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California Today

California Today: A Leaning Tower in San Francisco

The Millennium Tower, a 58-story condominium skyscraper in San Francisco.Credit...Thomas Fuller/The New York Times

Good morning.

Welcome to California Today, a morning update on the stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state).

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Thomas Fuller, the San Francisco bureau chief for The New York Times, provides today’s introduction with news in the case of the sinking Millennium Tower.

For years, San Francisco was a famously low-rise city. Then came the tech boom and the race was on to build the glass and steel edifices that populate the world’s great cities. But in earthquake-prone San Francisco there’s a catch: many of the city’s new skyscrapers are concentrated in a neighborhood of squishy land reclaimed from the bay.

One of the new buildings, the 58-story Millennium Tower, has now sunk by 16 inches. Worse, the condominium building is sinking unevenly.

The scandal of San Francisco’s Millennium Tower turned decidedly more political on Tuesday when Aaron Peskin, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, told reporters that he had unearthed official documents showing the city’s building inspection department had raised concerns about sinking seven years ago, just before the building was supposed to open its doors.

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A letter sent by the city to the engineering firm spoke of “larger than usual” settlement of the structure and asked whether the consequences had been studied.

Yet six months later, in August 2009, the city declared the building safe for occupancy.

On Tuesday, Mr. Peskin questioned why the city allowed people to move in.

“I believe, and I know this is a very serious allegation,” Mr. Peskin said, “that there was some level of political interference.”

The response to the city’s query by the engineering firm, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, is missing from the official record, Mr. Peskin said. He has called hearings scheduled for Sept. 22, and city officials will be subpoenaed.

The hearings are likely to capture the attention of the California political class because the mayor at the time the building was approved, Gavin Newsom, is now lieutenant governor and has aspirations to become governor.

P.J. Johnston, a spokesman for Millennium Partners, told The San Francisco Chronicle that suggesting the firm received special treatment from the city was “simply outrageous.”

Some of the owners of the building, which includes the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana, are trying to band together to recoup losses in property values.

In August, a small army of lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against the building’s developers as well as the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a government entity building a transportation hub next door to the Millennium Tower. Whether or not the construction of the Transbay transport terminal contributed to the sinking has yet to be determined.

Mark Garay, one of the lawyers for the apartment owners, says it is too early to pinpoint the precise causes for the building sinking, but that it had already begun significantly before work on the transport terminal started.

“What we do know is that the foundation of this building does not go into bedrock,” he said. “It’s all landfill. It used to be part of the bay.”

Perhaps what is most clear at this point is that all of this is only the beginning of the story.

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• San Francisco has nation’s highest rate of same-sex male marriages. Oakland has the highest rate of same-sex female marriages. [The New York Times]

Asian-Americans in Sacramento said they formed armed patrols to respond to a wave of robberies. [Sacramento Bee]

• More than four decades after two Yuba County girls were found dead, the police arrested two men in the case. [Sacramento Bee]

• Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed bills that would have cut taxes on tampons and diapers. [Los Angeles Times]

• U.C. Berkeley took the rare step of suspending a course, called Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis, after civil rights groups and others complained that its purpose was to indoctrinate students. [San Francisco Chronicle]

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The unveiling of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus last week in San Francisco.Credit... Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Imagess

iPhone 7 review: Though not perfect, the new iPhones keep Apple’s promises. [The New York Times]

• Some digital networks refuse to acknowledge their power. Airbnb was an exception. [The New York Times]

• A $4 million settlement was reached in the giant gas leak last year near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch. [The New York Times]

• Most Oscar strategists had written off Harvey Weinstein in this year’s awards race. “Lion” changed that. [The New York Times]

• If you are under 18 years old and out past 10 p.m. in San Diego, the police can arrest you. [Voice of San Diego]

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49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had supporters, but also detractors, among fans on Monday night.Credit...John Hefti/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

• No longer a star on the field, the 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick has found his voice. [The New York Times]

The Dodgers played a rare game at Yankee Stadium, and many of their fans traveled to see it. [The New York Times]

It was barely enough to paint the Sierra Nevada’s peaks white.

But the three or so inches of snow that fell on the mountains early Tuesday was plenty to set off excitement for ski season in the Lake Tahoe area.

Several resorts, including Sierra at Tahoe, Kirkwood Mountain Resort and Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe, reported snowfall on their slopes, posting images and video to social media.

“It’s beautiful,” said Kevin Cooper, a spokesman for Kirkwood.

The accumulation was likely sufficient to inspire “back country enthusiasts” to pull out their gear, he said, adding, “I guarantee in the next couple days some people are going to hike out there to get some early season turns.”

The September arrival, well before the start of ski season, was not out of the ordinary, said Karl Swanberg, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

“It’s probably just about on time,” he said, “maybe a little bit sooner.”

But those enthusiasts will have to move fast. With temperatures set to rise through the week, the snow isn’t expected to last long.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U.C. Berkeley.

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