Updating . .
County Fire ‘growing a lot faster’ than past blazes, blankets Bay Area in smoke -- The inferno scorching the hills of Yolo and Napa counties grew nearly 10,000 acres overnight — surpassing the size of San Francisco — and threatened over 100 homes as fire crews attempted to get a handle on the blaze, officials said. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Julia Sclafani in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/2/18
As County Fire rages, what's the risk from breathing? Here's air quality info for the region -- Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District issued a Smoke Alert extending from Monday through Saturday, including the Fourth of July. Eastward winds are expected to carry the most smoke into Esparto, Vacaville, Winters, Davis and Woodland, but all parts of Yolo County and northeast Solano County are expected to be affected. Jordan Cutler-Tietjen in the Sacramento Bee$ Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/2/18
San Francisco’s appalling street life repels residents — now it’s driven away a convention -- In a move that is alarming San Francisco’s biggest industry, a major medical association is pulling its annual convention out of the city — saying its members no longer feel safe. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/2/18
Bottled water tab at a California prison has hit $46,000 a month -- California's corrections department is spending $46,000 a month to buy bottled water for inmates and staff at a prison in Tracy where it opened a state-of-the-art water treatment plant eight years ago. Adam Ashton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/2/18
LA Protesters Handcuffed After Blocking Immigration Facility -- Protesters who were blocking the entrance to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown Los Angeles have been led away in handcuffs. A group of 17 protesters sat down in the street, blocking the entrance to the facility Monday morning. The group, which included faith and community leaders, locked arms and chanted, "Shut down ICE!" Associated Press -- 7/2/18
Harvey Weinstein is indicted again. The new charges could bring a life sentence -- Harvey Weinstein is facing new criminal charges. An indictment against the disgraced producer, revealed Monday, accuses him of sexually assaulting a woman and of committing a pattern of sex crimes. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Russia investigators likely got access to NRA's tax filings, secret donors -- For months, the National Rifle Association has had a stock answer to queries about an investigation into whether Russian money was funneled to the gun rights group to aid Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Greg Gordon and Peter Stone McClatchy DC -- 7/2/18
Fox: Weaponizing the Initiative Process -- Three ballot initiatives with enough signatures to qualify for the November election were pulled by the proponents when legislative deals were worked out satisfying the initiative sponsors. The initiatives were used as blunt instruments in forcing legislative compromise and in these three instances it worked. Expect to see more of that in the future. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 7/2/18
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Vietnamese refugees who got a warm welcome from America puzzle at family separations, harsh rhetoric -- As a refugee, Lynn Le landed at Camp Pendleton among thousands of mothers and fathers clutching their children, desperately searching for a sign that at last they would be safe in America, far from Communist persecution at the end of the Vietnam War. Anh Do in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Protests, recall effort for Dixon vice mayor who called for July to be 'straight pride' month -- A recall effort and a protest is in the works, after the vice mayor of Dixon, Calif., penned a column calling for the celebration of "Straight Pride American Month" and expressed what some are calling hateful rhetoric against the LGBTQ community. Dianne de Guzman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/2/18
Walters: Supreme Court decision could hit unions hard -- It may have been the least surprising U.S. Supreme Court decision in history. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 7/2/18
Skelton: The November election just got a lot less confusing for California voters -- Californians won’t vote on the nation’s toughest privacy protections after all — because the Legislature did its job and handled the matter. That’s one less confusing ballot proposition and hundreds fewer annoying TV ads that voters will be pestered with in November. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Arnold Forde, Longtime California Political Consultant and Direct Mail Pioneer, Dead at 82 -- Arnold Forde, one of California’s most influential, longstanding and controversial political consultants, died Saturday after two years of illness. He was 82. The publicity-shy Forde, known as Arnie, was a pioneer in the use of direct mail to target voters and worked on political campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats up and down the state, although he frequently was accused of high-profile ethical violations. Tracy Wood and Thy Vo VoiceofOC.org -- 7/2/18
After fires, concern over Fourth of July fireworks in Sonoma County -- Amber Morabito stopped by a Phantom Fireworks stand near downtown Petaluma on Sunday to buy sparklers for her children for the Fourth of July. Morabito said she understands the threat of wildfires during Northern California summers, but she believes that a little holiday fun won’t cause any harm. Joaquin Palomino in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/2/18
Newport driving instructor tapped to teach Saudi women how to get behind the wheel -- Norma Adrianzen has her foot on the gas pedal of history. With the decades-long ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia now lifted, the Newport Beach-based driving instructor is one of just three women worldwide training those instructors who will teach Saudi women how to take the wheel. Hillary Davis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Dismantling California At-Risk Inmate Housing Brings Hurdles -- Special California prisons intended to protect gang informants, disgraced cops and child molesters have become so violent, gang-riddled and crowded that officials are dismantling what's become the United States' largest protective custody program. Don Thompson Associated Press -- 7/2/18
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Tesla Finally Hits Model 3 Target, Turns Focus to Sustainability -- Tesla Inc. reached a milestone critical to Elon Musk’s goal to bring electric cars to the masses -- and earn some profit in the process -- by finally exceeding a long-sought production target with the Model 3. Dana Hull and Josh Eidelson Bloomberg -- 7/2/18
LeBron James gives Lakers the star power they have been lacking -- LeBron is a Laker. Four words that were once whispers of dreams can now be shouted across Los Angeles with a force that will rattle our sports landscape down to its historic core. The King is coming. Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Taxes, Fees, Rates, Tolls, Bonds
Online sales tax ruling could bring 'hundreds of millions of dollars' to California -- California was already trying to wring more tax out of online retailers months before the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that gave states permission to do so. Adam Ashton, Caitlin Chen in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/2/18
Wildfire
Wildfires continued to rage in Lake and Yolo counties -- Firefighters faced strong shifting winds Sunday as they battled the three-county County Fire and continued to fight the eight-day-old Pawnee fire in Lake County. The two wildfires grew, with the new County Fire that broke out in the grasslands of the Capay Valley in Yolo County Saturday afternoon spreading into rural eastern Napa and Lake Counties. Meg Mcconahey and Lori A. Carter in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat Michael McGough, Claire Morgan, Cassie Dickman, Jordan Cutler-Tietjen in the Sacramento Bee$ Melanie Mason and Joel Rubin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Immigration, Border, Deportation
Asylum seekers in Tijuana not deterred by Trump's immigration policy changes -- Despite the Trump administration’s strict but ever-changing immigration policies affecting migrant families and asylum seekers, one thing has remained the same: People keep coming. Kate Morrissey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
By the hundreds, they crossed to border for the 'privilege of voting' in Mexico -- A schoolteacher from North County, a factory worker from Riverside and an engineer from Bonita were among hundreds waiting for up to three hours at Tijuana’s A.L. Rodriguez International Airport on Sunday morning to vote in Mexico’s presidential election. Sandra Dibble in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Environment
The Bay Area’s Sinking Neighborhood Gets a Boost -- This neighborhood, which used to be its own bona fide town, sits on the southernmost tip of the bay in San Jose, and it’s the next stop in our series about where our money from Measure AA is going. That's the “Clean and Healthy Bay” tax measure that passed two years ago. Tiffany Camhi KQED -- 7/2/18
Also . . .
LAPD detective's use of the N-word roils infamous gang murder case -- At a Little Tokyo bar, drinks fueled a heated discussion among a group of lawyers and a Los Angeles police investigator. Then talk turned to police corruption. Corina Knoll in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/2/18
Beltway
A bad week for Democrats gives rise to a big problem: Outrage could become an obstacle in midterms -- Growing liberal agitation over a pivotal Supreme Court retirement and a simmering crisis about immigrant child separation have left Democratic leaders scrambling to keep the political outrage they’d counted on to fuel midterm election wins from becoming a liability for the party. Michael Scherer in the Washington Post$ -- 7/2/18
-- Sunday Updates
Yolo County fire grows to 22,000 acres, crosses into Napa County -- Two fires raged Sunday across Lake, Napa and Yolo counties — with one doubling in size overnight — and sent smoke and ash drifting across the Bay Area. The blazes are being fueled by red-flag weather conditions — high temperatures, gusty winds and low humidity — on land dried by years of drought. Sarah Ravani and David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Michael McGough, Claire Morgan, Cassie Dickman, Jordan Cutler-Tietjen in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/1/18
LeBron James agrees to sign with the Lakers -- LeBron James is going to be a Laker. James announced that he has decided to play for the Lakers on a four-year deal worth $154 million, with a short, subdued news release sent out on the Twitter account belonging to Klutch Sports Tania Ganguli in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/1/18
Bay Area residents wake up to ashfall from the County Fire, about 75 miles away -- Users took to social media Sunday to post photos of early-morning ashfall. Byproducts of the raging, 16,000-plus-acre fire had been swept southwestward by winds, reaching at least as far as the San Francisco Bay Area less than 24 hours after the blaze ignited. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/1/18
Legacy of ‘93 San Francisco rampage -- The mass shooting at 101 California has shaped gun politics and policies for decades. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/1/18
Supreme Court this year gave a preview of things to come: Wins for Trump, employers and Republicans -- The Supreme Court term that ended last week gave a preview of the new era ahead, when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. may finally lead a solidly conservative majority — that doesn’t include an unpredictable justice sometimes willing to go his own way. David G. Savage in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/1/18
Family separation began accelerating at ports of entry before the Trump administration unveiled its 'zero-tolerance' policy, records show -- Lawyers and advocates say they began seeing a significant increase last year in border officials separating children from their parents who asked for asylum at ports of entry, without clear reasons. Paloma Esquivel and Brittny Mejia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/1/18
Will $15 minimum wage in San Francisco slow down the Bay Area exodus? Here’s what the numbers say -- It's no secret that Bay Area residents have been flocking to Sacramento and other California cities, or even fleeing the state, to escape skyrocketing housing costs. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/1/18
Latest minimum wage hike comes as some employers launch bidding wars for scarce workers -- Karen Quintana is keenly aware of how hard it is for companies to find workers who can handle the government red tape and other complexities of shipping containers of electronics, toys and machine parts in and out of the nation’s largest port complex in San Pedro Bay. Andrew Khouri in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/1/18