The culimination of weeks of rumors, there are new reports that Senate Leader Kevin de León plans to run against fellow Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
From the Bee's CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO: "A Democrat and the leader of the state Senate, Kevin de León is ready to announce that he will challenge Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. She is 84 and seeking her fifth six-year term in 2018."
"Term limits will force de León from office, and with a crowded field of Democrats lining up to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown, the Los Angeles politician is part of a generation blocked by the bottleneck of the party’s older guard. De León could wait to run for mayor of Los Angeles, but Eric Garcetti just won a 5 1/2-year term, and isn’t scheduled to leave City Hall until 2022."
"By that time, other Democrats could be better positioned than de León to launch statewide campaigns. Waiting in the wings are Garcetti and Secretary of State Alex Padilla, along with Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ted Lieu. Feinstein’s seat is the best opportunity for de León to advance his career."
READ MORE about De Leon: 'Most people don't know who the hell he is.' Still, Kevin de León is thinking about running against Feinstein -- LAT's SEEMA MEHTA and MELANIE MASON
Smoke and fire continue to blanket parts of Northern California in the state's deadliest blaze ever. The death count rises and more victims are likely, with only 10 victims identified so far.
LA Times' SONALI KOHLI/LOUIS SAHAGUN/PAIGE ST JOHN/NINA AGRAWAL/CHRIS MEGERIAN/ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Fire crews began to make slow progress against wildfires that have killed at least 31 people in Northern California’s wine country as officials continued the grim search for more bodies amid the ashes."
"In Santa Rosa, the hardest hit by the fires, officials said they were stunned by the scale of the destruction. An estimated 2,834 homes were destroyed in the city of Santa Rosa alone, along with about 400,000 square feet of commercial space, Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said in a news conference Thursday afternoon."
"Flames left entire neighborhoods and commercial districts in ruins and even destroyed the city’s newest fire station, on Fountaingrove Parkway."
READ MORE about NorCal fires: Sonoma County’s Latino Workforce Faces Job Losses From Fires -- KQED; Fires grow in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties as death toll rises -- PRESS DEMOCRAT'S PAUL PAYNE AND RANDI ROSSMANN; Sonoma County officials opted not to send mass alert on deadly fire -- JOAQUIN PALOMIMNO and KIMBERLY VEKLEROV
Puerto Rico is not only receiving scant federal aid, it's also receiving a litany of federal threats after Trump taunted the storm-battered island with FEMA withdrawal.
LA Times' LAURA KING/NOAH BIERMAN: "President Trump drew a sharp and dismayed backlash Thursday from Democratic lawmakers, activists and many Puerto Ricans with his threat to limit federal and military help in the hurricane-battered U.S. territory, where aid workers are warning of a looming humanitarian catastrophe."
"More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria raked the island, some 85% of the people remain without power, with nearly half of its 3.4 million residents lacking running water."
The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal continues to grow, blossom, as more prominent actresses are coming forward describing their own experiences.
LA Times' MEG JAMES/GUS GARCIA-ROBERTS: "The scandal enveloping Hollywood grew wider Thursday when actress Rose McGowan accused movie producer Harvey Weinstein of raping her, and then pleaded with one ofAmerica’s most powerful business titans — Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos — to end his company’s alleged involvement in a culture of exploitation and abuse."
"@jeffbezos I am calling on you to stop funding rapists, alleged pedo[philes] and sexual harassers,” McGowan said in a Twitter message directed to the Amazon billionaire."
“I love @amazon but there is rot in Hollywood,” McGowan wrote, just hours after Twitter lifted a 12-hour suspension that temporarily blocked the actress from posting."
LA's housing crisis recently met a temporary solution, although getting it to scale could be costly.
Daily News' SUSAN ABRAMS: "The futuristic mini-modular home sitting inside a church parking lot in Van Nuys holds only a single bed, a small desk, and some shelves.
But for the team of fourth year USC architecture students who designed it, the modest 92-square-feet structure could become key to temporarily easing homelessness across Los Angeles — and even the Golden State — until people find permanent housing."
They call the units Homes for Hope. It’s a first step, say creators, on one’s journey home."
America's alarming weight problem continues to grow bigger, as nearly half of all adult Americans now qualify as obese according to the CDC.
LA Times' MELISSA HEALY: "Americans’ obesity rates have reached a new high-water mark. Again."
"In 2015 and 2016, just short of 4 in 10 American adults had a body mass index that put them in obese territory."
"In addition, just under 2 in 10 American children — those between 2 and 19 years of age — are now considered obese as well."
Leaks from the investigation into Stephen Paddock's terror attack on the Las Vegas strip continue to drip.
LA Times' MATT PEARCE: "The company that runs the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino has disputed the timeline offered by Las Vegas police for the Oct. 1 mass shooting at the hotel, suggesting Thursday that very little time had elapsed between when gunman Stephen Paddock shot a hotel security guard and when he started firing on a concert crowd outside."
"The police timeline indicates that six minutes elapsed after security guard Jesus Campos was shot outside Paddock’s hotel room door before Paddock fired his first shots at the crowd, but MGM Resorts International managers say they are “now confident” that the timeline is “not accurate."
"We know that shots were being fired at the festival lot at the same time as, or within 40 seconds after, the time Jesus Campos first reported that shots were fired over the radio,” the company, which owns Mandalay Bay, said in a statement."
