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, March 20.
- President Trump is said to reassess deportation tactics.
- Cesar Chavez Day to be renamed “Farmworkers Day.”
- And an early graduation is held for teen with dying father.
Please note: The newsletter will pause next week for spring break. Back on Monday, March 30.
Statewide
1.
More than a year after Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino led a surprise raid in Bakersfield, foreshadowing what would become a sprawling deportation crackdown in Democratic-led cities, President Trump is rethinking his approach. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump has come to believe that the campaign has gone too far, and that voters don’t like the term “mass deportation.” He told members of his inner circle that he wants more attention on arresting “bad guys” and less chaos in American cities.
2.
“Don’t say nothing, dilapidated bitch.”
The public image of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, who co-founded United Farm Workers union, was of partners standing together with raised fists at rallies and marches. But Huerta was berated, picked on, and ridiculed in the machismo culture of a movement that Chavez dominated through force of personality. “Women are not seen as human beings,” Huerta, now 95, said of Chavez’s attitude. “We’re just seen as sex objects. I think it’s an illness.” N.Y. Times
3.
The purging of Cesar Chavez’s name and likeness from the California landscape gained momentum Thursday as state lawmakers moved to rename Cesar Chavez Day as “Farmworkers Day.” “This moment calls for honesty, it calls for reflection, and it calls for a renewed commitment to the values that the farmworker movement was built on,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said in an emotional speech. Among the actions in other parts of the state, Santa Ana College covered a mural of Chavez, Fresno’s City Council voted to rename Cesar Chavez Boulevard, and San Fernando removed a Chavez statue from a city park. CBS News | Sacramento Bee
- See a photo gallery of monuments to Chavez across the U.S. that now carry a stain.
4.
Critics say it will spell California’s doom, but a proposed one-time 5% tax tax on billionaire wealth now has majority support among the state’s residents. A survey by UC Berkeley researchers found that 52% of voters back the measure. Respondents split sharply along partisan lines, with 72% of Democrats in favor and the same percentage of Republicans opposed. The narrow majority sets the stage for an intense campaign fight, analysts said — and Silicon Valley appears eager to wage it. New filings showed that Sergey Brin doubled his giving, for a total of $45 million, to a group fighting the tax. L.A. Times | The Guardian
5.
A federal judge shot down a Trump administration lawsuit that sought to nullify a California law that bars keeping hens in cages so small they can’t turn around. The Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, which the government argued is driving up egg prices, was approved by 62% of the state’s voters in 2018. U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, a Trump appointee, said the administration failed to show it suffered any constitutional injury and therefore lacked standing. He called the allegations “undisguised legal conclusions in search of substantiating facts.” Courthouse News | Politico
6.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Caroline Tracey, author of the new book “Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History,” which explores how dams and diversions have devastated landlocked bodies of water like Mono and Owens lakes. It was the beauty of the mirror-like lakes that first piqued her curiosity, Tracey wrote: “From afar, their palette of glistening blue water, white salt crusts, green wetland edges, and fuchsia and emerald microbial life turned the horizon into a painting.”
Northern California
7.
A mother, father, and their two young boys were waiting at a San Francisco bus stop to catch a ride to the zoo when a white Mercedes S.U.V. came flying down the street at three times the speed limit, jumped a curb, and slammed into them. They all died. Two years later, the woman behind the wheel, 80-year-old Mary Fong Lau, is expected to plead no contest to four felonies today. But the judge has indicated that he will give her probation, after which she could regain her driver’s license, saying prison time would amount to “mere vengeance.” The victims’ relatives are outraged. N.Y. Times
8.
Silicon Valley’s young coders have become obsessed with artificial intelligence agents, which perform tasks ranging from handing email to managing big work projects. Will Laverty, an 18-year-old software engineer in San Francisco, said he “wouldn’t be able to go back” to life without his four or five agents. When he had a backlog of texts from his parents, he put them a group chat with one of the agents. “Pretty much all the things I wanted to tell them in my head, it already knew about from tracking everything about my life, and it could just tell them without me having to think,” Laverty said. N.Y. Times
Southern California
9.
“I just heard a crazy rumor.”
A recent poll found that nearly half of Angelenos are unhappy with the performance of Mayor Karen Bass. Even so, in early February, it seemed that Bass might face no real opposition in her reelection bid. But with just days before the filing deadline to run, a handful of strange bedfellows, united by frustration with Bass’s leadership, scrambled to orchestrate a remarkable challenge. L.A. Material, Los Angeles’ newest newsroom, told the story of the week that remade the Los Angeles mayor’s race.
10.
After Bill Kerwin was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer last month, he said his one wish was to see his daughter Abbi graduate from Huntington Beach High School. When friends learned late last week that Kerwin’s health had deteriorated sharply, they sprang to action. A group of parents worked the phones and organized a makeshift early graduation ceremony on Monday, attended by classmates, family, and several city leaders. “This ceremony is about family, love, perseverance and the moments in life that matter most,” Principal Danny Morris told the gathering, many wiping tears. Kerwin handed the diploma to 18-year-old Abbi himself. O.C. Register | CBS News
11.
Flea, the wild-eyed bassist of the Los Angeles band Red Hot Chili Peppers, has been secretly practicing his jazz trumpet. The result is a forthcoming trumpet album, “Honora,” supported by a cast of contemporary jazz luminaries. Growing up, Flea, now 63, played trumpet in the school band and took lessons from a veteran big-band trumpeter. But an invitation to play bass in a rock band with his friends pulled him in another direction. “I knew what beautiful was,” he said of his jazz studies, “and I was always reaching for that beauty.” N.Y. Times
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- San Francisco’s hometown newspaper pulled data from Google Street View to find the most colorful neighborhood in one of America’s most colorful cities. Bernal Heights stood out. Some 40% of the neighborhood’s homes are painted in pinks, yellows, oranges, and, most of all, blues. The San Francisco Chronicle included a great photo tour of Bernal Heights.
- San Diego Zoo Safari Park announced the arrival of four ridiculously cute cheetah cubs. All males, the brothers were born to first-time mom Kelechi in January, the zoo said. Video showed the rambunctious band of cubs running unsteadily, practicing their chirps, and pestering mom. KABC | NBC San Diego
- In California, the housing laws have been loosened, but the houses have not followed. The Atlantic’s Rogé Karma explains: “In trying to accomplish every objective and accommodate every interest, all at once, California set up its housing agenda to fail.“
- Mendocino County’s lazy Gualala River, the Red Rock pools of the Santa Ynez Valley, and “the most beautiful pool you’ve ever seen” in Big Sur. The authors of “Places We Swim California” shared their favorite wild swimming spots. The Guardian | N.Y. Times
- Ellie Park, 8, had been unable to break the taekwondo boards the day before her test at the American Tigers Taekwondo school in Mission Viejo. When the big day arrived, she stood shaking on the mat as her instructor held out a board and invited her to kick it. She made two failed attempts. On the third, the board snapped. A video of her reaction went viral. Upworthy
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