In CA: Uber and Lyft get a green light, chaos at L.A. Post Offices, and fires rage on

Plus: Will Joshua trees be designated endangered? Newsom skips the DNC. And meet a really fat bear (not in California)

Hello from sweltering Palm Springs! I'm Rebecca Plevin, The Desert Sun's immigration reporter and most dedicated ice cream-eater.

But first: Tonight is the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention. Joe Biden will address the online gathering, as will his former contenders for the nomination, including Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.; Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey; and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

No longer on tonight's line-up is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who canceled his prime-time appearance at the convention, amid the wildfires tearing through California, The Sacramento Bee reported. (More on the fires below.)

"The segment that was originally planned didn't make sense given the growth and severity of the state's devastating wildfires," a spokesperson for Newsom said.

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.

Wildfires amid a pandemic: We’re calling it ‘COVID-geddon’

Hundreds of wildfires are burning across California, leading tens off thousands to evacuate their homes amid the second week of a scorching heat wave.

Many of the fires burning across the state were caused by a perfect storm of heat and lightning. The blazes have threatened thousands of homes and blackened city skies, as firefighters struggled with containment. At least one person has died.

In all, more than 349,000 acres have burned in Northern and Central California — the equivalent of 546 square miles, more than the land area of the city of Los Angeles, the L.A. Times reports.

“We’re calling it COVID-geddon," one California resident told The San Jose Mercury News, referring to the raging wildfires occurring amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The simultaneous crises are spurring a "culture shift" in disaster response. Rather than converting large assembly halls at schools, fairgrounds and community centers into evacuation centers where displaced people can eat and sleep, officials are now sending many to nearby hotels, where it's easier to practice social distancing.

"In terms of COVID, we want people to evacuate first and get to a safe location and then at that safe location we can continue with COVID precautions,” said Monterey County spokesperson Maia Carroll.

Want to do something? If, like me, you're feeling a little helpless amid all the destruction, here are six ways that you can help.

Uber and Lyft get the green light

Ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft will keep operating — for now.

Both companies had threatened to suspend their Golden State operations if a ruling took effect Friday morning forcing them to treat all their drivers as employees, a change they said would be impossible to accomplish overnight.

But an appeals court on Thursday allowed the companies to continue treating their drivers as independent contractors while an appeal works its way through the court.

The judge's decision followed a new California law aimed at companies that employ gig workers. It says companies can only classify workers as contractors if they perform work outside the usual scope of their business. State Attorney General Xavier Becerra and several city attorneys sued Uber and Lyft, saying they were violating that law.

Problems at the Post Office: gnats, rodents and (gasp) dead baby chicks

Until this week, the U.S. Postal Service was implementing a sweeping plan to remove 671 mail-sorting machines, or about 10% of its total, from facilities across the U.S. The cuts have already delayed the delivery of prescriptions, rent payments and unemployment checks — and, as the L.A. Times reports in grim detail, fresh food and animals.

"Inside a massive mail-sorting facility in South Los Angeles, workers fell so far behind processing packages that by early August, gnats and rodents were swarming around containers of rotten fruit and meat, and baby chicks were dead inside their boxes," The Times reported.

But this week, following criticism from Democrats that the cutbacks could curtail voting, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he would put the changes on hold until after the November election. That's eased some minds.

"Where would we be without the Post Office?" said Alana Hedley, a Coachella Valley resident who uses the service to mail thank-you notes and birthday cards to her grandchildren.

Will Joshua trees be designated endangered?

The western Joshua tree will have to wait at least another month to receive legal protection under the California Endangered Species Act. The California Fish and Game Commission on Thursday chose, for the second meeting in a row, to continue the discussion instead of giving the item an up-or-down vote.

The beloved high desert species will once again be up for listing under the act in a meeting on a yet-to-be-decided date in September, when the commission faces a deadline to act. At that time, the commission will almost certainly advance it to the next stage in the process, as all four members who are eligible to vote indicated on Thursday that they believed the petition to protect Joshua trees had already passed muster.

Nearly 100 members of the public called into the online meeting to comment, the majority of them speaking in favor of listing the tree. Local officials, meanwhile, were largely unified in their opposition. Everyone loves Joshua trees, San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe said. "My concern, however, is that the sweeping regulations will halt economic development," she said.

News nuggets: A ‘surge’ in demand for Chinese herbal remedies, Hollywood Bowl on the radio

• There has been a "surge" in demand for Chinese herbal formulas in Southern California, reports LAist. It follows the Chinese government's release of a document in June, claiming that 92% of the country's COVID-19 cases were successfully treated with those remedies.

• Southern California residents who have missed picnicking and listening to music at the Hollywood Bowl can now do so safely, from the comfort of their homes. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and L.A. public radio station KCRW will start broadcasting previously recorded live concerts from KCRW's World Festival at the beloved outdoor amphitheater. The first episode will air Sunday at 6:30 pm. on KCRW and KCRW.com.

Meet Bear 747, a huge brown bear in Alaska

OK so this is not California news, but readers of this newsletter like bears, so...

I'm going backpacking in Wyoming next week (because apparently camping is all the rage during the pandemic!) and have been thinking a lot about how to fit several days' worth of food in a bear-proof container. So this story definitely caught my eye: A massive Alaskan bear could hibernate for six months without eating because he is so big!

The huge brown bear is the biggest bear at the Brooks River at Katmai National Park and Preserve, park officials said. Bear 747, as he is called, weighed about 1,400 pounds last year.

“Right now he is fat enough to dig a den, hibernate and not eat for another six months,” park officials said Thursday on Facebook, describing how a lot of us feel after surviving on ice cream during this pandemic summer. “But this giant among brown bears still has two more months of eating to do.”

In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network Newsrooms. Also contributing: Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, LAist, KCRW and Fresno Bee.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California fires; Uber, Lyft Post Office problems, Newsom DNC