Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 8.
- Katie Porter gets testy with a CBS News reporter.
- Caltrans quietly demolishes a Junipero Serra statue.
- And California goes on a Nobel Prizes tear.
Statewide
1.
The Cascadia subduction zone, off the Pacific Northwest, and San Andreas fault are two of the West Coast’s most destructive sources of earthquakes. Research published on Tuesday concluded that they may be synchronized, meaning one fault has the potential to trigger the other. The study found three instances in the past 1,500 years when huge ruptures occurred back to back. “We’re used to hearing the Big One — Cascadia — being this catastrophic huge thing,” said Chris Goldfinger, a marine geologist. “It turns out it’s not the worst-case scenario.” Mercury News | L.A. Times
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been busy signing new laws. A roundup:
- He approved a landmark measure allowing more than 800,000 Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize. Supporters said it marked the largest expansion of private-sector collective bargaining rights in California history. A.P. | Politico
- He signed a bill banning loud advertisements on streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu. It was modeled on a 2010 federal law that imposed similar restrictions on TV programming. Hollywood Reporter | CalMatters
- Also approved: Diwali — the Hindu festival of lights — will become a state holiday; a new statewide office will be established to root out antisemitism in schools; and landlords will be required to furnish their units with refrigerators and stoves. A.P. | Politico | LAist
3.
Katie Porter, the narrow frontrunner in the race for California governor, tried to walk out of a CBS News interview after growing agitated with a reporter’s questions. In a video clip that circulated widely online Tuesday, reporter Julie Watts asked Porter a seemingly innocuous question about how she would connect with Trump voters “who you’ll need in order to win.” Porter responded: “How would I need them in order to win, ma’am?” From there, the interview spiraled until Porter declared it over. “I don’t want to have an unhappy experience with you,” she said. Daily Beast | L.A. Times
- Pundits from across the political spectrum panned Porter’s behavior. Mehdi Hasan called it a “car crash.” Megyn Kelly called it “the most entertaining, unifying thing since tiger king.” Newsweek
4.
After losing a bid for Los Angeles mayor in 2022, Rick Caruso seemed to fade from view. But the January wildfires revived his political ambitions. “This is an absolute mismanagement by the city,” Caruso told the local Fox News station. “It looks like we’re in a Third World country here.” His outrage has resonated so deeply that he’s now being seen as a contender for governor. Bloomberg wrote about the “political transformation of California’s billionaire mall king.”
5.
An emotional fight over the trampling of Mono Lake’s otherworldly landscape by wild horses is pitting federal officials, who say the animals need to go, against local tribes, who say that would be a travesty. “We’re all living spirits,” said Ronda Kauk, a member of the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a tribe. “And it’s sad that people just don’t care about another living thing because they think it doesn’t belong there.” L.A. Times
6.
“They’re everywhere.”
A rodent boom is overwhelming California farms. In a memo this year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture said rodents, which chew through irrigation lines and feast on fruit and nuts, caused more than $310 million in damage to the state’s almond orchards in the span of a year. Industry groups say a rising number of abandoned orchards is fueling the pest problem, while new rodenticide restrictions have removed a traditional tool of mitigation. S.F. Chronicle
Northern California
7.
In August, Caltrans quietly demolished a giant statue of Junipero Serra that had stood at a rest stop in the Bay Area community of Hillsborough for nearly 50 years. The agency said it consulted with stakeholders before taking action on the depiction of the Franciscan priest, who has been a contentious figure for his role in suppressing Indigenous cultures. Those discussions, however, did not include the local archdiocese, said San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. No one fought for the statue, he added, because officials “didn’t consult with anyone who would give them an opinion that differed from their own.” Mercury News | KRON
8.
San Francisco’s biggest mall is a retail ghost town. Not long ago, San Francisco Centre was one of the Bay Area’s top-performing malls. But after years of homelessness, shoplifting, and drug use in the mall and surrounding area, more than 90% of the nine-level complex now sits vacant. Even as much of San Francisco is regaining its footing after the dark days of the pandemic, the shopping complex never pulled out of its death spiral. Few analysts think it can remain a mall much longer, the Wall Street Journal reported.
9.
Dr. Fred Ramsdell, a San Francisco scientist, likes to keep his phone in airplane mode while in nature. So he was oblivious to the news when his wife, whose phone had just regained cell service, started shouting at their campsite in Montana on Monday. Ramsdell, 64, thought she’d seen a bear. “You just won the Nobel Prize!” she yelled. “No, I didn’t,” he responded. “I have 200 text messages saying that you did!” she said. The New York Times has the story of how Ramsdell belatedly got word of a completely unexpected honor.
- As of Wednesday, California was three for three during the week of Nobel Prize announcements. After Ramsdell shared the medicine prize on Monday, three UC scientists won the physics award on Tuesday, and a UC Berkeley professor shared the chemistry prize on Wednesday.
Southern California
10.
After Bayron Rovidio Marin injured his leg during an Aug. 27 immigration raid on a car wash in Carson, federal agents handcuffed him to his hospital bed and monitored him 24 hours a day for the next 37 days. During that time, Marin was barred from seeing his family or using a phone, even as ICE officials filed no charges against him. Over the weekend, a federal judge ordered immigration officials to remove the handcuffs and get out of Marin’s hospital room. L.A. Times | CBS News
11.
David Bren — the son of the Irvine Co. tycoon Donald Bren — lured investors to pour millions of dollars into a club for super car enthusiasts to be hosted out of a Beverly Hills hotel. He called it “The Bunker.” But it was all a mirage, according to lawsuits against Bren. Investors, including one who later hanged himself, lost millions. The elder Bren, who is said to be worth more than $19 billion, commented on his son through a spokesman: “We do not have a personal or business relationship with this individual,” he said. L.A. Times
12.
The home of the San Diego Padres is not the oldest stadium in baseball. But part of it arguably is. When the stadium was planned for the city’s rundown warehouse district in the early 2000s, the team faced an obstacle: a historic landmark, the 1909 Western Metal Supply Co. Building, stood in the proposed footprint. But rather than bulldoze the structure, they built the stadium around it, aligning one of the corners to serve as the left-field foul pole. The design significantly delayed the construction timeline, but the Western Metal Supply Co. Building has since been hailed as one of great stadium features in baseball. MLB | Petco Park Insider
- “Oh my! All the way to the roof of the Western Metal Supply Company!” In 2016, it had been more than a decade before anyone hit a homer onto the roof of building. See the mammoth hit by Hunter Renfroe. 👉 YouTube
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