Google delays return to office, mandates vaccines

SAN RAMON — Google is postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-October and rolling out a policy that will eventually require everyone to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened.

The more highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Google’s Wednesday announcement was shortly followed by Facebook, which also said it will make vaccines mandatory for U.S. employees who work in offices. Exceptions will be made for medical and other reasons.

In an email sent to Google’s more than 130,000 employees worldwide, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is now aiming to have most of its workforce back to its offices beginning Oct. 18 instead of its previous target date of Sept. 1.

The decision also affects tens of thousands of contractors who Google intends to continue to pay while access to its campuses remains limited.

And Pichai disclosed that once offices are fully reopened, everyone working there will have to be vaccinated. The requirement will be first imposed at Google’s Mountain View headquarters and other U.S. offices, before being extended to the more than 40 other countries where Google operates.

SACRAMENTO — A California inmate died of natural causes while awaiting execution for killing his physically disabled mother, officials said Wednesday. He was 68.

Donald R. Millwee died at an outside hospital Tuesday evening, correctional officials said. He had been housed at a state prison in Corcoran, midway between Bakersfield and Fresno.

He was sentenced to death in Riverside County in 1990 for the fatal shooting of his mother, Esta Millwee, in 1986. She was paralyzed on one side of her face after suffering a brain aneurysm in 1981, according to court records.

BERKELEY — The city of Berkeley will start serving vegan food at public events, jails, senior centers and other city buildings after the city council approved a resolution that calls for the progressive city to cut by half its spending on animal-based products by 2024.

The first-of-its-kind measure approved Tuesday and co-authored by Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín requires the city to offer plantbased foods, including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds at public buildings.

It is the result of advocacy efforts by the Berkeley-based animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, which is working for similar policies to be enacted in other major cities, including San Francisco and Chicago.

The group had advocated for the city to serve 100 percent plantbased food but city officials did not want to go that far yet.