- Two more small wildfires broke out Wednesday, leading to evacuations in Grass Valley and Vallecito. The Bennett Fire, near Grass Valley, reached 59 acres and was already 60% contained as of Wednesday night; the Airola Fire in Calavares County quickly grew to 700 to 1,000 acres, and is 0% contained. [Chronicle]
- A 12-year-old boy was killed and a 19-year-old woman was injured after a freight train struck their car in Oakley. It was the second train collision in East Contra Costa County in the last few days. [KTVU / Chronicle]
- A California judge says she will hear testimony in a hearing early next year before deciding whether to grant a new trial to convicted killed Scott Peterson. Peterson was convicted in the 2002 killing of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and his attorneys now say that juror misconduct negatively impacted his right to a fair trial. [Associated Press]
- Caitlyn Jenner did a Republican thing and came to take a tour of SF's Tenderloin for the news cameras on Wednesday afternoon so she could decry how Newsom is "spending millions of dollars and getting no results whatsoever." [KRON4]
- VTA light-rail service is expected to return, in a limited way, this weekend — for the first time since the late-May mass shooting at a maintenance yard in San Jose — in time for the 49ers' pre-season game at Levi's Stadium. [Hoodline]
- Cajon Valley Union School District in San Diego says that 24 of its students and their families remain stuck in Afghanistan after taking summer trips there to visit family. [CNN]
- British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said Thursday that "There is now very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack" by ISIS-K on the Kabul Airport. [CNN]
- A UC Irvine professor of psychiatry has filed a lawsuit challenging the UC vaccine mandate, saying that he should be considered "naturally immune" from COVID-19 because he was infected last year. [East Bay Times]
Photo: Piotr Musiol
