Updating . .
Gov. Brown signs bills to block Trump's offshore oil drilling plan -- Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed two bills that would block new offshore oil drilling in California by barring the construction of pipelines, piers, wharves or other infrastructure necessary to transport the oil and gas from federal waters to state land. Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ Lizzie Johnson in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/9/18
Dunsmuir residents alert and prepped to go as raging Delta Fire tops 36,000 acres -- Residents of upper Northern California are becoming experts in what to do should any blaze head their way, something that is becoming more likely in a region already pummeled by this year’s devastating wildfires. Cassie Dickman and Daniel Hunt in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/8/18
California wildfires: Updates on fires and where containment is on major blazes -- Firefighters are battling a new round of wildfires in California even as battles against earlier fires continue to wind down. Don Sweeney and Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/8/18
Analysis: Harris, Feinstein play to different Democratic Parties at Kavanaugh hearing -- The difference between California’s two Democratic senators was evident when Sen. Chuck Grassley was only 13 words into his introduction to the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. That’s when Sen. Kamala Harris interrupted the Judiciary Committee chairman. She wanted to postpone the hearing. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
Michael Cohen asks Stormy Daniels to give back $130,000 in Trump hush money -- Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of President Trump, has asked porn actress Stormy Daniels to return the $130,000 payoff she received in exchange for keeping quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. Michael Finnegan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/18
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Kavanaugh hearings showcase the starkly different political styles of Sens. Feinstein and Harris -- It was only seven seconds into Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing when Sen. Kamala Harris launched the Democrats’ surprise attack to shut down the proceeding over a lack of access to documents revealing his record. Sarah D. Wire and Jennifer Haberkorn in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/18
GOP candidates hope Obama’s California visit fires up their voters, too -- While former President Barack Obama’s campaign visit to Orange County on Saturday may cost GOP House candidates some votes, they’re also hoping it can make them some money. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
Pipeline firm found guilty of criminal charges in Santa Barbara oil spill -- A Houston-based pipeline firm has been found guilty of criminal charges that it knowingly caused a catastrophic oil spill off Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County in 2015, killing marine mammals and sea life. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ Amanda Lee Myers and Robert Jablon Associated Press -- 9/8/18
Heavy hitters on climate change will converge on San Francisco next week, with Gov. Jerry Brown as host -- If Jerry Brown could write the script in which he exits the political stage while still in the spotlight, he could do no better than what’s teed-up for him next week: presiding over the Global Climate Action Summit with a few hundred of his closest fellow leaders in the fight against global warming. Julie Cart Calmatters -- 9/8/18
San Quentin prison exec ‘no longer employed’ amid inmate construction probe -- The departure of Steve Harris, the chief of the prison’s health system, comes one week after The Chronicle reported that the state was looking into the circumstances surrounding the construction project that used inmate labor. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
L.A. could bar people from council meetings for multiple days if they repeatedly disrupt proceedings -- A small number of people who show up to speak at city meetings have made vulgar, profane and racist epithets a routine part of the council’s public comment period. Loud outbursts from the audience, or in the hallways of City Hall, are also commonplace. Emily Alpert Reyes and David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/18
Video: Arsonist set Planned Parenthood on fire in Watsonville, reward offered -- A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a person who intentionally set a fire at a Watsonville Planned Parenthood building in July, authorities announced Friday. Ashley McBride in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
California prepares for a new war over soda taxes – and it could spill over into the 2020 election -- The California secretary of state's office late Thursday gave proponents the green light to start collecting signatures to qualify the sugary-drink tax measure for the 2020 ballot. It follows previous attempts to pass a statewide soda tax in California. Jeff Daniels CNBC -- 9/8/18
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Tesla board's dilemma: Can't live with Musk, or without him -- Tesla’s Elon Musk rarely follows the conventional path, on anything. He is, after all, the CEO who launched one of his company’s cars into space. Even so, smoking a joint during an interview may have been a bit much. David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
Housing
Local city and county procedures hamper housing development, Bay Area legislator says -- California cities and counties need to give up some control of the housing approval process if the state is going to solve its housing shortage, state Sen. Scott Wiener said Thursday, Sept. 6, at a Realtor housing conference in Los Angeles. Jeff Collins in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/8/18
Transit
Clipper transit card getting $194 million overhaul — including phone payment app -- Clipper, once the whiz-bang smart card that rescued commuters from having to buy a ticket or pay a separate cash fare every time they rode a different transit system — Muni, BART, Caltrain, AC Transit, the ferry and so on — has grown stiff, stodgy and nearly obsolete. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/8/18
Wildfire
String of Fires in Northern California May Worsen Poverty for Years to Come -- Nearly everything they owned was burned. Wendy said she felt like suddenly they might never recover financially. And she’s right. They might not. The set back has been tremendous. Not only did they lose their possessions, their affordable living situation and Norm’s caretaking arrangement, they also lost what Norm used to make money: his tools. All he has left is a drill, which happened to be in his truck when they fled. Sam Harnett KQED -- 9/8/18
Immigration, Border, Deportation
Most deported parents decline reunification with their children, saying it's too dangerous in their homeland -- Deep into the extraordinary effort to locate deported parents who remain separated from their children, attorneys are learning that about two-thirds want their children to stay in the U.S. rather than reunite as a family in their homelands. Kristina Davis in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/8/18
Education
California bans for-profit charter schools -- California has just kicked for-profit management companies out of the charter school business. A bill signed into law Friday afternoon prohibits companies from managing or running the state’s taxpayer-funded, independently run charter schools. Katy Murphy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/8/18
Cal State Long Beach asks students for meal donations for food insecure on campus -- Cal State Long Beach is asking for help from its students to donate meals for the estimated 37.7 percent of its students who are food insecure. The “Feed a Need” campus initiative aims to help students who are experiencing economic hardship and don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. Emily Rasmussen in the Long Beach Press Telegram -- 9/8/18
LAUSD goes door to door to get chronically absent San Fernando Valley students back in class -- LAUSD pupil services administrator Dionne Ash spent Friday afternoon in the San Fernando Valley, doing some detective work. Aviator sunglasses on and LAUSD badge around her neck, she knocked on doors in Northridge and Canoga Park attempting to track down elusive students who are part of a district-wide absenteeism problem that costs LA Unified millions of dollars each year. Matthew Carey in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 9/8/18
Also . . .
Mac Miller found dead inside his Studio City home; drug overdose suspected -- Rapper and producer Mac Miller was found dead in his Studio City home shortly before noon Friday of a suspected drug overdose, sources said. Los Angeles paramedics responded to his home in 11600 block of Valleycrest Road, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ Andrew Dalton and Mark Kennedy Associated Press -- 9/8/18
‘A serious effort to change.’ $1.4 million fund OK’d in Placer inmate abuse settlement -- A federal judge in Sacramento signed off on a settlement Friday in the Placer County Jail abuse case that calls for the county to initiate sweeping new reforms in the county’s two jails and to create a fund of more than $1.4 million to pay off claims by inmates. Sam Stanton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/8/18
POTUS 45
Obama attacks Trump, calls for rejection of 'radical' GOP in midterm election -- In a rare breach of tradition for former presidents, Barack Obama launched a scathing attack Friday on President Trump, framing the November election as a historic chance for Americans to reject his successor’s dark vision of the nation and restore honesty, decency and lawfulness to the U.S. government. Michael Finnegan and Eli Stokols in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/8/18
Obama vs. Trump: The clash everyone's waited for arrives -- But on Friday, at least, the current president barely mustered a response to the blistering critique leveled against him by his predecessor. Edward-Isaac Dovere and Andrew Restuccia Politico -- 9/8/18
Beltway
Harris and Booker borrow Trump's tactics in Supreme Court fracas -- It hardly mattered for their primary audience that Kamala Harris offered no firm evidence to support one of her sharpest lines of questioning. Or that Cory Booker’s “Spartacus” uprising amounted to a demand for documents that had already been authorized for release. David Siders and Elana Schor Politico -- 9/8/18
-- Friday Updates
Conservative activists: Trump was ‘tricked’ into California endorsement -- President Donald Trump’s surprise move to issue an endorsement in California’s only Republican-on-Republican House race has stunned GOP grassroots activists who say he’s been “tricked” into siding with the “the swamp” against his loyal #MAGA base. Carla Marinucci Politico -- 9/7/18
California's ballot is a 'hodgepodge,' says Gov. Jerry Brown as he vetoes bill to redesign it -- An effort by the California Legislature to reduce voter confusion through a ballot redesign was vetoed Friday by Gov. Jerry Brown, who said the problem doesn’t need to be solved with a new law. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/7/18
Judge slams Alameda County Sheriff’s Office over illegal recording, investigation continues -- An Alameda County judge on Friday issued a harsh rebuke of the county’s Sheriff’s Office in response to evidence that a sergeant had illegally recorded at least one conversation between a youth suspect and his attorney. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/7/18
Global climate fight comes to San Francisco with new resolve after U.S. pullout -- When President Trump announced last year that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, many feared that international momentum for tackling global warming would be lost. It wasn’t. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/7/18
How eight elite San Francisco families funded Gavin Newsom’s political ascent -- Gavin Newsom wasn’t born rich, but he was born connected — and those alliances have paid handsome dividends throughout his career. Seema Mehta, Ryan Menezes and Maloy Moore in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/7/18
‘If I weren’t effective, I wouldn’t be a target.’ Pelosi gives candid TIME interview -- When California Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi spoke with TIME’s Molly Ball, the former Speaker of the House was candid about the withering criticism she receives from both the political right and left. Andrew Sheeler McClatchyDC -- 9/7/18
Reopening I-5 is ‘top priority’ among responders as Delta Fire nears 25,000 acres -- The Delta Fire north of Redding in Shasta County continued to grow overnight, though it did so at a slower pace than previous days, reported at 24,558 acres and 0 percent containment by Friday morning, according to U.S. Forest Service and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services officials. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/7/18
Inmates help battle California’s wildfires. But when freed, many can’t get firefighting jobs -- The first time Amika Sergejev Mota drove on a firetruck was also the first time she had seen the world in nearly five years. Convenience stores, fast food drive-thrus, people walking on the side of the street – for a moment, they all took on a strange, ethereal power. Adesuwa Agbonile in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/7/18
Insurance claims from Carr, Mendocino fires: $845 million and counting -- Insured losses from the Carr and Mendocino Complex fires have reached $845 million, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones reported Thursday, warning that these numbers — the first reported from the fires that started in July — are expected to climb as more claims are filed. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/7/18
Roseville teacher repeatedly disciplined for harassing girls resigns with $80,000 payout -- A Roseville high school teacher repeatedly disciplined for harassing female students and colleagues has resigned and will receive an $80,000 payment on his way out, according to new documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Darrell Smith in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/7/18
Deep in red, Sacramento City school district’s budget rejected by county. Cuts are coming -- For the first time, the county Office of Education has disapproved Sacramento City Unified School District’s budget for the current fiscal year due to projected deficits. Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/7/18
Tesla stock take a hit after Elon Musk appears to smoke weed -- Tesla’s stock price fell more than 6 percent Friday as two more executives left the electric automaker and CEO Elon Musk appeared to smoke marijuana on a podcast. David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Patrick May in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/7/18
Owners of Bay Area adult care facility charged with human trafficking -- Four family members who operated an adult residential and child care company in South San Francisco were arrested and charged with multiple counts of human trafficking and other labor-related charges, the California Attorney General’s Office announced Friday. Mark Gomez in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/7/18
BART to San Jose delayed again, parts mistake adds year to Berryessa service -- The arrival of BART transit service to San Jose will be delayed a year or more, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority said, after the agency found that improper networking equipment had been installed and ordered it removed and replaced. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/7/18
Pender: Relax: The federal tax law won’t raise your California income tax -- Not surprisingly for a state of nonconformists, the Legislature adjourned Sept. 1 without conforming California state income taxes to any part of the Republican-crafted federal tax law passed in December. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/7/18
Fox: Prop 13: Still a Target, Still Supported -- Opponents who delight in blaming Proposition 13 for many ills that befall California even jump on property tax related issues related to Prop 13 that were actually created by the California legislature. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 9/7/18