COVID worries persist + Crackdown on corpse photography + New clean air mandate for trucks

Good morning! It’s Monday in the Capitol (and everywhere else). Let’s get this week started, shall we?

NOT READY TO GO OUT

Remember when Gov. Gavin Newsom said that the reopening of California from COVID-19 would be like a dimmer switch? It turns out, a sizable percentage of Californians think it’s not quite dim enough, thank you very much.

A new poll from the California Health Care Foundation and survey firm Ipsos reveals that 43 percent of Californians think that the state relaxed the stay-at-home rules too quickly, while 67 percent are worried that the number of COVID-19 infections will increase due to orders being relaxed.

It’s notable that the survey was conducted between June 12 and June 16, before Newsom instituted a statewide mandatory mask order.

“One month into the reopening of the state’s economy, Californians are closely monitoring how quickly shelter-in-place orders are being relaxed — with many expressing concern about the pace of reopening and significant numbers worried about a resurgence of the virus,” said Kristof Stremikis, director of Market Analysis and Insight at the California Health Care Foundation, in a statement.

Surveyors spoke with 1,169 residents for the poll, and found that feelings on whether California was opening fast enough fell on largely partisan lines, with 60 percent of those identifying as “liberal” saying the state was moving too quickly, compared to 23 percent of those identifying as “conservative.”

Still, a good chunk of Californians are still trying to stay home as much as possible, with 72 percent saying they avoid unnecessary trips out of the house all or most of the time, though that’s down from 88 percent two months ago.

Californians are generally still following state rules and guidelines to try and prevent the spread of COVID-19, including wearing a mask in public spaces (84 percent), staying at least six feet away from other people (90 percent) and frequently washing hands (91 percent), according to the poll.

You can read the poll for yourself by visiting here.

CRACKING DOWN ON CORPSE PHOTOGRAPHY

Via Matt Kristoffersen...

Mere moments after a helicopter crash took the lives of famed basketball star Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others, media outlets spread the news — and fast.

But what the Bryants’ surviving family members didn’t know at the time was that something else was going around, too: Graphic photos of the crash scene, including victims’ remains. They were taken and shared by first responders.

Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, was “absolutely devastated.” Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he was “deeply disturbed.” And Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, told The Sacramento Bee that he was motivated to do something to prevent it from happening again.

Gipson’s bill would make it a misdemeanor for first responders to take photos of deceased individuals for any purpose outside of their job duties. The measure passed unanimously in the Assembly on Thursday.

“To have a police officer or a first responder share those pictures ... that plays on your psyche,” Gipson said. And if family members hear of a deceased loved one on social media first, he added, “that’s not fair.”

According to a TMZ report, a “trainee” had allegedly taken photos of the crash scene and tried to impress a woman at a nearby bar with them. A bartender overheard and filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s department.

Villanueva told reporters in March that photos taken of the helicopter crash have been deleted, and that an oversight panel would investigate the department’s policies. Still, the fact that these pictures spread — despite a request from a Bryant family lawyer to clear the crash scene from photographers — was “a sense of betrayal,” he said.

In the bill that passed the Assembly, first responders who take pictures of dead bodies for personal use could face up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. But the most recent version limited the penalty to just a $1,000 fine — and no threat of jail time. Gipson said the fine would still be a “strong deterrent.”

“I think that people won’t be so quick to do that,” he said. “But does it rise to the level of jail time? No.”

AIR BOARD WANTS CLEAN TRUCKS

Gas-powered work trucks — from the delivery vans bringing packages to your doorstep to the big rigs that roar along highways — may soon be fewer in number on California roads.

California’s air pollution agency this week is poised to pass a rule that would require truck manufacturers to cut their production of gas-powered vehicles by more than half over the next 15 years and instead sell battery- and hydrogen-powered machines.

It’s working on another regulation that would go even further, requiring large organizations like corporations and government agencies to mix more electric trucks in their fleets.

“This regulation is indeed revolutionary,” said California Air Resources Board member and UC Davis professor Daniel Sperling. “It really does put the whole truck industry on a very different trajectory than it is now.”

The proposed regulations, developed despite opposition from truckers worried about the cost of new vehicles and fuel companies, are coming together while the Air Resources Board is in court battling the Trump administration over state’s power to set its own pollution rules. That fight turns on mileage standards the air board developed with support from the Obama administration for passenger cars.

That court battle matters because California will need the federal government’s approval to enforce its proposed trucking rules. Sperling calls the disagreement a source “of uncertainty about the future”

The truck proposals have enthusiastic support from environmental advocacy groups, which pushed the Air Resources Board to toughen its emissions reduction targets. They characterized the proposed rule as a step toward goals the state set in a 2016 law that commits California to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

“[The new rule’s] passage is a crucial step in transforming California’s transportation system to zero-emissions,” a coalition of groups including the Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists and Earth Justice said in a joint letter.

Read more on the proposed rule in Mackenzie Hawkins’ story today.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Maybe @CAGovernor Newsom should include an ‘I Voted’ mask in every ballot packet.”

- Dan Walters, CALMatters political columnist, via Twitter.

Best of the Bee:

• The owners of Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe are inviting Native American leaders to discuss the use of the ethnic and sexist slur in its name, as the movement to remove symbols of colonialism and indigenous oppression has grown throughout the country, via Mara Hoplamazian.

• The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office will not be enforcing the statewide order Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday requiring masks and face coverings in public as coronavirus cases continue to increase in California, via Alexandria Yoon-Hendricks and Michael McGough.

• Kamala Harris had a reputation in California as a prosecutor and attorney general who waited rather than led, who moved on controversial issues only once she saw what was politically viable, via David Lightman.