• Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires jumped the freeway in Fairfield Wednesday evening and forced the closure of part of I-80. This happened near the Cherry Glen Road exit, leading to a large traffic backup, and homes were threatened in Fairfield's Paradise Valley neighborhood. The freeway reopened around 9 p.m. [Chronicle / ABC 7 / ABC 7]
  • A Vacaville-based PG&E worker assisting with first responders in the firefight died on Wednesday night. The identity of the worker and the circumstances of the death have not been revealed to the public. [ABC 7]
  • Energy officials say California's power shortages this week are the result of poor planning and needing adequate reserves for climate-change-related heat storms. The officials regret any accusation that wind and solar power are to blame for the current energy crisis, which has more to do with the inability to import power from other states that are also having heatwaves. [Chronicle]
  • Trump was asked point-blank in a press conference about QAnon conspiracy theorists, and his response was insane yet predictable. Trump gave a glancing answer saying "I’ve heard these are people that love our country," and refusing to deny the tenets of the conspiracy because "they do supposedly like me." [New York Times]
  • A four-alarm vegetation fire briefly closed the westbound lanes of I-580 in Oakland on Wednesday evening near Keller Avenue. [CBS SF]
  • Steve Bannon has been charged with fraud in New York in connection with the "We Build the Wall" group that he started with three other men — allegedly taking donations from immigration-fearing Americans for their own personal use. [New York Times]
  • Another San Quentin death row inmate, Dean Dunlap — convicted in the 1992 rape and killing of a nine-year-old girl — has died at an outside hospital, this time in San Bernardino, possibly of COVID-19. [CBS SF]
  • L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti cut the power to a Hollywood Hills mansion being rented by a trio of TikTok stars who have apparently been throwing illegal parties there. [New York Times]

Photo of fire crossing I-80 last night: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images