GENERAL TO FORM ISRAELI GOVERNMENT

» Israel’s former J E R U S A L E M military chief Benny Gantz was tasked Wednesday with forming the next government, but he has few options after last month’s elections left him in a near tie with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu was given the first opportunity to form a government after assembling a large right-wing bloc but announced this week that he had failed to build a 61-seat majority. Gantz faces similarly steep odds, raising the possibility that Israel will hold a third election in less than a year.

California utility begins another blackout amid fire fears.

S AN

» The state’s

F R A N C IS C O largest utility began another widespread blackout Wednesday that could affect hundreds of thousands of people as dangerous fire weather returns to California. The Santa Rosa Fire Department tweeted that shutoffs had started in the city and it was getting multiple reports of outages.

Ethics panel opens investigation of Rep. Katie Hill.

WASHING

The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday opened an investigation into Rep. Katie Hill after a conservative website published unsubstantiated accusations that she had an improper relationship with a staffer.

The bipartisan leadership of the Ethics panel announced the probe of the freshman California Democrat, noting “public allegations” that Hill “may have engaged in a sexual relationship with an individual on her congressional staff.”

The panel noted that it is casting no judgment on the validity of the charges, which were based in the report on anonymous sources.

Trump seeks to block California as global climate leader.

WASH

INGTON» The Trump administration on Wednesday moved to topple California as a leading voice against climate change, charging in a federal lawsuit that the state exceeded its constitutional authority by joining with a Canadian province in a program to cut climatedamaging fossil fuel emissions.

In addition to adding to a long list of lawsuits pitting California and other Democratic-led states against the Trump administration over proposed federal environmental rollbacks, the new lawsuit raises constitutional questions about whether President Donald Trump’s inaction on climate change amounts to an international and domestic policy that states must follow, constitutional experts say.

Marijuana found at nuclear launch facility.

» Marijuana

, was found at a Minot Air Force Base nuclear missile facility, the military reported Wednesday.

The undisclosed amount was found Oct. 9 at a missile alert facility, Air Force Sgt. Benjamin Smith said. The drug was discovered above ground and not near missile operators, he said. — Denver Post