tomorrow

Stories you shouldn’t miss for Jan. 19, 2018:

1. The federal government likely will shut down tonight over the unwillingness of Republicans in Congress to vote on an immigration reform deal involving the DACA program, the Washington Post$ reports. Senate Democrats and a few moderate Republicans say that, as a result, they will not vote for another resolution to fund the government and keep it open. Senate Republicans do not appear to have enough votes to prevent a shut down.

2. The Women’s March tomorrow is expected to draw large crowds in cities nationwide, reports Emily DeRuy of the Bay Area News Group$. Last year’s march drew 100,000 demonstrators to downtown Oakland. Oakland’s rally is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Lake Merritt Amphitheater and then proceed up 14th Street to Frank Ogawa Plaza.

3. California set a record low for unemployment last month, with the jobless rate dipping to 4.3 percent, the Sacramento Bee$ reports. The state added 52,700 jobs in December. The previous record low for joblessness was 4.6 percent.

4. The Berkeley Cannabis Commission may recommend that the city lower its weed taxes in an attempt to draw customers away from Oakland’s dispensaries, reports Ella Colbert of the Daily Cal. Berkeley currently levies a 10 percent tax on recreational pot and a 2.5 percent tax on medical marijuana.

5. Ram Hotels has resubmitted a plan to build a new 100-room hotel on Alameda’s Bay Farm Island one year after the San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission rejected a similar proposal, reports Peter Hegarty of the East Bay Times$. The new hotel in the Harbor Bay Business Park would be four stories tall, rather than the five-story plan that was denied.

6. The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal judge’s decision that blocked its plan to end the DACA program, which provides protections to young undocumented immigrants, reports Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle$. The Trump Department of Justice decided to bypass the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

7. The flu virus can be passed by merely breathing the same air as those who are sick, reports Tracy Seipel of the Mercury News$, citing a new study involving UC Berkeley researchers. Previously, it was thought that people caught the flu after “being exposed to droplets from an infected person’s coughs or sneezes, or by touching contaminated surfaces.” This year’s flu has killed 42 people under the age of 65 in California.

8. The Bay Area did not make the list of 20 finalists for Amazon’s second headquarters.

9. And Sliver Pizzeria of Berkeley, which recently closed its downtown location and then reopened on Telegraph Avenue, has decided to open a second location — in Berkeley’s downtown area again, reports Sara Han of Berkeleyside.

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