AP: As California Burns, The Winds Arrive And The Lights Go Out
New wildfires ravaged bone-dry California during a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200 people trapped by flames and ended with the state’s largest utility turning off power to 172,000 customers to try to prevent its power lines and other equipment from sparking more fires. California is heading into what traditionally is the teeth of the wildfire season, and already it has set a record with 2 million acres burned this year. The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history — the Camp Fire that swept through the community of Paradise and killed 85 people. (Sanchez and Weber, 9/8)

(Riverside) Press-Enterprise: Evacuations For El Dorado Fire Spread Into Riverside County; Coming Santa Ana Winds Prompt Warnings 
More than 20,000 people were evacuated due to the El Dorado fire, a 9,671-acre blaze ignited by a baby gender reveal stunt at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said on Monday, Sept. 7, the third day of the blaze. The fire rapidly doubled in size to 7,050 acres Sunday, then briefly slowed down overnight before picking up again about 3:30 a.m. It jumped to 8,600 acres by noon Monday, causing evacuation orders to spread into Riverside County. By Monday evening the fire was measured at 9,671 acres. (Henry and Rokos, 9/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Power Shut-Offs Hit Parts Of Napa And Sonoma Counties As PG&E Braces For Ominous Winds 
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. cut power to nearly 171,000 customers across Northern California, including parts of Sonoma and Napa counties late Monday and early Tuesday as the utility company braces for intense winds that could damage its equipment and potentially spark new wildfires. Electrical services might not resume until late Wednesday, though if winds die down earlier than anticipated it could be sooner. (Dizikes and Palomino, 9/8)

Ventura County Star: More Than 15,000 County Customers Could See Outages Due To Fire Weather
More than 15,000 Ventura County customers of Southern California Edison were in line for possible power shutoffs Tuesday and Wednesday as critical fire weather moves into the region. As of about 6 p.m. Monday, the utility's options for so-called "public safety power shutoffs" showed circuits supplying customers in and around parts of Ojai, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Moorpark, Camarillo, Simi Valley and near the coast along Yerba Buena Road and Pacific Coast Highway by Neptune's Net. (Wenner, 9/7)

The New York Times: A Gender-Reveal Celebration Is Blamed For A Wildfire. It Wasn’t The First Time. 
An elaborate plan to reveal a baby’s gender went disastrously wrong when a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” ignited a wildfire that consumed thousands of acres east of Los Angeles over the holiday weekend, the authorities said. The device ignited four-foot-tall grass at El Dorado Ranch Park on Saturday morning, and efforts to douse the flames with water bottles proved fruitless, Capt. Bennet Milloy of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Monday. The family called 911 to report the fire and shared photos with investigators. (Morales and Waller, 9/7)

The New York Times: California Wildfires: Extreme Heat Turns State Into A Furnace 
As California endures one of its worst wildfire seasons ever, a new rash of fires stoked by extreme heat has destroyed homes, cloaked much of the state in smoke, forced thousands of people to evacuate and threatened another round of rolling blackouts. One of the fires, a 7,000-acre blaze in San Bernardino County erupted after a family set off a “smoke-generating pyrotechnic device” to announce their baby’s sex. (Healy, Taylor and Penn, 9/7)

The Washington Post: About 50 Hikers Shelter At Resort As ‘Unprecedented’ California Wildfire Cuts Off Escape Routes
About 50 hikers spent a second night at a wilderness resort near Fresno on Monday with all escape routes cut off by the growing Creek Fire in the Sierra National Forest, “an unprecedented disaster” that ravaged the state over the holiday weekend and nearly doubled in size on Monday alone, fire officials said. Fresno Fire Battalion Chief Tony Escobedo initially said in a news conference late Monday that one person had died in the fire, but the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office later clarified that an older man died due to a “medical episode” after EMS were unable to respond due to the fire conditions. (Bella, 9/8)

The Bakersfield Californian: GET Bus Offering Free Rides Tuesday Due To Poor Air Quality
Golden Empire Transit District is offering free rides Tuesday because the air quality index is at 156. The free rides are available on GET fixed routes and GET-A-Lift all day. An AQI over 150 is considered unhealthy and potentially hazardous to the general population. According to the EPA, the air quality index focuses on health effects people might experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. (9/7)

CalMatters: Shifting Federal Messages Over Coming COVID Vaccine
Just a few weeks ago, California was among four states and one city tapped early by federal health officials to help plan for the massive rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Then an urgent Aug. 27 request from the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took health leaders in California and other states by surprise, asking that they prepare for a large-scale vaccine rollout as early as Nov. 1. (Feder Ostrov, 9/4)

LA Daily News: Coronavirus State Tracker: Cases, Deaths, Hospitalizations See Significant Declines As Of Sept. 5 
Daily coronavirus cases and deaths as well as hospitalizations have seen significant declines in California, according to a data analysis by the Southern California News Group on Saturday. California’s seven-day average of 4,730 new cases from the coronavirus is down 52% from its high of 9,935, July 23, according to data collected from public health websites. The seven-day average of 118 new deaths is also down 21% from its high of 150, Aug. 16. (Goertzen, 9/6)

The Desert Sun: San Bernardino County Reports 366 New COVID-19 Cases, 0 Deaths Since Saturday
San Bernardino County health officials reported 366 new coronavirus cases and 0 additional deaths since Saturday in data released Monday. The county's tallies now stand at 49,691 reported cases and stayed at 765 virus-related deaths. (Powers, 9/7)

LA Daily News: L.A. County Reports 25 Coronavirus Deaths, But Hospitalizations Fall 
Los Angeles County reported 494 new cases of COVID-19 and 25 more deaths Monday, bringing the county’s totals to 248,821 cases and 6,030 fatalities. Officials with the county’s Department of Public Health said the relatively low number of new cases reflected both a delay in test and death reports usually seen on weekends and the closure of testing sites over the Labor Day holiday. (9/7)

Sacramento Bee: Christian Concert At California Capitol Breaks COVID-19 Rules 
Neither coronavirus restrictions nor record-smashing heat could stop a massive crowd from assembling outside the Capitol in Sacramento for a Christian music concert Sunday evening.Almost none of the thousands attending wore a mask during the hours-long event, and spectators were packed in about as tight as could be, photos and video from the concert/protest demonstration show. That prompts concern amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected close to 20,000 people in Sacramento County and killed over 330 residents, including 190 deaths in the capital city.Christian musicians and speakers, including the state senate’s Republican party leader, nonetheless took the stage on the west steps of the Capitol for what organizers called a “Let Us Worship” rally. (McGough, 9/7)

Modesto Bee: Foster Farms Livingston To Open After COVID-19 Outbreak 
After being closed for about a week, Foster Farms is allowed to reopen its Livingston processing facility, the Merced County Department of Health announced Monday evening. The plant came under scrutiny from local and state public health officials — plus community and union leaders — after at least 358 employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus. At least eight workers have died. The order [allowed] the plant to reopen as of 9:30 p.m. Monday. (9/7)

Fresno Bee: Kabab City Opens New Fresno Restaurant Despite Pandemic 
Kabab City, a restaurant with multiple locations across the Valley, has opened its second location in Fresno – yes, in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.The newest restaurant opened Wednesday on the Fig Garden Loop, near Bullard Avenue. It’s a Middle Eastern restaurant, with flavors that are Armenian, Greek, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean. It now has four locations Valleywide. (Clough, 9/5)

The Bakersfield Californian: Suicide Prevention Month Looks To Bring Awareness, Break Stigmas Locally 
As September is suicide prevention month, local entities are teaming up to spread awareness, as many people have struggled with mental health and addiction both locally and nationally.Suicide is “everybody’s business” and everyone needs to become “suicide aware," said Ellen Eggert, president and founder of Save a Life Today, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention. She is also in charge of a Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery suicide hotline that is available 24/7. In Kern County, 84 people have died by suicide this year, according to Eggert. In 2019, there were a total of 132 deaths by suicide locally, she said. (Wilson, 9/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Portraits Of Essential Workers: Honoring Those Who Risk Their Health To Keep A Nation In Crisis Working  
We talk about work differently now, ever since the novel coronavirus began sweeping through the country. In some sense, that started here in the Bay Area. We shut down first, on March 17, and told everyone to stay at home, to shelter in place. Only not quite everyone. Some work was so “essential” that staying home and staying safe wasn’t an option. That was true for doctors and nurses, of course, but also for factory workers, bus drivers, mail carriers, social workers ... and on and on the list of “essential workers” went. The truth is essential work has always been essential work. It just took a pandemic for many to recognize it as such. (Kost, 9/7)

Ventura County Star: Assistant Tennis Coach Deals With Physical, Financial Constraints Of Virus
Scott Yasgoor says his longtime friend and coaching colleague is the spiritual hub of the Westlake High tennis program. He said Joe Tomasello spreads joy like a sunny day. "His infectious laugh cheers up everybody who's around him," said Yasgoor, in his fourth year as the Warriors head coach for the boys and girls teams. "He's very carefree, and that helps everybody relax at every match and practice. Jovial is an understatement. ... Now Yasgoor is spearheading the effort to help alleviate the financial burden facing his friend after contracting COVID-19 last spring. (Ledin, 9/6)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento School District, Teacher Union Disagree On Schedule 
Tens of thousands of families in Sacramento are dealing with a new layer of uncertainty one day before Sacramento City Unified schools are set to begin their first full days of online instruction. The district delivered a cease and desist letter to the Sacramento City Teachers Association calling on the union to use the district’s distance learning schedule. But some teachers on Monday said they instead plan to move forward with schedules they collectively created together as a union and are different than the district’s plan. (Morrar, 9/7)

Los Angeles Times: State Starts Sending Extra $900 To Unemployed Californians 
As California’s economy continues to struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials will mark the Labor Day holiday by sending a $900 supplemental unemployment benefit to jobless residents — but many will not get the assistance right away, and nearly 200,000 people are not expected to get it at all. The lump-sum payment covers three weeks of benefits retroactive to the week that ended Aug. 1 at the rate of $300 per week and is paid for by the federal government. (McGreevy, 9/7)

Fresno Bee: Trauma Services At Fresno CRMC Hospital Remain Suspended 
Critical contract negotiations remained at loggerheads Saturday between Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center and the Central California Faculty Medical Group. It remained unclear whether the hospital was providing Level I trauma care. Six neurosurgical trauma surgeons with CCFMG have been without a contract since midnight Wednesday, and those trauma services weren’t available on Thursday and Friday. That meant anyone suffering major head trauma would be taken to another hospital hundreds of miles away from Fresno. (Amaro, 9/4)