Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 31.

• Report finds failure to take repeat drunk drivers off the road.
• Anti-Trump sentiment powers redistricting fight.
• And text messages complicate story of the Palisades fire.

---

Statewide

1.

Melanie Sandoval, of Fresno, got her first DUI when she was a teenager in 1989. Her second came a couple years later, followed by another, and another, and another. In 2023, after Sandoval plowed into the car of a retired Navy pilot, police found a pint of vodka in her car. It was her 16th DUI. Yet a judge reasoned that jail time would be improper. “We warehouse her for a number of months. She comes out. She is still an addict,” he said.

California’s system of DUI enforcement is broken, CalMatters reported: “The toll can be counted in bodies.”

---

2.

When Reid Pelsue, 23, greeted a pair of Democratic canvassers at his L.A.-area home on a recent Saturday, he had no idea what they were talking about. But when they said his vote was needed to counter a “power grab” by President Trump, he was sold. He grabbed his phone and requested a Proposition 50 election ballot.

California’s Democrats have relied heavily on anti-Trump sentiment to push their congressional redistricting measure. As the campaign nears its conclusion, wrote the Washington Post, “the strategy appears to be paying dividends.”

• A new poll found that 60% of California voters support redistricting. L.A. Times

---

Northern California

3.

Conservative Shasta County is having its first election under a new registrar, Clint Curtis, a conspiracy theorist who has challenged election results for decades. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

“Curtis has hired secessionists and election deniers accused of harassing staff in past elections, requested federal investigations into his perceived enemies, and cut the number of ballot drop boxes from 13 to a state-mandated minimum of four.”

---

4.

Big Tech is already spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure to power artificial intelligence software this year. Yet they plan to spend even more in 2026 as they race to reach artificial general intelligence, a state in which the systems are smarter than humans. “Whoever gets to AGI first will have an incredible competitor advantage over everybody else, and it’s that fear of missing out that all these players are suffering from,” said Youssef Squali, an analyst at Truist Securities. Some skeptics doubt the spending will ever lead to that goal. Wall Street Journal

---

5.

As gray wolves repopulate Northern California, they are cutting a bloody path across the region’s cattle herds. Wildlife officials recently took the extraordinary step of killing four endangered wolves after their pack killed nearly 90 cattle in seven months. In a column, three ecologists argued for listening to the communities being asked to live alongside the predators:

“At kitchen tables, coffee shops and community events, we have heard alarm and frustration. We have also heard, even from ranchers heavily impacted by wolves, a willingness to live with them — just not at an unsustainable cost.” N.Y. Times

---

6.

A local news station reported the discovery of an illegal dumping site for dead animals in rural Fresno County. Roughly 100 sheep, cattle, and goats — many reduced to just bones — were piled in a dry creek bed over an estimated period of several months. The sheriff’s department opened an investigation but had few leads. A reporter who drove out to the site said the smell “was overwhelming.” FOX26 | Fresno Bee

---

7.

The jeans pictured on the right came from a San Francisco vintage store owner, Lindsey Hansen, who used a sashiko cross-stitch to add patches to an old pair of Levi 501s in the spring of 2024. The pair on the left appeared online more than a year later, offered for sale by Banana Republic. Outraged, Hansen on Wednesday accused the retail giant of design theft on Instagram. “Shame on you,” she wrote in part. Hours later, Banana Republic removed the product from its site. Mission Local | S.F. Chronicle

---

8.

The death of a San Francisco liquor store cat named KitKat, pictured above, has inspired a burst of anti-Waymo sentiment. A witness said he saw one of the autonomous vehicles swerve late Monday, followed by screams and KitKat being retrieved from the pavement. A makeshift memorial rose in front of Randa’s Market, where he was a beloved mascot. Jessica Chapdelaine, who lives nearby, said she cried all day. “He was everyone’s best friend, and he was just the sweetest boy,” she said. Mission Local | S.F. Standard

---

Southern California

9.

After putting out the Jan. 1 fire that would later reignite as the Jan. 7 Palisades fire, firefighters told their battalion chief that it would be a “bad idea” to leave the burn scar because the ground was still smoldering, according to firefighter text messages reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. To the firefighters’ surprise, the battalion chief ordered them to pull out of the area anyway, the messages said. “And the rest is history,” one firefighter wrote. L.A. Times

---

10.

An ICE officer shot a motorist in the shoulder early Thursday after he attempted to run over a group of ICE officers conducting a vehicle stop in Ontario, the authorities said. “An ICE officer, fearing for his life, fired defensive shots at the vehicle,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokesperson. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old food bank worker named Carlos Jimenez, was arrested. His brothers expressed skepticism that he would do anything so aggressive, or political. “He talks more about the Dodgers than anything else,” said Francisco Jimenez, 27. L.A. Times | Press-Enterprise

---

11.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Todd S. Purdum, the author of a new biography of Desi Arnaz. Purdum argues that the “I Love Lucy” star was undervalued as a showbiz entrepreneur, having pioneered the business model that would sustain the industry for the better part of seven decades. Arnaz’s downfall, however, was as spectacular as his rise, as alcoholism and womanizing derailed his career and marriage. “Success,” Purdum said, “was catastrophic for him.”

---

In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• The story of Ana and her sister was typical. She was 13 when first recruited into the sex trade. Her sister was 11. The New York Times Magazine published a disturbing investigation into the booming underage sex trade of Los Angeles’ Figueroa Street.
• Jim Morrison, a 50-year-old mountaineer from the Bay Area, became the first person to ski down the most difficult route on Mount Everest. Video from the Oct. 15 ski run, captured by filmmaker Jimmy Chin, was shared for the first time on Monday. YouTube/National Geographic | ABC News
• Jodeah Wilson, 22, was so broke he had to drop out of Sacramento State University, unable to cover tuition. He’s been hunting relentlessly for work ever since, he said. Wilson is one of roughly half a million young Californians stuck in the same predicament: neither working nor in school. Most are men. CalMatters
• Indio added a fantastic animation to a bridge that is powered by the movement of passing motorists. The artist Hervey Garcia painted roughly 700 frames along the Fred Waring Bridge to create the effect of a Native American on horseback transforming into a bird. See it here. 👉 @hervey.garcia
• Because California has nine national parks, you can explore more than one in a single weekend. Extend the road trip a few days and you can take in three. Lonely Planet drew up the “ultimate road trip” between Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia national parks.

---

Correction

Thursday’s newsletter misidentified Joseph Eichler as an architect. He was a developer.

---

The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412