Poll: Harris and Walz build huge lead among likely California voters
LAT's JAMES RAINEY: "Vice President Kamala Harris’ entry into the presidential race has galvanized traditional Democratic voting groups and those not aligned with a political party, helping extend the Democrats’ already large advantage over former President Trump in California, a new poll shows.
Harris leads Trump 59% to 34% in the electoral-vote-rich Golden State, a margin 7 points larger than President Biden held earlier this year, before he gave up his bid for reelection late last month, according to the survey by Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, cosponsored by The Times."
Who’s ahead in the national polls?
FiveThirtyEight's STAFF: "Updating average for each candidate in 2024 presidential polls, accounting for each poll's recency, sample size, methodology and house effects.
Polling averages are adjusted based on state and national polls, which means candidates’ averages can shift even if no new polls have been added to this page. Read the full methodology here."
‘Latino voters will be the deciding factor’ in 2024 election. Here’s why it matters
Sacramento Bee's MATHEW MIRANDA: "California’s Latino population no longer looks the same as it did two decades ago, and a study highlights the untapped potential for a community who routinely has low voter turnout numbers.
The change in the community is featured in a report published Wednesday by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. Researchers used U.S. Census data to provide the demographic and socioeconomic findings of the state’s Latino eligible voters. Most notably, the eligible voter population increased from 3.9 million to 8.2 million in the last 22 years."
Gavin Newsom, once Biden’s biggest cheerleader, inches into the Kamala Harris campaign
CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Until the moment President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign crashed to an end last month, no one remained a more committed cheerleader than Gov. Gavin Newsom, who forcefully defended Biden in television interviews and on the campaign trail against calls to drop out.
But in the weeks since Biden did just that, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, Newsom retreated from the role of surrogate."
As a Minnesota ‘climate champion’, Gov. Tim Walz looked to California for inspiration
LAT's HAYLEY SMITH: "The run-up to the 2024 presidential election has been supercharged by hot-button issues ranging from abortion to immigration. But for many voters, climate change remains top-of-mind as the country continues to grapple with devastating storms, explosive wildfires and record-breaking heat waves.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has an impressive track record when it comes to climate action, experts and advocates say. During his tenure as governor, Walz has passed dozens of initiatives focused on clean energy and transportation, air and water quality, and environmental justice — many of which mirror California’s own ambitious goals."
Trump promises to ‘save’ America with mix of lofty, vague, legally dubious policies
LAT's KEVIN RECTOR: "The way former President Trump tells it, the United States is a “crime-ridden mess” with “the worst border in the history of the world,” simultaneously headed for the next Great Depression and World War III.
Also according to Trump, electing him to a second term will change all of that almost immediately. Foreign wars will abruptly end as millions of undocumented immigrants are deported. The U.S. will “DRILL, BABY, DRILL!,” and the associated revenue will “rapidly” transform a weak U.S. economy into one where “incomes will skyrocket, inflation will vanish completely, jobs will come roaring back, and the middle class will prosper like never, ever before.”"
Harris offers ‘freedom’ and contrast to Trump, but not many policy details
LAT's NOAH BIERMAN: "Vice President Kamala Harris has developed a crowd-pleasing line when she campaigns against Project 2025, the 887-page policy agenda written for former President Trump by his Republican allies.
“I can’t believe they put that thing in writing,” she says at rallies, drawing laughs and applause."
CBIA had a big year – So why was Dan Dunmoyer not on the Top 100 list? (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "Last week we talked about this year’s Top 100 list… In this episode, we’re starting off with a confession: Mistakes were made.
One of the hallmarks of The Top 100 is that the contents of the list are very tightly held until the moment of publication. That secrecy creates various logistical problems, not the least of which is proofreading. Only a handful of people, most of whom work in the Capitol Weekly office, are involved in the editing or proofing process at any level. Having so few eyes on the List is a recipe for error, and this year we had a doozy: we left someone off."
Californians will vote on a $18 minimum wage. Workers already want $25 and more
CALMatters's JEANNE KUANG: "California touted a victory for working people in 2016 when it enacted a sweeping series of minimum hikes, making sure the lowest-wage workers would earn at least $15 an hour by 2022.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown, while signing the law, spoke of “giving people their due;” then-Senate leader Kevin de León spoke in Spanish of making it possible to achieve the American dream."
Pass the heat recovery law to decarbonize cement production (PODCAST)
TOM TIETZ in Capitol Weekly: "Two years ago, Gov. Newsom introduced an ambitious, first-of-its-kind plan to decarbonize the Californian economy by 2045 – no mean feat for any economy, let alone the fourth largest in the world.
Two years in, we are already feeling the heat. We now have 20 years to hit our target, and we need to squeeze the most out of every day we have left if we are to meet this goal."
A narrow road, two horses and a panic attack: One woman’s escape from a California inferno
The Chronicle's MATTHIAS GAFNI: "Lori Osbon had been inching her Chevy Tahoe down a dark, dusty logging road for hours, pulling a heavy trailer containing her two beloved horses. Then the caravan of vehicles she had joined stopped. Osbon heard a woman yell that they still had 8 miles to go.
“I went into a full blown panic attack,” Osbon recalled. She was crying, her hands shaking and feet numb. “I was too frightened. I was picturing myself falling off the cliff, and the horses with broken legs.”"
Cheaper alternatives to Ozempic are flooding the weight-loss market. Are they safe?
LAT's ANDREA CHANG: "When Tina Jacobson tried to get Ozempic to lose weight, her health insurance provider denied coverage because she was not diabetic.
Instead of paying more than $1,000 out of pocket for the Type 2 diabetes drug, which lowers blood sugar levels and suppresses appetite, the Florida real estate agent turned to a clinic that prescribed her a cheaper alternative."
Computer science bill to address disparities in access – if it passes
EdSource's LASHERICA THORNTON: "Unless Assembly Bill 2097 — requiring every public high school to teach a computer science course — advances in the state Legislature on Thursday, access to computer science in California will continue to be inequitable across socioeconomic, racial, gender and geographic lines, according to the bill’s author.
“It’s predominantly our underserved communities, our Black and brown communities, our rural communities, where students are going to schools that don’t even give them access to computer science,” said Assemblymember Marc Berman about his bill, which would close gaps and increase access to computer science classes in California, as 30 other states do."
Inside first day at a $374 million high school in California’s fastest-growing city
The Chronicle's CAROLYN STEIN: "After a year of sitting in mostly portable classrooms, Emerald High School in Dublin welcomed over 900 freshmen and sophomores to its new campus Tuesday, the first high school built in Alameda County in 50 years.
For Anika Lalwani, the first day of school at a new campus was exciting but also daunting."
Judge orders UCLA to ensure equal campus access to Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protests
LAT's JAWEED KALEEM: "A federal judge on Tuesday admonished UCLA for its handling of pro-Palestinian encampments and ordered the university to ensure equal access to Jewish students, three of whom alleged in a lawsuit that the university enabled protesters to block Jews from parts of campus because of their faith.
In issuing his preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi sided with the students, whose June suit said the university helped to enforce a “Jew Exclusion Zone” on campus during pro-Palestinian protests when UCLA erected bike rack barriers around an encampment. Also, the suit alleged that UCLA hired security guards who allowed protesters to cross into the encampment, but not Jewish students."
Bay Area weather: These places will be windiest today
The Chronicle's ANTHONY EDWARDS: "The Bay Area is no stranger to breezy summer afternoons, but Wednesday’s gusts are expected to be unusually strong due to the influence of a shortwave trough.
The weak but fast-moving atmospheric disturbance will move over the Bay Area on Wednesday afternoon, and high pressure building in its wake along the coast. In the Central Valley, a hot afternoon will result in rising air and a local region of low pressure at the ground known as a thermal low."
How the 2028 Olympics could actually break L.A.’s car dependency
LAT's RYAN FONSECA: "Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 14. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
- L.A. promises a car-free 2028 Olympics. We’ll see about that!
- Harris and Walz’s campaign builds a huge lead among likely California voters.
- Find hootin’-hollerin’ allure at Knott’s Berry Farm’s summer staple Ghost Town Alive.
- And here’s today’s e-newspaper"
Sacramento Bee's GRAHAM WOMACK: "Julie Maestas didn’t know what she was going to do.
Maestas, 48, lives at Camp Resolution in North Sacramento and has a Lifeline phone, which are typically free or low-cost from the government."
S.F. owns hundreds of acres of ‘beautiful’ land it’s not using. Here’s what could happen to it
The Chronicle's CAROLYN STEIN: "San Francisco owns over 600 acres of wooded, isolated land in the Santa Cruz Mountains that it’s considering selling to conserve it or repurposing it as a space to serve young people.
The site was once the home of Log Cabin Ranch, which for decades served as a last resort for young people involved in the criminal justice system before locking them up in a state facility. The hope was that the site would serve as an alternative to incarceration, but the ranch was costly to run and young people at the ranch frequently tried to run away, leading the city to shutter it in 2018."
Human Rights Watch slams L.A. and state for criminalizing homelessness
LAT's DOUG SMITH: "Human Rights Watch issued a voluminous report Wednesday castigating local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom for criminalizing homelessness and failing to observe “an internationally protected human right” to “adequate housing.”
The organization, which reports on human rights abuses in some of the most violent places on earth, said the U.S. as a whole, and particularly the City of Los Angeles, have treated “housing primarily as a commodity” while “their primary response on the ground has been criminalization of those without it.”"
This big city mayor swore not to criminalize homelessness. A new report says she did anyway
CALMatters's MARISA KENDALL: "When the Supreme Court and then Gov. Gavin Newsom gave the green-light to crack down on homeless encampments this summer, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass loudly took issue with that approach — setting herself apart from other big-city leaders.
But despite Bass’ public stance against it, Los Angeles has done plenty to criminalize homelessness over the past few years, according to a new report from a prominent human rights organization."
Gun of disgraced L.A. cop Christopher Dorner turns up in Beverly Hills armed robbery case
LAT's SANDRA MCDONALD: "A gun once registered to Christopher Dorner — the notorious former L.A. cop who killed four people including two law officers — was found in the L.A. Airbnb of a pair of alleged “crime tourists,” federal prosecutors say.
The two South American nationals are accused of stealing a $1-million watch at gunpoint last week on the patio of the Beverly Wilshire hotel."
Mystery billboards have dire — and misleading — message about crime in S.F. neighborhood
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "On Tuesday morning, as residents of San Francisco’s Richmond District embarked on their daily commutes and coffee runs, they were met with an arresting message.
“Since 2021 there have been over 20,000 robberies, burglaries and thefts in the Richmond,” the new billboard screamed from Geary and Arguello boulevards."
