 | | A man under high tension power lines at a dog park in Redondo Beach on Sunday.Apu Gomes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Over the weekend, the heat, the rolling blackouts and the fires (not to mention the fire tornadoes) converged on top of the pandemic, giving Californians an unpleasant taste of what feels more and more like an inevitable future plagued by layered, climate-change-driven disasters. |
On Monday, during his virtual briefing, Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to at once soothe those anxieties and hammer state regulators over what he described as a major failure to anticipate the weekend’s surge in energy usage, as Californians blasted their air-conditioners or ran fans to try to keep cool. |
“You can’t control the weather, but you can prepare,” Mr. Newsom said. “We failed to predict and plan these shortages, and that’s simply unacceptable.” |
The governor warned that the outages were likely to continue in coming days and urged Californians to reduce their energy usage. |
The rolling blackouts this weekend were different from the pre-emptive power shut-offs that wrought chaos across huge swaths of the state last year: Those were meant to prevent utilities’ equipment from sparking catastrophic wildfires, while the blackouts over the weekend — the first of their kind in about two decades — stemmed from surging power usage that outstripped supply. |
Mr. Newsom emphasized that the West Coast had endured its hottest two weeks in roughly 70 years, and that blackouts would continue to be possible as long as the state is working to build more reliable and sustainable energy systems. |
“None of us in California are naïve about the hots getting hotter, the wets getting wetter and the dries getting drier,” he said. |
In recent days, thousands of dry lighting strikes ignited fires across the state. And while the majority of those have been small and manageable, Mr. Newsom said, firefighters are contending with about 15 active blazes — several of which have been dangerous enough to prompt evacuations. Mr. Newsom said he’d gotten a federal grant to help respond to the River Fire in Monterey County. |
Mr. Newsom said wildfires were posing particular challenges in the pandemic — including in less direct ways. A reporter asked, for instance, about how the state would address the loss of remote learning time, if students lose power. |
“In extenuating circumstances, we have to be flexible,” he said. |
The blackouts came not long after California leaders scrambled to address problems with the state’s virus data reporting system, which clouded case counts, threw into question the list of counties where virus transmission is particularly troubling and underscored the ways in which states’ technological infrastructure has been outmatched by a fast-changing pandemic. |
Mr. Newsom said on Monday that the backlog of 14,861 positive cases stemming from the data glitch had been cleared, and that the state’s seven-day average reflected that. |
Taking all that into account, he said, it appeared the state’s positivity rate and other measures, such as hospitalizations, were moving in the right direction. |
However, he announced that the state’s county watch list — which had been frozen until the data reporting issues were cleared up — had grown to 42 counties, and some of the new additions were rural, Northern California counties that had previously managed to dodge much of the virus’s toll, including Mendocino. |
Santa Cruz County, he said, had been taken off the list, while San Diego was expected to be removed on Tuesday. |
 | | The sun set on a lonely cactus in Death Valley in Southern California.J. Jurado/National Park Service |
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- On Sunday, Death Valley reached 130 degrees. If it’s verified, it will be the highest temperature ever recorded on earth. [The New York Times]
- The River Fire has torn through thousands of acres south of Salinas. The pandemic has complicated firefighting and evacuations. [The Salinas Californian]
- Here’s what Bay Area residents need to know about the power outages. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
- If you missed it, here’s how Pacific Gas & Electric has raced to improve safety ahead of this year’s fire season. [The New York Times]
- And here’s the full story on those fire tornadoes. [The New York Times]
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The Democratic National Convention |
 | | In this screenshot from a livestream of the Democratic National Convention, the actress and activist Eva Longoria spoke with the athlete Megan Rapinoe during the virtual convention.Dncc Via Getty Images |
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But the California presence will be larger than the senator: The Redding-raised soccer star Megan Rapinoe hosted a discussion on Monday evening, while the actress Eva Longoria served as M.C. (Kerry Washington, Tracee Ellis Ross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are up next.) |
- Here’s the full convention schedule and how to watch. [The New York Times]
- A former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security endorsed Joe Biden. In a testimonial video, he recalled a phone call related to the California wildfires, during which Mr. Trump told Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to “stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down.” [The New York Times]
- Kamala Harris has fondly recalled strolling on the beach, talking politics with her grandfather in India. His values, ahead of their time, shaped hers. [The New York Times]
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 | | Daiana-Ruiz |
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This may seem a little counterintuitive, given everything you’ve just read. |
But Char Adams wrote for The Times’s Smarter Living section about an idea that feels quietly revolutionary: It’s actually OK to feel OK, in light of these turbulent times, in this current moment, with all that’s going on — you get where I’m going. |
As someone who spends day after day reporting news that ranges from not great to profoundly upsetting — but with the privilege of doing so from an apartment where I’m comfortably housed and well fed — the story struck a particular chord for me. |
So if you, too, have noticed that your joy lately is tinged with guilt, here’s some helpful advice from Ryan Howes, a clinical psychologist in Pasadena: |
“Ask, ‘How can I multiply this joy? How can I use this to help other people?’” |
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan. |
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. |
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