Oroville and parts of Butte County faced another evacuation this weekend as thousands of residents were displaced due to the 'Wall fire.'
Sacramento Bee's ELLEN GARRISON/ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "Sitting in the shade outside an evacuation center on Sunday, Peggie Adamson recounted watching trees explode as the Wall fire crept toward her home at the Oaks Senior Community in Oroville."
"As the fire drew near, CalFire ordered Adamson and her neighbors to evacuate to a shelter at the Church of the Nazarene around 11 p.m. Saturday night."
“We’ve been through enough here in Oroville. When they give out a warning to evacuate, we evacuate,” Adamson, 66, said Sunday morning. “It had to have been a couple of miles away, but we could still see it clear as day ... I could hear propane tanks exploding, it sounded like bombs going off.”
READ MORE related to Environment: Raging wildfires across California force nearly 8,000 to evacuate. -- LA Times' JAVIER PANZAR/MATT HAMILTON; What if you had to evacuate? 5 things to do to prepare. -- Sacramento Bee's DON SWEENEY
Anti-immigrant sentiments and rent spikes have increased under POTUS45, according to housing lawyers.
Sacramento Bee's ANGELA HART: "When Maria got an eviction notice telling her she had to be out of her Redwood City apartment by late February, she thought something seemed fishy."
"She contacted housing attorneys, who confirmed to her landlord that the notice was not served legally and she didn’t have to move out right away."
"Her landlord responded with a text message threatening to call immigration authorities on Maria if she didn’t comply, saying it was a “duty” to report anyone who is undocumented."
Sacramento County wants to add 30,000 new homes along 8 miles of Jackson Highway, but Amador County residents are furious.
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "For nearly a century, ribbon-like Jackson Highway has connected urban Sacramento to bucolic Amador County in the foothills. Now, a fight over the future of the highway is dividing the two."
"Sacramento County has asked Caltrans to give it control over 8 miles of the two-lane road so the county can turn it into an urban arterial street that would function as the spine for up to 30,000 new homes in the coming decades, allowing the metropolitan area to march east as far as Grant Line Road."
"Amador County officials are crying foul, saying the highway – formally State Route 16 – will be just another major suburban road, jammed with stop-and-go traffic. That, they say, will make it harder for tourists to get to Amador’s wine region and historic towns like Sutter Creek, and harder for foothill country residents to get to valley jobs and medical appointments."
With Senate Republicans stalling on an Obamacare repeal, many want to know what the next step is.
LA Times' LISA MASCARO/NOAM N. LEVEY: "Senate Republicans, having hit an apparent impasse in their long campaign to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, return to Washington this week in search of a way forward, with support dwindling, time running out and deep divisions within their ranks."
"Options are limited as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) assesses the legislative landscape for his Obamacare replacement, which has virtually no hope of passing unless it is substantially amended."
"The Better Care Reconciliation Act, which threatens to toss 22 million more Americans into the ranks of the uninsured, has been almost universally panned by patient advocacy groups, doctors and other healthcare providers. It is backed by less than 20% of the public, polls show.
READ MORE related to Health: Drinking during pregnancy may affect several generations, UC Riverside study finds -- The Press-Enterprise's ALICIA ROBINSON
California excels at solving and prosecuting homicides despite a lack of forensic evidence.
LA Times' NICOLE SANTA CRUZ: "The recent discovery of 5-year-old Aramazd Andressian Jr.’s remains at a Santa Barbara recreation area was a grim achievement for investigators who had spent more than two months frantically searching for the boy."
"It was also a boost for Los Angeles County prosecutors, who had already filed a murder charge against the child’s father without having found the body."
"Authorities have not released details about the condition of the boy’s remains, but the discovery can only help investigators as they try to piece together what exactly led to his death."
Journalists -- intrepid as always -- find themselves gridlocked in a sparring match with two of the world's biggest companies over money.
LA Times' DAVID PIERSON: "For years, news organizations have had little recourse but to cede more distribution and advertising dollars to Facebook and Google, even agreeing to give away articles in the hopes the wider digital audience will pay off in the long run."
"But as profits continue to decline in journalism, news media executives have decided time is running out to make a change."
"An industry trade group called the News Media Alliance — which counts the Los Angeles’ Times parent company Tronc, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and scores of smaller newspapers among its members — is calling on federal lawmakers to grant the industry an exemption from antitrust rules to negotiate collectively with the technology giants."
Trump is receiving criticism for his recent joint US-Russian cybersecurity task force proposal.
LA Times' LAURA KING: "President Trump’s touting of a proposed partnership with Russia on cybersecurity drew withering reviews Sunday from lawmakers, including several from his own party, while the president’s aides were left struggling to answer questions about just how hard Trump pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Moscow’s meddling in last year’s U.S. presidential election."
"Late Sunday, Trump appeared to back away from the cyber-partnership idea."
"Trump’s encounter with Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday was his first meeting as president with the Russian leader. It came after months of controversy over Russian meddling and whether anyone close to Trump’s campaign had colluded in it."
READ MORE related to Kremlingate/Beltway: Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian offered lure of Clinton material -- The Chronicle's JO BECKER/MATT APUZZO/ADAM GOLDMAN; Kremlin says it is unaware of a meeting between Trump's staff and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign -- AP
The Bay Area sees an economic boost to its property asset values, thanks to recent construction booms and inflation.
The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER: "Thanks to new construction, rising real estate prices and higher inflation, the assessed value of Bay Area real and personal property rose to about $1.6 trillion for 2017-18, up by $110 billion, or 7.4 percent, from the year before."
"That’s according to reports from county assessors, who generally must complete their roll by July 1 each year. The roll is the assessed value (which is not the market value) of all taxable property as of Jan. 1 the same year."
"The vast majority of taxable property is residential and commercial real estate. The rest is personal property — which includes boats, aircraft and business equipment such as computers, office furniture and machinery."
