- A Santa Rita Jail inmate committed a crime right after being released Monday, stealing a golf cart that belongs to the jail maintenance staff to drive himself to BART. The Alameda County Sheriff's Department tweeted that they are seeking the suspect again "to give you a ride back to our jail again." [KTVU]
- Sounding again like he's running for mayor, Supervisor Matt Haney is making noise about the Board of Supervisors' annual three-week holiday recess, calling it "inappropriate" given the circumstances. No one is disagreeing that they can have an emergency meeting if they need to, and all of this is being done virtually anyway so it's not clear why Haney is making a fuss. [Chronicle]
- A pair of small earthquakes shook the Morgan Hill area around 7:15 this morning, with one measure 3.6M. [CBS SF]
- A Christmas tree appeared to be the source of an early morning house fire in San Jose that caused significant damage. [CBS SF]
- Contra Costa County is considering much higher fines for businesses violating COVID health orders. [KRON4]
- With California's COVID cases skyrocketing and hospitals getting overwhelmed amidst a growing revolt by business owners who are losing money during lockdowns, New York Magazine has the headline "California is Coming Apart Over COVID."
- The Moderna vaccine took another step toward FDA approval, which could come late this week. [Associated Press]
- Some usual Super Bowl advertisers are sitting out this year's game or hesitating to buy ad spots because the pandemic is making the usually celebratory day into something more fraught and potentially bad for business. [New York Times]
- And FYI, Popeye's now sells chocolate beignets. [CNNWire]
Photo: Joey Childs
