California blackouts are PUC's fault, grid operator says
LA Times's SAMMY ROTH: "California’s power grid operator delivered a blistering rebuke Monday to the state’s Public Utilities Commission, blaming the agency for rotating power outages — the first since the 2001 energy crisis — and warning of bigger blackouts to come.
In their first public comments since the blackouts began Friday evening, officials at the California Independent System Operator described a “perfect storm” of conditions that caused demand to exceed available supply: scorching temperatures in California and across the western United States, diminished output from renewable sources and fossil-fueled power plants affected by the weather, and in some cases plants going offline unexpectedly when electricity was needed most.
But Stephen Berberich, the grid operator’s president, said the state could have been prepared for that perfect storm if only the Public Utilities Commission had ordered utility companies to line up sufficient power supplies."
California avoids a third day of blackouts as electricity demands subside despite heat
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER/TONY BIZJAK/RYAN SABALOW: "Somehow, California avoided the biggest blackout of them all Monday.
The managers of the state’s troubled electricity grid all but guaranteed that massive power outages would roll through California for a third day Monday in what could have been the largest blackout in state history.
But as evening came, the California Independent System Operator, manager of the grid, held off on declaring a Stage 3 emergency — which would have triggered a wave of rolling outages that was supposed to leave 3.3 million homes and businesses without power."
READ MORE related to Electric Grid/Blackouts: Newsom says California's rolling blackouts can't happen again -- Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY/DALE KASLER; Renewable energy corporations fight endangered species status for Joshua trees -- LA Times's LOUIS SAHAGUN
California blackouts are PUC's fault, grid operator says
LA Times's SAMMY ROTH: "California’s power grid operator delivered a blistering rebuke Monday to the state’s Public Utilities Commission, blaming the agency for rotating power outages — the first since the 2001 energy crisis — and warning of bigger blackouts to come.
In their first public comments since the blackouts began Friday evening, officials at the California Independent System Operator described a “perfect storm” of conditions that caused demand to exceed available supply: scorching temperatures in California and across the western United States, diminished output from renewable sources and fossil-fueled power plants affected by the weather, and in some cases plants going offline unexpectedly when electricity was needed most.
But Stephen Berberich, the grid operator’s president, said the state could have been prepared for that perfect storm if only the Public Utilities Commission had ordered utility companies to line up sufficient power supplies."
Five takeaways from first night of the Democratic convention
AP's BILL BARROW/NICHOLAS RICCARDI: "In another profound way that the coronavirus pandemic has upended American life, the Democratic National Convention started Monday with no convening. Instead, Democrats opted for the first virtual convention as the party begins the formal process of nominating Joe Biden as its candidate for president.
Here are five takeaways from the first night...
READ MORE related to November Election: What Latinos, immigrants and first-time voters need to know about California's November election -- Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ; Sanders won big in California. Here's why his Golden State delegates are settling for Biden -- Sac Bee's KATE IRBY; Dems worry that Biden is unknown to many. The convention aims to change that -- LA Times's DAVID LAUTER; California billionaire Meg Whitman among Republicans endorsing Biden at DNC -- LA Times's SEEMA MEHTA
California farming country buckles under COVID-19. Will pandemic make or break the Valley?
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER/MANUELA TOBIAS/TONY BIZJAK: "She was afraid of catching the coronavirus – so fearful, in fact, that she switched jobs to pack tomatoes for an employer who seemed to be taking the right precautions.
But Maria Claudia Garcia got sick anyway.
A farmworker from Venezuela living in the San Joaquin Valley town of Mendota, she came down with a harsh case of COVID-19. She experienced intense fevers and headaches. She lost her sense of smell and taste. Her husband, also a farmworker, got sick as well."
READ MORE related to Environment/Climate/Fire Season: From 'firenadoes' to record heat, California extreme weather a glimpse of the future -- LA Times's TONY BARBOZA/LOUIS SAHAGUN/JOSEPH SERNA; About 4K ordered to evacuate near Grass Valley and Nevada City as Jones Fire expands -- Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH/TONY BIZJAK; Lightning storms, hot weather cause 26 fires in Butte County. Evacuation orders issued -- Sac Bee's MOLLY SULLIVAN
Ethics agency opens investigation into former CalPERS investment chief
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "The California agency that enforces state political conflict of interest laws confirmed it is opening an investigation into two complaints regarding former CalPERS Chief Investment Office Yu Ben Meng.
The Fair Political Practices Commission announced its review in an Aug. 11 letter to Meng’s attorney that the agency released to The Sacramento Bee on Monday.
Also Monday, State Controller Betty Yee reiterated her request for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to launch its own “swift and thorough” inquiry into Meng."
Our roads are trashed. We now have to deal with pandemic debris piling up on our highways
Sac Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "Drive a Sacramento-area freeway, glance to the side and you see mounds of roadside trash, the remnants of a pandemic.
In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, statewide stay-at-home orders to stop the virus’ spread relegated California motorists to the garage, throwing travel and commute plans in park.
Clean air advocates saw a silver lining in the state’s health crisis. The statewide shutdown meant open freeways, clear skies and California’s cleanest air in years. It didn’t result in the cleanest streets."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Poor training, faulty thermometers hurt California prisons' COVID-19 response, report says -- Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER; California's first plague case in 5 years is confirmed in SLT -- LA Times's STAFF
A century after suffrage, why are women still underrepresented in Congress?
LA Times's SARAH D WIRE: "As the nation marks 100 years after the 19th Amendment was ratified, women make up just 23.7% of Congress, the largest number in U.S. history, but less than nearly every other developed country.
Women lead House and Senate committees, preside over the House and have been nominees for president and vice president. But according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics, only 359 women have served in the U.S. Congress to date, compared with almost 12,000 men.
The women comprised 243 Democrats and 116 Republicans. Most have been in the House. California has sent 43 women to Congress, more than any other state."
Victims of GSK to finally confront him in court with stories of pain and survival
LA Times's PAIGE ST. JOHN: "One woman wants to show how she overcame and healed.
Another still searches for answers and reparation.
And another, unable to exact emotional revenge on her attacker, seeks to at least humble him."
LAUSD's first day back to school, online and on Zoom, is anything but normal
LA Times's HOWARD BLUME/PALOMA ESQUIVEL/ANDREW J CAMPA: "New back-to-school shoes, but no recess to run around. Decorative Zoom backgrounds instead of artwork newly stapled on bulletin boards. Freshly waxed floors with no students to scuff them up.
A new school year like no other begins Tuesday in Los Angeles when some 500,000 students are expected to sign on and show up at a distance — and for many, at a disadvantage — devoid of the traditional in-person joy of seeing friends and teachers.
Campuses are deserted except for a skeleton staff, but some 30,000 teachers from 1,400 schools will fire up their computers from home, virtually beckoning children to participate in online learning as they test their first daily schedule since mid-March, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to close."
Document leak reveals scope, audacity of Russian banking billionaire's alleged IRS ripoff
Sac Bee's SHIRSHO DASGUPTA: "A recent arrest in London and a new leak of documents from a bank in the Cayman Islands provide a road map showing how a Russian oligarch allegedly defrauded the United States out of hundreds of millions in taxes, undertook luxury, prestige projects and played a financial shell game using offshore companies to buy and sell private jets.
The case of Oleg Tinkov is the latest to highlight the advantages of opaque limited liability corporations and obscure offshore tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown dependency between Great Britain and Ireland and known for its medieval castles, to avoid taxes. And how recent document leaks are bringing about a reckoning.
The alleged tax fraud comes straight out of an indictment, handed up in California."
Police reform advocates scrutinized police unions, calling them obstacles to reform
LA Times's KEVIN RECTOR: "Activists in the growing movement for police reform in the U.S. have for months targeted large police budgets as a central impediment to change, flooding streets and municipal Zoom meetings with demands to “defund the police.”
But for years behind the scenes, other reform advocates have pinpointed another roadblock to progress: police unions and the influence they wield.
Now, two prominent organizations — the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Campaign Zero — have each launched online campaigns challenging police union contracts in big cities like Los Angeles and state laws that have cemented union-backed protections in California and elsewhere."
