Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 6.
- Trump suggests Iran could “take out” L.A. or San Diego.
- San Francisco plans to keep its Flock cameras.
- And gorgeous drone video of orcas in Monterey Bay.
Statewide
1.
During a political rally in Nebraska on Monday, President Trump sought to justify the war in Iran, saying high prices are “a small price to pay” for safety. He went on: “They could take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.” The crowd roared. Interpretations of Trump’s meaning were contested, but California’s Democratic leaders suggested he was daring Iran to attack. In a flurry of social media posts, they called the president’s remarks “deranged,” “reckless,” and “treasonous.” N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
2.
Californians are about to decide on a statewide initiative that would require every voter to present identification when casting a ballot. Proposition 39 made it onto the November ballot in deep-blue California thanks to the virtually single-handed efforts of Carl DeMaio, a Republican assemblymember whose abrasive style has left him alienated from both parties. What DeMaio lacks in charisma, though, he made up for with grassroots organizing. “The loneliest man in American politics,” wrote Politico Magazine, “has an army.”
3.
Californians once harbored a romantic notion that Silicon Valley’s leaders “were going to do good,” said Bruce Cain, a political scientist at Stanford. No more. “I don’t know anybody driving a Tesla who isn’t ashamed,” Cain said. He went on: “What happens to lovers who get betrayed? They get angry.” One outcome of that anger is the proposed billionaire tax, aimed squarely at Silicon Valley. If it passes, it will be the first time a government in the U.S. has taxed the assets, rather than the income, of extremely rich people as a class. New Yorker
4.
As climate anxiety forces a rethinking of the built environment, some architectural studios are offering visions of what future homes might look like. Hafsa Burt, who specializes in green building for commercial clients such as San Francisco’s airport, has created a number of prototype homes in the fire-prone Sierra foothills. They are minimalist, fire-resistant, and powered by the sun. Wallpaper* explored her latest “thought experiment” in Amador County, called Null, pictured above.
Northern California
5.
As more than 20 California jurisdictions turn against Flock cameras, liberal San Francisco recently recommitted to its surveillance network of roughly 400 cameras. City officials have credited the cameras, in part, for plunging crime numbers, citing a remarkable 82% drop in car break-ins since 2022. “What the license plate reader cameras have absolutely done — and we do have proof of this — is give the police the ability to catch people who have engaged in crime,” Brooke Jenkins, San Francisco’s district attorney, recently told NPR. Mashable
- Vox: “Flock cameras are creepy. They might still be worth it.”
6.
Last month, FBI agents showed up in Shasta County after Clint Curtis, the county’s conspiracy-minded elections chief, alleged that voting misdeeds were afoot. He couldn’t be specific. But ballots from the June primary smelled too inky, he said. He echoed a baseless claim from the 2020 election that counterfeit ballots in Arizona were shipped in from Asia. “I have ballots that are rougher,” Curtis said. “And I’ve been told that the bamboo fiber stuff would make it rougher. Do I know that’s true? I don’t know that’s true.” Washington Post
7.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman was asked recently how his worldview differs from that of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. In a podcast interview released on Monday, he answered: “We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.” Altman’s remarks came days after news broke that a leader of OpenAI’s safety team, David Robinson, had just quit over concerns that the company was too lax on safety. “The time for trial and error is over,” Robinson wrote. Politico
8.
San Francisco, home to more than 50 named hills, is lousy with lookout points. The San Francisco Chronicle analyzed all of them for a definitive ranking of the city’s 10 best views. No. 1: Mount Davidson. Rising roughly 930 feet from the middle of San Francisco, it’s the city’s tallest natural point — yet it’s “criminally underrated,” the newspaper said. Not least among its charms is the walking path to the top through a lush forest of blue gum eucalyptus trees.
- See video of the view atop Mount Davidson.
9.
Plentiful anchovies have lately helped attract an especially robust network of marine life to Monterey Bay, making for outstanding whale-watching opportunities. Sanctuary Cruises, based in Moss Landing, shared some fantastic drone video captured last Friday of orcas cruising off the coast during the golden hour. The crew called it “nothing short of epic.”
Southern California
10.
Malibu tested speed cameras at four locations and recorded roughly 100,000 speeding violations in just nine days. The city now plans to introduce a 60-day warning period before starting to issue tickets. Speeding has been a chronic and deadly problem along a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Demands for safety improvements intensified in 2023 after four Pepperdine students were killed by a speeding motorist. Saturday brought another needless death: a Nobu Malibu chef was killed when a driver slammed into the parked car in which he was sleeping. Los Angeles magazine | KTLA
11.
The FBI arrested an Irvine woman at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday as she prepared to fly to China, accusing her of spying on relatives of the Taiwanese president under the direction of Beijing. The authorities said Wanying Zhang, a 34-year-old realtor, surveilled the house of the president’s son and sent images and license plate information to a Chinese government. A spokesperson for Taiwan’s president called the alleged surveillance “barbaric.” “Such behavior should not be tolerated in the civilized world,” she said. A.P. | N.Y. Times
12.
An artificial intelligence radio DJ has shot to stardom on a Spanish-language morning show in Los Angeles. Coyotec, a bot programmed to mimic radio repartee, banters with a human co-host about sports and news. “Listeners of L.A.’s José FM are repeatedly told they are listening to AI,” the Los Angeles Times reported, “but seem to like it. The ratings are rising.” As broadcasters looks to cut costs, workers in the industry worry that the future they’ve been warned about is already here.
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