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Power outages possible in North Bay as warm, dry winds raise fire danger -- Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials weren’t ready to call for power shut-offs Monday morning, but they’re watching weather conditions and advising customers in parts of four North Bay counties and 13 others that electricity could be cut Wednesday or Thursday. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ Thy Vo in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/21/19

Brush fire in Pacific Palisades threatens homes as residents flee -- Firefighters were battling a fast-moving brush fire that has grown to 30 acres and was threatening homes in Pacific Palisades, officials said. Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

San Jose to Propose Turning PG&E Into Giant Customer-Owned Utility -- San Jose, California’s third-biggest city, is proposing to convert PG&E Corp. into the country’s largest customer-owned utility, its mayor told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Rebecca Smith in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 10/21/19

A Year After Fire Destroyed Paradise, a Gutsy Group Fights to Rebuild -- Public schools Supt. Michelle John greeted a gym full of teachers for a kickoff breakfast a day before the start of the 2019-2020 school year. She spoke of loss, perseverance and duty. Erin Ailworth in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 10/21/19

Sports betting slow in coming to California: Here’s what it might look like -- A year and a half after a Supreme Court decision legalized sports betting across the country, California so far stands pat — not yet letting state residents get in on the action and leaving potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue on the table. Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

George Gascón was a progressive DA in progressive San Francisco. Why did he make so many enemies? -- George Gascón was a progressive district attorney in a progressive city, driving changes that favored rehabilitation over punishment for criminal offenders. As a former police chief, he had experience running a big law enforcement organization. And when he was appointed nearly nine years ago, he enjoyed the support of the mayor, Gavin Newsom, who tapped him to replace Kamala Harris. Evan Sernoffsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

‘Blatantly racist’ billboard attacking SF Mayor London Breed slammed by local leaders -- Ellen Lee Zhou, a self-described conservative who’s a member of the National Rifle Association and a city social worker, paid for the billboard as part of her mayoral campaign. She’s defended the billboard as fair political speech, according to media reports. Michael Cabanatuan and Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

How affordable housing activists are trying to thwart cutthroat real estate capitalism -- Oliver Burke could have joined his Silicon Valley counterparts who cashed in precious stock options and pumped their newfound riches into start-up businesses, bigger houses and fancier cars. Instead, he looked at the wreckage just beyond the glistening tech world — the tent cities beside seemingly every freeway onramp, the destitute neighborhoods — and decided to take a different path. James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

They paid $800 a month to live without water or power in an abandoned L.A. church -- The illegally converted church in South Los Angeles had no gas, water or electricity when Amelda Glaspie moved in. She and about 40 other tenants shared two kitchens, where roaches crawled among the dirty dishes and rotten food left in half a dozen refrigerators. Every day, Glaspie said, residents carted water from a nearby building in buckets to flush the toilets. Giulia MCDonnell Nieto Del Rio, Ruben Vives in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

Atherton mom who ‘gloated’ with daughter over SAT cheating to plead guilty -- An Atherton mother and financier’s wife said to have gloated with her daughter over SAT cheating has agreed to plead guilty today in the nationwide college admissions scandal, prosecutors said Monday. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/21/19

Levi’s Stadium: SF 49ers season tickets include unlimited food and drink -- A new member-inclusive menu featuring more than 15 of the most popular concessions items is being introduced at Levi’s Stadium for the San Francisco 49ers’ 2020 season. Season tickets will increase an average of $20 per ticket and will include unlimited beef and vegan hot dogs, sausages, garlic fries, pretzels, Pepsi soft drinks, Peet’s coffee, bottled water and more. Jessica Yadegaran in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/21/19

Goal! Sacramento is officially a Major League Soccer city -- Standing before a jammed shoulder-to-shoulder crowd in a banner-festooned downtown hall, a smiling MLS Commissioner Don Garber formally announced that a Sacramento investor group headed by business magnate Ron Burkle has been awarded the 29th and perhaps second-to-last franchise in the nation’s top professional soccer league. Tony Bizjak and Marcos Breton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/21/19

How Sacramento failed to monitor its cannabis storefronts, as the FBI steps in -- Sacramento’s legal marijuana business began as a loose-knit group of independently managed, nonprofit collectives dedicated to dispensing cannabis to patients with medical needs. Sacramento had a green future. Theresa Clift, Ryan Sabalow, and Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/21/19

As waters rise, so do concerns for sports teams along coast -- The infield is made of asphalt right now. So are the dugouts, the outfield and the stands. Someday this might be home to a baseball stadium, but today Howard Terminal is little more than a parking lot for 16-wheelers, populated by far more sea gulls than baseball fans. Rick Maese in the Washington Post$ -- 10/21/19

Fox: A Lesson in Real World Politics -- I guess I have to thank Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his office for providing a great example to support a lesson I teach my public policy classes—you must understand and deal with the politics surrounding any attempted policy change. In the case of the new title affixed to the recently filed split roll tax increase initiative, politics was in the mix to help the special interests and public unions advocating for the measure to get a step ahead. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 10/21/19

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Hillary Clinton feuds with candidate, trolls Trump before taking SF stage -- Hillary Clinton’s foray back into public life via a book tour with her daughter came through San Francisco on Sunday with starry-eyed supporters lining up by the hundreds to see the former presidential candidate. Evan Sernoffsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

PG&E monitoring winds, considering more shut-offs as Bay Area heats up -- Fire season isn’t over yet. Temperatures in the Bay Area are expected to rise through the week, peaking around Thursday. That prompted National Weather Service forecasters to say a high fire danger is possible in parts of the area because of dry conditions, high temperatures and winds. Alejandro Serrano in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

Skelton: There’s a new sheriff at the California Public Utilities Commission. PG&E better shape up -- There’s a new sheriff in town to regulate utilities and force them to toe the line in wildfire prevention and power shutdowns. She’s Marybel Batjer, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom recently appointed president of the California Public Utilities Commission. They don’t come much better in government. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

Walters: Banning not just a city’s name -- Banning is the name of a small city in Southern California, but also applies to a pervasive theme of the Legislature this year. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 10/21/19

Fire danger looms over Southern California as sundowner winds blow in -- Southern California remains on fire watch as warm temperatures, low humidity and strong northerly winds, known as sundowner winds, continue to pose a fire danger for much of the region on Sunday. Ruben Vives in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

California relishes role as liberal trendsetter, Trump foe -- The Democrats who rule California took on homegrown tech giants Uber and Lyft over their workforces, convinced some of the world’s biggest automakers to buck the president on fuel emissions and passed a law that could change college sports nationwide. Kathleen Ronayne Associated Press -- 10/21/19

During Trump protest on Santa Monica Pier, man sprays crowd with bear repellent -- During a scuffle on the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday between supporters and protesters of President Trump, a man wildly sprayed protesters with bear repellent, according to police and a video of the incident. Joel Rubin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/21/19

SF’s public housing was crumbling. Is a multibillion-dollar makeover the answer? -- In late October, 58-year-old Rodney Randolph will move down the hill from his public housing unit in San Francisco’s once notorious Sunnydale public housing project to a fifth-floor apartment in a new building just completed two blocks away. It’s a five-minute walk from the old spot to the new place. But it feels like a world away. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

For millennials, Bay Area home ownership a fading dream -- Among millennials surveyed, 3 in 10 expect to move elsewhere in the next year, and 4 in 10 live with a significant other — higher than any other age group. Many no longer believe home ownership is part of the American Dream. Louis Hansen in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/21/19

Illegal vapes traced to California woman who was CBD pioneer -- Some of the people rushing to emergency rooms thought the CBD vape they inhaled would help like a gentle medicine. Others puffed it for fun. What the vapors delivered instead was a jolt of synthetic marijuana, and with it an intense high of hallucinations and even seizures. Holbrook Mohr Associated Press -- 10/21/19

Schnur: Vaping is an increasing problem among young people. Here’s how we stop it -- In the last decades of the 20th century, society waged a political and cultural war to keep young people away from the health risks of tobacco. Today, a similar battle is underway against the next generation of smokers to discourage the use of battery powered e-cigarettes. Dan Schnur in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 10/21/19

CBDs: a ‘Wild West’ of wild claims -- Relatively unknown just a few years ago, CBD-infused balms, said to help relieve pain and anxiety, now are prominently displayed at CVS pharmacies and Sprouts groceries. CBD shops have opened in Old Town and Pacific Beach, while CBD tinctures, bath salts, vaping cartridges, transdermal patches and other items are hawked at gas stations, farmer’s markets and across the internet. Peter Rowe in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 10/21/19

Drug dealing in SF’s Tenderloin more organized than it looks on the streets -- Running a drug-dealing operation in San Francisco’s Tenderloin can be both murderous and mundane, with suspected ringleaders described as ordering hits on rivals or suspected informants, dealing with high rents and slogging through commuter traffic. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/21/19

Education 

East Bay district struggles with role of tutors in student learning -- To help struggling students succeed, one Bay Area school district created tutor positions more than a decade ago. Calling them ‘graduate tutors,’ West Contra Costa Unified placed them in schools where more than 60 percent of students were low-income, English learners or foster youth. Theresa Harrington EdSource -- 10/21/19

POTUS 45  

Why Trump Dropped His Idea to Hold the G7 at His Own Hotel -- He knew he was inviting criticism by choosing his own luxury golf club in Miami for the site of a gathering of world leaders at the Group of 7 summit in June, President Trump told his aides opposed to the choice, and he was prepared for the inevitable attack from Democrats. But what Mr. Trump was not prepared for was the reaction of fellow Republicans who said his choice of the club, the Trump National Doral, had crossed a line, and they couldn’t defend it. Maggie Haberman, Eric Lipton and Katie Rogers in the New York Times$ Toluse Olorunnipa, Josh Dawsey and David A. Fahrenthold in the Washington Post$ -- 10/21/19

Mr. Trump wrote a tweet about Mark Esperanto. His defense secretary is named Mark Esper -- Even for a president who often lards his online missives with typos, caps-lock abuses and errant exclamation points, Sunday’s Twitter missive on Syria contained an outsize number of errors. Katie Rogers in the New York Times$ -- 10/21/19

Beltway 

Mick Mulvaney's bad week just got worse -- Mick Mulvaney’s week went from bad to worse on Sunday, as he again tried to explain why President Donald Trump and the administration had withheld aid to Ukraine for weeks — one of Democrats’ central questions in their impeachment inquiry. Nancy Cook Politico Katie Rogers and Emily Cochrane in the New York Times$ -- 10/21/19

 

-- Sunday Updates 

PG&E, under siege after mass power shut-offs, stands its ground -- PG&E Corp. admits it made big mistakes while cutting power to parts of more than 30 counties across California this month. But the perennially embattled San Francisco company does not regret shutting off hundreds of thousands of customer accounts. J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/20/19

Gov. Newsom’s cautious approach on California marijuana bums out cannabis advocates -- Gov. Gavin Newsom led the campaign to legalize marijuana in California three years ago but has since angered some in the industry by refusing to allow pot in hospitals and outlawing its use on tour buses and in limousines. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/20/19

California braces for deluge of child sex-assault lawsuits under new law -- Matt Smyth’s secret was revealed his senior year of high school with a knock on the front door of his family’s Fallbrook, Calif., home. Two plainclothes sheriff’s detectives were investigating reports that Smyth’s former assistant scoutmaster — the one who’d driven kids to Boy Scout meetings, chaperoned camp outs and hosted fishing outings on his bucolic property — had molested several boys. Kristina Davis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/20/19

SF voters will weigh $600 million affordable housing bond, the biggest in city history -- There’s a thorny problem at the heart of San Francisco’s efforts to build more affordable housing for low- and middle-income people: If the city stands any chance of creating more of it, it’s going to need money — a lot of it. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/20/19

H-1B: Uber snatches up more foreign-worker visas as it lays off hundreds of employees -- Uber has doubled the number of government approvals it has received to hire foreign workers through the controversial H-1B visa this year, while laying off hundreds of skilled employees, state and federal data show. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 10/20/19