World’s largest trees under siege from California wildfire as sequoias face new perils
HAYLEY SMITH and LILA SEIDMAN, LA Times: "Deep inside the heart of Sequoia National Park lies a cathedral-like grove that is home to thousands of towering sequoia trees. Known as the Giant Forest, it draws throngs of visitors each year who come to marvel at its behemoths, including the 275-foot General Sherman tree, known as the largest tree on Earth.
Wildfire is a natural part of the life cycle of sequoias — helping to release their seeds. But with climate change fueling a new breed of extreme fire in California, that ecological contract has been betrayed. Flames from a wildfire are lapping at the Giant Forest and threatening to decimate some of the greatest natural wonders of the world.
The 8,940-acre KNP Complex, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, was roughly a mile from the ancient grove Wednesday, officials said.
After recall flop, struggling California Republicans once again fighting over future
MELANIE MASON and SEEMA MEHTA, LA Times: "California Republicans thought they found a unifying rallying cry in the recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom. Instead, the campaign exposed — and even worsened — some of the long-standing clashes between the establishment and grass-roots base, while leaving unsettled the question of how the party can stop its losing streak in the state.
The GOP can take comfort in knowing it made Newsom sweat far more than any Democrat has in the last decade of statewide races, at least until the polls closed and the governor easily prevailed.
The lopsided outcome underscores how the party’s daunting climb back to political relevance is made all the more difficult by the recall effort’s missed opportunities and internecine squabbles."
Here's why the Bay Area has yet to see terrible air quality this fire season -- and when that could change
The Chronicle, KELLIE HWANG: "So far this year, the Bay Area is breathing easier than last fire season, with air quality benefiting from a combination of weather, wind and more-distant wildfires — though with conditions ripe for new major blazes in California, the region’s fortunes could quickly change in coming months, experts warn.
At this time last year, smoke from massive lightning-sparked blazes in and around the Bay Area choked the air. Smoke from wildfires as far away as Oregon and Washington also made its way down to Northern California, helping turn the sky orange on one very unsettling day.
By Sept. 16, Spare the Air alerts indicating unhealthy pollution levels had stretched for a record 30 consecutive days — triggered by the PM2.5 fine particles found in wildfire smoke."
L.A. County takes first steps to end urban oil drilling
JACLYN COSGROVE, LA Times: "The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has taken the first steps to phase out oil production in unincorporated areas, including the Inglewood Oil Field — a move that environmental justice advocates celebrated as historic after decades of fighting.
On Wednesday, the board unanimously voted to ban new oil wells and evaluate the status of existing ones while changing their zoning to “nonconforming.”
The environmental impacts of oil drilling in L.A. County have fallen disproportionately on people of color."
Bay Area in 'wait and see' mode as COVID cases decline
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The rates of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations fell sharply in the Bay Area and across California over the past week after hovering at worryingly high levels through the summer.
With the state’s positivity rate dipping to 3.5% on Wednesday — less than half the 7.2% it reached during the August peak — health officials feel cautiously optimistic that the fourth wave of the pandemic is waning three months after the state’s June 15 reopening, when most restrictions were lifted.
Since Sept. 7, the Bay Area has averaged 16 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, down from 30 per 100,000 recorded during the first week of the month. Hospitalizations are also falling. There are now 785 people hospitalized with COVID in the region, down from a peak of 1,130 in late August."
Column: After Newsom’s recall triumph, Republicans need to do the math: Stop wasting time and money
GEORGE SKELTON, LA Times: "Any way it’s sliced, the recall election wound up being a big boost for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political future. And it was another self-inflicted, bruising bust for California Republicans.
Larry Elder was rudely awakened from his dreams of becoming California’s governor. Newsom’s landslide victory proved what most of us already knew: No Trumpian conservative can win statewide office in this liberal-leaning state.
Elder should go back to hosting his talk radio show, where he’ll surely benefit from the added notoriety achieved during two high-profile months on the campaign trail."
Newsom says recall voters backed his COVID approach
Sacramento Bee, SOPHIA BALLOG: "A day after his landslide victory over the recall, Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed to his win and the state’s low COVID-19 rates as vindication of his pandemic approach.
“Science was on the ballot,” Newsom told reporters during a Wednesday visit to an Oakland school. “Our approach to this pandemic, vaccinations, were on the ballot last night.”
Votes are still being tallied, but opponents of the recall amassed such a commanding lead in early returns that the Associated Press called the race less than an hour after polls closed. As of Wednesday afternoon, the “no” side had about 64% of the vote."
Is Newsom's big recall win a good sign for Dems running in 2022? What experts say
Sacramento Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN and GILLIAN BRASIL: "Gov. Gavin Newsom’s landslide triumph against the recall made Democrats giddy Wednesday about prospects for winning back Republican House seats as they celebrated the victory as affirmation of their efforts to combat COVID-19.
But whether the Democratic glow will linger and help the party in next year’s pivotal congressional elections is questionable.
Republicans, as well as some analysts, noted that Tuesday’s result guarantees nothing, since a lot can change between now and the November 2022 midterm vote."
Bay Area winemakers are feeling climate change more acutely than ever this harvest season
The Chronicle, ESTHER MOBLEY: "This year's wine harvest is well underway throughout California, and vintners in some parts of the state say they're feeling the effects of climate change more acutely than ever.
The drought has left grapevines parched. Fruit yields are dramatically low. Vines look visibly stressed. In some vineyards, all of the grapes seem to be ripening all at once, presenting winemakers with a logistical impossibility. And the threat of wildfire — which, by this time last year, had ruined grapes up and down the state with pernicious smoke — remains on everyone's mind.
"Climate change is such a reality," said Ana Diogo-Draper, winemaker at Napa's Artesa Winery. "The rest of the year it's talk, but this is the time of year when we really have to face this."
California must reform meat supply chain if Sacraento wants to stay Farm to Fork capitol
Sacramento Bee, PATRICK MULVANEY/MICHAEL R DIMOCK: "Amid Sacramento’s annual Farm to Fork celebration, a glaring contradiction remains: The pandemic and this summer’s ransomware attack on JBS (the world’s largest meat processor) disrupted the four industrial processors centered in the Midwest and South. Together they supply the vast majority of California’s meat.
California’s small- and mid-scale livestock and poultry producers lost access to local processing as large-scale producers that usually export animals to the industrial plants took over the state’s small processors. COVID-19 sickened thousands of plant workers, hundreds died and tens of millions in lost wages resulting from the closures, particularly harming rural communities.
These events showed that the concentration of processing is dangerous. California must act to increase our own meat supply chain resilience, protect workers and aid rural communities."
Hundreds still blocked from Sacramento State campus over COVID vaccine. Here's the latest
Sacramento Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA: "More than 25,000 California State University, Sacramento students have submitted documentation they have received a COVID-19 vaccine, school officials announced a day after several hundred students were barred from campus for failing to meet the vaccination deadline.
Through Wednesday, 25,488 Sacramento State students, or 81% of the 31,500 enrolled this fall, had submitted their COVID-19 vaccination proof, according to a news release. Of the number of students taking in-person classes this fall, 89% have met the vaccine requirement.
Campus officials said 1,070, or 3% of students enrolled this fall, have submitted a religious exemption; 2,531 (8%) have pledged not to enter campus; and 205 (.06%) have submitted a medical exemption. Students who declare exemptions are required to undergo twice-weekly COVID-19 testing, according to the news release."
