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California Fires: Smoke levels to improve as Bay Area weather changes -- After weeks of hazy, smoky skies from fires burning around the state, air quality in the Bay Area is about to improve. Forecasters said Thursday that increasing winds blowing in from the ocean should within the next fews days clear out much of the smoke now hanging over the region. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
An L.A. County deputy faked evidence. Here's how his misconduct was kept secret in court for years -- They were at the tail end of their overnight shift when they spotted Gerald Simmons near a vacant lot in Inglewood. The two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said they saw the 43-year-old toss a plastic baggie of rock cocaine to the ground. Corina Knoll, Ben Poston and Maya Lau in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Cars soon will be unwelcome on Playa Vista's main drag. And a lot of people are happy about it -- On any given day, cars roll slowly down the main shopping street of Playa Vista, just as they do in small towns everywhere. Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Third firefighter killed while responding to Carr Fire near Redding -- A firefighter was killed while responding to the Carr Fire near Redding, officials announced Thursday. A heavy equipment operator from the Cal Fire Butte unit died in a crash on Highway 99 in Tehama County, officials said. The man is the third firefighter to be killed in the Carr Fire. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
Abcarian: Dwindling beer supplies, stalled businesses and missed county fair deadlines: California’s largest ever wildfire throws lives in limbo -- In an otherwise deserted part of Clearlake Oaks, which was under a mandatory evacuation order, Nicole Young sat on the porch of a triple-wide lakefront mobile home with a couple of other holdouts. A sweet smell wafted outside from the home. Young, 44, was baking a yellow cake. Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Salesforce Transit Center puzzle: When will the trains get to the station? -- Beneath the art-bedecked terrazzo floor of San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center is an enormous concrete box waiting to be filled. It’s an end point for bullet trains that may someday zip in from Los Angeles, and commuter Caltrain locomotives chugging up the Peninsula to the South of Market district. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
Eric Swalwell has visited Iowa 10 times in last year and a half. Is he running for president? -- Bay Area congressman Eric Swalwell spent two days last week in a Winnebago nicknamed “Sioux City Sue,” road-tripping across rural Iowa to campaign for a fellow Democrat. He’ll be back again this weekend, speaking on the soapbox at the State Fair and stopping by a corn boil in Baldwin, population 109. Casey Tolan in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Trump's Inaccurate Tweet on California Fires Now Appears to Be Actual Policy -- The Trump Administration appears to be bringing President Trump’s recent tweets about California’s wildfires and environmental laws to life. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has directed fisheries officials to “facilitate” access to water in order to aid in firefighting efforts in California. Lauren Sommer KQED -- 8/9/18
Nunes says in audio that Republicans need majority to protect Trump -- Republicans need to keep control of the House to protect President Trump from the Russia investigation, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said at a recent fundraiser, according to an audio recording released Wednesday. Sarah D. Wire in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Democrats scuttle proposed California DMV audit as complaints besiege lawmakers -- A Republican-backed proposal to audit the state Department of Motor Vehicles to investigate the reasons for its customer-service meltdown died Wednesday when three Democratic senators did not vote. Sens. Jim Beall of San Jose, Ben Allen of Santa Monica and Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens (Los Angeles County) all declined to vote during a meeting of a legislative audit committee made up of senators and Assembly members. Melody Gutierrez in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Bryan Anderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/9/18
California's candidates for governor spending much of their time campaigning for other candidates and causes -- Gavin Newsom and John Cox are preparing for a general election battle to decide who will be the state’s next governor, but much of what they plan to focus on has little to do with how either candidate would lead the state. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Walters: Brown’s being tricky about filling Supreme Court seat -- Jerry Brown has become somewhat tricky in his later years, one of the many contrasts with how he functioned during his first governorship four decades ago. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 8/9/18
Skelton: California's 'new normal' for wildfires is unacceptable -- Please spare me all the political patter about California burning being the “new normal.” It’s really getting old. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Union City's police chief learned of a disturbing assault on a Sikh man. Then he found out the alleged attacker was his son -- Union City Police Chief Darryl McAllister was mingling with residents Tuesday at National Night Out when members of the Sikh community brought a disturbing crime to his attention. About 6 a.m. a day earlier, two men had attempted to rob a 71-year-old Sikh man as he walked by a park in Manteca, about 10 miles south of Stockton. Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ Lauren Hernandez in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Deke Farrow in the Sacramento Bee$ George Kelly in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
Tenant activists turn up at San Francisco Mayor Breed’s event to demand proper credit -- What was supposed to be an ordinary news conference Wednesday highlighting the city’s investment of $5.8 million over the next two years to provide legal services to anyone facing eviction turned into a verbal tussle over who deserved credit for the project. Dominic Fracassa and Trisha Thadani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
Brock Turner loses appeal of his conviction in Stanford sexual assault case -- Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer convicted on three counts of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in 2015, lost his appeal Wednesday. Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Paul Elias Associated Press -- 8/9/18
Sacramento judge cuts $2 million from deputy shooting verdict after dead man’s father dies -- A federal judge on Wednesday denied Sacramento County’s bid for a new trial to overturn a $6.5 million jury award to the family of a man killed by a sheriff’s deputy in 2012. But the judge said he was trimming the award by $2 million because the dead man’s father died during trial and his family was not entitled to that part of the money. Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/9/18
Calbuzz: Even Trump Resisters Prefer Feinstein to de León -- Democratic State Sen. Kevin de León, 51, has one argument in his race to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 85: she’s too old. Which is not an argument he can make because it’s ageist, tacky and crass. So he disguises his case against the senior senator: “It’s time for a change,” “we need new leadership” and the kicker — “she’s too weak on President Donald Trump.” Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine CalBuzz -- 8/9/18
Fox: Legislative Committee Fails on DMV Audit -- That slow moving sloth at the DMV counter in the movie ZOOTOPIA was funny to movie goers but those who wait in a California DMV office for six, seven and even eight hours to take care of business are not laughing. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 8/9/18
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Legislature Will Not Act This Year To Modernize Labor Laws For "Gig Economy" Companies -- Businesses that rely on the “gig economy” have been urging state lawmakers to overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that limits them from classifying workers as independent contractors. But legislative leaders declared that effort dead on Wednesday. Ben Adler Capital Public Radio -- 8/9/18
Tesla directors say they’ve talked with Elon Musk about company going private -- When Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk told the world on Tuesday that he was considering taking the electric carmaker private, he surprised pretty much everyone. Everyone, that is, except Tesla’s board of directors. Rex Crum in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
Health care jobs boom in Sacramento region: Here are the top eight employers -- The Sacramento health care sector has grown by 23 percent in the last four years, the highest growth rate of any economic sector except construction, according to numbers from the state Employment Development Department. Caitlin Chen in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/9/18
Domed Century 21 theater structure would be preserved in big San Jose office campus proposal -- A new plan has emerged that would preserve an iconic domed theater in San Jose and build a large technology office campus next to it, across the street from the Santana Row mixed-use complex. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
California may mandate a woman in the boardroom—but businesses are fighting it -- California is moving toward becoming the first state to require companies to have women on their boards—assuming the idea could survive a likely court challenge. Antoinette Siu Calmatters -- 8/9/18
Startups founded by women produce much more revenue: report -- Women are still relatively scarce in the tech industry, the percentage of female founders in firms funded with venture capital has stagnated in recent years and now a new report delivers some bad news about the amount of early-stage money female founders can raise from VC firms. But there’s a silver lining, or maybe a golden one. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
With Luxury Development on All Sides, Oakland Artists Buy the Right to Stay Put -- Oakland’s last section of undeveloped, privately-owned waterfront is a nubby spit of land at the very end of 5th Avenue, where charmingly ramshackle structures occupy roughly four square blocks along the estuary connecting Lake Merritt to the San Francisco Bay. Sam Lefebvre KQED -- 8/9/18
Transit
Bay Area gains new icon with San Francisco’s ‘Grand Central Station of the West’ -- When architect Fred Clarke and his team were first envisioning San Francisco’s new Transbay Transit Center — which officially opens to the public this weekend — they knew they needed to do more than merely provide a way for people to get in and out of the city. Erin Baldassari in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
Housing
Pender: Only 18% of Bay Area households could afford a median-priced home -- Housing affordability in the Bay Area fell sharply in the second quarter, as record home prices and rising mortgage rates more than offset rising incomes. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
Immigration, Border, Deportation
California seeks Trump administration records showing separation policy's impact on immigrant children -- California officials asked the Trump administration on Wednesday to release documents indicating whether officials considered the potential psychological impact of the federal “zero tolerance” policy on children separated from their immigrant parents after crossing the border. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ Courtney Fong Calmatters -- 8/9/18
Wildfire
Holy fire burns closer to Riverside County homes amid day of record heat -- The Holy fire in the Cleveland National Forest pushed closer to some Riverside County homes Wednesday, prompting a new round of mandatory evacuations as authorities arrested a man suspected of igniting the blaze. Ruben Vives, Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Evacuation orders lifted for Lake County towns but full containment of blaze weeks away -- Thousands of residents in communities along the shore of Clear Lake were allowed to return home Wednesday after officials lifted evacuation orders across a wide swath of Lake County imperiled over nearly the past two weeks by a historic wildfire. Randi Rossmann and Martin Espinoza in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat -- 8/9/18
A 'game changer' helps California firefighters pierce the haze and target hot spots -- The smoke creeping up from a steep hillside near this small community 27 miles south of Yosemite Valley was a sure sign a spot fire was burning, hidden beneath the tall pine trees. Jaclyn Cosgrove in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Outdoor burning banned in parts of Bay Area, Central Valley -- The bombardment of fire that turned large portions of California into a smoking pyre prompted state fire officials Wednesday to ban outdoor burning over much of the Bay Area and parts of the Central Valley. Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
14,000 Fight California Fires, Some From Prisons or Overseas -- Firefighters said for the first time Wednesday that they have made good progress battling the state's largest-ever wildfire but didn't expect to have it fully under control until September. Jonathan J. Cooper and Paul Elias Associated Press -- 8/9/18
Largest wildfire in CA history expected to be contained in September -- California’s biggest-ever wildfire grew to 10 times the size of San Francisco on Wednesday, as the Mendocino Complex sent clouds of cough-inducing smoke across the Bay Area and forced officials to admit the conflagration might not be contained until September. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
California fire map: What’s closed, what’s open — highways, towns, Pacific Crest Trail -- Wednesday’s updates from the 17 wildfires burning in California: Susan Steade in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/9/18
Education
Judge says he’s likely to dismiss suit accusing San Francisco State of anti-Semitism -- A federal judge indicated Wednesday he is likely to dismiss a lawsuit by Jewish students at San Francisco State University who accuse school administrators of allowing and encouraging anti-Semitism on campus. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
Living the college dream: high-performing, low-income students reach for the nation’s top colleges -- After finishing 11th grade as the top student in her class this year, Maria Selene Castillo took a summer job where her mom works — a grape field near their home in California’s Coachella Valley. Mikhail Zinshteyn Edsource -- 8/9/18
Environment
Seaside mansion or public beach: Which will the California Coastal Commission save? -- On a stretch of Laguna Beach where waves slam right onto white sand, a wall of steel and concrete interrupts the shoreline. The sea wall exists to protect one beachfront home. Without it, the homeowners say, millions of dollars could be lost to the rising sea. Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Water
Also . . .
Comatose and near death, alleged 'Skid Row Stabber' still awaits retrial — or freedom — in decades-old serial killer case -- Lying in a bed inside the jail ward at L.A. County-USC Medical Center, Bobby Joe Maxwell’s head lolled to one side as his sister entered the room. James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Southern California drug raids net nearly two dozen people, thousands of pounds of narcotics -- Authorities arrested nearly two dozen people Wednesday in a series of drug raids across Southern California, disrupting a vast smuggling ring linked to Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel that funneled hundreds of pounds of narcotics across the border using small aircraft and other means to cities throughout the United States. Richard Winton, Marisa Gerber and James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/9/18
Military psychologists still banned from Guantanamo Bay -- Meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday, a leadership group of the American Psychological Association, the industry’s largest professional organization, voted 105 to 57 to continue to ban military psychologists from treating prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, where the U.S. is holding foreigners it suspects of being terrorists. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/9/18
POTUS 45
Who Gets a New 20% Tax Break? The Treasury Dept. Speaks, and Trump May Save -- A new 20 percent tax break included in last year’s $1.5 trillion tax overhaul could wind up benefiting President Trump’s real estate empire given how the Treasury Department plans to implement the provision, several tax experts said. Jim Tankersley in the New York Times$ -- 8/9/18
‘Nothing bodes well’: Lackluster election results spark debate over Trump’s midterm role -- A new round of lackluster showings by Republican candidates reignited a debate Wednesday within the GOP over whether President Trump will be a drag on the party’s chances in November and should stay out of some of the country’s most hotly contested races. Robert Costa and Josh Dawsey in the Washington Post$ -- 8/9/18
Beltway
Instead of Tax Cuts, GOP Candidates Motivate With Anxiety -- There's a border crisis in Pennsylvania. The radical left is surging in New Jersey. And Nancy Pelosi is a threat to New York. Republican candidates in the nation's premiere midterm battlegrounds have embraced a central message in their fight to maintain the House majority this fall — and it has little to do with the surging economy or the sweeping tax cuts that the GOP celebrated as a once-in-a-generation achievement just eight months ago. Steve Peoples and Bill Barrow Associated Press -- 8/9/18
-- Wednesday Updates
Trump administration moves to open 1.6 million acres to fracking, drilling in California -- Ending a five-year moratorium, the Trump administration Wednesday took a first step toward opening 1.6 million acres of California public land to fracking and conventional oil drilling, triggering alarm bells among environmentalists. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/8/18
New mandatory evacuations as Holy fire burns closer to some communities -- The Holy fire in the Cleveland National Forest pushed closer to some homes Wednesday, prompting a new round of mandatory evacuations. Ruben Vives, Alejandra Reyes-velarde and James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/8/18
Mendocino Complex Fire roars past 300,000 acres, but containment grows -- The Mendocino Complex Fire in Northern California reached 300,086 acres as of 7 a.m. Wednesday morning following a night of significant progress resulting in 47 percent containment – up from 34 percent, a Cal Fire incident update said. Julia Sclafani in the Sacramento Bee$ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ Rick Hurd in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/8/18
‘California is burning:’ Democratic group attacks McClintock on wildfires -- A Democrat-aligned political action committee is launching a six-figure ad campaign attacking Republican Rep. Tom McClintock for his position on wildfire-related spending, a crucial issue in California’s heavily forested 4th Congressional District. Emily Cadei in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/8/18
As wildfire blazes on, Yosemite-area tourist industry ravaged -- From the tourist-dependent towns of Groveland and Sonora in Tuolumne County on Yosemite’s north side to Oakhurst in Madera County farther south, the sentiment among shop owners, hotel operators and restaurateurs is the same. Without visitors, they’re losing money. And some just can’t afford to go deeper into the red. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/8/18
Lopez: Fake news or the future? -- Living in California in the Trump era is like being in a movie inspired by “Groundhog Day,” with each day a little worse than the last. You wake up and he’s coming after us again, tweeting, taunting, twisting the truth. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/8/18
Fewer tents on San Francisco streets, but drugs, feces, mental health still big problems -- The number of tents on San Francisco streets has been cut by more than half in the past two years, but despite the shrinking numbers, the street behavior by the homeless, the mentally ill and the drug-addled continues to be a challenge — with no quick solution in sight. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/8/18