Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 3.
- Fast-moving wildfire threatens city of Oroville.
- Push attack kills woman at San Francisco BART station.
- And 20 photos show the vibrance of Sacramento.
Please note: The newsletter will be off through the July Fourth weekend. Back in your inbox on Monday.
Statewide
1.
As a heat wave bore down Tuesday, at least nine new wildfires erupted across California, including a worrying blaze in Oroville that forced thousands of residents to flee their homes. Photos posted online showed structures and vehicles in flames. Officials said the fire posed no risk to the integrity of Oroville Dam, America’s tallest, while the reservoir offered a fortuitous advantage. Firefighting helicopters were able to slurp up its water and make drops in short sprints, fire officials said. KRCR | S.F. Chronicle
- See live fire map. 👉 Cal Fire
2.
Dispatches on President Biden’s post-debate crisis:
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on President Biden to prove that he is fit for office. “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?'” the veteran California lawmaker said on MSNBC. “When people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate of both candidates.” S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times
- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to travel to the White House on Wednesday to attend a meeting with other governors intended to show support for Biden. Newsom has been unwavering in his public support for Biden even as he has found himself at the center of discussions about an alternative candidate. Politico | The Guardian
3.
In a surprising last-minute reversal, Newsom announced Tuesday night that he is pulling a proposed anti-crime ballot measure that would have competed with a tougher measure backed by Republicans and prosecutors. Newsom explained that time was too short to add needed amendments before a Wednesday night deadline. Sources close to the negotiations told KCRA that was untrue. Rather, they said, Newsom’s effort to rally support for the initiative fell short as he made sudden plans to travel to Washington. KCRA | Politico
Northern California
4.
A 74-year-old woman was pushed into an arriving BART train in San Francisco and killed late Monday, officials said. Police arrested Trevor Belmont, described as a 49-year-old transient. The victim, Corazon Dandan, was a hotel telephone operator who was on her way home when she was attacked at the Powell Street station. Her nephew, Alvin Dandan, a doctor in St. Louis, said Dandan paid for his schooling. “Great does not even define what I think this woman is,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here and a lot of my cousins wouldn’t be here.” SF Standard | KGO
5.
The buses in Petaluma are now free, city officials announced on Monday. In a Bay Area first, the river town of roughly 60,000 people said riders can simply “show up and go” on all city buses during a one-year pilot program designed to encourage more people to leave their cars at home. Free public transit has grown increasingly common in recent years, adopted in Denver, Kansas City, Tucson, and other cities. Argus-Courier
6.
The power demands of the artificial intelligence revolution are setting back clean energy goals across Silicon Valley. Google’s emissions surged 48% since 2019 as the company infused AI throughout many its products, an internal analysis released on Tuesday found. The company attributed the surge in part to higher energy consumption at its data centers, resulting in 14.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023. Bloomberg | A.P.
- Silicon Valley is zeroing in on a new source of power for its data centers: nuclear plants. Wall Street Journal
7.
Sacramento has historically gotten a bad rap from outsiders. But it’s not just the cheaper housing that has drawn a stream of transplants from the Bay Area to California’s capital city in recent years. Sacramento is a place of public art, striking architecture, brilliant autumns, the American River, and real diversity. Fermin Ramirez, a local photographer, posted a collection of 20 pictures from the last couple years that doubled as an ode to the city. Reddit
Southern California
8.
During the fall of 2009, San Diego County Board of Supervisors meetings were marred twice by incivilities such as threats and name-calling. Last year, over the same period, there were 167 such incidents, an analysis found. KPBS wrote about the erosion of civility in San Diego’s public discourse:
“There was a time when people addressed the supervisors with politeness, even deference, using words like ‘honorable’ to address them. Today, public commenters might open their remarks with, ‘Good morning, board of tyrants,’ then accuse them of murder, wish aloud they would drop dead and lob racist insults.”
9.
On Sunday morning, more than 150 people joined a 5K charity hike up a mountain in east San Diego County. Among them was Diem Le Nguyen, 50, who posed for a picture atop Black Mountain at about 9:15 a.m. Temperatures by then had reached 98 degrees. At 10:08 a.m., Nguyen called her sister and said she was tired and needed water. The search party didn’t find her in time. The L.A. Times examined how a woman vanished and died during an organized group hike.
10.
The Los Angeles City Council agreed on Tuesday to a $21 million settlement with families displaced by a botched police detonation of illegal fireworks in June 2021. Nineteen victims were to receive payouts between $100,000 to $2.8 million. Even three years later, some are still living in hotels. One of them, Maria Velasquez, said it’s been rough. “I wish I could smile more, but I’m happy,” she said of the settlement. Curren Price, the families’ city councilman, apologized, calling the explosion entirely preventable and the payout “agonizingly slow.” L.A. Times | Fox 11
11.
Robert Towne, a leading screenwriter of the so-called New Hollywood era whose work on “Chinatown” won an Oscar, died at his home in Los Angeles on Monday. A Los Angeles native born during the Depression, Towne was credited with helping to define the jaded mood of his hometown. “It’s a city that’s so illusory,” he told Associated Press in 2006. “It’s the westernmost west of America. It’s a sort of place of last resort. It’s a place where, in a word, people go to make their dreams come true. And they’re forever disappointed.” Towne was 89. A.P. | L.A. Times
12.
In an annual July Fourth week ritual, military service members took oaths of citizenship aboard the historic USS Midway in San Diego on Tuesday. The 40 new Americans represented 19 countries, including Belize, China, Peru, and Jamaica. Miguel Velazquez, a Navy logistics specialist from Mexico, warned his friends that they may see tears stream down his face. “‘Don’t make fun of me or anything because I’ve been waiting for this moment for such a long time,’” he said he told them. S.D. Union-Tribune | CBS 8
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