News you don’t want to miss for Nov. 18:
1. Contra Costa County prosecutors said they will not file charges against five suspects alleged to be involved in the Oct. 31 shooting at an AirBNB in Orinda that killed five people, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. $$
2. Another round of PG&E power shut-offs could affect the East Bay starting Wednesday through Thursday morning, NBC Bay Area reports. Strong winds are forecast for those days. The shut-offs may hit the Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro hills, along with the Lamorinda and Richmond areas.
3. Landlords across the state are moving quick to issue eviction notices in advance of the state’s new rental housing restrictions that become law on Jan. 1. Calmatters reports on what some cities are doing to limit evictions in the meantime.
4. More sobering news for Sen. Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. A new statewide poll shows her languishing at eight percent in the March 2020 primary, Calbuzz reports. It gets worse: Harris is polling at just nine percent in the Bay Area. Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren lead the poll with 24 percent and 23 percent, followed by Sen. Bernie Sanders at 17 percent.
5. The Hayward man accused of being a spy for China purchased a series of hotel properties in the Bay Area, including the Red Lion in Oakland, with money wired by his sister from China, KPIX reports.
6. East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell may have inadvertently united a deeply divided nation with a never-ending belly laugh on Monday. Buzzfeed reports Swalwell allegedly and loudly passed gas while appearing on MSNBC. He denied it. So did the show. “Full exoneration,” Swalwell later tweeted. But #Fartgate quickly became the top trending topic on Twitter last night.
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