Traffic AFB evacuated as LNU Lightning wildfires top 124K acres, destroy homes in Vacaville
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK/MOLLY SULLIVAN/RYAN SABALOW/ROSALIO AHUMADA/MARIA HEETER/BENJY EGEL: "A major wildfire roared through Solano County Wednesday, jumping Interstate 80 in the late afternoon just north of Fairfield, forcing highway officials to close a five-mile freeway for several hours between Fairfield and Vacaville and prompting a partial evacuation of Travis Air Force Base.
The afternoon drama came at the end of a long and destructive day in the North Bay, where a two-day-old fire prompted evacuation of several thousand residents in multiple neighborhoods in Fairfield and Vacaville, and burned dozens of homes in the hills outside those cities, forcing some rural residents to flee in the early-morning dark as flames blew onto their homesteads.
The lightning-caused fire, which ignited Monday morning near Hennessey Ridge Road in Napa County, is part of a series of blazes that had burned 175 structures and scorched 124,000 acres as of Wednesday evening."
READ MORE related to Climate, Environment & Wildfires: Satellite video shows huge smoke clouds over California -- CIRA/NOAA via STORYFUL in Sac Bee; See flames from LNU Lightning Complex fire jump Interstate 80 near Fairfield -- Sac Bee's PAUL KITAGAKI JR; 10 things you can do to prepare your family for a wildfire in California -- JESSICA STROPANIC in Sac Bee; California firefighters crowd into base camps every year. Here's how COVID-19 is changing that -- Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW; California wildfire victims sent to motels instead of shelters, to lessen COVID-19 spread -- Sac Bee's MARIA HEETER/RYAN SABALOW; Evacuations widen as Bay Area fires threaten San Jose, choke the air -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/LEILA MILLER/LUKE MONEY/JOSEPH SERNA; Wildfire smoke chokes Bay Area, creating worst air quality in the world -- The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI; Frantic evacuations and rescues as fires destroy homes across state -- The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN/MATTHIAS GAFNI/JILL TUCKER/DUSTIN GARDINER; Bay Area smoke forecast remains grim even as air quality improves slightly overnight -- The Chronicle's KATE GALBRAITH
Steve Bannon, ex-Trump adviser, arrested in border wall fraud scam
AP: "Former White House advisor Stephen K. Bannon was arrested Thursday on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall.”
The charges were contained in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors” in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States."
How did California's energy shortage happen? Officials try to explain
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "As California avoided more heat-driven rolling blackouts Wednesday, state energy leaders offered their most extensive explanation yet for how the state arrived at its worst electricity crisis in 19 years.
Grid managers had warned early Wednesday of another possible power supply shortage as demand rose during a long, intense heat wave and wildfires ravage the state. But for the third day in a row, conservation efforts helped prevent rotating energy cuts.
At the same time, leaders of the grid operator and two state energy agencies sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom detailing why they think the shortages happened and how they are responding. In the letter, the people in charge of the California Independent System Operator, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission said the state needs to re-examine its rules about energy supplies and reserves."
Newsom said he'd take a pay cut 3 months ago. He didn't
Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "Gov. Gavin Newsom said he and the rest of the state government’s workforce would take 10% pay cuts when he announced broad cuts to state spending in May because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Those cuts for most state employees took effect last month, but Newsom did not reduce his own wages, according to pay data the State Controller’s Office provided in response to an information request from The Sacramento Bee.
State Controller Betty Yee was the only one of the state’s eight elected constitutional officers — such as the treasurer, secretary of state and attorney general — to take a pay cut last month, according to the data."
Kamala Harris blamed Trump for the recession. Is she right?
Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Kamala Harris says the nation’s worst recession in decades is due to President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mainstream economists disagree with the California senator, who is scheduled to give her acceptance speech as the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee to the party convention Wednesday night.
“The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Harris said last week when she accepted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s offer to join his ticket."
READ MORE related to Democratic National Convention: What Kamala Harris had to say. The transcript -- Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN; Biden's convention leans heavily to the center, with muted outcry from the left -- LA Times's DAVID LAUTER; Kamala Harris talks of uniting under Biden, learning from a strong family and surviving Trump -- The Chronicle's TAL KOPAN/JOE GAROFOLI
US jobless claims jump back above 1M in face of coronavirus
AP: "The number of laid-off workers seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose to 1.1 million last week after two weeks of declines, evidence that many employers are still slashing jobs as the coronavirus bedevils the economy.
The latest figures suggest that more than five months after the viral outbreak erupted the economy is still weak, despite recent gains as some businesses reopen and some sectors like housing and manufacturing have rebounded. A rising number of people who have lost jobs say they consider their loss to be permanent.
The total number of people receiving unemployment aid declined last week from 15.5 million to 14.8 million, the government said Thursday. Those recipients are now receiving far less aid because a $600-a-week federal benefit has expired, which means the unemployed must now get by solely on much smaller assistance from their states. The loss of the federal benefit has deepened the struggles for many, including a higher risk of eviction from their homes."
READ MORE related to Economy: 'Waiting for the plague of locusts': Smoke, heat add to Bay Area businesses' woes -- The Chronicle's RUSTY SIMMONS/JANELLE BITKER/SHWANIKA NARAYAN
Placer County is off the coronavirus watchlist. What does that mean for schools?
Sac Bee's SAWSAN MORRAR: "Placer County was removed off the state’s monitoring list, meaning schools there could potentially reopen in the coming weeks.
The county, the third to come off the list since the freeze caused by a data glitch was lifted, can proceed with on-campus learning at colleges and universities if it stays off the watchlist for three straight days. But it would need to have “good data” for 14 consecutive days to reopen K-12 campuses.
The removal Monday means state data showed Placer meeting all the necessary thresholds – fewer than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents in the preceding two weeks, stabilizing hospitalization rates and adequate available ICU beds and ventilators – for three consecutive days."
Sacramento OKs nearly $5M in rental assistance for 1K households. Is it enough?
Sac Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "The city of Sacramento is set to spend about $4.7 million in federal funding to help keep people in up to 1,000 households from becoming homeless during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sacramento City Council approved the rental assistance program Tuesday — part of a package to address homelessness that could hit $62 million if California officials approve an application for an additional $25 million.
“This spreadsheet is $62 million worth of life-saving opportunities for thousands of Sacramentans,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday after the unanimous vote, holding a piece of paper outlining the initiatives. “It may be hard to get people off the streets, but the harder part is preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place.”
'He killed himself': A defense argument emerges in the George Floyd case
LA Times's RICHARD READ: "The public quickly reached its verdict: Minneapolis police killed George Floyd.
Video seen around the world shows him on the pavement, his neck pinned beneath the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin, pleading for his life — “I can’t breathe” — until his body goes limp.
Two autopsies concluded the death was a homicide."
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in coma after suspected poisoning
AP: "Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny is in a coma and on a ventilator in a Siberian hospital after falling ill from suspected poisoning during a flight, his spokeswoman said Thursday morning.
The 44-year-old foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin felt unwell on a flight back to Moscow from Tomsk, a city in Siberia, Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter.
She said the plane made an emergency landing in Omsk, Siberia, and that Navalny was suffering from “toxic poisoning.”"
Newsom has prime convention slot, but his path to White House just got tougher
Sac Bee's JOE GAROFOLI: "Gov. Gavin Newsom will address the Democratic National Convention on Thursday in a prime-time slot colloquially known as “the Obama spot.”
That’s the perch in the speakers lineup reserved for the party’s next rising star, which then-Ilinois state Sen. Barack Obama became after electrifying the convention in 2004 with a speech in which he famously said, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America.” Four years later, he was elected president.
But while Newsom, 52, is on the top shelf of the party’s national stars, his path to the presidency recently became more complicated."
