All of the must-read news about the Golden State in one place.
Hi, I’m Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times. I survey more than 100 news and social media sites daily, then send you a tightly crafted email with only the most informative and delightful bits.
Each weekday at about 6 a.m., you’ll get an email like this.
Good morning. It’s Friday, Dec. 12.
- OpenAI faces wrongful death lawsuit in murder-suicide.
- S.F. immigration court goes from 21 judges to seven.
- And the rock billboard heyday of L.A.’s Sunset Strip.
Statewide
1.
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday designed to neuter state laws that regulate artificial intelligence, handing a win to Silicon Valley after intense lobbying by AI companies. California has passed more AI laws than any other state, focusing on transparency, safety, and misinformation. Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the president of aiming to enrich his associates. “President Trump and David Sacks aren’t making policy — they’re running a con,” he said, referring to the venture capitalist serving as Trump’s AI and crypto czar. Politico | N.Y. Times
2.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that corruption runs rampant at California’s state fairs. In the last decade, at least 26 fairs overseen by state and county officials have faced accusations of siphoning taxpayer money, pressuring businesses for bribes, or committing “egregious mismanagement.” David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State, said the fairs “are big money” and have been run by networks of farmers and family members. “They help each other,” he said. “How business is done is insular.”
3.
Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear plant, was supposed to close in 2025 as the state embraced a future of renewable energy. But on Thursday, the California Coastal Commission blessed plans to keep the facility open another five years. The rolling blackouts of 2020, softening attitudes about nuclear power, and the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence all played a role in delaying the plant’s decommissioning. Opened in 1985, Diablo Canyon provides nearly 9% of the electricity generated in the state. CalMatters | L.A. Times
4.
On Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures in the foggy Central Valley were as much as 40 degrees colder than much of the rest of the state. Even mountain towns ringing the valley were remarkably warmer. In Bakersfield on Thursday, for example, the afternoon high topped out at 48 degrees. A 45-minute drive away in Tehachapi, roughly 3,500 feet higher in elevation, temperatures reached a balmy 73. The climate scientist Daniel Swain called it “one of the most remarkable temperature inversions I’ve ever seen in this part of the world.” @weatherwest.bsky.social | CBS News
5.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Scot Danforth about his new book “An Independent Man,” a biography of the pioneering disability rights activist Ed Roberts. In the revolutionary 1960s, Roberts and his fellow Berkeley activists sought to shake the American conscience, said Danforth: “They learned that their situation wasn’t just about them. It wasn’t just about their sickness, or their illness, or their bodies. They made that political turn and said that it’s really about how society operates.”
Northern California
6.
The estate of a Connecticut woman who was killed by her adult son sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI for wrongful death on Thursday, alleging that the chatbot fed the man’s “paranoid delusions.” In August, Stein-Erik Soelberg, a 56-year-old former technology worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother and killed himself. Soelberg’s 20-year-old son said the chatbot told his father he had a divine purpose: “It went from him being a little paranoid and an odd guy to having some crazy thoughts he was convinced were true because of what he talked to ChatGPT about.” Wall Street Journal
7.
On a recent Tuesday at San Francisco’s immigration court, Judge Arwen Swink denied a motion to send someone to Honduras who had never been there before. “I’m sure that will be added onto a spreadsheet somewhere,” Swink said, alluding to the atmosphere of siege felt by judges who cross the Trump administration. Since April, the Department of Justice has fired 12 of the court’s 21 judges, part of a purge of immigration judges nationwide. Two more plan to retire by the end of the year. That leaves seven judges facing a backlog of roughly 120,000 cases. Mission Local
8.
On a sunny morning in the Bay Area city of Hayward on Thursday, a huge explosion suddenly rocked a home, sending debris flying and injuring at least six people. Some suffered severe burns, reports said. PG&E said the blast followed a gas leak caused by damage to an underground gas line. Brittany Maldonado lives across the street. “Boxes fell over and everything shook,” she said. “We thought someone had just flown off the freeway and their car was in our living room. It was like someone had just launched a bomb.” S.F. Chronicle | KTVU | A.P.
- See doorbell camera video of the explosion.
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Southern California
9.
Disney plans to invest $1 billion in OpenAI while allowing the company to use characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, and Luke Skywalker in its Sora video-generation tool, the companies announced on Thursday. As the tsunami of generative artificial intelligence comes for Hollywood, companies like Disney have faced a choice, the Wall Street Journal wrote: Sue the AI companies or try to make deals with them. The Burbank company chose both. Thursday’s announcement came a day after Disney’s lawyers accused Google of copyright infringement “on a massive scale.”
10.
Over the last year, Los Angeles leaders have mounted a campaign to restore MacArthur Park, once a symbol of municipal pride in the heart of the city. The effort coming up short, wrote Jim Newton:
“This is not a community at peace, nor has it turned the corner from blight into prosperity. The streets smell of urine, and the air wafts a scent of weed and other drugs. The litter is degrading. The overall effect is one of exhaustion. Storekeepers don’t look at drug users with compassion or a desire to help. They shoo them away from storefronts, tired of their smell and grime.” CalMatters
11.
In the 1960s and 70s, a half-mile section of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip was lined with amazing, hand-painted rock billboards. Record companies, many based locally, sought to outdo one another in audaciousness. An Eric Clapton billboard showed the guitarist on a couch with two lamps that actually lit up at night. An ad promoting Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” included a brick wall that crumbled away over time to reveal the album cover. The popular Instagram account Forgotten Los Angeles posted a pair of galleries of the Sunset Strip’s rock billboard heyday.
- See more from the collection of photographer Robert Landau.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Frank Gehry designed a home for a tech investor in Atherton that took 10 years to complete. Architectural Digest writes: “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.”
- Nico Patino became disenchanted after graduating college in 2020. That’s how he found himself on the streets of Long Beach last month, offering his services as a poet for hire. Patino is now enjoying a burst of online fame after a touching video of him helping a woman navigate heartbreak went viral. NBC Los Angeles | O.C. Register
- For years, the entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan has talked about wanting to establish a physical homeland for the tech elite. What was a fringe concept has blossomed in 2025. By one count, there are now roughly 120 “start-up societies” in the works. Financial Times
- The elite rock climber Sasha DiGiulian spent three years preparing for an ascent up one of El Capitan’s hardest routes. When she finally went for it in November, a storm hit on the 10th night. DiGiulian clung to the wall as the sky unleashed rain, snow, lightning, and powerful winds for the next nine days. The Guardian
- See a video recap of DiGiulian’s groundbreaking climb.
- Gouged by ancient glaciers in the southern Sierra Nevada, Kings Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon, measuring as much as 8,200 feet from river to rim. Incredibly, you can drive right through it. Visit California shared an inspiring video itinerary for the wildly underrated Kings Canyon Scenic Byway.
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The Sun helps you discover amazing journalism in California. But the news can be a bit grim. That’s why we write a couple stories every week that we think inspire awe — on historical wonders, innovative people, or beautiful photography.