Trump ‘knew about the girls,’ Jeffrey Epstein claims in explosive emails
LAT, JENNY JARVIE: "Donald Trump “spent hours at my house” and “knew about the girls,” Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of orchestrating sex trafficking of young girls, wrote in private emails House Democrats released Wednesday.
“Of course he knew about the girls,” Epstein said of Trump in an email to author and journalist Michael Wolff in early 2019, when Trump was nearing the end of his first term as President."
No deal on the Colorado River despite Trump administration deadline
CALMatters, RACHEL BECKER: "After two fraught years of negotiations amid dire projections for the Colorado River’s reservoirs, California and six other states that rely on the river’s water have yet again failed to reach a deal — despite a federal deadline.
“While more work needs to be done, collective progress has been made that warrants continued efforts to define and approve details for a finalized agreement,” the states said. The written statement released Tuesday included no details about how they plan to manage the river after the current rulebook expires at the end of next year."
At Brazilian climate summit, Newsom positions California as a stand-in for the U.S.
LAT, MELODY GUTIERREZ: "The expansive halls of the Amazon’s newly built climate summit hub echoed with the hum of air conditioners and the footsteps of delegates from around the world — scientists, diplomats, Indigenous leaders and energy executives, all converging for two frenetic weeks of negotiations.
Then Gov. Gavin Newsom rounded the corner, flanked by staff and security. They moved in tandem through the corridors on Tuesday as media swarmed and cellphone cameras rose into the air."
Here’s a guide to what happens once the federal government shutdown ends
SacBee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "The federal government shutdown, which begins its seventh week Tuesday, appears close to being over. But when will things get back to normal?
There’s no easy way to answer the question. The Senate passed a plan Monday to reopen the government and fund most agencies until Jan. 30. Funds for agriculture, veterans, military construction and congressional budgets would stretch until Sept. 30."
Will race to replace Pelosi doom Wiener’s $23 billion bond proposal?
Capitol Weekly, DAVID JENSEN: "The race to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi in Congress, once the nation’s most powerful political woman, has scrambled the future of a proposal to create a $23 billion California version of the National Institutes of Health.
However, the situation may augur well for the $12 billion California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), whose fate will also be tied to the Golden State’s ballot box a few years down the road."
Immigrant detainees say they were harassed, sexually assaulted by guard who got promoted
LAT, ANDREA CASTILLO: "For more than a year, detainees at a California immigrant detention center said, they were summoned from their dorms to a lieutenant’s office late at night. Hours frequently passed, they said, before they were sent back to their dorms.
What they allege happened in the office became the subject of federal complaints, which accuse Lt. Quin, then an administrative manager, of harassing, threatening and coercing immigrants into sexual acts at the Golden State Annex in McFarland. A person with that nameworked in a higher-ranking post, as chief of security, at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana until August — the same month The Times sent questions to the company that operates the facilities."
Sacramento County keeps CalFresh emergency response as court extends SNAP pause
SacBee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "Sacramento County officials said Tuesday that they would continue operating under emergency conditions even as local CalFresh recipients saw their food benefits fully funded over the weekend and Congress moved closer to ending the government shutdown.
“Due to the ever-changing landscape of this emergency and the precarious nature of families in this community, we will maintain our current emergency operations until we feel it’s no longer needed,” said county spokesperson Janna Haynes."
She drove a hundred miles to give birth. New California laws are bringing maternity care closer to home
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "At 3:30 on a July morning, Emily Meyers’ water broke. Her son was coming five weeks early. Meyers and her husband jumped in the car and raced from their home in Greenville, population 387, to Reno, Nev. where they had planned to deliver. It was a two-hour drive along mostly narrow, two-lane highways shared with logging trucks.
They didn’t make it in time. Their son, Grant, was born in the car 13 minutes from the hospital to two stunned parents."
Turning Point tour ends with fights and arrests at UC Berkeley. Our student reporters were there
CALMatters, ELLA CARTER-KLAUSCHIE/CHRISSA OLSON: "A few hundred feet apart, yet worlds away politically, furious students at UC Berkeley protested the final stop of the conservative organization Turning Point USA’s “American Comeback Tour,” hosted Monday night on what is known as the nation’s most liberal campus.
The event drew many older attendees who at various moments danced to “YMCA,” laughed, and held moments of silence for the late TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk."
Trump administration vows to investigate UC Berkeley over Turning Point protest
SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "The Trump administration vowed Tuesday to investigate security protocols at both UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley after angry clashes among protesters and attendees at an event hosted by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by assassinated conservative youth activist Charlie Kirk.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said on social media that the city and the university would be investigated by the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, which she heads."
READ MORE -- DOJ says it’s investigating protests outside Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley -- Chronicle, ALEXEI KOSEFF
USC interim president is ‘optimistic’ despite unprecedented financial crisis
LAT, DANIEL MILLER: "The University of Southern California is in the throes of its most aggressive cost-cutting drive in memory — a grinding period of financial austerity that has shaken the university’s moneyed reputation and raised doubts among faculty and staff about the school’s ability to sustain itself as a top-tier institution.
Aiming to eliminate a budget deficit that ballooned to more than $200 million, the private school has cut nearly 1,000 positions, or almost 4% of its workforce."
Residents were left behind at senior facilities as Eaton fire raged. State finds serious lapses
LAT, GRACE TOOHEY: "They were forgotten amid the frantic evacuation of two senior care facilities, according to state investigators, leaving the elderly women in immediate danger as the smoke and flames of the Eaton fire drew closer.
In two reports published recently by the California Department of Social Services, investigators describe the harrowing circumstances of three women who were left behind in the assisted living facilities during the deadly Jan. 7 fire."
Atmospheric river to hit California with heavy rain, strong winds. Here’s a timeline of the storm
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "A fast-moving storm driven by an atmospheric river will sweep down the California coast Wednesday night through Friday, bringing a quick burst of heavy rain, strong winds and snow in the Sierra Nevada.
Here is a timeline of impacts:"
Northern lights make rare Los Angeles appearance amid major geomagnetic storm
LAT, CLARA HARTER: "Triggered by an intense geomagnetic storm, the northern lights made a rare visit to the Southland on Tuesday night, painting the skies above the Angeles National Forest in dazzling pink and purple hues.
Although the aurora borealis is typically confined to the northern polar region, Tuesday’s light show could be seen in many parts of the continental United States as a burst of solar energy collided with Earth’s magnetic field, sending supercharged particles cascading through the atmosphere."
READ MORE -- Northern lights seen over Bay Area as large geomagnetic storm hits -- Chronicle, ALDO TOLEDO; Stunning time-lapse videos show northern lights dance across California -- Chronicle, KATE GALBRAITH/MATTHIAS GAFNI
Trump floats 50-year mortgages — experts call it ‘a horrible idea.’ Here’s why
Chronicle, JESSICA ROY: "The 30-year mortgage has become a staple of the American home-buying industry since it was introduced nearly a century ago.
Though fixed-rate 30-year mortgages have opened the door to homeownership for millions, critics say they’ve pushed up prices, exacerbated inequality and created “golden handcuffs” for owners who score low interest rates that make them reluctant to sell."
L.A. may cap rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments at 3%. Landlords cry foul
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "Valerie Valentine bought a triplex in South Los Angeles two weeks ago, and already she wonders whether she made a terrible investment.
Bills are immediately adding up for the small-time landlord, from $1,000 to get the water turned on to $6,000 in annual property taxes. She worries that the amount she collects in rent will not be enough to cover her expenses."
Sausalito’s vote for more housing could create the unthinkable: Urban density in Marin County
Chronicle, J.K. DINEEN: "The row of low-slung commercial properties along the northern end of Bridgeway Boulevard has never been the stuff of Sausalito postcards.
A few hundred yards removed from the waterfront and its boat building and diving and small engine repair shops, it’s a collection of one- and two-story tilt-up buildings housing law firms, banks, medical offices and co-working spaces. There is a mushroom coffee business, an artisan tile showroom and an indoor play space for little kids."
S.F. federal drug cases plummeted under Trump administration, data shows
Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: "Just hours after staving off what was to be President Donald Trump’s latest immigration enforcement surge in a major blue city, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie took to the national stage and announced that he would, in fact, “welcome” some federal assistance — but of a different kind.
The planned militarized raids would harm the city and stifle its recovery, Lurie said in an Oct. 23 press conference, relaying what he told Trump the previous evening. But Lurie also explicitly encouraged the continuation of city partnerships with agencies including FBI, DEA, ATF and U.S. Attorney’s Office, he said, “to get drugs and drug dealers off the streets.”"
Exclusive: S.F. Mayor Daniel Lurie lays out new plan to arrest and treat drug users
Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST: "Faced with an unrelenting fentanyl epidemic and limited police resources, San Francisco for years has struggled to clear its sidewalks and public spaces of open-air drug use.
But Mayor Daniel Lurie is hoping a new, coercive approach could help officers tackle this problem while getting more drug users off the streets and connected to addiction treatment."
