Death toll rises to 10 in North Complex fires burning in Butte County
The Chronicle's ALEXEI KOSEFF/JILL TUCKER/MEGAN CASSIDY: "The monstrous North Complex fires claimed another seven lives in Butte County, bringing the death toll to 10 on Thursday as search crews looked for 26 people who have not been heard from.
In one case, investigators asked relatives of a missing 16-year-old boy to provide DNA samples, which helped confirm that one of the dead was their loved one, Josiah Williams, of Berry Creek.
“We are at a complete loss for words right now,” his aunt, Bobbie Zedaker, told The Chronicle late Thursday night."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: California's staggering fire toll: A record 3 million acres, and it's still early -- LA Times's ANITA CHABRIA/PAIGE ST JOHN/LUKE MONEY/JOE MOZINGO; Trapped in a wilderness fire? Here's how to survive -- The Chronicle's TOM STIENSTRA; California's new largest-ever wildfire: North Coast's August Complex shatters record set two years ago -- The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS; See photos, videos of the Creek Fire burning in Fresno County -- Fresno Bee STAFF in Sac Bee
'Fire-breathing dragon of clouds': Formation over Creek Fire said to be biggest in history
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC: "A giant thunderstorm hovered above the Creek Fire on Saturday, shooting smoke plumes into the stratosphere as flames tore through the Sierra National Forest below — and an obscure meteorological term briefly burst into the popular lexicon: pyrocumulonimbus.
That’s the name for a rare formation that NASA dubbed “the fire-breathing dragon of clouds.” It occurs when the scorched air from within a wildfire or volcano meets moist, buoyant air a few miles above the earth. The resulting mass is essentially a rain-less thunderstorm sitting atop a giant fire, said David Peterson, a meteorologist with the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey.
Scientists believe the pyrocumulonimbus that took shape over the Creek Fire could be the biggest ever produced above U.S. soil."
READ MORE related to Air/Climate/Environment: The orange sky was Bay Area's latest extreme climate event. It won't be the last -- The Chronicle's KELLIE HWANG; How to stay safe as smoke, horrible air quality choke SoCal -- LA Times's STAFF; LA suffers worst smog in almost 30 years -- LA Times's TONY BARBOZA
California GOP is nearly No. 2 again among registered voters -- but news isn't all good
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "After an embarrassing two years as California’s third-largest “party,” Republicans are only about 10,000 voters short of moving back into second place, according to voter registration figures released by the secretary of state.
The GOP might want to hold off on the Champagne, however. While Republicans have closed the gap with no party preference voters, that’s probably because tens of thousands of those formerly independent voters have decided to register as Democrats in advance of the November presidential election.
While it’s hard to say exactly why the number of independent voters has dropped for the first time in years, the prospect of a presidential election fought out daily in newspapers, on television and in social media tends to make everyone more partisan, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data, which provides voter information to political groups."
(OP-ED) CalPERS has vital role in state's economic recovery
DAN DUNMOYER in Capitol Weekly: "It may not be top of mind, but Californians should be aware that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is a key part of ensuring that the state recovers quickly and completely from the coronavirus pandemic.
Those who think about CalPERS often limit their perspective to the context of pensions for public employees. But the reality is that every single person who wants to be able to get a job in a community with affordable housing, good schools, safe streets, and accessible public services needs CalPERS to be successful. Otherwise, we will all pay a steep price.
Got your attention? Let me explain."
SF to open indoor hair and nail salons, gyms and hotels next week
The Chronicle's RUSTY SIMMONS: "San Francisco will allow indoor hair and nail salons, gyms and hotels to open with limited capacity Monday, nearly six months after coronavirus shelter-in-place orders shuttered them.
The moves accelerate San Francisco’s timelines for reopening, after the city previously signaled a cautious approach to the loosening of restrictions permitted under new state guidelines for resuming business operations, schooling and other activities during the pandemic.
Indoor massage businesses, tattoo and piercing services, outdoor family entertainment centers, drive-in movies, and outdoor tour buses and boats can also reopen Monday. Places of worship and political facilities, such as campaign offices, can open for one person at a time, with up to 50 people allowed outdoors."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: LA has a new COVID-19 contact tracing app, from a controversial source -- LA Times's SAM DEAN; CDC: Eating out is among riskiest activities during COVID-19 pandemic -- Sac Bee's MADDIE CAPRON; UC Berkeley study shows COVID-19 cases in US may be underestimated -- Daily Californian's TAYLOR RUDMAN
Court knocks down Trump attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from census
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "President Trump’s 11th-hour order to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census, a move that could strip House seats and federal funding from states like California with large immigrant populations, violates long-standing law that requires the population count to include “the whole number of persons in each state,” a federal court ruled Thursday.
“The ordinary meaning of the word ‘person’ is ‘human’ or ‘individual’” and is not limited to U.S. citizens or legal residents, said the three-judge panel based in New York. In opting for a partial count that excluded unauthorized residents, the court said, “The president exceeded the authority granted to him by Congress.”
The “whole number of persons” requirement was first declared in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War. But the court said it did not have to decide whether Trump’s order was unconstitutional, because he clearly violated a law passed by Congress in 1929 that contained the same language and required its use in the population count that determines House representation for the next decade."
Why California caregivers finally could get unemployment after deaths of children, spouses
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "Some 120,000 California caregivers tending for their spouse or children could be eligible to receive the state’s unemployment insurance when their dependents die, under a bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
Assembly Bill 1993, which got a near-unanimous approval from both chambers of the Legislature in the last week of August, would accomplish an expansion of the safety net that unions representing home care workers have pushed for years.
Union officials said the bill will prevent a double whammy for the caregivers: The loss of their spouse or children, and the loss of income — $13 to $17.25 an hour depending on counties — that came with taking care of them."
In effort to change sex-crimes law, Newsom's LGBTQ rights record faces a test
LA Times's PHIL WILLON: "A California bill intended to prevent discrimination against LGBTQ people in sex crime convictions has captured the attention of Republicans and far-right conspiracy theorists, who are demanding a veto from Gov. Gavin Newsom and say state Democratic leaders are putting teenagers at risk.
The measure, Senate Bill 145, would amend existing state law that allows judges to decide whether an adult convicted of having vaginal sexual intercourse with a minor should register as a sex offender in cases in which the minor is 14 years or older and the adult is not more than 10 years older than the minor.
Currently, adults who are convicted of having oral or anal sex with a minor under those circumstances are automatically added to the state’s sex offender registry. SB 145 would eliminate automatic sex offender registration in those cases, and give judges discretion to make that decision."
Why San Diego State offers a model for how to approach a rise in campus COVID-19 infections
EdSource's ASHLEY A SMITH: "San Diego State University’s decision to pause instruction of its few remaining in-person classes offers a different playbook for how other colleges might mitigate the virus.
San Diego State became the second California university last week to halt in-person classes about a week after starting the fall semester. The university followed Chico State, a 17,000-student campus that is also in the 23-campus California State University system.
However, unlike Chico State, San Diego State which has about 34,000 students, chose to keep its dorms open. San Diego’s decision follows recent advice given by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci expressed concern about inadvertently spreading the virus as some colleges close residence halls and send students back to communities. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, told governors last week that they should urge college presidents to keep students on or near campus, according to The Daily Beast."
READ MORE related to Education: Book finds teachers' digital expectations for students impacted by race, class -- Daily Californian's KALEO MARK; Nearly 20 schools in Sacramento County get approval to reopen classroom instruction -- Sac Bee's SAWSAN MORRAR
A million ballots may go uncounted this fall, mostly because states push deadlines
LA Times's EVAN HALPER: "The controversial new chief of the U.S. Postal Service had not even started his job when a disturbing thing happened to hundreds of thousands of Americans who cast ballots by mail in primary elections this spring.
Their votes were never counted.
The torrent of disenfranchisement provided a worrying prelude to a general election where, for the first time in history, most Americans will probably vote in advance of election day. Amid President Trump’s efforts to undermine mail voting and the tumultuous tenure of Louis DeJoy, the Trump loyalist now running the mail, many people see the Postal Service as an obvious culprit."
Complex, years-long litigation anticipated in major LAPD protest lawsuit
LA Times's KEVIN RECTOR: "A lawsuit alleging a brutal and unconstitutional crackdown by Los Angeles police during protests this summer — potentially the largest and most expensive case of its kind in city history — is expected to take years to resolve, even if a settlement is reached along the way.
The discovery process, in which both sides solicit and collect evidence, is only just beginning. Thousands of records must be collected and dozens of stakeholders must be deposed, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Michel Moore but also individual protesters who suffered injuries, attorneys for both sides said in a joint report filed in U.S. District Court last month.
Presiding U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall has set a tentative date for a trial, but not for another year and a half — on April 26, 2022."
READ MORE related to Police, Protests, Prisons & Public Safety: Supes reject calls to 'defund' Sacramento County sheriff in $6.4B budget -- Sac Bee's MICHAEL FINCH II
BART trains to increase frequency of service during commute hours
Daily Californian's CLAIRE DALY: "Beginning Monday, BART will run trains more frequently during weekday peak commute hours.
The schedule update is the “largest weekday service increase” to the BART schedule since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Tuesday press release from BART. Commute trains heading in the busiest direction of travel will run in 15-minute intervals for the Antioch-SFO/Millbrae, Richmond-Millbrae and Berryessa/North San José-Daly City lines.
“BART’s 15 Step Plan to Welcome Riders Back calls for matching service levels with demand and adding trains into service when crowding data shows increased frequency is needed for riders to be able to maintain social distancing on board trains,” the press release said. “This schedule change follows through on that commitment while also providing flexibility if ridership changes.”
US remembers 9/11 as pandemic changes tribute traditions
AP: "Americans are commemorating 9/11 with tributes that have been altered by coronavirus precautions and woven into the presidential campaign, drawing both President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to pay respects at the same memorial without crossing paths.
In New York, a dispute over coronavirus-safety precautions is leading to split-screen remembrances Friday, one at the Sept. 11 memorial plaza at the World Trade Center and another on a nearby corner. The Pentagon’s observance will be so restricted that not even victims’ families can attend, though small groups can visit the memorial there later in the day.
Trump and Biden are both headed — at different times — to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Penn."
Scott Atlas, pandemic advisor to Trump, slammed by Stanford health experts
The Chronicle's MICHAEL WILLIAMS: "Dozens of Stanford Medical School faculty members signed an open letter this week denouncing Dr. Scott Atlas — a former Stanford professor now serving as President Trump’s pandemic adviser — saying “many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science.”
Atlas, who joined the White House last month, worked as a professor and chief of neuroradiology — a specialty focused on diagnosing diseases of the nervous system — at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012 and is currently a senior fellow at the university’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank. He has no experience in the treatment of infectious diseases and has pushed controversial policy positions since his appointment.
The letter, signed by nearly 100 Stanford staff specializing in areas like epidemiology, health policy and infectious diseases, doesn’t list any specific statements by Atlas, but targeted his approach for reopening schools and the economy."
China's 'purification' of classrooms: A new law erases history, silences teachers and rewrites books
LA Times's DAVID PIERSON/RACHEL CHEUNG: "The high school visual arts teacher couldn’t go to the front lines of protest, but he took inspiration from the pro-democracy marches and unleashed his own brand of subversion: cartoons.
He drew a policeman sweeping a bloodied protester under a rug fashioned after the Chinese flag. Another sketch captioned “Lunchtime” depicted popular snacks — an egg custard tart and deep-fried French toast — next to a canister of tear gas. He captured the unrelenting despair that seized Hong Kongers after the demonstrations each night with an image of a man lying in bed crying himself to sleep.
Everywhere Wong looked, he saw China constricting the freedoms that had made Hong Kong an unabashed city of towering glass, raucous politics and quicksilver commerce. He drew in harrowing detail what he was losing, sharing his work on social media under the pen name @vawongsir. He thought his identity was safe. But then came the anonymous complaint to the Education Bureau that he was “publishing inappropriate illustrations online."
