California braces for most dangerous fire weather of the season; PG&E already cutting power off to customers
LA Times's ALEX WIGGLESWORTH: "Pacific Gas and Electric began cutting power to nearly 1 million people in Northern and Central California on Sunday amid what forecasters described as the most dangerous fire weather of the season.
The utility institutes the so-called “public safety power shutoffs” ahead of certain weather conditions out of concern that a gust of wind could snap off a tree branch or damage a piece of equipment, creating a spark that could ignite dry brush and spread into a wildfire.
A weather system is expected to bring strong, dry, north-northeast winds through the mountain passes up and down California — winds referred to as Diablos in Northern California and Santa Anas in the southern part of the state. Winds started to pick up in some northern areas Sunday afternoon and were expected to become most widespread and intense overnight into Monday, though critical conditions were expected to last well into Tuesday."
PG&E shutoffs reach El Dorado -- 225k of possible 361k customers in wildfire safety outage
Sac Bee's DALE KASLER/MOLLY BURKE: "With Northern California facing the most dangerous windstorm of 2020, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. began shutting power to 361,000 homes and businesses Sunday as severe red flag warnings took effect and wildfire risks picked up.
The latest PG&E wildfire safety blackout got under way as fierce, dry Diablo winds swept across much of California, beginning at the northern end of the Sacramento Valley and sweeping south into the Bay Area, raising the danger of more large wildfires. Portions of the Sacramento area, including El Dorado County, were getting blacked out, too.
The blackout began Sunday morning, with customers in Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Lake counties being the first to lose power. By 6 p.m., about 225,000 customers were affected, and the remaining 136,000 customers were due to go dark by midnight, said PG&E incident commander Mark Quinlan."
'Hurricane-type' winds pound Bay Area amid blackouts, new fires
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC/NANETTE ASIMOV: "An onslaught of heavy winds blasting across bone-dry land led Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to shut off power in parts of the Bay Area and dozens of other counties Sunday to reduce wildfire risk, as blazes erupted in Shasta County and were largely contained by evening.
Amid warnings of “hurricane-type” winds, authorities urged Bay Area residents in high-risk fire zones — including the hills of Berkeley, El Cerrito, Kensington, East Richmond Heights and El Sobrante — to consider relocating before any fires had a chance to ignite.
Cal Fire extended a red flag warning through 5 p.m. Tuesday for East and North Bay mountain areas. A red flag warning for coastal and valley areas and the Santa Cruz Mountains was in effect through 11 a.m. Monday."
Capitol Weekly Podcast: Ten Days to Go
STAFF: "Veteran political data expert Paul Mitchell sat down (remotely) with Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster on Friday to chat about early vote turnout, the partisan breakdown of those votes and how California compares to the national picture, expanding on last week’s CA120 column.
Record turnout among early voters is a story being played out across the country and California is no exception. In 2016 and 2018, less than 20,000 voters returned their ballots within the first week of receipt; this year, 250,000 voters cast their votes in that same period. At the time we recorded this podcast, a whopping six million Californians had already voted, far outstripping the early vote returns in previous elections.
The partisan breakdown of the early votes is notable as well. California Republicans have a strong tradition of early voting (“people who know where their stamps are,” Paul quipped), but the early returns this year have shown a 20 point shift toward Democrats. Is the president’s anti-VBM messaging depressing the GOP mail-in vote? If so, will they make up that ground on Election Day?"
How SF became a COVID-19 success story as other cities stumbled
LA Times's MAURA DOLAN: "Much of San Francisco looked like a ghost town during late April. All but essential services were closed. Few roamed the streets. The mood seemed as grim as the gray skies overhead.
Now life has returned. Restaurants and stores are open. Clad in masks, pedestrians last week clutched bags from stores where they had just shopped. Diners sat at tables outside restaurants and cafes. People strolled along the bay on the Embarcadero, and a huge Ferris wheel opened for business at Golden Gate Park.
After cautiously approaching the pandemic for months, with a go-slow attitude toward reopening, San Francisco has become the first urban center in California to enter the least restrictive tier for reopening. Risk of infection, according to the state’s color-coded tiers, is considered minimal, even though San Francisco is the second-densest city in the country after New York."
Is it now or never for affirmative action in California?
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "When California Democrats first started working last year on a proposal to reinstate affirmative action — an effort that requires approval by ballot measure on Nov. 3 — it was months before a spring of coronavirus lockdowns and summer of racial reckoning in America.
Before 2020, those supporting what would become Proposition 16 thought they had almost no chance of convincing voters they should repeal the 25-year-old law banning the consideration of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in university admissions, public employment and contracting.
For years, polls have shown that the majority of the American electorate believes merit, not demographics like race or ethnicity should reward an applicant.
New poll shows tight races for California propositions to change app-based driver rules, business property taxes
LA Times's JOHN MYERS: "A new statewide poll finds a sharp decline in the number of voters undecided on Proposition 22, an effort to designate drivers who work for app-based companies as independent contractors, but provides no clear hint at the outcome as election day nears.
The poll also offers little certainty about Proposition 15, the plan to loosen California’s long-standing limits on commercial property taxes. A plurality of voters back both proposals in the poll released Monday by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, but the lead is relatively narrow — and in the case of the tax increase, the level of support remains unchanged since last month.
“It looks close on both of them,” said Mark DiCamillo, the poll’s director. “Voters are deciding on these propositions late.”"
Fires have started as NorCal braces for high winds amid planned blackouts
Sac Bee's VINCENT MOLESKI/MOLLY BURKE: "Northern California is bracing for high winds and critical fire danger heading into Monday morning amid planned blackouts that are set to affect hundreds of thousands of people.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. began shutting off the lights Sunday morning and by 6 p.m., more than 225,000 customers were in the dark.
That number is expected to go up overnight, when an estimated total of 361,000 homes and businesses across Northern California are planned to be included in the power outage, a blackout spanning parts of 36 counties that could affect 800,000 people."
LA's coast was once a DDT dumping ground
LA Times's ROSANNA XIA: "Not far from Santa Catalina Island, in an ocean shared by divers and fishermen, kelp forests and whales, David Valentine decoded unusual signals underwater that gave him chills.
The UC Santa Barbara scientist was supposed to be studying methane seeps that day, but with a deep-sea robot on loan and a few hours to spare, now was the chance to confirm an environmental abuse that others in the past could not. He was chasing a hunch, and sure enough, initial sonar scans pinged back a pattern of dots that popped up on the map like a trail of breadcrumbs.
The robot made its way 3,000 feet down to the bottom, beaming bright lights and a camera as it slowly skimmed the seafloor. At this depth and darkness, the uncharted topography felt as eerie as driving through a vast desert at night."
With nine days to go, Trump faces two adversaries: Biden and the pandemic
LA Times's JANET HOOK/CHRIS MEGERIAN: "With election day just nine days away, President Trump fought an uphill battle Sunday against two adversaries: Joe Biden and the pandemic.
Trump’s repeated claim that the country had turned the corner on the coronavirus was undercut by news that members of Vice President Mike Pence’s inner circle had tested positive — and by a senior Trump advisor who said the White House was “not going to control” the pandemic.
Pence, who had headed Trump’s now-moribund coronavirus task force, did not quarantine but instead pressed on with campaign travel."
America wakes up to politics: 2020 brings a tsunami of voting and activism
LA Times's JANET HOOK: "The American electorate, often apathetic and cynical about politics, is experiencing a great awakening, with the 2020 election inspiring extraordinary levels of engagement in both parties.
People are enduring hours-long lines to cast ballots, early voting is shattering records, and turnout may be the biggest in more than a century. Millions who did not vote four years ago — or ever — are showing up.
Campaigns can’t keep up with the demand for yard signs. Progressive groups have proliferated and been deluged with volunteers. Small-dollar donations have skyrocketed. The Trump campaign claims more volunteers than the grass-roots army of Barack Obama, whose 2008 election marked the previous high point for voter enthusiasm."
Can Trump repeat his 2016 magic? Not impossible, but also not likely
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Instead of feeling confident with Joe Biden leading battleground polls, amassing a huge fundraising advantage and surviving a debate in which President Trump went after his family, some Democrats are flinching.
To them, it resembles the final days of the 2016 campaign.
It’s not, analysts said."
First 'murder hornet' nest was just eradicated in Washington state. Could they fly to California next?
The Chronicle's KELLIE HWANG: "Californians may have been looking north a bit nervously this weekend after news that Washington state officials had zeroed in on a nest of “murder hornets.”
The scary-sounding insect created a buzz in early May with its first U.S. sighting, in northwest Washington state, while most of the country was sheltering in place from the coronavirus.
The insect, whose actual name is the Asian giant hornet, inflicts painful stings and can spit venom but typically doesn’t attack people and pets unless threatened. It earned its “murder” moniker because it is highly lethal to honeybees and can annihilate entire hives in hours."
Essential workers who depend on public transit fear service cuts in pandemic
The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH: "Without BART, Kamyah Moses takes three buses and 45 minutes longer to get from her home in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood to her job as a froster at Nothing Bundt Cakes in Emeryville. One day, five buses passed because they were already too full under COVID-19 restrictions, she said.
If BART, losing a majority of riders and revenue under the pandemic, has to cut back service, it would affect “everything,” said the 17-year-old, who doesn’t have a car.
“I just really hope they don’t do it,” she said as she shook her head on the Fruitvale Station platform Friday afternoon."
San Pablo man arrested, suspected of striking on-duty Petaluma firefighter with car
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "A 30-year-old San Pablo man was arrested early Sunday in Petaluma on suspicion of intentionally striking an on-duty firefighter with a vehicle, police said.
Petaluma firefighters responded to a medical emergency at about 3 a.m. in a shopping mall parking lot on the 200 block of North McDowell Boulevard, where they were approached by a man who began asking questions, police said.
Firefighters asked the man, identified as Everal Thompson, to leave, but he went to his car and drove into a firefighter before fleeing, police said."
Dems ask Pence to skip Barrett confirmation vote over coronavirus risk
AP: "A deeply torn Senate is set to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, but Democratic leaders are asking Vice President Mike Pence to stay away from presiding over Monday’s session because of potential health risks after his aides tested positive for the coronavirus.
Barrett’s confirmation is not in doubt, as Senate Republicans are overpowering Democratic opposition to secure President Trump’s nominee the week before election day. Pence has not said if he plans to attend the Senate session, as is customary for landmark votes.
But Democrats said in a letter to Pence that it’s “not a risk worth taking,” according to copy obtained by the Associated Press."
