In California: Trump visits NorCal amid fires; gyms and salons reopen in S.F.

Biden and Trump battle over what caused the California wildfires, counties prepare for Tuesday's review of coronavirus tiers, and "The Golden Girls" celebrate a coral anniversary.

Winston Gieseke here, the philanthropy and special sections editor for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Today, I'm actually writing to you from beautiful Idyllwild, where the current temperature is just right at 79 degrees.

Before the news, a quick birthday shout-out to TV's beloved "Golden Girls," who turn 35 today. (The show, not the girls.) While the action took place in Miami, the groundbreaking sitcom, which ran for seven seasons, was filmed in Los Angeles and made its debut on Sept. 14, 1985.

In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it free, straight to your inbox.

Biden calls Trump 'climate arsonist'

As the fires continued to wreak havoc across western states, destroying entire communities and clouding the air, President Donald Trump visited the Northern California city of McClellan Park on Monday, home to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

The fires have burned 3.2 million acres, the L.A. Times reports — a record for a single year — and killed 24 people. Trump reviewed wildfire damage and continued his claims that California wildfires are the result of poor forest management and not a product of climate change.

"When trees fall down after a short period of time they become very dry — really like a matchstick ... and they can explode," Trump said as he and others breathed in the smoky, hazy air near Sacramento.

When Wade Crowfoot, California's Secretary for Natural Resources, said climate change was the primary cause of the wildfires, the president interrupted to say that "it'll start getting cooler — you just watch."

"I wish science agreed with you," Crowfoot answered.

Responded Trump: "I don't think science knows, actually."

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden stressed the reality of climate change and vowed to rejoin the Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions if elected. Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2017. Speaking outside the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington, Biden said: "If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? We need a president who respects science, who understands that the damage from climate change is already here, and unless we take urgent action, it’ll soon be more catastrophic."

As the fires continue, workers and volunteers from organizations like Rescue Ranch, the Siskiyou County Humane Society, and Siskiyou County Animal Control have been searching fire-devastated Happy Camp near Siskiyou for missing or abandoned pets.

Tomorrow's Tuesday, and that means your county might move COVID ‘tiers.’ Or not.  

Tuesday's the day that the state re-evaluates which counties are making progress in the fight against coronavirus. Across California, 33 of 58 counties remain in the purple tier — the most restrictive. Fourteen others are in the red tier, nine are in the orange tier, and two are in the yellow tier, which has the fewest restrictions. 

Two counties desperate to move out of the purple tier are the Southern California counties of Riverside and San Bernardino, which together make up the so-called Inland Empire of more than 4.5 million people. Aside from L.A. County, they have the highest coronavirus case totals of any counties statewide.

Even both San Bernardino and Riverside have fallen below the state-mandated coronavirus positivity rate that allows more businesses to reopen, officials say they don't expect to move into the next phase this week because they haven't yet shown the ability to maintain those low rates. Both counties reported positivity rates under 8% for the most recent week of state-reviewed data, but in order to move tiers, these metrics must be met for two weeks in a row.

"We are not quite there yet," San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said. "... All numbers are heading in the right direction."

In San Francisco,some businesses that had been shuttered for months — including gyms and salons — reopened Monday. “Just coming here this morning and doing an hour of weights, I feel amazing,” Blair Marley-Perez told the San Francisco Chronicle after working out at a 24 Hour Fitness.

In other COVID-19 news, while Californians have scrambled to comply with public health orders requiring PPE, it seems lawmakers at the Capitol building in Sacramento have been gathering in large numbers for months — except when COVID-19 infections forced them to take unplanned recesses. "It’s terrible role-modeling," said Dr. Sadiya Khan, assistant professor of cardiology and epidemiology at Northwestern University.

Reward offered for capture and conviction of L.A. gunman who shot deputies

Authorities in Los Angeles announced that they are offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a gunman who walked up to a parked patrol car on Saturday and fired into the passenger side, critically injuring two sheriff's deputies, both of whom are expected to survive. The shooting, which was captured on video, took place at a transit station in Compton.

Via Twitter, Trump said (blending words together): "If they die, fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stopthis!" 

Biden also weighed in, calling for the gunman to face "the full brunt of the law."

Let's give it up for Mirim Lee

In golf news, South Korean player Mirim Lee won her first major at the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage on Sunday, beating Brooke Henderson and Nelly Korda. "Honestly, I can't really believe it right now," Lee said through an interpreter. "To be honest, I feel like I must be a little crazy for winning and for having won this, and I think I'll be able to feel it once I meet my family and reunite with them."

As is tradition, the winner ended the tourney with a jump into Poppie's Pond.

In California is a roundup of news from across USA Today network newsrooms. Also contributing: ReutLos Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, L.A. Daily News.