- A forecasting model suggests there could be another 100,000 COVID deaths by December 1 if people everywhere in the U.S. don't wear masks in public. The country is averaging 1,100 new deaths per day in the Delta surge, and that is expected to rise to 1,400 per day before tapering off. [Associated Press]
- Air quality in the Bay Area is expected to remain "moderate" today, even as a plume of wildfire smoke has been pulled in over the area. The smoke is expected to remain aloft and just cause mostly hazy skies Friday. [CBS SF]
- State Senator Scott Wiener pulled his bill that would decriminalize some psychedelic drugs from consideration on Thursday, apparently because it lacked sufficient votes to advance in the legislature. Wiener plans to reintroduce the measure in January, saying, "psychedelics have shown great promise in treating mental health issues from PTSD to anxiety and depression." [Chronicle]
- A 20-year-old woman was killed and another woman wounded in separate, unrelated shootings in Oakland early Friday. [East Bay Times]
- Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted in the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, now 77, is up for parole for the 16th time today, and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon will not argue against his release — part of Gascon's policy against relitigating settled cases and leaving decisions up to the parole board. [ABC 7]
- Both the anniversary of 9/11 and a planned right-wing rally in D.C. in support of jailed January 6th insurrectionists have lawmakers and law enforcement on edge about potential political violence/domestic terrorism in the nation's capital. [CNN]
- President Biden has vowed retribution for ISIS-K following a deadly suicide attack at Kabul's airport that killed 13 American troops and at least 169 Afghan civilians on Thursday. [New York Times / Associated Press]
- Tropical Storm Ida in the Gulf of Mexico is shaping up to be a major hurricane, and it is potentially headed for the Louisiana coast. [CNN]
Top image via PG&E's Alert Wildfire cams.
