KBUU NewsScript Wed Jan 5: Covid Sweeps Local Schools, 43% Absent At Pt Dume, 57 Positive Cases At Middle/High School

=.  Almost half of the kids at Malibu Elementary School were absent yesterday.

=.  At the high school and middle school … the count is now 57 positive cases.

=.  Educators scramble to come up with plans … distance learning for some … in person for others. 

=.  Malibu City Hall doors are again closed to the public .. for all of January.

=.  Malibu and the rest of California have new water rules … no hosing down sidewalks.

=.  Electric power rates are going up … how much?  We don’t know yet. 

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This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the Wednesday edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

POSTED 6pm WED DEC 5

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Malibu’s schools are seeing a tidal wave of positive Covid 19 tests … but administrators are planning to have kids in classrooms today.

Parents … however … are not so sure.

43 percent of the kids at Malibu Elementary School on Point Dume were absent yesterday.

The principal says he and the school nurse are scrambling to find out why kids were kept home.

Principal Christopher Hertz says many parents are waiting to see if school is safe from Covid.

Some have shared that Covid has been caught by someone in their home.  

Some have had a hard time returning from the holidays.

District officials have told parents they may elect to keep their kids at home for a few days … while Covid tests are administered and while a picture develops as to what exactly is happening. 

The situation is still becoming apparent at the Malibu High and Malibu Middle School campus.

57 positive test results … with more results coming in.

School officials worked late into the night … last night … telling parents which kids are positive and must stay home.

Kids who were tested yesterday will not get their PCR test results until this afternoon… and school officials will not allow them to enter the campus until they can present negative test results. 

That means it will be an enormous sorting out process as kids arrive at Malibu high and Malibu middle schools this morning. 

The first period classes are being pushed back from 8:30 to 9:30… with kids sent to counseling and homework rooms for the first hour of the day as they dribble in. 

The main driveway in the center of the campus is going to be locked this morning… all kids are supposed to be dropped off in the upper parking lot by the football field. 

That is probably going to cause a major traffic jam on Morning View Drive this morning.

The next problem for teachers will be teaching classrooms where many of the students are isolating at home. 

Some kids will be in the classroom… with vaccinations.

Some kids will be in the classrooms … unvaccinated.

And some kids will be kept at home.

Superintendent ben Drati calls this a dilemma that has yet to be resolved. 

He told parents late last night that … a classroom will be split by vaccinated in-person learners … and unvaccinated students who will be required to quarantine after contact with the disease. More short term independent study.

The school district yesterday announced that kids and employees who are isolating will be allowed to return to the campuses after five days… assuming that they test negative. 

That brings the school district in alignment with the recent controversial federal guidelines from the CDC.

Teachers in some states are refusing to teach under these conditions… but the White House and state officials are adamant that schools are safe if proper safety precautions are taken.

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Malibu City Hall will close its doors to the public for at least the next few weeks.

Although public counters will be closed … phones and Zoom will be available. 

Building Inspection operations will remain the same.

Any hopes that the city council and public commissions will resume in person have been dashed by Omicron. 

The Senior Center is closed, but Senior Center staff are available to assist any seniors in the community that need help and the Dial-A-Ride program will continue to operate.

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The number of new COVID-19-positive patients in Los Angeles County surged well above the 2,000 mark on Tuesday

303 patients were in intensive care, an increase from 278 a day earlier.

24 more COVID deaths, bringing the overall L A County death toll to 27,671. 

L.A. County has suspended criminal trials for two weeks ..  a delay that will allow court officials to “balance access to justice with local public safety needs.”

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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Brewing Company.

Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio.

Just released: a limited, holiday-spiced Winter Ale …  a perfect fireside companion.

It makes a special gift for the beer-lovers on your list.

Find Malibu Brewing Company premium craft beer in select retailers, or order direct at brew malibu dot com

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Support for KBUU Radio also comes the the Malibu Association of Realtors.

When choosing someone to represent you when you buy … sell or rent a house … local knowledge is very important.

Malibu zoning rules … Coastal Commission rules …

Members of the Malibu Association of Realtors are local experts.

The Malibu Association of Realtors …  supporters of our local community … and supporters of local radio 99.1 KBUU.

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Electric power rates are changing … again.

The clean power alliance has told its customers that they are all going to be shifted to time of day rates … where electricity will cost more during peak hours but less during off-peak hours. Now this is confusing… And frankly the same power alliance has not given us much information about what is happening here. 

Questions that are not answered by yesterdays announcement include when did the shift to time of day rates is actually a net rate increase. Here’s how this works. Southern California Edison has the monopoly for electricity delivery… And last December they shifted everybody to time of day rates for the delivery of electricity. But the actual generation of electricity is handled by two companies … Southern California Edison and the clean power alliance. Customers can choose to get their power either from SCE or the CPA… Although the City of Malibu has shifted the default power supplier for all Malibu residence to the CPA. 

Both the clean power alliance and Southern California Edison are raising their rates for electric generation … this spring.

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved Southern California Edison’s rate increase … at 7.6 percent.

SCE had asked for a 19 percent rate increase.

But the CPUC cut that SCE request by 60 percent.

Clean power alliance electric rates are expected to go up this Spring … but officials say they will be able to undercut Edison rates even after CPA’s rates are finalized.

As for the Time Of Day rates being implemented … as we understand it … the idea is to reduce peak power demand and cut power costs for all the customers overall..

Ratepayers are being given several options for time of day rates,

And the Clean Power Alliance is offering a one year money back guarantee … offering to cover the difference for any customers whose generation rates go up because they are now on time of day rates.

But as we said … there are some unanswered questions about what is happening here.

Like … Is there a net rate increase flowing to the Clean Power Alliance as it shifts its customers to Time Of Day rates??

Doesn’t this have to go to the CPUC as a General Rate Case?

Will all this turn out with the Clean power Alliance becoming cheaper than SCE??
Why should people stay with CPA if SCE is cheaper for comparable energy sources?

We’ve posed those basic questions to the CPA … they don’t have answers yet … we will keep you posted.

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You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu.

Support for KBUU’s radio comes from Orbit Homes.

Prefabricated homes are the future of construction. Easy to get permits. Fast to build and install. Cost effective … little construction waste. 

In Malibu, Orbit Homes has a showroom between City Hall and the Malibu racquet club.

Fire victims can check them out in person … and visit them on the web at www.orbithomes.us .

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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Foundation.

The Malibu Foundation underwrote the KBUU solar panels and batteries at the transmitter … which keeps KBUU’s FM transmitting on 99.1 during storms and blackouts… 24 seven… on clean renewable Malibu sunshine.

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And now we are getting word that … during last week’s big storm … about 8,250 gallons of raw sewage mixed with rainwater accidentally flowed from a Ventura County subdivision into a Malibu Creek tributary.

A sewage pump at Lake Sherwood pooped out.
Sewage backed up and spilled into the lake … which spills into the alibi Creek system.

Signs were posted in the area of discharge and for about a quarter-mile on each side, the county said.

The sewage was diluted by heavy rain runoff. 

No contamination was reported downstream. 

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California  now has water conservation rules … but the statewide rules pretty much match watch malibu has had for two years now. \

The rules… adopted yesterday by the State Water Resources Control Board … are pretty tame.

No watering lawns for 48 hours after a rainstorm.

No letting sprinklers run onto the sidewalk.

No washing off sidewalks or driveways. 

If you wash your car … you need a nozzle on the hose that you can turn off and on. 

Violators could face $500 fines .. but there will be no water police out there.

The amount of water now stored in California reservoirs is actually worse than last year at this time.

A soggy start to the rainy season does not guarantee an end to the drought,

The last record-breaking drought was in 2013 … and we had a wet December that year.

January and February were bone dry.

Climatologists predict that the state will dry out during the rest of the winter and spring. 

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Conservative radio talk-show host Larry Elder says he will not run against Gov. Gavin Newsom next year.

Elder says has formed the “Elder for America” political action committee.

He wants to help Republicans take back the US House and US Senate … as well as help local GOP candidates.

In the last gubernatorial recall election … … only 38 percent voted yes for the recall. 

And of that minority … Elder got just 48 percent of the vote. 

The recall election cost taxpayers 276 million dollars.

By forming a PAC… Elder can pay himself a cut of the millions he hopes to raise to support conservative republicans.

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You can hear the news live every morning until 9:30 on KBUU.

FM 99.1 in western Malibu.  Also: streaming at www.radiomalibu.net

Between 10 and 2 … you can hear the newscast playback loop on KBU2. That’s on FM 99.1 HD2 in your car, or streaming at s7.viastreaming.net/6500

If humanly possible, the KBUU NewsScript is usually published at around midday at www.radiomalibu.net