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 Thursday, Feb. 26.
- Governor’s spokesman becomes story with crass posts.
- Raid of superintendent’s home rattles L.A. school district.
- And the pleasures of California’s forgotten backroads.
Please note: The newsletter will be off tomorrow, returning on Monday. The California Sun Podcast will resume next week.
Statewide
1.
Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, has referred to rapper Nicki Minaj as a “stupid hoe.”
He’s called others a “bald little man,” a “vile POS,” and “fat and ugly.”
And on Monday, Gardon replied to a conservative writer’s request for comment with, “Respectfully, fuck off.”
Newsom advisers made it clear that Gardon has not gone rogue. His boorish style reflects the governor’s anti-Trump strategy to “fight fire with fire.” Politico
2.
California’s race for governor has five candidates in a “statistical dead heat,” a new Public Policy Institute of California poll found. They include three Democrats — Katie Porter, Eric Swalwell, and Tom Steyer — and two Republicans, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. Matt Mahan, the San Jose mayor who entered the race late, is considered a wild card, with the potential to surge up the rankings. “It’s pretty unprecedented for a California governor’s race,” said survey director Mark Baldassare. “It’s a very unusual race.” Politico | L.A. Times
- L.A. Times columnist George Skelton: “It’s time for some lagging Democrats to step aside.”
3.
A lethal form of bird flu has spread among a colony of northern elephant seals in San Mateo County, in the first detected outbreak of the virus known as H5N1 among marine mammals in California, scientists said on Wedensday. Recent bird flu outbreaks of the virus in southern elephant seals resulted in catastrophic losses in the Southern Hemisphere. “This thing could burn through the colony fast, or it could just continue to slowly expand,” said Dan Costa, a UC Santa Cruz professor. “A lot of this, it’s like keeping our fingers crossed that this will be quick and then it’ll go away.” S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
Northern California
4.
A 17-year-old driver accused of manslaughter in a Marin County crash last April that killed four of her friends denied guilt in court on Wednesday. Prosecutors have linked the crash to speeding, though the only passenger to survive said she saw oncoming headlights right before the wreck. Several parents of victims have opposed the prosecution. Linda Kepley, who lost her 15-year-old daughter Ada, said she was incensed by the idea of a “child” carrying such profound guilt. When she took her seat in the courtroom, she caught the teenager’s eye and mouthed, “We love you.” S.F. Chronicle
5.
Pressure is growing on state officials to reverse a parole board’s decision to grant the release of a notorious child molester. David Funston, 64, who lured children under the age of 7 with candy in the Sacramento suburbs in 1995 and 1996, was granted elderly parole under a program that was created to ease prison crowding. On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he called for the board to revisit the decision. But Funston’s lawyer said it’s too late for that. “The matter is done with respect to the board,” he said. L.A. Times | Sacramento Bee
6.
At the Port of San Francisco, crews are scrambling to demolish a massive rusting dry dock before it sinks into the bay. Built in 1970, Dry Dock No. 2 is a 900-foot U-shaped vessel that was used to hoist ships out of the water for repairs. Battered by the years, it is now tilting to the side. The port has budgeted $61 million to urgently remove Dock No. 2 and a second faltering drydock. If they sink first, the job could triple in price and unleash an environmental disaster. Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi said the saga had displaced the leaning Millennium Tower as the “biggest metaphor for San Francisco.”
7.
Among U.S. cities, a $100,000 salary goes the least far in San Francisco and Oakland, an analysis found. That income in the Bay Area cities translates to real purchasing power of just $62,371 after taxes and cost adjustments based on national averages, the ConsumerAffairs study found. Driving most of the difference is the soaring cost of housing and utilities. A six-figure salary, the report said, “no longer guarantees that you can live comfortably” in many cities. SFGATE
- Unaffordability in California is better understood as a coastal phenomenon. Median home prices fall below $400,000 in the state’s Central Valley and far north, newly released figures showed. Sacramento Bee
8.
Paul Pelosi
Conan O’Brien
Ken Burns
Mike Bloomberg
Charles Koch
Eric Schmidt
Someone leaked a purported guest list for the ultra-secretive Bohemian Club, a faux druidic retreat that hosts gatherings of the rich and powerful every July in the Sonoma County redwoods. Daniel Boguslaw, an independent journalist, said he obtained the document from a club member. In the past, other reporters have been said to abandon efforts to peer inside the club after getting spooked. Boguslaw told the San Francisco Standard he isn’t worried. “I’m confident in my reporting,” he said, “and I’d like to see them try to fuck with me.” Deeper States
Southern California
9.
FBI agents raided the home and office of the Los Angeles schools superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, on Wednesday as part of an apparent investigation into a $6 million deal between the the school district and a failed artificial intelligence start-up. Neither Carvalho nor the authorities said anything Wednesday, but sources told the Los Angeles Times that the probe specifically involves Carvalho, a celebrated figure in education circles who has been a harsh critic of the government’s immigration crackdown. AllHere, the AI startup, was charged with fraud in 2024. L.A. Times | EdSource
10.
In April 2024, officials accused a Kern County supervisor, Zack Scrivner, of sexually assaulting his pre-teen daughter before being stabbed by his son as he tried to defend his sister in their Tehachapi home. Nearly two years later, the family spoke out for the first time on Tuesday to denounce a recent ruling that granted Scrivner mental health treatment instead of jail. Christina Scrivner, his estranged wife, said her children’s bravery was met with “zero consequences for their violent abuser.” The Scrivners’ son, Robert, spoke briefly. “Our case was a clear example of a flawed system,” he said. KERO | Taft Midway Driller
11.
The singer D4vd is the “target” of a Los Angeles County criminal jury investigation into the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in his impounded Tesla on Sept. 8, court documents showed on Wednesday. The authorities had not publicly named D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, as a suspect. But the grand jury subpoena said the Houston musician may have committed a criminal offense in California, “to wit: One count of Murder.” Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 13 when she vanished from Lake Elsinore in April 2024. L.A. Times | A.P.
12.
On the lonely backroads of California, one rediscovers the pleasures of driving. Josh Jackson recently wrote a vivid account of his trip up Highway 127, which spans the desert between Baker and the Nevada border:
“A full moon was dropping toward the Avawatz Mountains as the sun worked its way over the horizon in the east. The dry lake beds and bare mountains were cast in glow and shadow, the whole scene washed in cinnamon and brown sugar — earthy tones that felt almost edible.” L.A. Times
- From the archive: Jackson discussed the wonders of the state’s BLM lands on the California Sun Podcast.
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