PG&E says power line inspections revealed 10,000 problems -- some needed immediate fixing
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS/NANETTE ASIMOV: "While scrambling in recent months to try to avoid setting off another deadly wildfire, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. found nearly 10,000 problems with its power equipment — including some that needed immediate action to be made safe, the utility said Monday."
"Thousands of PG&E electrical parts were broken, damaged, burned or corroded, according to documents the embattled company posted on its website Monday. PG&E unearthed the problems between November and the end of May while inspecting about 750,000 power towers, poles and substations in or near high-fire threat areas."
"Common issues included structural support equipment that was “no good” or out of standard, poles that had become decayed or rotten and various parts that were broken or damaged. PG&E said it has already fixed almost everything that posed the greatest risk."
READ MORE related to Wildfires, Climate Change & Disaster Relief: Service lines with contaminated water are getting replaced -- Chico ER's CAMILLE VON KAENEL; 250 code violations in six weeks for trucks working in Camp Fire areas, CHP reports -- Chico ER's CAMILLE VON KAENEL; California's new wildfire plan: 5 things to know -- CALmatters' JULIE CART
San Bernardino deficits grow after bankruptcy
Calpensions' ED MENDEL: "Just two years after San Bernardino left bankruptcy, one thing already seems clear: The “plan of adjustment” to cut the debt of the troubled city, which did not include pensions, is not working."
"A new city budget approved last month had a deficit of $11.2 million that was closed with cuts, $5.8 millon from police. The growth in pensions and other costs outpaced the flat general fund revenue expected this fiscal year, $127.4 million."
"While the bankruptcy allowed the city to restructure and/or eliminate approximately $76 million in long-term obligations, it did not resolve the city’s structural annual operating deficit,” Teri Ledoux, acting city manager, said in a proposed budget in May."
Our political polling shifts into high gear for 2020
Capitol Weekly's JOHN HOWARD: "In the 2016 and 2018 election cycles, Capitol Weekly conducted several surveys for the primary and general elections. We examined voters’ opinions on the contests for president, U.S. Senate, governor, Legislature and Congress, as well as on ballot measures before California voters."
"In total, we heard from over 100,000 voters, providing us with a significant dataset of voters and their preferences."
"These surveys were put together using data and tools from Political Data, Inc., which markets political information to campaigns, and Paul Mitchell, PDI’s vice president the founder of Capitol Weekly’s CA120 political column."
A surging Harris lags in fundraising, while Buttigieg leads the Democratic pack
LA Times's SEEMA MEHTA: "The money race reinforced the tiers in the Democratic presidential contest on Monday, as candidates released their fundraising figures for recent months."
"Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sens.Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris — the five candidates who have been atop recent polls — raised and spent millions of dollars more than their Democratic primary rivals between April 1 and June 30, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission."
"The Iowa caucuses are more than 200 days from now, but political experts say that the fundraising totals reported Monday by a sprawling field of roughly two dozen candidates reinforce the narrative in the Democratic primary."
Is Nunes worried about 2020? He's spending more than ever to run for office
Sacramento Bee's KATE IRBY: "Rep. Devin Nunes’ alliance with President Donald Trump is getting expensive for the longtime California congressman."
"Nunes, R-Tulare, has spent nearly eight times as much money so far in this election cycle than he did at the same point in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms."
"His campaign has spent nearly $2 million so far compared to just over $250,000 in the 2017-18 cycle, according to records published by the Federal Election Commission on Monday."
In Congress, Republicans are silent about Trump's racist tweet. In California, some aren't
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "Most California Republicans, like their congressional counterparts, stayed silent about President Donald Trump’s declaration on Twitter that four Democratic congresswomen — three of whom are American born — should “go back” to their home countries."
"Assemblyman Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley broke with his party to condemn the tweet, calling on his fellow Republicans to follow suit."
"This is beyond unacceptable, it is wrong and abhorrent. Dear Fellow Republicans, we must speak out and return ourselves to decency. This cannot be who we are,” Mayes wrote in a tweet."
Top women to CalPERS candidate: Drop out, we don't want an accused harasser
Sacramento Bee's MARCOS BRETON: "The state treasurer of California, a state senator and another woman serving on the CalPERS board have called on J.J. Jelincic Jr., a former board member who is running again, to drop out of the race because of his history of harassing women who work at the Sacramento-based pension fund."
"In a letter to Jelincic and obtained by The Bee, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, State Sen. Connie M. Leyva and CalPERS Vice President Theresa Taylor wrote: “You (Jelincic) were accused by three different women, all lower level administrative staffers at the time, of ‘leering at them; of making inappropriate comments about them; of making juvenile noises that school boys make as girls walk by."
"“State Personnel Board Administrative Law Judge Teri L. Block heard consistent accounts from your accusers. The judge found that a penalty of formal reprimand was just and proper...The CalPERS board officially reprimanded you in 2011 for sexually harassing three CalPERS employees. Now after a brief retirement from the CalPERS board, you are running for a seat on the board chosen by CalPERS retirees."
Butte election official eyeing first all-mail vote
Chico ER's LAURA URSENY: "There’s a lot of new ground for Butte County elections official Candance Grubbs in next month’s California Assembly District 1 special election."
"While a large number of Butte County voters already vote by mail, this Aug. 27 election for foothill residents will be the county’s first fully mail-in balloting. Butte County is one of 13 pioneering counties that have adopted early the state-mandated vote-by-mail balloting."
"Election information will be mailed to the voters, who will mark their choices and then put their ballots back in the return mail. There will be no place to walk in to vote, but there may be a drop box to receive hand-carried ballots. Those locations haven’t been announced yet."
ICE arrested immigration activist for reading a critical poem in public, SF lawsuit says
The Chronicle's GWENDOLYN WU: "Free speech advocates on Monday accused federal immigration officials of violating a Bakersfield activist’s First Amendment rights when he was detained in May, two days after he recited a poem critical of the federal immigration agency at a public meeting."
"Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union argued in San Francisco federal court that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained 22-year-old Jose Omar Bello Reyes as retribution for the poem."
“What’s at stake is the right of not only an immigrant, but anyone to criticize the federal government without fear of retaliation for those criticisms,” attorney Jordan Wells said outside the Phillip Burton Federal Building."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Asylum officers receive last-minute guidance on implementing sweeping border policy change -- LA Times's MOLLY O'TOOLE
Mural supporters plan 2020 ballot measure to protect controversial fresco at Washington High
The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "A group of influential art, historic preservation and free-speech advocates plans to put a measure on San Francisco’s March 2020 ballot that would preserve a controversial mural at George Washington High School that’s scheduled to be destroyed."
"The San Francisco school board voted last month to paint over the 1,600-square-foot fresco, which depicts images of African slaves and American Indians that many, including students, find offensive and painful to look at. Ridding the school of the artwork, the board said, amounts to a form of reparations for the historic injustices against African Americans and American Indians."
“This mural is not teaching students about the history of slavery and indigenous genocide under George Washington or other white settlers,” said Nancy Truong, a 2013 graduate of the school who spoke at the meeting that decided the mural’s fate. “Instead it is teaching students to normalize violence and death of our black and indigenous community.”
The Ahwahnee is back: Yosemite reclaims historic names in trademark settlement
Sacramento Bee's CARMEN GEORGE: "Yosemite National Park will get the historic names of its properties back in a civil lawsuit settlement reached between the National Park Service and Yosemite’s former concessionaire, DNC Parks and Resorts at Yosemite."
"Place names to be restored include the Ahwahnee Hotel, Curry Village, the Wawona Hotel, and Badger Pass Ski Area, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said."
"Some place name signs in Yosemite Valley were returned within hours of the settlement being signed Monday morning, including the Curry Village sign, which was hidden by a covering that said Half Dome Village."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: Ridgecrest earthquake aftershocks move toward dangerous faults, sparking concerns of triggered temblors -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II; 800k gallons of oil has poured into a SoCal canyon from a Chevron operation -- AP; Meterologists: Ocean breeze will dampen SoCal heat wave beginning Tuesday -- OC Register's ERIC LICAS
Rideshare Rapist: SF officers gave suspect in rapes alcohol test even though they didn't think he was drunk
The Chronicle's EVAN SERNOFFSKY: "San Francisco police never smelled alcohol when they pulled over Orlando Vilchez Lazo last year. They never gave him a field sobriety test. And, an officer testified in court on Monday, they never believed he was intoxicated."
"But in the early morning hours of July 7, 2018, officers nonetheless made Vilchez Lazo blow into an alcohol screening test. They wanted his DNA."
"The genetic material police obtained from the suspect’s saliva without a warrant is now at the center of a legal showdown over the constitutionality of a police stop that ultimately cracked the notorious “Rideshare Rapist” case."
Ghost Ship: Government agent contradicts defense witness' arson testimony
The Chronicle's SARAH RAVANI: "A government agent contradicted a key defense witness’ testimony in the Ghost Ship trial on Monday, saying that the witness never told investigators that he saw or heard people fighting or bottles being broken moments before the deadly 2016 fire in the Oakland warehouse."
"Prosecutors used the testimony of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Whitney Hameth to attempt to undermine the defense’s assertion that the blaze was caused by a group of people who threw Molotov cocktails inside the space."
"Hameth said Darold Leite, who lived in the warehouse’s back lot, never said in his interviews with ATF that he saw a group of people in dark clothing run from the warehouse or that he heard people fighting. Leite took the stand in the trial last week and said he heard a fight and what sounded like bottles breaking — supporting the defense’s account that the blaze was set by arsonists and that popping glass sounded like Molotov cocktails."
Rare disease discovery: Antibodies fighting cancer go on to attack brain
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "Three years after he was successfully treated for testicular cancer, Glenn Sauber began suffering disturbing neurological symptoms."
"He’d lose his balance after he worked out near his Sebastopol home. His speech became slurred. One day, he was suddenly struck with double vision. His right leg and arm were sometimes hard to control; they moved like the limbs of a marionette."
"Doctors couldn’t come up with a diagnosis that fit. He was tested for Parkinson’s disease. For a while he was convinced he had multiple sclerosis. After a head scan, he was told he might have an inoperable brain tumor."
OP-ED: Congress is rushing to make the CIA less accountable
LA Times EDITORIAL BOARD: "It’s already a crime to identify a covert intelligence agent or confidential informant working overseas. But even though the law has only been used twice in 37 years — and even though no persuasive case has been made that it needs to be toughened or expanded — Congress is now proposing to broaden it, imposing new restrictions on free speech."
"It needs to slow down and demand evidence that a new version of the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act is necessary and that it won’t be wielded to silence whistleblowers or make it harder for the press to report on abuses."
"In its present form, the law allows for the prosecution of anyone who discloses the identity of a covert agent who has served outside the United States during the previous five years or a foreign-based U.S. citizen whose relationship with an intelligence agency is classified. The law assumes that operatives posted in foreign countries face a special danger from exposure of their identities."