Blaze ripped through area crews saved in 2017 wine country fires
Sac Bee's MIXCHAEL MCGOUGH: "The ferocious Glass Fire, a cluster of related and merged wildfire incidents that sparked Sunday morning in California’s wine country, has destroyed dozens of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Gusty winds intensified the fire’s rate of spread within hours of it igniting near the Sonoma-Napa county line, sending it barreling toward Santa Rosa at the start of this week.
Urgent evacuations began that evening, with police and sheriff’s deputies going door-to-door to warn those who missed or disregarded the emergency orders that danger was fast approaching. Flames reached some neighborhoods on the city’s eastern edge and outskirts."
READ MORE related to Wildfire Season: 2020's fire damage to Napa wineries already far exceeds 2017, and it may not be done -- Sac Bee's ESTHER MOBLEY; See photos of devastation from the Glass Fire burning in Napa and Sonoma counties -- Sac Bee's STAFF; California is on fire. These maps show how the crisis has spiraled out of control -- The Chronicle's ABHINANDA BATTACHARYUA; Fires again ravage a California wine industry already reeling. 'It's very heartbreaking' -- LA Times's SARAH PARVINI/HAYLEY SMITH
5 takeaways from the chaotic first Biden-Trump debate
Sac Bee's ALEX ROARTY/FRANCESCA CHAMBERS: "Personal insults. Chaos on stage. More interruptions than anyone can count.
The country has never before seen a presidential debate like the one that took place between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio, the first of three scheduled showdowns between the two candidates.
A night that began ugly stayed vitriolic for the entirety of the 90-minute event, with Biden and Trump relentlessly speaking over each other while struggling to answer questions about health care, the coronavirus pandemic and the recovering economy."
READ MORE related to Presidential Debate: Trump needed the debate to change a race he's losing; instead, he doubled down -- LA Times's JANET HOOK; Trump tries to kill presidential debates, and other takeaways from a debacle -- The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI/TAL KOPAN/JOHN WILDERMUTH; Trump says USPS can't handle a mostly mail-in election. Californians are used to them -- Sac Bee's KATE IRBY; 'How did America reach this level of political decline?': Foreign observers shake heads at debate -- AP; An evening of insults and accusations as Trump repeatedly interrupts the debate -- LA Times's EVAN HALPER/ELI STOKOLS/BRITTNY MEJIA
LA's poorest patients endure long delays to see some medical specialists. Some die waiting
LA Times's JACK DOLAN/BRITTNY MEJIA: "Isabel Lainez was a familiar face at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center when she showed up one cday desperately seeking help.
The 60-year-old often visited the hospital’s courtyard pulling a wheelie bag filled with jewelry that she sold to nurses and other workers on their lunch breaks. Now she was struggling with frequent urinary tract infections that had stopped responding to antibiotics.
She wet herself so frequently — on the bus, in the car, in an elevator — that she started wearing diapers and stopped going out to sell jewelry or visit friends."
Newsom signs new privacy law prompted by crash that killed Kobe Bryant
LA Times's PAUL PRINGLE/ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "Acting on legislation that grew out of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Monday a bill that makes it a crime for peace officers and other first responders to take unauthorized photos of dead people at the scene of a crime or accident.
The invasion of privacy measure was prompted by a Los Angeles Times investigation early this year that found that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shared gruesome photos of the Bryant crash site in Calabasas.
After receiving a citizen’s complaint about the matter, Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially sought to cover up the deputies’ behavior by quietly ordering the photos deleted. Villanueva ordered an investigation into their conduct only after The Times disclosed that deputies were showing the photos, including to a civilian at a bar in Norwalk."
New California law aims for more medical providers by giving nurse practitioners more authority
Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom paved the way for nurse practitioners in California to practice medicine independent of doctors under a bill he signed Tuesday.
Newsom’s signature represents the culmination of a fight that has spanned several legislative sessions, pitting doctors groups against those that want to expand nurse practitioners’ ability to treat patients.
The measure, Assembly Bill 890, would allow nurse practitioners to practice independently in 2023. Nurse practitioners would have to operate under a doctor’s supervision for a minimum three-year transition period before embarking on their own practices. Current California law requires nurse practitioners, who hold masters or doctorate degrees in nursing and additional certification beyond a regular nursing degree, to always operate under a doctor’s supervision."
Newsom vetoes bill to aid low-income immigrants
AP: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have authorized California to give low-income immigrants $600 to buy groceries.
The bill was aimed at helping people, including those living in the country illegally, who have been impacted by the coronavirus but are not eligible for other state and federal assistance programs.
It’s unclear how much the program would have cost, with estimates ranging from the tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars."
USA is rescued from SF City Hall fraud case because wife hired defendant
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "U.S. Attorney David Anderson has been recused from the federal fraud case against former San Francisco building Commissioner Rodrigo Santos because his wife, Recreation and Park Commissioner Kat Anderson, contracted with Santos to work on the rebuilding of a cottage she independently owns in the Bayview.
U.S. attorney office spokesman Abraham Simmons said Anderson initiated the recusal, and it was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. Simmons declined to give the date the recusal was granted or any other specifics. Anderson declined comment as well.
Anderson has no financial interest in his wife’s property, nor does his name appear on paperwork associated with the rebuilding project."
Unemployment agency hired thousands, but didn't fix core problems
Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN/WES VENTEICHER: "Ten years and still a mess. Today’s loudly voiced criticisms of California’s unemployment insurance system have a familiar ring to those who have been around a while.
“The problems in the state unemployment insurance program are major,” said a state Assembly Insurance Committee report from 2010 describing a state agency overwhelmed by demand from jobless Californians.
Skip to 2020: “The State must deliver this benefit to those who qualify within a time frame that’s relevant to the well-being of the claimant, and it was failing to do that for too many Californians,” said a report by the strike team Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed to investigate recurring problems at California’s unemployment department."
READ MORE related to Unemployment: Hiring sprees and unending IT problems: What California budgets say about unemployment agency -- Sac Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN
JPMorgan gets yet another 'sweetheart' deal from feds for flagrant market corruption
LA Times's MICHAEL HILTZIK, Commentary: "Judging from the statements put out Tuesday by federal securities regulators and the Department of Justice, JPMorgan Chase & Co. got caught in a serious, flagrant, years-long plot to rig financial markets.
The Justice Department broke the offense down into two “schemes to defraud: the first involving tens of thousands of episodes of unlawful trading in the markets for precious metals futures contracts, and the second involving thousands of episodes of unlawful trading in the markets for U.S. Treasury futures.”
Dan M. Berkovitz, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, called “the scope of misconduct and market harm ... unparalleled.”
Grand jury transcripts in Breonna Taylor case to be released today as protests continue
LA Times's KURTIS LEE: "The transcripts of a grand jury’s inquiry into the police killing of Breonna Taylor are set to be released Wednesday, marking the latest legal turn in a tragedy that has helped propel the national discourse about race and policing.
Normally kept secret, the documents will be made public after an unidentified grand juror filed a court motion earlier this week asking a judge to release the record of the proceedings.
The motion filed by the juror argues that there is a “compelling public interest” to have the grand jury record released. In addition, it accuses Kentucky Atty. Gen. Daniel Cameron, the special prosecutor in the case, of “using the grand jury to deflect accountability and responsibility for [the indictment] decisions."
