Newsletter: Lawmakers return to Sacramento, with one topic dominating over all others

Four weeks to go and by our count, using state records, there are 1,357 pieces of legislation to either pass or kill for this final month of action in the California Legislature.

We’re expecting some major debates on wildfires and climate change, and the last hurrah for Gov. Jerry Brown in helping craft policies before he leaves office in early January.

In the meantime, the week begins with something new from President Trump: a revision, it seems, of his stance on the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that may be a key part of the Russia election investigation.

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WHAT DID TRUMP (JR.) KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

Trump on Sunday acknowledged that Donald Trump Jr. met Russian representatives in June 2016 at Trump Tower “to get information on an opponent.”

That contradicted Trump’s past statements on the meeting’s purpose and was his most explicit declaration yet that his eldest son agreed to see the Kremlin-linked figures in hopes of obtaining damaging information on Hillary Clinton.

Expect more questions to be raised this week about the president’s weekend tweet.

We’re also awaiting the second week of the trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. And as Chris Megerian writes, the indisputable center of attention so far is Judge T.S. Ellis III, whose cantankerous, jocular, impatient and verbose presence has shaped each step of the way.

ONE YEAR AFTER CHARLOTTESVILLE

This week marks the first anniversary of the violent and deadly melee in Charlottesville, Va., part of a series of events last summer that left an indelible mark on the national pysche.

Hundreds traveled to the city for a rally in support of their belief that white people are superior. But in the year since, many supporters of “white rights” who frequently appeared on campus speaking tours or smaller gatherings throughout the country have become significantly less visible even as the number of neo-Nazi groups has increased, according to members of white supremacy groups, anti-racism activists and other observers.

NATIONAL LIGHTNING ROUND

-- The president faced renewed accusations of racism Saturday after mocking the intelligence of Lakers superstar LeBron James and CNN broadcaster Don Lemon.

-- A federal judge has reaffirmed his ruling that the Trump administration must reinstate the program that shielded hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.

-- Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, has argued special investigations of presidents are a mistake and a sitting president should be accorded temporary immunity from any criminal probe while in office.

-- The U.S. labor market remained in solid shape last month, adding 157,000 jobs — although workers are still waiting for significant gains in their purchasing power because prices are also rising.

CALIFORNIA’S DEADLY FIRE SEASON: THE LOOMING DEBATE

When state lawmakers convene in Sacramento on Monday afternoon, they will be staring down a hard and fast deadline to wrap up their work for the year by Aug. 31.

And no topic will be more contentious or timely than how to position the state for an ultra-dry and fire-prone future. July was a shockingly hot month across the state, and the Mendocino Complex fire in Lake County is now the most worrisome of the state’s 17 blazes that were being battled through the weekend.

The smoke from many of those fires lingers over the city of Sacramento, as lawmakers prepare to grapple with demands for new wildfire prevention policies and — perhaps most notably — whether fires involving the equipment of electric utilities should be treated differently when it comes to who pays.

The governor, who traveled to Redding and the scene of the deadly Carr fire on Saturday, wants the Legislature to loosen the current system where the utilities are often on the hook for billions of dollars in payments.

“There is concern that we could lose our utilities,” Brown said last week of possible investor-owned utility company bankruptcies. “And if we do that, our whole program, of trying to deal with renewable energy and mitigate climate change, would be adversely affected.”

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the debate all month on our Essential Politics news feed.

JOHN COX: SOME, NOT ALL, OF HIS TAX RETURNS

The Republican candidate for governor, after months of silence on the issue, has offered a glimpse of his income tax returns. But only a glimpse.

John Cox allowed The Times to review the summary pages of his 2016 and 2017 returns last week, along with forms outlining his tax deductions and interest and dividend income. He withheld tax information for the string of business partnerships that generate most of his income.

Cox earned more than $2.1 million in 2016 and 2017, mostly from investments in apartment buildings in the Midwest, according to the documents. The disclosure was far less than that of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, his Democratic challenger. But it was more than the refusal to reveal financial information from Gov. Brown in the 2010 and 2014 gubernatorial campaigns.

TODAY’S ESSENTIALS

-- More than a dozen people were arrested Sunday afternoon amid a tense right-wing rally and counter-protest in Berkeley that officials worried might see the kind of violence that broke out last year after President Trump’s election.

-- The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that San Diego’s six-year-old pension cutbacks were not legally placed on the ballot because city officials failed to negotiate with labor unions before pursuing the measure.

-- The backers of the so-called “Calexit” effort to cleave California off from the rest of the nation are forming a new plan that would reserve a chunk of the new state for an “autonomous native nation.”

-- Backers of Proposition 6, the plan to repeal California’s gas tax increase that’s funding road repairs, seem to be running on fumes in their latest campaign cash report.

-- Opponents of expanding rent control in California raised nearly $10 million through the first half of this year, the beginning of what’s expected to be one of the costliest fights on the state’s November ballot.

-- California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced Thursday that the state will join a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration to block the release of blueprints for 3-D-printed guns.

-- A pair of anti-vaccine activists has filed a lawsuit against state Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), who authored a controversial vaccine law, for blocking the activists on Twitter. They say it has limited their 1st Amendment rights.

-- An Orange County state senator, who won a special election in June that was triggered by California’s recent gas tax increase, wants transportation officials to remove the signs that point out road repairs paid for with the funds.

LOGISTICS

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