• If you didn’t watch San Francisco's big official Independence Day fireworks display, KPIX has full video of the fireworks show. You may have watched some of the amateur fireworks like those seen below instead, and in the Mission District, the fireworks scofflaws were chased off by police only to reconvene again in different areas, as is often the custom on big fireworks nights. [Mission Local]
Tank Hill
byu/_raft_ insanfrancisco
  • Elsewhere across the Bay Area, there were more than 20 fires caused by fireworks, largely in the East Bay, but a couple in Santa Rosa too. Notably, Martinez saw a three-acre grass fire, and some residents of East Contra Costa County had to be evacuated from their homes. [KTVU]
  • California’s State Water Resources Control Board is imposing its first ever permanent water restrictions across the state beginning in 2027, and some cities may have to find a way to cut their usage by as much as 30%. The Bay Area will not be forced to cut our water usage by that much because we generally don’t use as much water, except for some East Bay towns like Discovery Bay, Martinez, Pittsburg, and Livermore, who could be forced to reduce their water use. [Chronicle]  
  • There’s yet another big wildfire raging in California, this one called the French Fire, and it's not far from Yosemite National Park. The French Fire is currently not as large as the Thompson Fire in Oroville, but it’s burned nearly 800 acres, and most of the town of Mariposa is under mandatory evacuation orders. [NBC News]
  • The annual July 4th Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest was missing San Jose’s Joey Chestnut after he was disqualified over a marketing dispute, so newcomer Patrick Bertoletti  won it by eating 58 hot dogs in ten minutes, but Chestnut won another contest elsewhere by eating 57 hot dogs in only five minutes. [USA Today]
  • Mark Zuckerberg was back on his eccentric billionaire behavior on Independence Day, posting an Instagram video of himself wakeboarding in a full tuxedo with an American flag in one hand a tallboy Coors Banquet beer in the other. [SFGate]  

Image: @alex_harmon via Twitter