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 sites, then send you a tightly crafted daily digest — no ads, no AI, just essential news.
Each weekday at about 6 a.m., you’ll get an email like this.
Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 12.
- Kamala Harris’ spouse says he hopes she doesn’t run.
- Storm waves again batter Long Beach coastline.
- And how Natalie Harp’s California family broke apart.
Statewide
1.
Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has privately told donors that he hopes she does not make a third run for the U.S. presidency, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Emhoff, 61, shifted back to a career in corporate law in Los Angeles after the couple left Washington. Harris said in April that she is “thinking about” another White House bid and has since taken steps in that direction: talking to donors, hiring staff, and traveling to battleground states.
- “People just want to move on.” Interviews with 18 Democratic professionals revealed deep anxiety about Harris’ return to the political conversation. Washington Post
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom typically relishes fights with the Trump administration. Yet when he recently vetoed legislation that would have let undocumented students work at public universities, he did not object to the measure on principle. Rather, he worried about the retribution that it would invite. The federal government, Newsom wrote, “has shown it is quick to wreak destruction for political spectacle.” The decision was gutting for student activists who have pushed the measure for years. Politico
Northern California
3.
Fresno police responded to a report of gunfire at a home early Friday and found an apparently intoxicated off-duty ICE agent in handcuffs with a gunshot wound in his midsection. Investigators said a 72-year-old homeowner had discovered the agent, 32-year-old David Gonzalez of Texas, sleeping on his lawn. Asked to leave, Gonzalez attacked the homeowner, who responded with a single gunshot, police said. The incident came amid seething local anger over an immigration crackdown across the San Joaquin Valley in recent days. Valley Public Radio | Fresnoland
4.
The Wall Street Journal obtained audio recordings of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ambassador to Greece, boasting about Greek tycoons bankrolling her luxury trips around the world. “I see Nikos every fucking day,” she said in one exchange, referring to the Greek shipping tycoon Nikolas Tsakos. “I’m flying with him to Paris. I’m with him for a fucking week. … He loves me.” Mounting corruption allegations against Guilfoyle, a former San Francisco first lady turned MAGA star, has led administration officials to discuss her firing, reports said.
5.
A retired San Francisco police sergeant shot and killed his estranged wife, also a retired police officer, and their adult daughter before taking his own life at their Marin County home Sunday evening, multiple reports said. The dead inluded Kevin Mannix, 68, Ann Mannix, 65, and Katie, 24. Officials provided no further details. S.F. Chronicle | KGO
6.
Since summer, a drumbeat of reports have described rogue artificial intelligence agents hacking into companies and government websites. Now, in a first known instance, an Anthropic model has submitted a phony homicide tip to Philadelphia’s police department. Anthropic said the incident occurred in July but it was only discovered in September. Knowingly giving a false report to police is a crime. In a statement, the Philadelphia Police Department called Anthropic’s delay in flagging the deception “unacceptable.” Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times
7.
When Berkeley engineer Rong Yuan, 50, started getting inexplicably sick, she suspected something nefarious was afoot. She hid a camera at her work desk and caught a co-worker, David Xu, spiking her water bottle with cadmium. Xu pleaded no contest to poisoning, but spent just one day in jail thanks to a deal reached with the county’s progressive district attorney. Outraged, Yuan is now releasing her spy-cam videos. “This legal system already failed me,” she told the San Francisco Standard. “This is my last resort.”
8.
After the pandemic, several U.S. cities seized an opportunity to relieve their housing shortages by converting vacant office space into apartments. Thousands of projects were approved in cities such as New York, Washington, and Chicago. Yet San Francisco, where nearly a third of office space remains vacant, hasn’t completed a single conversion. Housing advocates are hoping a tax incentive introduced earlier this year will finally kickstart the office-to-housing push. N.Y. Times
Southern California
9.
Tropical Storm Rachel sent powerful waves crashing into Long Beach over the weekend, splintering the boardwalk and flooding homes in the latest in a series of drubbings by storms since September. Long Beach spends more than $1 million a year replenishing sand along the city’s battered peninsula. But it’s been no match for the high tides and hurricanes fueled by El Niño’s warm waters. Stacey Sniezak lives steps away from recently destroyed homes. “It’s just impossible to fix at this point, and I don’t know how they’re going to do that,” she said. Long Beach Post | L.A. Times
- See video from the storm:
- Swells crash into Long Beach homes.
- Streets are submerged in Newport Beach.
- A wave slams against an Amtrak train.
10.
Natalie Harp and her brother Preston grew up in a conservative Christian household in San Diego. Natalie became a MAGA devotee and a West Wing aide to President Trump. Preston said his life changed course after reading Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.” He moved to Nicaragua in 2023 and embraced the cause of the Marxist-influenced Sandinistas. The siblings haven’t spoken since their father died by suicide in 2020. The Washington Post investigated how the Harp family broke apart.
11.
Thanks to hot temperatures and high humidity, Los Angeles has been experiencing one of its worst mosquito seasons in memory. The county has recorded more than 180 cases of West Nile virus this year, the highest figure in nearly a decade. Some residents are dousing themselves in chemicals during the day and sleeping in long sleeves at night. Others have tried tucking towels into the cracks under doors. “You can’t even go to your back yard,” one resident said. “You can’t even sit in your car with the windows down.” The Guardian
12.
With animal shelters overwhelmed, some people are dumping their dogs in Southern California’s high desert. The abandonments are sometimes captured on surveillance video, showing individuals pushing dogs from cars and driving away. Faith Easdale is part of a small group of rescuers focused on dogs left to die in the desert. It’s hard to keep faith in humanity, she said: “I wish I didn’t even know about all this stuff, so I could have a normal life. You can’t unsee that stuff.” Southern California News Group
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