The Ashes of the Dixie Fire Cast a Pall 1,000 Miles From Its Flames
LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA, THOMAS FULLER and JACK HEALY, NY Times: "Captured by an astronaut’s camera, the Dixie Fire appears as a thick and sickening miasma pouring from the earth’s surface. At its center in the eastern mountains of California, the fire is devouring acre after acre of rugged wildland to become the second largest blaze in the state’s history.
But Dixie and other megafires in the West have left a footprint much larger than the evergreen forests they level and the towns they decimate.
Summer after summer, California, a global leader in battling air pollution from vehicles, sends giant clouds of haze filled with health-damaging particles across the country. Even as far as Denver, 1,100 miles to the east, the fire has helped create a pall of noxious smoke during an already scorching summer."
COVID-19 hospitalizations rise sharply across SoCal as surge continues
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II: "COVID-19 hospitalizations have essentially doubled across much of California over the last two weeks — a troubling trend officials say illustrates the pandemic’s continued potency amid an ongoing surge in infections.
Increases of that magnitude have been seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, state data show, straining healthcare systems to an extent not seen in months.
Those counties — California’s five most populous — both reflect and drive the wider trends playing out across the state. California as a whole has seen its total number of hospitalized coronavirus-positive patients swell from 2,981 on July 25 to 5,973 as of Sunday."
California water district pays millions over 'unauthorized diversion' from federal canals
Sacramento Bee, DALE KASLER: "An obscure farm-irrigation agency in the San Joaquin Valley, the Panoche Water District has been struggling with a monumental scandal the past three years, with top officials under criminal indictment for embezzling public funds and illegally dumping toxic waste.
It turns out the district has also been allegedly taking water from the federal government.
Earlier this year Panoche agreed to pay the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation nearly $7.5 million to compensate for “unauthorized diversion of water” from two federal canals, according to a settlement agreement obtained by The Bee. The settlement was approved by the U.S. attorney’s office."
As Dixie fire nears half a million acres, containment is still weeks away
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "It has been 26 days since the Dixie fire ignited in the dense forest of Plumas County. It has destroyed more than 400 structures and sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing for safety.
And officials are warning that it could take several more weeks to contain the monstrous blaze, which is the second-largest wildfire in California’s recorded history.
The fire grew to 489,287 acres Monday and was only 21% contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The estimated date for containment is Aug. 30.
Dixie Fire: PG&E found no flaws with tree, power poles linked to California wildfire
Sacramento Bee, DALE KASLER: "PG&E Corp. inspectors had found no problems with power lines, power poles or the tree linked to the Dixie Fire raging in Northern California, according to a summary of inspection records the utility released Monday.
Under investigation in connection with the fire, which has become the second largest in California history, PG&E said its crews conducted routine inspections May 13 of the two power poles located where the fire started and found nothing wrong. The last previous inspection was in December 2016.
“These inspections did not result in any findings that required corrective action at or between poles 908 and 909,” the utility said."
PG&E power line suspected in Dixie Fire was set to be buried underground in safety move
LA Times, ALEX WIGGLESWORTH: "After Pacific Gas & Electric equipment sparked a massive fire that burned much of Paradise, Calif., and killed 86 people in 2018, the utility vowed a safety campaign aimed at preventing similar disasters.
PG&E said it would bury some power lines snaking through Northern California forest land, significantly reducing the risk of wildfires caused when winds damage equipment. Among the power lines set to be buried was a 10-mile stretch that may have started this year’s destructive Dixie fire, now the second largest in California history.
The situation underscores the rising scrutiny PG&E is facing this summer as a string of huge fires across Northern California have raged amid hot, dry conditions. PG&E power lines might have been responsible for at least three of those fires, according to documents the utility has filed with state regulators and a federal court. Legal liability from the devastation in Paradise and other wildfires pushed PG&E into bankruptcy and brought vows that the utility would fix its power grid. But the new fires have brought new outrage and demonstrated that there is still much work to do.".
Has the delta variant ended our shot at COVID herd immunity in California?
Sacramento Bee, MILA JASPER: "Whatever happened to herd immunity?
Once described as a kind of golden ticket out of the coronavirus pandemic, herd immunity refers to a state in which enough people in a community develop protection against a virus via vaccination or previous infection to the point that the entire population is considered immune. Earlier in the pandemic, epidemiologists often cited 60% to 70% of the worldwide population as the necessary goalpost for establishing herd immunity.
But after a summer of relative optimism, the delta variant is driving up COVID-19 cases across the country. While the super-spreadable version of the virus is hitting unvaccinated populations hardest, so-called breakthrough cases – when vaccinated individuals test positive for COVID-19 – are contributing to concerns that we’re losing ground in the fight against the coronavirus."
With delta rising, thousands of parents across state demand distance learning option
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Thousands of parents in San Francisco and across the state say they don’t want to send their kids back into classrooms this fall and are asking for online options as schools begin to reopen amid a new surge of the delta variant of COVID-19.
The last-minute demands for distance learning come as districts are beginning to fully reopen schools for the first time in 18 months, an already complicated and evolving process amid changing health guidelines, including mask mandates, and daily updates on rising coronavirus cases in the community.
The calls for academic days on Zoom counter assurances from local, state and federal health officials who have repeatedly urged schools to fully reopen, saying too many children have suffered in isolated academic settings and that transmission in schools is low, children are less likely to get the coronavirus or have serious illness if they do."
Unauthorized coronavirus testing site shut down in Marin County, officials say
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "Marin County health officials on Monday shut down what they said was an unauthorized coronavirus testing site in Fairfax, and said California officials are investigating the company over concerns also raised in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
Dr. Matthew Willis, Marin County’s health officer, told The Chronicle that a company called Community Wellness America was operating a testing site on a sidewalk across from a health food store in Fairfax on Friday.
The site had attracted lines of people amid a spike in demand for coronavirus tests as the delta variant fuels a new surge in cases. Bay Area testing sites and labs, which had scaled down their operations since the beginning of the year, are adding staff and hours — but, in the meantime, some residents have reported tests have been hard to come by."
The scary new climate report means fossil fuel use needs tio start falling, fast
LA Times, SAMMY ROTH/RUSS MITCHELL/SAM DEAN: "The global climate report released Monday offered a dramatic reminder of the need to slash use of fossil fuels — not just by 2050, when many corporations have pledged to stop scorching the planet, but in the next few years.
Scientists have said that zeroing out planet-warming emissions by midcentury is needed to stave off the worst consequences of the climate crisis. But there’s a giant gap between the many companies that have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and the much faster action the new report makes clear is desperately needed.
“You can’t get to those kinds of ambitious emissions targets without getting to work now,” said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology. “There’s a mountain of change between where we are here and where we would need to be.”"
Appeals court upholds $86M award to Livermore cancer survivors who sued Monsanto over Roundup
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Finding that chemical giant Monsanto showed “conscious disregard for the safety of others,” a state appeals court upheld $86.2 million in damages Monday to a Livermore couple who developed cancer after spraying Monsanto’s Roundup, the world's most widely used herbicide, in their yards for 30 years.
The verdict for Alva and Alberta Pilliod was the third by a Bay Area jury to find Monsanto at fault for knowingly marketing a dangerous product, and the third to be upheld by an appeals court. In a 2-1 ruling, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said that despite federal regulators’ approval of Roundup, jurors were entitled to conclude that the company had evidence its herbicide could cause cancer and withheld that evidence from its customers.
“The evidence shows Monsanto’s intransigent unwillingness to inform the public about the carcinogenic dangers of a product it made abundantly available at hardware stores and garden shops across the country,” Justice Marla Miller said in the majority opinion."