Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 2.
• | Health officials brace for outbreaks after protests. |
• | Rents plummet by double digits in Silicon Valley. |
• | And a revolt at Facebook over Trump’s inflammatory posts. |
George Floyd protests
1
A demonstrator knelt in front of City Hall in Anaheim on Monday.
Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images
Relative calm settled over much of California on Monday after several days of turmoil. Peaceful demonstrations were held in numerous cities, but with curfews imposed and National Guard troops standing by, few devolved into the sort of widespread vandalism and looting that marred the weekend gatherings. Still, there were reports of scattered unrest late Monday, including clashes in several Bay Area cities, and looting in Hollywood and Van Nuys. A.P.
2
Gov. Gavin Newsom met with faith leaders at a predominantly African American church in Sacramento and delivered remarks aimed toward the people protesting police brutality on California’s streets. They were right to feel wronged, he said. “The black community is not responsible for what’s happening in this country right now. We are. Our institutions are responsible. We are accountable to this moment.” KCRA | CalMatters
Newsom sidestepped President Trump’s call for governors to “dominate” the unrest on the streets. He called the president’s remarks “noise.” S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
3
California officials on Monday moved to capitalize on the energy of the Floyd protests to make some changes. In San Diego, Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced that the city’s police force would no longer use a controversial neck hold known as a carotid restraint, “effective immediately.” S.D. Union-Tribune | NBC San Diego
In other moves:
• | Prosecutors in three California counties called on the state bar to prohibit district attorneys from taking money from police unions. The donations, critics say, pollute investigations of police shootings. Mercury News | CBS SF |
• | California’s top education official vowed to introduce a greater focus on teaching about implicit bias in California classrooms. L.A. Times | EdSource |
4
“Everybody feel good? Let’s get out there!”
Volunteers armed with brooms and buckets have been stepping up to help clean and repair battered communities across the state. Below, a few photos.
La Mesa on Sunday.
Gregory Bull/A.P.
Santa Monica on Monday.
Warrick Page/Getty Images
Los Angeles on Saturday.
Irfan Khan/L.A. Times via Getty Images
Oakland on Sunday.
Jeff Chiu/A.P.
5
Other protest developments:
• | Roughly 500 National Guard troops arrived in Sacramento on Monday after two nights of looting and vandalism. A curfew was believed to be the first in the city’s history. A.P. | Sacramento Bee |
• | L.A. Times columnist: “What’s really manifesting itself on the streets from San Francisco to Santa Monica is the absolute, incalculable rage about the race-based inequities that have been ignored for too long by officials at all levels of California government.” |
• | “We love you. I know some of you don’t believe that.” In a widely shared video, Brentwood’s police chief took a knee with protesters and delivered a speech that drew cheers. YouTube | The Press |
Statewide
6
A crowd gathered last week to protest the killing of George Floyd in Los Angeles.
Dania Maxwell/L.A. via Getty Images
Are the protests spreading the coronavirus? “Based on the way the disease spreads, there is every reason to expect that we will see new clusters and potentially new outbreaks moving forward,” the U.S. surgeon general said. Even so, protesters said the risk was worth it. “I cannot in good conscience let this moment pass me by,” one said. Politico | L.A. Times
Here are the latest California coronavirus totals, as tracked by the S.F. Chronicle:
Confirmed cases:
115,078
+2,759 since a day ago
+18,593 since a week ago
Deaths:
4,219
+47 since a day ago
+453 since a week ago
7
Nevada County, straddling the Sierra foothills, has had 41 coronavirus cases in total, and none since April 28. Yet many residents — restaurateurs, campground owners, hotel managers, gym operators, tattoo artists, and wedding photographers — remain conflicted: “They know that if California opens up, the virus will come to their communities. If it doesn’t, financial ruin will.” L.A. Times
8
San Francisco living.
Rents are plummeting by double digits in the Bay Area. In San Francisco, for example, they fell 9 percent compared to the same period last year. In Cupertino, they were down 14 percent. Many workers have been rethinking where they live amid an accelerating shift to remote work. “This is real,” said a rental site CEO. “We have never seen anything like it.” S.F. Chronicle | Business Insider
9
Other coronavirus developments:
• | Santa Clara County, once the Bay Area’s hardest-hit county, will allow in-store shopping, outdoor dining, and religious services starting Friday. Mercury News | NBC Bay Area |
• | Newsom on Trump during the crisis: “He has been, and so far remains, a good partner to this state in terms of our efforts to date. So far.” California Sunday Magazine |
• | “Plandemic,” the conspiratorial video about the coronavirus created by an Ojai man, hasn’t just sowed disinformation on American soil. The video’s popularity is now soaring overseas. BuzzFeed News |
10
Facebook’s corporate headquarters in Menlo Park.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
In rare public criticism, hundreds of Facebook employees protested the company’s decision to do nothing about inflammatory posts on the platform by President Trump. As Twitter has moved to label the president’s tweets, Mark Zuckerberg has held firm, arguing that Facebook “shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.” The Verge | Washington Post
11
The N.Y. Times interviewed nearly 100 people for a Page 1 deep dive on Tara Reade, the California woman who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault. It portrays her as a person prone to embellishing her life story and in frequent conflict with the people around her. She, in turn, insists her former friends are in the wrong, calling one a “slumlord,” another a “drunk,” and a third a tax cheat. N.Y. Times
12
Christo died on Sunday at his home in New York City. The Bulgarian-born artist was known for creating large-scale environmental artworks, two of which echo fondly in the memories of many Californians. In 1976, “Running Fence” was made of 240,000 yards of nylon fabric that slithered across 24 miles from Cotati to the Pacific Ocean. “The Umbrellas,” created in 1991, included more than 1,700 giant yellow umbrellas installed along the straw-colored slopes of Southern California’s Grapevine. Below are a few pictures.
Christo’s “Running Fence” cut across the rolling hills of Sonoma County.
Sonoma County Library
The fence disappeared into the Pacific Ocean at Dillon Beach.
Sonoma County Library
“The Umbrellas” was the largest art installation Kern County had ever seen.
Christo
Skeptics initially grumbled over the proposal. But once in place, the whimsical display won people over.
Christo
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.