Heat waves, wildfires — and a hurricane? One of California’s weirdest weather weeks ever
LAT, HAYLEY SMITH: “Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Sept. 9. I’m Hayley Smith, a breaking news reporter, writing from Los Angeles, where it is somehow hot, dry and drizzling all at the same time.
That’s right. A week that started with a record-smashing heat wave amid an unprecedented drought is ending with multiple explosive wildfires and the incoming threat of a hurricane. Experts are saying it’s one of the state’s weirdest weather weeks in recent memory.
About that hurricane: The National Weather Service is tracking a Category 1 storm off the Baja Peninsula that forecasters say could bring heavy rain to parts of Southern California on Friday and into the weekend. Hurricane Kay, which may weaken into a tropical storm, is not expected to make direct landfall in the state but could deliver gale-force winds, strong surf and several inches of rain from San Diego to Los Angeles before shifting west. Remnants of the storm, including cloud cover and winds, could reach the Bay Area.
California’s heat wave fueling destructive fires. The worst is yet to come, officials fear
LAT, SUMMER LIN/JESSICA GARRISON: “More than a week of record-setting heat across California is fueling several destructive wildfires and worsening already critical conditions ahead of the fall fire season.
Officials were bracing for an intense fire season because of California’s drought conditions. But experts say the heat wave — likely to be the longest and hottest on record for September — is setting the stage for fires to spread much faster.
The scorching temperatures have created a “flash drying effect” by pulling out all the moisture from trees, grasses and other vegetation, according to Brent Wachter, a meteorologist at the U.S. Forest Service’s Geographic Coordination Center.”
Facing criticism, state amps up its climate change blueprint
CALMatters, NADIA LOPEZ: “Responding to concerns of Gov. Gavin Newsom and environmentalists, the California Air Resources Board has bolstered its climate roadmap with several new strategies, including offshore wind development, climate-friendly housing construction, cleaner aviation fuels and reducing miles traveled.
The changes to California’s proposed climate change scoping plan also include fast-tracking projects by 2030 to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and from the smokestacks of polluting industries. No such projects exist in California and the practices are controversial.
Unveiled in May, California’s draft scoping plan outlines an expansive list of strategies to combat climate change and fulfill a state mandate to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. The plan includes a bold commitment to eliminate 91% of fossil fuels. The strategies would cost an estimated $18 billion in 2035 and $27 billion in 2045.”
Californians get through another scorching day without rolling power outages
The Chronicle, CLAIRE HAO: “Californians once again apparently conserved enough electricity on a scorching hot day to avoid rolling power outages.
On Thursday, the state’s grid operator pushed up by one hour — to 3 p.m. — its request for electricity customers to voluntarily conserve energy primarily because of uncertainty over how renewables would perform in the afternoon and evening.
One factor contributing to that uncertainty: smoke from the 13,700-acre Mosquito Fire, already blanketing the Folsom area and moving eastward throughout the day and into the evening.”
First lawsuit filed in Mill Fire alleging lumber company knew of hazardous conditions for years
The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI: “A Weed family filed the first lawsuit Thursday stemming from the deadly Mill Fire, alleging the logging company at the center of the fire investigation ignited the blaze and ignored hazards.
The lawsuit was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court on behalf of five members of the Hammond family who lost their home on Sept. 2 after the Mill Fire raced through the small town near the Oregon border. It comes a day after Roseburg Forest Products released a lengthy statement saying it was probing whether equipment at its veneer mill’s cogeneration plant failed to adequately cool the ash from wood burning.
“Defendants were well aware of the hazards of the operations for many years,” the Hammonds claimed in the lawsuit which alleged negligence, trespassing, and private and public nuisance. “Despite the knowledge of a substantial fire risk, defendants ignored the hazards and continued to engage in dangerous practices.””
California lawmakers approved CARE Court. What comes next?
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS/JOCELYN WIENER: “In the next two years, California’s 58 counties will be tasked with setting up new court systems to address the needs of people with severe mental illness who often languish on the streets.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal swept through the state Legislature with resounding approval from Democrats and Republicans in both houses on Aug. 31 — only two of the state’s 120 legislators voted against it — and is expected to be signed into law by the governor any day. The proposal was authored by Democratic Sens. Tom Umberg of Garden Grove and Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton through Senate Bill 1338.
Originally, Newsom’s proposal — which would compel people with untreated schizophrenia and other severe mental illness into housing and treatment — had a start date of July 1, 2022. But it faced resistance from county officials who said they were unprepared to create and maintain an entire legal apparatus, much less provide the necessary services. After months of successful lobbying to slow down the timeline devised by the governor and secure more money for planning, the California State Association of Counties now says it stands ready to help implement the far-reaching proposal.”
Bass and Caruso trade insults as L.A. mayoral race turns ugly
LAT, JULIA WICK/MATT HAMILTON: “With less than eight weeks until the November election, both Los Angeles mayoral candidates are fighting fire with fire as they attack their opponent’s relationships to scandals at one of the most prominent private institutions in the city.
Rick Caruso called on Rep. Karen Bass to provide more transparency Thursday on her dealings with an indicted USC administrator who gave the congresswoman a full-tuition scholarship before pushing for favorable legislation.
The demands by Caruso came a day after The Times revealed that federal prosecutors consider the circumstances surrounding Bass’ $95,000 scholarship “critical” and “relevant” to their public corruption case against the former USC administrator, Marilyn Flynn, and former L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.”
Outsourced UC workers should be paid what they are owed (OP-ED)
Capitol Weely, KATHRYN LYBARGER: “Just weeks before COVID 19 shut down California and the entire country, the University of California’s largest labor union ratified new contracts for nearly 30,000 of UC’s frontline service and health employees.
The biggest conflict during the multi-year negotiations had been over outsourcing UC jobs to private contractors who paid their workers lower wages and few benefits. UC was, after all, a public institution funded by California taxpayers.
We argued that it shouldn’t be in the business of creating more poverty, more inequality, and a shadow workforce without a voice on the job.
Column: Has a UC Riverside researcher created the Holy Grail of drought-tolerant lawns?
LAT, GUSTAVO ARRELANO: “The cheerleader for Public Enemy No. 1 greeted me at the gates to UC Riverside’s Agricultural Experiment Station with a smile and some choice words.
“Every time there’s a serious drought, I’m in the L.A. Times,” Jim Baird said, only half-jokingly. “Why is it always a knee-jerk reaction? When it’s not a drought, I don’t hear from you guys. I don’t hear from the water agencies. Then we go through our wasteful ways. ‘Lawns, you’re the bad guys,’ everyone then says.”
The tall, skinny, loquacious Baird is the head of UC Riverside’s Turfgrass Research & Extension program, devoted to the study of growing and maintaining lawns. He’s the only such faculty member in the University of California system, which makes him the state’s Mark Twain of turf. Our LeBron of lawns. The Ira Glass … of grass.”
Amid community pressure, county blocks McFarland's plan to convert library into a police station
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: “Hearing the protests of its youngest readers, Kern County has blocked McFarland city leaders’ plan to convert its community library into a police station.
The Kern County Board of Supervisors passed a budget last week that not only ensures the small town library will stay open, but that its service will be expanded from two to five days a week.
The plan to move McFarland’s library was met with backlash in the agricultural town of 14,000, including 3,000 signatures in an online petition. Earlier this year, the City Council, the superintendent of McFarland Unified and the city parks and recreation director all sent letters to the county, which owns the library, asking that the library be turned over to the city. But its patrons, especially its youngest ones, demanded that the library stay put and that it open every day as a fun, safe place to hang out after school and in the summers.”
San Francisco city workers are making much more in overtime pay than ever. Here’s why
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: “Overtime paid to San Francisco government employees reached $367 million in the 2021-22 fiscal year, up over $100 million from the previous year and over $50 million higher than any year in the past decade.
According to compensation data from the City Controller’s Office, overtime has steadily grown since the 2012-13 fiscal year, with only a slight dip during the pandemic, which caused temporary shutdowns of some government services.
The government says this spike in overtime spending is a result of staffing shortages and the reality that paying overtime can sometimes be cheaper than hiring more full-time workers.”
S.F. D.A. Brooke Jenkins announces new policy to crack down on public drug use. Here are the details
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: “Faced with a scalding debate over how to handle open-air drug markets in downtown San Francisco and an overdose crisis that has claimed nearly 1,700 lives since the beginning of 2020, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Thursday announced a policy that will tighten penalties for users, in hope of diverting them into treatment.
Beginning immediately, her office will aggregate drug possession and paraphernalia charges for people with five or more citations, so that they can be treated as a single case.
Jenkins will send these bundled cases to the Community Justice Center, a court that emphasizes restorative justice and services for people with addiction or mental health issues, primarily focusing on the Tenderloin, South of Market, Union Square and Civic Center neighborhoods.”
Unanswered cries: Why California faces a shortage of mental health workers
CALMatters, JOCELYN WIENER: “The need for therapists, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists is greater than ever. Under relentless pressure from the pandemic and inflation, wildfires and gun violence, racism and war, Californians are crying out for help.
But that doesn’t mean they can get it.
In every corner of mental health right now, a similar story is being told. There simply aren’t enough providers.”
Judge rejects challenges to A’s plan for $12 billion waterfront ballpark in Oakland
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: “The Oakland A’s plan for a new waterfront ballpark and development project took a step forward Thursday when a judge rejected opponents’ claims that the stadium at Howard Terminal would cause serious environmental and safety hazards.
In upholding the city’s environmental review of the $12 billion project, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman also said Oakland had reasonably decided not to build a new baseball park at the current Coliseum site, home to the Athletics since the team moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968. The Coliseum also hosted the Oakland Raiders from 1966 to 1981 — when the NFL team left for Los Angeles — and again upon its return to Oakland in 1995 until 2019, when it moved to Las Vegas.
While some neighborhood groups argued that a rebuilt Coliseum site would be quicker, cheaper and better for the surrounding community, Seligman said Oakland officials had concluded that the site, surrounded by industrial users, did not have the same advantages as a port location.”
Britain mourns Queen Elizabeth II as it enters the era of King Charles III
AP, DANICA KIRKA/JILL LAWLESS/SYLVIA HUI: “Bells tolled across Britain on Friday and mourners flocked to palace gates to honor Queen Elizabeth II as the country prepared for a new age under their new monarch, King Charles III.
Elizabeth’s exceptional reign was commemorated, celebrated and debated here and around the world as Charles, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for his new role, planned to meet with Britain’s prime minister and address a nation grieving the only sovereign most people alive today had ever known.
Elizabeth died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. In London and at military sites across the United Kingdom on Friday, special guns fired 96 shots in an elaborate, 16-minute salute marking each year of her life, as part of 10 days of national mourning.
