Local:

  • A "severe" Red Flag Warning goes into effect at 11 pm Wednesday night for the East Bay hills and the interior ridges of the North Bay. Wind gusts up to 45 mph are expected, with gusts up to 60 mph possible at the ridge tops, leading to some PG&E public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) to lessen fire risks. [KRON4]
  • The San Quentin Rehabilitation Center has confirmed that a 38-year-old male inmate has a possible case of hantavirus, though they do not believe it was a case of human-to-human transmission. [ABC 7]
  • Dr. Maria Su, the superintendent of the SF Unified School District, appears to have survived her congressional hearing today, and did so without getting trapped into ugly culture-war exchanges with Republicans. [ABC 7]

National:

  • The trial of the arson suspect accused of sparking the blaze that led to the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles last year, 30-year-old former Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht, began today. Prosecutors say that Rinderknecht deliberately set the blaze in anger toward wealthy people, while his defense argues that fireworks set off by others in the area on New Year's Eve were more likely the cause of the larger fire. [LA Times]
  • It was Bill Gates's turn to testify before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, and he called his interactions with Epstein — which were allegedly mostly business-oriented — a "grave error." Gates also said that Epstein tried to use information about his extramarital affairs to gain leverage over him. [New York Times]
  • Governor Gavin Newsom and former VP Kamala Harris have broken their silence on the California governor's race, and both offered their full-throated endorsement of Xavier Becerra as the race has come down to one Democrat and one Republican in November. [California Post]

Video:

  • There's a whole subgenre of travel vlog now involving British people touring American cities and reviewing things, and here we have this one, from the YouTube channel "The Brits Try," in which British transplants to the US Nicola and Andrew, while on a road trip through San Francisco, manage to get a table off the waitlist at House of Prime Rib, which they call a "full-on American experience."

Photo by Spencer DeMera