All that fear of the Santa Anas is justified today–Malibu is on fire again.

Bad air quality in Long Beach, and Kimora Lee Simmons
The fires still reign as the Press-Telegram’s top story today, though Kelly Puente has the local angle with a piece on air quality.
Elsewhere in the P-T, there’s more excitement: Kevin Butler writes about the Long Beach Unified School District superintendent banning teachers’ union leader Scott [...]

In fairness, they’re nuts who claim to be Christians
There’s a great moment in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown when Brown discovers the Christians in his New England village worshipping Satan. It’s a tale of obsession, clearly–men and women so panicked about evil that they kind of like it. I’m reminded of Hawthorne following every [...]

In yesterday’s briefing, I pointed out the San Francisco Chronicle’s story about Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd’s purchase of human growth hormone. Neither Byrd nor the Indians would comment for the Chron’s story, but yesterday afternoon, Byrd broke his silence.

The City of Long Beach tries cutting back on water

Today’s top Press-Telegram story online? The fires whipped up in Malibu, Canyon Country and Agua Dulce by the Santa Ana winds. The top local story appears to be something by Kelly Puente about the wind. But keep reading; there’s local news downpage.

Raging is a standard newspaper word for fires–almost a cliché– but the Malibu wildfires really have been raging. At least 750 acres are burning, and wind gusts have been clocked at 108 mph. Writer and Malibu resident Veronique de Turenne is providing updates on the situation at her blog Here in Malibu, which [...]