Redding fire moving ‘with no regard to what’s in its path.’ Shasta Lake now under evacuation
From the Sacramento Bee's SAM STANTON, KELLEN BROWNING AND CLAIRE MORGAN: "The Carr Fire in Shasta County erupted Thursday night into a conflagration that swept over the Sacramento River and into Redding’s city limits, killing one person and sending residents fleeing for their lives as flames spread into neighborhoods of rolling hills in the western part of the city."
“The fire has burned into the west side of Redding,” Scott McLean, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said late Thursday. “Structures are burning."
“The fire is moving so fast that law enforcement is doing evacuations as fast as we can. There have been some injuries to civilians and firefighters.”
Carr Fire cripples and disrupts NorCal Amtrak
Sacramento Bee's DANIEL HUNT: "Amtrak train service between Sacramento and Oregon has been halted due to the Carr Fire."
"Officials made the decision Friday morning to stop service for the Coast Starlight service, which operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles, because of the ongoing Carr Fire that is bearing down on the city of Redding.
“Customers with reservations on trains that are being modified will typically be accommodated on trains with similar departure times or another day,” the national train operator said in a news release."
New privacy law takes center stage
Capitol Weekly's LISA RENNER: "California’s new Consumer Privacy Act gives consumers the nation’s strongest protections for their personal data, backers contend."
"But business interests, including the California Chamber of Commerce, and tech associations call the law a “serious threat to the economy” that will result in a barrage of class-action lawsuits without providing benefits to consumers."
"The new law, which was approved by Gov. Jerry Brown in June and goes into effect in 2020, gives consumers the right to access their personal information collected by big businesses. It gives them the right to delete it, the right to know what information is being sold and the right to stop businesses from selling their information. It also prohibits businesses from selling the personal information of youth under 16 unless they opt in."
Why California's cannabis regulations could have indirect water benefits
Water Deeply's KATHLEEN STONE: "THE EXTERNAL PRESSURES for cannabis cultivation and the immediate need for water use regulation may provide opportunities for broader, long-sought environmental objectives in California. Specifically, legislation and state programs regulating water use for cannabis cultivation could produce collateral benefits for environmental instream flow and water quality management in general."
"The Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act included several state laws from 2015 and 2016. Of these, Assembly Bill 243 and Senate Bill 837, passed in October 2015 and June 2016, respectively, include several provisions for regulating water use for cannabis cultivation."
"Assembly Bill 243 established responsibilities for state agencies to regulate the impact of medical marijuana cultivation on the environment. The bill called for several agencies, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), to reduce the effects of cultivation on the environment and required the SWRCB to regulate marijuana cultivation water use and waste discharge."
Mobile, landlines would be taxed more to pay for 911 upgrade
Sacramento Bee's TARYN LUNA: "After raising prices at the gas pump last year, Gov. Jerry Brown wants to increase taxes on Californians again to overhaul the 911 emergency services system."
"The Brown administration is asking the state Legislature to erase an existing tax on in-state phone calls in exchange for a flat fee on cell phone lines, landlines and other connected devices capable of contacting 911. The tax, estimated to start at a monthly rate of 34 cents per line, is expected to generate $175.4 million in the first calendar year — more than double the current tax — with the possibility of ballooning to over $400 million based on need in later years."
"It is an increase in an existing surcharge to modernize an antiquated system that is critical to be able to provide timely emergency information to Californians,” said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the California Department of Finance. “This falls into a fundamental purpose of government, which is protecting public safety.”
California sues Trump admin over small-business health policy
The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO: "California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday joined 11 other state attorneys general in suing the Trump administration over new regulations they say would mean employees of small businesses could get fewer health insurance benefits than required by law."
"The new rules were issued in June by the Labor Department and fulfill an executive order signed by President Trump last October. They allow for the expansion of so-called “association health plans,” under which small businesses band together to provide insurance. The change means those plans do not have to comply with all the consumer protections put forth under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, such as essential health benefits."
"The lawsuit was filed in federal court in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It seeks to halt the federal rules, which Becerra said would lead to employers offering “junk plans."
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Over 1,800 migrant kids reunited by deadline
AP: "Shy children were given a meal and a plane or bus ticket to locations around the U.S. as non-profit groups tried to smooth the way for kids reunited with their parents as a deadline loomed following their separations at the U.S. Mexico border."
"The Trump administration said Thursday that more than 1,800 children 5 years and older had been reunited with parents or sponsors hours before the deadline. That included 1,442 children who were returned to parents who were in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and another 378 who were released under a variety of other circumstances."
"But about 700 more remain separated, including 431 whose parents were deported, officials say. Those reunions take more time, effort and paperwork as authorities fly children back to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras."
In Starbucks case, California court says workers owed for off-the-clock time
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "Employers in California must pay their workers for tasks they’re regularly required to perform for a few minutes before or after their regular work hours, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday, rejecting a federal standard that allows employers to withhold the additional pay."
"A 1946 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, written into law by Congress in 1961, said federal law did not entitle employees to be paid for working “a few seconds or minutes” beyond their scheduled hours. The high court invoked “the realities of the industrial world,” including the difficulties of keeping payroll records for such brief periods."
"But states can set their own standards, and the California court said the “de minimis” federal rule — based on the Latin term for “trivial” — has never been adopted by California lawmakers or labor regulators. The court said employees may not be entitled to compensation for every minute they work off the clock, but regular daily assignments, even brief ones, must be paid for."
VA shuns medical cannabis, leaving vets to improvise
NYT's DAVE PHILIPPS: "Some of the local growers along the coast in California see it as an act of medical compassion: donating part of their crop of high-potency medical marijuana to ailing veterans, who line up by the dozens each month in the echoing auditorium of the city’s old veterans’ hall to get a ticket they can exchange for a free bag.
"One Vietnam veteran in the line said he was using marijuana-infused oil to treat pancreatic cancer. Another said that smoking cannabis eased the pain from a recent hip replacement better than prescription pills did. Several said that a few puffs temper the anxiety and nightmares of post-traumatic stress disorder."
"I never touched the stuff in Vietnam,” said William Horne, 76, a retired firefighter. “It was only a few years ago I realized how useful it could be."
California kids who didn't learn to read to get day in court
EdSource's JOHN FENSTERWALD: "California Supreme Justice Goodwin Liu raised court-watchers’ eyebrows two years ago when the court declined to consider a much-watched lawsuit over the adequacy of state education funding, but Liu hinted he’d welcome another case to define children’s right to a meaningful education under the California Constitution."
"The schoolchildren of California deserve to know whether their fundamental right to education is a paper promise or a real guarantee,” Liu wrote in a strong dissent in the case Campaign for Quality Education/Robles-Wong v. State of California. That lawsuit, brought by a coalition of education and student advocacy groups, claimed that the state’s insufficient funding of public schools violated students’ constitutional right to a quality education."
Working in a Wasteland
The Chronicle's JASON FAGONE/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "Fourteen years before the lump appeared on his neck, Nelson Lum’s San Francisco police unit was transferred to a new office in an unexpected location: the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard."
"The shipyard is a federal Superfund waste site. By definition, it’s one of the most contaminated places in the country, tainted by radioactivity, heavy metals and other pollution. But in 1996, the toxic land offered what few places in San Francisco could: lots of space for a low price."
"That year, the city decided to lease a large, empty building owned by the Navy for below-market rates. Known only as Building 606, it became the new headquarters for some specialized police units, including the SWAT team, the bomb squad, the Honda Unit, the K-9 Unit and the crime lab. Before long, more than 100 officers and civilians were clocking in at the shipyard every day."
Buyer fatigue hits California housing market
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "Sacramento home sales have hit a summer slump as potential buyers back away from escalating prices and rising mortgage interest rates."
"New data shows that 4,300 homes sold in the region in June, a modest amount, but notably nearly 5 percent fewer than the number of sales in June last year, according to CoreLogic, a California real estate data firm."
"Elsewhere in California, the June slump was steeper. Bay Area sales dropped 9 percent this June from last year at this time, and sales in Southern California were off 12 percent, according to CoreLogic data."
Uber says drivers in Bay Area made $1.07B last year
The Chronicle's CAROLYN SAID: "Uber paid $1.07 billion to ride-hailing and UberEats drivers in the Bay Area last year, the company said Thursday."
"Throughout California, Uber drivers and delivery people made $2.97 billion, and Nationwide the figure was $12.9 billion, Uber said."
"The San Francisco company revealed those figures as part of the release of five economic impact reports looking at how its business affects riders and drivers in specific regions and nationwide."
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WH defends reporter ban
AP's JILL COLVIN: "The White House on Thursday defended its decision to bar a CNN correspondent from attending an open press event but contended it had nothing to do with the questions she asked."
"Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Kaitlan Collins was denied access to Trump's Rose Garden event with the European Commission president on Wednesday because of her refusal to leave the Oval Office during a previous availability with the president. She and her employer, CNN, said she was barred because White House officials found her questions "inappropriate," which Gidley disputed."
"It had nothing to do with the content of the question," Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Donald Trump headed back to Washington from Iowa and Illinois."
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