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PG&E electricity bills due to jump in January, utility warns regulators -- PG&E power bills are set to jump in January, an increase that could cause monthly costs for electricity to rise nearly $9 for residential customers, the embattled and disgraced utility revealed in a preliminary assessment. Effective Jan. 1, 2020, monthly electricity bills could potentially rise an estimated $8.93, which would bring the average cost for electric service to $130.03 a month for the typical residential customer, PG&E said. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/18/19

Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd dies -- Mark Hurd, co-CEO of software company Oracle, died Friday at the age of 62, CNBC reports. Hurd took a leave of absence in September for undisclosed health issues, a company statement said. Mallory Moench in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

Housing developers used city-backed property as ‘personal bank account,’ lawsuit alleges -- Accusing a prominent affordable housing developer of using a city-financed property “as a personal bank account,” Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer on Wednesday sued the company and several others, alleging they misappropriated millions of dollars of public money. Dakota Smith, Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

Housing is coming soon to BART’s Millbrae Station. The price? 600 parking spots -- Of all the stations on the BART line, Millbrae is perhaps the most ripe for development. It’s a bustling transit hub wedged in the middle of a suburb, with parallel tracks where BART riders can cross the platform and catch Caltrain, walk to a bus on El Camino Real, or ride one stop to the San Francisco International Airport. Rachel Swan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

PG&E outlines steps to ease pain of intentional power outages amid wildfire risks -- Intentional power outages such as the massive blackouts that cut off electricity to 2 million people in PG&E’s service territory recently are an “untenable” long-term game plan and PG&E has already begun work to curb such wide-ranging shutoffs amid wildfire hazards, the utility told state regulators Thursday night. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/18/19

‘Like battling the Hydra’: Counties say PG&E failed them in outages -- Pacific Gas and Electric Co. failed to provide essential information to counties and cities during last week’s mass power outages, botching an unprecedented fire-prevention measure that could have killed many people if it lasted longer, five local governments said this week. J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

Crews fighting NuStar blaze found locked gates, inactive fire suppression, officials say -- And once they made it inside the facility with its 24 storage tanks, they discovered an abandoned operation: NuStar Energy’s handful of workers fled the scene and the emergency fire suppression system was not activated, Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia told The Chronicle on Thursday after he was briefed by officials, including the chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District that is heading the investigation. Matthias Gafni in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

Outrage among new pharmacists after cheating scandal upends licensing exam results -- California officials have invalidated more than 1,000 pharmacists’ test scores because of cheating on a state exam, a move that has caused an uproar among pharmacists who say they have lost wages and job opportunities as a result. Soumya Karlamangla in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

James Ramos: CA’s first Native American state lawmaker -- For California’s Native Americans, times change — but sometimes very slowly. One big change: the historic election of James C. Ramos, 52 to the state Assembly’s 40th District in the Inland Empire. Chuck McFadden Capitol Weekly -- 10/18/19

KQED Political Breakdown -- Katie Porter on Congressional Hearings, Class with Elizabeth Warren and Learning to Surf. Marisa Lagos, Scott Shafer KQED -- 10/18/19

Trump says photo shows a Pelosi meltdown. She’s wearing the picture with pride -- President Trump called it a “meltdown.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it her cover photo. Tal Kopan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions  

San Jose Mayor Proposes Creation of Public Utility in Wake of PG&E's Power Shutoffs -- San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo says he wants the city to buy PG&E's power lines to create a municipal utility. He announced the proposal on Thursday, in the wake of last week's power shutoffs by PG&E in an effort to reduce the risk of wildfires. Marnette Federis KQED -- 10/18/19

Teachers, low-wage workers are fleeing SF. Housing ballot measure could change that -- As San Francisco’s housing-affordability crisis threatens to exile all but the most affluent, officials and advocates are straining to find ways to create more affordable housing. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

DMV awards multi-million dollar contract to Comcast for major tech upgrade -- The agreement, reached in August and launched in September, will allow Comcast to swap out the DMV’s computer network. It aims to improve the speed at which the department can use the Internet and process customer transactions. Bryan Anderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/18/19

Gulfstream Aerospace laying off workers in Long Beach, elsewhere -- Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. has cut its U.S. workforce by 446 jobs, including some reductions in Long Beach, as the company looks to align resources with its growth plan. In an email sent Thursday, company spokeswoman Heidi Fedak said the California layoffs were in Long Beach and Lincoln, which is in the Sacramento area. Kevin Smith in the Long Beach Press Telegram$ -- 10/18/19

Trump says China will buy $50 billion a year of U.S. agriculture. That’s not what China says -- According to the White House, a key part of Trump’s initial deal is China’s commitment to buy $40 billion to $50 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products. But nothing was written on paper, and China’s Commerce Ministry would not confirm that figure Thursday, saying instead purchases would be made according to Chinese market needs. Heather Long in the Washington Post$ -- 10/18/19

Defiant Zuckerberg Says Facebook Won’t Police Political Speech -- Senator Elizabeth Warren recently accused Facebook of being a “disinformation-for-profit machine.” Marc Benioff, chief executive of the online software maker Salesforce, said the social network “needs to be held accountable for propaganda on its platform.” And regulators around the world are examining whether to break the company up or clip its power. Under fire on all sides, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, went on the offense on Thursday against his critics. Cecilia Kang and Mike Isaac in the New York Times$ -- 10/18/19

Transit  

Light rail to Long Beach will reopen soon — but it won’t be called the Blue Line -- The oldest light-rail line in Los Angeles County will reopen next month with a new look and a new name. Portions of the 22-mile Blue Line have been closed since the end of January, when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority began a $350-million renovation. Laura J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

Earthquake

Unprecedented movement detected on California earthquake fault capable of 8.0 temblor -- A major California fault capable of producing a magnitude 8 earthquake has begun moving for the first time on record, a result of this year’s Ridgecrest earthquake sequence destabilizing nearby faults, Caltech scientists say in a new study released in the journal Science on Thursday. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

Newsom unveils nation's first earthquake warning system for public -- Three decades after the deadly Loma Prieta quake ravaged Northern California, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday unveiled the nation’s first comprehensive early warning system for earthquakes, calling it a cutting edge effort “the likes of which no country in the world has advanced." Carla Marinucci Politico Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/18/19

How Loma Prieta Changed Earthquake Science -- For so many of us, memories of the Loma Prieta quake crystallized around Candlestick Park, where Game 3 of the 1989 A's-Giants World Series was about to begin. Danielle Venton KQED -- 10/18/19

Education 

Former Pimco Chief to Plead Guilty in College-Admissions Case -- Douglas Hodge is accused of working with scheme’s ringleader to falsify his children’s applications for Georgetown, USC Jennifer Levitz and Melissa Korn in the Wall Street Journal$ Matthew Ormseth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

Cannabis 

Weedmaps, facing pressure to work only with legal cannabis shops, lays off a quarter of its workforce -- Two months after online cannabis directory Weedmaps promised it would stop listing illicit marijuana businesses, the Irvine-based company abruptly laid off 25% of its workforce. More than 100 people across the country, from a writer in Orange County to a policy expert in Massachusetts, were affected by Wednesday’s cuts. Brooke Staggs in the Orange County Register -- 10/18/19

Sacramento cannabis shop ‘stolen’ by rival while owner was in prison, lawsuit alleges -- A convicted marijuana kingpin. Allegations of a conspiracy to steal a pot dispensary and its Sacramento city license. And a man in a clown suit accused of assault with a beer bottle on Halloween night. These are keys in an ongoing lawsuit over the ownership of the Sacramento pot dispensary Twelve Hour Care Collective, or THC, which is co-owned by indicted Ukranian-born businessman Andrey Kukushkin. Sam Stanton and Theresa Clift in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/18/19

Immigration / Border 

Bay Area mother, detained by ICE for months despite winning asylum, released -- A San Bruno mother kept in ICE detention and denied bail for several months, even after winning her asylum case this spring, was freed Wednesday — though her case remains in limbo. Tatiana Sanchez in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/18/19

U.S. Marine veteran from Long Beach, Jose Segovia Benitez, gets last-minute reprieve from deportation -- U.S. Marine veteran Jose Segovia Benitez was on a plane, about to be deported to El Salvador, when his journey — and his exile — was put on hold. Segovia was pulled off the aircraft and his deportation was halted, at least for now, on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Roxana Kopetman in the Orange County Register -- 10/18/19

Health 

Doctor who performed unneeded procedures guilty in $12-million Medicare fraud scheme -- A federal grand jury found a Southern California doctor guilty of seven counts of healthcare fraud in connection with a $12-million scheme to perform unnecessary medical procedures on Medicare beneficiaries, officials announced Thursday. Dr. Donald Woo Lee, 54, of Temecula was also found guilty Wednesday of adulteration of a medical device. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/18/19

Environment 

Coastal Commission OKs tear-down of San Onofre, including spent fuel pools -- Impassioned activists beseeched the California Coastal Commission to spare San Onofre’s spent fuel pools from destruction, raising the specter of an “apocalyptic nightmare” — crippled canisters stuffed with dangerous radioactive waste, stranded on an abandoned beach because the pools that could have helped repair or repackage the spent atomic fuel no longer exist. Teri Sforza in the Orange County Register -- 10/18/19

POTUS 45  

‘Get over it’: Mulvaney’s twin admissions put Trump at the center of emoluments and Ukraine controversies -- First came the lengthy infomercial touting President Trump’s private golf resort in Florida as “far and away the best” site in the country to host next year’s Group of Seven summit of world leaders. Then, an admission: Trump did, in fact, withhold aid to Ukraine because he wanted the government there to investigate Democrats. For 39 minutes Thursday, White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney turned the press briefing room into a sort of confession chamber, openly admitting to several acts that could deepen the legal predicament for the president. Toluse Olorunnipa in the Washington Post$ -- 10/18/19

In ‘Cave-In,’ Trump Cease-Fire Cements Turkey’s Gains in Syria -- The cease-fire agreement reached with Turkey by Vice President Mike Pence amounts to a near-total victory for Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who gains territory, pays little in penalties and appears to have outmaneuvered President Trump. David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times$ -- 10/18/19

Three Pinocchios: President Trump’s claim that ‘when I came in, we had no ammunition’ -- This is a good example of how Trump’s most-repeated claims tend to become more exaggerated over time. The president has insisted in recent weeks that when he took office in 2017, the U.S. military brass told him there was no more ammunition. As the two quotes above show, the claim quickly grew from snowball to avalanche. Salvador Rizzo in the Washington Post$ -- 10/18/19

Beltway 

Failed Senate vote sets up big fight over border wall, budget -- The White House plans to play hardball on wall money, setting up shutdown fight in November. Erica Werner in the Washington Post$ -- 10/18/19

 

-- Thursday Updates 

Impeach Donald Trump billboard pops up in SF's Fisherman's Wharf -- Among the sea lions, crab cocktails and swarms of tourists in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood, a massive billboard featuring a steely-looking President Donald Trump popped up on Tuesday. The billboard at Mason and Jefferson streets is emblazoned with the word "Impeach' and was paid for by the California-based Courage Campaign that erected a similar billboard on the Bay Bridge in summer 2017. Amy Graff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/17/19

Ed Buck was known for his abrasive behavior. But politicians still took his money -- West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran said Ed Buck once hung an effigy of him in a park. Some municipal employees said they refused to meet alone with him, and he unnerved two political foes so much at council meetings that sheriff’s deputies accompanied them to their cars afterward. Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/17/19

How bad teeth and lack of dental care can lead to poverty, discrimination -- Some Californians on MediCal have resorted to pulling their own teeth. They try to access dental services over the years, but can't navigate the complicated system, and lose faith when their only option is teeth removal. Others struggle to find quality care from dentists who accept MediCal. Manuela Tobias Calmatters -- 10/17/19

Fox: Is it Time for a Homelessness Czar? -- The recent PPIC poll lists homelessness as the number one concern among Californians. No surprise, frustration dealing with the problem is growing not only for those who suffer homelessness but also for residents and business owners who are unhappy about the growing problem in their neighborhoods. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 10/18/19