Good morning. It’s Friday, May 16.
- Silicon Valley tries to bring back the zeppelin.
- Signs of retreat from Inland Empire warehouse boom.
- And the California roots of a fringe citizenship theory.
Statewide
1.
Asked this week if he is shifting his tone on issues such as homelessness and immigrant health coverage in preparation for a White House bid, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has always been a “hardheaded pragmatist.” Some journalists seem unconvinced.
- The A.P.’s Steve Peoples: “Make no mistake: California’s Democratic governor is appealing to the political center and trying to shed his national reputation as a San Francisco liberal as he contemplates his next career move.”
- The L.A. Times’ Mark Z. Barabak: “Newsom insists he’s not even thinking about running for president, though a simple application of the duck test — if it waddles and quacks like a duck, you can be reasonably certain of its waterfowl status — suggests otherwise.”
2.
Under a 2016 law, California began withholding funding to programs that require sobriety to get housing. The rationale of the “housing first” model is that there should be minimal conditions on people trying to get off the street. But even the strongest proponents of the measure are now rethinking their stance as many homeless people say they would prefer to live in a sober environment. “We inadvertently created new barriers to addicts who wanted to get sober,” said Adrian Covert, of the Bay Area Council. L.A. Times
3.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with New York Times journalist Adam Nagourney, who wrote recently about whether the California Dream had become a mirage. People have counted California out before, Nagourney noted. But its latest trials — natural disaster, lack of affordability, political strife — are now compounded by a White House that sees the state as an adversary. “That’s why this moment feels, to me at least, particularly perilous,” he said.
Northern California
4.
Meta has increasingly become a cornerstone of the internet fraud economy. Between the summers of 2023 and 2024, the company was estimated to account for nearly half of all reported rip-offs on the payments service Zelle. Typical scams involve fake ads offering goods at steep discounts. But Meta employers said the company has been reluctant to take any steps that might impede its advertising juggernaut. “Even after users demonstrate a history of scamming, Meta balks at removing them,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
5.
Silicon Valley is trying to bring back the zeppelin. A century ago, giant hydrogen-filled airships carried passengers across the Atlantic Ocean. Then the Hindenburg crashed in 1937, and the industry fizzled. Now a company bankrolled by billionaire Sergey Brin has started testing its 400-foot Pathfinder 1 airship, the largest aircraft in the world. Airship historian John J. Geoghegan said he’ll believe the revival when he sees it. Riding in an airship is “poetic,” he said. “But commercial markets are very hard-nosed, and they’re not into poetry and grace. They want a return on investment.” Washington Post
6.
In February 2024, Apple launched its Vision Pro headset to great fanfare. People were spotted wearing the mixed-reality headsets on streets, in restaurants, and even at a basketball game. A year later, however, early adopters are regretting their $3,500 purchase. Among the complaints: the headsets are too heavy and there aren’t enough apps. “It’s just collecting dust,” Dustin Fox said of his headset, which looks like futuristic ski goggles. “I think I’ve probably used it four times in the last year.” Wall Street Journal
Southern California
7.
In 1980, there were 234 warehouses spread across the Inland Empire. Today, there are more than 4,000. A backlash to the onslaught of industrial blandness and pollution flared this week at a regional planning meeting, where residents passionately opposed yet another warehouse on the edge of the old March Air Force Base. After hours of testimony, the commission unanimously rejected the project. A leader of the resistance beamed as she exited the meeting. “Every once in a while,” she said. “Every once in a great while.” CalMatters
8.
On Jan. 24, a man walked up to a patrol car in Fountain Valley and wrestled a gun away from a female officer before being shot dead by another officer, newly released video showed. The suspect, 26-year-old Osean McClintock, could be heard shouting “You’re saved in Jesus’ name forever!” during the scuffle. The female officer panicked: “He has my gun! He has my gun!” she says. “Please don’t shoot me! Please don’t shoot me.” Moments later, the other officer opened fire. A.P. | KABC
9.
The American practice of granting citizenship to everyone born on U.S. soil has long been a tenet of immigration law, established in the 14th Amendment and affirmed in the courts. Then, on the first day of his second presidency, President Trump declared an end to birthright citizenship. As the Supreme Court took up the issue on Thursday, the New York Times chronicled how a fringe interpretation of the 14th Amendment rose from the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank in San Bernardino County.
10.
Chinese nationals are flooding bank branches across Los Angeles County with bags of cash from Mexico’s drug cartels, federal authorities say. The network is estimated to have handled $50 million in drug proceeds over four years, authorities say. The Wall Street Journal told the unlikely story of how Chinese organized crime groups quietly became the dominant money launderers for Latin American drug lords.
11.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, the founder of Pussy Riot, spent nearly two years in a Russian prison after her art collective’s anti-Putin performance at Moscow’s main Orthodox Cathedral in 2012. Next month, she will enter a jail of her own making, spending her days in a replica of a Russian prison cell at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. “I don’t love to talk about my feelings,” she said. “But I’m interested in renegotiating trauma, rewriting your own personal history to bring your creativity into the mix. This is art therapy, basically.” N.Y. Times
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- San Diego is arguably the best place in the world to see blue whales. “It’s not an exaggeration,” wrote tour leader Domenic Biagini, “few accessible places on earth have had the consistent volume of [blue] whales and the reliability of sightings as San Diego during the early to mid-summer this decade.” @dolphindronedom
- Biagini captures drone videos of blue whales that take your breath away. See a highlight reel. 👉 YouTube
- A burgeoning marketplace in historic downtown San Juan Capistrano. A “little Switzerland” in the Eastern Sierra. And a town lined with open-air tasting rooms in the bucolic Santa Ynez Valley. Afar gave six picks for “underrated ways to experience California without the crowds.”
- A couple in L.A. canvassed their neighborhood in search of a beep that was driving one of them insane. It was the intermittent ping of a smoke alarm with a dying battery. A New Yorker documentary chronicled their quest as they encountered laughter, empathy, and hostility.
- A mud puddle has mysteriously crawled hundreds of feet across a patch of earth near the Salton Sea. Scientists can’t figure out why, and it’s wreaking havoc on road and rail infrastructure. Shawn Rizzutto, a Caltrans official, recalled the first time he saw it. “How cool is this,” he thought. Alta
- See recent video of the mudpot.
- When camping in the Southern California desert, don’t forget to pack your ultraviolet flashlight. California has among the highest numbers of scorpion species in the world. They are remarkably cool, including the bizarre characteristic of shimmering in incandescent green under UV light. Here’s a short video of glowing scorpions near the Salton Sea. 👉 YouTube
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