It may be Halloween week, but clearly, the real scare is the fire activity and the effect that the howling winds have on fire threats. It seems unfathomable to think about 43 counties under red flag warnings. Then there's the power outages and 3 million Californians without power for an extended period. I feel for those who need power for medical reasons or to keep kids and the elderly comfortable. My household has been very fortunate. The winds were nothing more than a routine Midwestern breeze, and we have yet to be without power due to an intentional shutdown.

If you haven't read the recent article by Faith Kearns and Max Moritz, I highly recommend you spend a few minutes to do so. No doubt, a number of us are experiencing air quality impacts. Hopefully, any water quality impacts miss us.

If you didn't catch 60 Minutes on Sunday, I would recommend the story about the legalization of marijuana in California. Much of the conversation was similar to conversations I've had with our CE Advisors in the far north about the tax revenue that hasn't materialized, environmental impacts of grow sites, and marijuana as part of the social fabric in the Emerald Triangle. The failure for Prop 64 to result in County revenue came up during our visit with the San Benito County Chief Administrative Officer last Wednesday.

I spent last Thursday in Oakland meeting with the Vice Chancellors for Research. Some of the continuing topics include foreign influence, the next UC President, and State and Federal Government Relations updates.

Tomorrow I head to Riverside for the day. I believe this will be my last trip to Riverside in 2019. I seem to have made several trips to Riverside this year for a variety of reasons. Similarly, San Diego was frequently visited. I have one more trip there in mid-November, less than three weeks from now.

In the meantime, I have a report to pull together, which is on my priority list this week. There's nothing spooky about it; I just need to focus a bit and get it done.