Good morning, Bay Area.
It’s August 1 and the FBI says it’s not ready to make a determination about the Gilroy gunman’s motive, Giants’ fans avoid their worst fears at the trade deadline and we look at what Oakland officials are doing about homelessness. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
From ‘big flavor’ to minimalism
There are many ways to tell the story of today’s Bay Area — a place that, according to one writer, is
“rotting” under the pressure
of $3,700 average monthly rents, IPO fever and infantries of tech bros in company-branded Patagonia vests. But our food culture, and specifically our wine culture — really, our evolving sense of taste — says so much about who we are today and how we got here,
Esther Mobley writes
.
She takes us back 15 years — to 2004 and Napa Valley —
to describe how
.
Investigation continues
“We’re still not comfortable in saying it’s an ideology one way or another.”
FBI investigators say
they’re following a wide digital trail and bringing in profilers to determine the motive behind the attack
by a gunman who opened fire at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.
Listen:
What we know about the Gilroy gunman
.
More from Gilroy:
•
Gilroy residents say they will stand strong
.
• Experts worry killer
fits pattern of hate, fueled online
.
•
Earlier:
Search of Gilroy gunman’s home finds items
suggesting a massive attack.
‘Strongly disagrees’
PG&E has said it “strongly disagrees” with much of a recent newspaper investigation that said the company failed to make key improvements to its electric transmission system, despite knowing that parts of it posed a wildfire risk.
The utility was responding to an unusual request from Judge William Alsup to respond paragraph by paragraph to a July 10
article
in the Wall Street Journal.
In its filing, the company told Alsup that the Journal accurately quoted from certain documents or described facts truthfully in many instances. Yet PG&E disputed some of the investigation’s most damning conclusions.
A lawyer for wildfire victims suing PG&E was not impressed, but it’s not clear what Alsup’s next step will be,
J.D. Morris reports
.
Giants and A’s shakeups
As the Major League Baseball trade deadline passed on Wednesday, our sports reporters reflect on where the Bay Area teams are now.
•
You can exhale
:
Giants didn't trade Madison Bumgarner
.
Plus:
Meet
the new Giants
.
•
Bullpen shakeup
: Giants chasing playoffs
after wild day of trades
, Henry Schulman reports.
•
Oakland’s addition:
A’s beef up rotation
with Tanner Roark
at relatively small risk and cost, but part
with an in-demand prospect
.
•
From Susan Slusser:
The A’s “willingness to
acquire more pitching
demonstrates the organization is going for it.”
Spotlight on Oakland
San Francisco is known for its swelling homeless population, but Oakland has surpassed its neighbor across the bay, and other large cities in California, in a key measure: the concentration of homelessness compared to the number of people living there.
Oakland officials point to what they say is an aggressive, multi-faceted strategy to address the crisis: community cabin sites, RV safe parking, future navigation centers and launching a pilot program of self-governed encampments to be run by grassroots organizations.
But the shocking growth in homelessness since 2017 has many advocates questioning the city’s response, calling it a temporary solution that won’t have a lasting impact.
As part of our
Homeless Project coverage
, Sarah Ravani and Joaquin Palomino report on the scope of Oakland’s homelessness problem and
what’s being done to address it
.
More:
Alameda County agrees to
lease former jail to Oakland for homeless shelter
.
Across the bay:
24 hours of homelessness
in San Francisco.
Around the bay
•
Two hours:
In the midst of a public uproar over the San Francisco Board of Education’s
vote to censor
a controversial 1936 mural, the school district has announced a rare and limited opportunity
to view the fresco
.
•
Ethics violation:
Judge who used his judicial position to promote his political campaign for California attorney general is
barred from bench
.
•
Corporate-sponsored bars and local brews:
Chase Center
announces bars and beverage options
for new Warriors arena.
•
No comment:
Gov. Gavin Newsom says he talked with Trump the day
he signed a bill to force candidates
to produce their tax returns, but doesn’t say if he discussed the law with the president.
More:
Background on California’s
request for tax returns
for all primary presidential and gubernatorial candidates.
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•
Open since 1937:
Neighborhood dive bar
Portals Tavern will close in August
as owners retire.
More:
Our
Ultimate Guide to Classic S.F. Bars
•
A different kind of in-law unit:
Tiny home in Oakland
a perfect fit for grandmother
.
•
You Can Call Him Al:
Paul Simon announces
pop-up show at Oakland’s Fox Theater
.
•
‘We got out-lawyered’:
Luxury grocer Dean & DeLuca
leaves behind debts in Napa
, say employees and vendors.
Visual Spotlight
From early March to late October, Len Ramirez, 60, has a sole focus —
to catch rattlesnakes before they harm a human or a pet
.
But Ramirez — who came to rattlesnake wrangling after a detour into the world of pro tennis — sees himself as a defender of rattlesnakes. “I do not like to see them killed,” he says. Once a week, he travels to an uninhabited remote forest north of his home to release the rattlesnakes he’s captured into the wild to give them a chance to reach their expected life span of 25 years.
Scott Strazzante spent a day with Ramirez as part of our The Regulars video series.
Watch it here.
Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers’ email in-boxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter
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, and contact Brown at
taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com