LAT, TARYN LUNA/JULIA WICK: "Gov. Gavin Newsom is tapping Magic Johnson, Dodgers Chairman Mark Walter and 2028 Olympics organizer Casey Wasserman to lead a new private-sector initiative to support wildfire recovery in Los Angeles.
The California governor’s office said the philanthropic effort, called LA Rises, will bring together business leaders to work with city, county and state officials to support rebuilding after the devastating fires. Walter, his foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation will provide up to $100 million to jump-start fundraising."
READ MORE -- What California can learn from Texas on rebuilding after a natural disaster -- CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL; Gov. Gavin Newsom suspends coastal building rules to help Los Angeles rebuild after wildfires -- Sacramento Bee, LIA RUSSELL
AG Rob Bonta took campaign donation from casino operator under investigation by his own office
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY/RACHEL SWAN: "Attorney General Rob Bonta had been in the state’s top law enforcement job for a month when he accepted more than $16,000 in campaign donations from a large Southern California casino called the Bicycle.
The Bicycle Casino was among several businesses and individuals to contribute precisely $16,200 — the highest amount then allowed by state regulators — to Bonta’s campaign in 2021, as the AG immediately began running to keep his job in the next year’s election."
The LA County fires devastated homes in the wildland urban interface. Here’s what that is.
CALMatters, JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "In just a single month, 2025 is the second most destructive fire year in California history, with more than 16,000 homes and other structures damaged or destroyed by two fires in the Los Angeles area. Most of those structures were in neighborhoods where the boundaries between human development and natural landscapes blur — the area fire officials and researchers call the wildland urban interface or WUI (woo-ee).
When a wildfire approaches one of these areas, the results can be hazardous as a fire can transition from consuming trees, shrubs and plants to devouring homes and other structures often constructed in ways that are vulnerable to burning. And it’s also where California has been building homes for decades — nearly 45% of homes built between 1990 and 2020 are located in places with lots of vegetation ready to fuel a fire."
Were the rains enough to ease Southern California’s fire threat? What we know (LIVE UPDATES)
LAT, GRACE TOOHEY: "This week’s rainstorm brought some much needed moisture to Southern California without the mudslides some feared.
But did it help reduce the fire danger that fueled this month’s unprecedented firestorm?"
Chilly mornings persist across the Bay Area. Here’s where temps could dip into the 20s
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "Keep your winter coat and hat handy for the next few days, especially if you live in the Silicon Valley and surrounding areas.
Cold morning temperatures will persist across the Bay Area this week, with many interior and valley locations dropping close to or below the 32-degree mark, prompting freeze watches."
Edison denied causing destructive 2017 fire. Feds now believe utility suppressed evidence
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "When the Creek fire exploded in the Angeles National Forest in 2017, suspicions quickly fell on electric power lines as the cause.
Witnesses reported seeing a snapped line on a high-voltage transmission tower in Little Tujunga Canyon around the time the fire started, and investigators focused their attention there."
He wants to make California Republicans relevant again. So why does the GOP dislike him?
CALMatters, RYAN SABALOW, JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "The Republican Party tried hard last year to keep one of its members, Carl DeMaio, from taking a seat in the California Legislature.
It endorsed his Republican opponent. A trio of prominent Republicans — serving in local, state and federal office — publicly urged local and state prosecutors to investigate him for criminal charges just days before the election. And a political campaign committee employing a prominent Republican consultant’s firm spent $2.1 million to defeat him."
Trump wants to break California’s sanctuary state law: 5 things to know
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "Back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump is once again trying to break a policy California Democrats adopted during his first term to protect certain undocumented immigrants from being deported.
One of his first executive orders targets the state’s so-called sanctuary law, which generally limits how local cops interact with federal immigration officers. Trump’s order, titled the “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”, would deny federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions across the country."
Trump’s plans could devastate California wine. Here’s how some in Napa are ‘preparing for a war’
The Chronicle, JESS LANDER: "Earlier this month, a DUI checkpoint in Napa Valley ignited panic throughout the wine region’s immigrant community. Rumors mistakenly identified the checkpoint as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation.
The event underscored the uneasiness rippling through California’s agriculture communities since the reelection of President Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out mass deportations across the country. Just days before, a U.S. Border Patrol immigration raid in Kern County, which appeared to target undocumented farmworkers in and around Bakersfield, ended in 78 arrests. “People are very, very terrified,” said Genesis Monnet, marketing chair and board member of Puertas Abiertas, a nonprofit that advocates for Napa Valley’s Latino community. “It feels like we’re preparing for a war.”"
A new strain of bird flu is found on a California duck farm
LAT, SUSANNE RUST: "A new strain of bird flu — H5N9 — has been detected in California’s Merced County at a commercial duck operation.
According to the World Organization for Animal Health — an international consortium of medical, veterinary and wildlife professionals that researches and reports on animal diseases — testing of ducks at the farm showed the animals had been infected by both the H5N1 and H5N9 strains."
EdSource, AMY DIPIERRO/MICHAEL BURKE: "When Kaitlin Andersen committed to play golf for Sonoma State University, she posed proudly in a Seawolves sweatshirt. But last week, school officials announced that they plan to end all NCAA sports next year, part of a bid to balance the school’s budget amid sliding enrollment and anticipated cuts to state funding. Andersen, a business marketing major from Peoria, Arizona, now is thinking that she will leave the campus.
“I will not be coming back here,” said Andersen, a first-year student. “I think this school will not do well after doing all this because half the reason we have so many people is because of athletics.”"
Every SFSU student will soon take climate justice course under new graduation requirement
The Chronicle, MALIYA ELLIS: "Starting this fall, every new student at San Francisco State University will be required to take a course on climate justice in order to graduate, the university announced Tuesday.
The Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action (ESCA) graduation requirement makes SFSU the first major public university to require a course explicitly incorporating climate justice, according to the university."
Daniel Lurie vowed to stop the chaos on S.F.’s Sixth Street. Here’s how police are cracking down
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST/JD MORRIS: "San Francisco Police Sgt. Kevin Cuadro didn’t get far into his daily patrol of Sixth Street on Monday morning before he was confronted with the chaos that has come to define the beleaguered South of Market strip.
Minutes after Cuadro stepped out of a pizza shop and started talking to people crowded along the sidewalk, a woman ran toward him in a hurry. “You don’t see the dude jumping on people’s cars?” she shouted. Officers “better go get him,” the woman said, or she would “beat the f— out of him.”"
S.F.’s speed cameras are coming soon, but the city wants drivers to adjust their behavior now
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "As San Francisco officials prepare to install speed cameras at 33 streets or intersections in March, they have a message for drivers: Start adjusting your behavior now.
That point resonated from billboards strategically placed throughout the city this week, along with ads broadcast on YouTube and in video games."