'Dreamers' stake their futures on going public. Now, the spotlight is going to be more important than ever
LA Times' SONALI KOHLI/CINDY CARCAMO/CORINA KNOLL: "Bryan Peña’s parents led a life in the margins."
"They were immigrants living illegally in Lincoln Heights, having made the trek from Guatemala when their son was small enough to be carried on their backs. His father found work refinishing cars, and his mother cleaned homes. Both carefully guarded their past."
"Peña, however, attended a social justice-themed high school, explored interests in basketball, film and cooking and recently began studying nursing at Cal State L.A."
READ MORE related to DACA/Immigration: Not just DACA: Other Obama rules protecting immigrants could go -- The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI; States' suit over DACA seeks to use Trump's words against him -- The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO; Immigrant farmworkers in danger of being deported, California lawmaker says -- Sacramento Bee's ANGELA HART; California vows to fight White House DACA decision, but how far can states go? -- Mercury News' TATIANA SANCHEZ
Water: Setting the sights on Sites
Capitol Weekly's DANIEL MARACCINI: "Sites Reservoir has been talked about for decades, but now that project officials — and backed by 70 major allies — have formally submitted an application for state bond money, the question arises: Will this $5 billion project actually come to pass?"
"The proposed surface reservoir would be located in Colusa County, but is competing with 11 other applicants for part of a $2.7 billion coffer of state money devoted to water storage projects. Sites wants $1.6 billion in state money, the largest amount of any applicant, then will cover the rest through revenue from water agencies that benefit from the reservoir and even federal sources."
"Even if the state funds don’t get approved, Sites can still be built, although on a reduced scale."
GOP candidates for California governor tie campaigns to ballot measures
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Two long-shot Republican candidates for governor are looking to use ballot measures to pull them to victory next year, but it’s a strategy with a long, checkered history in California elections."
"San Diego-area businessman John Cox and Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County), are running far behind the leading Democratic candidates to replace termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018, trailing badly in both visibility and campaign cash. But both are convinced that writing and promoting a high-profile statewide initiative can jump-start their campaigns."
Trump cuts deal with Democrats in Congress to avert immediate budget and debt crisis
LA Times' NOAH BIERMAN/BRIAN BENNETT/LISA MASCARO: "President Trump on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders of Congress to avert an economy-shaking fiscal crisis at the end of the month, a sudden move that caught Republican leaders off guard and severely undercut their legislative strategy."
"Under the deal, the first of significance that the president has reached with Democrats, Congress would extend the nation’s borrowing limit and fund government operations until mid-December while Trump and lawmakers address other looming issues. The agreement could, however, simply delay the possible crisis until then."
"Trump’s agreement, which he described to reporters as he flew to an event in Bismarck, N.D., came over the objections of his fellow Republicans, who ostensibly run Congress. In effect, Trump further empowered the Democratic minority to influence the outcome of a range of budget, immigration and tax issues through the end of the year."
READ MORE related to POTUS45 & Beltway: Trump's deal with Democrats makes Republicans shudder -- McClatchy's LESLEY CLARK/WILLIAM DOUGLAS; Can Dennis Rodman 'straighten things out' between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un? -- Sacramento Bee's NOEL HARRIS; Trump's deal with Democrats bewilders his biggest fans -- House conservatives -- WaPo's MIKE DEBONIS
In Harvey's aftermath, the long wait sets in, keeping tensions high
LA Times' JOE MOZINGO: "They idled the afternoon away, stationed behind a barricade of half-inch plywood that kept the boat wake from rolling through their front door."
"The water on the street had turned from clear to brown, and gone up and down for days."
"Drew Connor, 33, gauged its height where it lapped at the bricks on his mailbox pillar."
READ MORE related to Hurricane Harvey/Irma: Despite skepticism, UC scientists affirm link between extreme weather and climate change -- Daily Californian's SIMON GREENHILL; Extreme Category 5 Irma crashes into Caribbean, sets sights on Florida and Southeast US -- WaPo's JASON SAMENOW/BRIAN MCNOLDY; At least 10 die as Hurricane Irma brings destruction to the Caribbean -- AP; Major hurricane jobs in Trump's government vacant as second super storm hits -- McClatchy DC's FRANCO ORDONEZ; The tiny Caribbean islands ravaged by Hurricane Irma are in trouble -- and begging for help -- WaPo's ANDREW DEGRANDPRE/LINDSEY BEVER; Florida nervously tracks Hurricane Irma as Caribbean endures storm's wrath -- WaPo's JOEL ACHENBACH/MARK BERMAN
Famed labor murals reproduced at SF State
The Chronicle's SAM WHITING: "Victor Arnautoff didn’t just paint the kaleidoscopic mural “City Life” inside of Coit Tower and move on. There was a class struggle to fight, so Arnautoff followed his tower work with a brilliant wall painting of port workers in Richmond for that city’s main post office."
"Nobody remembers “Richmond: Industrial City,” because it disappeared in 1976 when the post office was remodeled and the 13-foot painting was rolled up for storage. Presumed lost, it has miraculously resurfaced and will get its gallery debut Sept. 13 in the labor archives at San Francisco State University."
"The painting is the centerpiece of the first American career retrospective on the working-class art of Arnautoff, a Russian-born social realist who fled his home country during the Russian Revolution, found his way to San Francisco as an art student, and ended up as one of the most influential public works painters during the New Deal."
READ MORE related to Education: UCLA surpasses UC Berkeley for first time in major university ranking -- Daily Californian's CHRISTINE LEE
Sacramento eyes new transportation tax, but are residents willing to pay?
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK/JIM MILLER: "Less than a year after Sacramento County voters narrowly rejected a transportation tax, several Sacramento groups are already getting ready to ask voters again to tax themselves for more road and transit funds as soon as next fall."
"The Sacramento Area Council of Governments, which includes city and county elected representatives, will hire a public relations firm this month to spend the next half year on what it calls a “Transportation Ballot Initiative Stakeholder Listening Tour."
"The group wants input from 300 community groups by April and hopes to find some groups willing to champion the effort aimed at generating local funds to fix more roads and widen others, possibly including the Capital City Freeway over the American River. A SACOG spokeswoman declined to estimate how much the PR contract will cost, saying it is too soon to know until SACOG enlists a firm later this month and determines the scope of its work."
READ MORE related to Transportation: Lyft to unleash self-driving cars on Bay Area roads -- Mercury News' MARISA KENDALL
As slain Sacramento deputy is laid to rest, gunman's mother seeks to save her house from seizure
Sacramento Bee's SAM STANTON: "The mother of the gunman believed to have killed Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Robert French last week is asking a federal court to delay a hearing on whether her Castro Valley home should be seized and forfeited to the government because he skipped out on a $100,000 bond in July."
"An attorney for Nichole Littlecloud filed a proposed order in federal court in San Francisco late Wednesday seeking a postponement of Friday’s scheduled hearing until Oct. 6, saying she needed more time with the case since Thomas Daniel Littlecloud’s death."
"Thomas Littlecloud died Saturday following a shootout with law enforcement authorities at a motel at Auburn Boulevard and Watt Avenue, and a funeral for the deputy is being held Thursday."
Aggressive yellowjackets breaking records in much of Bay Area
Mercury News' DENIS CUFF: "Aggressive yellowjacket populations are booming this year in the Bay Area as reports of complaints about nests hit records in some areas."
"Winter rains produced plenty of insects to eat, which helped wasp nests thrive, insect experts say. Hot September weather — like the Labor Day heat wave — spurred the insects to hunt more aggressively for food, increasing the opportunities for human encounters of a painful kind."
"Vector control districts in Santa Clara and Alameda reported an unusually high number of public calls about yellowjackets, while Contra Costa is on pace to break its all-time high for yellowjacket service request of 972 set in 1999."
