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Page A3From§Eachthe early evening edition — 5 October 2026

California's wildfire accountability bill dies in Sacramento, resurfaces as a lawsuit against homeowners' own insurer.

By The Wrecking CrewThe Remedy Desk

“Alarming California map shows exactly where wildfires are tearing across the state — as sweltering heat wave hits”, 5 October 2026 (Photo via New York Post — the original report)

As it ran on the front

The call comes in this week as an orange map and a heat warning running from Sunday through Thursday, record highs stacked on top of fires already loose in the hills. The New York Post's survey of the state's current blazes puts the two trends on top of each other: the hottest stretch of the year landing exactly when the fires are already moving.

One month earlier, the tool built for this exact collision got set down instead of used. On September 1, California Democrats declined, at the last hour, to advance the bill holding wildfire-starting utility companies accountable — the Post's own phrase for the maneuver is an "11th hour reprieve," granted to the companies whose equipment starts the fires, not to the people standing under them. The bill did not lose on the facts reported here. It simply stopped moving, and a utility's liability for a spark stayed exactly where it was the day before the vote.…

…(cont) One day earlier, Monday, August 31, Los Angeles County had already filed its own hundred-page document on the other half of the same fire season. The county's lawsuit accuses State Farm, the state's largest homeowner insurer, of systematically mishandling claims from the 2025 fires — claims some residents are still waiting on, nearly two years out. The county did not wait for Sacramento to decide whether a utility answers for ignition. It went straight at the company deciding, line by line, what a burned house is worth.

A homeowner reading both documents this week does not get to pick which tool survived the season. They get the one left on the table: depose the adjuster who worked the 2025 file, and hope the heat wave running through Thursday does not hand that same adjuster a second one to lowball before the first lawsuit is even finished.

“The bill that would've made the power company pay for the spark got killed the same week they're measuring record heat on the thermometer, and the only accountability left standing is a county suing its own insurance company for lowballing checks. That's not an accident, that's the design: make the outfit that caused the damage immune, and make the outfit that's supposed to cover the damage the only name left on the lawsuit. Either way the family whose house burned pays twice — once in smoke, once in premiums.”
Sal
“Look, nobody's against accountability, you just can't slap open-ended liability on utilities during fire season without — okay, it wasn't during fire season, it was September, but the regulatory-certainty point still stands, you need predictability before you — wait, did I just defend killing the certainty bill by arguing for certainty? That's not what I meant to say.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

· California Democrats kill bill to hold wildfire-starting utility companies accountable from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· LA sues State Farm over allegations of unfair claims process after 2025 wildfires from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Trump admin's list of US-designated 'foreign terrorist' groups in Latin America expands to 21 from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026

· Top Trump official reveals how 30-minute military op unlocked Venezuela oil windfall for US buyers from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026

· Ex-Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores seeks release from NYC jail, citing heart ailment from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026

· New York City protest once again demands release of Maduro and Flores from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026

· Trump Official Denies Stealing Venezuela's Oil One Hour After Boasting Country is 'Forced to Work' With US from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026

· 'Mobster Language': Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Replenish US Reserves from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026

· 'Yet Another Trump Grift': Congress Called to Stop US Takeover of Venezuelan Oil Fields from the morgue, 28 Aug 2026

· The Biggest Oil Deal or Theft at Gunpoint? U.S. Claims Majority Control of Venezuela's Oil Reserves from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Tehran threatens attacks after U.S. strikes Iranian tankers from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· US forces take out 3 Iranian oil tankers in retaliation from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Oil prices up as Iran says it will expand control over Strait of Hormuz from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026

· Iran live updates: Trump speaks to MBS, says everything will 'work out fine' from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026

· Iran threatens retaliation against U.S. tanker strikes from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· U.S. gas prices hit record high for Labor Day from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Ship tracking websites, including Kpler, MarineTraffic, and TankerTrackers, show that three Iranian oil tankers, including two from the National Iranian Tanker Company, have escaped the blockade that from the morgue, 17 Jun 2026

· Iranian state media reports that the United States Navy attempted to capture an Iranian oil tanker. The oil tanker was boarded, commandeered and then returned by Iranian NEDSA marines in a helicopter from the morgue, 3 Nov 2021

· US strikes Iranian rocket launchers in first attack since late July from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026

· An Iranian Navy commander claims on state television that the Iranian Navy forced a U.S. submarine to surface as it transited the Strait of Hormuz and that the submarine violated Iranian territorial w from the morgue, 20 Apr 2023

· Trump Threatens to Rename Strait of Hormuz for Himself as War Pushes Diesel Prices Toward Record High from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026

· Trump floats renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026

· U.S. strikes targets in Iran near Strait of Hormuz as Iran says it is retaliating from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Trump Hammered Over Iran War That Drove Gas Prices Above $4 Per Gallon Every Day in August for First Time Ever from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026

· 'Trump Did It!': At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High in US Thanks to War on Iran from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Price of diesel in U.S. hits record as Vance downplays Iran war impact from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Diesel prices hit record high as wars disrupt supply from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Trump vows response to Iran's retaliatory strikes: 'We're going to hit them hard' from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026

· Trump threatens Iran against retaliation for latest U.S. strikes from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Live updates: US, Iran ramp up strikes; incumbents hold on in Massachusetts from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026

· Trump calls Iran conflict "small potatoes" from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Labor Day gas prices are highest ever for holiday from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· How ‘Hypermilers’ Are Trying to Beat High Gas Prices from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Fuel prices at record Labor Day high in US thanks to Iran War and refinery issues from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Oil Prices Rise Slightly After U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026

· USS Lincoln heads home as war with Iran escalates from the morgue, 7 Sep 2026

· Lawler disagrees with Trump on Iran war: 'It is certainly not small potatoes' from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026

· OPEC Plus to Keep Oil Production Steady from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026

· Iran War Has Cost the Average American More Than $1,200 Over Six Months, Economist Estimates from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Trump says military conflict in Iran is 'small potatoes for us' from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Wright: US has 'a lot of leverage' in Venezuela after oil deal reached from the morgue, 6 Sep 2026

· White House unveils new details of Venezuela agreement from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Chris Wright explains how Venezuelan crude will ‘fill’ the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Energy Secretary Wright says Venezuela oil deal will bring down gas prices in a year or two from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026

· Chevron to expand in Venezuela, days after the U.S. and Venezuela strike oil deal from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026

· Venezuelan oil flows will lower gas prices in 12-24 months, Wright says in Caracas from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026

· Trump says Venezuelan oil will replenish Strategic Petroleum Reserves from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.