News you don’t want to miss for Nov. 15-17:
1. Police arrested five people on Thursday believed to be involved in the Halloween night shooting in Orinda, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Five people died and several were injured at a party held at an AirBNB rental. Earlier in the day, Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies arrested one individual in Marin City. $$
2. Will Alameda’s secret recording provide any new information on the city’s previous political interference scandal? Does it contain any embarrassing off-hand remarks? Alamedans will have to wait until next week to listen to the audio recording made by its former city manager of two councilmembers, the East Bay Citizen reports.
3. An end of an era in Oakland. Long-time Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid said he will not seek re-election to his District 7 seat next year, the East Bay Citizen reports. Reid has served at City Hall for nearly three decades. First, as an aide to Mayor Elihu Harris, and then as councilmember since 1997.
4. The Oakland City Council will place a parcel tax on the March 2020 primary to fund parks maintenance, homeless services, and improvements to its stormwater system, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. $$
5. The fallout from PG&E’s decision to cut power to a large swath of Northern California as a precaution against additional wildfires continues to grow. “As Californians rushed to get backup power when PG&E cut electricity to millions this fall, some generators sparked fires or sickened people with carbon monoxide poisoning,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports. $$
6. Sen. Kamala Harris is introducing a federal legislation that would prohibit public utilities who are in bankruptcy, like PG&E, from giving their executives so-called “golden parachute” severance deals, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. $$
7. The Associated Press provides a view from 30,000 feet in the sky of the PG&E crisis in California. “It’s a story of climate change, a housing crisis and an aging power system that, like much of the U.S. infrastructure, has fallen into disrepair.”
$$ = Stories you may have to pay to read.
