Dianne Feinstein: A remembrance
Capitol Weekly, DAN MORAIN: "In 1984, Mayor Dianne Feinstein sat behind her desk in her office at San Francisco Hall, and greeted me, then a young L.A. Times reporter writing a profile of her city as a run-up to the Democratic National Convention.
"I hope you’re prepared, I’m very busy," Feinstein told me.
No hello. No nice-to-meet you. No vapid pleasantries then, or ever. I got my 15 or 20 minutes, and the requisite quotes, and left her to get back to the business at hand."
This is how Dianne Feinstein spent her last day
The Chronicle, CLARE FONSTEIN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein spent Thursday working and meeting with a friend, before dying with her daughter Katherine by her side around 2 a.m. EST on Friday.
Public Senate proceedings and information shared by those close to her give a sense of the long-time senator’s last day."
READ MORE -- Feinstein’s legacy: Shaping policy on gun control, water and LGBTQ rights -- The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER/ERIN ALLDAY/BOB EGELKO; Here’s when members of the public can pay their respects to Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- The Chronicle, JOAQUIN PALOMINO; Sen. Feinstein’s decline and death renew discussion about term limits -- The Chronicle, KWASI GYAMFI ASIEDU
Gavin Newsom names Laphonza Butler to fill U.S. Senate seat
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG, JOE GAROFOLI: "Laphonza Butler will replace Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office confirmed Sunday night.
Butler serves as president of Emily’s List, which works to elect women to political office. She will be the third Black woman to ever serve in the Senate. Politico was first to report Newsom would appoint Butler."
READ MORE -- Newsom taps Laphonza Butler for Feinstein’s Senate seat -- LA Times, LAUREL ROSENHALL/SEEMA MEHTA; Newsom’s pick to replace Feinstein could run in the 2024 Senate election -- LA Times, LAUREL ROSENHALL
Trump to California Republicans: ‘No way we lose this state in a real election’
CALMatters, SAMEEA KAMAL: "Donald Trump railed against mail-in ballots and repeated falsehoods about a rigged 2020 presidential election in his speech to California Republicans today.
“No way we lose this state in a real election,” said the former president, who lost California to President Biden in 2020 by a 63% to 34% margin."
GOP presidential candidates are bashing California, and Republicans here love it
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES, FAITH E. PINHO: "On Friday, Leonard Bernal stood beside a friend amid a sea of MAGA paraphernalia and was absolutely buzzing.
Former President Trump had just wrapped up a fiery speech to 1,500 paying attendees at the California Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim, where he spent the better part of 90 minutes trashing the Golden State, its politicians and its policies."
Katherine Miller: Guiding Chefs – or Anyone – to Advocacy (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "It wasn’t long ago that the idea of chefs moonlighting as political advocates – and finding a willing audience of elected officials – might have seemed ludicrous. Now, celebrity chefs and a fascination with food culture has changed all that. Many chefs are dedicated activists for causes like hunger relief efforts, supporting local farmers, fighting food waste, confronting racism and sexism in the industry, and more. And, politicians listen.
Katherine Miller has a background in organizing activists throughout the world: she trained thousands of community activists how to work toward change in business practices, social systems, and public policy. Training programs she developed and led are in use around the world including China, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Mali, and Nigeria. When she was first approached about helping chefs find their political voice she scoffed, but seeing them in action made her a believer. Inspired by activist chefs like Sacramento’s own Patrick Mulvaney, she developed a series of impact-focused programs for the James Beard Foundation, served as the founding executive director for the Chef Action Network, and developed the Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change."
California heat wave: Hottest weather of year expected in S.F. soon
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Weather whiplash has arrived in California, and the wild ride is just beginning.
After a low-pressure system produced rain showers and high-elevation snow across the Golden State over the weekend, hot weather is on the horizon."
After 30 years in California prison, he starts new life at UC Irvine
EdSource, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES: "Patrick Acuña is starting his final year as a social ecology major at one of California’s most prestigious universities. It’s in sharp contrast to his nearly 30 years inside state prisons on a life without parole sentence.
In the year since his release, Acuña transitioned between two historically dichotomous institutions: the prison he believed he would die in and University of California, Irvine brimming with opportunities for a man who completed high school while in juvenile hall decades ago."
Razor wire and soldiers fail to deter migrants: ‘They say it’s easier to get in with kids’
LA Times, PATRICK J. MCDONNELL, HAMED ALEAZIZ: "They waded across the Rio Grande holding hands to form a human chain as frustrated Texas National Guard members shouted warnings in Spanish from behind stacked-up coils of razor wire.
“Go back! You’re breaking the law!”"
Labor leaders despair but don’t give up on unemployment for strikers after Gavin Newsom veto
CALMatters, DENISE AMOS/FELICIA MELLO: "Supporters who celebrated as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a fast food bill Thursday bemoaned his decisions Saturday night when he announced he had vetoed two other high-profile labor bills.
Newsom rejected Senate Bill 799, which would have paid striking workers California unemployment benefits after two weeks, and SB 686, which would have extended workplace safety protections to domestic workers, such as housekeepers and nannies."
READ MORE -- Newsom vetoes bill to give striking workers unemployment benefits -- BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA MIOLENE
This California city was started from scratch 20 years ago. Here’s how it turned out
The Chronicle, JOHN KING: "Most Bay Area residents only know Mountain House by what they glimpse when descending Altamont Pass into the San Joaquin Valley: row after row of close-packed houses stretching north from Interstate 205.
They haven’t visited the large orderly neighborhoods with blocks of faux-historic houses clustered around community parks and elementary schools, or the old-fashioned town hall and library next to, what else, Central Community Park. They almost certainly don’t recall the rhetoric when Mountain House was conceived decades ago — assurances that this would blossom as a self-contained place with housing and jobs in holistic harmony."
‘Mood is dark’: 80% of Bay Area voters see state of big three downtowns as serious problem, poll finds
BANG*Mercury News, JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "Anthony Estrada hasn’t been to downtown San Francisco since he grabbed a beer after the St. Patrick’s Day parade and “a guy walks up and drops his pants” and, well, we don’t need to tell you what happened next. “It’s really not worth going there anymore.”
Elle Dunn used to enjoy Oakland’s great restaurants and entertainment, but now considers its downtown “one of the scariest places on Earth.”"
Home buyers are backing out of deals. But in the Bay Area, data shows different trend
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "When a home seller accepts an offer, it’s typically just a matter of time until money and property change hands. But in a growing share of cases, deals are falling through.
Except in the Bay Area."
Lawyer in homeless lawsuit demands to depose Sacramento mayor and city attorney
Sacramento Bee, SAM STANTON: "A lawyer suing the city of Sacramento over its handing of the homeless crisis is demanding that the city attorney recuse herself from the case because she is a “material witness,” and is seeking to depose both her and Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
Ognian Gavrilov, who sued the city Sept. 19 along with Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, sent a demand letter Friday to City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood and wrote that her plan to represent the city in both lawsuits is “alarming and outrageous.”"
A retired federal judge takes a stroll through Skid Row to prepare for his new assignment
LA Times, DOUG SMITH: "The walking tour was part tutorial and part tryout — one federal judge passing on to another his knowledge of Skid Row while testing his colleague’s tolerance for its sights and sounds and the daily struggles of its hard-pressed inhabitants.
The day after signing off on a historic settlement that requires Los Angeles County to provide 3,000 new mental-health and substance-use treatment beds and commit hundreds of millions of dollars in services for homeless housing, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter staged a hands-on test of the fellow judge nominated as monitor to ensure those terms are met."
Rep. Matt Gaetz is threatening to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Here’s how that could happen.
AP: "“How would you be different as speaker, compared to Mr. Boehner?” a reporter asked then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in September 2015 as the California Republican pursued, and eventually gave up, his first attempt at the speakership.
McCarthy laughed while standing next to outgoing Speaker John Boehner — who had just stepped down after facing a threat of removal — and joked that he was from a different generation and wouldn’t be as tan."
