LOOKOUT PM: Lightning threat, indoor masking deliberation & ocean-aged wine

Happy Friday!

And it’s been a newsy ones , folks.

Let’s get straight to it…

Fire Weather Watch issued for Santa Cruz Mountains

Dry lightning sparking blazes a concern: Red Flag Warning is the next designation beyond Fire Weather Watch, explains the National Weather Service. Concern begins Sunday morning into Monday morning. Local fire agencies say they will be watching developments closely. More here on what we know.

Fire resource guide

Lookout Santa Cruz’s Wildfire Resource Center: A one-stop guide to everything you need to keep your family and property safe during a wildfire. The center is broken up into sections and has downloadable information, important phone numbers, and checklists so you’re always prepared. Here’s where you find it and please share it.

As Bay Area urges residents to wear masks in indoor public places, Santa Cruz officials deliberate

Will masks become the norm inside again? Doing so would ‘ensure easy verification that all unvaccinated people are masked in those settings,’ officials wrote in a joint statement. In L.A. County it becomes mandatory on Saturday. More from the LA Times & Lookout here.

Social’s part in anti-vax thinking: ‘They’re killing people’

Biden blames social media for COVID vaccine misinformation: President Biden on Friday targeted social media platforms like Facebook for allowing the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, as many Americans’ resistance to getting shots has left wide swaths of the country vulnerable to the more contagious Delta variant. More from the LA Times here.

➤ Will Gavin Newsom, under recall threat, issue another California mask mandate? (SF Gate)

➤ Vaccinated SPN’s Jay Williams tests positive for coronavirus, won’t broadcast rest of NBA Finals on ABC (USA Today)

They want to age wine in the ocean off Santa Barbara — environmentalists aren’t offering ‘cheers’

Pseudo wine science? Or more than marketing? A company called Ocean Fathoms filled iron cages the size of washing machines with wines that sell in the $70 to $200 range, and lowered the bottles into the Pacific to a depth of about 70 feet. A year later, this “truly remarkable” wine, transformed by the “patented ocean aging process,” as the company’s marketing pitch says, was pulled up from the “sea cellar,” and one of the owners told me the going rate was $350 a bottle. More from the Times’ Steve Lopez.

And with that, we clink glasses and say ‘Have a great weekend!’

Mark Conley
mark@lookoutlocal.com