Dispatch from Pacific Palisades: A harrowing view of California's competency crisis

The sky above Sunset Boulevard is black, bleeding into a band of vivid orange at the horizon. “Looks like the cover of ‘Hotel California,’” says the guy at the local coffee shop. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass rode out the fire in Africa, where she was part of a Biden delegation attending the inauguration of Ghana’s president. The smoke is probably from the 2,227-acre Eaton fire to our northeast, raging through Altadena and Pasadena. Or it could be from the 75-acre Woodley fire to our northwest, or from any number...