State fire authorities, noting lower wind speeds and rising humidity, say the ferocious Rim Fire should be fully contained by Sept. 10.
From the LAT's Julie Cart, Robert J. Lopez and Joseph Serna: "Firefighters have battled the stubborn blaze for nearly two weeks and have it 30% contained. The effort has cost at least $39.2 million and required some 4,500 firefighters. More than 192,500 acres — about 301 square miles — have burned, causing three injuries and destroying 111 structures, including 11 homes."
"But the rate the fire is spreading has slowed in the last two days. Last week, the fire burned 50,000 acres in one 24-hour span and 30,000 acres in another, Berlant said. But in the last two days, the rate of spread has slowed to 10,000 acres one day and 5,000 on another."
"On Wednesday morning, officials employed an unmanned drone aircraft for the first time against the Rim fire."
The Bay Bridge shut down on Wednesday to complete work on the upgrade and to spiff it up for the opening ceremonies in a few days.
From the Chronicle's Michael Cabanatuan: "The Bay Bridge was shut down as scheduled Wednesday night, ending a nearly 77-year run for the venerable eastern span, promising as many as five days of regional gridlock and clearing the way for crews to create a path to its gleaming, new $6.4 billion replacement."
"With little ceremony - just a single car, a 1930 Ford Model A, passing through the toll plaza - the Bay Bridge was closed shortly after 8 p.m., though the California Highway Patrol had started diverting traffic on its approaches an hour earlier. Traffic to the toll plaza slowed to a trickle as the hour approached, and some motorists crept along or shut off their engines in an effort to be the last across."
"That privilege, however, belonged to Bob Faber, whose gold and brown Model A had been recruited to be the ceremonial last car to cross."
Meanwhile, Democrats in the Capitol are squabbling over the best way to deal with the requirement to cut California's prison inmate population, with the Assembly and governor at odds with the Senate.
From Jim Miller in the Press-Enterprise: "With the legislative year fast coming to a close, the Democrats who control the state Capitol are increasingly at odds over the best way to avert the court-ordered release of thousands of prison inmates."
"Wednesday, Senate Democrats presented a plan to reduce prison crowding that takes a much different approach than the proposal championed a day earlier by Gov. Jerry Brown and Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles."
"The Senate proposal calls for settling years-long litigation on prison crowding by creating a new prison oversight commission and offering up to $300 million in grants to local governments to reduce inmate recidivism. The state would get three more years to reduce the population of its 33 prisons."
San Bernardino, which sought bankruptcy last year amid crushing debt and dwindling resources, had its application approved Wednesday by a federal judge.
From the Press-Enterprise's Imran Ghori: "U.S. District Judge Meredith Jury said it was clear the city was broke and that bankruptcy may be its only hope for long-term survival."
“I can’t see anything other than dissolving the city if they can’t file under Chapter 9,” Jury said."
"She announced her tentative ruling at the outset of a lengthy hearing in federal court in Riverside and made the decision final despite attempts by an attorney for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to sway her."
First a newsie, now a politician, Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown is an unusual mix.
From Capitol Weekly's Amanda Ramirez: "Brown, D-San Bernardino, has been on both sides of the political world, first as a journalist and now as a participant. Elected last year in an upset victory, Brown said the press – whose coverage of Sacramento has been reduced sharply in recent years – plays a “necessary and very important” role and serves as a “check and a balance [system] for everyone.”
“If I do something wrong, they should put me in check,” she said in an interview in her Capitol office."
"The daughter of a newspaperman, Brown and her husband, Hardy, in 1980 bought a small UC Riverside publication, The Black Voice News, where she served as its editor-in-chief, and began the Brown Publishing Company."
And from ourt "Back to the Past" file comes the tale of a Red Scare-era law that finally has been demolished.
"After 72 years, it’s time to say goodbye to the California Subversive Organizations Registration Law."
"Enacted in 1941 to require organizations to register with the state if their ultimate aim was the violent overthrow of the government — local, state or federal — the law is being repealed by AB1405, which breezed through the Legislature without a dissenting vote, was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown and takes effect in January..."
"According to Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office, there’s no record that any group ever registered with the state as a Subversive Organization. But the law will leave its mark in the casebooks of legal precedents, a 1945 ruling on the prosecution of an unregistered band of American Nazi sympathizers called Friends of Progress."
