Updating . .   

‘Unrecognizable.’ Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the West, tips toward crisis -- Lake Mead, a lifeline for 25 million people and millions of acres of farmland in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, made history when it was engineered 85 years ago, capturing trillions of gallons of river water and ushering in the growth of the modern West. Jaweed Kaleem, Thomas Curwen, Allen J. Schaben in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/21

Virus  

In troubling spike, L.A. County sees more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases in two days -- Los Angeles County has recorded more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases in two days, part of a troubling rise in cases as viral transmission increases among unvaccinated people. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/21

Policy & Politics 

‘We need to fix this city’: Post-Garcetti Los Angeles at a crossroads -- On the 26th floor of City Hall, one lesson in the history of Los Angeles is abundantly clear. Accomplishments of the past are never greater than the problems of the present. Thomas Curwen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/21

Democrats are in control at California’s Capitol. Why is the state budget still not done? -- They’ve enacted placeholder legislation to keep the government running while they hash out the final details, but the delay leaves Californians waiting for details on how money for critical areas including wildfires and infrastructure will be spent. Sophia Bollag in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/11/21

5 Dead children led to California’s assault weapons ban. Survivors are fighting to keep it -- The building hasn’t changed much since Thao Ha, now 41, was a student. This story is a subscriber exclusive The front has a new black metal fence and a modern cement walkway, but the same stone sign reading “Cleveland School” still stands as it did in 1989. Lara Korte in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/11/21

McManus: Trump’s still waging a war on truth — and it’s still bad for democracy -- Last month, as thousands of former President Trump’s loyal supporters waited for him at a rally in Ohio, a chant rose from the crowd. “Trump won!” they roared. “Trump won!” The former president agreed. “We won the election twice,” he said, “and it’s possible we’ll have to win it a third time.” Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/21

Workplace   

San Diego re-opening its pension system in wake of courts nullifying Proposition B -- With San Diego’s Proposition B pension cuts officially nullified by the courts, city officials are ready to start awarding pensions to all new hires again this month after a nine-year period when only new police officers got pensions. David Garrick in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/11/21

Fire  

As California wineries lose insurance, some fear this fire season will be their last -- Winemaker Matt Naumann expected his fire insurance costs to skyrocket. The annual premium to insure his small vineyard and winery in Placerville (El Dorado County) had risen steadily over the last three years, from $7,000 per year to $8,500 to $10,000. Esther Mobley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

McCarthy: California wildfires fuel mental health fears and stress alongside paths of devastation -- They moved into Charley’s old place on my cul- de-sac a few months before the Woolsey fire in 2018 – a nice, middle-aged couple with a young daughter who played with all the kids in the neighborhood. They moved out this past March. They didn’t want to leave, they loved the neighborhood, but mentally, they just couldn’t take another wildfire season in California, they said. Dennis McCarthy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/21

Water  

South Bay teens create award-winning way to fight drought -- Aarushi Wadhwa, a student at Campbell’s Westmont High School, has discovered a unique way to conserve water and combat drought. Her team’s project, Aqua-Pods, took the top prize in the environment category in this year’s Ashoka Changemaker Challenge. Apala G. Egan in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/21

Climate  

One way to save California salmon threatened by drought: Truck them to the mountains and back -- In California, it’s not unusual for wildlife officials to truck salmon between their native river habitat and the Pacific Ocean. That’s especially true during droughts, when the Sacramento River runs too low and too warm for the young fish to survive. Tara Duggan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

Street  

Debate over Oakland violence prevention intensifies with dueling rallies -- On Nov. 8, Andre and Latanya Robinson lost their son, Andre Jr., 19, to gun violence in Oakland. Danielle Echeverria in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

Capitol Siege  

‘I’m willing to die, are you?'” Marin man charged in U.S. Capitol riot investigation -- Federal authorities are hunting for a Mill Valley man accused of attacking police during the riot at the U.S. Capitol this year. Evan Neumann, 48, is charged with six counts, including assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Adrian Rodriguez in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/21

Homeless  

‘No parking’ signs going up as Mountain View about to start crackdown on homeless RV campers -- Up until the coronavirus pandemic struck last year, Brenda Fajardo, 41, was living comfortably in a San Mateo apartment, taking care of her 2-year-old son and working odd jobs to make ends meet. Then she and her husband suddenly found themselves out of work and couldn’t afford to continue paying the high rents of the mid-Peninsula. Aldo Toledo in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/21

UC Santa Cruz graduates establishing homeless shelter for students -- Two recent UC Santa Cruz graduates are tackling the problem of housing insecurity among college students in the area. Connor Kensok and Abbi Cundall are both co-founding presidents of the Slug Shelter, a student-run organization created to house students who face homelessness during their studies. Ryan Stuart in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/11/21

No Strings  

Guaranteed income has extended a lifeline to South Bay former foster youth. Will concept go statewide? -- Veronica Vieyra is no stranger to the bottom falling out. After moving from Mexico when she was 9, Vieyra shared a cramped one-bedroom apartment in San Jose with her three younger brothers and a mother who worked several jobs in pursuit of the American dream. Shwanika Narayan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

Border  

Mexican adults are crossing the border again and again in attempts to reach the United States -- Despite the public’s focus on unaccompanied children and families from Central America, adults from Mexico make up 80 percent of apprehensions along the California-Mexico border, the most of any demographic. Kate Morrissey in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/11/21

Cannabis  

Illegal pot invades California’s deserts, bringing violence, fear, ecological destruction -- Before his corpse was dumped in a shallow grave 50 miles north of Los Angeles, Mauricio Ismael Gonzalez-Ramirez was held prisoner at one of the hundreds of black-market pot farms that have exploded across California’s high desert in the last several years, authorities say. Jaclyn Cosgrove, Louis Sahagún in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/11/21

Also . . .   

Father Joe Carroll, ‘Hustler Priest’ devoted to helping San Diego’s homeless community, dies at 80 -- Father Joe Carroll, a cheerful Catholic priest whose 40-year devotion to helping the homeless raised tens of millions of dollars and turned him into a San Diego icon, died Saturday night after a lengthy battle with diabetes. He was 80. John Wilkens in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/11/21

Phillips: I found 'Eden' in West Oakland. It's surrounded by trauma -- At the end of an alley next to an older beige house on West Oakland’s 29th Street is a community garden with naturopathic medicine and live music. The ground is covered in wood chips. Sunflowers bloom next to newly-planted strawberries. A fountain trickles water along a stone walking path. Justin Phillips in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

California Policy and Politics Sunday Morning  

Will Gavin Newsom appear as a Democrat on the recall ballot? Judge to decide Monday -- Judge James Arguelles of the Sacramento County Superior Court gave little indication during a virtual hearing Friday how he plans to rule, but said he would draft his decision over the weekend to fulfill a request by Newsom’s team. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/11/21

Walters: California has a segregation problem -- Deeply blue California’s top political figures, from the governor downward, portray the state as a model of multicultural integration. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 7/11/21

Climate and Power  

California wildfire generates its own lightning as it more than doubles in size -- A wildfire in Northern California more than doubled in size from Friday to Saturday, sending up a massive cloud of smoke and ash that, combined with the dry heat, generated its own lightning and created dangerous weather conditions for firefighters, authorities said. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Daisy Nguyen Associated Press -- 7/11/21

When Lava Fire flared back up, questions started about Forest Service's firefighting strategy -- Firefighters took off their gloves about 24 hours after lightning set fire to a stand of conifers in a jagged lava field on Mount Shasta’s northwestern flank late last month. The crew touched rocks and soil to test for heat — they all felt cold. They thought they were done. Julie Johnson in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

Californians are urged to conserve power as heat, fire strain electric grid -- California’s electric grid operator urged residents to voluntarily conserve energy for a second straight evening as extreme heat and a fast-growing wildfire in southern Oregon strained the state’s power supply Saturday. Lauren Hernández in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

Bay Area heat wave is just warming up -- Triple-digit temperatures cooked much of California on Saturday, with the thermometer soaring close to 110 in parts of the Bay Area and forecasters saying at least another two days of heat was in store. Steve Rubenstein, Emma Talley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

130 degrees: Death Valley came close to matching hottest temp ever recorded on Earth -- The temperature in Death Valley reached a scorching 130 degrees on Friday, just 4 degrees Fahrenheit shy of the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, according to preliminary reports by the National Weather Service. Lauren Hernández in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

Virus  

Santa Clara County COVID data reveals more than 250 workplace outbreaks -- Santa Clara County recorded more than 250 workplace coronavirus outbreaks in 2020 and 2021, new data shows, giving the most comprehensive picture to date of how the virus spread through essential businesses during the peak months of the pandemic. Fiona Kelliher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/10/21

Coronavirus cases climb again in L.A. County, mostly in those under 50 -- The number of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County climbed again Saturday as public health officials reported 1,094 new cases and eight deaths. The majority of the new cases are among individuals between the ages of 18 and 49, officials said. Dakota Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/10/21

Ellingson: What cancer taught me about long-haul COVID: Everyone stops caring after you survive -- As if the physical effects of the COVID-19 virus were not bad enough, evidence of widespread incidence of Long COVID continues to mount. According to the CDC, the virus causes long-term symptoms for some survivors, including headaches, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, anxiety and multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Laura Ellingson in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

COVID Economy  

San Jose man bought cryptocurrency, Tesla with PPP loan money, authorities say -- According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, 40-year-old Lebnitz Tran, of San Jose, allegedly submitted 27 phony applications to the Paycheck Protection Program and at least seven applications to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, both of which were established to help businesses across the country weather the financial storms of the coronavirus pandemic. Joseph Geha in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/10/21

New Complaint Says State Missteps — Including Bad Translations — Block Access To CA Pandemic Rent Relief -- While hundreds of thousands of California households fell behind on rent during the pandemic, a state rent relief program has delivered assistance to only several thousand so far. Housing advocates have filed a complaint with the state, saying at least one reason for the low numbers should be clear: lack of access. Josie Huang Capital Public Radio -- 7/10/21

Street  

Homicides suddenly spiked last year in California after long decline. What's going on? -- California officials recently released data showing that homicides in the state were up 31% in 2020. But the reasons for the spike — the largest percentage increase in years — are still unclear. Danielle Echeverria in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

Driver suspected of running down motorcycle officer arrested after standoff -- The suspect and a companion were found hiding in the rafters of a garage at a Mira Mesa home. Gary Warth in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/10/21

Also . . .   

A woman was choking at a Giants game. The father of a Nationals player saved her -- Dr. Willie Ross is no stranger to emergency situations. He’s a pediatrician at Stanford Children’s Hospital and also works at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, and his wife, Jean, is a pediatric ER nurse. Susan Slusser in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21

What's the most San Francisco neighborhood in San Francisco? We know -- It’s a mostly residential neighborhood in the Inner Richmond bordering Golden Gate Park to the south and Geary Boulevard to the north. It’s shaped like an upside-down L bounded by Arguello Boulevard to the west and Parker Avenue and Stanyan Street to the east. Heather Knight in theSan Francisco Chronicle $ -- 7/10/21

California confirms first West Nile virus-related death of 2021 -- California public health officials this week confirmed the first death linked to West Nile virus in the state this year. The death occurred in San Luis Obispo County, officials said. Dakota Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ Lauren Hernández in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/10/21