County Fire 'growing a lot faster' than past blazes, spreads glow and ash over Bay Area
The Chronicle's LIZZIE JOHNSON/SARAH RAVANI: "The smoke spewing from the peaks and gullies of the hillsides surrounding the tiny town of Guinda hasn’t completely disrupted the lives of the community’s 254 residents, but every so often the chop-chop-chop of an aircraft pierces the bucolic quiet. Residents of the rural enclave are apparently so accustomed to wildfires that state fire officials had to prematurely close the two evacuation centers."
"Nobody came for the free bottled water and granola bars. Nobody even walked through the doors."
"Not sure why,” said Daniel Sanchez, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire."
Meet the new entity in charge of California's Water Tunnels Project
Water Deeply's MATT WEISER: "CALIFORNIA IS ABOUT to embark on one of the biggest public works projects not just in its own state history, but in any state’s history. The $17 billion WaterFixtunnel project was approved by the state Department of Water Resources in June 2017 after a decade of study, and now moves into the nitty gritty of construction planning."
"And if that weren’t enough, it now appears construction will be led by an entity entirely new to such a massive water project. The local water agencies that stand to benefit from the tunnels have formed a joint powers authority (JPA) to oversee construction, rather than let the Department of Water Resources handle that, as it has historically."
"Local governments have formed hundreds of JPAs for various municipal purposes. But this is a new undertaking for a massive state-owned water project."
Congressman denied entry to California detention facility for children under age 14
McClatchy DC's KATE IRBY: "The cry of a child could be heard just inside the nondescript, brown detention facility in Pleasant Hill, California, a San Francisco suburb, and Rep. Jeff Denham wanted to see for himself what was inside."
"He knocked on the door and waited about five minutes, alternatively silent, knocking some more and asking the security guard if employees inside were aware he was out there. The guard eventually told him the employees inside had been instructed to not answer the door, not to even speak to him."
"He'd been trying for more than a week to tour the facility. Monday, he stood frustrated outside the building strung with Christmas lights. Uneven hopscotch and tic-tack-toe boards were drawn in chalk in the parking lot, and a church and Christian elementary school sat right next to it. Notices that the building was surrounded by security cameras were posted on multiple walls outside."
READ MORE related to Zero Tolerance/Immigration and Asylum Crises: 'Occupy' movement comes to San Francisco office of ICE -- The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN
White House launches extraordinary Twitter attack on Kamala Harris
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Sen. Kamala Harris and the Trump administration tangled Monday in a Twitter war prompted by her recent call for rethinking the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency “from the ground up,” as the official White House account launched extraordinary attacks on the first-term California senator and a Democratic colleague."
"@SenKamalaHarris, why are you supporting the animals of MS-13? You must not know what ICE really does,” read an unsigned tweet from the White House account."
"Here is a link to help you out,” the tweet continued, directing readers to an ICE press release announcing that the agency recently deported a Salvadoran national affiliated with the MS-13 gang."
SF District Six candidate Sonja Trauss misses matching-funds deadline
The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI: "District Six supervisor candidate Sonja Trauss is blaming her accountants for an error that is keeping her from participating in San Francisco’s public financing program, which would have funneled up to $155,000 into her campaign."
"This program helps eligible candidates offset campaign costs by matching their contributions up to a certain amount. LeAnn Pelham, executive director of the Ethics Commission, notified Trauss last month that she was ineligible for the program because she did not file her intent to participate in time."
"Trauss will appeal this decision at the July 20 Ethics Commission meeting."
SCOTUS decision could hit unions hard
CALmatters' DAN WALTERS: "It may have been the least surprising U.S. Supreme Court decision in history."
"Ruling on a case from Illinois, the court, by a 5-4 vote, declared last week that compelling non-members of public employee unions to pay dues violates their free speech rights."
"For years, the conservative majority had indicated that it wanted to overturn a previous decision that allowed unions to collect so-called “agency fees” from non-members in states, such as California, that sanctioned the practice."
Ghost Ship defendants taking pleas, could get 6 and 9 years
The Chronicle's KIMBERLY VEKLEROV: "Two men accused of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of 36 people in Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse fire are poised to accept plea deals with prosecutors Tuesday of six and nine years in jail, minus time served."
"The artist collective’s primary tenant, Derick Almena, 48, would take the longer of the two sentences. He and his co-defendant, Max Harris, 28, the collective’s creative director, would not have to serve the full terms because they would each get credit for the year they have spent in jail. They were arrested six months after the Dec. 2, 2016, conflagration."
"Prosecutor David Lim outlined the terms of the plea bargain in an email to families of victims, according to David Gregory, who received the note and whose 20-year-old daughter, Michela Gregory, was among the victims. Two sources familiar with the case confirmed the details."
UC Berkeley settles conservative students' free-speech lawsuit
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "UC Berkeley will make it easier for campus clubs of all kinds to operate on campus under a legal settlement with conservative students announced Monday."
"The campus chapter of a national conservative group, Young Americans for Liberty, had accused UC Berkeley of violating its members’ free-speech rights and sued the University of California in federal court in December."
"The case arose after the group applied for formal recognition on campus, which would grant it a portion of campus fees and the right to sponsor guest speakers. Campus officials told Young Americans for Liberty that they would first have to meet with another group, Cal Libertarians, to discuss a possible merger because the two had similar ideological viewpoints."
Lawyer in shipyard suit moves the action from Bayview to Financial District
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "A bit of lunchtime street theater came to the Financial District on Monday as attorneys who have filed a lawsuit against the firm accused of failing to clean up the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, along with a few of their clients, tried unsuccessfully to present their lawsuit to Tetra Tech and its spokesperson."
"Attorney Charles Bonner, who filed suit May 1 in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of 38,484 Bayview-Hunters Point residents, showed up outside the Market Street offices of Tetra Tech, along with about 20 supporters waving signs, and a cluster of photographers and reporters."
"After a brief rally, Bonner and much of the crowd entered the lobby, asked the person at the front desk to call someone from Tetra Tech, and then, after she said no one was in the office, proceeded to the elevators."
ATF records show how 6 NorCal gun shops ran afoul of the law
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "The owner of High Bridge Arms didn’t publicly offer a reason for shuttering San Francisco’s last gun shop in late 2015, but the move was widely viewed as a symbol of political defeat."
"In one of the most liberal cities in the country, and with increasingly burdensome state gun laws, the business of selling firearms had apparently become too exhausting."
"At the time, then-Supervisor Mark Farrell had just proposed an ordinance that would add more oversight on gun and ammunition sales."
READ MORE related to Gun Violence Pandemic: OP-ED: A gun in the editor's top drawer -- The Chronicle's CHRISTINE LAVIN
Bottled water tab at a California prison has hit $46,000 a month
Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "California's corrections department is spending $46,000 a month to buy bottled water for inmates and staff at a prison in Tracy where it opened a state-of-the-art water treatment plant eight years ago."
"Deuel Vocational Institution draws water from brackish wells on its grounds and runs it through a two-step treatment process before providing it to 2,300 inmates and 1,000 employees for drinking or for showers."
"News reports on the 2010 unveiling of a $32 million water treatment plant characterized the department as providing the cleanest, best water in the state to prison inmates."
READ MORE related to Prisons & Public Safety: A historic election shock gives a longshot the chance to topple LA County Sheriff Jim McDonnell -- LA Times's MAYA LAU Yelp does not have to remove users' posts, California Supreme Court says
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "Yelp doesn’t have to take down a posting that a judge has found to be libelous — an angry client’s denunciation of a San Francisco lawyer and her firm — because federal law shields internet service providers from liability for statements posted by others, a divided California Supreme Court ruled Monday."
"By leaving Yelp free to decide when to leave third-party statements on its website and when to remove them, the court protects a law “intended to promote online discourse and industry self-regulation,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in the lead opinion of a 4-3 decision."
"The San Francisco online review company also drew support from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other free-speech advocates, who argued that the courts should generally refrain from requiring internet providers to screen and remove allegedly offensive content. But opponents said a hands-off approach would often leave victims of online defamation without a remedy and open the door to widespread abuse."
Trump interviews with possible Supreme Court nominees begin
AP's CATHERINE LUCEY/KEN THOMAS: "President Donald Trump has interviewed four prospective Supreme Court justices and had plans to meet with a few more as his White House aggressively mobilizes to select a replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy."
"Eager to build suspense, Trump wouldn't divulge whom he's talking to in advance of his big announcement, set for July 9. But he promised that "they are outstanding people. They are really incredible people in so many different ways, academically and in every other way. I had a very, very interesting morning."
"Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump met with four people for 45 minutes each Monday and will continue meetings through the rest of the week."
READ MORE related to POTUS45/KremlinGate: Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a potential SCOTUS nominee, has defended overturning precedents -- LA Times's DAVID G SAVAGE
Pompeo to travel to North Korea seeking answers about its nuclear plans
Bloomberg: "Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will travel to North Korea on Thursday to continue talks with Kim Jong Un’s government, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday."
"Pompeo’s visit follows the historic summit between Kim and President Trump in Singapore in June. The secretary of State, who will be making his third trip to North Korea, will seek answers about Kim’s intentions after new intelligence suggested that his country has continued to ramp up its nuclear capabilities."
"The trip represents the highest-level exchange between the two sides since Trump and Kim met and agreed to work toward “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” without establishing a framework or guideposts for achieving that goal. Trump administration officials have deflected criticism of the agreement, describing it as the first step in a negotiated process to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons."
