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Huge ecological losses feared as Orange County oil spill hits wetlands, marshes -- There was growing alarm in Huntington Beach and beyond over the ecological toll of a 130,000-gallon oil spill that left local beaches and some wetlands soiled with crude. Anh Do, Robin Estrin, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Massive oil spill sends crude onto Orange County beaches, killing birds, marine life -- The oil slick, first reported Saturday, originated from a broken pipeline less than three miles off the coast of Huntington Beach connected to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. The rupture has poured more than 126,000 gallons of crude into coastal waters and seeped into the Talbert Marsh, officials said. Hannah Fry, Robin Estrin, Anh Do, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Louis Sahagún, Teresa Watanabe, Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

What caused the massive oil spill off Huntington Beach? Here is what we know -- People began smelling oil off the Orange County coast on Friday afternoon. By Saturday, an oil slick was visible, with boaters as well as dolphins and other marine life moving through it. Then Saturday night and Sunday morning, oil begin to wash onto beaches and marshland along the Huntington Beach coast. Rong-Gong Lin II, Teresa Watanabe, Hannah Fry, Robin Estrin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

First birds from oil spill headed to wildlife rescue center -- McGuire said a first batch of birds was headed to the center around 11 a.m., including three pelicans, a ruddy duck and a surf scoter, another large sea duck. They’ll be fully inspected and feather samples taken. The GPS of where they were picked up will also be marked down to help track the progress of the oil spill. Erika I. Ritchie in the Orange County Register -- 10/3/21

Disaster relief sought as major oil spill closes beaches, threatens wildlife; Huntington Beach air show is canceled -- U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-48), whose district includes Huntington and Newport beaches and other coastal cities, sent a letter to President Biden requesting a major disaster declaration for Orange County. Laylan Connelly, Martin Wisckol in the Orange County Register -- 10/3/21

What’s closed because of the oil spill in Orange County -- The large oil spill off the Huntington Beach coast on Saturday has prompted closures and safety advisories. At least 126,000 gallons of oil leaked from a platform off the coast. Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Huntington Beach air show canceled due to massive oil spill off Orange County coast -- City officials said the decision to call off the Pacific Airshow on Sunday was made so they could focus on the spill and cleanup. The beaches in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach are closed and authorities urged people to avoid the areas. Rong-Gong Lin II, Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Oil spill off Orange County not expected to spread to San Diego beaches -- The National Weather Service said Sunday that a large oil spill that’s affecting beaches from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach in Orange County is not likely to spread into San Diego County waters. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

California’s biggest oil spills in recent decades -- The California Coastal Commission records these major oil spills that caused environmental damage from Southern California to the San Francisco Bay Area. Randall Keith in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/3/21

COVID  

Vaccinated or not, everyone is likely to get COVID-19 at some point, many experts say -- 'The idea that we’re going to live our lives without ever getting it is a fantasy — and a dangerous one,' says one epidemiologist. Teri Sforza in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 10/3/21

Pregnant during pandemic: Expectant mothers remain at high risk of COVID-19 -- Nicole Taylor was planning her baby shower last November when her son came back from preschool with a stuffy nose. Olga Grigoryants in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/3/21

COVID Street  

Despite risks as front-line workers, many local police, sheriff’s deputies hold out on COVID-19 vaccines -- Even as most San Diego County residents — 88 percent — eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccines have opted to do so, hundreds of law enforcement officers continue to hold out as unions representing San Diego police and sheriff’s deputies push back against vaccine mandates. David Hernandez in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Public workers finding religion to avoid COVID-19 shots -- With the clock ticking, thousands of public employees — many of them police and firefighters — are claiming and receiving religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine requirements that state and local governments have adopted in an effort to reduce the spread of the virus. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/3/21

Policy and Politics  

Female lawmakers say their absence at bill signings hints at bigger challenges -- It did not go unnoticed when only one of the 11 state legislators who joined Gov. Gavin Newsom in Oakland on Tuesday as he signed an expansive collection of housing bills was a woman. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

Orange County is still ‘mother ship’ for GOP money, but shift from red to purple accelerates -- In Orange County, no place has been more of a pandemic battleground than Huntington Beach. Some residents joined pro-Trump, anti-mask rallies at the beach. Others were appalled. Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Trauma and Trump make Asian American voters a more cohesive bloc, new poll reveals -- In 2020, amid a year of violence and fear, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were hypervisible — and that changed the way they look at themselves and politics, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Rishika Dugyala and Beatrice Jin Politico -- 10/3/21

San Diego County starts independent body to redraw district lines -- This is the first time an independent redistricting commission will make the once-a-decade adjustments to supervisorial districts. Deborah Sullivan Brennan in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Wildfire   

'Game-changing' software lets firefighters pinpoint equipment locations in dire situations -- Andy Bozzo, a fire captain with Contra Costa Fire Protection District, was surrounded by flames as he and his unit battled the Caldor Fire from the small El Dorado County town of Meyers. Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

Fawn Fire burning in Shasta County north of Redding fully contained by Cal Fire crews -- The fire forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in the areas north of Redding to the shores of Shasta Lake and destroyed 185 structures, including dozens of homes. Three firefighters were hurt while fighting the blaze. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ Lauren Hernández in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

Water  

Dry wells, drastic cutbacks. For many Californians, drought hardships have already arrived -- Staci Buttermore turned a faucet on the morning of May 28. She got nothing more than a stuttering sound, a staccato burp of air. Her well, 95 feet deep, had gone dry. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/3/21

Street  

‘A completely broken behavioral health system’ -- So many people tried to help Steven John Olson as he slowly sank ever deeper into mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness. His former wife, who spent many a night having her husband committed to psychiatric units when he became violent. Gary Warth, Teri Figueroa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

New Bay Area clinics provide mental health care, other services to youths -- Phebe Cox grew up in what might seem an unlikely mental health danger zone for a kid: tony Palo Alto, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Mark Kreidler in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

People with urgent mental health problems now have refuge in Vista -- More than three years after the need became acute in coastal North County, local law enforcement officers now have a new place to take those they pick up on mental health calls, allowing them to quickly transfer custody and get back on their beats, skipping the often hours-long emergency department waits that such work usually entails. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Education  

‘It’s an ugliness’: School officials fear for their safety amid threats, disruptions at meetings -- Unruly members of the public are delaying or shutting down school board meetings up and down the state of California. They are defying school board mask rules, chanting over school board members, even storming into meeting rooms and refusing to leave. The disruptions most frequently are over such issues as masks or critical race theory, school officials say. Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Aliso Canyon  

Long after Aliso Canyon gas rupture, residents still fear long-term toll on their health -- As with many in her neighborhood, unresolved questions still swirl in Summers’ mind nearly six years after the largest methane leak in U.S. history. “You question everything, and you think, well, maybe I don’t have anything,” said Summers, 71. “There’s an anxiety that comes with all this.” Leila Miller, Tony Barboza in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Also . . .   

‘Into the White People Only Woods’: A Bay Area theater company is getting slammed for casting, then canceling, all-white show -- When San Jose Playhouse announced in late August its cast for a holiday production of “Into the Woods,” critics on social media saw a big problem: All the actors were white. Lily Janiak in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

Abcarian: The Los Angeles Fire Department’s sexism problem -- When I reached Kris Larson on Thursday, she was in Spokane, Wash., attending an international conference for female firefighters. Larson, 55, is president of Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service, and has worked as an L.A. firefighter for 31 years. Robin Abcarian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

SF's Sir Francis Drake Hotel is under new ownership. What does its future hold? -- Spokespeople for Sir Francis Drake’s new owner, Northview, would not reveal the plans for the historic hotel, but told SFGATE they would release further details in the next month or so. The Connecticut-based company declined to provide more information. Michelle Robertson in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 10/3/21

'Someone knows something': Search renews for woman who disappeared from California Airbnb -- Lauren "El" Cho, 30, reportedly walked away from an Airbnb on the 8600 block of Benmar Trail in Yucca Valley on June 28 around 5 p.m. The mountainous area is about a 30-minute drive north of Palm Springs and surrounded by desert hiking trails. Katie Dowd in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 10/3/21

It's the road less traveled, yet one of San Francisco's top transit experiences -- Jot Thiara was sharing a water taxi heading up the San Francisco waterfront on a beautiful fall afternoon when the boat hit a small wave. Carl Nolte in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

He made history as Hollywood’s first animal trainer. Then he scammed L.A. with ‘iceless ice’ -- When he told his 19-year-old stenographer that they would both be arrested within 15 minutes, she believed him. She got in his car and they fled to Yuma, Ariz. Keith Johnston in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

California Policy and Politics Sunday Morning  

'Mad as hell': Hundreds march in San Francisco for women's reproductive rights -- One foot encased in a protective boot and “No uterus, no opinion” spelled out across her torso in red paint, Isabella Percy ambled slowly but surely through downtown San Francisco to a raucous soundtrack of drumbeats and chants on Saturday. And the 17-year-old was not happy. Danielle Echeverria in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/3/21

Thousands march for reproductive rights in San Diego, echoing national day of action -- Marching for reproductive rights through downtown San Diego Saturday morning, thousands of women and men helped connect a nationwide chain of demonstrations from coast to coast. Paul Sisson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Thousands of women march in Southern California as abortion-rights showdowns loom -- Squarely focused on the future of abortion rights in America, thousands of women marched in demonstrations around Southern California on Saturday, Oct. 2, some of the myriad “sister” protests staged nationwide in solidarity with the fifth-annual Women’s March in Washington D.C. Ryan Carter, Brennon Dixson in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 10/3/21

Thousands participate in fifth annual Women’s March in downtown Los Angeles -- Thousands of people took to the streets in downtown Los Angeles and other cities around the country Saturday to support reproductive rights, part of a nationwide series of demonstrations against Texas’ near-total abortion ban. The item is in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

‘I’m furious’: Bay Area residents rally for abortion rights -- Marches were among hundreds across the nation after Texas abortion law. Fiona Kelliher in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/3/21

Education  

The school in Balboa Park and the atypical lease that will likely keep it there forever -- For nearly 140 years, San Diego High School has laid claim to a portion of Balboa Park where courts have said it does not belong. Now, thanks to the generous terms contained in a new lease on the cusp of approval, the school looks as if it will be a permanent park resident. Jennifer Van Grove in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/3/21

Wildfire   

Hot, dry weather challenges crews fighting California wildfires -- The KNP Complex fire in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park had burned 58,283 acres and was 20% contained as of early Saturday, when it sparked new evacuation warnings in Fresno County. Those in Sequoia Lake, Cedarbrook, Etheda Springs and Pinehurst were told to be prepared to leave. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Homeless  

L.A. prepares to clear homeless people from MacArthur Park; set to close Oct. 15 for ‘rehabilitation’ work -- In the fight to reclaim Los Angeles’ public spaces, a new battleground is about to open just west of downtown. MacArthur Park, where homeless tents lie scattered among jacarandas, crape myrtles and palms, will be closed starting Oct. 15. Thomas Curwen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21

Environment  

Coast Guard rushes to contain 13-square-mile oil slick off Newport Beach -- An oil slick believed to have originated from a pipeline leak poured into the waters off Newport Beach on Saturday, spreading about 13 square miles, but officials believe it will be quickly contained. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/3/21