With 42 confirmed fatalities, Camp Fire is deadliest in California history.
Sacramento Bee's RYAN SABALOW/ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS/SAM STANTON/MOLLY SULLIVAN: "The death toll from the Camp Fire reached 42 Monday, making the Northern California blaze the deadliest fire in state history."
"The number of fatalities far outstrips the 1933 Griffith Park Fire that killed 29 people in Los Angeles. With hundreds still reported missing in Butte County, the total is expected to grow."
"Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said 13 more victims were found Monday, 10 in the Paradise area and three in Concow. Honea said eight of the victims were found inside homes, the others outside."
READ MORE related to California Burning: Investors flee as PG&E faces scrutiny over cause of Camp Fire -- Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER; Woolsey fire containment reaches 30 percent -- winds still feared as federal aid is approved -- SCNG's SEAN EMERY/JOSH CAIN/DAVID ROSENFELD/BEATRIZ E. VALENZUELA; California's recent blazes aren't the result of overgrown forests, as Trump suggests -- Union-Tribune's JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH; Grim calculus: Coroners search for those killed in wildfire -- AP's GILLIAN FLACCUS; Track key details of the California wildfires -- LA Times's STAFF; Camp Fire victim: PG&E told her it needed to fix sparking transmission line day before deadly blaze -- BANG's MATTHIAS GAFNI; Community spirit, perseverance inside and outside of Thousand Oaks -- Daily Californian's THAO NGUYEN
Next up, Prop 13?
Capitol Weekly's LISA RENNER: "Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt measure passed in 1978, is now under attack."
"Schools and Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders, has qualified an initiative for the Nov. 2020 ballot that would lift caps on property taxes for commercial and industrial properties."
"The coalition says that if the initiative is approved, it will reclaim more than $11 billion a year for K-12 schools, community college, cities, counties and special districts that support everything from parks to libraries."
Cost of building Southland section of bullet train could jump by $11 billion, documents show
LA Times's RALPH VARTABEDIAN: "The cost of constructing the Southern California section of the state bullet train could jump by as much as $11 billion over estimates released earlier this year, though rail authority officials caution that their new numbers assume a more expansive design than is likely to be built."
"The new numbers cover the cost of building three segments from Palmdale to Anaheim, which include the difficult passages through the San Gabriel Mountains, urban Los Angeles and the crowded rail corridor to Anaheim."
"The Palmdale-to-Burbank section could hit $20.33 billion, up from $14.87 billion in the estimates prepared for the 2018 business plan. The construction of rail from Burbank to Los Angeles could rise to $3.55 billion from $1.25 billion. And the Los Angeles-to-Anaheim section might go as high as $4.8 billion, up from $3 billion."
California Democrats regain supermajority in Legislature
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Nearly a week after the midterm elections, the news keeps getting worse for California Republicans."
"Democrats claimed victory Monday in two state Senate races,cc giving them back the two-thirds supermajority they lost in June when Orange County Democrat Josh Newman was recalled after he voted in favor of Gov. Jerry Brown’s gas tax increase."
"Republican leads also continued to slip in a pair of hotly contested Orange County congressional races."
Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee
LA Times's JIM PUZZANGHERA: "Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks — Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank — when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee."
"The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committee’s top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last week’s elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while — including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump."
"With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for America’s consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight,” Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times."
Linda Maio leaves Berkeley City Council after more than 2 decades of service
Daily Californian's CAMRYN BELL: "After more than two decades on Berkeley City Council, this November will mark Councilmember Linda Maio’s last month as the elected official for District 1, as she leaves her seat for City Council newcomer Rashi Kesarwani."
"When Maio began her first campaign in 1991, she had not anticipated a jump into political life. At the time, Maio had been working at a housing nonprofit and as a member of the city zoning board and had contributed to community projects such as the establishment of Ohlone Park."
"Maio decided to run at the encouragement of former District 1 council member and current state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who mobilized Maio’s campaign for City Council."
Generous but useless donations flood wildfire evacuation centers. Here's what to send
Sacramento Bee's DON SWEENEY: "When evacuation centers aiding California residents fleeing the rapacious Camp Fire put out a call for donations, people responded. And responded, and responded, and responded."
"Now center coordinators are asking donors to stop sending supplies, reported The Redding Record-Searchlight."
"We have buildings full of stuff,” said Kathy Ingvoldsen at the Butte County Fairgrounds, according to the publication. “In four hours, we filled up a 5,000-square-foot building full of clothes. They’re stacked up on tables five feet high.”
He suggested exterminating Chinese immigrants. His name is on a UC Berkeley building
The Tribune's ANDREW SHEELER: "A building synonymous with the University of California Berkeley School of Law may soon be stripped of its name, more than a year after revelations that the building’s namesake was anti-Chinese and whose writings were influential in supporting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882."
"Boalt Hall, named for 19th century San Francisco attorney John Boalt, houses many of the law school’s classrooms — the building was dedicated in 1911 after Boalt’s widow made a sizable donation to the school, according to “The case for renaming Boalt Hall,” a column published by Charles Reichman, an attorney and lecturer at Berkeley Law School, in the San Francisco Chronicle in May 2017."c
"In his research, Reichman discovered Boalt’s role in promoting anti-Chinese beliefs. Boalt argued in a speech called “The Chinese Question” of “an unconquerable repulsion” of Americans to Chinese people that would prevent Chinese immigrants from ever assimilating, according to the column."
READ MORE related to Education: California teacher pension fund pulls money out of immigrant detention centers -- Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON; Thurmond takes lead over Tuck in race for California schools chief -- EdSource's LOUIS FREEDBERG; Latino students in California still lag in college success -- EdSource's LARRY GORDON
Anaheim's 'living wage' initiative is expected to pass. A business advocate calls it a 'tragic outcome'
LA Times's HUGO MARTIN: "Anaheim voters appear to have approved a ballot initiative that requires some hospitality businesses to pay workers at least $15 an hour, with 51.5% of ballots counted as of Monday cast in favor of the measure."
"The Orange County Registrar of Voters warned, however, that more than 302,000 ballots remain uncounted throughout the county, although it wasn’t known how many of those ballots were from Anaheim. The county agency gets up to 30 days from the day after the election, which would be Dec. 6, to complete the count and certify the election results."
"Supporters of Measure L said it would help thousands of workers who have been struggling to make ends meet."
Covered California pops and locks into enrollment season
California Healthline's ANA B IBARRA: "What do hip-hop dancing and health insurance have in common?"
"For one, you sure do hope that the break dancer busting backflips is covered."
"Beyond that, Covered California, the state’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, is betting that one will bring attention to the other."
READ MORE related to Health: High stakes, entrenched interests and the Trump rollback of environmental regs -- California Healthline's JULIE APPLEBY; Uncle Sam wants you to sit less and move more. Here's how you can meet the new exercise guidelines -- LA Times's MELISSA HEALY
Former police captain shot and killed by officer in northeast Fresno
Sacramento Bee's LEWIS GRISWOLD/JIM GUY: "A former Fresno police captain was fatally shot by an officer in northeast Fresno on Monday."
"Chief Jerry Dyer appeared shaken as he addressed the media and identified the victim as Marty West, who had a 32-year career in the department before retiring from the Fresno Police Department in 2007 to become the chief of police in Oakdale."
"Police received a call at 11:30 a.m. from a woman at a home near Moody and Colfax avenues who feared a man in the home with a history of recent mental health issues might try to kill himself, Dyer said."
READ MORE related to Prisons & Public Safety: Following Darell Richards shooting, Sacramento police change body camera placement -- Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT; Alameda prosecutor cites Quran as evidence to keep man jailed -- The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY/GWENDOLYN WU/ASHLEY MCBRIDE; Left in the dirt -- The Chronicle's JASON FAGONE/CYNTHIA DIZIKES
How Stan Lee changed pop culture, comic books and movies forever
SCNG's PETER LARSEN: "Comic books have always loved alternate histories, so consider a world in which Stan Lee never existed: One where he never created a single comic or character, never inspired a movie or a TV show, never signed an autograph for a fan dressed as Spider-Man at a comic convention."
"It’s a weird place, isn’t it? Not as strange as the time Marvel did a series by Neil Gaiman in which Captain America and his super friends lived in the Elizabethan Court of 1602, but definitely weirder than that time Spider-Man joined the Fantastic Four."
"Our world is definitely better for having had him here. Because Stan Lee, who died Monday at 95, as much as anyone, and more than most, changed the popular culture we love and live today."
READ MORE related to RIP Stan Lee: An illustrated tribute to Stan Lee and his career -- LA Times's SWETHA KANNAN; Three ways Stan Lee helped create the modern superhero movie -- LA Times's JOSH ROTTENBERG/RYAN FAUGHNDER
Border officials to close some northbound lanes ahead of caravan's arrival
Union-Tribune's ALEX RIGGINS: "Customs and Border Protection officials will shut down several lanes of traffic from Tijuana into San Diego beginning Tuesday morning for what the agency called the “potential safety and security risk” posed by a caravan of Central American migrants."
"Beginning 8 a.m. Tuesday, the agency will shut down three northbound lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which has about 17 total lanes, and one lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, which has about a dozen lanes."
"The closures will allow federal authorities “to install and pre-position port hardening infrastructure equipment in preparation for the migrant caravan,” the agency said in a statement."
SF attorney Herrera wants legal basis for Whitaker being attorney general
The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI: "City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he sent an “unprecedented” letter to the Department of Justice Monday questioning the legality of President Trump’s appointment of Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker."
"Whitaker served as the chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who resigned last week at President Trump’s request. At issue is that Whitaker was never confirmed by the Senate, and his appointment may not be in line with the Constitution, Herrera said."
"The appointment could also impact the four San Francisco court cases pending against Sessions, Herrera said."
