What we know about the Lava Fire smoldering in Northern California
Sac Bee, SAM STANTON/RYAN SABALOW/ZAEEM SHAIKH: "Here’s what we know about the Lava Fire, which erupted last week in Siskiyou County after a lighting strike and so far has burned more than 20 square miles in a rural area of Northern California, sending smoke plumes into the air that could be seen as far away as Tehama County:
Cause: A lighting strike Friday hit a tree and sparked a small fire in an extremely remote area of an old lava flow east of Weed. Since ignition, the fire has continued to spread and endanger area communities and marijuana farms.
Size: As of Tuesday afternoon, the fire was 13,300 acres, and was at 20% containment, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which is managing the response."
As drought ravages California, Biden's infrastructure bill could help water woes
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN/DALE KASLER: "As California and the West suffer through an epic drought, President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans and Democrats have included $5 billion for Western water projects in their infrastructure deal.
The prospect of federal money comes as several big-ticket water projects are on the drawing boards in California — although many are still years from completion and probably wouldn’t get finished in time to help California with the current drought.
But the federal dollars, which are probably months and several more negotiations away from possible approval, could enable California to jump-start projects that have been in the works for years."
Biden seeks to boost federal pay for fighting wildfires as West braces for fire season
LA Times, CHRIS MEGERIAN/ANNA M PHILLIPS: "Facing a shortage of hot shot crews as the West braces for a devastating fire season, President Biden on Wednesday will announce plans to boost firefighters’ pay to a minimum of $15 an hour.
The extra money, which would be delivered through bonus payments, is aimed at keeping more people on the front lines as drought conditions worsen and searing temperatures spread through the region.
“Firefighters must be fairly paid for the grueling and risky work that they’re willing to take on,” a senior administration official, who requested anonymity before the announcement, said Tuesday."
No need for now to mask up indoors again, California says
AIDIN VAZERI and KELLIE HWANG, Chronicle: "California health officials are not ready to ask people to wear masks indoors again, despite the fast-spreading threat of the delta variant that now accounts for nearly a quarter of new coronavirus infections in the state.
The delta variant has many across the world concerned, and on Monday, Los Angeles County health officials strongly recommended that all residents again wear a mask in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status. However, they did not reimpose the indoor-mask mandate for vaccinated people that was dropped statewide on June 15.
“The California Department of Public Health is closely monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and its variants across our state,” Dr. Tomás Aragón, the state’s health director, said Tuesday. “Currently, the delta variant accounts for approximately 23% of cases sampled in California, and we anticipate this percentage will increase. The most important thing we can do to stop the spread of COVID-19 is ensure everyone who is eligible gets vaccinated.”
Reimbursements: A little-known provision of recall law
Capitol Weekly, CHUCK MCFADDEN: "California taxpayers could be on the hook for hefty bills if the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom fails.
That’s because of a little-recognized provision of the state constitution that declares: “A state officer who is not recalled must be reimbursed by the State for the officer’s recall election expenses legally and personally incurred.”
As governor, Newsom is a state officer and he falls within that constitutional provision in Article II, Sec. 18."
In abrupt shift, LA backs new measure to restrict homeless encampments
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER/BENJAMIN ORESKES: "The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft new rules barring homeless people from camping near schools, parks, libraries and other “sensitive” facilities, a sudden change in direction for a city struggling to address a humanitarian crisis while also restoring access to its public spaces.
On a 12 to 3 vote, council members asked the city’s lawyers to quickly draw up a law prohibiting sleeping, lying and storing possessions near a variety of public facilities, including public schools and homeless shelters. It also would bar tents and encampments from blocking sidewalks in ways that prevent wheelchairs users from traveling on them, in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
The proposal, which is expected to face another vote on Thursday, had not been included on Tuesday’s council agenda or the accompanying documents. Council members had been scheduled instead to consider another anti-camping measure, one that was drawn up in October but failed to secure council support."
UC's top schools set to admit more California students after budget deal
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "The undergraduate student body at the University of California’s most popular campuses — UC Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego — is about to get a little more, well, Californian.
Nonresident students will have a tougher time getting into those schools next year after state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed on a plan to cap enrollment of out-of-state and international students, starting with the 2022 fall semester.
As part of a budget deal announced this week, enrollment for non-California residents will be reduced to 18% of the student body over the next five years. Currently, about a quarter of undergraduates at UC Berkeley are nonresidents."
A look back at Austin Beutner's tenure as LA Unified superintendent
EdSource, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Austin Beutner, now in his final day as superintendent of the nation’s second-largest school district, has been alternately praised, denounced and, finally, thanked for his three years as a “crisis manager.”
From the get-go, the Los Angeles Unified school board’s decision to hire Beutner in May 2018 was controversial. He had a background in business, investment banking, politics and nonprofit leadership but no experience leading a school, district or classroom.
He is the son of immigrant parents, like many of the students attending L.A. Unified schools. But he made his fortune in the private-sector finance world, unlike most of the families whose children attend the school district he has led. At the state’s largest school district, encompassing over 700 square miles across a culturally diverse county, nearly 80% of families live in poverty."
Dems send Newsom a budget without money for high-speed rail
Sac Bee, TIM SHEEHAN: "The conspicuous absence of money for high-speed rail in the $262.6 billion budget bill approved Monday by state legislators in Sacramento could have major consequences for construction work of the bullet-train line in Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley.
The budget bill sent by the state Assembly and Senate to Gov. Gavin Newsom late Monday includes billions of dollars for transportation across the state.
But it does not include more than $4 billion sought by the California High-Speed Rail Authority and Newsom to advance work on the high-speed rail project that has been under construction in Fresno, Madera, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties for for seven years."
Mia Bonta, Janani Ramachandran lead in East Bay Assembly district race
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Two women — Mia Bonta and Janani Ramachandran —appear headed for a runoff late Tuesday in the race to succeed Rob Bonta in East Bay Assembly District 18.
Mia Bonta, president of the Alameda Unified School District board and CEO of the nonprofit Oakland Promise, received 38% of the early vote totals, Ramachandran, a social justice attorney, tallied 22% and Malia Vella, vice mayor of the Alameda City Council, pulled 17%.
The two are among eight candidates vying to represent the heavily Democratic district that includes San Leandro, Alameda and 80% of Oakland. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff between the top two finishers will be held Aug. 31."
Ex-Garcetti lawyer says mayor intervened after advisor pushed up against her in an elevator
LA Times, RICHARD WINTON: "Mayor Eric Garcetti intervened when his former high-level advisor pushed up against a female aide while they and others were packed into a small elevator on Capitol Hill, the woman has testified in a deposition.
The allegation is the latest development in a lawsuit by Matthew Garza, a Los Angeles police officer who has accused former Garcetti advisor Rick Jacobs of sexually harassing him.
In his suit, Garza alleged he was the subject of shoulder rubs, hugs and sexual comments by Jacobs from 2014 to 2019, and the mayor witnessed the behavior but did not stop it. Jacobs has denied sexually harassing anyone."
Farmers are putting carbon back in the soil in an effort to help curb climate change
The Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "It was the best hay crop dairyman Steve Perucchi had seen in his 60 years in Sonoma County. After he mowed the grass on his neighbors’ sheep ranch, it lay in thick, honey-colored rows deep enough to lose a child in.
The hay belonged to Bodega Pastures, a lamb and wool producer in the town of Bodega that had added compost to its field for the first time in 2019 when growing food for its animals. The results inspired Perucchi, who mows and bales as a side business, to apply for a grant to do the same on one of his pastures.
“When you see it over there, it makes you think more about it,” said Perucchi, a thick-armed man with a silver goatee, as he greeted visitors at his family’s dairy, which supplies organic milk to Clover Stornetta. A black-and-white Holstein bellowed loudly behind him and an employee used a forklift to stack bales of hay in an old red barn."
Fears that Delta variant could 'wreak havoc' in LA prompted call to wear masks indoors
LA Times, LUKE MONEY/MELISSA HERNANDEZ: "California is just two weeks into its long-awaited reopening, but already a new coronavirus threat has prompted Los Angeles County health officials to request a voluntary rollback of one of the freedoms fully vaccinated people only recently began to enjoy.
The county’s recommendation this week that everyone — regardless of inoculation status — should wear face coverings in public indoor settings as a precaution, given the presence of the worrisome Delta variant of the coronavirus, underscores that speed bumps may still lie ahead on the road to pre-pandemic normalcy.
It also illustrates the current landscape in the long-running battle against COVID-19: one where those who have had their shots may be asked to give a little to help shield those who haven’t."
SF Mayor London Breed and Board of Supes reach deal on $13B budget
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "The Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed reached an agreement on the city’s $13.2 billion budget Tuesday evening after more than 30 hours of negotiations.
The budget includes an unprecedented investment in addressing homelessness — more than $1 billion over the next two years. It prioritizes support for economic recovery, rent relief and marginalized communities in the wake of the pandemic. It also focuses on public safety, balancing hiring police officers to keep up staffing levels with investing in policing alternatives to homelessness, mental illness and drug overdoses.
Supervisor and Budget Committee Chair Matt Haney said in the committee meeting just before 8 p.m. that the agreement reflects what government can get done collaboratively. He said he “worked well” with the Mayor."
Death of inmate at state prison in NorCal being investigated as a homicide
Sac Bee, VICTORIA HSIEH: "A 29-year-old inmate’s death early Monday at High Desert State Prison near Susanville is being investigated as a homicide, prison officials announced.
The inmate, whose name was “withheld at the request of his family,” was found unresponsive after his cellmate, Erik S. Montes, alerted prison staff around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a news release Tuesday afternoon.
The victim, who was taken to High Desert’s infirmary, was declared dead at 12:07 a.m. Officials said he was serving a seven-year sentence for assault with a firearm from San Francisco."
SJ to require gun owners to compensate taxpayers for firearm injuries, deaths
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "San Jose became the first city in the nation to require gun owners to compensate taxpayers for gun violence on Tuesday, a symbolic step toward addressing soaring shooting deaths, including last month’s massacre at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail yard.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council passed ordinances to require every gun owner to buy liability insurance coverage for their firearms. Gun owners would also be required to pay a fee to compensate taxpayers for the emergency medical and police responses to gun-related injuries and deaths.
Mayor Sam Liccardo praised the groundbreaking measures and said gun owners that do not comply with the new rules shouldn’t have guns."
How does SF's overdose crisis compare to the rest of the US?
The Chronicle, VOOLYUN JUNG: "The rate at which people are dying of accidental drug overdose in San Francisco has soared in recent years. That increase is largely due to the rise of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is exponentially more powerful — and lethal — than heroin. Recently released data show that overdose deaths in San Francisco have now surpassed the rates of many East Coast and Midwest communities that encountered the deadly fentanyl epidemic years before it came to San Francisco.
Accidental drug overdose deaths tend to be higher in places where fentanyl is more widespread in the community, said Dr. Phillip Coffin, director of substance abuse research for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We know solidly from data that fentanyl poses a several-fold higher risk of overdose and that in the event of overdose, it’s more likely to result in death compared to heroin.” The intake of just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal.
A Chronicle analysis of mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Prevention and reports from state and local health departments shows that as fentanyl’s influence grew in San Francisco, especially in the late 2010s, overdose death rates rose above places like Philadelphia, which has been battling the same epidemic, but for longer. Philadelphia, which is both a city and a county, was the place with over 500,000 people with the highest overdose rate in 2019. San Francisco surpassed it in 2020."
