SF News PG&E Says Power Shutoffs Will Be Briefer, More Targeted This Year We all should know by now what PG&E's promises are worth. But the still-standing utility is making new pledges aimed at quelling the anger over public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) that seriously impacted many lives and businesses last fall.
SF News Monday Morning Headlines: Quail Fire Now 50-Percent Contained House and Senate Democrats kneel for George Floyd, two men were hospitalized after their boat capsized near Half Moon Bay, and a homicide investigation has prompted road closures in San Jose.
SF News PG&E Claims Wildfire Victims Have ‘Overwhelming’ Support for Half-Cash, Half-Stock Settlement Deal PG&E stock seems like pretty curious compensation for 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter, but victims do seem in favor of the deal so they can finally get some renumeration.
SF Politics Newsom Vows to Holds PG&E’s Feet to the Fire as Wildfires and COVID-19 Collide Gavin has strong words for PG&E (but evasive words for Elon Musk’s defiance) as wildfire season is underway in the age of coronavirus.
SF News Sonoma County and Others Begin Imagining Fire Season With Coronavirus Given that we do not know how long the coronavirus pandemic will remain a threat in the Bay Area — or if it may decelerate and resurge later in the year the way influenzas do — cities and counties have to begin planning for fire season in an entirely new way.
SF News Utilities Commissioner Suggests Revoking PG&E's License to Operate In a new 16-page proposal that's now under review by the powerful California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the commission president is suggesting several milestones for PG&E to reach as it emerges from bankruptcy.
SF News Mid-February Wildfire Spreads to 120 Acres In Tahoe National Forest, Concerning Fire Experts The Antelope Fire broke out Monday along Highway 49 in Sierra County, north of Sierraville in Tahoe National Forest, and it quickly spread to 120 acres before firefighters could contain it.
SF Politics New Bernie Sanders Ad Specifically Comes After PG&E A new three-minute ad from the Bernie Sanders campaign is squarely aimed at Democratic voters in California, and makes the case that only Sanders will have what it takes to fight corporate interests like PG&E that value profits over human life.
SF News Gavin Newsom Rejects PG&E Bankruptcy Plan Pacific Gas and Electric has until Tuesday to submit another revised restructuring plan to emerge from bankruptcy after what the Sacramento Bee calls a "stunning rebuke" by Governor Gavin Newsom.
SF News Audit Finds PG&E Diverted $123 Million From Power Line 'Undergrounding' PG&E can’t account for what it actually did with that $123 million, which was supposed to be spent on building underground power lines less prone to starting wildfires.
SF News PG&E Reaches $13.5 Billion Settlement for Victims of Wildfires, Ghost Ship Fire PG&E announced Monday that it had reached a settlement valued around $13.5 billion to compensate victims of wildfires in 2015, 2017, and 2018 that have been linked to the utility's equipment, as well as to families of the victims of the 2016 Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland.
SF News Elected Officials Statewide Push for Consumer Takeover of PG&E PG&E would be radically transformed into a customer-owned co-op under a new plan being pushed by more than 100 California elected officials.
SF News Despite No Weather Changes, PG&E Changes Its Mind Again About Alameda County, Lamorinda Shutoffs The messaging game remains fraught with flip-flopping over at PG&E as the company announced Tuesday afternoon that conditions are "changing" and some 12,000 power customers in Alameda County who were told Monday they'd be losing power Wednesday are now not expected to do so.
SF News Camp Fire Anniversary Marked With Stories Of Rebuilding, and Mystery Man's Remains One year ago today, the ferocious Camp Fire broke out in the forested hills east of Concow and Paradise, California. And marking the anniversary the local media has published dozens of stories checking back in on the survivors and the rebuilding effort.
SF News Kincade Fire Containment Rises To 68 Percent As Remaining Hot Spot Burns In Lake County Firefighters added another eight percent to their containment of the Kincade Fire on Thursday and into Friday morning, aided by cool weather and calm winds. And the number of homes destroyed has risen from 141 to 167, as property owners continue to assess and report damage.
SF News Kincade Fire 60 Percent Contained, No Growth Overnight With the winds disappearing, firefighters got a firm handle on the massive Kincade Fire in Sonoma County, which has now burned 120 square miles. Growth has slowed to a crawl, and Cal Fire says there was no growth Wednesday or overnight into Thursday.
SF News Here's What the Kincade Fire Looks Like From Space NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan just tweeted several photos he captured of the smoke from the Kincade Fire as seen from the International Space Station this morning.
SF News Winds Prove Not Catastrophic; Kincade Fire Reaches 30 Percent Containment Fears of an overnight explosion in new fire lines amid intense wind conditions proved unfounded late Tuesday and early Wednesday, and while we aren't out of the woods yet, the Kincade Fire may finally be coming under control.
SF News Time Magazine Posts Fake-News Tweet About San Francisco Being On Fire The digital-media staffers over at Time Magazine just illustrated the perils of reporting on breaking news via Twitter, without fact-checking, via a mislabeled and mis-captioned video. And ironically, Marc Benioff owns Time now!
SF News Kincade Fire Containment Rises to 15 Percent Ahead of Wind Resurgence Sonoma County's massive Kincade Fire grew to 75,415 acres in its fifth day, growing in footprint by around 9,000 acres, but picking up thousands of acres in containment lines to reach 15 percent containment during relatively calm winds on Monday.
SF News New Round of PG&E Blackouts Likely To Begin Tuesday At Noon A fresh round of public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) is expected to begin Tuesday afternoon and last until Wednesday morning — and for some who lost power over the weekend, they may not be seeing it turned on again until this next "wind event" dies down.
SF News Here's An Auto-Updating Fire Map of Sonoma County and All of California It remains a dynamic situation in northern Sonoma County where the Kincade Fire more than doubled in size Sunday night in terms of acreage burned and burning.
SF News Air Quality Declines As Winds Move Wildfire Smoke Inland The air quality around the Bay, and particularly for inland towns southeast of the Kincade Fire, will be getting worse throughout the day on Monday as wind patterns shift back to the normal onshore flow.
SF News Two Sunday Fires In Lafayette Appear To Have Been Caused By PG&E Equipment Despite the power being shut off to surrounding areas in the East Bay on Sunday, live wires in an area that was not part of the shutoff in Lafayette appear to have been the cause of two separate fires.
SF News Kincade Fire Doubles In Size, Moves Into Tubbs Fire Territory Overnight With winds whipping it up and pushing it further south, the Kincade Fire in northern Sonoma County grew to 66,000 acres and began spreading into areas around Santa Rosa that burned in the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
