'If women vote, they will decide' midterms, Feinstein says
Sacramento Bee's BRYAN ANDERSON: "Women voters are key to the outcome of the 2018 midterm elections, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday as she stumped in Sacramento, including at a luncheon for a group of women Democrats."
"Feinstein first took office in 1992 in what was declared the “Year of the Woman.” While she’s reluctant to draw comparisons to the upcoming election, she thinks women could again play a decisive role."
"They can have a very big impact,” Feinstein told reporters Thursday, following an afternoon briefing on wildfires at McClellan Park. “If women vote, they will decide."
Newsom and Cox crisscross California in final stretch of the governor's race
LA Times's DAKOTA SMITH/PHIL WILLON: "California gubernatorial candidates John Cox and Gavin Newsom barnstormed California on their respective tour buses Thursday, stopping to shake hands and pose for selfies with voters across the state in the final days of the race."
"As he greeted reporters in Sacramento Thursday morning, Cox said that voters are finally making up their minds and “finding out who I am and what I’m about.” The San Diego-area businessman said he thinks polls are tightening as he tries to overtake rival Newsom, the race’s consistent front-runner."
CAPITOL WEEKLY SKETCHES:
John Cox: A tough slog toward the governorship
Capitol Weekly's CHUCK MCFADDEN: "Republican John Cox, running for governor, wants you to realize a few things."
"California has the highest poverty rate in the nation. Our schools are failing. Millions of forgotten Californians cannot afford decent housing. Millions more must choose between buying a half-tank of gas or groceries for their families."
"And all of this happened on Gavin Newsom’s watch."
Gavin Newsom: Complex and connected
Capitol Weekly's CHUCK McFADDEN: "Gavin Christopher Newsom is tall and handsome, with a beautiful wife and four adorable children. He’d like to be California’s next governor, and, if the polls are correct, he’ll get his wish."
"But the golden-boy image attached to the lieutenant governor isn’t the whole picture. Newsom’s life has had its dark times."
"When he was 2 years old, his parents separated and later divorced. For a time, his mother had to work three jobs to keep the family afloat. As an adult, he went through his own divorce, and later acknowledged an adulterous affair with a friend’s wife. In 2007, he admitted to a drinking problem."
Oroville Dam repairs aren't enough, feds warn. Should state be forced to plan for a mega-flood?
Sacramento Bee's RYAN SABALOW/DALE KASLER: "Federal regulators are raising new concerns about the troubled Oroville Dam, telling California officials their recently rebuilt flood-control spillways likely couldn’t handle a mega-flood."
"Although the chances of such a disastrous storm are considered extremely unlikely — the magnitude of flooding in the federal warning is far greater than anything ever experienced — national dam safety experts say the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s concerns could have costly repercussions for California. The public agencies that store water in Lake Oroville may be forced to spend millions of dollars upgrading the dam."
"State dam operators at the Department of Water Resources also could be forced to store less water in the lake to ensure there’s more room to capture flood waters. Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir, is a key source of drinking and irrigation water for millions of Californians."
READ MORE related to Infrastructure: Cost for new I St Bridge hits $172M after Coast Guard makes changes -- Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT
A San Andreas fault mystery: The 'slow-moving disaster' in an area where the Big One is feared
LA TImes's ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE/RONG-GONG LIN II: "
The San Andreas fault begins its dangerous dance through California at the Salton Sea, at a spot that seismologists long have feared could be the epicenter of a massive earthquake..
But in recent months, this desolate location where the North American and Pacific plates rub together has become the focus of intense interest for a type of movement that is less the Big One than the Slow One."
OP-ED: Prop. 8 won't improve dialysis patients' treatment
KEVIN LONGINO in Capitol Weekly: "I am the CEO of the National Kidney Foundation. I am a believer in this nearly 70-year-old organization that was started at the kitchen table of a mother desperately trying to save her child’s life. I 100 percent buy into our mission to be an advocate for all kidney patients and relentlessly fight for their quality of life, their treatments and their cure."
"I am also appalled at the tens of billions of dollars spent in this country for dialysis care for several hundred thousand patients. This is a huge cost to our overall healthcare system. Especially when more than 60 percent of kidney failure, which requires the patient to either have a transplant or go on dialysis to live, is preventable."
Most Americans aren't financially healthy despite booming economy, survey finds
LA Times's JAMES RUFUS KOREN: "The economy is growing, unemployment is low and, lately, workers are starting to see some wage gains."
"But a new survey from USC and the nonprofit Center for Financial Services Innovation makes the case that, despite an overall healthy-looking economy, many Americans are struggling to save, pay bills and remain on firm financial footing."
Lock them up? Senator proposes prison for CEOs who abuse people's personal data
McClatchy DC's JARED GILMOUR: "U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has a new idea to make sure companies protect users’ personal information: Threaten prison for executives who mishandle that data."
"Wyden said Thursday that his Consumer Data Protection Act is a “sweeping” bill to give consumers more control over their data, force companies to be transparent about how they use people’s data and impose steep fines and even prison on executives who violate the rules."
"Big tech is the target: Companies with more than $50 million in yearly revenue — and who store more than 1 million users’ data — would be subject to the law, according to the draft text. Companies with more than $1 billion in yearly revenue that have data on 1 million people (as well as companies that handle data of more than 50 million people) would need to submit routine reports to the Federal Trade Commission on privacy breaches."
Trump says he will hold asylum seekers from Central America in massive tent cities
McClatchy DC's FRANCO ORDONEZ: "President Donald Trump, in televised address filled with tough election-season rhetoric, said Thursday that he will sign an extensive executive order requiring asylum seekers to present themselves at a port of entry and house them in tent cities until their legal cases are completed."
"Trump has made a caravan of several thousand migrants from Central America, including women, children and the elderly as well as men, a central campaign issue as the midterm elections loom Tuesday."
"We’re not releasing them into our country any longer. They’ll wait,” Trump said. “We’re putting together massive cities of tents. We’re going to hold them right there."
READ MORED related to POTUS45: Is Trump's constant campaign helping his party? It depends where you look -- LA Times's NOAH BIERMAN/ELI STOKOLS:
US-Russia space partnership has had its ups and downs, but failed launch might end up helping
LA Times's MATTHEW BODNER: "As rookie NASA astronaut Nick Hague climbed into a Soyuz rocket for the first time alongside veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin on Oct. 10, what should have been a routine flight to the International Space Station could already be described as awkward. The empty middle seat between them served as a reminder that all was not well."
"Hague and Ovchinin were launching into an uncertain situation aboard the space station. A little more than a month before their launch, on Aug. 29, the station had suddenly begun to vent oxygen into the cold vacuum of space. The source of the leak was quickly traced to a small hole in a Russian-made Soyuz capsule already docked to the station. In Houston and Moscow, experts were left scratching their heads."
