California and the West broil in record heat wave

By ADAM BEAM
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A record-setting heat wave is making life miserable in the West and brought California perilously close to ordering rolling blackouts as customers trying to keep cool strain the power system. Temperatures hit an all-time high of 116 Tuesday in Sacramento, California, while Reno, Nevada and Salt Lake City, Utah had record highs for the date.  State officials begged people to conserve energy as demand on the California power grid reached an all-time high. Even without ordered blackouts, more than 35,000 people lost power in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Pacific Gas & Electric said most of those outages are heat-related.