Edgar McGregor picking up trash on March 18, 2024 in Eaton Canyon. Ten months later, McGregor’s posts on Facebook saved a lot of lives as the Eaton Fire blazed through Altadena.
Recognizing that today is both MLK Day and Inauguration Day, a fact that provides obvious opportunities to draw contrasts between Martin Luther King and Donald J. Trump, we choose instead to keep The Newsletter on message, which is to say local, and focused on solutions.
Today we recognize two instances of people-power being exerted by a couple of ordinary heroes. The first you may have heard about—a young Altadena weather-watcher who mounted an effort on social media that saved a lot of people from possible fiery death. (As it happens, we know this guy.)
The second story is less-obviously heroic, but in this era of mass misinformation, the effort of another young man to counteract a campaign that could cripple smart development in the little city of Hollister is worth noting.
And in celebration of this issue's theme, dig this tune for our times from Patti Smith, singing one of the greatest small-d democratic anthems ever written— her own (you guessed it) “People Have the Power.” This might be just the thing you need today.
Saving Lives and Fighting Lies
In LA County, a young meteorologist started a Facebook page to help his neighbors keep track of the weather. In San Benitio County, a student of land-use planning started a website to counteract misinformation (and incivility) on NextDoor. Sometimes, as they say, what happens online is happening In Real Life.
Some schools destroyed years ago in the Sonoma and Butte fires are just now reopening. The long, expensive process of rebuilding in LA may eat up much of the money voters approved in November for school repairs statewide.
(01/21/2025) CalMatters
Trump apparently wants to override new Biden-Newsom rules that have widespread support among Southern California cities and some Central Valley farmers.
(01/21/2025) CalMatters
California’s Democratic leaders set aside tens of millions of dollars to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive orders and policies.
(01/21/2025) CalMatters
With assurances that “sunlight is pouring over the entire world,” President Donald Trump was sworn into office Monday for his second term. He wasted no time taking potshots at California.
(01/20/2025) CalMatters
In 2018, Newsom promised to add 500,000 new apprenticeships in the decade after taking office. The state is making progress, but how much depends on the definition of “apprenticeship.”
(01/20/2025) CalMatters
Along the California-Mexico border, immigrants at risk of deportation are seeking to live undetected through an unprecedented crackdown.
(01/20/2025) CalMatters
Sacramento's 'rose man' shares how Lake Shrine and its World Peace Rose Garden made it through the firestorm
(01/19/2025) Sacramento Digs Gardening
Read on to learn more about the $15 billion loan guarantee to PG&E granted in the final hours of the Biden Administration.
(01/18/2025) The Mercury News
As wildfires ravage southern California, state mandated defensible space requirements legislated in 2020 haven't been encoded into enforceable regulations. Read on to learn why.
(01/17/2025) CapPublicRadio
Read on for the latest progress in the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion Project to raise the dam at the San Luis Reservoir to add storage capacity.
(01/17/2025) San Joaquin Valley Sun
Describing the active wildfires in Southern California as a “catastrophe at an unprecedented scale,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas gathered with dozens of Assemblymembers on Thursday in Los Angeles to introduce new bills that seek to quicken rebuilding efforts and lift development restrictions.
(01/16/2025) CalMatters
The LA fires have left domestic workers and day laborers jobless. They may soon be hired for wildfire cleanup work, where they can be exposed to ash and other toxins.
(01/16/2025) CalMatters
The wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles County communities have destroyed at least 10,000 homes so far and more are in the path of still-uncontrolled flames.
(01/16/2025) CalMatters
Robert MacKenzie is an assistant fire chief — but not the kind who works for your local fire department. As the Palisades Fire bore down on Southern California last week, the private fire crew he oversees headed out to help defend homes for their customers: insurance companies that offer wildfire protection to wealthy homeowners and others with the coverage built into their policies.
(01/16/2025) CalMatters
Three days after immensely destructive and deadly wildfires broke out in and around Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $322.3 billion state budget with a positive revenue forecast “based on an assumption of continued but slowing economic growth.”
(01/15/2025) CalMatters
Read on to learn about the measures taken to harden and protect the lone remaining house of the neighborhoodfrom the Pacific Palisades fire in Southern California.
(01/14/2025) The Sacramento Bee
In a striking setback to reduce California’s air pollution but a win for trucking companies, state regulators have walked away from their ambitious plan to phase out diesel trucks less than a week before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
(01/14/2025) CalMatters
Key moisture measurements are only 2% to 5% of average, leaving dusty soils. And the recent swing from wet to dry is among the most extreme on record. This combination of climatic conditions crossed into a danger zone, priming much of Southern California for wind-whipped fires.
(01/14/2025) CalMatters
Jennielynn Holmes stood in the middle of a make-shift evacuation center when the scope of the crisis hit her.
(01/14/2025) CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to produce a cheap, generic insulin for the 3.2 million Californians with diabetes is behind the schedule he announced and unlikely to make it to market for several years, industry experts say.
(01/14/2025) CalMatters
A new bill would remove the right of California’s female transgender athletes in to participate in high school sports teams that match their gender identity.
(01/14/2025) CalMatters
A presumptive case of H5N1 bird flu has been identified in a child who resides in San Francisco, the city’s Department of Public Health announced.The child had a fever and conjunctivitis but did not need to be hospitalized and has since made a full recovery, public health officials said Friday.
(01/13/2025) Local News Matters
Federal funding for rural schools goes to 39 California counties. School districts in those communities consider the money a lifeline.
(01/13/2025) CalMatters
