Three Californias proposition kicked off the November ballot
From CALmatters' BEN CHRISTOPHER: "Though the “Three Californias” initiative gathered over 450,000 verified signatures, initially qualifying as “Proposition 9,” its place on the ballot was contested by the Planning and Conservation League, a nonprofit environmental organization. The group argued that trisecting the state would substantially “revise” the California Constitution, rather than simply “amend” it."
"Voters can only amend the constitution via ballot propositions. Revisions—sweeping changes to the structure or function of government—require two-thirds approval of both the state Assembly and Senate before being placed on the ballot."
"The Court did not take a side in that debate but agreed to take the proposition off of this year’s ballot while the question is resolved."
LA Times's THOMAS CURWEN: "Drivers along Highway 1 — coming and going to Big Sur — typically ignored Mud Creek. Most maps overlooked this most prosaically named feature along the California coast."
"There were no landmarks here, nothing to call attention to anything but the road, which hugged a cliff high above the surf below. To do otherwise would invite tragedy."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: Fire near Yosemite burns to 17,319 acres, two firefighters injured -- The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN; San Diego Water Department resisted oversight, downplayed meter issues -- Water Deeply's RY RIVARD
First cars whiz along California's new Highway 1 coastal road at Big Sur
The Chronicle's STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "California may not yet be perfect but, on Wednesday, it came a lot closer."
"With the reopening of Highway 1, the sinuous and spellbinding drive along the Big Sur coast is once again doable."
"Among the first to do it were Charlotte and Antoine De Kort, visitors from the Netherlands. They were figuring on taking the Highway 101 detour instead — the route that tens of thousands of disappointed motorists have been shunted onto since May 2017, when 5 million cubic yards of earth slid into the Pacific Ocean in the biggest landslide in the coast road’s 81-year history."
READ MORE related to Transportation: Tanker truck blast in Santa Rosa closes Highway 101, forces evacuation of medical facility -- AP
Berkeley vs. wireless industry over safety warnings
Fairwarning's LYNNE PEEPLES in Capitol Weekly: "Few people know that there are federal safety limits for exposure to the weak radiation emitted by cellphones and other wireless devices. There often is language about this embedded right in our phones, but finding it requires knowing where to look, wading through sometimes five or more steps and then making sense of the technical jargon."
"Concerned about the lack of public awareness, the city of Berkeley passed a law in 2015 calling for cellphone stores to post warning signs. The signs caution that if you carry a phone in a pocket or tucked into a bra when the device is on, “you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure’’ to radiofrequency radiation."
From obscurity to political stardom: How viral videos are reshaping elections
LA Times's EVAN HALPER: "Before Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s jolting primary win over one of the most powerful House Democrats made her a fixture on cable news and the toast of progressives nationwide, there was the shoestring-budget video that got the base buzzing."
"By election night last month, more than 1 million people had watched the video with its signature scene of the socialist candidate on a subway platform, changing out of commuter shoes and into heels en route to her restaurant job. A gentrifying New York that is squeezing out working-class families such as hers forms the backdrop. The filmmakers from Detroit, who quit their corporate jobs to help candidates such as Ocasio-Cortez, knew they had something while shooting on that subway platform."
OP-ED: When are California Republicans going to stop covering for Trump?
LA Times EDITORIAL BOARD: "There are crucial moments in history when leaders must put aside petty rivalries and partisan politics and work together to address existential threats or other looming dangers."
"Now is such a time."
eBay lays off nearly 300 Bay Area employees
The Chronicle's REBECCA AYDIN: "Even as it reported healthy profits for its second quarter Wednesday, eBay is firing nearly 300 employees across the Bay Area, state documents revealed."
"San Francisco, Brisbane and San Jose offices were affected by mass terminations reported to state authorities late last month. San Jose, where eBay is headquartered, took the largest hit with 228 layoffs. Brisbane, where eBay’s Shopping.com subsidiary is based, lost 5 employees, and San Francisco saw 41 layoffs."
Oakland man pleads guilty to attempting to work with terrorist groups
The Chronicle's EVAN SERNOFFSKY: "A 23-year-old Oakland man accused of plotting Islamic State-inspired bomb attacks in San Francisco and the East Bay pleaded guilty Wednesday to several felony charges, despite claims by his attorneys that he has no affiliation with terrorists or terrorist organizations."
"Amer Sinan Alhaggagi, a Berkeley High School graduate who lived in West Oakland, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, possession of device-making equipment, and fraud charges in Judge Charles Breyer’s federal courtroom in San Francisco."
"The gallery overflowed with nearly 100 people, including relatives and members of the Bay Area’s Yemeni community, as Alhaggagi, wearing red jail-issued clothing and long dark hair that cascaded down his back, confidently answered the judge when saying he understood the charges against him."
Court ruling: Trump ban on transgender military service still on hold
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "A federal appeals court in San Francisco rejected President Trump’s request Wednesday to put the latest version of his ban on most transgender military troops into effect while the court considers the government’s arguments that their service is expensive and disruptive."
"A series of federal courts has blocked Trump from implementing the policy he first announced in a series of tweets in July 2017. Wednesday’s order by the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals was the first appellate decision on the executive order he issued in March that was less absolute than the previous ban."
Putin chides Trump's opponents and calls summit a success
AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called his first summit with President Trump a success — but warned that Trump's opponents in the U.S. are hampering any progress on what they discussed, such as limiting their nuclear arsenals or ending the Syrian war."
"In his first public comments about the summit, Putin told Russian diplomats that U.S.-Russian relations are "in some ways worse than during the Cold War," but that his meeting with Trump on Monday allowed them to start on "the path to positive change."
"The new rules would still largely bar transgender people from the armed forces, but would allow Defense Secretary James Mattis to retain those who had been serving openly under an order issued by President Barack Obama. That order, effective in June 2016, lifted a previous ban on transgender service and cited a RAND Corp. study that found their presence would not harm the armed forces, either financially or militarily."
FDR discovery: 80-year-old, long-buried photos of president's Bay Area visit
The Chronicle's BILL VAN NIEKERKEN: "You don’t stumble across hidden presidential history every day."
"While a recent hunt for photos of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime 1942 tour of the Bay Area proved fruitless, the search did turn up photo negatives from FDR’s 1938 San Francisco visit that haven’t been published in decades."
"In recent decades, when a president stops in the Bay Area it’s usually brief and boring, and it almost always revolves around fundraising. Eighty years ago, a president’s visit was a huge news story."