Newsom recall election tests the California dream'
LA Times, THOMAS CURWEN: "California has always been on a fast track to the future. Let other Western states slowly come into focus, the 31st arrived fully formed on the merits of gold and the thousands of immigrants who pursued it.
Their dream was simple, difficult and commonly shared. They wanted to discover the happiness that economic security affords. Some succeeded; many more did not. But the lessons of that engagement have endured.
When 1.6 million voters signed a petition to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, they signaled their indebtedness not just to century-old political reforms but also to a spirit of restless reinvention that took root 170 years ago."
POLL: Voters back recall provision in state law, but reforms needed
Capitol Weekly, MARK DICAMILLO: "With tomorrow’s recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom looming in the background, Californians in the latest Berkeley IGS Poll were asked their opinions about continuing to have the right to recall state elected officials like the governor as part of the state constitution. The survey also obtained reactions to five possible reform proposals.
By a resounding three-to-one margin (75% to 24%) voters describe the recall provision as a good thing. This view is held by majorities of all political stripes, although Democrats and liberals express somewhat greater reticence, with greater than one in three viewing it as a bad thing.
Yet, the poll also shows support for several reforms to the way the recall process works. Receiving the broadest support is one that calls for changing the rules governing replacement elections so that if no candidate receives a majority of the vote, and the officeholder is voted out of office, a runoff election should be held between the top two vote getters. This reform is favored 69% to 21% among all voters, including 75% of Democrats, 64% of No Party Preference voters and 41% of Republicans. "
Biden urges voters to reject 'Trump clone' in recall
Sacramento Bee, FRANCESCA CHAMBERS/ALEX ROARTY: "President Joe Biden on Monday urged Californians to reject the political forces that swept Donald Trump to power and vote to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office on the eve of the recall election.
“You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor, or you’ll get Donald Trump,” Biden said at a campaign rally in Long Beach. He cast the leading Republican in the race — conservative talk show host Larry Elder — as a Trump acolyte and said, “The choice should be absolutely clear.”
Biden’s remarks in support of Newsom on the eve of the Tuesday election was part of a broader effort by Democrats to prevail over a brand of politics they argue is destructive to democracy and dangerous to public health amid the coronavirus pandemic."
What to expect on election night
Sacramento Bee, LARA KORTE: "After more than a year of debate, protests and lawsuits, the election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom is here.
Despite the anticipation, it’s possible Californians will not know the outcome of the race before the day is through.
“Be prepared to wait,” said Stephen Ohlemacher, the election decision editor for the Associated Press, which has counted the vote in every U.S. election since 1848."
Fires burning in Sequoia National Park threaten world's largest trees
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "A pair of wildfires burning in Sequoia National Park were getting dangerously close to California’s famed Giant Forest on Monday, prompting concern about the fate of the world’s largest trees.
Park officials said that the lightning-caused KNP Complex fires, which totaled just over 1,000 acres but had a huge potential for growth because of their remote locations in dry terrain, had been elevated to one of the state’s highest firefighting priorities.
An increasing numbers of hand crews, supported by aircraft, were working to slow the run of the Colony Fire, near the park’s Crystal Cave Road, toward Giant Forest, which was 3 miles to the east. The Paradise Fire to the south, meanwhile, was exploding in all directions, and though farther from the coveted giant sequoia stands, posed a similar threat."
Biden urges Congress to address climate change after touring Cal ifornia wildfires
SacBee, LARA KORTE/DALE KASLER: "Mixing policy with politics on his first California visit since taking office, President Joe Biden flew to Sacramento on Monday for a tour of wildfire-ravaged El Dorado County before heading south to campaign with Gov. Gavin Newsom against the gubernatorial recall election.
A day after declaring the Caldor Fire a major disaster — setting the stage for federal aid — Biden stepped off Air Force One in the blazing afternoon sun in his aviator sunglasses at Mather Airport, where Newsom greeted him.
After a quick briefing at the nearby California Office of Emergency Services command center, Biden and Newsom boarded a Marine aircraft for a tour of damage wrought by the Caldor Fire. The fire has chewed through 219,267 acres in the Eldorado National Forest, destroyed more than 1,000 buildings and spilled dangerously into the Lake Tahoe Basin."
Dixie Fire may top 1 million acres, become largest in California history
The Chronicle, STAFF: "The Dixie Fire, which began in the Feather River Canyon on July 14, has spread wildly across Northern California and was 75% contained as of Sept. 13. It may pass the August Complex of 2020 as the largest wildfire in state history.
No fire on record had burned more than 500,000 acres before 2020. Now, in back to back years, California could have fires that consume more than 1 million acres each. For comparison, that's a larger area than the land mass of 80 countries, according to WorldAtlas. It's more than an entire U.S. state and a popular national park. Here are how some well-known landmarks compare in size to 1 million acres:
Santa Clara County -- At 834,560 acres, it would take 1.2 of the Bay Area's second-largest county in terms of total land to cover 1 million acres."
California fires are burning at higher elevations than ever, creating new dangers
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "Just hours before the Caldor fire threatened to level the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, the massive blaze performed a staggering feat: burning from one side of the Sierra to the other.
It seared through crests and valleys, over foothills and ridges — and also at elevations of 8,000 feet or higher.
Ash and smoke rained down on the Tahoe basin and sent thousands fleeing from its soot-darkened shores as the fire skirted a towering granite ridge many believed would be a buffer from the flames. But the fire kept climbing higher, jumping from tree to tree and spewing wind-whipped embers that landed, in some cases, more than a mile away."
Can California avoid another COVID-19 surge? Britain offers a sober warning
LA Times, RONG-GONG LIN II/LUKE MONEY: "California’s overall pandemic trends appear to be improving, led especially by declining hospitalizations in Southern California and the Bay Area, although hospitals in the Central Valley and the rural north remain under terrible strain.
But as some health officials have been warning, the improvements are not guaranteed to last.
In late July, Britain celebrated what seemed to be a recovery from its own Delta surge, an improvement that came about six weeks before California began having its drop in cases. But cases rose again in the U.K."
Stem cell 'magical miracles' possible -- but at a hefty price
Capitol Weekly, DAVID JENSEN: "The folks in Orange Cove in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley care about the cost of health care. It is part of their struggle each day as they try to live on $27,000 a year, the lowest median household income of any town in the Golden State.
Over in Oakland at the headquarters of the $12 billion state stem cell agency, the folks there are also worried about the cost of health care, particularly cell and gene therapies that may well cost upwards of $2 million.
Some of those treatments could be an “almost magical miracle” for seriously ill residents of Orange Cove as well others around the world. But only if they can afford them, a top official of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) once said."
ACLU sues Bay Area school district over 'separate, unequal and illegal' special education program
EdSource, CAROLYN JONES: "Outcomes for disabled students — especially those who are Black or English learners — in one Bay Area school district are so poor that the district is essentially denying the students their right to an education, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
Pittsburg Unified in the East Bay disproportionately placed Black students and English learners in special education classrooms, did not provide them the services they need, and was more likely to suspend or expel those students, according to the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
The suit, filed in Contra Costa County Superior Court, names the district, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the State Board of Education, the California Department of Education and the state of California as defendants."
Legislature reaffirms quarantined students must be in independent study to be funded
EdSource JOHN FENSTERWALD: "Before heading home for the year Friday, state lawmakers adopted a measure intended to make it easier for districts to educate students during a Covid quarantine, along with a way for districts to get funding if they can prove they tried but failed to find the staff needed to meet their obligation.
However, the infection rate of the delta virus in coming weeks and negotiations with teachers, more than statutory changes, will ultimately determine whether school districts will be able to teach both students in the classroom and those forced to learn at home.
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“We’re hopeful, and superintendents are working hard to make that happen,” but it’s premature to predict they’ll be able to,” said Michael Hulsizer, chief deputy for governmental affairs for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. “It’s difficult, and the teacher shortage is real.”"
Data shows eviction notices are rising in San Francisco. Particulary for being a 'nuisance'
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: "San Francisco’s eviction moratorium hasn’t prevented landlords from filing over a thousand eviction notices in the city since the pandemic began, according to a Chronicle analysis.
We examined data on eviction notices filed with the San Francisco Rent Board from the beginning of the pandemic onward, comparing recent trends with pre-pandemic evictions. The data, which covers roughly three-quarters of rental units in the city covered by rent control, extends through July 2021.
While eviction notices have decreased significantly since before the pandemic began, the data show that about 1,080 notices were filed with the Rent Board from March 2020 through July 2021. Additionally, monthly eviction notices have been creeping back up from their low in April 2020. (The data does not include most notices related to nonpayment of rent, which the city doesn’t require landlords to file with the Rent Board.)"
Family of man killed by Sacramento PD at 2020 boxing event files lawsuit against city
Sacramento Bee, THERESA CLIFT: "The family of a man fatally shot by Sacramento police last year has filed a lawsuit against the city.
The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court, claims Augustine Morales, 39, did not fire any gunshots before police fatally shot him outside a boxing event in November 2020.
The plaintiffs are Morales’ two children, ages 10 and less than a year, his father Joseph Morales and his longtime partner Wendy Grijalva. The lawsuit names the city and Sacramento Police Sgt. Jeremiah Jarvis as defendants."
