Newsletter: Essential California: The mystery behind California’s most destructive wildfires

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, Nov. 18. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Who is to blame? More than two dozen investigators have spent weeks scouring wine country trying to solve the mystery at the heart of the most destructive wildfires in California history: What caused the infernos that killed 43 people and destroyed more than 8,000 buildings? The answer to those questions will have wide-ranging ramifications for the region, which faces staggering losses and a challenging rebuilding effort. Losses from insured properties alone are expected to far exceed $1 billion, and the total bill for the fires will be still higher. Fighting the fires alone cost $189 million, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Cal Fire is likely to take months to determine the official cause. But in wine country, there is already one prime suspect: utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric. Los Angeles Times

“He told her, ‘Just go’ ”: The latest victim of the Santa Rosa firestorms to be identified is a 101-year-old man who died helping get his wife out of harm’s way. The Press Democrat

Not enough help: The struggle for resources in the early hours of the firestorm. San Francisco Chronicle

Sacramento scandal: State Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), who has been accused of inappropriate behavior with three women, will be temporarily suspended from leading the Senate’s banking committee under a plan announced Friday by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León. Los Angeles Times

Shooting survivors’ stories: A mother was driving her boys to school when the Rancho Tehama gunman struck. In the chaos, she shielded her son despite her being wounded in the gunfire. Los Angeles Times

Tragic crash in Boyle Heights: Two boys were killed Thursday evening when they were struck by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department vehicle that was involved in a crash while responding to a radio call of shots fired, authorities said. The three-car crash occurred about 7:30 p.m. in the 800 block of South Indiana Street in Boyle Heights. The impact thrust the sheriff’s vehicle onto the sidewalk, where it ran into a mother and her two children, ages 7 and 9, said Los Angeles Police Officer Drake Madison, an LAPD spokesman. Los Angeles Times

How Trump’s tax plan is playing: The GOP’s sweeping tax-cut package, which passed Thursday with overwhelming support from California’s GOP House members, seems almost singularly designed to punish the state and its Democratic legion of Donald Trump tormentors. The Times’ Mark Z. Barabak checks in with some residents of Tustin. Los Angeles Times

On a leash: President Trump and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) are tied to a leash held by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a cheeky new campaign billboard in California. Huffington Post

AROUND CALIFORNIA

Hmmm: “One group of California government workers has never had whistle-blower protection under the law: those who work for the lawmakers themselves. It’s an example of how the Legislature sometimes imposes laws on other people that it doesn’t adhere to itself.” CalMatters

Tough crowd: Here’s why Gov. Jerry Brown was booed at the Bonn Climate Summit. The New Yorker

Real estate battle: A Los Angeles jury Friday found that restaurant owner Dana Hollister intentionally interfered with singer Katy Perry’s attempts to purchase a former convent from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The jury awarded the archdiocese $3.47 million in attorney fees and Perry’s company $1.57 million in fees. Los Angeles Times

Change is afoot: Trump could have an easier time appointing conservative judges to federal courts in California under a policy shift in the U.S. Senate. The Mercury News

Change is afoot, Part 2: The Trump administration has plans to stop granting work permits to spouses of H-1B holders. It would overturn a 2015 rule and affect thousands of people in the U.S. San Francisco Chronicle

The nightlife: The Hollywood party scene in the 1990s — before smartphones. The Hollywood Reporter

Fracking: A Westside story. LA Weekly

Yum yum: What will be on your Thanksgiving plate? It depends on where you’ll be. Los Angeles Times

THIS WEEK’S MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. 550,000 homes in Southern California have the highest risk of fire damage, but they are not alone. Los Angeles Times

2. “Sex, drugs and the public library.” NBC LA

3. Here’s how Sears in North Hollywood is reinventing itself amid company woes. Los Angeles Daily News

4. In an era of USC-UCLA pranks, one stood out. Sixty years later, its mystery is solved. Los Angeles Times

5. The FBI called him “Captain America.” But the informant had a secret. Los Angles Times

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S GREAT READS

Football south of the border: Every weekend, thousands of young people converge on soccer fields converted to gridirons to play in a flag football league sponsored by the NFL. The aim is to create more football fans in Mexico — one of the league’s fastest-growing international markets — and to start them young. For a long time, the most popular kind of pigskin in Mexico was chicharon, pieces of deep-fried pork rind. But American football is rapidly growing in popularity thanks to the aggressive push by the NFL. Los Angeles Times

Smart story: As stories of sexual harassment sweep across Hollywood, top talent agencies are facing possible legal exposure for enabling harassment. “If you have an agency that knowingly protects the perpetrator and encourages this activity by sending unknowing victims to such auditions, that is likely a crime if not a real breach of fiduciary duty,” says Washington-based attorney Kirk T. Schroder, former chair of the American Bar Assn.’s entertainment and sports law section. The Hollywood Reporter

Piracy concerns: How an Atlanta power couple’s business has heightened Hollywood and Silicon Valley’s piracy anxieties. A lawsuit accuses their company, TickBox TV, of being one of the most prominent and fastest-growing facilitators of online piracy. It represents a new and growing type of copyright theft that uses streaming devices and apps to make piracy as easy and normal-seeming as watching movies through Apple TV or Roku. Los Angeles Times

Inked: This history of the L.A. tattoo — from East L.A. to the shores of Long Beach. LA Weekly

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.