Hundreds of PG&E Poles Damaged in Massive Park Fire as Crews Work to Restore Power
'Sharks Are Circling Again': With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning
PG&E Faces New Round of Questions Over Its Response at Outset of Dixie Fire
PG&E Says Its Equipment Possibly Linked to Smaller Wildfire That Merged With Dixie Fire
'Unacceptable, Egregious:' Lawmakers Seek Probe of PG&E Fire Victim Trust
Frustration and Tears as Camp Fire Survivors Protest PG&E Fire Trust
Cascade of Outrage Follows Investigation Into PG&E Fire Victim Trust Expenses
Why Doesn't PG&E Bury the Power Lines to Prevent Wildfires?
Wildfire Survivors' Committee Urges Halt to Voting on PG&E Settlement
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"content": "\u003cp>Hundreds of PG&E power poles and other equipment suffered extensive damage as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997808/northern-california-man-accused-of-starting-massive-park-fire-charged-with-arson\">the Park Fire\u003c/a> swept through a vast area of rural Northern California, leaving thousands of people without electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the utility said an all-out effort by crews in the field prevented more widespread destruction of its infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wildfire that began last Wednesday just outside the Butte County town of Chico burned 450 power poles, PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno said. Most of the damage occurred relatively close to where the fire started, near the communities of Cohasset and Forest Ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreno said other equipment destroyed or damaged in the fire so far included segments of local power lines and transformers, though he had no estimate for the quantity of each lost to the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Moreno, PG&E safety and infrastructure protection teams have treated more than 2,700 power poles with fire retardants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of the 349 treated poles that the fire eventually burned around, 306 survived, saving millions of dollars and enabling us to restore power more quickly,” Moreno said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E said about 2,000 of the 3,000 customers who lost power due to the fire have had service restored.[aside postID=news_11997808 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240726-ParkFire-79-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']PG&E has about 300 employees and contract workers responding to the fire. Those efforts include flights by company-owned Blackhawk helicopters to drop water at the direction of Cal Fire commanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last six days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">the Park Fire\u003c/a> has burned over 385,000 acres — 600 square miles — in Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties and destroyed at least 192 structures. The incident now ranks as the fifth-largest fire \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">in state history\u003c/a>, with the top nine fires all having occurred since December 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 5,000 firefighters continue to work the blaze, including over 230 incarcerated people working mostly in hand crews. The wildfire’s perimeter stretches more than 100 miles long, with 14% containment, according to Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s briefing maps show virtually all that contained area is on the southwest side of the fire, adjacent to and just north of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Hundreds of PG&E power poles and other equipment suffered extensive damage as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997808/northern-california-man-accused-of-starting-massive-park-fire-charged-with-arson\">the Park Fire\u003c/a> swept through a vast area of rural Northern California, leaving thousands of people without electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the utility said an all-out effort by crews in the field prevented more widespread destruction of its infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wildfire that began last Wednesday just outside the Butte County town of Chico burned 450 power poles, PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno said. Most of the damage occurred relatively close to where the fire started, near the communities of Cohasset and Forest Ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moreno said other equipment destroyed or damaged in the fire so far included segments of local power lines and transformers, though he had no estimate for the quantity of each lost to the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Moreno, PG&E safety and infrastructure protection teams have treated more than 2,700 power poles with fire retardants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of the 349 treated poles that the fire eventually burned around, 306 survived, saving millions of dollars and enabling us to restore power more quickly,” Moreno said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E said about 2,000 of the 3,000 customers who lost power due to the fire have had service restored.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PG&E has about 300 employees and contract workers responding to the fire. Those efforts include flights by company-owned Blackhawk helicopters to drop water at the direction of Cal Fire commanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last six days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/24/park-fire\">the Park Fire\u003c/a> has burned over 385,000 acres — 600 square miles — in Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties and destroyed at least 192 structures. The incident now ranks as the fifth-largest fire \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-largest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=396e3fe5db424fc39487bfa4d219cf81&hash=8529C4E1F1BC3073E31AD0337E875199\">in state history\u003c/a>, with the top nine fires all having occurred since December 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 5,000 firefighters continue to work the blaze, including over 230 incarcerated people working mostly in hand crews. The wildfire’s perimeter stretches more than 100 miles long, with 14% containment, according to Cal Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency’s briefing maps show virtually all that contained area is on the southwest side of the fire, adjacent to and just north of Chico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Sharks Are Circling Again': With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning",
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"headTitle": "‘Sharks Are Circling Again’: With Wildfires Come Lawyers, and Previous Survivors Have a Warning | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Victoria Gann, Camp Fire survivor\"]‘It’s like a free-for-fall.’[/pullquote]Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Mikal Watts, Trial lawyer to wildfire survivors\"]‘The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people.’[/pullquote]On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11884610\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg\"]In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11879943\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/02/Powell-Camp-Fire-1020x698.jpg\"]In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Geoff Reed, Survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire\"]‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’[/pullquote]When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Stories' tag='camp-fire']At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Potter Handy, Attorney representing 200 victims of the Camp Fire,\"]‘It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy … the clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged.’[/pullquote]Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Coverage' tag='2021-wildfires']Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Attorneys in the fast-growing wildfire litigation industry are racing to recruit victims of fires ravaging parts of Northern California, and they’re promising to take on a familiar target: PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-20210713.pdf\">company disclosed\u003c/a> that its equipment \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/-/media/cpuc-website/industries-and-topics/documents/wildfire/staff-investigations/pge-incident-report-210802-14927.pdf\">may have sparked two fires this year\u003c/a>, including the Dixie Fire, the largest single-origin fire in California history, which to date has engulfed nearly 1,400 square miles, destroying 1,282 structures and forcing thousands to evacuate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Prominent plaintiffs’ attorneys have swooped in even as the fire burns. As part of their campaign, they’ve plowed money into social media and launched websites touting their credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve held a steady stream of in-person and virtual town hall meetings, flying in from across California and around the country to lure in potential clients with everything from free food to face time with famed anti-PG&E activist Erin Brockovich.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some attorneys have already begun the process of setting up shop in the small mountain towns of Quincy and Susanville, where many evacuees are stuck in limbo, staying in motels or with friends as they try to figure out what’s next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887772\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887772 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg\" alt=\"Three people sit at an outdoor table amid Styrofoam containers and soda cans.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/241500197_202297165226628_808619347310281914_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sandy Sullens (right) and her husband, Bob, who recently lost their home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville, at a barbecue for evacuees in Quincy, sponsored by the law firm Potter Handy, on Aug. 19, 2021. “We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These lawyers claim they have experience getting massive settlements out of PG&E for survivors of earlier fires. But many of those families, who turned to these same lawyers after losing their homes and loved ones, still sleep in cars and trailers and now say they see a replay of the broken promises they say have traumatized them a second time. They offer a warning for today’s fire victims: Buyer beware.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a free-for-fall,” said Victoria Gann, who lived in Paradise for 20 years before the Camp Fire destroyed the Sierra Nevada town in 2018. Three years later, she still lives in a trailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gann is among the 70,000 survivors of wildfires sparked by PG&E equipment between 2015 and 2018 who were promised $13.5 billion in a settlement with the utility. Nearly two years later, most of those fire survivors have yet to receive a dime. “It’s only a disaster for the people it happened to. For everyone else, it seems to be a cash windfall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rush of attorneys into rural Northern California prompted Plumas County District Attorney David Hollister to \u003ca href=\"https://www.plumasnews.com/district-attorney-hollister-provides-information-regarding-legal-assistance-in-the-wake-of-the-dixie-fire/\">publish and distribute pamphlets\u003c/a> urging fire victims not to rush as they hire lawyers and contractors. It includes ethics guidance from the State Bar of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing we want is for people to be revictimized,” Hollister told KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom. “This is a big life-changing decision. So take a step back and make a good choice that’s going to protect you going forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887782 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"One worker is on top of a crane next to a power line.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1730\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-800x541.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-2048x1384.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1070764800-1920x1298.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several days after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, PG&E crews repair power lines destroyed by flames on Nov. 21, 2018. As of Sept. 2021, a large number of the 70,000 survivors of PG&E-caused fires between 2015 and 2018 had not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust, set up in 2020 to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers haven’t delivered, survivors say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The push by lawyers to sign up new survivors as clients has become something of a grim fire season tradition in California. Among the most prolific lawyers is Mikal Watts, a trial lawyer from Corpus Christi, Texas, who once told a community forum of fire victims in Sonoma County wine country that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-victims-lawyer-scrutinized-over-Wall-15241511.php\">wanted to “be your daddy.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>On Wednesday, Watts could be found holding court at the Quincy Public Library, addressing those fleeing the Dixie Fire in person, with Brockovich and more fire victims joining on Zoom. “They have a ton of lawyers,” Watts said of PG&E, telling his audience the company was prepared to “crush you like a bug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way you level out the playing field is you assemble 16,000 people,” said Watts, who represented 16,000 survivors of PG&E fires during the company’s recent bankruptcy. “Now all of a sudden, you’ve got their attention and they’re quaking in their boots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s rising concern among survivors of past fires who say these lawyers do not deliver what they promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2019, Watts, along with other attorneys currently recruiting Dixie Fire survivors as clients, announced a settlement with PG&E that promised $13.5 billion in compensation for approximately 70,000 fire victims of the Camp Fire and other fires sparked by the company’s equipment between 2015 and 2018. But payments have been slow to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom revealed\u003c/a> that in its first year of operation, the PG&E Fire Victim Trust spent more than $50 million on overhead, with the trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charging $1,500 an hour (he now \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884610/will-pges-fire-victims-ever-be-made-whole-never-says-trustee-overseeing-compensation\">claims to make $125,000 a month\u003c/a>). Since then, payments have sped up — with the trust saying it’s put approximately $740 million in the hands of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But because half of the settlement came in the form of PG&E stock rather than cash, Trotter said it’s unlikely that fire survivors will get the amount that was promised. With the utility implicated in starting new fires every year, its stock price has languished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom asked Trotter in August when fire victims would be made whole, he said “they never will.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having to deal with the trust’s stock component is “unbearable,” he told us. When pressed, Trotter also said that in his decades as a trustee, he had never seen a victims’ settlement that included stock in the company that had harmed them.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A “horrible” fire settlement\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In his Sept. 1 letter to fire victims who were promised money in the 2019 settlement, Trotter \u003ca href=\"https://www.firevictimtrust.com/Docs/Letter_from_the_Trustee_(9-1-21).pdf\">made an oblique reference to Watts\u003c/a>, saying some lawyers “eager to have their clients vote to approve PG&E’s emergence from bankruptcy, set unrealistic timelines for payments to be made after the Trust’s creation,” before quoting a description of Watts from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-wildfire-victims-still-unpaid-as-new-california-fires-weigh-on-companys-stock-11628674201\">recent article in The Wall Street Journal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In his letter, Trotter said the trust was currently worth “approximately $2.5 billion less than promised.” (PG&E is set to fund the trust with a final $700 million cash installment after this fire season.) So far, the trust hasn’t sold any of its 478 million shares, which comprise a quarter of all PG&E stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom, he did not address the discrepancy directly but said Trotter was “an honorable man in whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.” The PG&E bankruptcy settlement “was the second-largest tort settlement in American history at that time,” he added, “one I am very proud to have worked [on] with fine lawyers across California to achieve on behalf of all our clients.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watts continues to boast of the scale of relief he said he brokered for fire survivors. A website from his group offering legal services declares that he “led the negotiations with PG&E to raise the settlement negotiation from $8.4 billion to $13.5 billion, the largest settlement in bankruptcy history,” though the trust has never been worth that much in the year since PG&E funded it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also declined to be interviewed and sent a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We empathize with the ongoing hardships many victims face, and remain steadfast in our commitment to make it safe for our customers and communities,” the statement read. “To deliver on this commitment, we are hardening our system, piloting new technologies, and taking other aggressive action to increase system safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 860px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887779 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg\" alt='A woman, yelling, holds up two big poster signs, one reading, \"Disaster Capitalism.\"' width=\"860\" height=\"574\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1.jpg 860w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/Paradise_Rally_2-1020x574-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 860px) 100vw, 860px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">About a hundred survivors of the Camp Fire attended a rally in Paradise on May 22, 2021, to protest runaway overhead expenses incurred by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. Angela Casler, left, lost her father-in-law shortly after the Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Geoff Reed, a survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire, didn’t mince words when asked about the deal that Watts helped craft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan is horrible,” he said. Reed and his two daughters, who were 4 and 3 at the time of the fire, have lived in a cramped apartment in Redding since they lost everything. His older girl has nightmares from witnessing dead bodies during their escape from Paradise as the fire burned all around them. His younger daughter constantly worries that another blaze will come for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed said that, fresh off the experience of fleeing the fire, he signed up with Watts’s group after attending a town hall meeting featuring Brockovich, who gained fame for exposing PG&E’s water contamination cover-up in Hinkley, a desert town in San Bernardino County. Reed later learned that Brockovich was acting as a paid non-attorney spokesperson for the legal group headed up by Watts along with Doug Boxer, the son of former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They hired Brockovich as a media mercenary and everybody fawns over her and flocks to her. I did,” Reed said. After he signed up, Reed says Brockovich stopped returning his calls. Jarred by the experience, he switched to a different legal group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When KQED interviewed Brockovich last year, she responded to allegations that she has been unresponsive: “I travel a lot. There could be moments where I’m backlogged or I didn’t get back to somebody. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m perfect.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As fire survivors voted on their settlement last year, Brockovich \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Erin-Brockovich-Why-fire-victims-should-accept-15173053.php\">penned an opinion piece in The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> urging them to vote in support of the settlement, and was quoted in two PG&E press releases touting the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reed called it “a legal con job. I know the outcome, as do thousands of us.” Reed said he’d received an initial $6,667 from the trust but was expecting far more: “I thought we settled for $13.5 billion. Why didn’t PG&E put $13.5 billion in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Trotter, PG&E funded the Fire Victim Trust when shares were worth $9. That’s well below the $14.13 implied price they paid per share, a value derived by dividing the $6.75 billion in stock they were promised by the 478 million shares that PG&E actually gave them in the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Lawyers backed by Wall Street\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>As word of Watts and Boxer’s forum at the Quincy library leaked out on social media, a member of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/573936233419008/posts/1017406632405297/\">Facebook group for 2015-2018 fire survivors\u003c/a> posted a screenshot with the caption “Ka-Ching,” drawing dozens of comments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The sharks are circling again,” commented Stephen Muser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No thx. We’re 3 years of waiting ourselves with the Campfire,” wrote Patricia Wenner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even suggested that past fire survivors attend the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of us Camp Fire folks should join and ask questions about our claims—-,” commented Eva Shepherd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another commenter referenced the revelation last year that Watts had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11813173/attorney-for-pge-fire-victims-funded-by-wall-street-firms-hes-negotiating-against\">accepted litigation funding from some Wall Street hedge funds\u003c/a> negotiating against the interests of fire survivors, including his own clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When KQED was first to report on those ties, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11814494/wall-street-ties-of-lawyer-for-pge-fire-victims-have-some-survivors-querying-settlement-vote\">some fire victims and ethics experts said it raised red flags\u003c/a>, adding that Watts should have disclosed them to his clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At a town hall meeting last year, \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/TEwCjhG53C8?t=6545\">this reporter asked Watts\u003c/a> if he had accepted funding from the hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. He indicated that he had not. But when KQED neared publication on a story about it, Watts changed course, admitting to accepting the litigation funding from Centerbridge and others, and ultimately submitting a written disclosure to clients.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his email to KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom for this story, Watts said there was no conflict of interest because he does not have a single line of financing. “I have access to funds from multiple sources relating to different kinds of cases I litigate across the country,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that that particular line of credit \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-pg-e-fire-victims-weigh-settlement-lawyers-role-attracts-scrutiny-11589198405\">was worth $100 million\u003c/a>, but toward the end of Wednesday’s recruitment event, Watts quoted a much larger amount, which he later told KQED stems from multiple lines of credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mentioned I’ve got access to a lot of money that I borrow from New York banks — $400 million of access so I can spend whatever it takes,” Watts told the audience. “They made up this cockamamie deal about Mikal’s loans are backed up by people that own part of PG&E and this and that. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience of Dixie Fire survivors that he had refinanced the loans “to clean it all up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ll come after me but don’t worry about it. It’s all white noise,” Watts concluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital flyers for the event included a photo of Brockovich, who appeared on the Zoom but never spoke and dropped off the livestream midway through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11887799\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 932px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11887799 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg\" alt=\"People sit at a group of picnic tables on a green lawn beneath tall trees.\" width=\"932\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n.jpg 932w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/240579172_146869947616740_6151292893213842431_n-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 932px) 100vw, 932px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Last month, attorney Bret Cook organized a barbecue in Quincy for those displaced by the Dixie Fire. Not far from the food, attorneys placed a stack of legal contracts for potential wildfire victims to review. \u003ccite>(Paul Boger/KUNR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Free food brings in wildfire survivors\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Watts is hardly the only attorney working to land recent fire victims as clients. KQED and NPR’s California Newsroom counted at least two dozen law firms posting ads and launching websites aimed at survivors of the Dixie Fire. They offer to represent them for damages ranging from property loss, emotional distress and displacement costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last month, one firm organized a barbeque meal of smoked tri-tip and butterhorn rolls. For days, a flyer advertising it made the rounds of social media: “FREE DINNER,” it read. In smaller type below, it specified: “For those displaced due to the Dixie Fire Come Hungry!’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As ash fell from the sky, evacuee Sandy Sullens said she was there to learn more about what resources might be available to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what’s being done and how they can help if you have insurance and you don’t get very much,” said Sullens, who recently lost her home of 51 years when the Dixie Fire destroyed the town of Greenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the same story over and over and over again. PG&E. We’re not sure,” Sullens said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was organized by a local attorney, Bret Cook, who is partnering with Potter Handy, a law firm based in San Diego. The firm recently \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Disability-lawsuits-hit-S-F-Chinatown-and-state-16356130.php\">came under scrutiny\u003c/a> in San Francisco’s Chinatown for allegedly filing frivolous lawsuits against small businesses using the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city’s district attorney, Chesa Boudin, had floated the possibility of filing charges for criminal extortion against the firm, though no such charges were made in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potter, who represented 200 victims of the Camp Fire, did not return an email seeking comment on his San Francisco litigation. But in an interview in Quincy he admitted to the flaws of the wildfire deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s frustrating because of the bankruptcy,” Potter said. “The clients in the Camp Fire got shortchanged in the bankruptcy process and so that was frustrating, frankly. It’s rewarding to help them out but those clients still haven’t been fully paid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not far from the food, Potter Handy attorneys had placed a stack of legal contracts for potential victims to review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The contract states the terms: a contingency that would leave the lawyers with 25% of any potential reward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cook has been the Sullens’s lawyer for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just providing some food for people evacuated from the Dixie Fire. It’s a way to give back to the community,” said Cook, who also lost his home and law office in Greenville. “It was a way of putting a little smile on their face.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if they’re here to enlist clients, Cook demurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not doing that, necessarily. People are asking us. And we’re certainly not going to say no. As I call around, having an avenue to rebuild brings them a sense of hope,” Cook said. “Some are ready to move to that next step and I want to make ourselves available in that case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the correct name of the State Bar of California.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Paul Boger of KUNR in Reno, Nevada, contributed reporting from Quincy.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "PG&E Faces New Round of Questions Over Its Response at Outset of Dixie Fire",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:40 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/7/14/dixie-fire/\">Dixie Fire\u003c/a> in the sixth week of its rampage through the northern Sierra and beyond, PG&E is facing new scrutiny over its possible role in igniting the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility is facing a tough new round of questions from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is seeking new details about the company's response to a power line problem in the Feather River Canyon on July 13, the day the fire started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of his inquiry, Alsup has ordered a PG&E worker who responded to the line problem and eventually discovered the beginnings of the Dixie Fire to appear at a court hearing set for Sept. 13. The judge said he will issue a subpoena to compel the worker's appearance if he does not attend voluntarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup is overseeing PG&E's probation for criminal convictions arising from the deadly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11287618/pge-gets-3m-fine-for-san-bruno-blast-must-advertise-its-conviction-on-tv\">2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline disaster\u003c/a>. He wants the company to more fully explain the actions of the worker, called a troubleman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In orders issued \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21045564/1417-usavpge-210817.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tuesday\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21045565/1418-usavpge-210818.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wednesday\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21046071/1419-usavpge-210819.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thursday\u003c/a>, Alsup posed dozens of questions centering on events in the first 10 hours of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In filings submitted last month to the California Public Utilities Commission and Judge Alsup's court, PG&E reported that the first sign of problem in the area where the fire started was detected early July 13: A power outage was detected at the company's Cresta Dam, on the North Fork of the Feather River northeast of Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E's filing explained that remote sensing equipment had detected a momentary surge of current on the three-conductor line at 6:48 a.m. The surge was too brief — just a few thousandths of a second — for a safety device called a recloser to trip and shut off power through the line. That meant that current continued to flow through the line in an area well known to be at high risk for wildfires as PG&E began the process of investigating the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most attention-getting detail in the company's account of its response was its admission that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881837/why-it-took-pge-9-5-hours-to-get-to-the-scene-where-dixie-fire-started\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it took nearly 10 hours\u003c/a> after the first sign of a problem for its troubleman to reach the site where a 70-foot Douglas-fir tree had fallen across a power line and ignited a small fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11881837 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/dixiefire-1536x851.jpg']The worker tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the blaze, which he described as growing to about 1,200 square feet as he fought it. A fire crew that happened to be driving up the other side of the Feather River on Highway 70 had already spotted the flames and, a few minutes after 5 p.m., reported the incident to a Cal Fire dispatcher as an \"established\" fire measuring about 40 feet by 40 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his long list of queries, Judge Alsup asks PG&E to explain why the power line problem apparently took so long to ignite the small fire the troubleman first encountered. Noting that no one had spotted a fire before the PG&E worker arrived at the site, Alsup asked, \"What, if anything, did the troubleman do upon his arrival at the site that might have accidentally caused the fire?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup's questions include a back-and-forth between the judge and PG&E over what the company knows about a drone flight that interfered with firefighters in the hours immediately following the discovery of the Dixie Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884337/investigators-probing-pges-possible-link-to-fateful-dixie-fire-drone-flight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ordered the company \u003c/a>on Aug. 6 to tell him what it knows about the drone, including whether it might have been flown by a contractor. In a response filed Monday, PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11885363/pge-tells-judge-it-knows-nothing-about-dixie-fire-drone-flight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">flatly denied\u003c/a> knowing anything about the drone flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, Alsup posed the drone question again. The judge said he had information by way of the court monitor assigned to track PG&E's safety performance that the company might know something about the drone after all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court has received information that PG&E informed the monitor of the following: PG&E believed that the drone that interfered with Dixie firefighting on July 13 was being flown by a PG&E contractor at the time of the interference,\" Alsup wrote. \"PG&E believed that the contractor was not doing work for PG&E at the time of the interference, however, because records indicated that it had completed PG&E surveillance work for the day. Is it true that PG&E did believe that a PG&E contractor operated the drone (regardless of whether it was on behalf of PG&E or not)? What was the source of this information? Does PG&E still believe that?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, PG&E reiterated it's \"not aware of any evidence that the company or any of its contractors operated a drone anywhere near the start of the Dixie fire on July 13.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We intend to update the court on what appears to be a misunderstanding based on early reports and preliminary information,\" the company said. \"We will clarify this information with the court and seek to clarify all stakeholders' understanding of the facts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dixie Fire has burned more than 1,050 square miles over the past 38 days, has destroyed more than 500 homes and continues to threaten communities in Lassen, Plumas and Tehama counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 1:40 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2021/7/14/dixie-fire/\">Dixie Fire\u003c/a> in the sixth week of its rampage through the northern Sierra and beyond, PG&E is facing new scrutiny over its possible role in igniting the blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility is facing a tough new round of questions from U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is seeking new details about the company's response to a power line problem in the Feather River Canyon on July 13, the day the fire started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of his inquiry, Alsup has ordered a PG&E worker who responded to the line problem and eventually discovered the beginnings of the Dixie Fire to appear at a court hearing set for Sept. 13. The judge said he will issue a subpoena to compel the worker's appearance if he does not attend voluntarily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup is overseeing PG&E's probation for criminal convictions arising from the deadly \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11287618/pge-gets-3m-fine-for-san-bruno-blast-must-advertise-its-conviction-on-tv\">2010 San Bruno natural gas pipeline disaster\u003c/a>. He wants the company to more fully explain the actions of the worker, called a troubleman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In orders issued \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21045564/1417-usavpge-210817.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tuesday\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21045565/1418-usavpge-210818.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wednesday\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21046071/1419-usavpge-210819.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thursday\u003c/a>, Alsup posed dozens of questions centering on events in the first 10 hours of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In filings submitted last month to the California Public Utilities Commission and Judge Alsup's court, PG&E reported that the first sign of problem in the area where the fire started was detected early July 13: A power outage was detected at the company's Cresta Dam, on the North Fork of the Feather River northeast of Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E's filing explained that remote sensing equipment had detected a momentary surge of current on the three-conductor line at 6:48 a.m. The surge was too brief — just a few thousandths of a second — for a safety device called a recloser to trip and shut off power through the line. That meant that current continued to flow through the line in an area well known to be at high risk for wildfires as PG&E began the process of investigating the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most attention-getting detail in the company's account of its response was its admission that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881837/why-it-took-pge-9-5-hours-to-get-to-the-scene-where-dixie-fire-started\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">it took nearly 10 hours\u003c/a> after the first sign of a problem for its troubleman to reach the site where a 70-foot Douglas-fir tree had fallen across a power line and ignited a small fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The worker tried unsuccessfully to extinguish the blaze, which he described as growing to about 1,200 square feet as he fought it. A fire crew that happened to be driving up the other side of the Feather River on Highway 70 had already spotted the flames and, a few minutes after 5 p.m., reported the incident to a Cal Fire dispatcher as an \"established\" fire measuring about 40 feet by 40 feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his long list of queries, Judge Alsup asks PG&E to explain why the power line problem apparently took so long to ignite the small fire the troubleman first encountered. Noting that no one had spotted a fire before the PG&E worker arrived at the site, Alsup asked, \"What, if anything, did the troubleman do upon his arrival at the site that might have accidentally caused the fire?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup's questions include a back-and-forth between the judge and PG&E over what the company knows about a drone flight that interfered with firefighters in the hours immediately following the discovery of the Dixie Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alsup \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11884337/investigators-probing-pges-possible-link-to-fateful-dixie-fire-drone-flight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ordered the company \u003c/a>on Aug. 6 to tell him what it knows about the drone, including whether it might have been flown by a contractor. In a response filed Monday, PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11885363/pge-tells-judge-it-knows-nothing-about-dixie-fire-drone-flight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">flatly denied\u003c/a> knowing anything about the drone flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Tuesday, Alsup posed the drone question again. The judge said he had information by way of the court monitor assigned to track PG&E's safety performance that the company might know something about the drone after all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The court has received information that PG&E informed the monitor of the following: PG&E believed that the drone that interfered with Dixie firefighting on July 13 was being flown by a PG&E contractor at the time of the interference,\" Alsup wrote. \"PG&E believed that the contractor was not doing work for PG&E at the time of the interference, however, because records indicated that it had completed PG&E surveillance work for the day. Is it true that PG&E did believe that a PG&E contractor operated the drone (regardless of whether it was on behalf of PG&E or not)? What was the source of this information? Does PG&E still believe that?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, PG&E reiterated it's \"not aware of any evidence that the company or any of its contractors operated a drone anywhere near the start of the Dixie fire on July 13.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We intend to update the court on what appears to be a misunderstanding based on early reports and preliminary information,\" the company said. \"We will clarify this information with the court and seek to clarify all stakeholders' understanding of the facts.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dixie Fire has burned more than 1,050 square miles over the past 38 days, has destroyed more than 500 homes and continues to threaten communities in Lassen, Plumas and Tehama counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "PG&E Says Its Equipment Possibly Linked to Smaller Wildfire That Merged With Dixie Fire",
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"content": "\u003cp>PG&E said its equipment may have been involved in the start of a small wildfire that merged with the massive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=dixie%20fire&site=all\">Dixie Fire\u003c/a> now threatening homes in Northern California mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Forest Service was examining a tree found on PG&E power lines near the town of Quincy in Plumas County where the Fly Fire began on July 22, according to the PG&E’s report to the California Public Utilities Commission. The smaller blaze burned through more than 6 square miles of forest before combining with the much larger Dixie Fire two days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11880307\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/GettyImages-1228762156-1020x680.jpg\"]Two weeks ago, PG&E told regulators that the Dixie Fire may have been ignited July 14 when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881579/pge-power-line-may-have-sparked-dixie-fire-near-where-its-equipment-started-states-deadliest-blaze\">a tree fell on another one of its power lines\u003c/a> near the Cresta Dam, west of where the Fly Fire started later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dixie Fire, currently California’s largest blaze, covered about 388 square miles in mountains where 67 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. Evacuation orders were issued Monday for Greenville, a town of about 1,000 people, as strong winds pushed flames through Plumas and Butte counties. The fire was 35% contained as of Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was burning northeast of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=paradise&site=all\">town of Paradise\u003c/a>, where survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire that was started by PG&E equipment watched warily. The Camp Fire killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the state’s deadliest wildfires in recent years, most notably in 2017 and 2018 when a series of wildfires burned down more than 28,000 buildings and killed more than 100 people. It emerged from bankruptcy last year after a series of deadly wildfires ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid prompted it to declare financial insolvency.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nA Northern California prosecutor said last week PG&E will face criminal charges because its equipment sparked a wildfire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said her office hadn’t yet decided which charges to file, but it planned to do so before the September anniversary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=zogg&site=all\">Zogg Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E said in the report filed Sunday that it was cooperating with the U.S. Forest Service’s investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data currently available to PG&E do not establish the cause of the Fly Fire,” the utility said, noting that the information in the report was still preliminary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E officials were scheduled to testify Tuesday during a previously scheduled hearing by the Public Utilities Commission on the practice of companies instituting widespread power outages to prevent equipment from sparking wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison were criticized for their chaotic and unprepared handling of shutoffs in October 2019. Regulators have blasted PG&E for a botched shutoff that left nearly 2 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California without power. People couldn’t get information as websites and call centers crashed and local officials didn’t know what to tell panicked customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a public safety power shutoff, a utility de-energizes its grid in order to prevent its equipment from failing and sparking a wildfire, often amid hot, dry and windy weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='2021-wildfires']PG&E said earlier this month that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882057/pge-says-it-will-bury-10000-miles-of-power-lines-in-wildfire-safety-move\">bury 10,000 miles of power lines\u003c/a> to help reduce the threat of them causing even more catastrophic wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility would be “tenacious in our efforts to stop ignitions from our equipment,” PG&E Corp. CEO Patti Poppe said in a statement Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also said it would implement additional fire-prevention measures, including a plan to respond within 60 minutes or less to any fault or outage on a power line in high-threat areas. The company said it would identify which of its power lines run through areas most affected by drought conditions and perform extra safety patrols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extremely dry conditions and heat waves tied to climate change have swept the region, making wildfires harder to fight. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters said in July they were facing conditions more typical of late summer or fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED has compiled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11880307/kqeds-wildfire-resources-prepare-protect-cope\">list of resources, explainers and how-to posts\u003c/a> around California wildfires. You can check what’s available \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11880307/kqeds-wildfire-resources-prepare-protect-cope\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Dixie Fire, which has burned through more than 250,000 acres, combined with the Fly Fire on July 24. PG&E equipment may be linked with the start of both fires.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>PG&E said its equipment may have been involved in the start of a small wildfire that merged with the massive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=dixie%20fire&site=all\">Dixie Fire\u003c/a> now threatening homes in Northern California mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Forest Service was examining a tree found on PG&E power lines near the town of Quincy in Plumas County where the Fly Fire began on July 22, according to the PG&E’s report to the California Public Utilities Commission. The smaller blaze burned through more than 6 square miles of forest before combining with the much larger Dixie Fire two days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Two weeks ago, PG&E told regulators that the Dixie Fire may have been ignited July 14 when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881579/pge-power-line-may-have-sparked-dixie-fire-near-where-its-equipment-started-states-deadliest-blaze\">a tree fell on another one of its power lines\u003c/a> near the Cresta Dam, west of where the Fly Fire started later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dixie Fire, currently California’s largest blaze, covered about 388 square miles in mountains where 67 homes and other buildings have been destroyed. Evacuation orders were issued Monday for Greenville, a town of about 1,000 people, as strong winds pushed flames through Plumas and Butte counties. The fire was 35% contained as of Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was burning northeast of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=paradise&site=all\">town of Paradise\u003c/a>, where survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire that was started by PG&E equipment watched warily. The Camp Fire killed 85 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E equipment has been blamed for sparking some of the state’s deadliest wildfires in recent years, most notably in 2017 and 2018 when a series of wildfires burned down more than 28,000 buildings and killed more than 100 people. It emerged from bankruptcy last year after a series of deadly wildfires ignited by its long-neglected electrical grid prompted it to declare financial insolvency.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nA Northern California prosecutor said last week PG&E will face criminal charges because its equipment sparked a wildfire last year that killed four people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said her office hadn’t yet decided which charges to file, but it planned to do so before the September anniversary of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=zogg&site=all\">Zogg Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E said in the report filed Sunday that it was cooperating with the U.S. Forest Service’s investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The data currently available to PG&E do not establish the cause of the Fly Fire,” the utility said, noting that the information in the report was still preliminary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E officials were scheduled to testify Tuesday during a previously scheduled hearing by the Public Utilities Commission on the practice of companies instituting widespread power outages to prevent equipment from sparking wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison were criticized for their chaotic and unprepared handling of shutoffs in October 2019. Regulators have blasted PG&E for a botched shutoff that left nearly 2 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California without power. People couldn’t get information as websites and call centers crashed and local officials didn’t know what to tell panicked customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a public safety power shutoff, a utility de-energizes its grid in order to prevent its equipment from failing and sparking a wildfire, often amid hot, dry and windy weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>PG&E said earlier this month that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882057/pge-says-it-will-bury-10000-miles-of-power-lines-in-wildfire-safety-move\">bury 10,000 miles of power lines\u003c/a> to help reduce the threat of them causing even more catastrophic wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The utility would be “tenacious in our efforts to stop ignitions from our equipment,” PG&E Corp. CEO Patti Poppe said in a statement Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also said it would implement additional fire-prevention measures, including a plan to respond within 60 minutes or less to any fault or outage on a power line in high-threat areas. The company said it would identify which of its power lines run through areas most affected by drought conditions and perform extra safety patrols.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Extremely dry conditions and heat waves tied to climate change have swept the region, making wildfires harder to fight. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Firefighters said in July they were facing conditions more typical of late summer or fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED has compiled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11880307/kqeds-wildfire-resources-prepare-protect-cope\">list of resources, explainers and how-to posts\u003c/a> around California wildfires. You can check what’s available \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11880307/kqeds-wildfire-resources-prepare-protect-cope\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has asked for California Attorney General Rob Bonta to probe the spending and administration of the PG&E Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The request comes after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a> into overhead costs of the Trust, which was established as part of a December 2019 bankruptcy settlement between the utility and nearly 70,000 victims of fires caused by PG&E equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation found the Trust spent nearly 90% of outgoing funds on overhead last year, while the vast majority of fire victims waited for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We urge you to use the full authority of your office to review the fund’s recent expenditures and the fund’s administrators,\" said the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20791380-special-victims-trust-ag-letter-legislature-5212021\">letter\u003c/a>, which was signed by 11 state senators and assemblymembers who represent areas impacted by PG&E fires between 2015 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11873739 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg 1149w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>\"We hear every week from residents who've been waiting two years for settlement payments that they are due. Their lives are on hold until they receive these dollars,\" said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, whose district includes parts of Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's unacceptable. It's egregious and it has to change, and it's why we're calling on the trustee to expedite payments to fire survivors in Northern California,\" he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember James Gallagher, a Republican who represents the fire-ravaged town of Paradise, first announced last week on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> that he and colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency. KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers,\" Gallagher said. Others who signed on include state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, and state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, all of whom have constituents harmed by fires caused by PG&E’s equipment and are waiting for compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"State Sen. Mike McGuire\"]'It's unacceptable. It's egregious and it has to change, and it's why we're calling on the trustee to expedite payments to fire survivors in Northern California.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED found the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead last year, while $7 million was distributed to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on an analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims. The largest share of overhead expenses, $16.3 million, went to claims processor fees and expenses, and $12.7 million went to start-up costs. Another $6.8 million went to a line item described as \"insurance, data, and other expenses\" — nearly as much as went to the fire victims themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is outrageous,\" the lawmakers wrote to Bonta, \"especially in light of the fact that thousands of fire victims are struggling to rebuild their lives.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to an inquiry from KQED, Bonta’s office said the attorney general would not comment — even to confirm or deny — a potential investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of Congress have also expressed outrage at the pace of payments to fire victims. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"More Coverage:\" tag=\"fire-victims-trust\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of payments has picked up in recent weeks. According to the most recent data available, the Trust had distributed $255.4 million as of May 19. Still, just 565 of nearly 70,000 people have had their claims processed and paid, the data shows. While the Trust collects its fees in full, those families are getting 30% of what they are owed. That’s partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement agreement with fire victims. The company is funding the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. Today, the Fire Victim Trust holds almost a quarter of PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One court filing showed the Fire Victim Trust’s trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">video\u003c/a> released last week, he said he is now on a salary of $150,000 a month. All overhead costs come from funds set aside for fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust did not offer comment for this story, and has declined all of KQED’s interview requests over the last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his video message, Trotter acknowledged the frustration of fire victims even as he predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're still walking uphill on this,\" Trotter said. \"We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims say that’s not enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='left' citation=\"John Trotter, Fire Victim Trust trustee\"]'We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, retired police chief Kirk Trostle wrote to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali asking for more transparency from the Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" wrote Trostle, who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, in a letter that cited KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last weekend, about 100 Camp Fire survivors staged a rally in Paradise to register their frustration, saying survivors have the right to know exactly where all of the Trust’s administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I thought that I was healing,\" said Teri Lindsay, whose daughter, Erika, wiped back tears as she watched. \"Until that report came out — it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they’re being paid and we’re living in squalor still.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/20792824-special-victims-trust-ag-letter-legislature-5212021/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A bipartisan group of state lawmakers has asked for California Attorney General Rob Bonta to probe the spending and administration of the PG&E Fire Victim Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The request comes after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a> into overhead costs of the Trust, which was established as part of a December 2019 bankruptcy settlement between the utility and nearly 70,000 victims of fires caused by PG&E equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The investigation found the Trust spent nearly 90% of outgoing funds on overhead last year, while the vast majority of fire victims waited for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We urge you to use the full authority of your office to review the fund’s recent expenditures and the fund’s administrators,\" said the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20791380-special-victims-trust-ag-letter-legislature-5212021\">letter\u003c/a>, which was signed by 11 state senators and assemblymembers who represent areas impacted by PG&E fires between 2015 and 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11873739 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg 1149w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>\"We hear every week from residents who've been waiting two years for settlement payments that they are due. Their lives are on hold until they receive these dollars,\" said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, whose district includes parts of Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's unacceptable. It's egregious and it has to change, and it's why we're calling on the trustee to expedite payments to fire survivors in Northern California,\" he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Assemblymember James Gallagher, a Republican who represents the fire-ravaged town of Paradise, first announced last week on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> that he and colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency. KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers,\" Gallagher said. Others who signed on include state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, and state Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Tehama, all of whom have constituents harmed by fires caused by PG&E’s equipment and are waiting for compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED found the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead last year, while $7 million was distributed to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on an analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims. The largest share of overhead expenses, $16.3 million, went to claims processor fees and expenses, and $12.7 million went to start-up costs. Another $6.8 million went to a line item described as \"insurance, data, and other expenses\" — nearly as much as went to the fire victims themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is outrageous,\" the lawmakers wrote to Bonta, \"especially in light of the fact that thousands of fire victims are struggling to rebuild their lives.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to an inquiry from KQED, Bonta’s office said the attorney general would not comment — even to confirm or deny — a potential investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Members of Congress have also expressed outrage at the pace of payments to fire victims. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pace of payments has picked up in recent weeks. According to the most recent data available, the Trust had distributed $255.4 million as of May 19. Still, just 565 of nearly 70,000 people have had their claims processed and paid, the data shows. While the Trust collects its fees in full, those families are getting 30% of what they are owed. That’s partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement agreement with fire victims. The company is funding the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. Today, the Fire Victim Trust holds almost a quarter of PG&E shares.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One court filing showed the Fire Victim Trust’s trustee, retired California Appeals Court Justice John Trotter, charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">video\u003c/a> released last week, he said he is now on a salary of $150,000 a month. All overhead costs come from funds set aside for fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trust did not offer comment for this story, and has declined all of KQED’s interview requests over the last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his video message, Trotter acknowledged the frustration of fire victims even as he predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We're still walking uphill on this,\" Trotter said. \"We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims say that’s not enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, retired police chief Kirk Trostle wrote to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali asking for more transparency from the Trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" wrote Trostle, who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, in a letter that cited KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last weekend, about 100 Camp Fire survivors staged a rally in Paradise to register their frustration, saying survivors have the right to know exactly where all of the Trust’s administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I thought that I was healing,\" said Teri Lindsay, whose daughter, Erika, wiped back tears as she watched. \"Until that report came out — it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they’re being paid and we’re living in squalor still.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/20792824-special-victims-trust-ag-letter-legislature-5212021/?embed=1&responsive=1&title=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"1000\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Frustration and Tears as Camp Fire Survivors Protest PG&E Fire Trust",
"title": "Frustration and Tears as Camp Fire Survivors Protest PG&E Fire Trust",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>Teri Lindsay said she had no intention of speaking at a fire survivors’ rally that drew about a hundred people to the Skyway in Paradise Saturday. But as her daughter, Erika, stood by her side — tears streaming down the young girl’s face — Lindsay voiced her frustration at her family’s living conditions 2.5 years after the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Every time she sees smoke, she cries. She can’t heal until we can go home,\" Lindsay said of Erika, who was 7-years-old when the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed their house, and thousands of others in Paradise. The fire was caused by equipment belonging to PG&E. They’ve been living in a trailer overlooking a branch of Lake Oroville ever since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the vast majority of the 70,000 fire victims of PG&E fires caused between 2015 and 2018, Lindsay has not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust. The Trust was set up last year to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement between fire survivors and PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1904px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875095\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1904\" height=\"1004\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg 1904w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-800x422.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-160x84.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1904px) 100vw, 1904px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teri Lindsay with daughter Erika, speaks at a rally in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021. They lost their home in the 2018 Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said she was motivated to join this weekend’s rally after reading a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, published earlier this month, which showed that the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year while distributing $7 million to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on KQED’s analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last year, fire victims had received less than 0.1% of the approximately $13.5 billion they were promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought that I was healing. Until that report came out, it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Teri Lindsay, Camp Fire Survivor\"]'I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Trotter, the retired California Appeals Court justice who runs the Fire Victim Trust, has declined KQED’s repeated interview requests. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">YouTube video\u003c/a> released last week, he acknowledged the fire victims' frustration, but also predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The trust didn't create the settlement,\" Trotter said. \"We're still walking uphill on this. We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Trust, the pace of payments is picking up, with about $255.4 million distributed as of May 19. But, even then, only 565 of nearly 70,000 eligible families had their claims processed and paid, according to the data. In addition, those families are getting 30% of what they're owed while the Trust collects its own fees in full. Every dollar spent on overhead comes out of the fund for fire victims. One court filing, unearthed by KQED, showed Trotter charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In the video, he said he had taken a pay cut — to a \"very adequate\" salary of $150,000 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire gather in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021 to protest runaway overhead expenses by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>( Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 30% payment structure is partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims. The company has funded the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The arrangement, which has few precedents, made the fire victims significant shareholders in the utility and has complicated the task of administering the Trust, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='fire-victims-trust']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since KQED’s investigation, members of Congress from both parties have demanded action. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts. James Gallagher, a state Assemblyman who represents Paradise, says KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers.\" In an interview on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week, Gallagher said he and his colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims are making similar requests. \"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, wrote to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">Judge Dennis Montali\u003c/a> on May 12, citing KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,\" he added. \"I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Saturday’s rally, Camp Fire victim Sasha Poe reiterated those calls, saying survivors have the right to know where all of those administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Trust is set up for fire victims,\" said Poe, who joined the rally along with her husband and children. \"Yet so many months and years down the line, fire victims haven't seen much.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A fire survivors’ rally drew about a hundred people to the Skyway in Paradise Saturday. The vast majority of fire victims have not yet received any money from a trust that was set up last year to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Teri Lindsay said she had no intention of speaking at a fire survivors’ rally that drew about a hundred people to the Skyway in Paradise Saturday. But as her daughter, Erika, stood by her side — tears streaming down the young girl’s face — Lindsay voiced her frustration at her family’s living conditions 2.5 years after the 2018 Camp Fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Every time she sees smoke, she cries. She can’t heal until we can go home,\" Lindsay said of Erika, who was 7-years-old when the 2018 Camp Fire destroyed their house, and thousands of others in Paradise. The fire was caused by equipment belonging to PG&E. They’ve been living in a trailer overlooking a branch of Lake Oroville ever since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like the vast majority of the 70,000 fire victims of PG&E fires caused between 2015 and 2018, Lindsay has not yet received any money from the Fire Victim Trust. The Trust was set up last year to distribute billions of dollars as part of a settlement between fire survivors and PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875095\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1904px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875095\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1904\" height=\"1004\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika.jpg 1904w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-800x422.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-160x84.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/TeriErika-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1904px) 100vw, 1904px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teri Lindsay with daughter Erika, speaks at a rally in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021. They lost their home in the 2018 Camp Fire. \u003ccite>(Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lindsay said she was motivated to join this weekend’s rally after reading a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, published earlier this month, which showed that the Fire Victim Trust racked up $51 million in overhead costs last year while distributing $7 million to fire victims during that period. The investigation was based on KQED’s analysis of federal bankruptcy court filings, court transcripts and correspondence between the Fire Victim Trust and fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of last year, fire victims had received less than 0.1% of the approximately $13.5 billion they were promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought that I was healing. Until that report came out, it changed my life and took me back to the day. I did not realize how well they're being paid and we’re living in squalor still,” Lindsay said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Trotter, the retired California Appeals Court justice who runs the Fire Victim Trust, has declined KQED’s repeated interview requests. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX-ViYnWvfo\">YouTube video\u003c/a> released last week, he acknowledged the fire victims' frustration, but also predicted more delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The trust didn't create the settlement,\" Trotter said. \"We're still walking uphill on this. We're not near the top yet. We're making progress. We're getting there. When we get to the top and down the other side, it will go much more quickly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the Trust, the pace of payments is picking up, with about $255.4 million distributed as of May 19. But, even then, only 565 of nearly 70,000 eligible families had their claims processed and paid, according to the data. In addition, those families are getting 30% of what they're owed while the Trust collects its own fees in full. Every dollar spent on overhead comes out of the fund for fire victims. One court filing, unearthed by KQED, showed Trotter charged the Fire Victim Trust $1,500 an hour. In the video, he said he had taken a pay cut — to a \"very adequate\" salary of $150,000 a month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11875085\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11875085\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Paradise_Rally-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire gather in Paradise, Calif. on May 22, 2021 to protest runaway overhead expenses by the PG&E Fire Victim Trust. \u003ccite>( Lily Jamali/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 30% payment structure is partly a result of the terms of PG&E’s settlement with fire victims. The company has funded the Trust half with cash and half with PG&E stock. The arrangement, which has few precedents, made the fire victims significant shareholders in the utility and has complicated the task of administering the Trust, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since KQED’s investigation, members of Congress from both parties have demanded action. In separate emails, Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat, and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873721/cascade-of-outrage-follows-investigation-into-pge-fire-victim-trust-expenses\">both called\u003c/a> for faster payouts. James Gallagher, a state Assemblyman who represents Paradise, says KQED's investigation \"raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers.\" In an interview on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101883492/as-wildfire-survivors-await-settlement-fire-victim-trust-spends-51-million\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week, Gallagher said he and his colleagues were preparing a letter calling for more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire victims are making similar requests. \"Families are still living in cars, travel trailers and FEMA trailers,\" Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home in Paradise in 2018, wrote to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">Judge Dennis Montali\u003c/a> on May 12, citing KQED's reporting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,\" he added. \"I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Saturday’s rally, Camp Fire victim Sasha Poe reiterated those calls, saying survivors have the right to know where all of those administrative dollars are going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Trust is set up for fire victims,\" said Poe, who joined the rally along with her husband and children. \"Yet so many months and years down the line, fire victims haven't seen much.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Cascade of Outrage Follows Investigation Into PG&E Fire Victim Trust Expenses",
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"content": "\u003cp>Fire victims and public officials are calling for increased oversight of the Fire Victim Trust set up to distribute billions of dollars in compensation to families displaced by fires sparked by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment. That’s following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, which found the Trust spent $51 million on overhead last year, while the vast majority of fire victims haven’t received a dime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Kirk Trostle – a retired police chief who lost his home when the PG&E-sparked Camp Fire destroyed Paradise in 2018 – petitioned a federal judge to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The administrative expenses are out of control,” Trostle \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">wrote\u003c/a> to Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali, who has been overseeing PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings, which led to the promise of $13.5 billion to be paid to 67,000 fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are still living in cars, travel trailers, and FEMA trailers,” Trostle wrote Montali.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The multi-billion dollar settlement was announced in December 2019. At the end of the following year, KQED found, the Trust had paid out just $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11872328 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Bill-Cook-Home-1020x670.jpg']“Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,” Trostle added. “I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability in the administration of the fire victims money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Montali did not respond to KQED’s request for an interview. His assistant said his consistent practice is to decline such requests in an active pending case. The administrator of the Trust, John Trotter, whom KQED found \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">billed $1,500 an hour\u003c/a> while victims waited, has declined repeated requests to comment. The top claims administrator, Cathy Yanni, makes $1,250 an hour, records show, and the Trust has spent millions more on a host of legal and financial advisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trostle’s petition comes amid a cascade of outrage following KQED’s investigation — from lawmakers, legal experts and fire survivors themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873745\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-800x601.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-1536x1154.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home when the PG&E-sparked Camp Fire destroyed Paradise in 2018, with his wife, Patty. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kirk Trostle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat who represents Napa County and parts of Sonoma County, where thousands of fire survivors are also waiting for compensation, said the disparity uncovered by KQED “has a real and negative impact on people in our district who survived the fires and are still working to rebuild their lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire survivors have already been through so much and all parties involved must do everything they can to make survivors whole as fast as possible,” he said. A spokesperson for Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the senator is tracking the issue closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who represents Paradise, also expressed outrage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No victims’ compensation fund should see $1,500-an-hour lawyers, $1,250-an-hour administrators, and government taxes delaying disbursements or taking the lion’s share,” LaMalfa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The victims of the fire are our priority. The settlement has been made and agreed to. Two years and $50 million is way too much time and overhead. This trustee-led process needs the trust put back in as it seems to have lost the focus on the victims who quickly need these funds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873739 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg 1149w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>Meantime, in the state Legislature, Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who represents Paradise, went on Facebook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanJamesGallagher/posts/2549431628685045\">posting\u003c/a> that KQED’s story “raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers, both from the trustee and the bankruptcy court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s really the bankruptcy court that needs to take action,” Gallagher told KQED. He also said it was time for Gov. Gavin Newsom to get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seeing victims are not getting compensated in a timely fashion — that should rise to the top level,” Gallagher said. “[Newsom] is certainly commenting about a lot of things here lately. I would hope that this would be a top priority as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office declined to comment. “We do not have any information to provide at this time,” said Amelia Matier, a spokesperson for Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The structure of the Trust has been controversial from the outset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tell me why I shouldn’t think this is just a risk to have a very large amount of money be paid out without any kind of control over what happens,” Judge Montali said at a hearing last April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But attorneys representing fire victims pleaded with Montali to approve Trotter’s appointment. Minutes later, Montali relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A major complicating factor in distributing claims is the fact that so much of the compensation to victims came in the form of PG&E stock, the value of which fluctuates daily. Once touted as worth $13.5 billion, today the amount available to pay victims is substantially less, thanks to the company’s flagging fortunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='pge']The fund is currently worth around $11 billion, with a final infusion of $700 million in cash from PG&E expected after the current fire season — in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one is slacking,” said Amy Bach, a consumer advocate on the Trust Oversight Committee. Other than Bach, the committee is exclusively comprised of mass tort attorneys despite calls for fire survivors to have a seat as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, a spokesperson for the Fire Victim Trust said the Trust has increased its payments, and has so far distributed a total of $195.2 million to people who lost loved ones, homes and businesses to fires caused by PG&E. The spokesperson also said the Trust had made preliminary payments averaging about $13,000 to 9,532 of the 67,170 eligible families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, that comes to less than 2% of the $13.5 billion promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is there are just a lot of claims and there’s a lot going down,” Bach said. “It’s hard for me to think there couldn’t have been some things to streamline, but with all the constraints that are on the team issuing payments and determinations, they seem to be extremely hamstrung by orders and legal agreements that were made a long time ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trostle had a front-row seat to discussions that led to the controversial settlement deal struck between PG&E and lawyers for fire victims in December 2019. At the time, he served on an 11-person committee representing fire survivors in PG&E’s most recent bankruptcy. But as it came time for fire victims to vote on the settlement last year, Trostle took the extraordinary step of resigning from the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E’s reorganization plan is deeply flawed and very risky for all fire victims,” he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808826/fire-survivor-resigns-in-protest-from-pge-bankruptcy-committee\">wrote in his resignation letter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained he had been advised by lawyers for the committee that speaking out would conflict with his duty to his fellow fire survivors. So he quit. He has since relocated to Tennessee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaborative project of NPR’s California Newsroom, including Northern California Public Media, CapRadio and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Cascade of Outrage Follows Investigation Into PG&E Fire Victim Trust Expenses | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fire victims and public officials are calling for increased oversight of the Fire Victim Trust set up to distribute billions of dollars in compensation to families displaced by fires sparked by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment. That’s following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11872328/survivors-stuck-in-limbo-as-pge-fire-victim-trust-pays-out-50-million-in-fees\">KQED investigation\u003c/a>, which found the Trust spent $51 million on overhead last year, while the vast majority of fire victims haven’t received a dime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, Kirk Trostle – a retired police chief who lost his home when the PG&E-sparked Camp Fire destroyed Paradise in 2018 – petitioned a federal judge to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The administrative expenses are out of control,” Trostle \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20707787-kirk-trostle-letter-to-judge-montali-regarding-fvt-5-12-21-3\">wrote\u003c/a> to Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali, who has been overseeing PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings, which led to the promise of $13.5 billion to be paid to 67,000 fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are still living in cars, travel trailers, and FEMA trailers,” Trostle wrote Montali.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The multi-billion dollar settlement was announced in December 2019. At the end of the following year, KQED found, the Trust had paid out just $7 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Stating fire victims are languishing is an understatement,” Trostle added. “I request you speed up the process to a sprint-like manner and direct the [Fire Victim Trust] to provide transparency and accountability in the administration of the fire victims money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Montali did not respond to KQED’s request for an interview. His assistant said his consistent practice is to decline such requests in an active pending case. The administrator of the Trust, John Trotter, whom KQED found \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20698873-m034139804869-rep-1404090738?responsive=1&title=1\">billed $1,500 an hour\u003c/a> while victims waited, has declined repeated requests to comment. The top claims administrator, Cathy Yanni, makes $1,250 an hour, records show, and the Trust has spent millions more on a host of legal and financial advisers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trostle’s petition comes amid a cascade of outrage following KQED’s investigation — from lawmakers, legal experts and fire survivors themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873745\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873745\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-800x601.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-1020x766.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Trostle-1536x1154.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kirk Trostle, a retired police chief who lost his home when the PG&E-sparked Camp Fire destroyed Paradise in 2018, with his wife, Patty. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Kirk Trostle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, a Democrat who represents Napa County and parts of Sonoma County, where thousands of fire survivors are also waiting for compensation, said the disparity uncovered by KQED “has a real and negative impact on people in our district who survived the fires and are still working to rebuild their lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire survivors have already been through so much and all parties involved must do everything they can to make survivors whole as fast as possible,” he said. A spokesperson for Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the senator is tracking the issue closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who represents Paradise, also expressed outrage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No victims’ compensation fund should see $1,500-an-hour lawyers, $1,250-an-hour administrators, and government taxes delaying disbursements or taking the lion’s share,” LaMalfa said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The victims of the fire are our priority. The settlement has been made and agreed to. Two years and $50 million is way too much time and overhead. This trustee-led process needs the trust put back in as it seems to have lost the focus on the victims who quickly need these funds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873739 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1149\" height=\"1460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust.jpeg 1149w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-800x1017.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-1020x1296.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/pge-trust-160x203.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1149px) 100vw, 1149px\">\u003c/a>Meantime, in the state Legislature, Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican who represents Paradise, went on Facebook, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/AssemblymanJamesGallagher/posts/2549431628685045\">posting\u003c/a> that KQED’s story “raises a lot of questions and concerns that need answers, both from the trustee and the bankruptcy court.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s really the bankruptcy court that needs to take action,” Gallagher told KQED. He also said it was time for Gov. Gavin Newsom to get involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seeing victims are not getting compensated in a timely fashion — that should rise to the top level,” Gallagher said. “[Newsom] is certainly commenting about a lot of things here lately. I would hope that this would be a top priority as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office declined to comment. “We do not have any information to provide at this time,” said Amelia Matier, a spokesperson for Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The structure of the Trust has been controversial from the outset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tell me why I shouldn’t think this is just a risk to have a very large amount of money be paid out without any kind of control over what happens,” Judge Montali said at a hearing last April.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But attorneys representing fire victims pleaded with Montali to approve Trotter’s appointment. Minutes later, Montali relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A major complicating factor in distributing claims is the fact that so much of the compensation to victims came in the form of PG&E stock, the value of which fluctuates daily. Once touted as worth $13.5 billion, today the amount available to pay victims is substantially less, thanks to the company’s flagging fortunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The fund is currently worth around $11 billion, with a final infusion of $700 million in cash from PG&E expected after the current fire season — in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one is slacking,” said Amy Bach, a consumer advocate on the Trust Oversight Committee. Other than Bach, the committee is exclusively comprised of mass tort attorneys despite calls for fire survivors to have a seat as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, a spokesperson for the Fire Victim Trust said the Trust has increased its payments, and has so far distributed a total of $195.2 million to people who lost loved ones, homes and businesses to fires caused by PG&E. The spokesperson also said the Trust had made preliminary payments averaging about $13,000 to 9,532 of the 67,170 eligible families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, that comes to less than 2% of the $13.5 billion promised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is there are just a lot of claims and there’s a lot going down,” Bach said. “It’s hard for me to think there couldn’t have been some things to streamline, but with all the constraints that are on the team issuing payments and determinations, they seem to be extremely hamstrung by orders and legal agreements that were made a long time ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trostle had a front-row seat to discussions that led to the controversial settlement deal struck between PG&E and lawyers for fire victims in December 2019. At the time, he served on an 11-person committee representing fire survivors in PG&E’s most recent bankruptcy. But as it came time for fire victims to vote on the settlement last year, Trostle took the extraordinary step of resigning from the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PG&E’s reorganization plan is deeply flawed and very risky for all fire victims,” he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808826/fire-survivor-resigns-in-protest-from-pge-bankruptcy-committee\">wrote in his resignation letter\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained he had been advised by lawyers for the committee that speaking out would conflict with his duty to his fellow fire survivors. So he quit. He has since relocated to Tennessee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is a collaborative project of NPR’s California Newsroom, including Northern California Public Media, CapRadio and KQED.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Why Doesn't PG&E Bury the Power Lines to Prevent Wildfires?",
"headTitle": "Why Doesn’t PG&E Bury the Power Lines to Prevent Wildfires? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California has always had wildfires. Like earthquakes or drought, they’re part of living in this state. Lightning starts some of our wildfires, and careless people start others. But over the last several years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833283/deflect-delay-defer-decade-of-pge-wildfire-safety-pushback-preceded-disasters\">a lot of fires have been started by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)\u003c/a>, the power company serving 5.1 million households all over Central and Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just two-and-a-half years the utility’s equipment started more than fifteen-hundred fires, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-sparked-at-least-1-500-california-fires-now-the-utility-faces-collapse-11547410768\">Wall Street Journal investigation found\u003c/a>. Some of those were small, but others were deadly, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705243/california-wildfires-what-you-need-to-know\">2018 Camp Fire\u003c/a>, which burned the town of Paradise to the ground and killed\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/11/8/camp-fire/\"> 85 people\u003c/a>. The Camp Fire caused about $16.5 billion in damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E didn’t pay for all of that, but facing billions in claims from fire victims the company declared bankruptcy in 2019, an expensive process that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791486/wall-street-could-make-1-billion-off-pges-bankruptcy-and-ratepayers-are-on-the-hook\">funneled huge amounts of cash to lawyers and Wall Street investors\u003c/a> without fundamentally changing the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Sally Swope has been watching all this news unfold. It sparked a question: “I wanted to know why PG&E doesn’t just bury their lines. There are so many [law]suits against them, and it seems like it would be more economical if they just buried their lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re going to answer Sally’s question and explore a few other common questions people have about how PG&E got so big and what can be done to make their system safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Not Put All Power Lines Underground?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851440\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11851440\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1020x680.jpg\" alt=\"A PG&E contractor works on utility poles along Highway 128 near Geyserville, California on October 31, 2019. \" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E contractor works on utility poles along Highway 128 near Geyserville, California on October 31, 2019. \u003ccite>(PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Put-PG-E-s-power-lines-underground-It-can-be-14565060.php\">Undergrounding power lines is a popular idea\u003c/a>. It would look nicer, and at first glance it seems like a sensible way to prevent fires that start when tree branches fall on power lines. But it’s not as simple as it seems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have kind of a tradeoff to look at,” says UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier. “When power lines are underground, if and when something does go wrong, it’s a lot harder to find where the problem is and go fix it. So that then takes longer, and costs more to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underground lines can be affected by earthquakes or malfunction for other reasons. PG&E would have to dig up the street to find and fix the problem. Getting them underground in the first place is also expensive. PG&E estimates it costs $3 million dollars per circuit mile, and the company has over \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/about-pge/company-information/profile/profile.page\">100,000 miles of distribution and transmission lines.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It quickly becomes prohibitively expensive,” says Nathaniel Skinner, safety program expert at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/\">CPUC Public Advocates Office\u003c/a>. “People are paying a lot for their electricity service right now. There’s a lot of people who can’t afford the utility bills. At what point does electricity service become unaffordable? And that starts to introduce all sorts of health and safety impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner estimates that if PG&E were to bury only its overhead lines in high fire threat areas it would cost ratepayers anywhere between $55 billion to $144 billion dollars. To put that in perspective, Skinner says, all of PG&E’s current assets are worth about $50 billion. So putting just the most fire prone lines underground would cost as much or more than PG&E is worth. And, even if we assume the low end of the range, the average ratepayer could pay eight-times as much per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost is a big reason why utilities are much more likely to put power lines underground in a new development, especially if the city or homeowners help shoulder the cost. PG&E has also put power lines underground in pilot projects, or after catastrophes. When the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11139448/lessons-from-the-east-bay-hills-fire-25-years-later\">Oakland Hills fire\u003c/a> devastated the East Bay in 1991, homeowners pushed PG&E to rebuild the distribution network underground. Similar pressure from residents in Paradise prompted PG&E to commit to undergrounding 200 miles of power lines in and around the town as it rebuilds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using PG&E’s $3 million per mile estimate, a rough back-of-the napkin calculation says the 200 miles around Paradise will cost about $460 million. A hefty price tag. But it’s still a bargain when you realize the Camp Fire caused about \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-wildfire-was-world-s-costliest-natural-disaster-2018-insurer-n956376\">$16.5 billion dollars in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Are There Cheaper Ways To Make the Power Grid Safer?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11851447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1020x746.jpg\" alt=\"A PG&E worker cuts damaged power lines on November 13, 2018.\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1020x746.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-800x585.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1536x1124.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E worker cuts damaged power lines on November 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beyond burying power lines, there are other ways to prevent wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1) Keep better records.\u003c/strong> The power grid is old and needs constant maintenance. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-knew-for-years-its-lines-could-spark-wildfires-and-didnt-fix-them-11562768885\">PG&E hasn’t replaced some of its infrastructure\u003c/a> in over a hundred years, part of the reason it has had so many \u003ca href=\"https://www.buttecounty.net/Portals/30/CFReport/PGE-THE-CAMP-FIRE-PUBLIC-REPORT.pdf?ver=2020-06-15-190515-977\">equipment failures\u003c/a>. Better record keeping and a more robust inspection and quality control program would go a long way, some say. Without good records, PG&E won’t know where there are safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2) Upgrade key equipment.\u003c/strong> Power is brought into populated areas on long, high voltage transmission lines, which are usually not insulated. That means a fallen tree or branch that touches the line can easily ignite a fire. Replacing those exposed wires with what’s called covered conductor wire would make the system safer. More cameras and weather monitoring technology would also help PG&E predict fire danger better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3) Cut back vegetation.\u003c/strong> PG&E is also responsible for trimming vegetation around its lines to reduce the likelihood of it brushing up against live wires. Skinner points out often people push back against this work for aesthetic reasons, but it’s very important. That’s why he’s concerned that despite submitting plans for increased inspections and tree trimming, PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-monitor-suggests-tree-trimming-program-15662342.php\">may be rushing to fill quotas instead of doing work in the most fire-prone areas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/WfZ7QyrlEjQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CPUC has hired more people to inspect the work the utilities say they’ve done. A federal monitor is also watching PG&E. But there are still signs that PG&E’s safety program has problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 Kincade fire \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/11163/kincadefire_2019_cause.pdf\">was started by a PG&E line\u003c/a> that the company told regulators was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20190619_pge_provides_update_on_enhanced_safety_inspections_and_repairs_made_to_electric_infrastructure_in_high-fire_threat_areas\">recently inspected\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so it raises the question of how are things getting missed when these are some of the areas where PG&E, coming out of the [20]17 and [20]18 fires, is saying that they’re doing the best work,” Skinner says. “So there’s clearly still a long road ahead for PG&E.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Could New Technologies Change the Paradigm?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier is excited about the promise of a “smarter grid,” one where utilities could control the component parts better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sascha von Meier has experimented with what are known as “synchrophasors,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949483/one-way-california-can-avoid-more-blackouts-make-power-lines-smarter\">sensors on the lines that detect small and large power disturbances\u003c/a>. So, for example, a tree branch might bump up against an exposed line a dozen times before finally igniting a fire. The synchrophasors would sense and record that data, giving the utility precise information about problematic areas and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of technology is already in use or being tested. San Diego Gas and Electric has deployed sensors on its distribution lines that can detect if a line breaks and shut off power instantly, before the severed wire touches the ground. PG&E tested similar technology in Napa Valley and found it useful for detecting equipment that needed replacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>von Meier says a smarter grid would allow utilities to operate the system in fundamentally different ways. It would make it easier, for example, to integrate rooftop solar generation into the mix, to deal with electric vehicle charging and to potentially create microgrids that could generate and store power independently during a power shutoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How Did PG&E Get So Big?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/HISTORY-Utility-Giant-Grew-from-Gold-Rush-Roots-2934359.php\">PG&E’s history\u003c/a> goes back to just after the Gold Rush, when California’s population first boomed. At the time, electricity generation was extremely local, just a small generator hooked up to a few poles and wires running into a building. Over time, companies realized it was more efficient to team up, generate power further away, and bring it to cities on long transmission lines. As power companies consolidated throughout the 20th century, PG&E kept getting bigger and bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that grew kind of organically over the course of decades,” says Steve Weissman, a UC Berkeley public policy professor and former administrative law judge at the CPUC. “As a result of that, this is a company that really never got to a point where it stepped back and asked itself, ‘Have we become too big for our current form of management?’ [They haven’t had to] ask a lot of self-reflective questions about the most useful way to make sure the service is safe, that it’s environmentally sensitive, that it’s reliable and that it’s cheap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That lack of foresight may help explain why PG&E has such a bad track record when it comes to safety. When one of PG&E’s gas pipelines exploded in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10667274/five-years-after-deadly-san-bruno-explosion-are-we-safer\">San Bruno in 2010\u003c/a> it killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. There was a visible crack in a line, something PG&E quality control failed to find. Similar story with the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise and killed 85 people — old and poorly maintained PG&E equipment was at fault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a company that has not had an instinct to put safeguards in place … to make sure people are looking for problems and trying to identify them and overcome them early,” Weissman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Weissman doesn’t put all the blame on the company. He says regulators are also at fault. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a national backlash against government regulation. Voters signaled they felt companies should be left alone to run their businesses without government meddling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The notion was that these big companies care a lot about safety,” Weissman says. “And so what the commission wanted to do was to step back and let the company take care of its system. And with the understanding that if problems came up, the company would come and report those problems to the regulators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “light touch” approach meant the CPUC made rules and trusted the utilities to implement them. They didn’t always check to make sure safety improvements and inspections were actually getting done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now the regulators, I think, have a very different approach and a very different attitude about overseeing what these companies are doing,” Weissman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California has always had wildfires. Like earthquakes or drought, they’re part of living in this state. Lightning starts some of our wildfires, and careless people start others. But over the last several years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833283/deflect-delay-defer-decade-of-pge-wildfire-safety-pushback-preceded-disasters\">a lot of fires have been started by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)\u003c/a>, the power company serving 5.1 million households all over Central and Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just two-and-a-half years the utility’s equipment started more than fifteen-hundred fires, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-sparked-at-least-1-500-california-fires-now-the-utility-faces-collapse-11547410768\">Wall Street Journal investigation found\u003c/a>. Some of those were small, but others were deadly, like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11705243/california-wildfires-what-you-need-to-know\">2018 Camp Fire\u003c/a>, which burned the town of Paradise to the ground and killed\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2018/11/8/camp-fire/\"> 85 people\u003c/a>. The Camp Fire caused about $16.5 billion in damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E didn’t pay for all of that, but facing billions in claims from fire victims the company declared bankruptcy in 2019, an expensive process that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11791486/wall-street-could-make-1-billion-off-pges-bankruptcy-and-ratepayers-are-on-the-hook\">funneled huge amounts of cash to lawyers and Wall Street investors\u003c/a> without fundamentally changing the company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Sally Swope has been watching all this news unfold. It sparked a question: “I wanted to know why PG&E doesn’t just bury their lines. There are so many [law]suits against them, and it seems like it would be more economical if they just buried their lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re going to answer Sally’s question and explore a few other common questions people have about how PG&E got so big and what can be done to make their system safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Not Put All Power Lines Underground?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851440\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11851440\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1020x680.jpg\" alt=\"A PG&E contractor works on utility poles along Highway 128 near Geyserville, California on October 31, 2019. \" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E contractor works on utility poles along Highway 128 near Geyserville, California on October 31, 2019. \u003ccite>(PHILIP PACHECO/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Put-PG-E-s-power-lines-underground-It-can-be-14565060.php\">Undergrounding power lines is a popular idea\u003c/a>. It would look nicer, and at first glance it seems like a sensible way to prevent fires that start when tree branches fall on power lines. But it’s not as simple as it seems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have kind of a tradeoff to look at,” says UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier. “When power lines are underground, if and when something does go wrong, it’s a lot harder to find where the problem is and go fix it. So that then takes longer, and costs more to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underground lines can be affected by earthquakes or malfunction for other reasons. PG&E would have to dig up the street to find and fix the problem. Getting them underground in the first place is also expensive. PG&E estimates it costs $3 million dollars per circuit mile, and the company has over \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en_US/about-pge/company-information/profile/profile.page\">100,000 miles of distribution and transmission lines.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It quickly becomes prohibitively expensive,” says Nathaniel Skinner, safety program expert at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/\">CPUC Public Advocates Office\u003c/a>. “People are paying a lot for their electricity service right now. There’s a lot of people who can’t afford the utility bills. At what point does electricity service become unaffordable? And that starts to introduce all sorts of health and safety impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skinner estimates that if PG&E were to bury only its overhead lines in high fire threat areas it would cost ratepayers anywhere between $55 billion to $144 billion dollars. To put that in perspective, Skinner says, all of PG&E’s current assets are worth about $50 billion. So putting just the most fire prone lines underground would cost as much or more than PG&E is worth. And, even if we assume the low end of the range, the average ratepayer could pay eight-times as much per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cost is a big reason why utilities are much more likely to put power lines underground in a new development, especially if the city or homeowners help shoulder the cost. PG&E has also put power lines underground in pilot projects, or after catastrophes. When the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11139448/lessons-from-the-east-bay-hills-fire-25-years-later\">Oakland Hills fire\u003c/a> devastated the East Bay in 1991, homeowners pushed PG&E to rebuild the distribution network underground. Similar pressure from residents in Paradise prompted PG&E to commit to undergrounding 200 miles of power lines in and around the town as it rebuilds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using PG&E’s $3 million per mile estimate, a rough back-of-the napkin calculation says the 200 miles around Paradise will cost about $460 million. A hefty price tag. But it’s still a bargain when you realize the Camp Fire caused about \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-wildfire-was-world-s-costliest-natural-disaster-2018-insurer-n956376\">$16.5 billion dollars in damages\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Are There Cheaper Ways To Make the Power Grid Safer?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11851447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11851447\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1020x746.jpg\" alt=\"A PG&E worker cuts damaged power lines on November 13, 2018.\" width=\"640\" height=\"468\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1020x746.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-800x585.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-160x117.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3-1536x1124.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/12/underground-PGE-lines3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A PG&E worker cuts damaged power lines on November 13, 2018. \u003ccite>(Anne Wernikoff/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beyond burying power lines, there are other ways to prevent wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1) Keep better records.\u003c/strong> The power grid is old and needs constant maintenance. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/pg-e-knew-for-years-its-lines-could-spark-wildfires-and-didnt-fix-them-11562768885\">PG&E hasn’t replaced some of its infrastructure\u003c/a> in over a hundred years, part of the reason it has had so many \u003ca href=\"https://www.buttecounty.net/Portals/30/CFReport/PGE-THE-CAMP-FIRE-PUBLIC-REPORT.pdf?ver=2020-06-15-190515-977\">equipment failures\u003c/a>. Better record keeping and a more robust inspection and quality control program would go a long way, some say. Without good records, PG&E won’t know where there are safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2) Upgrade key equipment.\u003c/strong> Power is brought into populated areas on long, high voltage transmission lines, which are usually not insulated. That means a fallen tree or branch that touches the line can easily ignite a fire. Replacing those exposed wires with what’s called covered conductor wire would make the system safer. More cameras and weather monitoring technology would also help PG&E predict fire danger better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>3) Cut back vegetation.\u003c/strong> PG&E is also responsible for trimming vegetation around its lines to reduce the likelihood of it brushing up against live wires. Skinner points out often people push back against this work for aesthetic reasons, but it’s very important. That’s why he’s concerned that despite submitting plans for increased inspections and tree trimming, PG&E \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/PG-E-monitor-suggests-tree-trimming-program-15662342.php\">may be rushing to fill quotas instead of doing work in the most fire-prone areas\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/WfZ7QyrlEjQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/WfZ7QyrlEjQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The CPUC has hired more people to inspect the work the utilities say they’ve done. A federal monitor is also watching PG&E. But there are still signs that PG&E’s safety program has problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2019 Kincade fire \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/media/11163/kincadefire_2019_cause.pdf\">was started by a PG&E line\u003c/a> that the company told regulators was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pge.com/en/about/newsroom/newsdetails/index.page?title=20190619_pge_provides_update_on_enhanced_safety_inspections_and_repairs_made_to_electric_infrastructure_in_high-fire_threat_areas\">recently inspected\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so it raises the question of how are things getting missed when these are some of the areas where PG&E, coming out of the [20]17 and [20]18 fires, is saying that they’re doing the best work,” Skinner says. “So there’s clearly still a long road ahead for PG&E.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Could New Technologies Change the Paradigm?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier is excited about the promise of a “smarter grid,” one where utilities could control the component parts better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sascha von Meier has experimented with what are known as “synchrophasors,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949483/one-way-california-can-avoid-more-blackouts-make-power-lines-smarter\">sensors on the lines that detect small and large power disturbances\u003c/a>. So, for example, a tree branch might bump up against an exposed line a dozen times before finally igniting a fire. The synchrophasors would sense and record that data, giving the utility precise information about problematic areas and equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of technology is already in use or being tested. San Diego Gas and Electric has deployed sensors on its distribution lines that can detect if a line breaks and shut off power instantly, before the severed wire touches the ground. PG&E tested similar technology in Napa Valley and found it useful for detecting equipment that needed replacing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>von Meier says a smarter grid would allow utilities to operate the system in fundamentally different ways. It would make it easier, for example, to integrate rooftop solar generation into the mix, to deal with electric vehicle charging and to potentially create microgrids that could generate and store power independently during a power shutoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How Did PG&E Get So Big?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/HISTORY-Utility-Giant-Grew-from-Gold-Rush-Roots-2934359.php\">PG&E’s history\u003c/a> goes back to just after the Gold Rush, when California’s population first boomed. At the time, electricity generation was extremely local, just a small generator hooked up to a few poles and wires running into a building. Over time, companies realized it was more efficient to team up, generate power further away, and bring it to cities on long transmission lines. As power companies consolidated throughout the 20th century, PG&E kept getting bigger and bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that grew kind of organically over the course of decades,” says Steve Weissman, a UC Berkeley public policy professor and former administrative law judge at the CPUC. “As a result of that, this is a company that really never got to a point where it stepped back and asked itself, ‘Have we become too big for our current form of management?’ [They haven’t had to] ask a lot of self-reflective questions about the most useful way to make sure the service is safe, that it’s environmentally sensitive, that it’s reliable and that it’s cheap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That lack of foresight may help explain why PG&E has such a bad track record when it comes to safety. When one of PG&E’s gas pipelines exploded in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10667274/five-years-after-deadly-san-bruno-explosion-are-we-safer\">San Bruno in 2010\u003c/a> it killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. There was a visible crack in a line, something PG&E quality control failed to find. Similar story with the Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise and killed 85 people — old and poorly maintained PG&E equipment was at fault.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a company that has not had an instinct to put safeguards in place … to make sure people are looking for problems and trying to identify them and overcome them early,” Weissman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Weissman doesn’t put all the blame on the company. He says regulators are also at fault. In the 1980s and 1990s there was a national backlash against government regulation. Voters signaled they felt companies should be left alone to run their businesses without government meddling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The notion was that these big companies care a lot about safety,” Weissman says. “And so what the commission wanted to do was to step back and let the company take care of its system. And with the understanding that if problems came up, the company would come and report those problems to the regulators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That “light touch” approach meant the CPUC made rules and trusted the utilities to implement them. They didn’t always check to make sure safety improvements and inspections were actually getting done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now the regulators, I think, have a very different approach and a very different attitude about overseeing what these companies are doing,” Weissman says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The committee representing Northern California wildfire survivors wants participants to postpone voting on a $13.5 billion compensation deal with PG&E until May 1 — a hurdle that could jeopardize the utility's ability to exit bankruptcy in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief filed Monday in a federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco, the group — known as the Tort Claimants Committee (TCC), which represents victims of recent wildfires caused by PG&E's equipment — accused the massive utility of changing the terms of the plan that the two parties had brokered in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of the settlement is set to be paid into a victims' compensation trust as PG&E stock. The utility's shares — volatile even before the coronavirus pandemic rocked U.S. markets — have now lost roughly half their value since mid-February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said PG&E has refused to guarantee that the $6.75 billion in stock issued to the trust will actually retain its value, even as the company has recently raised its debt load by $3.7 billion more than what the settlement called for — a factor that could decrease stock value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The coronavirus worldwide tragedy is devaluing the [claimants'] share of PG&E’s equity at an amount lower than the $6.75 billion value,\" Elizabeth Green, an attorney with the firm BakerHostetler, wrote on behalf of the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The impasse between PG&E and the survivors' committee comes just days after fire victims began voting on the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A speedy resolution of the agreement with wildfire survivors is a prerequisite of PG&E's exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a benchmark it must meet by June 30 in order to tap a state wildfire insurance fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three fire survivors who sat on the TCC resigned over the last two weeks, saying they had been prevented from\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11808826/fire-survivor-resigns-in-protest-from-pge-bankruptcy-committee\"> freely voicing their opposition to the settlement\u003c/a>. And now, the remaining committee members are seeking the court's approval to send survivors a letter explaining their own concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"bankruptcy\"]The information provided in the proposed letter may have a material impact on how and when fire victim claimants vote,\" Green wrote. \"The proposed letter is necessary to provide the fire victim claimants with adequate information regarding the plan.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think it's a sign that PG&E has finally pushed people too far,\" said Helen Sedwick, who lost her home in the 2017 Nuns Fire. \"The impact of this settlement affects tens of thousands of Californians.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tort attorneys representing tens of thousands of wildfire survivors say the committee members should have raised their concerns sooner — well before voting began on April 1 — and are not representing the interests of a majority of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We appreciate the efforts of the [committee] to firm up the deal and get fire victims every penny for which we bargained,\" said attorney Amanda Riddle, who represents 6,500 wildfire survivors. She recommended, however, that \"our clients continue to vote in favor of the plan, as it is the best plan to get them paid quickly and fairly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also pushed back on the committee's critique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, the company said the committee's filing is \"an attempt to change the settlement it agreed to, despite the fact that the agreement has the broad support of the parties and the Governor's Office and is the best and fastest path to getting victims paid.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company added, \"The risk of the stock price fluctuating was well understood by all parties and was clearly and overly included in the [committee's] own statements to fire victims.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the issues raised by the committee.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The committee representing Northern California wildfire survivors wants participants to postpone voting on a $13.5 billion compensation deal with PG&E until May 1 — a hurdle that could jeopardize the utility's ability to exit bankruptcy in the coming months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief filed Monday in a federal bankruptcy court in San Francisco, the group — known as the Tort Claimants Committee (TCC), which represents victims of recent wildfires caused by PG&E's equipment — accused the massive utility of changing the terms of the plan that the two parties had brokered in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Half of the settlement is set to be paid into a victims' compensation trust as PG&E stock. The utility's shares — volatile even before the coronavirus pandemic rocked U.S. markets — have now lost roughly half their value since mid-February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said PG&E has refused to guarantee that the $6.75 billion in stock issued to the trust will actually retain its value, even as the company has recently raised its debt load by $3.7 billion more than what the settlement called for — a factor that could decrease stock value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The coronavirus worldwide tragedy is devaluing the [claimants'] share of PG&E’s equity at an amount lower than the $6.75 billion value,\" Elizabeth Green, an attorney with the firm BakerHostetler, wrote on behalf of the committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The information provided in the proposed letter may have a material impact on how and when fire victim claimants vote,\" Green wrote. \"The proposed letter is necessary to provide the fire victim claimants with adequate information regarding the plan.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think it's a sign that PG&E has finally pushed people too far,\" said Helen Sedwick, who lost her home in the 2017 Nuns Fire. \"The impact of this settlement affects tens of thousands of Californians.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But tort attorneys representing tens of thousands of wildfire survivors say the committee members should have raised their concerns sooner — well before voting began on April 1 — and are not representing the interests of a majority of fire victims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We appreciate the efforts of the [committee] to firm up the deal and get fire victims every penny for which we bargained,\" said attorney Amanda Riddle, who represents 6,500 wildfire survivors. She recommended, however, that \"our clients continue to vote in favor of the plan, as it is the best plan to get them paid quickly and fairly.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E also pushed back on the committee's critique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a written statement, the company said the committee's filing is \"an attempt to change the settlement it agreed to, despite the fact that the agreement has the broad support of the parties and the Governor's Office and is the best and fastest path to getting victims paid.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company added, \"The risk of the stock price fluctuating was well understood by all parties and was clearly and overly included in the [committee's] own statements to fire victims.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the issues raised by the committee.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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},
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5Nzk2MzI2MTEx",
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