4 reported dead as LNU fire in Vacaville, Napa, Sonoma tops 215K acres
Sac Bee's STAFF: "The LNU Lightning Complex Fire is continuing to surge through the North Bay area on Thursday after scorching more than 215,000 acres of Solano, Yolo, Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties.
Containment of the series of wildfires that make up the LNU Complex Fire remained at 0% Thursday night, and more than 1,000 firefighters continued to battle the fires.
Cal Fire reported four people died in the series of LNU Complex fires, including three people in Napa County and one in Solano County. The fires have destroyed 480 structures and damaged another 125 while threatening more than 30,000 structures."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: Flag draped over helicopter pilot killed fighting California wildfire -- Sac Bee's CARMEN GEORGE; California's weary firefighters are working double shifts. When will backup arrive? -- Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW/JASON POHL; Wildfires continue to make California's air quality unhealthy, including Sacramento -- Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH; Wildfire victims don't need your old stuff. Here's the best way to help -- Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW; 48,000 residents evacuated from San Mateo, Santa Cruz counties -- The Chronicle's STAFF; It's déjà vu in the Bay Area as fires again force evacuations and cloud the skies -- LA Times's ANITA CHABRIA/JOE MOZINGO/JOSEPH SERNA
Uber and Lyft won't suspend California operations after court gives them time to fight law
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "Uber and Lyft pulled back from their warning that they would suspend their services in California by Friday morning after an appeals court gave the companies a legal reprieve allowing them more time to figure out how to comply with a new state labor law.
Hours before the companies planned to go offline, California’s 1st District of Court of Appeal issued a stay on an order that would have forced the them to comply immediately with a labor law that requires businesses to give employment benefits to more workers rather than classify them as independent contractors.
“We are glad that the Court of Appeals recognized the important questions raised in this case,” Uber spokesman Davis White said, “and that access to these critical services won’t be cut off while we continue to advocate for drivers’ ability to work with the freedom they want."
Coronavirus, wildfires combine to create a Bay Area respiratory catastrophe
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "This is the disaster scenario the Bay Area has been dreading since March. Wildfires, awful air quality and the coronavirus pandemic are combining to strain public health resources stretched impossibly thin.
The potential for respiratory catastrophe looms large on two fronts. Fires are ringing the nine counties and thick smoke blankets the region. The coronavirus still is circulating widely, with more than 1,000 new cases reported most days. The added air pollution could make matters worse, experts said.
Meanwhile fire-related evacuations in nearly every Bay Area county are creating additional public health difficulties, from how to keep people socially distant in shelters to finding hotel rooms and other safe spaces to house those who need them."
READ MORE related to Environment/Climate: Newsom calls for fight against climate change in last-minute convention video -- The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF; With N95s scarce, what masks can protect you from both smoke and COVID-19? -- The Chronicle's DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA
With emissions deal, California takes aim at automakers' alliance with Trump
LA Times's MICHAEL HILTZIK: "On Aug. 17, California finalized its agreements with five major automakers aimed at upholding its stringent vehicle emissions standards against an effort by the Trump administration to roll the rules back.
In doing so, the state delivered an unmistakable warning to the rest of the auto industry: California’s rules are likely to remain in place, and if you’ve got brains, you’ll join us.
The state carefully crafted its agreements with Ford, Honda, BMW of North America, Volkswagen Group of America and Volvo to keep them free from interference by the federal Environmental Protection Agency or anyone else in the Trump administration.
LNU? SCU? CZU? How the Lightning Complex and other California fires get their names
The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN: "Wildfires have struck every Bay Area county except San Francisco this week, most of them part of lightning-sparked clusters with unusual-sounding three-letter monikers: LNU, CZU, SCU.
Those familiar with Northern California’s historic wildfires in recent years — the Camp Fire, the Carr Fire, Tubbs, Ferguson — may be wondering why these new blazes don’t also have simple names.
According to California fire officials, it’s because the sheer number of fires burning in the state has prompted officials to group them together in “complexes”:"
Newsom checks into Democratic convention from California wildfires
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom canceled a pre-planned primetime appearance at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday as fires raged across the state, opting instead to send in a cell phone recording made outside an evacuation center.
In the 2-minute cell phone video, shot while Newsom was on the road visiting wildfire evacuees, the Democratic governor said California’s raging wildfires are fueled by climate change and criticized President Donald Trump for threatening to withhold funding to fight them.
He pointed to the hundreds of lightning-sparked fires burning throughout the state as evidence that the country needs to adopt the stronger environmental protections that presidential candidate Joe Biden supports."
READ MORE related to Democratic National Convention: 'This is not a partisan moment': 6 takeaways from the Democratic National Convention -- Sac Bee's DAVID CATANESE/ALEX ROARTY; Will Kamala Harris' big speech motivate women, people of color to vote Democratic? -- Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN; Takeaways from a convention where Biden promises to pull America from darkness -- The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI/TAL KOPAN; Joe Biden counters Democrats' anxiety with a pledge of light against darkness -- LA Times's JANET HOOK; 5 takeaways from the final night of the DNC -- LA Times's MELANIE MASON
Relatives of GSK's murder victims confront DeAngelo
Sac Bee's SAM STANTON/DARRELL SMITH: "He never looked at any of them.
As family members and friends of the 13 people Joseph James DeAngelo killed made their way into a Sacramento courtroom Thursday, the confessed Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist sat the same way he has for three days now: silently staring at a wall.
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t hear them as they revealed the anguish he had caused so many different families, or the sheer disgust they feel for him."
READ MORE related to Golden State Killer: GSK's ex-wife speaks out, says his crimes devastated her family -- Sac Bee's SAM STANTON; Golden State Killer to be sentenced for crimes that terrorized a generation of Californians -- LA Times's PAIGE ST JOHN
The surprising story of the salesman who became LA's first known COVID-19 patient
LA Times's HARRIET RYAN/ PAIGE ST JOHN/XINLU LIANG: "The family arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on the way home from a Mexican vacation that had been short-lived and unpleasant. They had been exhausted, the father was battling a nasty stomach bug, and even before they settled into their Cancun hotel, they got word of the sudden death of the wife’s mother in their hometown: Wuhan, China.
The couple and their toddler son wanted to get back for the funeral and planned to be at LAX just long enough to switch planes. But as they passed through Tom Bradley International Terminal on Jan. 22, the father was overcome with a fever and body aches and approached a customs officer for help.
The family did not make their flight that Wednesday night and, indeed, would not return to China for more than a month. The father, Qian Lang, became the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Los Angeles and the fourth in the United States. He remained the sole patient diagnosed with the virus here for five weeks, passing most of that time in top-secret isolation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center."
Rep. Tony Cardenas to run for House leadership post
LA Times's SARAH D WIRE: "San Fernando Valley Rep. Tony Cárdenas says he will run for a House leadership position in 2021, becoming the first lawmaker to announce interest in replacing Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), currently the only Latino in leadership, who is giving up his seat to run for the U.S. Senate in November.
Cárdenas, a four-term congressman, told The Times that he will seek the assistant speaker post — the fourth-highest ranking spot in House leadership.
“I feel I could do some amazing work there,” Cárdenas, 57, said. “Being at the leadership table, you have a bigger say-so and you carry the weight of your colleagues’ opinions and priorities on your shoulders and I’m willing to do that."
Bay Area mass transit could start to resemble Uber or Lyft
The Chronicle's SAM WHITING: "Soon after mass transit in the Bay Area was all but shut down by the coronavirus, Susan Shaheen was hit by a thunderbolt: a national study was needed to chart the future of public transportation, and she would be the one to launch it. So the professor of transportation engineering at UC Berkeley went to her smartphone to begin texting and calling her contacts, enlisting 40 top experts from all aspects of industry and the economy to contribute to an academic research project titled “Scenario Planning Study: The Future of Public Transit and Shared Mobility.”
The project is co-sponsored by the UC Institute of Transportation Studies and the National Transportation Research Board, with additional funding by the ClimateWorks Foundation of San Fdrancisco. Results are due this fall, to be accompanied by webinars and a summarizing document that will be made public. It will describe the impact of COVID-19 on public transit and shared mobility in three time frames — 12 months, up to three years and up to six years. A range of policy options will be developed.
Shaheen serves four UC campuses — Berkeley, Davis, Irvine and Los Angeles — as director of the UC Institute of Transportation Studies’ Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative. She has been studying transit since completing her doctoral dissertation on Bay Area car-sharing in the 1990s, and offered a glimpse of how our daily commutes might look as the pandemic continues to redefine much of our lives."
LA coronavirus cases dropping so low that officials could soon seek to reopen schools
LA Times's MAURA DOLAN/HOWARD BLUME: "Despite disturbing numbers of young people dying of COVID-19, Los Angeles County’s chief medical officer said Thursday that new coronavirus cases may soon drop enough to allow officials to apply for waivers to reopen elementary schools.
During an online news conference, Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser noted that waivers can be sought to reopen schools when cases are below 200 for every 100,000 people for two weeks.
Over the last two weeks, officials have reported 27,739 new cases, which amounts to 275 per 100,000, but Gunzenhauser said that number was steadily dropping."
READ MORE related to Education: 'It's a frustrating period.' Yet LAUSD teachers muster smiles on the first day of school -- LA Times's HOWARD BLUME/ANDREW J CAMPA
Postmaster general faces Senate hearing over possible mail-in voting delays
AP: "Facing public backlash, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is set to testify Friday about disruptions in mail delivery as a Senate committee digs into changes in postal operations being made just as millions of Americans will be relying on mail-in ballots for the November election.
President Trump praises the new head of the Postal Service, a Republican donor and ally. But Democrats warn DeJoy’s cost-cutting initiatives since arriving in June are causing an upheaval that threatens the election. Trump raised the stakes by saying he wants to block agency funds to make it harder for the postal service to handle the expected surge of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 crisis.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will gavel open the session dismissing the “false political narrative” that DeJoy is trying to “sabotage” the election."
READ MORE related to USPS Controversy: Rotting food, dead animals and chaos at postal facilities amid cutbacks -- LA Time's LAURA J NELSON/MAYA LAU