Consolidation fears after McClatchy files for bankruptcy.

66,000 marijuana convictions tossed out in Los Angeles.

Scheduling note: The newsletter will pause for the holiday weekend. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.

The N.Y. Times published a maddening tale — titled "Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build Build" — on one of California's most stubborn housing fights. The wealthy Bay Area suburb of Lafayette has blocked new development even as people are pushed further into homelessness and despair. 

"One need only look out an airplane window to see that this has nothing to do with a lack of space. ... There is, simply put, a dire shortage of housing in places where people and companies want to live — and reactionary local politics that fight every effort to add more homes." N.Y. Times

Nearly half of California's landmass is now abnormally dry, including roughly 10 percent experiencing moderate drought, new data showed. The drought area includes parts of the Central Valley and Sierra range. The Sierra snowpack, the source of about a third of California's water, isn't doing great either. It's less than 60 percent of normal to date. A.P. | Mercury News  

Southern California mountain lions just moved a step closer to being listed as endangered. Wildlife officials recommended the protected status for six genetically distinct cougar clans between Santa Cruz and the U.S.-Mexico border that were threatened with extinction. The big cats have been besieged by habitat loss, rat poison, and vehicle strikes. LAist | Ventura County Star 

See gorgeous pictures of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. Flickr 

Ricky Davis spent 15 years in prison after being convicted for the 1985 killing of a woman 20 miles east of Sacramento. On Thursday, he was exonerated. The authorities announced that DNA evidence had not only proven Davis's innocence but also identified the real killer, who was now in custody. Davis emerged from prison to a crowd of friends and family members. "God bless the Innocence Project," he said. Sacramento Bee | A.P.

McClatchy filed for bankruptcy, ending family control of one of California's most storied newspaper companies. Founded in Sacramento in 1857, the company owns dailies from coast to coast, including five in California — the Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee, Modesto Bee, Merced Sun-Star, and San Luis Obispo Tribune. If the bankruptcy is approved, McClatchy would fall under the control of a hedge fund that has made "consolidation" a core strategy. McClatchy | NiemanLab

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with David Talbot, a Bay Area journalist and author who just published a memoir about suffering a stroke in 2017. He said he found the experience, while terrifying, oddly liberating. He didn't really like his old self, he explained. "I was stressed out. I was kind of angry. I was short-tempered. ... I just go at a slower pace now." California Sun Podcast

Los Angeles County's district attorney announced the dismissal of 66,000 marijuana convictions, dating back to 1961. That means 22,000 people no longer have felonies on their records in California, and 15,000 no longer have any criminal record. "What this does is correct that inequity of the past," District Attorney Jackie Lacey said. L.A. Times | LAist

More than 500 people have died at the hands of law enforcement during Lacey's tenure. Her office has prosecuted only one case. That's one reason criminal justice activists want her gone. HuffPost

A leaflet warned people to avoid businesses like Panda Express. A middle schooler was beaten after classmates said he was an Asian-American with coronavirus. And thousands of people signed a petition calling for the closure of schools in a heavily Asian area. The coronavirus scare has been fueling anti-Asian bigotry in Southern California. Reuters 

Michael Schroder, a former dean at Cal State San Marcos, made up dinner guests, filed duplicate expense reports, and classified a Guns N' Roses concert as college business to collect improper reimbursements. All told, the public employee collected $41,000 in fraudulent hospitality claims in two years, a report found. S.D. Union-Tribune

Highway 46 doesn't have the star power of the Pacific Coast Highway or Highway 395 in the Eastern Sierra, but it's the prettiest drive in one of California's prettiest regions. The east-west route carves a path through the Coast Ranges of the Central Coast, passing bucolic countryside and boutique wineries, culminating at the ocean in Cambria. The travel staff of the L.A. Times were so smitten they included Highway 46 among the 15 places every seasoned Californian should visit. L.A. Times

One morning in 1970, the society photographer Slim Aarons called up a friend in Palm Springs asked if he could come take pictures at her house, designed by the renowned architect Richard Neutra. "Call some friends over," he said. The photo shoot that resulted produced one of Aarons's most celebrated images, "Poolside Gossip." It became as much a symbol of desert living as the architecture itself: two women in lounge chairs by a crystal blue pool with the San Jacinto mountains in the background — glamorous, carefree, rich. 

Nearly 50 years later, Nelda Linsk, the party host in yellow, speculated about why people found the image so enthralling. It taps into their fantasies, she told NBC Palm Springs. "People want to be in that photograph." NBC Palm Springs | N.Y. Times

Modernism Week, the annual celebration of Palm Springs architecture, kicked off this week. Among the buzziest homes is a midcentury gem with an insane roof. Architectural Digest

Five items that got big views over the past week:

On a trip to the Bay Area in 1971, Nick DeWolf aimed his 35mm camera at the fashions and hairstyles of an era with one foot still in Summer of Love hippiedom. Flickr

Here's a fascinating animation of America's westward expansion during the 19th century. Watch for the opening of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. Steven Bernard/Reddit

Kings Canyon National Park was Ansel Adams's favorite park for a reason. One of the most popular trails within the park, if not the entire Sierra, hugs the shores of Rae Lakes. Backpacker magazine

Curbed offers some road trip inspiration with a tour of the state's 19 best midcentury motels. Curbed Los Angeles

Here's a beautifully written profile of an Eastern Sierra wildlife specialist who lures bears away from kitchens and campsites using words instead of weapons. L.A. Times

Today's California Sun: Consolidation fears after McClatchy files for bankruptcy, 66,000 marijuana convictions tossed out in Los Angeles, and DNA exonerates a man after 15 years in prison.

Fears of local news consolidation // California's low-key prettiest drive

Trump's most significant endorsement yet from Silicon Valley.

Investigating Southern California's "sophisticated slumlord."

And a tour of the state's 19 best midcentury motels.

Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, is hosting President Trump at his Coachella Valley estate next week for a fundraising event with $100,000 tickets. Recode called it "the most significant display of support from a major tech titan for the president, by far." Desert Sun | recode

Reports said Trump would also make a stop in Bakersfield, California's most conservative metropolis.

Here's a beautifully written profile of an Eastern Sierra wildlife specialist who lures bears away from kitchens and campsites using words instead of weapons. A ponytailed ex-surfer with little formal schooling, Steve Searles used to get mocked around town for his touchy-feely approach. Now they call him the "bear whisperer." L.A. Times

Anti-vaxxer on why she moved from California to Idaho: "I'm a mother. And I'm also a California refugee. I came here in search of medical freedom." Idaho has some of the nation's most permissive laws on vaccinating schoolchildren. That makes it a draw for families opposed to California's crackdown on bogus vaccine exemptions. Idaho Statesman

In the 1950s, mom-and-pop motels along California's highways lured travelers with flashing neon signs, space-age architecture, and tiki-themed cocktail lounges. The heyday of the Golden State's motor lodges has long faded, but a number of holdouts live on. Curbed offers some road trip inspiration with tour of the state's 19 best midcentury motels. Curbed Los Angeles

Below: Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, Safari Inn in Burbank, and Humphreys Half Moon Inn in San Diego.

A government worker who spent two years teaching anti-bias classes for San Francisco's police force was discouraged by what he encountered. "The degree of anti-black sentiment throughout SFPD is extreme," he said in an email obtained through a public records request. S.F. Examiner

San Francisco police stop black people at rates more than five times their representation in the city's overall population. The Guardian

BART has lost nearly 10 million night and weekend passengers in four years, even as the region has been choked by some of the worst traffic in the nation. "On Saturdays and Sundays, BART feels deserted," the transit agency's president said. Riders have blamed crime, filth, and sparse service. S.F. Chronicle | SFGate.com

Juul tried to get its devices into the hands of Miley Cyrus and bought up ads on the websites of Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Seventeen magazine. That's according to a new lawsuit in Massachusetts that accuses the San Francisco e-cigarette company of explicitly targeted young people. "Juul knew it was selling to kids," the state's attorney general said. Buzzfeed News | Reuters

Juul employees have been criticizing the company and considering jumping ship. Buzzfeed News

California's Food and Agriculture Department has been ordering vegan companies to stop using words like "butter" and "cheese" in reference to nondairy products. A Petaluma company, Miyoko's Creamery, was also told to remove a picture from its website of a woman hugging a cow, above. The owner is suing. Press Democrat | S.F. Chronicle

Sacramento Bee editorial: "What public interest is threatened by the cuddling of large bovine creatures?"

KPCC/LAist spent a year investigating one of the biggest landlords in Southern California. Unknown to tenants or the public, Mike Nijjar lives in a Los Angeles mansion dubbed "Villa Bellefontaine" with a waterfall and vineyard. It's different for his tenants. Nijjar's properties have been allowed to fester with cockroaches, bedbugs, and mold. Typhus broke out at one trailer park, and a baby girl died in a fire at another that lacked smoke detectors. He appears to get away with it, in part, thanks to secretive business practices and political clout. KPCC/LAist

Jeff Bezos just bought the most expensive property in Los Angeles — a 13,600-square-foot mansion with a 9-hole golf course and a floor once owned by Napoleon — for $165 million. That amounts to about an eighth of a percent of Bezos' $132 billion net worth. If you make $60,000 a year, that's like spending $75 on a house. The Verge | The Real Deal

Paid signature gatherers have been tricking San Diegans into registering for a political party they'd never heard of. The Common Sense Party, started by two former California lawmakers, needs to collect tens of thousands of signatures to qualify as an official party. Yet dozens of new members contacted by a reporter thought they were signing a petition to lower rents. KPBS 

Hot griddle cakes, bacon jambalaya, beef pot pie anglaise, roast pork shoulder, raspberry buns, apricot pie.
— Selections from a weekly menu at Alcatraz, 1946

Contrary to the grim depictions of life at one of the country's most notorious prisons, the food was surprisingly appetizing at Alcatraz. So much so that the guards and prison staff ate the same meals as the inmates. 

Warden James Johnston, as it happened, believed a well-fed inmate was a well-behaved inmate. Not that the strategy was foolproof. The prison hung tear gas canisters from the ceiling in case things ever got out of hand. Hence, the dining hall's nickname: "The gas chamber." Bon Appetit | 7X7

Today's California Sun: Trump's most significant endorsement yet from Silicon Valley, investigating Southern California's "sophisticated slumlord," and a tour of the state's 19 best midcentury motels.

Tech titan's surprising Trump endorsement // 19 best midcentury motels

Camp Fire death toll is likely much higher than official count.

L.A. lawmakers denounce sanctioned cougar killings.

And fabulous street photography from 1970s Berkeley.

California's nonpartisan legislative analyst concluded that Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed $1 billion homelessness plan was likely to fail, calling it unclear and rife with implementation headaches. One major problem, according to the analysis: It shifts decision-making away from local governments to administrators selected by Sacramento. A.P. | Courthouse News

Newsom wants shelters built on unused state land, but some mayors aren't too enthused. "Just because the governor orders something doesn't mean anything's going to happen," Oceanside's mayor said. CalMatters

Here's an example of the perverseness of California's homelessness crisis. The only steady job a homeless Bay Area couple could find was delivering eviction notices to tenants, themselves on the brink of homelessness. "Believe me," said John Hebbring, "we see the irony." N.Y. Times

The only statewide measure on the March 3 ballot, Proposition 13, asks voters to approve the largest school bond in state history, at $15 billion. The money would be used to update facilities from kindergarten through public colleges. A key difference with this bond: In contrast to the first-come, first-served process used in the past, it prioritizes disadvantaged districts. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

The L.A. Times editorial board thinks it would be money well spent. The Mercury News disagrees. 

Cities up and down the coast have been paralyzed as rising seas threaten more than $150 billion in property by 2100 — far more economic damage than from the state's worst earthquakes and wildfires. "We are already 10 years late to this issue," a legislator said, "and there are options that are slipping away from us as we postpone a very difficult conversation." L.A. Times

Below, a king tide event at Imperial Beach last month offered a preview of things to come.

The official death toll of the 2018 Camp Fire is 85, making it the deadliest wildfire in state history. But an investigation by the Chico Enterprise-Record found that 15 months after the disaster at least 50 additional deaths have been linked to the fire. "These are the ones who have been forgotten," a victim's mother said. Enterprise-Record | A.P.

In an extraordinary confrontation, hundreds of Berkeley teenagers stormed the school district headquarters and demanded action to stamp out "rape culture" at Berkeley High. It was the second straight day that students had walked out of class to protest. "I believe you," the district superintendent told the students. Berkeleyside

Also protesting: Graduate student instructors at UC Santa Cruz. They've gone on strike over pay. Santa Cruz Sentinel | Salon

Nick DeWolf was a Boston inventor, tech pioneer, and prolific street photographer. On a trip to the Bay Area in 1971, he aimed his 35mm camera at the fashions and hairstyles of an era that hadn't fully abandoned the trappings of Summer of Love hippiedom. The images are fabulous. S.F. Chronicle | Vintage Everyday

Two Los Angeles City Council members introduced a resolution calling for an end to permitted killings of mountain lions after a property owner was allowed to kill a cougar that had attacked his livestock. Councilman Paul Koretz said there was an "insane disconnect" between conservation efforts and the killing of a predator that's just trying to survive in its natural habitat. L.A. Daily News

During the 1992 L.A. riots, dozens of Korean-owned liquor stores were burned to the ground. Nearly 30 years later, misgivings still run deep between Korean-owned businesses and the surrounding African American community in Leimert Park. "The people that are actually in the community don't have much better understanding or relationship than they did back in '92," a community leader said. "'Koreans, they're just here taking our money.' 'African Americans come in and they steal from us.'" L.A. Times

Some Disneyland ticket prices broke the $200-a-day mark after the Anaheim theme park raised the cost of one-day passes by between 3 and 5 percent. Since 2000, the price of admission at Disneyland has more than tripled. Even so, attendance has grown steadily. O.C. Register | L.A. Times

Get far enough from the city lights, and you can't help but be entranced by the cosmos. Wander among the tufa spires of the Mojave Desert and you could swear you were viewing it from the surface of Mars. It's perhaps no surprise that conspiracy buffs have suspected the moon landings were staged at the Trona Pinnacles, pictured above. Atlas Obscura | California Through My Lens

It was on this day in 2004 that Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, directed city clerks to issue the nation's first marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His stand was a lonely one. A mere four years earlier, Californians had voted by a resounding margin to restrict marriage to one man and one woman. Some in the 36-year-old mayor's inner circle warned that his political career could be destroyed.  

Sen. Dianne Feinstein opposed the move. "Too much, too fast, too soon," she said at the time. So did Rep. Barney Frank, the openly gay Democrat from Massachusetts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of riots in the streets. After George W. Bush was reelected as president later in 2004, some Democrats blamed Newsom for energizing social conservatives. 

In the years that followed, a flurry of states passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. California voters too reaffirmed their opposition in a 2008 ballot initiative. Yet over time, the tide began to shift. In 2012, President Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage. And in 2015, 11 years after Newsom took his rogue stance, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the issue, declaring same-sex marriage a right nationwide.

Historians may debate whether Newsom's action did more to hurt or help the cause, but one effect seems certain: the images of thousands of joyful couples expressing their commitment to each other at San Francisco's City Hall humanized the issue more powerfully than any political speechifying ever could. 

According to several polls, a majority of California residents have supported same-sex marriage since about 2011, with the margin growing each year. As for Feinstein, she had a change of heart as well. "History has proven that Gavin Newsom made the right decision, a very bold decision," she told the L.A. Times in 2018.

Today's California Sun: Camp Fire death toll is likely much higher than official count, L.A. lawmakers denounce sanctioned cougar killings, and fabulous street photography from 1970s Berkeley.

L.A. lawmakers denounce cougar killings // Street photos from 1970s Berkeley

San Francisco Chronicle faces threats over data request. 

A family pit bull attacks and kills a 5-year-old boy.

And otherworldly beauty in Kings Canyon National Park.

California was in the legal firing line on Monday:

Texas sued California over its ban against taxpayer-funded travel to  states with laws deemed unfriendly to LGBTQ people. Sacramento Bee | Politico

The Justice Department sued California over a state law banning for-profit immigrant detention centers. The federal government hasn't had much luck in its court tussles with California. Politico | N.Y. Times

A lot of workers hate California's new gig law, among them musicians, therapists, truckers, and freelance journalists. Now, after months of protests that jobs are evaporating, lawmakers are scrambling to fix it. "This is an effort to right a ship that's gone wrong," the author of AB5 said. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times

An anti-AB5 Facebook group has collected stories of hurt livelihoods from workers in more than 130 occupations. S.F. Chronicle

A federal judge rejected a request by Uber and Postmates to exempt them from AB5, saying its benefits outweighed the companies' concerns. CNBC | Bloomberg

Kings Canyon National Park was Ansel Adams's favorite park for a reason. One of the most popular trails within the park, if not the entire Sierra, hugs the shores of Rae Lakes, pictured above. "Mile for mile," one travel author wrote, the loop "contains some of the most stunning and celebrated scenery in a mountain range world-famous for stunning and celebrated scenery." NPS.gov | Backpacker magazine

Here's a fascinating animation of America's westward expansion during the 19th century. Created by Steven Bernard, a graphics wizard at the Financial Times, it tracks when land was first developed. Watch for the opening of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, a moment that transformed America into one nation. Steven Bernard/Reddit

The S.F. Chronicle made a routine request for information about concealed weapons permit holders in Sutter County. Now the newspaper has been forced to bolster security at its newsroom after the county sheriff raised an alarm about the request, setting off of a torrent of threats. The Chronicle's editor said the sheriff had "put our journalists in personal danger." Sacramento Bee

The makers of TurboTax, based in Mountain View, lured customers into paying for a service they're supposed to get for free by using deceptive design and search engine tricks. Now an audit has showed that at least 14 million Americans paid tax software companies unnecessarily last year. That amounts to roughly a billion dollars. ProPublica

The N.Y. Times wrote a charming profile of the 71-year-old retiree who stepped in to save California's oldest weekly newspaper. Downieville's Mountain Messenger, founded in 1852, was on the verge of dying like so many other small-town newspapers in the digital era. One night, Carl Butz was watching "Citizen Kane" and thought, I can do that. N.Y. Times

An evacuee from China has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus in San Diego. The person, the seventh to be infected in California, is being held at UC San Diego Health as investigators assess who the person may have had contact with. KPBS | S.D. Union-Tribune

A public health official said workers at March Air Reserve Base, where evacuees are being held, have faced harassment from the community. A.P. | Press-Enterprise

The code enforcers have finally descended on Joshua Tree, a desert getaway that has seen an explosion in unregulated short-term rentals. In January, enforcement officers started trawling through neighborhoods that have been ignoring building codes for decades. A real estate agent said there's worry that property owners will cash out en masse. L.A. Times

A family pit bull in a remote town in San Bernardino County killed a 5-year-old boy. An adult relative was home when the attack unfolded but was unable to stop it. "He was a loving dog," a cousin said. "He was not a vicious dog. But how it snapped, we don't understand." CBSLA | Victor Valley News

Last week, a white Lexus fatally struck a woman on a motorcycle then fled — and her husband made it his mission to find the driver. Two days later, he checked an apartment complex near the site of the accident on a hunch and found a damaged white Lexus. An 85-year-old man was arrested. ABC News | KNBC

In the middle of the last century, mental hospitals were widely viewed as places of straitjackets and lobotomies where individuals were robbed of their humanity, as dramatized in Ken Kesey’s 1962 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Distrust was rampant. 

A national movement to shift responsibility for psychiatric patients to local communities was wholly embraced in California, which essentially emptied its mental hospitals starting in the 1950s. 

It was during this purge that a Stanford social psychologist, David Rosenhan, conducted an experiment that shook psychiatry to its core. He had eight individuals, including himself, get admitted to mental hospitals by briefly feigning auditory hallucinations. Once inside, the "pseudopatients" behaved normally, yet found it impossible to convince doctors they were well. They were given powerful drugs and kept for an average of 19 days, the study said. All but one was labeled schizophrenic.

"We now know," Rosenhan concluded, "that we cannot distinguish insanity from sanity." His 1973 paper, "On Being Sane in Insane Places," buttressed the anti-psychiatry movement and hastened the dismantling of California's mental hospitals, which, flawed as they were, lacked any adequate alternative.

Except, according to the new book "The Great Pretender," Rosenhan was quite likely a fabulist. The author, Susannah Cahalan, reveals how Rosenhan had in reality presented far more troubling symptoms to doctors than he let on in his study. He said, for example, that he was suicidal and put "copper pots" over his ears to ward off unwanted voices. Cahalan, an investigative reporter who spent five years researching the book, found no trace of most of the pseudopatients. One of the two she did locate reported having an enriching stay at a hospital, but was inexplicably left out of the results.

Nearly half a century after Rosenhan published his paper, California's missteps in caring for the mentally ill are heart-wrenchingly evident in homeless encampments across the state. One analysis found that more than half of those living on the streets of Los Angeles suffer from mental illness.

Rosenhan argued that psychiatric hospitals were little more than "storehouses for people in society who you really don't want." The subsequent criminalization of mental illness has effectively meant that jails have become a new version of storehouse. According to one estimate, 1 in 5 California inmates are on psychotropic medications. "Today, it's worse," Cahalan writes. "We don't even pretend the places we're putting sick people aren't hellholes."

Thank you for your patience with recent absences. I've had stuff to deal with (nothing bad). I've started a page here with my known days off over the next six months or so.

Today's California Sun: San Francisco Chronicle faces threats over data request, a family pit bull attacks and kills a 5-year-old boy, and otherworldly beauty in Kings Canyon National Park.

S.F. Chronicle faces threats // Ansel Adams's favorite park

National candidates' newfound interest in Fresno.

Twitter demands legal fees from Devin Nunes' lawyer.

Scheduling note: The Sun will pause on Monday. Back in your inbox Tuesday.

After a monthslong reporting effort, the L.A. Times revealed that fossil fuel companies have saddled California with about 35,000 deserted wells. Each one will cost between $40,000 and $152,000 to cap and dismantle. For each one, the state's largest drillers have set aside an average of $230. That threatens the health of more than 350,000 Californians. L.A. Times

The top EPA official in California suggested he was fired from office on Wednesday because of his congenial relationship with Democratic politicians. "Last time I checked," Mike Stoker said in a statement, "the EPA's mission to protect the public health and environment is not a partisan issue." Noozhawk | S.F. Chronicle

California's ban on chlorpyrifos shrank the market for the controversial pesticide. Now its biggest manufacturer is halting production. Washington Post | L.A. Times

With California voting on Super Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidates are visiting places they used to ignore, like the Inland Empire and Central Valley. For comparison: The political world has been poring over the results from about 170,000 voters in Iowa. Fresno County alone had about 136,000 voters in the 2018 June primary. "California matters now," the N.Y. Times wrote. 

Don't get too used to the attention. Below is a map showing how many stops presidential candidates made to each state after the conventions in 2016. 

An endangered gray wolf that wandered thousands of miles in Northern California in search of a mate has died. The carcass of OR-54, a female about four years of age, was found in Shasta County on Wednesday. It wasn't clear whether she was killed, but another gray wolf was found shot to death in Northern California in 2018. "OR-54 was a beacon of hope who showed that wolves can return and flourish here," a wolf advocate said. "Her death is devastating." Record Searchlight | A.P.

Twitter is demanding legal fees from a lawyer for Rep. Devin Nunes after the Tulare Republican sued to unmask people on the social network who heckle him. Twitter, which is refusing to comply, said a subpoena attempt by the lawyer suffered from "a litany of substantive defects." Fresno Bee | Techdirt

At a White House celebration, President Trump hailed Nunes as a Republican hero of the impeachment hearings. "He's the most legitimate human being," Trump said. Politico | Fresno Bee

After four years and dozens of community meetings, a project to add 76 affordable housing units just south of San Francisco has stalled. One of the most powerful opponents? The local Sierra Club. Some housing advocates have found that surprising, but the environmental group founded by John Muir has faced accusations of NIMBYism for years. It opposed a project in San Francisco a few years ago by citing the scourge of new shadows. Curbed San Francisco

It's fairly common for cities to trade accusations that the other is dumping homeless people in their community. Less common is a local official openly proposing the tactic. Yet that's exactly what Tracy's mayor did at a recent City Council meeting, suggesting homeless people could be bused 17 miles to Stockton. "I mean, it just makes sense," he said. Stockton's mayor called the remarks "pathetic." SFist | CBS13

SeaWorld said its trainers would no longer ride on the backs of dolphins during shows at the marine park. The move comes a year after PETA began pressuring the company to end "circus-style" behaviors. SeaWorld has faced intense scrutiny since the release of the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which raised serious questions about the care of its animals. S.D. Union-Tribune

A memorial for Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven others killed in a helicopter crash is set for Feb. 24 at Staples Center, the arena where the Lakers star played for most of his 20 seasons. The date — 2/24 — corresponds with his jersey number, 24, and that of his daughter, 13-year-old Gianna, who wore No. 2. A.P. | L.A. Times

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times and NPR film critic, about Hollywood on the eve of the Oscars. The industry is about to be eaten by Netflix, Turan said. "The studios have more or less abandoned the adult audience. And that's one of the things that gave the streaming services an opening." California Sun Podcast

Who will win, and who should win. Here are The Hollywood Reporter's predictions for Sunday.

East Coast — ivy-covered brick, formal spaces, brownstone stoops. West Coast — walls of windows, pergolas, outdoor rooms. California not only thinks different than other places, it looks different. 

While the state's design aesthetic is no one thing — formed as it is by a diverse collection of actors — certain themes appear. Simon Sadler, a professor of design at U.C. Davis, has described a "culture of connection" expressed in works like the Golden Gate Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway, and the open style of typical California homes. 

If some architectural traditions treat structures as objects, California design, Sadler argues, is preoccupied with creating relationships. It's active. It aims less to draw attention to itself than to attune to a living whole. We don't do monuments, Sadler says. "We do nodes."

Or as the California architect William Wurster memorably put it: "Architecture is for life and pleasure and work and for people. The picture frame, not the picture."

It's a sensibility that has increasingly spilled across state lines with the ascendance of the California brand, notably in technology. Look around the world, the late historian Kevin Starr once told me. "Places like New Zealand, Australia, Argentina — they are all beginning to increasingly look like California."

Below, structures in Sea Ranch, Palo Alto, and Los Angeles.

Should the 49ers reconsider their name? "Through the indiscriminate use of terrorism and murder, California's 49ers carried out one of the most successful ... campaigns of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen." The Atlantic

On this week in 2001 San Francisco awoke to find a red Volkswagen Beetle dangling by a cable from the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Maclean's magazine

Is the California exodus real? According to Census data, the state ranks in the bottom three for proportional departure rates. CityLab

Amtrak's California Zephyr leaves from the Bay Area, cuts across the checkerboard Central Valley, winds through lush Sierra forests, then pauses in the old railway town of Truckee. Trains & Travel

In a stunning reversal, prosecutors dropped all charges against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend who were accused of being prolific sexual predators. Daily Pilot

Today's California Sun: National candidates' newfound interest in Fresno, Twitter demands legal fees from Devin Nunes' lawyer, and a rare gray wolf is found dead in Shasta County.

Why California matters now // Rare gray wolf found dead

Tesla sends worker shuttles to the Central Valley. 

Investigation heats up in Kristin Smart disappearance.

And a foodie haven blooms in a tiny desert hideaway.

"He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech."

In a closed-door meeting with Democrats on Wednesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who ordinarily prides herself on proper decorum, said she felt "liberated" after ripping a printed copy of President Trump's State of the Union speech. Democrats at the private session stood and clapped. Congressional Republicans, feeling celebratory after Trump's impeachment acquittal, accused Pelosi of throwing a tantrum. Rep. Kevin McCathy, of Bakersfield, posted a video with his own symbolic gesture: He tore up the articles of impeachment. N.Y. Times | Politico

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an initiative to pardon Californians who were prosecuted for being gay. First up: Bayard Rustin, a confidant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a key organizer of the March on Washington who was arrested in 1953 after being found having consensual sex with two other men in a parked car in Pasadena. Rustin, who died in 1987, spent 50 days in jail and had to register as a sex offender. S.F. Chronicle | The Guardian

About 350 Americans fleeing the Chinese epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak arrived in California, where they will be quarantined for 14 days at military bases in the Bay Area and San Diego County. Four individuals at the Southern California base were hospitalized after showing symptoms of infection. KPBS | S.D. Union-Tribune

Tecopa is one of those places whose existence seems puzzling. Yet there it is, a speck of a town defying the elements a million miles from anywhere near the edge of Death Valley. Stranger still: Tecopa has emerged as a secret foodie haven, with two microbreweries and first-rate dining. Transient chefs have made a practice of rotating through town. L.A. Times

Tecopa also harbors unusual beauty. Below, a few pictures.

"Welcome to life on Silicon Valley's new frontier."

Tesla, based in the unaffordable Bay Area, is deploying private shuttles to pick up its factory workers from the Central Valley. They board at 2:30 a.m. and arrive for the start of their shift in Fremont at 4 a.m. Google and Facebook are pursuing another strategy: building thousands of housing units on their own campuses. Protocol

More than a year after the death of Nia Wilson, jurors were shown video of John Lee Cowell fatally stabbing the young woman on a BART platform in Oakland. The killing ignited protests and a public conversation over whether racial prejudice played a role. Cowell's lawyer, while acknowledging his guilt, said another factor was at work: schizophrenia. "John Cowell acted because of his delusional misinterpretation of the world," she said. "Not because he is evil." East Bay Times | A.P.

Here's a San Francisco garter snake, often called the most beautiful snake in America. They thrive in densely vegetated ponds, so San Francisco's paved-over environs no longer host the namesake serpent. Endangered, they survive only in those Peninsula wetlands that haven't yet been filled in by development. They're so rare locally, in fact, the San Francisco Zoo had to import them from the Netherlands.

Also in California: The largest flying bird in North America, one of the world's smallest — and cutest — foxes, and the leggiest creature known to humankind.

Kirk Douglas died at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 103. One of the last surviving movie stars from Hollywood's golden age, Douglas possessed a clenched-jawed intensity that made him a commanding presence in films like "Lust for Life," "Spartacus" and "Champion." But his most enduring achievement, he said, was in hiring a known Communist as a screenwriter during the McCarthy era, putting his true name in the credits rather than a pseudonym. The move helped hasten the end to the Hollywood blacklist. N.Y. Times | Variety

San Diego is paying nearly $1.5 million to two men who spent several months in jail under a law that allows gang members to be prosecuted for crimes committed by other members of the gang. Critics say it amounts to guilt by association. Brandon Duncan and Aaron Harvey were jailed for shootings they weren't involved in. They say they weren't even in the gang. S.D. Union-Tribune

Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student, disappeared on her way home from an off-campus party in 1996. Nearly 24 years later, investigators served a flurry of search warrants in San Luis Obispo County, Washington state, and San Pedro, where a man who was questioned at the time of Smart's disappearance now lives. Details were scarce, but sources told the L.A. Times that detectives were seeking physical evidence, including DNA. L.A. Times | The Tribune

San Bernardino is investigating its mayor after two city employees quit, accusing him of sexual harassment. The women said Mayor John Valdivia made repeated sexual comments, suggested one of the women perform a sexual act on a colleague, and once sent a photo of a man having a golf ball teed off of his penis. Valdivia called the accusations false and "politically driven." San Bernardino Sun

The Queen Mary was once the world's largest ocean liner, sailing more than 3 million nautical miles and carrying more than 2 million paying passengers on adventures across the sea. In 1967, she was recast as a symbol of waterfront rejuvenation when Long Beach paid $3.4 million to use her as part museum, part hotel. For generations, the graceful old ship has been one of Long Beach's biggest tourists draws, but after years of neglect, its future is now murky. Revenues have been in decline, a facilities director quit out of frustration over safety lapses, and an inspector wrote this last summer: "The ship has never been in a worse condition than it is now." (He was fired.) Press-Telegram | Long Beach Post

Today's California Sun: Tesla sends worker shuttles to the Central Valley, investigation heats up in Kristin Smart disappearance, and a foodie haven blooms in a tiny desert hideaway.

Brutal commute for Tesla workers // Foodie haven in the middle of nowhere

Stunning reversal in Newport Beach serial rape case.

Outpouring of kindness at new Sonoma homeless shelter. 

And the time a car dangled from the Golden Gate Bridge.

President Trump, picking up a favorite theme, assailed California's sanctuary law during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He cited the case of twice-deported man who went on a violent rampage in Tulare County in 2018, leaving a man dead. The suspect, Gustavo Garcia, had been released from jail days earlier, an outcome the county sheriff blamed on sanctuary policies. Among Trump's guests at the Capitol was the dead man's brother. Sacramento Bee | A.P.

Trump's speech didn't go over well with California's Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Jackie Speier walked out. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up a printed copy of the address in full view of the television audience. S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times

Rent control will be on the ballot again in November. In 2018, voters soundly rejected a proposition that would let cities set new limits on rents. Two years later — and two years deeper into the state's housing crisis — tenant advocates are hoping that attitudes have shifted. "This will be a much different electorate," a proponent of the new measure said. "It's going to be younger, it's going to be more people of color and more liberal." S.F. Business Times | Curbed Los Angeles

If California wants to reach net-zero emissions by 2045, the strategy will have to involve not just cutting emissions but capturing and storing them at a cost of up to $14 billion a year. That's the conclusion of a study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. One proposal: giant vacuums that suck carbon dioxide from the sky. Ars Technica | Bloomberg 

In 2019, sea level rise accelerated at seven of eight monitoring stations along the West Coast. USA Today

Since the 1960s, California's feral pig population has exploded from roughly 100 to more than 300,000. They aren't welcome. The snouty, 200-pound animals have ravenous appetites and compete with native wildlife for food. They tear up lawns, rip through farms, and sometimes kill pets. The state lets you hunt them any time you like. Bay Nature | SFGATE

Here's a surprisingly gripping account of how Dorothea Lange captured her most iconic image, above, in 1936. Lange had been hired by the government during the Great Depression with a singular purpose: to create images of poor rural workers that could be used to elicit public support for aid programs. 

After a long day of shooting, she happened upon a camp of field workers in Nipomo and stopped for a look. There, she encountered Florence Thompson, whose worry-etched face would become synonymous of American poverty. But, as Evan Puschak of the popular "Nerdwriter" web series explains, the image was carefully choreographed. "It's supposed to communicate a candid truth about the moment, Puschak said. "But this is anything but candid." YouTube (~7 mins) | Popular Photography

The Transamerica Pyramid, the definitive feature of San Francisco's skyline, has sold for the first time in its history to a New York developer. The price: about $700 million. The tower debuted to a mixed reception in 1972. Among its detractors were Herb Caen and an architecture critic who called the tower "the biggest architectural dunce cap in the world." Bloomberg | Curbed San Francisco

In a case that has riveted California's Gold Country, a man was found guilty of murdering his wife 29 years ago by trapping her in a bathroom and lighting their Murphys home on fire. Karl Karlsen, 60, collected $200,000 from an insurance policy after her death. Years later, he was convicted of killing his 23-year-old son for another insurance payout. Union Democrat | N.Y. Times

When about 60 homeless people were relocated to a newly built shelter near Santa Rosa, there was concern about tensions with an adjacent retirement community. The problem has been the opposite. A church had to ask people to stop bringing donations: The prefabricated units housing their new neighbors couldn't fit any more gifts. Press Democrat

In a simpler time, on this day in 2001, San Francisco awoke to discover a red Volkswagen Beetle dangling by a cable from the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge. Commuters and bridge officials were confounded by the same question: How? The prank, it turned out, was orchestrated by Canadian engineering students. First, a cable was attached to girders beneath the bridge. Then, under cover of night, a dozen figures emerged from a moving truck, clipped the car shell to the cable, and flung it from the bridge — all in a matter of minutes. The result was a huge traffic jam, halted ship traffic under the bridge, and infuriated city officials. For connoisseurs of a well-executed prank, it was legendary. Maclean's magazine | Popular Science

In November, the secretary of the Navy was fired over his handling of Navy SEAL Chief Edward Gallagher's war crimes case. Now the commander of the Navy Seals is stepping down. Rear Adm. Collin Green had made it a priority to restore what he called "good order and discipline" to the SEAL teams and he moved to expel Gallagher. That put him at odds with one of Gallagher's biggest supporters: President Trump. The Intercept

The accusations against a Newport Beach surgeon and his girlfriend were horrifying: that they were prolific predators who had drugged and sexually assaulted possibly hundreds of women. Two years later, all charges against Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley are being dropped. Orange County's new district attorney now says no evidence has been found to support the accusations made by his predecessor, whom he accused of ginning up the case as part of a reelection bid. Daily Pilot | NBC News

Fun fact: The San Diego Zoo has the largest colony of koalas outside of Australia, with 20 living at the zoo and more than 30 on loan to other zoos. The first pair, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, arrived in 1925 and became immediate celebrities. The population grew thanks to one of the world's most successful breeding programs. The zoo has been helping out with the koala recovery effort in Australia, where rampaging brushfires have threatened the animals. San Diego Zoo | S.D. Union-Tribune 

You can watch the San Diego koalas 24/7 on the Koala Cam.

Today's California Sun: Stunning reversal in Newport Beach serial rape case, outpouring of kindness at new Sonoma homeless shelter, and the time a car dangled from the Golden Gate Bridge.

Stunning reversal in serial rape case // A legendary Golden Gate Bridge prank 

A proposal to halt physical fitness tests at school.

Michael Bloomberg goes all in on California. 

And why some men worry soy will give them breasts. 

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared PG&E "no longer exists," doubling down on a state takeover of the beleaguered utility. This week, State Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a bill to make it happen, a potentially dramatic shift designed to put safety ahead of shareholder profits at California's largest utility. "It will put an end to the dangerous roller coaster ride that we have been on with PG&E for the last decade," he said. Sacramento Bee | A.P.

Newsom has proposed doing away with fitness tests given to all fifth, seventh, and ninth graders in California. Required by state law, the tests measure everything from aerobic capacity to flexibility and upper body strength. Critics say the physical assessments lead to bullying and shaming, especially for students who are disabled or transgender. Politico

As the rest of the field descended on Iowa for the nation's first Democratic primary contest, Michael Bloomberg was at a Sacramento coffee shop. The former New York mayor has already poured $35 million of his personal wealth into ads in California, more than all of his opponents combined. By the end of next week, he plans to have 800 staffers posted across the state. L.A. Times | The Hill

California's primary is March 3. Here's everything you need to know. CalMatters

A University of California faculty task force recommended keeping the SAT and ACT tests as part of the admissions process, citing data that they may actually help boost enrollment of disadvantaged students. The recommendation was a setback for groups pushing U.C. leaders to drop the tests on the grounds that they fail to adequately predict success. A final decision was expected in May. EdSource | L.A. Times

"Arriving at SFO is like stepping into a contagion movie."

The Bay Area has the highest concentration of coronavirus cases in the U.S. Stringent travel restrictions at San Francisco International Airport are causing waits as long as five hours in customs lines, which are filled with people wearing masks. SFist | Mercury News

The North Coast has some of the most powerful offshore winds in America, and efforts to harness it are now well into the planning stages. But there's a problem. The region is so thinly populated, the demand is too small to consume all that energy. One idea: a subsea cable extending all the way to San Francisco. Greentech Media | Lost Coast Outpost

Impossible Foods, the Redwood City-based darling of alt-meat, is striking fear into men across the land: That its burgers will turn them into women. In December, a cattle veterinarian from South Dakota published the claim that Burger King's Impossible Whopper, which uses patties from Impossible Foods, contains 18 million times as much estrogen as a regular whopper. Eat too many, he wrote, and you could "grow boobs." (Spoiler: That's not true.) Washington Post | The Atlantic

Burning Man tickets will start going on sale soon for a whopping $475 a pop. It wasn't always so. In 1987, Richard Misrach, the acclaimed photographer of the American desert, stumbled upon a scene out of Alice's wonderland in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. His images, long stashed away, captured the quaint early days of the hedonistic art party founded in San Francisco. California Sunday Magazine

Now at the Oakland Museum of California: "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man." 

A man opened fire on a Greyhound bus traveling on Interstate 5 through Kern County, killing a 51-year-old woman and wounding five others. A suspect was arrested. The authorities said a motive was unclear but did not appear to be terror-related. Witnesses said the gunman had been muttering incoherently and began shouting suddenly before shots rang out. Bakersfield Californian | A.P.

A Los Angeles program was set up to ensure that communities of color battered by the war on drugs would benefit from the legalization of marijuana. It hasn't been working so great. Of nearly 200 cannabis dispensaries in the city, just six are black-owned. "This was supposed to be our reparations," said a woman charged with a marijuana offense in 1983. The Guardian

A new sport invented by military special forces members in San Diego has exploded in popularity. Played almost entirely underwater in a swimming pool, opposing teams try to score goals with a torpedo-shaped toy. Among its growing tribe of players are NFL players, pro surfers, UFC champions, and Olympic swimmers. Here's an introduction to the wild world of the Underwater Torpedo League. Outside magazine

"He was a hero — the Jackie Robinson of black politics."

William Byron Rumford, the first black person elected to the state Legislature from Northern California, was born on this week in 1908. A pharmacist by training, Rumford became a pivotal figure in the fight to extend California's prosperity to people of all races. Housing inequity had been cemented over decades through racial covenants and loan practices that channeled credit to white households at the expense of nonwhites. Rumford's landmark fair housing act in 1963 made it illegal to refuse to sell or rent real estate to anyone on the basis of race, creed, or national origin.

It was ferociously contested. Opponents warned of a descent into socialism. On the campaign trail for governor, Ronald Reagan vowed to wipe the legislation off the books, declaring that true freedom includes the freedom to discriminate against blacks. 

A white backlash led to the passage of Proposition 14, which nullified the Rumford Act and played a part in stoking the Watts riots in 1965. The effect was to enshrine housing discrimination in the state Constitution — but it didn't last. The California Supreme Court overturned Proposition 14 in 1966. Two years later, the federal government followed suit with the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

A soft-spoken and unassuming man, Rumford was said to have won over his colleagues through patient dialogue. He boxed for a number of years as a young man, experience that he said served him in politics. "I don't give up easily," he once said. "I hope I never run over people … but I don't like people pushing me around when I'm right."

The N.Y. Times wrote an obituary for Rumford last year as part of its "Overlooked No More" project.

Today's California Sun: A proposal to halt physical fitness tests at school, Michael Bloomberg goes all in on California, and why some men worry soy will give them breasts.

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