J.D. Morris
@thejdmorris
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@sfchronicle SF City Hall reporter focused on Mayor Daniel Lurie. alum of @northbaynews @lasvegassun @dailycal. California grown 🏳️🌈
San Francisco
Joined February 2011
since the Las Vegas mayor is making national news, I want to remind folks who don't know the area well that she has little control over the Vegas Strip. Most of the Strip casinos (except the Stratosphere) are in unincorporated Clark County, not the city of Vegas.
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when I was in middle school, my parents bought season ticket seats at the SF Giants ballpark. I inherited Dad’s share of them when he died in June. coming back here today, and sitting in these seats where I grew up, makes me feel so close to him. love you Dad and @SFGiants
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flames spreading toward east Santa Rosa while the entire town of Paradise gets an evacuation warning. the two California communities most badly burned in 2017 and 18 now threatened again, simultaneously. I feel ill. #GlassFire #ShadyFire #NorthComplexWestZone.
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BREAKING: California officially finds PG&E responsible for the Dixie Fire, the second-largest wildfire in the state's recorded history that destroyed more than 1,300 structures, including most of the Plumas County town of Greenville.
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On Friday I got engaged to the love of my life, André Louis. He proposed at Pfieffer Beach in Big Sur, a spot where my parents used to take my brother and me when we were kids. I am ecstatic to marry him 🥰💕
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U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who's overseeing PG&E's probation, is ordering the utility to respond to this @WSJ story *paragraph by paragraph* by July 31: h/t @KatherineBlunt & @russellgold
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NEW: crowd at SF City Hall chants "Free Palestine" moments after the Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 in favor of a resolution calling for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza.
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Crying. Shaking. Thank you
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professional update: we're creating a new @sfchronicle reporting team focused on climate change and I'm one of its members. I'll still write about energy, but with a broader focus on policy, green tech, decarbonization and disasters — namely fires but also EARTHQUAKES.
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BREAKING: SF supervisors just voted 7-4 in favor of Mayor Breed’s ordinance to permanently ban cars from 1.5 miles of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park. Supes Chan, Walton, Safai and Peskin dissented.
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SF supervisors just voted 7-4 to send a recall reform measure to the June 7 ballot. among other things, it would prohibit recall elections within 1 year of the regular election for the office in question. that would have applied to the school board recall vote today.
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BREAKING: SF supervisors just voted 7-4 to put a measure on the November ballot that would move mayoral elections to presidential election years starting in 2024. The stated goal is to boost turnout, as sponsor @DeanPreston stressed in this graphic today
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“I will never stop living in the woods,” Lenny said. “. You can be where there are earthquakes, tornadoes. Here it’s fires. We’ll rebuild, but we’ll do it different.”. @juliejohnson on the #CaldorFire aftermath for one Grizzly Flats family:.
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the last time I saw my father, one year ago, he complained that someone swiped his Sunday @sfchronicle. he died 4 days later. so today, in his memory, I wrote about him on the Sunday front page. Happy heavenly Father's Day, Dad .
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My father, Davyd Roy Morris, died unexpectedly on Thursday at his home in San Francisco, the same city where he was born 65 years ago. He was a wonderful, remarkable person. I am gutted and devastated by his untimely departure from this world.
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BREAKING: The @californiapuc just announced it will consider whether PG&E should replace board directors, get new management, split its gas and electric operations into separate companies and/or become a publicly owned utility. Happy Friday news dump before Christmas!!
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NEW: PG&E wants to bury 10,000 miles of power lines underground in high-risk California fire zones in the coming years, CEO Patti Poppe just announced at a Chico news conference. story TK @sfchronicle.
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Sumeet Singh, the PG&E exec in charge of the company’s wildfire safety program, told me the company is shutting off some of its high voltage transmission lines — up to 115,000 volts. That’s the kind of line that started the #CampFire last year. Cc #energytwitter
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this is horrifying.
JUST IN: The fast-growing Creek Fire in Fresno County has trapped about 1,000 people near Mammoth Pool reservoir. Unable to evacuate, they've been told to shelter in place and to jump in the reservoir if necessary.
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11:30 a.m. in San Francisco. this hellscape is exactly what I’ve been dreading since we got 0 inches of rain in February, normally the wettest time of year. but seeing the fire season get just as bad as I feared, and worsening, is agonizing. I don’t know what else to say
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lmao the site of the former Gingerbread Monolith at Corona Heights Park now features a framed photo of the felled monolith in question, plus some ginger and cinnamon. a lil SF Christmas 2020 shrine
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PG&E’s Singh just confirmed to us that power may not be fully restored until Monday or Tuesday. They have to inspect all their lines for damage — like trees and broken poles that could start a fire when it’s turned back on — before restoring. More:
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job update: my @sfchronicle beat change is no longer temporary. I'm covering SF City Hall, focused on the Board of Supervisors, indefinitely now. this is not at all what I thought I'd be doing even a few months ago but I'm excited!.
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Scoop: San Francisco has offered to buy PG&E power lines and other related equipment for $2.5 billion. The city would form California's third-largest government-run electric utility, after Los Angeles and Sacramento, if the deal goes through.
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BREAKING: SF supervisors will NOT landmark the Castro Theatre's 800 orchestra seats, a win Another Planet Entertainment, which wants to remove them and turn the theater into a multipurpose venue. story TK @sfchronicle.
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EXCLUSIVE: PG&E gas officials wined and dined with top customers in Sonoma County just before their colleagues cut power to hundreds of thousands of customers and on the 2-year anniversary of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.
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I deleted this app from my phone for the past two weeks, so I'm a little behind, but I can confirm this news reported by @politicoca last Monday 🙂💍
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BREAKING: Leanna Louie does NOT meet the residency requirements to run for San Francisco supervisor in District Four, according to the City Attorney's Office. story TK @sfchronicle.
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applauding and cheering for healthcare workers just now. brought some grateful tears to the eyes of my nurse boyfriend. thank you San Francisco 💙
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trying to let myself enjoy SF’s “nice weather” today and not dwell on the fact that it hasn’t rained since December, this should be the wettest part of the year, and California’s Mediterranean climate means that it will be dry this summer and early autumn no matter what 😬.
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that said there are a ton of casinos in the city of Las Vegas, including all of downtown on Fremont Street.
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Happy SF Pride everyone!! . I have been out for 10 whole years now. I used to think I had to tone down my gayness at times because most examples of Serious News Reporters I saw were straight people. One of my greatest lessons was realizing that was total B.S. you do you 🌈🌈🌈
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BREAKING: Just as new PG&E CEO Bill Johnson starts testifying in the state legislature, Cal Fire officially announces PG&E caused the #CampFire, the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history. Stories TK @sfchronicle
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Personal news: On Nov. 12 I will join the @sfchronicle as a business reporter covering energy, including PG&E and Tesla. I’m sad to leave @NorthBayNews, which has been so wonderful to me these past 2 years. But I’m stoked to join the great team in SF too. Can’t wait to start!.
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today is my first day working again since my dad died suddenly last month. I needed a while to sort out his affairs, plan his funeral and process my grief. I’m not done with all that yet but I feel ready — and eager — to dive back into my job now.
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BREAKING: PG&E will sell its downtown San Francisco headquarters and move to Oakland starting in 2022. The company has been headquartered in SF for 115 years. $PCG w/ @rolandlisf:
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BREAKING: in a 5-4 vote, San Francisco's Redistricting Task Force just rejected its controversial final draft map of city supervisor districts. the task force is now poised to blow past its charter-mandated deadline for putting new districts in place (11:59 p.m. tomorrow).
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nearly half of Monterey County's COVID-19 cases are in 2 Salinas ZIP codes where many farmworkers & their families live. they kept laboring when the pandemic arrived — and when the heat & wildfire smoke came too. welcome to the US "salad bowl" in 2020:.
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Also he said PG&E is going to try to get backup power secured to keep the Caldecott Tunnel open. Caltrans has said the major East Bay route will close tomorrow without electricity.
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Judge Alsup asks of PG&E lawyer why it paid $4.5B to company owners in recent years when that money could have been used to trim trees. "Why is it PG&E always say safety is our number one thing . it's not really true," he says.
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“How do I explain to my 3-year-old that we basically destroyed the planet?" Asm. @BuffyWicks.said of Orange Day. Wicks is familiar w/ fire season — her dad worked for the Forest Service in the Sierras. but the fires are orders of magnitude worse now.
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Confirming the WSJ's reporting, San Jose Mayor Liccardo's push to turn PG&E into a customer-owned co-op now has support from 20+ mayors, including:. -Oakland.-Berkeley.-Sacramento.-Hayward.-Richmond.-Stockton.-Chico.-Redding.-Petaluma.-Sonoma.-Santa Cruz.
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I’m working overnight because of the extremely dangerous wildfire weather descending on the Bay Area and the rest of Northern California. for all our sakes, I hope it’s a relatively quiet shift @sfchronicle 🤞🤞.
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BREAKING: SF will let Another Planet Entertainment remove the Castro Theatre’s fixed orchestra seats. a city commission just OK’d a certificate allowing APE to replace the seats w/ motorized platforms so the theater can host standing-room crowds in addition to film screenings.
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recent California wildfires have burned more than 771,000 acres, an area larger than Rhode Island. it's also larger than the state's total acres burned in 6 of the last 10 years by my count. and the most dangerous fire-prone period (Sept & Oct, possibly Nov) is still ahead.
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PG&E just launched a new website to provide information about its forced power outages because the regular company site kept slowing and crashing. This is what happens when you click on the new site right now. #pgeshutdown #pgeoutage
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language guidance from @sfchronicle editor in chief @garciaruize says we call those storming the US Capitol a mob when referring to them as a group. rioters when referring to individuals.
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NEW: on a press call now, the Santa Clara County health officer said the COVID-19 variant rising in CA was found in the Kaiser San Jose outbreak that infected 40+ people. officials don't yet know if that explains why the outbreak was so large.
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Updated power shutoff times from PG&E. Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano and south Mendocino counties are set to lose power starting at 6. But the company says times could move earlier or later "dependent on weather". #PGEshutoff #kincadefire.
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Northern California, we should be treating the Sunday night forecast like we’re watching a Category 4 or 5 hurricane head our way. prepare accordingly and check on your loved ones.
Confidence increases regarding a significant offshore flow event late in the weekend - not just strong winds, but the very dry airmass with it. Comparing offshore gradients SFO-WMC. (1/4).2017 Wine Country Fires -17.8mb.2019 Kincade -16.3mb.2020 Model Fcst Sunday night -18 -20mb.
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on a press call now, @California_ISO CEO Steve Berberich said "renewables are really not a factor" driving the blackouts. "It's simply a matter of raw capacity," he said, calling for "an overbuild of renewables and a fairly extensive deployment of batteries.".
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now that @MattHaneySF won the Assembly race, I asked his chief of staff @honeymahogany if she wants to succeed him on the Board of Supes. "there's more to be done and I would be honored to be part of that work moving forward," Mahogany said. she'd be SF's first trans supervisor.
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BREAKING: The Chronicle projects @joelengardio has won election to the SF Board of Supervisors, defeating incumbent @d4gordonmar in a close race to represent the Sunset. Engardio is the first person in 20 years to unseat a previously elected SF supervisor.
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one year older today. I am not from San Francisco, but it’s always been a part of my life for familial reasons. grateful to be here now — and yes, I really was born this gay 🌈
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It is a scientifically proven fact about journalism that the second a reporter steps away from their desk, or merely looks away from their phone/computer, is the precise moment when the source they have been waiting for finally calls them back.
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just felt water falling from the sky for the first time in many months. after covering this horrible fire season, breathing the smoke and seeing the devastation it brought, I BEAMED underneath my mask. CA has huge mudslide risks ahead, but the burning should subside — for now.
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OMG this is peak Sonoma County.
'Power’s out? Party’s on': Another craft brewery makes PG&E-themed beer
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today Dad’s longtime roommate, Javier, ran the #SFmarathon. Dad had encouraged him to do this and made plans to root for him in person. But Dad’s in heaven now, so I went instead. Dad would be SO proud of Javi for finishing. I am too ♥️
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wow. PG&E and others have paid for a bunch of these cameras since 2017, when the North Bay firestorm caused widespread destruction partly because authorities had no "eyes in the sky." . now those eyes are burning up.
It appears we have lost the Bonny Doon camera aswell due to the #CZUAugustLightningComplex, hasn't updated in 3-4 minutes. Third time in 24 hours fire has directly impacted a fire camera site.
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NEW: a PG&E error may have played a role in causing the Aug. 15 rolling blackouts in California. the company mistakenly told a 400MW power plant in Fresno County to scale back when it should have told a different plant to scale UP. more:.
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**professional update** . I've started a new @sfchronicle role reporting on #coronavirus drugs, vaccines and treatment research. my first story on the subject is publishing Sunday and I'm excited for you to read it!. (and yes, I'm still covering PG&E too.).
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BREAKING: Cal Fire has taken possession of PG&E power equipment as it investigates the cause of the 56,338-acre #ZoggFire in Shasta County, which has destroyed 204 buildings and killed 4 people. story coming @sfchronicle.
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numerous wildfires are burning California after a freak late summer lightning storm rolled through during an extreme heat wave that followed a very dry winter in most places. our electric grid is buckling. and COVID-19 persists. I hate 2020 so f***ing much.
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a thing about grief that I was not prepared for is that feeling you get when some really good stuff happens in your life and you want so badly to share it with the person who's gone. the phone call you can't make, the visit you can't have. it sucks a lot!!.
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PG&E power shut-offs could get even worse in the coming days. The company's seven-day shut-off forecast shows an "elevated" likelihood of outages in EIGHT/NINE ZONES on Sunday and Monday.
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I don't even know where to start with this but no, this is not an accurate way to summarize the rolling blackouts in California.
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the scene at SF City Hall not long after Supervisor Dean Preston introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. the line for public comment is so long it goes from the supes chambers across the rotunda, past the mayors office and back around to the supes chambers
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San Francisco Mayor London Breed just told the Board of Supervisors that she talked to business leaders about "the state of our city" during an out-of-state trip last week. "I'm proud to represent our city, but sadly, we had some hard conversations," Breed said.
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every year Dad would make a bourbon pumpkin cheesecake on Thanksgiving. tonight I’m grateful that, last year, I got to talk to him on the phone as I made it myself for the first time. I made it again in his memory this week ♥️
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Left: The PG&E hook that broke and led to the Camp Fire. Right: Another worn hook on the same high-voltage power line, a photo of which PG&E just provided to a federal judge.
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officials say the #CaldorFire in El Dorado Co. has so far remained on the south side of Hwy 50. hasn't crossed it yet but it's a couple hundred yards away. lately it's been spreading east, away from structures, with favorable weather today, per briefing just now.
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NEW: PG&E says it will shut off power to 800,000 customers as soon as midnight. The list now includes 34 counties, with Kern, Humboldt, Trinity and Marin having been added to the list. We're updating here:
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SF Mayor Breed on DA recall: “This does not mean that criminal justice reform in San Francisco is going anywhere.” But she says voters want to see consequences for when people break the law. She said “a lot of people” have reached out to her about the DA appointment
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my boyfriend is a nurse and he got his first vaccine shot yesterday, a fact he surprised me with when he got home. it was an early Christmas present that I’m still giddy about. the end to this pandemic is coming, folks. hang in there and stay safe 💜.
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BREAKING: The Sonoma County District Attorney has filed criminal charges against PG&E over the October 2019 Kincade Fire, which destroyed 374 buildings and burned 78,000 acres east of Geyserville. story TK @sfchronicle.
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It’s my first night living in San Francisco! My fortune cookie at dinner told me “health and happiness are in your destiny.” So I bought a box of It’s-Its. Am I doing it right?.
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the Venn diagram of people who inaccurately complain about the news not covering things and people who don’t subscribe to any of their local news outlets is just a circle.
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BREAKING: California electric grid managers are warning of potential rolling blackouts as a punishing heatwave assaults the state, causing energy use to spike.
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over the weekend, we gave my dad the proper San Francisco sendoff he deserved, concluding by scattering his ashes yesterday just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. it was the most profound and cathartic experience of my life.
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I found the transcript of the moment I became part of the official court record in PG&E's bankruptcy case
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BREAKING: Cal Fire confirms PG&E power lines started last year's #KincadeFire near Geyserville, the state's largest wildfire of 2019. The agency has forwarded its investigative report to the Sonoma County DA. story TK @sfchronicle.
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non-West Coasters: imagine if somewhere ~90 minutes’ drive from downtown Houston got hit by a Category 4 hurricane one year, then a Cat 2 two years later and two Cat 3 or 4’s 1 month apart the year after. that’s similar to what’s happened with Wine Country fires. #GlassIncident.
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really need a new word for “enjoying today’s weather but feeling simultaneously anxious about its medium- to long-term climate impacts”
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tomorrow online @sfchronicle will publish a story I’ve been working on with colleagues for a month and a half. it’s a long read about the California wildfire crisis — and how it’s reshaping a treasured place at a crucial moment in time. I really hope you’ll read it.
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as hundreds of Aaron Peskin supporters gather in Chinatown's Portsmouth Square for his mayoral campaign announcement, about 30ish anti-Peskin demonstrators have been protesting his candidacy -- led by Mark Farrell's campaign manager Jade Tu
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"wildfire season" was not really a thing when I grew up in Monterey County, where three dangerous fires are burning now, including the #RiverFire and the #CarmelFire. now it's an annual nightmare, especially in the North Bay's wine country. this is climate change.
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this is my mom’s very apt 2020 Christmas card. she is a doctor who’s cared for pregnant patients, including those with COVID-19, at various California hospitals this year. needless to say, I can’t wait for her to be vaccinated.
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BREAKING: PG&E's top gas exec is gone from the company as of today. He attended last week's badly-timed winery retreat on the eve of PG&E's mass power outage and 2-year anniversary of the North Bay fires.
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I stayed home for Thanksgiving and made the bourbon pumpkin cheesecake my dad usually serves. I’ll let my face in this photo tell you how good it was
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One by one, the judge read aloud the names of 84 Camp Fire victims as PG&E's outgoing CEO responded with "guilty, your honor." . w/ @lizziejohnsonnn:.
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UPDATE: everyone on the California side of Lake Tahoe's south shore, including the entire city of South Lake Tahoe, is now under an evacuation WARNING because of the #CaldorFire.
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Interesting fact I learned at a PG&E bankruptcy-related meeting just now: The company owns negative-sounding domain names such as pgefailure dot com and pgeguilty dot com, according to the US Trustee.
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Know who else is worried about the #coronavirus outbreak colliding with fire season? Sen. @KamalaHarris, who I interviewed today:
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"Members of the Police Commission have gone way too far," Mayor Breed says at Alamo Square presser announcing March 2024 ballot measure to roll back the commission's limits on police vehicle pursuits, among other things. Details:
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so proud of @lizziejohnsonnn, whose long-awaited book about the 2018 Camp Fire is out today. her source notes are about 50 pages long — just one sign of how hard she worked on this account of a historic California disaster that remains highly relevant today.
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