These lights went out. Now California might let these gas plants stay open
LA Times's SAMMY ROTH: "State officials are poised to decide whether four gas-fired power plants along the Southern California coast should keep running past 2020, in the first major energy decision for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration after this month’s blackouts.
The aging, inefficient facilities are being required to close under a policy meant to end the environmentally damaging use of ocean water for power plant cooling. But energy regulators have been pushing since last year to delay the retirement deadlines, warning that insufficient power supplies could cause Californians to lose electricity on hot summer evenings — the exact situation millions of people found themselves in during two evenings of brief rotating outages.
Even before the blackouts Aug. 14 and 15, the debate over how and when to close the coastal gas plants offered a preview of challenges California will increasingly face as it accelerates its transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels."
Trump declares California wildfires a major disaster, promising aid despite previous threats
Sac Bee's VINCENT MOLESKI: "President Donald Trump declared the worst of California’s nearly two dozen active wildfires a major disaster Saturday, providing funding to victims despite his vocal criticism of state leadership.
The White House announced that federal aid would soon be coming to Californians displaced by the wildfires raging since Aug. 14, many of which were sparked by lightning.
The president’s announcement comes as a contrast to his public statements, which have often been sharply aimed at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s management of fire-prone forests."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: NorCal braces as huge wildfires rage -- LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II/ALEX WIGGLESWORTH/JOE MOZINGO; How bad is the air quality? Here's how to tell -- Sac Bee's ALYSSA HODENFIELD
California is rushing to add solar power. Did recent blackouts just shade our green future?
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "They sit on oceanfront property in Southern California, a fleet of aging gas-fired power plants that not only pollute the air but also kill sea lions and other marine life. They’re also capable of powering up to 2.8 million homes.
Until now, these nine generating units were facing a shutdown by the end of the year. But after two straight nights of rolling blackouts, these California clunkers could get a reprieve.
The State Water Resources Board will vote Sept. 1 on whether to add as many as three more years of life to the coastal plants. The postponement is “needed to ensure system-wide grid reliability,” the board’s staff wrote in a memo released last week."
Bay Area air quality improves early Monday but remains unhealthy in East Bay
The Chronicle's ROLAND LI: "Air quality across the Bay Area improved early Monday but remained unhealthy in parts of the East Bay as multiple wildfires continued raging.
The worst air quality in the region as of 4 a.m. was in Concord, Livermore and Pleasanton, which all reported unhealthy levels of PM2.5, the particulate matter found in wildfire smoke, according to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
The readings were improvements over Sunday, when Livermore and Pleasanton reached hazardous levels of pollution, the worst rating."
Cal Fire battles LNU Lightning Comiplex, says be 'prepared to leave' as storm rolls in
Sac Bee's VINCENT MOLESKI: "Cal Fire officials battling the second-largest wildfire in California history were preparing for another round of fire starts Sunday, despite making headway on the blaze.
The LNU Lightning Complex, a series of fires sparked by thunderstorms Monday, has since grown to its current sprawl of 341,243 acres burning in Napa, Sonoma, Solano and Yolo counties.
Recent progress had firefighters optimistic. The Meyers Fire, the smallest blaze making up the LNU Lightning Complex at 2,360 acres north of Jenner, reached 70% containment Sunday."
Fighting fires and the pandemic: How can Bay Area crews do both?
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "Thousands of firefighters living and working on the front lines of dozens of blazes across Northern California are facing the deadly combination of heat, smoke and flames, along with the invisible threat of COVID-19.
Public health and fire officials began preparing months ago for a catastrophic fire season on top of a devastating pandemic. But there are limitations to how well they can protect the firefighters themselves when the best tools at hand — face coverings and social distancing — aren’t practical in wildfire conditions.
The concerns are multilayered. Most important: No one wants firefighters to get sick, for their own sake. Also, the state can’t afford to pull crews off duty when staff resources are so thin. With personnel coming to the region from throughout the state as well as other parts of the country, public health experts fear a “super-spreader” event if someone infected on the front lines brings the virus back home."
California nursing home inspectors balk at new state mandate
Sac Bee's RYAN SABALOW/JASON POHL: "California is asking nursing home inspectors to take a more cooperative approach with the hundreds of facilities they regulate — something akin to a consultant role to help the disease-battered industry comply with health and safety laws, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.
State inspectors who would normally issue citations and enforce rules about hand-washing, bedsores and other dangerous living conditions would shift some of their duties from cop to coach, from regulator to collaborator in a plan that state officials have called “regulatory reform.”
For some state inspectors interviewed by The Bee, the shift is alarming. Many fear they’ll be expected to increasingly coddle the largely for-profit industry rather than regulate the facilities in the way they’ve been trained for years. Inspectors and advocates say now isn’t the time to soften and retool the regulatory system for nursing homes."
Harris' record as California AG could become issue in presidential race
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "A state attorney general is expected to defend state laws in court, including initiatives passed by the voters. But in 2011, newly elected Attorney General Kamala Harris refused to defend Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying it was unconstitutional.
Her decision proved crucial when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that Prop. 8’s private sponsors had no standing to represent the voters in court, leaving the measure without a legal defense and erasing it from the books.
However, Harris responded differently in 2014 when a federal judge ruled that California’s death penalty law was unconstitutionally arbitrary because condemned prisoners had to wait 20 years or more to get legal representation and have their appeals decided."
Jerry Brown takes stock of the pandemic and the president
LA Times's JOHN MYERS: "At first, Jerry Brown seemed to reject the question based on its premise. He has a penchant, as journalists know, for dismissing a question for no other reason than a misplaced word.
In a call placed to the state’s longest-serving governor who has retired to his rural Colusa County ranch, I had asked him to take stock of the challenging times in which we’re living — the state of his state and nation, so to speak.
“That is a real Rorschach test kind of question,” Brown said."
Why are Black and Latino advocacy groups backing Uber, Lyft in California labor law fight?
Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "Latino and Black advocacy groups are front-and-center in an expensive campaign challenging a new California labor law that demands employers provide benefits for more workers.
In one corner are the diverse unions that advocated for the labor law, known as Assembly Bill 5, when lawmakers debated it and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it last year. They say the new law providers all workers a better opportunity to earn a living wage and get ahead.
On the other side, a collection of Black and Latino advocacy groups have joined with Silicon Valley giants to campaign for an initiative that would exempt app-based drivers for companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash from the law."
In a rural California town, schools try something extraordinary and risky: Classrooms with children
LA Times's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "
and girls in her class if anyone could define the phrase “social distancing.” A hand shot up in the back of the room.
“Social distancing means staying 6 feet or more away from each other,” said a boy in a “Minecraft” T-shirt, his voice muffled by a camouflage face mask.
“Does that mean we don’t like the person?” Murphy asked last week. The students shook their heads."
Does racism make us sick? Amid a national reckoning, the question gains new importancex
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "
Elaine Shelly has lived with multiple sclerosis for 30 years. But she said she still panics whenever she has to see a new neurologist because of racial discrimination she’s experienced in the past.
Even getting a proper diagnosis for her illness was a battle. “I’d go to these neurologists who would tell me that Black people don’t get M.S. and that I must be mentally ill,” said Shelly, 63, of San Leandro.
A former print journalist, Shelly said racial stress has been a constant in her life for decades, including in the workplace, where she often faced microaggressions from peers and retaliation from management."
'Disgusting policy': Prisoners' families must pay for remains after COVID-19 deaths
The Chronicle's JASON FAGONE: "Tracy Henson just wanted her husband’s ashes.
By the time she spoke with a cremation company in May, the newly widowed woman from Portola (Plumas County) was an emotional wreck. For more than six years, she had been married to Melford Henson, a 65-year-old carpenter with white hair and a fondness for Chihuahuas. Deemed a low-risk prisoner by the state, he was serving a short sentence for DUI at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Until late April, he and Tracy spoke on the phone every day, planning their reunion; Melford was scheduled to be released by the end of 2020.
But the coronavirus was sweeping through the prison’s overcrowded dormitories, and Melford suddenly stopped calling, sending Tracy into a panic. On April 29, a Chino hospital informed her that Melford was there, battling COVID-19; soon he was placed on a ventilator, unable to speak. She never had a chance to say goodbye to her husband before he died on May 6."
Postal chief returns to Congress facing uproar over service delays
AP: "Facing a backlash over operational changes that have resulted in mail delays, the nation’s new postmaster general is returning to Congress to testify before a House panel that has sharply criticized him.
The hearing Monday comes after the House approved legislation Saturday to reverse the changes in U.S. Postal Services operations and send $25 billion to shore up the agency ahead of the November election, when a surge in mail-in ballots is expected.
Louis DeJoy testified Friday in the Senate that his “No. 1 priority” is to ensure election mail arrives on time."
