California wildfires have already charred 30 times as many acres as all of last year — and it’s still summer
LAT's HANNAH FRY: "Summer isn’t even half over in California, and wildfires have already scorched more than 751,000 acres, straining firefighting resources, forcing evacuations and destroying homes.
The total dwarfs the average amount burned over the last five years. As of Tuesday, 4,613 fires have charred through more than a dozen counties spanning from Siskiyou to San Diego."
Toilet paper and flat tires — the strange ways that Californians ignite wildfires
CALMatters's JULIE CART: "Of all the insidious threats faced by wildland firefighters — extreme heat, desiccated forests, unpredictable fire behavior and a nearly year-round fire season — what might be the most fearsome?
Humans."
‘Blessed Mother, watch over us’: Inside the bare-knuckle escape from the town hardest hit by the Park Fire
The Chronicle's MATTHIAS GAFNI: "“Oh my God!” Linda Forrester shouted, gazing at what appeared to be a 500-foot-high wall of flames from the Park Fire engulfing the only road out of her tiny town of Cohasset in Butte County.
“Blessed Mother, watch over us,” she said, her words captured on a video she took. “Have your cloak of blue around us. Shield us from all harm and danger. Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.”"
California weather: More heat, monsoon thunderstorms to raise fire risk
The Chronicle's ANTHONY EDWARDS: "After a brief absence, hot weather and monsoon thunderstorms are set to return to California as August arrives.
An area of high pressure will expand across the western U.S. on Wednesday and continue strengthening through Friday. The axis of the high-pressure system over the Rocky Mountains will spare California from the most extreme heat. However, its position will put parts of the Golden State in the path of increased monsoon moisture and associated thunderstorms."
Park Fire jeopardizing one of California’s most iconic species: ‘This species could blink out’
CALMatters's RACHEL BECKER: "California’s fifth largest wildfire is encroaching on some of the last strongholds for imperiled salmon, with potentially devastating consequences for a species already on the brink.
The explosive Park Fire has spread into the Mill and Deer Creek watersheds in Tehama County, which are two of the three remaining creeks where wild, independent populations of spring-run Chinook, a threatened species, still spawn in the Central Valley."
How Kamala Harris helped a California man become the nation’s first undocumented lawyer
Sacramento Bee's MATHEW MIRANDA: "For most of his life, Sergio Covarrubias Garcia tried his best to avoid interactions with law enforcement.
cAs a 17–year–old, Garcia prayed police wouldn’t stop the Chevy truck used to smuggle him and other undocumented men across the border. His nerves only continued. Garcia longed for officers to look away each time he drove to work or school."
With Dem governors crowding the campaign spotlight, will Gavin Newsom take a back seat?
The Chronicle's SOPHIA BOLLAG, JOE GAROFOLI: "Until Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Gavin Newsom was the top Democratic attack dog for the president.
For the past several months, Newsom has been one of few big-name Democrats blasting Republicans when Biden wouldn’t, traveling to red states to advocate for reproductive rights, confronting Republicans on conservative media outlets and starting a super PAC to support candidates in battleground races."
How will ranked-choice voting impact S.F. mayoral election? Insights from London Breed’s last race
The Chronicle's NAMI SUMIDA: "San Francisco Mayor London Breed is heading into a difficult reelection battle in November — but she’s no stranger to competitive races.
During her first mayoral election in June 2018, Breed won by just 2,500 votes in the final pass of ranked-choice voting, despite having a substantial lead in first-choice votes."
‘The virus wants to live.’ California’s big COVID spike isn’t expected to ease anytime soon
LAT's RONG-GONG LIN II: "With COVID-19 numbers in California spiking this summer, experts are warning the new strains driving the spread could be around for some time.
The latest COVID summertime surge is being fueled by what have collectively been dubbed the FLiRT subvariants — a collection of highly transmissible sibling strains that have muscled their way to prominence both in California and nationwide. In doing so, they’ve supplanted last winter’s dominant strain, JN.1, and are presenting new challenges to immune systems not yet primed to keep them at bay."
UC admits more California residents, looking to meet state goals
EdSource's MICHAEL BURKE: "The University of California admitted a record number of California resident first-year students for the upcoming fall term, offering a spot to 93,920 of them, the university system announced Wednesday.
UC also made more admission offers to community college transfer students and to low-income students. Latino students were the largest demographic group of admitted first-year students, while UC also slightly increased offers to Black students."
UC sets new record with largest, most diverse class of California students for fall 2024
LAT's TERESA WATANABE: "The University of California admitted the largest and most diverse class of undergraduates for fall 2024, opening the doors of the vaunted public research institution to more California low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students of color, according to preliminary data released Wednesday.
In striking data, UC shared for the first time the gender identity of admitted students as part of its annual data release. Systemwide, women are the dominant gender among first-year students, reaching 55%. At six campuses — Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, UCLA, San Diego and Santa Barbara — the gender gap is greater, with men representing about 37% of students. UC Merced was the most evenly balanced, with 49% women and 46% men. The genders were at greater parity among transfer admits."
Yuba County judge rejects city’s attempt to tear down fire-gutted Hotel Marysville
Sacramento Bee;'s HANNAH POUKISH: "A Yuba County judge ruled Friday that the city of Marysville cannot demolish the fire-gutted Hotel Marysville without permission from the building’s owner, the Feather River Plaza LLC.
Judge Stephen Berrier denied the city’s request to declare an emergency and approve a warrant, which would have given Marysville the ability to tear down the damaged hotel. During the hearing, Berrier called the hotel “a clear and imminent danger,” but ultimately ruled in favor of the building’s owners by limiting the city’s emergency warrant, the Marysville Appeal-Democrat reported."
It was the epicenter of Oakland’s surging crime. Is this corridor any better now?
The Chronicle's KEVIN FA
He was parked last week in what’s been billed as the worst crime zone in the crime-troubled city — the Hegenberger Corridor near San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. At his end of the parking lot sat the In-N-Out Burger eatery that closed in March after hundreds of thefts in the vicinity. When anyone walked close to his truck, Chavez squinted and got ready to fire up his Dodge Ram to high-tail it away if he had to."
‘Significant victory’: More than 80 arrested in copper wire theft crackdown
LAT's ANGIE ORELLANA HERNANDEZ: "Eighty-two arrests have been made in a recent escalation to combat the “growing epidemic” of copper wire thefts, city officials announced Tuesday.
City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Traci Park attributed the arrests and 2,000 pounds of recovered wire to their copper wire task force — dubbed the heavy metal task force — adopted in late February in partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Bureau of Street Lighting."
