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Fires continued to burn across Southern California over the weekend. Firefighters have had success getting control over fires in Los Angeles and San Diego, but the Thomas Fire continues its devastating march along the coast, threatening communities around Santa Barbara. The fire has now burned over 230,000 acres of land and continues to grow exponentially. It has destroyed over 750 buildings and homes and is now the fifth largest fire in California history.
“We’re about ready to have firefighting at Christmas,” Gov. Jerry Brown said during a visit to Ventura.
Here are some images from the fires over the weekend.
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• A California family has lost two homes to wildfires in two months: The first in Sonoma County and now one in Ventura County. “It was surreal, more like numb you know. Did this really happen to us?” [ABC News]
• Lessons from homeowners in the Scripps Ranch neighborhood in San Diego, where 300 houses were incinerated in a fire in 2003. “You’re having to make a lot of very big decisions financially and otherwise at a time when your mind is kind of reeling.” [The New York Times]
• No rest. With fires under control in Los Angeles, city firefighters head to Ventura and Santa Barbara to help on the next front. [Los Angeles Daily Times]
Continue reading the main story• For people living on the edge of towns here, in search of woods and isolation, the wildfires have been a wake-up call. “You take the good with the bad.” [Orange County Register]
• San Diego officials may have been helped fighting the Lilac Fire because of lessons learned from the fires of 2007 and 2003. To wit: better communication and better fire-tracking. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
• It’s doom season in Los Angeles: Hector Tobar, in an Op-Ed essay, talks about standing on a ridge at sunset, watching a pink sky “that was beautiful and frightening.” [The New York Times]
• Ojai, a haven for nature lovers, spiritual seekers and artists, is struggling with the Thomas Fire. [The New York Times]
And in non-fire news:
• And now there’s two: A second member of the California Assembly resigned in the face of sexual harassment allegations. Matt Dababneh was accused of masturbating in front of a lobbyist. He denied the charge. [Sacramento Bee]
• The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to impose strict restrictions on delivery robots that, in the view of critics, threaten to terrorize pedestrians on city sidewalks. [Wired]
• Gov. Jerry Brown does “60 Minutes” — and talks climate change and President Trump. “I don’t think President Trump has a fear of the Lord, the fear of the wrath of God, which leads one to more humility.” [CBS News]
• A charbono from Napa Valley makes Eric Asimov’s list of the 10 most memorable wines of 2017; he found this one while coming out to report on the Wine Country fires. [The New York Times]
• Los Angeles has been trying to crack down on house parties in the Hollywood Hills. Here’s the case — made keg-in-cheek by a local comedian — to party on, delivered at a City Council hearing. [The Los Angeles Times]
• A private bus taking employees of a for-profit educational organization to a holiday party in Palo Alto on Friday night rolled over and skidded across the 101 freeway. Thirty people were injured, apparently none seriously. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• Another view on why California’s greenhouse gas levels have fallen. State officials credit the cap-and-trade program. This argues that it was because heavy rainfall meant more hydroelectric power, and less fossil fuels. [Sacramento Bee]
• David Axelrod helped get Barack Obama elected president and in his post-White House years, does a podcast devoted to politics. That brought him to Los Angeles to talk politics with a certain mayor who has been talking about running for president. [The Axe Files]
• “From Television City in Hollywood ...” Maybe not for long. CBS wants to sell the 25-acre Television City campus to developers. Think big buildings. Bad idea, writes Zev Yaroslavsky, a former member of Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. [Los Angeles Times]
• It’s almost legal. A tour of the (already) flourishing marijuana scene in Los Angeles: high teas, budtenders and bake sales. “It all comes down to not feeling like a criminal, being seen as a criminal,” said Douglas Dracup who owns the Hitman Coffee Shop, where you will soon be able to do more than sip espresso. [The New York Times]
Coming up this week:
• Governor Brown is off to Paris to address the One Planet Summit, for the second anniversary of the Paris agreements to fight global warming. He tells us this is the last international trip he’ll be making for a while.
•The Museum of Failure has arrived in Los Angeles, at the A & D Architectural Design Museum. Go if you want to feel better about yourself.
• In case you weren’t sure what time of the year this is — the Nutcracker opens this week at the San Francisco Ballet.
• An exhibition of gemstone jewelry pieces from India opens at the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad.
• Brooklyn transplant Grizzly Bear plays at The Wiltern.
• It is also the season for ice skating in downtown Sacramento.
And Finally ...
Let’s not let last week pass without mention of one bit of important California history. It was 50 years ago when Willie Brown, the San Francisco Democrat, was first elected to the Assembly. It’s almost a cliché to say they don’t make them like that anymore — well it is a cliché, but so what. They don’t.
Mr. Brown held office before California voters adopted term limits, which meant he was able to serve 15 years leading the Assembly. All those years meant that Mr. Brown had the kind of knowledge, connection and experience that helped make him one of the most powerful leaders in California history.
And his career kept going after he left Sacramento. He became mayor of San Francisco and today, at 83, he is writing political columns for the San Francisco Chronicle, where, characteristically, he has shown no reluctance in letting you know how he thinks. “Democrats needed the high road, so they ran over Al Franken,” read the headline over Mr. Brown’s weekend offering.
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California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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