Feinstein's husband named in UC admissions scandal, says he wrote recommendation letters for connected applicants 'a bunch of times'
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband finds himself in the middle of the latest University of California admissions scandal, accused in a state audit of improperly using his clout to help an applicant get into the elite public system. But Richard Blum, a UC regent, told The Chronicle he’s done nothing wrong and has been writing letters on behalf of many friends and family for years.
“I did it a bunch of times,” Blum said, adding that he has never considered it a problem to write recommendation letters directly to chancellors and bypassing the traditional admissions process. However, a policy prohibiting such influence has been in place throughout Blum’s 18-year tenure on the Board of Regents.
Blum’s name emerged Thursday after California’s independent auditor released a scathing report showing that UC Berkeley improperly admitted at least 55 underqualified, often wealthy, students based on insider connections over a six-year period."
About 21K NorCal customers may lose power this weekend
Sac Bee's ROSALIO AHUMADA: "About 21,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers in portions of Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties could lose their electricity this weekend in another round of the utility’s public safety power shutoffs.
PG&E Corp. on Thursday afternoon notified customers of the potential electricity shutdown, which could begin as early as Saturday evening as weather pattern develops bringing hot and dry conditions, along with high wind gusts to the region.
Those dangerous conditions produce an an increased risk for damage to the electric system that could ignite fires fueled by dry vegetation, PG&E officials said in a news release Thursday evening. The high fire risk conditions are expected to continue from Saturday evening through Sunday evening and subside Monday morning."
READ MORE related to Blackouts/Power: PG&E may cut power to parks of Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties this weekend due to high fire danger -- The Chronicle's LAUREN HERNANDEZ
'Triple whammy' of smoke, heat, smog to spoil Bay Area weekend air quality
The Chronicle's NORA MISHANEC: "After a stretch of blissfully clear days, air quality in the Bay Area is expected to deteriorate in the days ahead, meteorologists said Thursday.
The “triple whammy” of wildfire smoke, high temperatures and smog could cloud the skies this weekend, especially Sunday and Monday, said Kristine Roselius, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Weather forecasts predicted sweltering heat and powerful winds — conditions that bring a heightened risk of fire in the North Bay and East Bay hills and the interior valleys of the East Bay. The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for those areas beginning Saturday that will last through 8 a.m. Monday."
Anti-vaxxer group aided effort to overturn COVID order in county where health officer quit
Sac Bee's HANNAH WILEY: "As the Placer County Board of Supervisors was meeting Sept. 8 to discuss rescinding its emergency COVID-19 order, a California anti-vaccine group that’s promoted inaccurate coronavirus information online was rallying their followers – some from outside the county – to call in support for the effort.
The string of callers the Freedom Angels recruited helped convince the board to downgrade COVID-19’s status as a public health emergency in Placer County, a decision that prompted the local health officer to resign.
The coalition, which has traveled up and down the state for anti-coronavirus rallies, also had an ally on the board: District 4 Supervisor Kirk Uhler."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: Mayor Breed commits $28.5M in coronavirus aid to SF Latinos -- The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ
Tuesday's presidential debate will test Trump's assertions about Biden's mental state
LA Times's NICHOLAS GOLDBERG: "President Trump’s attacks on Joe Biden’s mental state are cruel, unsubstantiated and detestable.
But they’re also effective. With the president pounding the dementia message into voters’ heads steadily for months, it’s no surprise that many Democrats and independents are now secretly worried about what will happen when the two presidential candidates finally meet in person at Tuesday’s debate in Cleveland.
Perhaps the former vice president really has been in a decline! Maybe he has been hiding in his basement!"
Biden is slightly healthier, study says, but both presidential candidates may be 'super-agers'
LA Times's JAMES RAINEY: "The presidential candidates and their supporters will likely keep belittling the other guy as a doddering old fool, but a group of geriatric experts say in a new paper that both President Trump and challenger Joe Biden appear to have the physical and cognitive tools to make it through four years in the White House.
In fact, the two candidates’ relative good health and other advantages — parental longevity, access to top-notch healthcare and abstinence from smoking and drinking — suggest both men are likely to become long-living “super-agers,” who thrive well into their 80s, or beyond, according to a draft report written by three medical doctors and four researchers with expertise in public health, survival analysis and statistics.
Three of the authors of the paper — Stuart Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Dr. Bradley Willcox, director of research in the Department of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Hawaii’s medical school; and UCLA Professor Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, an authority on the demographics of aging — wrote previously about how presidents tend to outlive average Americans."
Facial recognition tech used to build SFPD gun case, despite city ban
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "San Francisco police investigators may have circumvented the city’s ban on facial recognition technology by building a gun case, in part, on facial recognition software used by another law enforcement agency, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Chronicle.
The revelation has raised serious questions among city officials about whether the Police Department bypassed a city law intended to curb the use of certain surveillance technologies by law enforcement and most other city agencies.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin said he would consider dismissing the case if police can’t prove they could have identified the suspect through means other than facial recognition."
We're leaving Q street. The Bee will return to a new Sacramento home when it's safe
Sac Bee's LAUREN GUSTUS:"We’re going to leave 2100 Q St.
By this time next year, we will have said goodbye to stained carpets and an escalator that works on Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon. To our sturdy, reliable presses and halls filled with Pulitzer Prizes and the midtown Sacramento newsroom, where journalists pulled countless all-nighters for elections and major breaking news.
In recent years, the sprawling campus was equal parts museum and 24-hour news operation. And as COVID-19 has made working remotely the default for employees who are fortunate enough to do so, we, too, are adapting."
California schools, agencies to receive bulk of $116M settlement over wireless charges
Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "Verizon and AT&T agreed Thursday to pay $116 million to settle a lawsuit over whistleblower claims that the wireless providers overcharged California state and local governments for years.
The lawsuit alleged the two carriers, along with Sprint and T-Mobile, violated contracts in which the carriers had promised to optimize rate plans to make sure public agencies were getting the best prices among the companies’ shifting offerings, according to a news release from the law firms representing the whistleblower and the public agencies.
“To seal a multibillion-dollar deal, the carriers promised to help public agencies find the most efficient rate plans and save taxpayer dollars,” Anne Hayes Hartman, an attorney from San Francisco-based firm Constantine Cannon, said in a news release. “But when the time came to deliver on those promises, the carriers instead chose to pad their bottom lines."
SF Muni halted fare inspections during the pandemic. But evaders will face fines again soon
The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH: "Muni inspectors will return with a new uniform and softer approach before they start to issue citations to fare evaders again by the end of the year, the transit agency said this week. During the six months of the pandemic, fare inspectors took on disaster service worker duties as the number of riders plummeted.
Now, in the middle of a ballooning fiscal crisis, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority needs the money. Fares provide approximately 20% of the transit agency’s revenue. This year, the agency hemorrhaged $200 million in revenue and is projected to lose $300 million in the next two fiscal years.
Inspectors will now also remind riders to wear masks and physically distance. Enforcing mask wearing, currently the role of ambassadors at stops, has caused tension and even violence between passengers and operators. This summer, riders beat a bus driver with a bat who asked them to wear masks."
Breonna Taylor protests: Motorists slow traffic on 3 Bay Area bridges
The Chronicle's MICHAEL WILLIAMS/MALLORY MOENCH: "Motorists protesting a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to charge any officer directly in the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., temporarily slowed traffic on three major Bay Area bridges Thursday.
Protesters took to Instagram to encourage people to create gridlock during the afternoon commute on the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge.
“Pick a bridge and drive slow!” said a flyer advertising the demonstrations. “#Gridlock."
READ MORE related to Police, Prisons, Protests & Public Safety: Vehicle plows through Breonna Taylor protesters in Hollywood, hitting at least one person -- LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH/JAMES QUEALLY; Video shows OC sheriff's deputies fatally shooting Black man, sparking protests -- LA Times's RICHARD WINTON
Will Uber, Lyft drivers get paid less than minimum wage under Prop. 22?
Sac Bee's JEONG PARK: "Proposition 22 proposes that gig drivers for companies such as Uber, Lyft and Doordash will get paid 120% of the area’s minimum wage for the time they spend picking up and driving goods or passengers, plus 30 cents a mile.
Proponents of the proposition argue under its calculation, the drivers will get paid closer to $25 an hour after expenses, much more than the state’s minimum wage. But the initiative’s opponents cite a much-published study from the UC Berkeley Labor Center, whose researchers said Proposition 22 will guarantee only $5.64 an hour.
Amid an onslaught of advertisements, Proposition 22 still has a fundamental question to answer: How much will the gig drivers get under the initiative?"
What if Trump loses but won't concede? How a constitutional crisis could play out
LA Times's EVAN HALPER/ELI STOKOLS/DAVID G SAVAGE: "As President Trump, backed by his army of attorneys, has laid groundwork to undermine an election result that does not cast him as victor, Republican lawmakers found themselves in the astonishing position Thursday of having to reassure Americans there would be a peaceful transition of power should he lose.
The Republican-controlled Senate went so far as to pass a resolution saying as much. Meanwhile, amid the furor over Trump’s latest, most brazen remarks, it became clearer just how the constitutional crisis could play out should the president be defeated and persuade his allies to join him in rejecting the vote tallies.
Such a crisis still seems unlikely; Trump’s success in such a scenario would hinge on his persuading Republican-controlled legislatures in swing states to embrace his unfounded claims of fraud. Yet voting experts worry, should the election result be close."
