Stories you shouldn’t miss for Dec. 12, 2017:
1. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee died early this morning after suffering a heart attack, reports Rachel Swan of the San Francisco Chronicle. The 65-year-old Lee, who was the first Asian-American mayor of the city, collapsed last night at a San Francisco supermarket and was rushed to the hospital where he died at about 1:11 a.m. Board of Supervisors President London Breed has — at least temporarily — assumed the role of mayor of the city.
2. Oakland’s city employees ended their strike and returned to work today after making progress in negotiations with the city administration with the help of a mediator, reports Kimberly Veklerov of the Chronicle. The two sides have yet to agree on a compensation package but were able to make progress on several other issues. The mediator joined the talks after Mayor Libby Schaaf declared an impasse in negotiations.
3. Despite the end of the drought earlier this year, at least 27 million trees died in California in the past 13 months, reports Kurtis Alexander of the Chronicle$, citing a new report from the U.S. Forest Service. Since 2010, an estimated 129 million trees have died in the state, as the drought wreaked havoc on California’s forests.
4. A four-alarm fire in the Oakland hills late last night and early this morning destroyed two homes and damaged five others before firefighters were able to bring it under control, the East Bay Times$ reports. The two homes destroyed in the blaze were under construction in the 6600 block of Snake Road in the Montclair district. There have been no reports of injuries in the fire.
5. And a federal judge indicated that he will not dismiss a climate change lawsuit against the federal government brought by young people who contend that it has failed to adequately protect their future, reports Bob Egelko of the Chronicle$.
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