Giants name the first female coach in major leagues.

Google parent Alphabet hits $1 trillion market value.

Scheduling note: The newsletter will pause on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Back in your inbox Tuesday.

In Oakland on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled 15 unused FEMA trailers to provide shelter to the homeless. "We own this issue," he declared. The state plans to provide 100 of the trailers to communities across California, a number that would fail to house even 1 percent of the total population in need. "Does it solve the problem? No," said a Democratic strategist. "Is it a start? Yes." East Bay Times | L.A. Times

A federal judge blocked California's new gig law from applying to more than 70,000 independent truckers, ruling it was preempted by federal rules on interstate commerce. The law, AB5, was aimed at tech companies like Uber, but workers in several other industries say they've become  victims of unintended consequences. "We have not heard the end of AB5 in any way, shape or form," a labor lawyer said. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "The Facebook business model is strictly to make money. They don't care about the impact on children, they don't care about truth. ... I think that what they have said very blatantly, very clearly, that they intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people with money from God knows where. ... I think their behavior is shameful." Politico | The Hill

Google parent Alphabet became the fourth American company to ever achieve a $1 trillion market value on Thursday. The others: Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. CNBC | N.Y. Times

California has towns named Squabbletown, Cool, and Zzyzx. Then there's Weed. The tiny community in Siskiyou County, named after the lumber baron Abner Weed, has embraced its unintentional connection with drug culture. Shops and restaurants peddle every manner of Weed-themed product — "I Love Weed" T-shirts, "Weed Police" beanies, Mountain High IPA. Savvy visitors come for a much better reason: Its picturesque perch between Mount Shasta and the Klamath Mountains. California Through My Lens

The San Francisco Giants named Alyssa Nakken to its coaching staff, making her the first woman to join a major league staff in baseball history. Nakken, 29, a former softball standout at Sacramento State, will assist with batting and fielding practice, among other duties. "I'm still getting goosebumps," said one of Nakken's former coaches. "I always knew she'd do something great, I really did." S.F. Chronicle | ESPN

Santa Clara County is considering giving a universal basic income of $1,000 a month to young people aging out of foster care. County officials say it would be the first program of its kind in the nation. "We have nowhere to go but up," a county supervisor said. "Because this population is with us now and they're not doing well." Mercury News

"People don't live in building permits — they live in homes." 

In 2010 and 2011, San Francisco approved three major developments that would deliver 25,700 housing units to a city that desperately needs them. Nearly a decade later, just 350 homes have been completed, or 1 percent of the total. The delay underscores a crucial problem with the Bay Area's approach to housing: too much of the future housing stock is tied up in megaprojects that are next to impossible to get done. S.F. Chronicle

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Thomas Wolf, whose stable life in Daly City — wife, kids, job — spiraled out of control when he was prescribed Oxycodone after a surgery. Before long he was using heroin daily and sleeping on cardboard in the Tenderloin. He's now in recovery and urging the city to rethink its focus on harm reduction, or making it safer to use drugs.

"For me, as a homeless heroin addict, that type of philosophy would not have helped me get clean," he said. "If I had practiced that model I would still be using drugs right now." California Sun Podcast

Lee Baca, a former Los Angeles County sheriff, was ordered to report to prison within three weeks to begin serving a three-year sentence. Baca, now 77 and diagnosed with Alzheimer's, was convicted of obstructing an FBI investigation into his department's troubled jails in 2017. The message is clear, said the prosecutor who took down Baca: "No man is above the law." LAist | L.A. Daily News

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law designed to pry open beach access at Hollister Ranch, an 8-mile stretch of coast near Santa Barbara that wealthy landowners have fought to keep for themselves. Now the landlords are suing, calling the law unconstitutional. "If California uses these overreaching means at Hollister Ranch in pursuit of its access goals, no one's property is safe," a lawyer for the ranch said. Bloomberg | L.A. Times

The Southern California coast was once lined with quaint beach cottages. In time, an influx of money and architectural advances swept away many of the old homes.  Yet some pockets of the coast have managed to retain that old character. Life there, said the owner of gingerbread-style home in Hermosa Beach, is like "Mayberry by the sea." Curbed Los Angeles

Some of California's most affordable and beautiful beach cottage rentals are at Crystal Cove State Park. They are also some of the hardest to reserve. KCET | Parks.ca.gov

Five items that got big views over the past week:

It was an unknown photographer from New York, as much as anyone, who saved Yosemite from commercial exploitation. California Sun

A widely shared video showed beachgoers being swept off their feet by a "sneaker wave" in Humboldt County. They were fine. Lost Coast Outpost

Parker Lake, tucked in a glacially carved valley in the Eastern Sierra, is among the prettiest, yet most overlooked, places in the Ansel Adams Wilderness.  Modern Hiker

California wants to create one of the largest new state parks in decades. Signs point to a mostly pristine wilderness in the Bay Area covering 80 square miles. L.A. Times

AccidentalWesAnderson showcases buildings that look like they belong in the kitschy aesthetic of a Wes Anderson film. California, it turns out, abounds in fitting locations. Reddit

Today's California Sun: Giants name the first female coach in major leagues, Google parent Alphabet hits $1 trillion market value, and the surviving beach shacks of Southern California.

First female coach in MLB history // Vintage beach shacks of Southern California

Scientists crack the case of a massive seabird die-off.

Traveling bankers complain about San Francisco poverty.

And the town that boron built in the Mojave Desert.

In 2015 and 2016, emaciated seabirds washed up on Pacific beaches from Alaska to California in what researchers believe was the largest seabird die-off recorded in the world's oceans. As many as 1 million common murres died. Researchers now think they've identified the culprit: a colossal mass of warm ocean water, dubbed the "blob," whose effects reverberated throughout the food web. Mother Jones | A.P.

In the last 10 years, California's tax credits to Hollywood have more than tripled, from $100 million to $330 million a year. Defenders of the giveaway say it pays for itself by keeping productions in California. But analysts say there's simply no proof of that. "Time after time," one public policy expert said, "studies show that tax incentives for the entertainment industry do not pay off." CalMatters

California is considering raising taxes on companies with highly paid executives. The bigger the pay gap between top executives and workers, the bigger the tax increase would be. Abigail Disney, granddaughter of Roy Disney, testified in favor of the bill. "At the happiest place on earth, they are paid so poorly that they rely on food banks, sleep in cars, or live so close to the bone that even a small problem could send them into a death spiral," she said. A.P. | CNN

California has restarted its biggest water project in decades, an underground tunnel that would pump billions of gallons of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to cities and farms to the south. The project aims to avoid the controversy and funding shortfalls that doomed former Gov. Jerry Brown's vision of a pair of tunnels. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

Thousands of bankers are in San Francisco for the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. They're staying in $2,000-a-night hotels, attending lavish parties — and complaining vigorously about the homeless. "San Francisco," one attendee said, "is the Bill Clinton of cities." The idea of wealthy business travelers complaining about street poverty drew ridicule on Twitter. "Real crisis: Homelessness," wrote the Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub. "Not a crisis: Wealthy people not wanting to come to conventions because of the homelessness." Bloomberg

A 68-year-old woman who was missing for six days was found in her vehicle, which was buried in snow northeast of Chico. She was alive. Paula Beth James, who suffers from dementia, was last seen at her home in Oroville on Jan. 9. A helicopter was lucky to spot her Toyota 4Runner, a rescue official said. "It really is a needle in a haystack." KCRA | KHSL

The Sacramento region is home to about 75,000 Muslims, including many Iraqis and Afghans who fled wars. Nawres Hamid, a naturalized citizen who grew up in Iraq, was one of them. It was his death in a rocket attack in Iraq, where he was working as a translator for the American military, that touched off a chain of events that brought Iran and the U.S. close to war. N.Y. Times

Mountain lions are solitary animals. So it was a rare treat when a home surveillance system captured video of five of the big cats roaming at the edge of the El Dorado National Forest. "We shared the videos and photos with several of our wildlife biologists and none of them could recall ever seeing five mountain lions together in the same photo or video," a wildlife official said. KTXL | A.P.

State officials were in Bakersfield on Tuesday for a public meeting about how they plan to reach ambitious climate goals without ruining the economy of California's oil capital. Roughly 1,100 people, some wearing "Make Oil Great Again" hats, gathered at the Kern County Administrative Center in what was said to be a record crowd. "We need to send them the message that 'Hey, we're here. And we're not going anywhere,'" one oil worker said. Bakersfield Californian

Newly disclosed emails revealed that U.S.C. was courting Lori Loughlin and her husband for donations, even as the couple was conspiring, prosecutors say, to bribe their daughter's way into the school. Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have floated the idea that they believed their $500,000 payment to a college consultant would go toward legitimate donations to U.S.C. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times

Passenger planes generally need to be lighter on landing than on takeoff. Burning fuel serves that purpose, but sometimes planes are forced to dump fuel. Experts have been baffled, however, as to why a Delta jet pilot felt compelled to do so over a heavily populated area of Los Angeles County on Tuesday. "It's a pretty outrageous thing," a retired United Airlines pilot said. "They should have gone over the ocean or landed heavyweight." A.P. | L.A. Times

Pictured below are scenes from a tiny town on the western edge of the Mojave Desert that owes its existence to a single chemical element. In 1925, prospectors in the scorching hinterlands found one of the planet's richest deposits of boron, used in detergents and other products. Soon after, people flocked to the town, which they duly renamed Boron. Generations of families have since worked for the Rio Tinto Boron Mine, the largest open-pit mine in California, supplying nearly half of the world's borates.

The Borax Visitor Center, opened in Boron in 1997, claims to be one of the best-kept secrets of the Southern California desert, with everything you ever wanted to know about boron. It's weirdly engrossing, wrote Atlas Obscura. "The enthusiasm for their product is infectious." Atlas Obscura

Today's California Sun: Scientists crack the case of a massive seabird die-off, traveling bankers complain about San Francisco poverty, and the town that boron built in the Mojave Desert.

Largest seabird die-off recorded // Traveling bankers bemoan S.F. poverty

Governor Newsom pushes a plan to reduce traffic fines.

Graduates take a pass on major tech firm jobs.

And a look back at Yosemite's unheralded savior.

Among U.S. states, California ranks 49th in housing units per capita, behind only Utah. In policy terms, the central culprit is zoning regulations. That's what makes Senate Bill 50, which would force communities to allow more housing construction, the most economically transformative legislation of the Trump era, writes Annie Lowrey. "It would stop neighborhoods from casting themselves in amber, preventing new building and forcing younger, poorer families to urban peripheries." The Atlantic

California has been gradually extending Medi-Cal benefits to people in the country illegally, accepting children and, as of Jan. 1, young adults into the program. Next up: roughly 27,000 low-income seniors would be eligible for medical coverage under a funding proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Hill | Fresno Bee

Turning right on a red without stopping will get you a $500 ticket. Peeling paint on your license plate could cost you $1,000. Oppressive traffic fines in California have actually reduced revenues to the state because many drivers simply can't pay them. Now Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing that fines for low-income motorists be reduced by as much as half. Sacramento Bee | KSBY

When hikers in the Eastern Sierra reach Parker Lake, pictured above, conversations often stop in mid-sentence. Then: gasps. The shimmering lake, tucked in a glacially carved valley and backed by 12,000-foot peaks, is among the prettiest, yet most overlooked, places in the Ansel Adams Wilderness. "There is a handful of trails I have hiked over the years that have taken my breath away — causing me to just sit in awe at what's before me," a travel author wrote. "Parker Lake is one of those trails." Modern Hiker

In a predawn raid, sheriff's deputies, in military-style fatigues with guns drawn, removed homeless mothers from an Oakland home they had illegally occupied to protest the region's housing crisis. Four people were jailed and released hours later. Greeted by cheering supporters, they said they were more fired up than ever. Oakland's mayor called the women "courageous." S.F. Chronicle | East Bay Times

A decade ago, Facebook, Google, and other major tech firms were seen as a college graduate's dream workplaces. Now many job seekers are taking a pass on Silicon Valley's most lucrative positions, saying they aren't worth the ethical quandaries. "If a classmate tells me they're joining Palantir or Facebook," a Stanford graduate said, "there's an awkward gap where they feel like they have to justify themselves." N.Y. Times

This is scary: A widely shared video showed beachgoers being swept off their feet by a "sneaker wave" during the weekend's King Tide in Humboldt County. They were fine. Lost Coast Outpost | North Coast Journal

A sneaker wave up the coast in Oregon resulted in tragedy. Oregonian

An airplane dumped thousands of gallons of jet fuel over a densely populated area of Los Angeles County, inflicting minor injuries to 60 adults and children, officials said. Delta Flight 89 had taken off from LAX when it ran into engine trouble and turned around. Kids were in physical education class at a school in Cudahy when the jetliner dropped the fuel over a five-mile area. "We thought it was rain," an 11-year-old said. L.A. Times | Daily Breeze

The Los Angeles Police Department is expanding a criminal investigation into allegations that officers falsified information collected during traffic stops to categorize people as gang members. Activists have complained for years about officers criminalizing African Americans and Latinos who had done nothing wrong. "These allegations are extremely troubling," a police commissioner said. L.A. Times | City News Service

Michael Avenatti, the garrulous L.A. attorney known for representing Stormy Daniels against President Trump, was arrested on Tuesday for  for alleged bail violations. Avenatti is facing a raft of federal charges in Los Angeles and New York in cases involving alleged extortion, theft from clients, cheating on taxes, and lying to investigators. Daily Beast | Reuters

Santa Ana is suing Orange County, San Clemente, Dana Point, and San Juan Capistrano, accusing the communities of dumping their homeless people in Santa Ana. South Orange County leaders have resisted demands to add shelters in their cities. An Orange County supervisor called the lawsuit "political grandstanding." O.C. Register | MyNewsLA.com

It was an unknown photographer from New York, as much as anyone, who saved Yosemite from commercial exploitation. Carleton Watkins had come to California during the Gold Rush to seek his fortune, but turned instead to photography. 

In 1861, he strapped nearly a ton of camera equipment onto 12 mules — including giant glass plate negatives and a traveling dark room in a covered wagon — and made the arduous journey into Yosemite Valley.

The images he created, mysterious and powerful, were an international sensation. Displayed in New York in 1862, they were hailed by the New York Times as "indescribably unique and beautiful." Two years later, the pictures helped persuade Abraham Lincoln to place Yosemite under federal protection. It was first time that a government created what was, in effect, a national park. 

After a burst of fame from his Yosemite work, Watkins receded into obscurity. A poor businessman, he went bankrupt in 1875. He lived out of a railroad car for 18 months. Then, in a final blow, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his studio and most of his negatives. Blind and destitute, he spent his final years at the Napa Hospital for the Insane. He died there in 1916 and was buried in an unmarked grave on the hospital property.

Modern appraisals of Watkins's work have celebrated him as an essential figure of 19th century American art. But his environmental legacy arguably looms even larger. All that followed his groundbreaking photography in Yosemite, wrote the Guardian — the writings of John Muir, the birth of the national park system, the founding of the Sierra Club — "can be traced back to the intake of breath when his images were seen for the first time." Pacific Standard | The Guardian

Here's a collection of Watkins's photos. Google Arts & Culture

Today's California Sun: Governor Newsom pushes a plan to reduce traffic fines, graduates take a pass on major tech firm jobs, and a look back at Yosemite's unheralded savior.

Graduates pass on big tech jobs // Yosemite's unsung savior

Trump rushes to show progress on southern border wall.

#OscarsSoWhite revived by very male, very white nominees.

And photos of Wes Anderson-style settings in California.

A state task force on homelessness wants to create a constitutional amendment that would force California's cities and counties to show progress in reducing their homeless populations — or face sanctions. The plan would appear as a statewide ballot measure in November. "We've tried moral persuasion. We've tried economic incentives," the chairman of the task force said. "But all of it's optional. Why should this be optional?" CALmatters | L.A. Times

Fairgrounds, decommissioned hospitals, Caltrans properties. Proposals for centralized facilities for the homeless are gaining momentum with California leaders. Curbed

Independent voters number more than 5 million in California — more than registered Republicans — and they are eligible to vote in the March 3 Democratic primary. That means the voting bloc could be crucial to victory. But there's a catch: Independent voters have to ask for a Democratic ballot. Which candidate could be most hurt most by confusion over the election rules? By one analysis, Bernie Sanders. N.Y. Magazine | A.P.

The momentum belongs to Sanders in California. A new poll puts him, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden at the top of the race. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News

In the latest New Yorker is a lovingly written essay on the world's oldest trees, the wraithlike bristlecones of California's White Mountains. "The possibility that climate change will cause their extinction has inspired a spate of alarmed news stories, although tree scientists tend to discount the idea that the bristlecones are in immediate danger. They have survived any number of catastrophes in the past; they may survive humanity." New Yorker

Today I learned: There's a fantastic Instagram account called @accidentallywesanderson that showcases buildings that look like they belong in the kitschy aesthetic of a Wes Anderson film. California, it turns out, abounds in fitting locations, including the Eastern Columbia House in Los Angeles, the Malibu Pier, a swimming pool at the Berkeley City Club, and Half Dome Village Camp in Yosemite. Vogue | AFAR

Here are more California images from the Reddit group that inspired the project.

Tensions mounted in the standoff over the Oakland home illegally occupied by Moms 4 Housing, a group protesting the housing crisis. After a judge ordered the squatters to leave, more than 100 supporters linked arms in front of the residence on Monday, prepared to risk arrest. "We are not running," the group's founder said. "We are staying here." The property owner compared the actions to "mob rule." Mercury News | Curbed San Francisco

Islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have been sinking for a century thanks to the effects of farming and water development. Some are as much as 25 feet below sea level. With only aging levees holding back the sea, the situation is growing increasingly dire. "Certainly the sea level is rising," a water expert said, "and for the islands that have peat soil the land level is falling, so we kind of know how this story is going to end." S.F. Chronicle

Chesa Boudin, San Francisco's new district attorney, faced criticism after firing at least seven prosecutors last week. The purging comes as Boudin looks to implement the progressive vision of his campaign. A city attorneys union called the move the "Friday Night Massacre," saying it could damage public trust. "I think the impact on morale is going to be devastating," a fired attorney said. KQED | S.F. Exmainer

Major League Baseball confirmed that the Houston Astros used technology to steal signs during the 2017 season, the year the team defeated the Dodgers in the World Series. For sports columnist Bill Plaschke, that made it official: "The Dodgers were cheated out of the 2017 World Series championship. This is not sour grapes. This is not revisionist history. This is now and forever fact." L.A. Times

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is likely headed to prison after the U.S. Supreme Court declined his last-ditch request to review his case. The 77-year-old former sheriff, who has Alzheimer's disease, was sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing an FBI investigation into abuses at the nation's largest jail system. A.P. | L.A. Times

President Trump is preparing to divert an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for construction of the southern border wall — five times what Congress authorized him to spend. The funding would allow the government to increase the length of new barriers from 509 miles to 885 miles. Washington Post | N.Y. Times

The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was revived on Monday after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out the most Oscar nominations to four very male, very white movies: "Joker," "1917," "The Irishman," and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood." Out of 20 acting nominees, one was nonwhite. No women were nominated in the best director category. N.Y. Times | Hollywood Reporter 

Here's the complete list, and where to stream the movies.

If PG&E had its way, it would have built a nuclear plant atop the San Andreas Fault along a pristine stretch of the Sonoma coast.

It was in 1961, a time of boundless optimism about the potential of nuclear energy, that the utility revealed plans for one of the world's biggest nuclear generators on a promontory at Bodega Bay. Locals were mortified. They protested the project and, in a  publicity stunt, released 1,500 helium balloons to illustrate how radioactive molecules might travel across Northern California. 

"I began to think that there really was evil in the world," a leader of the opposition, David Pesonen, recalled in Sonoma Magazine. "PG&E had a single-mindedness that didn't involve people's well-being."

The nuclear plant barreled toward completion.  

Then, in a pivotal moment, the activists asked a renowned geologist named Pierre Saint-Amand to inspect the site. His report, published in 1963, noted that the fault that once destroyed San Francisco ran directly through a construction pit.

Even so, PG&E dismissed the concerns, declaring that the company would simply "overdesign the plant." 

Saint-Amand's report, however, got the attention of federal regulators who confirmed his findings. In March of 1964, an 8.6 earthquake in southern Alaska reshaped the shoreline and provided a dramatic illustration of the risks at stake. Gov. Pat Brown came out against the Bodega plant. With the writing on the wall, PG&E surrendered. 

The Battle of Bodega Head, as it became known, has since been credited as ushering in the nuclear free movement. "The tactics and precedent set at Bodega, a historian told the Press Democrat, "are one of the big reasons that the California coast is not lined with nuclear plants." Bay Nature | Sonoma Magazine

Bodega Head, pictured above, is today part of the state parks system, with multicolored foliage and dramatic cliffs that are perfect for whale watching. Outdoor Project | Sonoma Magazine

Today's California Sun: Trump rushes to show progress on southern border wall; #OscarsSoWhite revived by very male, very white nominees; and photos of Wes Anderson-style settings in California.

A rush to build the border wall // California's Wes Anderson-style settings

Troubling comparison of Texas and California textbooks.

Federal agency warns that it may bill wildfire victims.

And California eyes major new state park in Bay Area.

An analysis of history textbooks books used at schools in Texas and California found them altered by partisan politics. Students in both states, for example, learn about the Harlem Renaissance. Texans, however, also read that critics "dismissed the quality of literature produced." In an annotated Bill of Rights, a California textbook explains that rulings on the Second Amendment have allowed some gun regulations. The Texas edition leaves that space blank. N.Y. Times

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is trying to recover nearly $4 billion from PG&E for work it performed in response to California wildfires. And if the utility doesn't pay up, it plans to bill wildfire victims for a portion of the money instead. Wildfire survivors are fighting FEMA's effort, arguing in part that it undermines the agency's very mission: To assist disaster victims. S.F. Chronicle | Press Democrat

Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget proposal calls for the state to add more than 600 new firefighters as California grows warmer and development pushes further into fire-prone areas. Six of the 10 most destructive wildfires in state history have taken place since 2010. Mercury News | Sacramento Bee

The budget also seeks a one-time allocation of $50 million that would help animal shelters end euthanasia of cats and dogs. "We want to be a no-kill state," Newsom said. Sacramento Bee | The Hill

Researchers have known for a long time that childhood trauma increases the risk of serious health problems later in life. Now California has become the first state in the nation to create a formal reimbursement strategy for screening childhood trauma, paying health care providers to screen patients covered by Medi-Cal. "To say that it's groundbreaking," one pediatrician said, "would be an understatement." California Health Report | California Healthline

Car break-ins are surging across parts of the Bay Area. Since 2018, car burglaries have risen by 25 percent in Oakland, 32 percent in Berkeley, and 48 percent in San Leandro. Law enforcement officials say the crime wave — along with laptop thefts in cafes — has been fueled by a black market hungry for laptops. "Unfortunately, it's so easy to take a laptop, and so easy to flip it," a prosecutor said. "They can get a couple hundred dollars cash for each." Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle

In the winter of 2013, a 94-year-old woman was found brutally murdered in her Yuba City apartment. Police had no suspects. Then they went knocking on a neighbor's door and found Michael Alexander, a socially awkward gamer with an intellectual disability. 

A nine-month Chronicle investigation revealed in infuriating detail how police appeared to coerce a confession from an innocent man, then charged him with murder and kept him in jail for more than three years — even as evidence of the real killer was readily at hand. S.F. Chronicle

California wants to create one of the largest new state parks in decades. Gov. Gavin Newsom asked legislative leaders to dedicate $20 million for the purchase of parkland, while declining to say where. But signs point to the legendary N3 Ranch near Livermore, a mostly pristine wilderness covering 80 square miles. It's by no means a sure thing, the broker said. The property, asking $72 million, has been on the market since last July and has drawn significant interest. L.A. Times | A.P.

Keyhole Arch on the Big Sur coast is gorgeous any time of year. But for a few weeks every December and January, the rock puts on a dazzling show as the setting sun aligns just so, sending beams of light through a natural doorway. A Long Beach photographer, Jakob Patterson, shared a recent picture, above. outdoor project

A state appeals court overruled a lower court decision that had allowed Huntington Beach to ignore the state's sanctuary law. A number of California jurisdictions have opposed the law, which limits cooperation between law enforcement and immigration agents. But only Huntington Beach took the state to court. A city official warned of a future where an overbearing state renders local governance "pointless." O.C. Register | S.F. Chronicle

In a survey of Hollywood assistants, more than 100 out of 1,500 said that a boss had thrown something at them. Emboldened by #MeToo, entry-level workers in a notoriously demeaning job are banding together and demanding more money and better behavior. Their movement is called #PayUpHollywood. "I just don't think we can be silent on certain things anymore," a former assistant said. N.Y. Times

The N.Y. Times included a light show in Central Coast wine country on its list of "52 Places to Go in 2020." The artist Bruce Munro's Field of Light, a luminescent pasture of nearly 60,000 glass orbs in Paso Robles, has been so popular that the temporary installation is being extended through June. N.Y. Times | Paso Robles Press

 In 1850s Los Angeles, justice stood little chance.

Forged in violent conquest and riven by racial animus, the frontier city recorded a murder rate 50 times greater than that of New York City. Yet killers and thugs often escaped accountability as the city's fledgling legal system was simply unable to keep up with the carnage. It was in this unsettled atmosphere that outlaw justice came to be viewed by even the most enlightened Angeleno as a public good. 

Such was the sentiment in the fall of 1854 after Dave Brown, a former scalp hunter with a violent temper, fatally plunged a knife into his roommate's chest during a drunken quarrel. 

A crowd gathered and plotted revenge. Brown would surely have been doomed that day had the city's mayor himself, Stephen Foster, not climbed atop a table and urged patience. If the courts fail to deliver justice, he declared, "I will resign my office and assist you in the hanging myself."

It was three months later, on this week in 1855, that Foster kept his word. 

While a local jury returned a guilty verdict against Brown, California's Supreme Court issued a stay of execution. On Jan. 12, 1855, Foster informed a gathering at the jailhouse that he had resigned as mayor and asked what they wanted done with Brown. "Hang him!" was the reply.

So be it, said Foster, who anticipated a violent clash with the sheriff and his deputies. He added, "And I will die with all of you." Armed with axes, men forced their way into the jail to find that the lawmen had fled. Brown was dragged from his cell and hanged from an improvised gallows across the street.  

Two years prior to the lynching, in 1853, the Los Angeles Star had described Southern California this way: "There is no country where nature is more lavish of her exuberant fullness; and yet, with all our natural beauties and advantages, there is no country where human life is of so little account."

Yet Foster's embrace of mob violence was seen by the public as the righteous act of a leader with no better choice. Popular justice, they reasoned, was better than no justice. Less than two weeks after Brown breathed his last, Foster was reelected as mayor in a near unanimous vote. The city marshal who opposed the vigilantes was forced to resign.

Today's California Sun: Troubling comparison of Texas and California textbooks, federal agency warns that it may bill wildfire victims, and California eyes major new state park in Bay Area.

Partisan politics skews textbooks // Bid for major new state park

California looks to launch a prescription drug label.

Journalists ponder whether San Francisco is fixable.

And how two women started an introvert revolution.

California would become the first state in the country to sell its own brand of generic prescription drugs under a proposal announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The drugs would be available to all Californians, with the goal of lowering prices by increasing competition. "If Costco can have a Kirkland brand, why can't California have our own generic brand?" a Democratic lawmaker said. A.P. | CALmatters

Sen. Dianne Feinstein walked back remarks urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate. Feinstein had joined other Democrats in expressing frustration over the delay. Asked to explain her change of heart, she told the Chronicle, "I don't know what happened there. ... I did not mean to say that." S.F. Chronicle | Slate

At her weekly news conference, Pelosi declined to discuss a timeline on the articles. "I'll send them over when I'm ready," she said. Politico | Washington Post

King tides are rolling in along the California coast starting today. Driven by pull of the moon and sun, the exceptionally high tides commonly cause flooding in low-lying areas, offering a preview of the dangers of sea level rise. "Today's king tides are the high tides of tomorrow," a science educator said. S.F. Chronicle | KQED

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Paul Kitagaki Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who embarked on a 10-year project to document the lives of Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Kitagaki talked about the reluctance of some of his subjects to open up. "There's a concept in Japanese culture called shikata ga nai, which means it can't be helped," he said. "So a lot of times, they just grinned and beared it." California Sun Podcast

Here are selections from Kitagaki's work, showing incarcerated Japanese Americans, then and now. Mother Jones | N.Y. Times

Twitter banned political ads. Google limited the effectiveness of such ads. But Facebook announced Thursday that it is standing by its policy of allowing politicians to lie to voters on its platform, defending it on free speech grounds. In a series of tweets criticizing the decision, a Federal Election commissioner said Facebook "has no idea how seriously it is hurting democracy." KQED | recode

If San Francisco is broken, can it be fixed? A reporter posed that question to a roster of prominent local journalists and activists. The editor of Mother Jones said any solution should start by eliminating single-family zoning. Nuala Sawyer, a reporter, identified a deepening lack of compassion in the city. "But is it fixable? I have to think so in order to continue waking up in this city every day." Curbed San Francisco

Last week, a Norwegian company hired its first California-based executive to help oversee its construction of one of the world's largest aquafarms at Humboldt Bay. Then a photo surfaced of the executive, Shawn Harriman, posing over a lion he had killed in Africa. He was fired within an hour of a reporter reaching out for comment. Lost Coast Outpost | Times-Standard

Tens of thousands of people around the world are getting together in small groups to read in silence. It's called the Silent Book Club and it started in San Francisco when two friends got together at a bar and started imagining a book club for introverts. "It provides a space for people who want to get out of the house and spend some time with friendly-minded people, but don't want to go through that whole awkward small talk," one of the founders said. SFGate.com

Even as President Trump has repeatedly denounced Los Angeles over its homeless crisis, federal officials have been quietly working on a plan that would provide federal funds and land to help shelter the city's homeless population. A homeless advocate said the help couldn't come too soon. "This could be an answer to all of our prayers." L.A. Times

After three years of blown deadlines, Los Angeles opened the first homeless housing project under a $1.2-billion bond measure. L.A. Times | KABC

Taco Bell, based in Irvine, said it would start giving some managers $100,000 salaries as it contends with a mounting worker shortage. All employees will also be eligible for paid sick leave for the first time. The salaries will make Taco Bell an outlier in the food service industry, but they still fall far short of In-N-Out wages. Managers there average more than $160,000 a year. MarketWatch | Bloomberg

Here's a view from space of the U.S.-Mexico boundary, showing the California border town of Calexico and its much larger sister city directly across the line, Mexicali. Their ingenious names, blended from California and Mexico, have been credited to Luther Holt, a Southern California newspaperman who was part of a group of engineers, capitalists, and pioneers who brought agriculture to the forbidding desert landscape in the early 1900s. Calexico began as an encampment for the California Development Company, which diverted water from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley floor in 1901. Within four years, roughly 12,000 residents had settled the area. 

More than a century later, Mexicali has vastly outgrown Calexico, fueled by more than 160 manufacturing operations. But their relationship remains close and revolves around the agricultural economy awakened by those early settlers. Each day, hundreds of laborers stream across the border to catch rides to the fields of Southern California and Arizona. Calexico essentially serves as a transportation hub, or as a former mayor put it, "a suburb" of Mexicali. Al Jazeera | Historical Society of SoCal

Five items that got big views over the past couple weeks:

There's a seaside restaurant in San Diego where the waves slam against the dining room windows. Here's the view from inside La Jolla's Marine Room. YouTube

A tiny Native American tribe in Northern California has built a microgrid on its reservation with solar panels, batteries, and distribution lines that can operate entirely independently. Washington Post

The renowned natural beauty of the Mendocino coast is rivaled by the east-west drive to get there. The redwood forest along Highway 128 is so dense and towering that the sun's rays can scarcely reach the ground. Visit128.com

Gov. Gavin Newsom came into office last year promising an ambitious progressive agenda. He can point to some victories, but interviews with more than two dozen people painted a picture of an undisciplined and impatient leader. L.A. Times

Now up for grabs: the dramatic Wolff Residence in Los Angeles by the great modernist architect John Lautner. The home cascades down a steep hillside in a series of rectangles. Architect's Newspaper | designboom

Today's California Sun: California looks to launch a prescription drug label, journalists ponder whether San Francisco is fixable, and how two women started an introvert revolution.

Bold strategy on prescription drugs // An introvert revolution

A plan to house the homeless on vacant state land.

Senate Democrats lose patience with Nancy Pelosi.

And one of California's most extreme wildlife shows.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to escalate the fight against homelessness. He signed one executive order to create a fund, seeded with $750 million from the state budget, that would support affordable housing or help pay rents. Another order would open vacant state land to emergency shelters. "The state of California is treating it as a real emergency," he said, "because it is one." Sacramento Bee | A.P.

A new bill would make low-income housing projects exempt from CEQA, the state's signature environmental law. L.A. Times

Senate Democrats have begun to lose patience with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has yet to transmit the articles of impeachment to the upper chamber. Among those saying enough is enough: fellow San Francisco Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein. "The longer it goes on the less urgent it becomes," she said. "So if it's serious and urgent, send them over. If it isn't, don't send it over." Politico | SFGate.com

It's elephant seal season. Every winter, on beaches from Point Reyes to Mexico, northern elephant seals put on one of California's most extreme wildlife shows as two-ton males face off in gladiatorial combat over the affections of females. It's a brutal existence, with the vast majority of males dying in adolescence or as thwarted virgins. Bay Nature | The Tribune

Californians can take in the scene at two major rookeries: Piedras Blancas, near San Simeon, and Año Nuevo State Park, just north of Santa Cruz. There's also a live webcam.

One of San Francisco's famous Painted Ladies is for sale. Built between 1892 and 1896, the iconic row of homes across from Alamo Square park is one of most photographed placed in the city. Asking price: $2.75 million. Curbed San Francisco

Also up for grabs: the dramatic Wolff Residence in Los Angeles by the great modernist architect John Lautner. Designated as a historical cultural monument, the home cascades down a steep hillside in a series of rectangles. Yours for $6.5 million. Architect's Newspaper | designboom

Uber made changes to its app in response to California's new gig-worker law, including making fares more transparent. Critically, drivers won't get punished for rejecting trips they don't want to make. It's the latest move by the ride-hailing giant to bolster its case that drivers are independent workers. Bloomberg | Washington Post

Freelance journalists and photographers sued to be exempted from the law. A judge said no. A.P. | Courthouse News Service

"It's getting to the point where California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenges and lawsuits are part of the official San Francisco development process."

A plan to redevelop a college campus in San Francisco with 744 units of new housing was unanimously approved by county supervisors and planning commissioners. Then a neighborhood group sued to stop it, warning of "needless significant environmental impacts." S.F. Chronicle | Curbed San Francisco

California's largest private holding of giant sequoias has been officially saved from development or logging. In a culmination of 20 tears of negotiations, Save the Redwoods League raised nearly $16 million to close a deal for Alder Creek Grove, a 530-acre property in the Sierra east of Tulare. "It really was an extraordinary and inspiring outpouring of generosity," the group's president said. "This is the best of what's left." S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times

Also saved: California's oldest weekly newspaper. The Mountain Messenger, founded in Sierra County in 1853, had been poised for closure this month when its editor retires. Then stepped in Carl Butz, a 71-year-old widower who said he's ready for a new chapter in his life. "What am I going to do? Go on another trip around the world?" he said. "Instead, I'm doing something good for the community, and I feel good about it." SFGate.com | L.A. Times

Gov. Gavin Newsom declined to call a special election to fill Rep. Duncan Hunter's seat in Congress after the disgraced lawmaker announced his resignation. That means the solidly Republican San Diego-area district will have no vote in the House until January 2021. Newsom cited the timing of Hunter's resignation, after the primary race filing deadline, in his decision. S.D. Union-Tribune | The Hill

In August, four women accused Danny Masterson of raping them, opening a lawsuit against the actor as well as the Church of Scientology. The church, the women alleged, stalked them after they went to the police. But in a new court filing, the church is arguing that the women agreed to "ecclesiastical rule" when they joined Scientology and forever relinquished their right to sue. Hollywood Reporter

Tucked among neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes in the San Fernando Valley is a grove of 2,000 orange trees, a last remnant of an era when citrus was king. The farm's owners are now ready to sell, but the city isn't ready to say goodbye. A campaign to landmark the site has put its future in doubt, and one buyer has already walked away. "Who would want to buy an asset that can only be used as a farm and nothing else when it's losing several hundred thousand dollars a year?" the family's lawyer said. KCRW    

With impeachment in the headlines, historians have been exploring the parallels between President Trump and one of California's native sons, Richard Nixon. The only president to ever resign from office was born in rural Yorba Linda on this day in 1913.

Like Trump, Nixon despised the press. Both men savaged their perceived political enemies, Trump in public lashings and Nixon mostly behind the scenes. They each faced repeated accusations of abuse of power.

One difference: Whereas Trump offers a daily window into his mind with voluminous tweets and speeches, Nixon intensely guarded his private thoughts and, at least in public, spoke in the measured tones of an experienced government official. 

"Some people," he once said, "think it's good therapy to sit with a close friend and, you know, just spill your guts ... [to] reveal their inner psyche — whether they were breast-fed, or bottle-fed. Not me. No way." When told toward the end of his career that many Americans felt they still didn't know him, Nixon replied, "Yeah, it's true. And it's not necessary for them to know."

As Trump contends with his own impeachment proceedings, he enjoys an advantage denied to Nixon, wrote the UC Davis historian Kathryn Olmsted. The public ultimately recoiled from the true Nixon, revealed in tapes and testimony. For many supporters of Trump, his true character is there for all to see. They just like it.

Today's California Sun: A plan to house the homeless on vacant state land, Senate Democrats lose patience with Nancy Pelosi, and one of California's most extreme wildlife shows.

Feinstein breaks with Pelosi // Extreme wildlife show

Lawmaker calls takeover of Oakland home "totally legitimate."

The Ahwahnee Hotel is demoted after negative reports.

And the best longform stories on the web in 2019.

Beehive rentals are big business in California, where vast almond orchards rely on the insects to fertilize their flowers. But scientists say a toxic soup of chemicals in the Central Valley is contributing to a massive bee die-off. "It's like sending the bees to war," a scientist said. "Many don't come back." The Guardian

As mental illness has become more visible on California's streets, state lawmakers have warmed to a controversial solution: Forced treatment. But mental health advocates say a shortage of services means many people would have nowhere to go. "The easiest legislative fix is to expand conservatorship," one analyst said. "It then will appear that the Legislature is trying to do something. But as is often the case with social problems, the wound is so much deeper than that. And the wound will require a lot of money." CALmatters

A proposed ballot measure would create special homeless courts that send quality-of-life offenders to shelters or rehab instead of jail. Curbed San Francisco | S.F. Chronicle

Longform.org, which recommends nonfiction writing from around the web, ranked its favorite stories from 2019. Among those that got nods: 

"Gimme Shelter," in Harper's magazine, reflected on how the brutal cost of living in the Bay Area was trickling up to everyone but the super-rich.

"Gone," in the California Sunday Magazine, argued that the worst fire in California history should never have happened. Yet it's bound to happen again.

"Inside TurboTax's 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free," in ProPublica, chronicled how  the Mountain View company that produces TurboTax plotted to deceive taxpayers.

"I believe it is important to drive a couple of times a year to a land far away where cell phones don't work, hike to a destination where there are more bears than people, with a payoff that seems to put the world in order."

That's a pro tip from California chronicler of the outdoors Tom Stienstra. One option: The Marble Mountain Wilderness, pictured above, a natural paradise set deep within Northern California's Klamath Mountains. Experienced hikers say its scenery rivals that of the Sierra Nevada — and with far fewer visitors. SFgate.com | Outdoor Project

Andrew Bosworth, a longtime Facebook executive, said in an internal post that, as a liberal, he "desperately" wanted to use the social network's platform to tilt the scales against Donald Trump, but that the company had a moral duty not to do so. He said keeping Facebook's policies in place "very well may lead to" Trump's reelection, but that it was the right decision. N.Y. Times | Washington Post

Some California lawmakers are expressing support for a group of homeless mothers who illegally moved into a vacant home in Oakland. On Tuesday, a news conference on legislation to boost housing was drowned out by supporters of the squatters, who chanted "Hey hey, ho ho, luxury housing has got to go." State Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley thanked the group. "It was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house," she said. A.P. | East Bay Times

A poll of San Franciscans found that 72 percent favor simply giving homes to the homeless. Mission Local

Chesa Boudin, a son of Weather Underground radicals, is to be sworn in as San Francisco's district attorney on Wednesday. Boudin is part of a wave of new progressive prosecutors across the country, and analysts say liberal San Francisco may offer some of the best odds for putting his platform into place. One reform: Creating a wrongful conviction unit. S.F. Chronicle | KQED

Yosemite's fabled Ahwahnee Hotel, onetime host of Queen Elizabeth II, appears to be losing its luster. Hotel inspectors with AAA downgraded the hotel's prestigious four-diamond rating to just three diamonds, after reports of bad food, shabby rooms, and indifferent staff. S.F. Chronicle | Fresno Bee

Rep. Duncan Hunter, the Alpine Republican who pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds, submitted his letter of resignation to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The departure ends a dynasty in which he and his father represented the San Diego County district for nearly 30 years. Hunter will be sentenced in March. He faces up to five years in prison. Politico | S.D. Union-Tribune

Trystan Snodgrass, a San Diego photographer, shared this fantastic photo captured Sunday of a young gray whale in La Jolla. The gray whale is one of the animal kingdom's greatest migrators. Found only in the Pacific Ocean, they travel roughly 10,000 miles roundtrip between their summer feeding grounds off Alaska and their winter birthing grounds off Baja California, often giving Californians a show as they hug the coastline. NBC 7 | Marine Mammal Center

Here are more photos and video.

Yelp named a San Diego food truck as the country's best place to eat in 2020 based on ratings by users of the website. Shawarma Guys, started last year by a former cellphone salesman, was awarded five stars in nearly all of its roughly 500 customer reviews. A favorite dish: ultra-tender Australian Wagyu beef shawarma. Yelp | S.D. Union-Tribune

Fun fact: Disney used to airbrush cigarettes from pictures of Walt Disney, who was a heavy smoker and died from lung cancer. The images contributed to a perception that he commonly pointed with two fingers. Perhaps not coincidentally, cast members at the theme park have long been trained to use "the Disney point," using two fingers when giving directions. The official reason is to avoid offending international visitors who regard pointing with one finger as rude. Other accounts point to its origins as a murky tribute. PetaPixel | HuffPost

Today's California Sun: Lawmaker calls takeover of Oakland home "totally legitimate," the Ahwahnee Hotel is demoted after negative reports, and the best longform stories on the web in 2019.

Lawmakers back Oakland squatters // Best longform stories of 2019

Critics see chaos in the governor's decision-making.

Three storied California publications call it quits.

And environmentalists fight desert solar projects.

Gov. Gavin Newsom came into office last year promising an ambitious progressive agenda. He can point to some victories, but interviews with more than two dozen people at the state Capitol painted a picture of an undisciplined and impatient leader, the L.A. Times reported. "I expected sort of a steadier, more methodical governor," an environmental advocate said. L.A. Times

A crew of 20 veteran firefighters based in the Angeles National Forest are being deployed to battle the out-of-control Australian wildfires that have killed at least 23 people and scorched millions of acres. Australian firefighters have assisted exhausted crews in California for years. "So we are returning the favor," a Forest Service spokesman said. CBS Los Angeles | CNN

Today's California Sun: Critics see chaos in the governor's decision-making, three storied California publications call it quits, and environmentalists fight desert solar projects.

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