Fish return

Four years after California's largest dam removal project, how are the fish doing?

Mercury News's PAUL ROGERS: "Four years ago, construction crews with huge jackhammers tore apart a 10-story concrete dam in the wooded canyons of the Carmel River, between the Big Sur hills and the beach front town of Carmel."

"The destruction of the San Clemente Dam, which had blocked the river since 1921, remains the largest dam removal project in California history. It’s still early, but one of the main goals of the project seems to be on track: The river is becoming wilder, and struggling fish populations are rebounding."

"We don’t want to do the touchdown dance yet, but so far things are looking good,” said Tommy Williams, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has monitored the Carmel River’s recovery. “It’s just amazing how fast these systems come back. Everything is playing out like we thought.”

READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: As late-season wet weather hits Northern California, snowpack and reservoir levels soar -- Sacramento Bee's CLAIRE MORGAN

Dianne Feinstein renews call for suspension of Santa Anita races

LA Times's JOHN CHERWA: "U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) again is calling for racing to be halted at Santa Anita after three horses died in nine days."

‘It’s Inexcusable’: Dozens of California Government Agencies Failed To Ensure Sexual Harassment Training To Nearly 1,800 Supervisors

From SCOTT RODD, Capital Public Radio: "When correctional officer Sophia Curry reported an inmate at California State Prison in Folsom for sexual harassment, supervisors ignored her request to address the situation."

"About a week later, when a supervisor ordered Curry to patrol the unit without a partner, the inmate brutally attacked her."

"The state paid Curry $1.6 million in 2015 to settle the suit. Her attorney Pamela Price says the case reflects the importance of training supervisors to handle sexual harassment complaints — before the situation escalates."

Event where California officials brawled known for partying

AP's KATHLEEN RONAYNE: "A late-night argument between Southern California city councilors ended with one unconscious on the floor of a resort during an annual gathering of local government officials that some past attendees say is more fraternity party than public policy retreat."

"The May 18 incident drew unwanted attention to the California Contract Cities Association, a little-known organization formed six decades ago to represent the interests of communities that contract for services such as police, fire, trash collection and street maintenance."

"The fight occurred around 12:30 a.m., after the first day of business at the Annual Municipal Seminar, held at the Renaissance Indian Wells Resort & Spa. The meeting agenda included panels on such issues as homelessness, active shooters and government ethics."

California GOP picks favorites for re-flipping Democrats won in midterms

The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "After last year’s midterm drubbing, which cost Republicans seven California congressional seats, GOP leaders are going all out to try to show that those Democratic wins were one-off aberrations that won’t be repeated in 2020."

"We’re very confident we can get those seats back,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Congressional Committee.“These are all seats we held in 2016” and for years before that."

"But Republicans don’t hold them now, and that’s embarrassing for the party. Not only did those flipped seats help the Democrats take control of the House, but they also came from some of the state’s best-known GOP strongholds."

Congressman says he's taken photo with dead enemy

AP: "U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California acknowledged taking a photo with a dead combatant during his time as a Marine as he defended a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes, including killing a teenage fighter."

"The Republican congressman, who was re-elected last November as he faces corruption charges, made the comments during a town hall Saturday in his San Diego-area district, the Union-Tribune reported."

"Hunter has advocated for a pardon for Edward Gallagher, who's charged with stabbing to death a teenage Islamic State fighter under his care in Iraq in 2017 and then holding his reenlistment ceremony with the body."

Kamala Harris is far from having California locked up

The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Here’s one sign Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential rivals don’t think she has the California primary locked up: Thirteen of them will be attending the state Democratic Party convention starting Friday in San Francisco, trying to claim a stake in her home turf — the party’s largest electoral prize."

"They haven’t been scared off by Harris winning statewide elections three times, locking up endorsements from California’s top elected officials, racking up $13.2 million in campaign contributions, spending more on digital ads than nearly every other Democrat, and starring in one of the season’s most impressive spectacles — her January rally in Oakland before an estimated 20,000 people."

"Instead, they’re looking at polling that showed her running third in California among Democratic voters with 17%, behind former Vice President Joe Biden (26%) and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (18%). Nationally, after a burst of attention following the Oakland rally, she has settled in at around 8%."

READ MORE related to Campaign Trail: Think California's too big and influential? Wait until the presidential race heats up -- LA Times's DAVID SHRIBMAN

In some Dem states, lawmakers differ on abortion

AP's JENNIFER MCDERMOTT/DAVID A LIEB: "A bill seeking to preserve abortion protections in state law fails to pass a key committee. Lawmakers cite God, church and faith in proclaiming their opposition to it. Abortion-rights groups protest outside a gathering of lawmakers."

"What sounds like a legislative fight in a state controlled by anti-abortion Republicans is actually quite different."

"The bill seeking to protect abortion rights is in Rhode Island, a state controlled by Democrats at all levels of political power, and it's stalled."

Touring disaster

The Chronicle's GREGORY THOMAS: "During a weekend trip to visit friends in Oroville in early April, Mihai Suciu and his girlfriend took a side trip a half hour north to Paradise, the Butte County forest town that was all but leveled when wildfires swept through the western slopes of the Sierra in November. Having watched news reports showing the scorched remains of entire neighborhoods and rows of melted automobiles, Suciu, an amateur photographer from Huntington Beach, was curious to see the damage."

"The couple parked on a residential street off Skyway Road and wandered among the heaps of twisted metal and extant brick chimneys where homes once stood. Suciu snapped photos — charred trinkets, the fire-blasted shell of a pickup truck, a freestanding concrete staircase leading nowhere — that he would later share on Instagram."

“I just wanted to witness it and see the scale of it,” Suciu says weeks later. Over a couple of hours, he took dozens of photos. “I didn’t even feel good doing it. But at the same time, I felt it’s important to document — just to show it that this is not nice, this is not pretty, but it’s real.”

Missing: A small-town California city manager. police are scrambling to figure it out

Sacramento Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "A small-town California city manager has vanished, and police are scrambling to solve the mystery."

"McFarland, a town of 15,000 near Bakersfield in rural Kern County, perhaps best-known for “McFarland USA,” the Disney motion picture about its champion high school track-and-field team, is now the setting for the baffling case of the missing city official."

"John Wooner, 57, was reported missing May 14 by his wife, Bakersfield police say. Police say Wooner was driving a city-issued Dodge Durango. His destination: Bakersfield’s Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery where, according to Bakersfield news reports, Wooner told family he was headed to visit his father’s grave."

READ MORE related to Local: SF Bay's problems fester as regulasstor neglects responsibility, investigation finds -- The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE

Oakland's pothole vigilantes address gaping problem, one road crater at a time

The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "They pulled up in a black Toyota pickup, hazard lights flashing in the balmy night."

"Three men emerged with tampers and bags of EZ Street asphalt slung over their shoulders. Clad in button-down shirts and work boots, they crouched over the road on Perkins Street, a rutted artery that twists through Oakland’s Adams Point neighborhood. The men worked quickly, pouring black ooze into a gash in the pavement, patting it down and driving over it twice."

Using California gas tax to reduce traffic lanes? Not how it should be spent, some say

LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "Two years after state lawmakers boosted the gas tax with a promise to improve California streets, some cities have raised the ire of drivers by spending millions of the new dollars on “road diet” projects that reduce the number and size of lanes for motor vehicles."