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Good morning. It’s Friday, Dec. 5.

• A top California official enjoys extravagant travel.
• Fears of violence as anti-AI activist goes missing.
• And a tour at Frank Gehry’s new project in Silicon Valley.

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Statewide

1.

The Supreme Court on Thursday revived the Republican gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts, setting aside a ruling by district judges who deemed the map racially biased. The majority said the lower court “improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.” Writing for the three liberal justices in dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said the order “disrespects the work” of a lower court that carefully considered the evidence in a 160-page opinion: “We are a higher court than the district court, but we are not a better one when it comes to making such a fact-based decision.” Washington Post | N.Y. Times

• The justices hinted that they would be similarly reluctant to overturn California’s gerrymandering efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on X: “So you gonna drop your lawsuit against us right, Pam?”
  

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2.

Since 2019, California’s insurance commissioner has logged 32 trips to 23 countries and territories, while consistently failing to disclose who paid for his luxury hotels, airfare, and dining. Ricardo Lara, who has long been accused of cozying up to the state’s $96-billion insurance market, bristled at a reporter’s suggestion that he might be influenced by industry money. “To simplify it as they’re ‘courting me’ or that I’m gonna be susceptible to something like that, it really diminishes me as an individual,” he said. L.A. Times

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3.

The federal government announced plans Thursday to pump more water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for delivery to Central Valley farms. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the move would “strengthen California’s water resilience.” State leaders denounced the unilateral move, saying it would cut vital supplies for cities and fish. The delta is the crux of California’s water system, serving two-thirds of the state’s population and vast areas of farmland. “The Trump administration is putting politics over people,” a spokeswoman for Gov. Gavin Newsom said. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle

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Northern California

4.

Phones buzzed across Northern California early Thursday with a warning of a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Carson City, just east of Lake Tahoe. But there was no such quake. California’s ShakeAlert system relies on a network of sensors near fault lines to trigger early warnings in nearby communities before the shaking is felt. Officials with USGS, which manages ShakeAlert, were unable to explain what went wrong but said they’re investigating. A Berkeley seismologist suggested that the culprit was likely a faulty algorithm. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle

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5.

“He had the weight of the world on his shoulders.”

Sam Kirchner wants to save the world from artificial superintelligence. A co-founder of the Bay Area group Stop AI, he was once seen as an ordinary, if ardent, activist. Then he lost faith in nonviolence. The Atlantic reports:

“This alleged moment of crisis led to his expulsion from Stop AI, to a series of 911 calls placed by his compatriots, and, apparently, to his disappearance. His friends say they have been looking for him every day, but nearly two weeks have gone by with no sign of him.”

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6.

Pamela Price, the former Alameda County district attorney who was recalled by voters last year, announced that she would run again in a surprise press conference on Thursday. Price cited President Trump as a driving force behind her decision, while accusing her successor of failing to do enough to oppose his agenda. “I will say to ICE and any other federal agents who violate state law: ‘F around and find out,'” she said. Price rose to office in 2023 on pledges to disrupt the criminal-justice status quo, but faced accusations of leniency on crime, nepotism, and anti-Asian bias. Berkeley Scanner | Mercury News

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7.

Frank Gehry’s latest project is his first residence in Northern California. The renowned architect designed an elaborate home for a tech investor in Atherton that took 10 years to complete. Architectural Digest writes:

“It is very much a Gehry house. At once powerful and highly intricate, both a sculptural presence and an exploration of the relationships of materials to each other, to space, and to light, it is a symphony of juxtaposing masses, striking views, and varied textures.”

• See the pictures.

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8.

Dorothy Wise, of Redwood City, discovered pool when she was about 30 years old and was hooked. She practiced “day and night,” she said. For years, she proclaimed she was the women’s national champion. But that was only because there were no women for her to compete against in the 1950s. When Wise finally did get to play in the first national tournament for women, in 1967, she won. She was 52. The press dubbed her “the grandmother of pool.” The New York Times wrote a belated obituary for Wise, who died in 1995, as part of its Overlooked No More series.

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Southern California

9.

Netflix will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets for nearly $83 billion, multiple reports said Thursday. If consummated, the deal would send shock waves through Hollywood, creating a colossus that combines the world’s largest paid streaming service with HBO Max and franchises such as Harry Potter and Batman. It would also complete a conquest of Hollywood by tech insurgents, the New York Times wrote: “Warner Bros. would be the first major legacy studio to fall to a Silicon Valley competitor.”

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10.

It’s strictly prohibited to pay high school athletes to transfer schools. But the practice is common, insiders say. Middlemen, known as street agents, broker deals between boosters and families. They dangle rent, cars, jobs, and allowances from $20,000 to $100,000, one Sacramento coach said. The Wall Street Journal told the harrowing story of how adults dragged a star receiver through the unruly world of Southern California youth football, tearing his family apart along the way.

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11.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with the Los Angeles photographer Matthew Scott. His ongoing project, “Concrete River,” explores how life has found a way along Los Angeles’ namesake waterway. If you understand the river, he said, “you can understand L.A.” “It’s fascinating to me,” he added. “It was not meant to be a playground of any sort, yet people are down there.”

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• To promote Steph Curry’s new book, an ad agency consulted with an astronomer to create a billboard that would align with the cosmos over Los Angeles. The Warriors point guard posted a time-lapse video that appeared to show him shooting the moon over the darkened city. @stephencurry30
• Over the past 15 years, the number of young people diagnosed with conditions such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression has soared. But the change has been even more pronounced at the nation’s most prestigious universities. This year, 38% of Stanford undergraduates were registered as having a disability. The Atlantic
• Under a 2002 federal law, e-bikes are regulated like regular bicycles. But they are far more dangerous. The New York Times Magazine wrote about a shocking e-bike crash that led Marin County to start regulating the machines more like motorcycles than pedal bikes.
• The American coot looks like a mashup of species, with a chicken-shaped body and a duck-like head. Then there are its wonderfully weird feet. Ornithologists say the coot’s long, yellow-and-green toes are multipurpose adaptations, with flaps that act like miniature paddles in the water while folding away on land to allow walking. Audubon Magazine
  • The American coot’s feet enable another remarkable talent: running on water. See video. 👉 @MarkSmithphotography
• In the early 1970s, according to photographer Ave Pildas, Hollywood Boulevard was the place to be seen. Pildas took thousands of pictures along the Walk of Fame, where tourists, drifters, and aspiring starlets strutted for his camera. He shelved the pictures for decades before revisiting them a few years ago for a volume called “Star Struck.” FRAMES Magazine | New Yorker
  • See pictures from “Star Struck.”

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