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Polling error: How one survey changed the Newsom recall campaign -- The early August survey suggested Gov. Gavin Newsom would get ousted — and scared Democrats and progressives into ramping up their efforts. Republican Larry Elder’s rise only fueled those fears. Ben Christopher CalMatters -- 9/13/21

California recall voting: Conspiracy theories, unproven fraud claims, and the facts you need -- The recall campaigning is all but over, and voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to oust Gavin Newsom — and, if so, who should become governor of California. The item is in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Newsom campaigns with Biden as Elder makes final push in Southern California -- In a final bid to turn out their supporters ahead of Tuesday’s recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his challengers on Monday kept up eye-popping campaign schedules as they zigzagged around California urging voters to fill out their ballots. Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/21

California women are showing up for Newsom -- A striking gender divide has crystalized in the lead-up to the election, with a new poll showing 66 percent of women voters plan to reject Newsom’s ouster. Meanwhile, a razor-thin majority of men say they’d vote to recall him. MacKenzie Mays Politico -- 9/13/21

Stumping for Larry Elder, Rose McGowan drums up recall drama by bashing Newsom family -- Actor and activist Rose McGowan interjected in the California recall-election narrative this weekend to stump for conservative radio host Larry Elder and denounce members of the state’s first family — namely Jennifer Siebel Newsom, whose husband, Gov. Gavin Newsom, is the subject of Tuesday’s recall vote. Nardine Saad in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

California Farmers, Worried About Water, May Be a Force in Recall Vote -- Craig Gordon, the owner of several dairy farms near Los Angeles, is a lifelong Democrat. He supported Senator Bernie Sanders for president, he doesn’t like former President Donald J. Trump and he voted for Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2018. Christina Morales in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/21

Schwarzenegger booted him. Now he has a message for Newsom -- Former California Gov. Gray Davis may be the only person on the planet who gets what Gov. Gavin Newsom is going through these days, trying to salvage his political future while managing a major crisis. Carla Marinucci Politico -- 9/13/21

When will we know the outcome of the Gavin Newsom recall election in California? -- Every registered voter was mailed a ballot, and the first results will be posted once polls close Tuesday at 8 p.m. Just how long it will take before we know whether Newsom survived the recall largely depends on how close the race is, as most of California's biggest counties will not be done counting by the end of the night Tuesday. Eric Ting in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 9/13/21

Skelton: Larry Elder joining the recall race was the best thing that could’ve happened to Newsom -- Elder carried with him three decades of provocative right-wing rhetoric that Newsom turned into a scary wake-up alarm for snoozing Democrats. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Bretón: I’ve been bashing Gavin Newsom forever but still voted ‘no’ on the recall. It’s complicated -- Tyler Skelly, a conservative friend of mine, wondered why I was supporting California Gov. Gavin Newsom in this wasteful recall election when I’m no fan of Newsom and have said so in print. Marcos Bretón in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/21

Shyong: Larry Elder and the danger of the ‘model minority’ candidate -- The term “model minority” has a specific history in the Asian American community, but I can’t think of a better embodiment of its concepts than Larry Elder, the Black Republican gubernatorial candidate who has made a career of saying the things white people love to hear about Black people. Frank Shyong in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Joe Biden is visiting Sacramento. Take a look at the region’s past presidential visits -- President Joe Biden is visiting Sacramento on Monday for his first time in office to view wildfire damage in the region, after stopping in Long Beach to appear with Gov. Gavin Newsom on the day before California’s recall election. Nathaniel Levine in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/21

COVID School  

With student vaccine mandate, L.A. Unified wins praise, provokes anger -- The assertive move last week by the Los Angeles Unified School District to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for students — the first large school system in the nation to do so — has thrust the issue before education policymakers, especially those who support vaccines as essential to curb the pandemic. Howard Blume, Melissa Gomez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

COVID Burnout  

'Everything has a cost': More Bay Area restaurants are closing for mental health breaks -- Harter’s is among a wave of Bay Area restaurants and pop-ups that have recently closed temporarily to give time off to overworked employees feeling the mental and physical drain of working during the pandemic. Elena Kadvany in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/21

COVID Vaccine  

How the Bay Area is prepping for the big COVID-19 booster rollout -- The exact date of the long-anticipated rollout remains uncertain — the Biden Administration had originally set the week of Sept. 20 for the launch — but high-risk Americans are likely to be offered the Pfizer shot within the next two weeks. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will vote on the shots next Friday. The Centers for Disease Control has not yet set a date. Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/21

Wildfire   

Crews gain ground on Hopkins Fire in Mendocino County -- Fire crews got an early edge on Mendocino County’s new Hopkins Fire overnight Sunday, taking advantage of lower temperatures and higher humidity to double the wildfire’s containment to 20% Monday morning. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/21

Workplace   

California farmworkers to get new masks under bill on Newsom’s desk. Do they want them? -- Lorena Moreno spent nearly a decade harvesting crops next to her husband in the Central Valley’s fields, bathed in sweat from working in the sweltering heat. In recent years, her husband, who is still laboring in the fields, has also been coming home with symptoms from an increasingly more present hazard — wildfire smoke. Nadia Lopez in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/21

Street  

LASD should have limits on pointing guns at unarmed people, report says -- An inspector general’s report faulted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for its handling of an incident in 2020 in which deputies from the Santa Clarita station pointed handguns and a rifle at three teenagers at a bus stop. Josh Cain in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 9/13/21

Sharp rise in hate and racism incidents in Sacramento. Here’s where they happened -- The number of bias-related incidents — crimes or confrontations motivated by hate — grew dramatically in Sacramento during the first half of 2021, the latest police data show. Phillip Reese in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/21

Sirhan Sirhan’s possible parole creates divide in Kennedy family and beyond -- Carol Germain lives on a quiet, tree-lined street in Pasadena a few houses down from the brother of Robert F. Kennedy’s murderer. Leila Miller in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Water  

Torture orchard: Can science transform California crops to cope with drought? -- The search is on to help California farmers find less-thirsty tree crops. But will the experiments come through in time as droughts intensify? Julie Cart CalMatters -- 9/13/21

Homeless  

COVID-19 got this medical team into homeless camps. What about after the pandemic? -- Inside the white van parked in the concrete bed of La Canada Verde Creek, Wendy Ruvalcaba rooted in her bag for her phone as it chimed. “Tell me you found her,” the nurse said in answering the call. Emily Alpert Reyes, Francine Orr in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Housing  

How a workforce rent program aims to plug ‘missing middle’ affordable housing gap -- During the past 2 ½ years, 28 new workforce housing programs — the so-called “missing middle” of the housing market — have been created, with 21 of them cropping up this year alone. What’s more, most of these income-restricted apartments are in newer buildings with pools and fitness centers, quartz countertops and new appliances — properties that otherwise command some of the market’s highest rents. Jeff Collins in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/21

Bay Area housing prices fall hard on school teachers -- As teachers face a host of health and safety challenges in the new school year, one constant remains — the Bay Area remains a brutal test for educators who want to buy a home. Louis Hansen in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/21

Squaw Valley  

Retiring its racist name, historic Squaw Valley resort will become Palisades Tahoe -- The historic Squaw Valley ski resort near Lake Tahoe will be renamed Palisades Tahoe after its owners determined that the term “squaw” was offensive to Indigenous woman. Hugo MartÍn in the Los Angeles Times$ Gregory Thomas in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ Linda Zavoral in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/21

Facebook  

Facebook Says Its Rules Apply to All. Company Documents Reveal a Secret Elite That’s Exempt -- In private, the company has built a system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules, according to company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Jeff Horwitz in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 9/13/21

Climate  

California’s disappearing salmon -- The drought, along with man-made impediments, has placed the state’s wild Chinook population at grave risk. Scott Wilson, Melina Mara in the Washington Post$ -- 9/13/21

Also . . .   

Unpaid SMUD bills skyrocketed during pandemic. How California will help pay off debts -- About 100,000 Sacramento Municipal Utility District residential customers are behind on paying either part or all of their electric bills, according to CFO Jennifer Davidson. That’s out of roughly 564,000 residential customers SMUD serves, or nearly 18%. Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/21

We’re souping up our rides. The neighbors are furious -- That’s because a global semiconductor shortage is making new cars scarce, and low inventory is making used cars expensive, so people with time and money are sinking them into their older rides — and some are making them as fast and loud as possible. Ronald D. White in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

After a siege of fire and COVID, city of Volcano gets its theater back -- The aging actress had made up her mind. After a brief and boring retirement in the countryside, she planned to make her triumphant return to — drumroll, please — the stage! Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Northern California man on solo hike in Yosemite reported missing -- Joel Thomazin, 31, of Denair (Stanislaus County) had planned on a backpacking trip from the Hetch Hetchy area to Lake Eleanor, a roundtrip trek of about 18 miles. Thomazin set off on Sept. 6 and planned to return Sept. 9. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/21

California Policy and Politics Monday Morning  

LAPD employees sue city over vaccination mandate -- A group of Los Angeles Police Department employees has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s mandate that all L.A. employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Inland Empire parents of 5 die of COVID-19 weeks apart -- The family photo of mom, dad and four smiling kids, relaxing on the beach in Big Sur in July, gave no hint of the heartbreak that lay ahead. Kim Christensen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Wildfire   

Rural residents in Mendocino County evacuated after Hopkins Fire erupts, grows to 275 acres -- The blaze, dubbed the Hopkins Fire, started around 3:48 p.m. in the area of Hopkins Street and North State Street in the unincorporated community of Calpella and quickly grew to 275 acres, according to Cal Fire. Calpella is a community with several hundred residents located about six miles north of Ukiah. Andres Picon in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/21

Caldor Fire: Grizzly Flats evacuees return to a ravaged town -- Looking at the ash-smothered ground where their green, three-bedroom home had stood before the Caldor Fire laid waste to their Sierra Foothills town, Josh Freis recalled his fiancee’s shake of the head when he’d asked, driving ßup on Sunday, whether she was ready to see the house. “No,” replied Caitlin Giannini. Sarah Ravani, Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/21

Firefighters get help from weather in battling Northern California blazes -- Firefighters continued to make headway Sunday against two massive Northern California wildfires, officials said, as winds remained light and temperatures hovered only slightly above normal. Kim Christensen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Recall  

Larry Elder levels accusation against Gavin Newsom’s wife two days before recall election -- Two days before the recall election, leading candidate Larry Elder appeared with an actress who says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife tried to suppress her rape claims against disgraced director Harvey Weinstein. The Democratic governor and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom responded that the charge was false. Sophia Bollag in the Sacramento Bee$ Faith E. Pinho, James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/21

Allegations fly as recall vote looms for California’s Newsom -- In a blitz of TV ads and a last-minute rally, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged voters Sunday to turn back a looming recall vote that could remove him from office, while leading Republican Larry Elder broadly criticized the media for what he described as double standards that insulated Newsom from criticism and scrutiny throughout the contest. Michael R. Blood and Eugene Garcia Associated Press -- 9/13/21

Latinos in Woodland Were Hit Hard During The Pandemic. Here’s What They’re Thinking About The Recall -- For Alan Contreras, the past year in the COVID-19 pandemic has had its ups and downs. He says he was lucky enough to be able to continue working, but he and his entire family contracted the virus last year. Sarah Mizes-Tan Capital Public Radio -- 9/13/21

California Recall Puts Governor’s Pandemic Leadership to the Test -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday will be the first governor in a recall election to face voters divided over Covid-19 restrictions and collectively angry about a pandemic that continues to upend lives nationwide. Christine Mai-Duc in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 9/13/21

Democrats wanted Trump gone. Now they want him on the ballot -- Democrats are growing confident that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will prevail in Tuesday's recall election, averting political disaster by energizing liberal voters. Across the country, his party is paying close attention to how he's doing it: Warning Democrats that if they stay home, Donald Trump and his agenda will prevail. David Weigel, Colby Itkowitz and Gregory S. Schneider in the Washington Post$ -- 9/13/21

Many newspaper editorial boards are backing Newsom -- Despite a concerted effort from conservatives to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, most newspaper editorials in the state continue to endorse him and are strongly recommending not to vote him out of office. Many publications across the state are asking readers to overlook Mr. Newsom’s shortcomings and focus on his legislative agenda and his overall leadership during the pandemic. Giulia Heyward in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/21

In California, there are recall attempts for everything under the sun -- While all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom, a developer in Sonoma County was charging forward with an effort to recall the district attorney who had sued his company. All around California, other officials were facing recall campaigns, too. Maggie Astor in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/21

What if Gavin Newsom resigned before the recall election? -- Kathy Schwartz, a retired health care analyst living in Los Angeles, had been following the news about the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom with increasing concern. Jill Cowan in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/21

Explainer: If Newsom recall fails, no winning candidate -- California voters are being asked to weigh in on two questions in Tuesday’s recall election for Gov. Gavin Newson. But it’s possible The Associated Press will only declare the winner in one of the races. Stephen Ohlemacher Associated Press -- 9/13/21

5 questions about California’s recall targeting Gov. Newsom -- California’s recall on Tuesday will be the biggest election since Joe Biden became president, and its results may hint at the political trajectory of the country. Associated Press -- 9/13/21

Policy and Politics  

Walters: California finally cracks down on bad cops -- Whatever else the California Legislature did or didn’t do this year, it finally — and very belatedly — took a long-needed step toward ridding the state of bad cops who victimize people they are supposed to be serving and taint their honorable profession. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 9/13/21

Education  

Thousands of UC students struggle to find housing -- Nazrawi Allen is about to begin his fourth year at the University of California, Santa Barbara, but he — like thousands of other students in the UC system — doesn’t yet have a place to live. Michael Burke EdSource -- 9/13/21