Dixie fire destroys large swath of Greenville: ‘It sounds like a war zone’
LILA SEIDMAN and KEVIN RECTOR, LA Times: "Powerful winds and dry conditions caused fires in Northern California to explode, with the massive Dixie fire sweeping into the town of Greenville and destroying swaths of the downtown area.
Another day of winds is on tap for the region Thursday, with the National Weather Service issuing a red flag warning for the mountain areas of northeast California.
The Dixie fire, already the eighth largest in California history, devastated the Plumas County town of Greenville on Wednesday afternoon."
River fire near Colfax, Calif., grows to 1,400 acres, spurs evacuations and damages homes
KEVIN RECTOR, LA Times: "A new wildfire that began Wednesday near Colfax, north of Sacramento, has burned through 1,400 acres and started damaging homes, according to state and local officials.
CalFire said the River fire was burning near Milk Ranch Road and Bear River Campground Road north of Applegate in Placer and Nevada counties — jumping the Bear River between the two — and estimated it had damaged or destroyed 35 to 40 structures.
An additional 4,000 structures were threatened, including 2,000 in Colfax, officials said."
Republican recall candidates pile on Newsom in first debate
The Chronicle, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Four of the top Republicans seeking to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in the upcoming recall election made a punching bag of the first-term Democrat on Wednesday night, but drew few distinctions among each other at the first debate of the campaign.
San Diego County real estate investor John Cox, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, state Assembly Member Kevin Kiley of Rocklin (Placer County) and Doug Ose, a former member of Congress from the Sacramento area, appeared intent on avoiding a circular firing squad in a race where their support only matters if voters first choose to remove Newsom from office.
That could happen. With enthusiasm lagging among Democrats, recent public polling suggests that likely voters are nearly evenly split on recalling Newsom. If he loses, whichever replacement candidate receives the most votes will serve out the remainder of his term, even if they do not win a majority."
Republican recall candidates say they wouldn't require masks in California schools
Sac Bee, LARA KORTE: "Four Republicans hoping to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom in the upcoming recall election pushed back Wednesday on advice from the Centers for Disease Control that recommends masks in schools and said they oppose requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for anyone in California.
During the 90-minute debate hosted by FOX 11 in Los Angeles, Republican hopefuls John Cox, Kevin Faulconer, Kevin Kiley and Doug Ose expounded on their plans for California if elected on Sept. 14. All said that requiring masks indoors in schools, as Gov. Gavin Newsom has done, is an overreach.
Early last month, California said it would require students to wear masks upon returning to classrooms this fall, and directed schools to send home pupils who don’t comply. The state later said local districts can decide for themselves how to handle non-compliant students. The CDC last week, citing the transmissibility of the delta variant, recommended masks for unvaccinated students and staff in schools."
Feds vow to help California battle fires amid Forest Service changes
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER/CHASE DIFELICIANTONIO: "The Biden administration vowed Wednesday that it will dedicate far more resources to help California battle and prevent catastrophic wildfires, conceding that decades of neglect have left many forests on federal land dangerously overgrown.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack outlined the federal government’s new approach during a meeting with Gov. Gavin Newsom on a scarred hilltop in the Mendocino National Forest, where the August Complex fires torched more than a million acres last year. Vilsack said the commitment will include “more boots on the ground” to fight fires and billions of dollars for the U.S. Forest Service to clear vegetation through forest management projects.
“We need to do a better job, and he has told us that we need to do a better job,” Vilsack said of Newsom, as acrid smoke from fires raging farther north filled the air. “I think it’s fair to say, over the generations, over the decades, we have tried to do this job on the cheap. But the reality is that this has caught up with us.”"
How frustrated Napa residents are taking wildfire protection into their own hands
The Chronicle, ESTHER MOBLEY: "It was the middle of the night and Beth Milliken could see the Glass Fire burning in the distance. From 1 a.m. until daybreak, the vintner hurriedly bolstered her St. Helena property, Spottswoode Winery: soaking the outside decks with water, cleaning gutters of flammable debris.
“I kept thinking, when the sun comes up, we’ll get support. All we gotta do is make it until the sun comes up,” Milliken said, recounting that anxious night late last September.
But the sun rose and no firefighting crew arrived. No aid ever did come to Spottswoode."
COVID vaccine mandate begins for California state workers amid SEIU Local 1000 objections
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "The Newsom administration is proceeding with plans to require state workers to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or else submit to regular weekly testing over the objections of its largest public employee union.
The state is rolling out the requirement this week at four departments: The California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Transportation, the California Department of Motor Vehicles and Cal Fire, according to a memo from the state Department of Human Resources.
The plan is to create a “playbook” for other agencies using those four departments as a model, according to an email sent Tuesday by Eraina Ortega, director of the California Department of Human Resources. Her office alongside the Department of Public Health is overseeing the new rule."
Severe drought is forcing one of Sonoma's best Syrah vineyards to make no wine
Sac Bee, ESTHER MOBLEY: "Because of drought, one of Sonoma County's best Syrah vineyards will bear no fruit this year.
The grapevines at Griffin's Lair Vineyard in Petaluma are parched, said owner John Flynn. Unlike the typical lush, full, green canopies that you'd expect to see this time of year, as harvest approaches, the vines look haggard and weak. Some leaves are already turning brown. With no water available to give them, Flynn made the decision this week to drop the entire crop, which in a good year would supply Pinot Noir and Syrah grapes to eight wineries including Pax and Spottswoode. It's the best way to ensure the crop's survival, he said.
Cutting off the grape clusters before they ripen means that Flynn and his wife, Alix Rogers, will have no income from the vineyard this year. "It really becomes a near-term economic question versus a longevity question," Flynn said. In their thirsty state, the vines would have depleted themselves of too much energy in trying to bring their grapes to full ripeness. "By dropping the fruit, we can improve the retention of carbohydrates into the vines and improve the health for future years," said Flynn."
5 Palo Alto police officers sued over a BLM mural
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "For four months, a vibrant Black Lives Matter mural adorned the pavement outside Palo Alto City Hall, drawing visitors from all parts of the Bay Area. It also caused pain, suffering, fright and shame for five police officers, according to a lawsuit they filed against the city and Police Department on June 4.
News of the lawsuit cast a national spotlight on a Silicon Valley suburb mythologized for garage startups, a prestigious university and Eichler homes on leafy streets. But the police officers’ complaints revealed something that longtime residents already knew: Palo Alto struggled to confront its own racial issues long before the May 2020 murder of George Floyd and the mural that city leaders commissioned as their response.
“The lawsuit didn’t surprise me,” said the Rev. Kaloma Smith, chair of the city’s Human Relations Commission."
