Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News Housing, Human Dignity And A ‘State of Emergency’

The push by Los Angeles officials to get Governor Newsom to declare a State of Emergency over homelessness is like a warning light flashing.

It draws our attention to a massive problem that people closed their eyes to for too long. But like any flashing light, the “State of Emergency” idea only helps us see part of the problem but not the whole—and ultimately it would deepen the quagmire and probably result in bigger and worse emergencies later.

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Then there are so-called “prevailing wage” (read: union scale) laws. Prevailing-wage mandates increased average California construction costs for affordable housing projects by between 10 percent and 25 percent, according to a May 2017 report from the California Center for Jobs and the Economy. In areas such as Los Angeles, PLAs could hike market-rate housing prices by as much as 46 percent. Then there are the endless faux-environmental lawsuits against residential construction, which are invited and inadvertently enabled by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). And the list of anti-housing obstacles goes on.

Read More [[link removed]] Former Stockton Resident Helps Connect The World At United

Experiences growing up shape a person’s future.

While a student at Lincoln High School in Stockton, Janet (Jones) Lamkin spent a semester in Mexico with other Spanish language class students.

“That was life-changing,” she said.

Perhaps exposure to life in a different country at a formative time fostered Lamkin’s appreciation of world cultures. Perhaps the trip played a role in her choosing political science and international relations for her undergraduate and master’s studies. Perhaps the trip explains, in part, why as California president at United Airlines she wants to help connect the world with business and leisure travelers from smaller, underserved markets.

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Lamkin sits on the boards of the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Business Roundtable, among other organizations. She was named one of the 100 most influential businesswomen in the Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times in 2002, 2003 and 2008. United is headquartered in Chicago, and Lamkin’s home offices are in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation U.S. Payrolls Grew By 128,000 In October Despite The GM Strike

U.S. employers hired at a solid clip in October, the latest evidence that the economy remains firmly in growth mode.

Employment grew by a seasonally adjusted 128,000 in October and job creation the prior two months was revised higher by 95,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. Last month, private-sector employers added jobs, including in health care and hospitality. The gains more than offset the impact of a strike at General Motors plants and drop in federal government jobs related to the Census.

The unemployment rate ticked up from a 50-year low to 3.6% in October, and wage growth remained steady, up 3% from a year earlier. Friday’s jobs report along with other recent economic news point to an economy that is growing at a stable but slower rate compared with 2018, despite signs of a global economic slowdown.

U.S. employers overall have added to payrolls for 109 straight months, by far the longest stretch of consistent job creation on record to 1939. Stocks climbed Friday after the October jobs figures comforted investors about U.S. growth.

Read More [[link removed]] U.S. Consumers Stay On A Spending Streak

Households increased spending heading into the fourth quarter, suggesting consumers have continued to help prop up U.S. economic growth.

Personal-consumption expenditures, or household spending, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% in September from August, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Outlays rose at a similar pace in August after growing more briskly in the first half of 2019.

Consumers are helping lift the economy while manufacturing and business investment falter. They are, however, spending at a less robust pace than last year, aligning with a broader slowdown in economic growth that economists expect to continue. A modest rise in labor costs also helped keep U.S. inflation low in September, suggesting a pickup in prices over the summer might have been short-lived.

Read More [[link removed]] Fed Cuts Rate For Third Time This Year, Signals Pause

The Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the third time this year but signaled it wouldn’t reduce them further unless the economy slowed sharply.

“The current stance of [interest-rate] policy is likely to remain appropriate” as long as the economy expands moderately and the labor market stays strong, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference Wednesday after the conclusion of a two-day meeting. He didn’t rule out additional cuts if that favorable outlook faltered.

The Fed’s rate-setting committee had said in June, July and September it would “act as appropriate” to sustain the economic expansion. The committee said instead on Wednesday that it would monitor economic activity as it “assesses the appropriate path” of rates.

Read More [[link removed]] The California Wildfires Hitting The Local Economy

Businesses are closing, homeowners evacuating and the local economy is in peril.

Winds calmed Wednesday, easing the dangerous fire conditions and allowing PG&E to shift its focus to getting the electricity back on. But the pain moved south, where several fires broke out amid high winds in the Los Angeles area forcing evacuations.

Utilities in Southern California have shut off power to 250,000 people, although PG&E does not service that area.

Here are some of the industries and people being impacted by the wildfires:

Homeowners

Perhaps one of the most notable impacts has been on homeowners. Thousands of Californians have been ordered to evacuate in the latest round of dangerous blazes.

Read More [[link removed]] How Much Will The PG&E Blackouts Cost? Ask A Shop Owner

YOLO is a frozen yogurt shop in San Anselmo, a tiny town in Marin County.

It is decorated to feel something like a child’s birthday party. It has board games for families to play while they enjoy flavors like cake batter or a dairy-free mango sorbet. The after-school hours are the shop’s busiest time because it’s down the street from an elementary school.

YOLO has four fro-yo machines. Their names are Jackson, Kyra, Luke and Zoe.

Over the past several days, though, Jackson, Kyra, Luke and Zoe have been out of commission, because Pacific Gas & Electric — the utility that YOLO’s owner, Daphne Moore, typically pays between $700 and $800 a month — cut power to a huge swath of California, including Marin County.

“It’s all still a bit of a fog,” Ms. Moore told me.

Read More [[link removed]] The Cost of Doing Business In California Is One Blackout A Week

It was only expected to happen a couple times a year -- and just as a last resort.

That’s what utility giant PG&E Corp. originally said 13 months ago when it outlined plans to stage mass blackouts in Northern California during strong winds, a desperate maneuver to keep its lines from sparking wildfires. Nobody anticipated that, over the course of less than three weeks this month, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses would have their service deliberately cut off, three times.

The count keeps rising. While PG&E has begun restoring electricity to more than 3 million people who lost power this weekend in the company’s biggest planned blackout yet, the bankrupt utility warned another round of gusts could spur more shutdowns Tuesday.

They are disruptive, to say the least. ATMs can’t operate. Restaurants close. Traffic lights go out. Businesses limp along on backup generators. The two stoppages so far cost various parts of the economy upwards of $3 billion, said Michael Wara, a professor at Stanford University.

And PG&E has said the outages may continue for a decade as it works to fireproof the grid.

Read More [[link removed]] California's "Fair Tax" Hike Spurred Taxpayer Exodus, Hurt Middle Class And Went Mostly To Pensions

California now has proof that taxing the rich caused the rich to leave, leaving the rest of the state’s taxpayers to pick up the tab.

A new paper by Stanford University researchers shows wealthy residents were about 40% more likely to leave after Californians in 2012 passed a progressive income tax hike. Those departures and other responses to higher taxes also eliminated 45.2% of the revenue the state expected to get from high earners.

California voters were persuaded to pass the Temporary Taxes to Fund Education, Proposition 30. It turned out the taxes were neither temporary nor did they fund education in the way voters expected. The rates are still in place and a Stanford University public policy expert determined all the education funding went to pensions rather than classrooms.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker finds himself in the same place as then-California Gov. Jerry Brown was in back in 2012 – trying to convince voters that a progressive state income tax hike will fix state finances in crisis. Brown claimed the burden of those tax hikes would only harm those earning $250,000 or more – the top 3% of earners. That’s exactly what Pritzker promises with his “fair tax” proposal.

Read More [[link removed]] California Destroys $1 Trillion Gig Economy With New Law

California isn’t shy when it comes to making the daily headlines. Often heralded as a progressive utopia, the Golden State recently signed into law Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), which will change the landscape of the gig worker economy. Stemming from the groundbreaking court decision established in Dynamex West Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, the California Supreme Court found Dynamex’s workers were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees.

In a unique twist, the court shifted the burden to the nationwide courier and delivery service to prove their drivers were not employees by using the “ABC test.” Under this new test, an individual is presumed to be an employee, unless the employer can prove all of the following:

(A) the worker is free from the company’s control (B) the worker performs work that isn’t central to the company’s business and (C) the worker has an independent business, trade or occupation in that industry.

Read More [[link removed]] Uber, Lyft To Campaign Against California Gig Economy Law

Four Silicon Valley giants that depend upon the gig economy to run their business have teamed up together to launch a statewide campaign against California’s AB 5 law.

What Happened

A union of businesses — including Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE: UBER), Lyft Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT), DoorDash and Instacart — and independent drivers announced a ballot measure on Tuesday against the law that will require companies to give the gig economy workers similar benefits as full-time employees.

As an alternative, the consortium is proposing a new “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act.” It claims the law will secure both minimum earnings guarantee and insurance for the drivers, but at the same time, allow them to have flexible work hours as independent contractors.

"Families across California are struggling to make ends meet, particularly people of color and lower-income individuals,” President of the National Action Network for Sacramento Tecoy Porter said in a statement. "This ballot measure will protect the rights of workers to earn extra income or primary income on their own terms while providing historic new earnings and benefit guarantees. This measure is a good deal for California workers.”

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change Several Automakers Back Trump In Two Other California Vehicle Emissions Suits

General Motors Co (N:GM), Toyota Motor Corp (T:7203), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (MI:FCHA) and other major automakers late Thursday sought to intervene on the side of the Trump administration in two additional legal challenges to its efforts to bar California from setting tailpipe emissions standards.

The two lawsuits, brought by California and 22 other states and environmental groups in September in U.S. District Court in Washington, challenge the administration's determination in September that California cannot set vehicle emission standards and zero-emission vehicle mandates.

Late Monday, the automakers and dealers sought to intervene in a separate suit filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by an environmental group, saying they backed the administration's bid to prohibit states from making their own emissions rules.

The decision to side with President Donald Trump brought thanks from the president on Wednesday and prompted a furious backlash from Democrats and environmentalists.

Read More [[link removed]] Jerry Brown Implores Washington To Act On Climate: 'California's Burning'

Former California Gov. Jerry Brown visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to give an impassioned plea for dramatic action to combat climate change, citing California’s wildfires as an example of the “life-and-death” stakes.

Accusing Republicans of being “flat Earth” science deniers, Brown defended California’s efforts to set higher fuel economy standards in the face of President Trump’s attempted rollback of such rules nationally, but called for far more sweeping steps as well.

“California’s burning while the deniers make a joke out of the standards that protect us all,” Brown said. “The blood is on your soul here and I hope you wake up. Because this is not politics, this is life, this is morality. ... This is real.”

Read More [[link removed]] Restaurants Put Climate Change On The Menu

San Francisco restaurateurs Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz may have been ahead of their time with their environmentally minded restaurant. The Perennial, which closed in February after three years of business in the city’s challenging Mid-Market neighborhood, tried to tackle climate change through hyperlocal sourcing, energy efficiency, an eco-conscious design, food waste prevention and consumer education, among other planet-friendly practices.

But the culinary couple, partners in life and work, haven’t lost their sense of urgency around global warming and how the restaurant industry could play a key role in combating the problem. Their latest climate change campaign with a culinary bent: an optional surcharge on California restaurant checks as part of a new public-private initiative supporting carbon farming practices that Myint and Leibowitz are leading called Restore California.

The pair came to realize that one restaurant alone can’t change the food system fast enough to make an impact on the climate crisis. It takes an international village of concerned culinary industry leaders, they say, to take on a topic that many diners and chefs can find tough to digest: the critical role that regenerative agriculture — think practices like composting and cover cropping — can play in mitigating the impact of global warming. In a state now suffering the wrath of hotter, drier weather in the form of larger, more frequent and more devastating wildfires, Myint and Leibowitz’s message has only taken on even more urgency.

Read More [[link removed]] White House Backing Off Proposed Fuel-Efficiency Freeze

The Trump administration is backing away from a plan to freeze tailpipe-emissions targets for new vehicles through 2025, say people familiar with the process.

The administration is now considering requiring a 1.5% annual increase in fleetwide fuel efficiency, using an industry measure that takes both gas mileage and emissions reductions into account, the people said. The target moves the number closer to the Obama-era rules calling for 5% gains but still provides auto makers with significant relief and would allow cars to emit more pollution.

The new final number for annual increases could change, as the rules remain under review, one of these people said. In addition, the administration’s number is expected to be challenged in court by California and other states, which favor tougher regulations.

Read More [[link removed]] Policymakers Played A Role In California’s Wildfire Issues

Making the click-through worthwhile: California burns, but the state’s politicians don’t want to look at the policy choices that led to this point; Kamala Harris starts to see that the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train; the U.S. Army feels compelled to respond to a presidential tweet; and Twitter announces a ban on political advertising that includes at least one glaring loophole.

Watching California Burn

It’s an overstatement to declare that progressivism or the Democrats ruined California — at least by themselves. But as the state burns from gargantuan wildfires, California Democrats are going to have to confront the fact that their state’s serious troubles reflect more than just bad luck. Policy decisions have consequences, and the full consequences are rarely seen clearly by advocates of particular policies.

New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo is in an apocalyptic mood about his home state, blaming the state’s worsening problems on “a failure to live sustainably.”

Read More [[link removed]] Workforce Development Shorter, Clearer (But Maybe Not More Transparent) School Accountability Plan Coming

With marching orders from the Legislature to create a parent-friendly document, the California Department of Education is in the final throes of designing another version — its fourth in 6 years — of the form that districts must use to explain how they’ll use funding from the Local Control Funding Formula. The formula covers about 80 percent of money they get from the state.

Lawmakers ordered the department to make the Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP, shorter, clearer and easier to read after receiving constant complaints. Parents and members of the public complained that the annual plans had grown in many cases to hundreds of pages in length with dense prose and off-putting acronyms.

District and county office of education administrators complained, too, for a different reason: They said that requirements from the department, the State Board of Education and the Legislature turned the LCAP into a turgid compliance document instead of a useful guide to improvement.

Read More [[link removed]] Reading Scores Drop In California, Most States In Much-Watched National Test

In 2017, California education leaders heralded the significant increase in the state’s 8th-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress as a sign that the state’s investment in education and its adoption of the Common Core standards had taken hold.

Curb that enthusiasm. In 2019, California’s 8th-graders gave back the gain, as did much of the nation, underscoring that progress on state and national standardized tests is best measured over a decade, not in single years.

The latest scores of NAEP, the closely watched national assessment taken by a sample of 4th- and 8th-graders in every state, showed that California largely followed the national pattern this year with little to no change in math but a significant decline in 8th-grade reading on a scale of 500 points.

Read More [[link removed]] University Of California Must Drop Admissions Tests, Civil Rights Groups Urge

Pressures are mounting on the University of California to drop the use of college admissions tests, with a new round of criticism from several civil rights organizations that the test is biased against low income, black and Latino students.

A coalition of organizations announced Tuesday that it would file suit against the university if UC does not drop the tests as a freshman application requirement.

The threat comes as a faculty committee of the ten-campus UC system is conducting a study about whether to continue requiring the SAT or ACT tests for admissions, eliminate them or somehow get the tests to change. A recommendation on those issues is expected to be released by spring 2020 and then go to the UC Board of Regents for a possible policy shift.

However, the organizations and individuals involved in Tuesday’s announcement said there is no valid reason to wait for that report. They said they have notified UC that, unless the university soon eliminates the testing requirement, they will file a lawsuit in state court claiming that the tests discriminate against African American, Latino and low-income students.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s Labor Secretary Envisions The Future Of Work

Governor Gavin Newsom has appointed a new commission to come up with a blueprint for what the future of work should look like in a complex state that leads in technological innovation yet has a housing crisis. If that sounds daunting, a statement from the commission reassures that “the technology may be different, but we have been here before.”

That reference to the past is a nod to the fact that this is not the first time a California governor has put into a place a commission to grapple with rapid innovations in technology and economic equality. Back in 1964 then-Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown created a commission to study and make recommendations about the future of work. It was called the California Commission on Manpower, Automation and Technology. “I believe that the promise of the new technology is greater than its peril,” Brown said at the time, adding, “It’s within our power to realize the promise. If we can create the new technology, then we can harness it. We can become its beneficiaries instead of its victims.” In 1964 one of the big concerns was automation causing job loss; today there are worries about workers being replaced by artificial intelligence and robots.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing More Private Companies Putting Big Money Into Housing Philanthropy

Plymouth Housing is a forty-year-old nonprofit that provides permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people in Seattle. It houses 1,000 residents in 14 buildings, a number of which are part of the historic architectural fabric of the downtown area, which the group has taken on the responsibility of rehabilitating or restoring. Last spring, the group launched a $75 million fundraising campaign, with plans to open eight new apartment buildings with homes and supportive services for 800 new residents. Within a few weeks, the group announced — somewhat to its CEO’s own surprise, according to reports — that it had already raised about two thirds of the money. Among the early donors were Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle’s two biggest tech companies, which each chipped in $5 million. Another $5 million came from Steve and Connie Ballmer, who became billionaires during Steve Ballmer’s time as CEO of Microsoft.

Plymouth Housing had gotten support from Microsoft and Amazon in the past, as well as from a range of corporations in Seattle, says Amanda Vail, the nonprofit’s communications and development manager. In fact, the first three big donors to its campaign were local hospitals, which recognize housing as a social determinant of health, and see supporting it as a complement to their mission, Vail says. As Seattle’s homeless population has grown, the whole region has been trying to figure out solutions, Vail says.

Read More [[link removed]] AGC Of California Launches 'Build California' Initiative

Associated General Contractors of California and the AGC Construction Education Foundation launched Build California, a comprehensive workforce development initiative created to inspire, engage, and activate the next generation of California's construction workforce.

"Developing our workforce isn't just a pillar of AGC of California's mission, it's essential to the future of our state," said Peter Tateishi, CEO of AGC of California. "Together with our partners, we've launched Build California, a workforce development initiative to change the future of construction. Rooted in research and focused on the future, Build California will reshape the perception of construction careers and cultivate a strong, steady workforce pipeline."

Despite increased media attention about career opportunities and existing workforce development efforts, young people simply aren't considering careers in the construction trades like generations before. According to a 2018 survey, only 9 percent of high school students are pursuing careers in the trades. That statistic, combined with AGC of America's recent survey showing 80 percent of contractors "report difficulty finding qualified craft workers to hire," shows a need to reinvest in efforts to appeal to young people.

Read More [[link removed]] $400M For Middle, Low Income SF Housing

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation during their meeting Tuesday that would create nearly $400 million in funding for housing for the city's middle to low-income workers. The Housing for SF Workers legislation, initially introduced by Supervisor Matt Haney, seeks to raise a 20-year-old impact fee that developers of new, large-scale office buildings pay to mitigate the housing need they create.

The new funding would not only create nearly 1,000 new units for middle to low-income workers, it would additionally help create 715 units for people experiencing homelessness and help with the acquisition of 150 units at risk of losing affordability, all within the next seven years.

"Over the past two decades, our housing crisis has been fueled by the city's failure to pay for critical housing for San Francisco's low and middle income workers," Haney said in a statement.

Read More [[link removed]] More L.A. Homes Could Be Rented Out On Airbnb. Tenant Activists Aren't Happy

Los Angeles could loosen one of the key restrictions in its new rules clamping down on Airbnb-type rentals, allowing people to host travelers in some units covered by the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

The Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which applies chiefly to older apartments in L.A., limits rent hikes annually for tenants. The City Council voted last year to ban such units from being offered up for short stays, part of a broader set of restrictions on short-term rentals. The rules formally went into effect in July, but the city said it would hold off on enforcing them until November.

Now L.A. leaders could ease some of those restrictions — an idea that has heartened some hosts but alarmed tenant advocates who fear it could create a loophole for landlords to exploit.

Under a proposal that received tentative approval Wednesday, Angelenos would be able to rent out a home for short stays, even if it is rent stabilized, as long as it is a unit that they own and occupy.

The City Council voted 14-0 Wednesday after a short discussion to back the recommended changes and ask the city attorney to draft an ordinance to put them into effect.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Power Shutoffs Hurt Californians, Economy. It's Time To Evolve The Electric Grid

About 965,000 customers across Northern California lost power this last weekend. During Diwali, the festival of lights, the utility was shutting off lights instead of keeping them on.

PG&E billed the move as a precautionary measure: a means of preventing the power company’s aging electrical infrastructure from sparking a catastrophic wildfire. But the cost of this blackout, known as a “Public Safety Power Shutoff,” also known as PSPS, has proven extraordinary. The best estimates suggest the price tag on California’s economy is almost $1 billion every time a widespread shutoff occurs. Some estimates are much worse.

A solution to California’s antiquated grid is clearly needed: As of January, the state’s electrical infrastructure reportedly ignited more than 2,000 fires in the previous three and a half years alone. But shutting off the power and closing down much of the state’s economy any time weather conditions reach critically-dangerous levels is not a sustainable solution. Many people have life sustaining needs for electricity and their three-to-six-hour battery attached to their medical equipment isn’t good enough. We can and must do better.

Read More [[link removed]] California vs. The Constitution

emocrats in California believe they can impose their laws on the rest of the country, and they even think they can ignore the Constitution when it conflicts with their progressive policies. Credit to the Justice Department for attempting to make clear that California isn’t a separate nation under the law, and that climate change isn’t a license for a state to conduct its own foreign policy.

Last week the Justice Department sued California for entering a cap-and-trade agreement with Canada’s Quebec province. Since 2013 California and Quebec have jointly held auctions in which businesses may buy permits to emit carbon if they exceed their regulatory cap. Businesses across the two jurisdictions can also trade permits.

The problem for California is the small legal detail known as the U.S. Constitution. Article I grants Congress the authority to “regulate Commerce with foreign Nations” and prohibits states “without the Consent of Congress” from “enter[ing] into any Agreement or Compact . . . with a foreign Power.” Under Article II the President has exclusive power to conduct foreign affairs.

Read More [[link removed]] Lukewarm Bond Yields Belie Mayors’ Climate Alarm

Dire climate-change warnings have become a mainstay of politics. This is particularly true for state and local politicians whose coastal constituents stand to be most affected by rising sea levels. Mayors declare that impending eco-dangers represent an “existential threat,” and that significant portions of their cities will be submerged without swift and dramatic action. But do municipalities disclose these perilous environmental risks to potential bond investors?

The Government Accountability Institute undertook a yearlong study of 40 major cities to find out if mayors’ apocalyptic projections about climate risks are factored into the interest rates on the municipal bonds their cities issue. The results revealed a gulf between the words municipal leaders speak and the disclosures cities make. There was no statistically significant difference in the interest rates for bonds issued by cities in high-risk locations for climate-change devastation versus those issued by low-risk cities.

The study compiled 100 bond issuances for 20 cities at risk of climate-induced sea-level rises such as New York and New Orleans, as well as 100 issuances for 20 low-risk, inland cities such as Chicago and Kansas City. Greater risk to investors should produce a higher bond interest rate, or “coupon rate.” But the average rate for at-risk cities was 4.21% versus 3.99% for low-risk cities, and our analysis found that this difference of 22 basis points was not statistically significant. The study controlled for factors like type of bond, maturity and purpose, which also affect interest-rate variation.

Read More [[link removed]] The Smoldering State

Every so often, Dustin Mulvaney, a solar-energy expert and a professor at San José State University, will appear before the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with regulating power companies and other monopolies in the Golden State. He will research and testify about what a certain solar policy would do in the state.

Sometimes, before he speaks, he thinks about the Paris Agreement, and the thousands of people who traveled around the world to participate in a small way in its creation.

And then he delivers his testimony to an all but empty room.

The electricity system in California seems to be facing a total breakdown. For the past several weeks, millions of people across the state’s north have faced recurring, intentional blackouts, which Pacific Gas and Electric, the local utility better known as PG&E, said were necessary to avoid wildfires. Yet last week, a massive fire sparked in the hills near Santa Rosa anyway, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. That fire appears to have ignited at the same moment a PG&E-owned high-tension wire suffered a malfunction. Now, a week after it began, the Kincade Fire has incinerated more than 120 square miles and is less than a third contained.

Read More [[link removed]] California Business Roundtable 1301 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 916.553.4093 | [[link removed]] Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] | Unsubscribe [link removed]