California launching satellites to hunt for “super-emitters.” 

Reseda woman admits drowning kids in jailhouse interview.

And a giant teddy bear is walking from L.A. to San Francisco.

A USC study found that Latino immigrants between the ages of 20 and 54 have been 11.6 times more likely to die from the coronavirus than U.S.-born people who are not Latino. The disparity, which stunned researchers, has been linked in part to Latinos' overrepresentation in jobs that involve person-to-person contact. To date, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 27,000 Latino Californians, a number similar to the populations of Imperial Beach or Eureka. Sacramento Bee | SFGate.com

An article adapted from a new biography of Speaker Nancy Pelosi details her complicated relationship with the Squad, a quartet of progressive women elected to Congress in 2018. The opening lines:  

"'Nancy doesn’t have much patience for people who don’t know what they don’t know.'

That was what a senior congressional Democrat close to the speaker of the House told me when I asked what Nancy Pelosi really thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez." Politico 

In 2016, after reports that the Trump administration might end NASA's role in climate research, then-Gov. Jerry Brown memorably declared that California would "launch its own damn satellites.” Five years later, it's happening. California and NASA on Thursday unveiled a $100 million project called Carbon Mapper that will put two satellites into orbit to hunt for hard-to-find “super-emitters” of methane and carbon dioxide. Reuters | Science magazine

A giant teddy bear is walking from Los Angeles to San Francisco. 

The man inside the costume is Jesse Larios, a 33-year-old who said he set off Monday on whim. "I just see something, and I chase after it," he told CNN. Larios said he is avoiding hotels, instead "camping" along the road without gear and cleaning up at gas stations. In an Instagram video posted Thursday, he showed the bench where he slept in Bakersfield. "Now I know why bears, animals are just like, 'Screw it, I'm just gonna lay here.'" he said. "They have so much fur and they're already comfy!"

Follow Larios' journey on Instagram. 👉 @iambearsun 

Valentino Rodriguez Jr., a prison guard near Sacramento, told his wife he could no longer handle the harassment he was getting from fellow officers. They ridiculed his weight and called him a gay slur, text messages showed. Then, on Oct. 21, she found him on the bathroom floor of their home, dead from a fentanyl overdose. Rodriguez's family is now blaming his death on a poisonous prison work culture. "My son was hazed to death," his father said. Sacramento Bee

In a remarkable public meeting, the mayor of Windsor, Dominic Foppoli, watched speaker after speaker expressed their outrage days after he was accused of multiple sexual assaults. Some sobbed. Others hurled profanities. They called him a “sociopath,” a “narcissist,” and a "rapist." Out of dozens, not one supported him. Foppoli has denied the allegations and refused to step down. S.F. Chronicle | Press Democrat

☝️ Here's Firehouse No. 1, a Gold Country relic built in 1861 and converted into a museum.

It's located in Nevada City, by many accounts one of the prettiest towns in the West. Its charm owes to its forested surroundings, and there are so many architectural treasures that the entire downtown was declared a national historic landmark. Also among them is the Nevada Theatre, the oldest operating theater in California. Opened in 1865, its stage has been graced by everyone from Mark Twain to Mötley Crüe.

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Matthew Shilvock, the general director of the San Francisco Opera. After a yearlong hiatus, the company is preparing to celebrate the centennial of its founding, a project Shilvock said was both daunting and thrilling. "With all of the celebration of that," he said, "will come this great sense of a reemergence of the arts into the public consciousness."  

Liliana Carrillo, the Reseda mother whose three children were found dead Saturday, admitted killing them in a chilling jailhouse interview. She wanted to protect them from their father, with whom she was in a custody dispute, she said. "I drowned them. I did it as softly, I don’t know how to explain it. I hugged them. I kissed them. I was apologizing the whole time. I loved my kids.” KGET | L.A. Times

The N.Y. Times shared the bonkers story of Tracii Hutsona, a “serial con artist” in Southern California accused of building a lavish lifestyle on millions of dollars in stolen money. “She convinced this car dealership that she was working on the movie ‘Jingle All the Way,’ and she needed a car for Arnold Schwarzenegger to drive,” Hutsona's sister said. “It was some fancy car, she always liked to drive fancy cars. But that’s how talented she is. Do you know how good you have to be to do that?”

After Paul Flores was arrested in the disappearance of Kristen Smart this week, prosecutors partly credited the work of Chris Lambert, a Central Coast musician who started a podcast about the case on a lark a couple years ago. “Your Own Backyard” turned up tantalizing clues and helped bring forward key witnesses. Lambert said the experience taught him that Smart was much more than a face on a billboard. "I’ve learned that you can miss a person you never even got to meet,” he said. A.P.

Give the 8-part series a listen. (I have; it's good.) 👉 YourOwnBackyardPodcast.com 

Five items that got big views over the past week:

As development has marched into their Bay Area habitat, bobcats have adapted: stashing their young under decks, waiting for cars to clear before crossing a road, and nabbing jackrabbits from front yards. A fantastic photo essay. 👉 Bay Nature 

Many California students who put in the work to gain admission to a UC school are seeing their dreams dashed this year. Rising rejections, the L.A. Times explained, is one consequence of testing requirements being eliminated.

Nestled a mile high in the San Jacinto Mountains, the neighboring towns of Idyllwild, Pine Cove, and Fern Valley are known for their amazing cabins. Field Mag found the 13 best rentals.

There's a secretive militia faction in Turlock called the "Grizzly Scouts" that has been preparing for a second Civil War. That's according to a disturbing investigation by ProPublica into the case of Steven Carrillo, an Air Force sergeant accused of killing two law enforcement officers last summer.

A bear met its match in two terriers after lumbering into a Pasadena home this month. In a video that went viral, the dogs, Mei Mei and Squirt, showed absolutely no fear as they tore after the intruder. Pasadena Star-News

Get your California Sun mugs, T-shirts, and hoodies.

Today's California Sun: California launching satellites to hunt for “super-emitters,” Reseda woman admits drowning kids in jailhouse interview, and a giant teddy bear is walking from L.A. to San Francisco.

California satellites to hunt for “super-emitters” // Teddy bear walking from L.A. to San Francisco

Vaccine reluctance leaves doses unused in Kern County.

Scores of tule elk die at Point Reyes National Seashore.

And government finds no wrongdoing in killing of Ashli Babbitt.

As of Wednesday night, all Californians 16 and up can now make appointments for a coronavirus vaccine on the state’s My Turn appointment system. Officials urged patience: Roughly 16 million California adults have yet to get a dose, and the state is getting allocations of between 2.5 and 3 million new doses per week. Mercury News | L.A. Times

"Here's every website you can use to book a vaccine appointment in California": SFGate.com

In Kern County, supply is not the issue — it's waning demand. Even with the county's relatively low vaccination rate, providers are reporting that they have vaccines sitting in freezers but no takers. Just 36% of the county's eligible population has gotten at least one dose. The numbers point to people being reluctant to get the shot. "There’s kind of no other conclusion to come to," said a Kaiser Permanente official. Bakersfield Californian

In San Francisco, 300 teachers have been given permission to teach classes from home to students sitting in classrooms with laptops and headphones, while an adult monitor stands by. People are calling it Zoom in a Room. “How is this OK?" said the mother of one kindergartner. "This is completely not in-person learning.” A.P.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday: “Money is not an object now. It’s an excuse. I want all schools to reopen. I’ve been crystal clear about that.”

A chorus of Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits have been criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris over what they say is her inaction on the flow of migrants at the southern border. Last week, Harris flew to Oakland and Chicago. She spoke about jobs, vaccinations, and gun violence, but held no public events related to immigration. On Wednesday, as House GOP leaders displayed to reporters a “missing” milk carton with her face on it, Harris announced that she would visit Mexico and Guatemala “soon.”  S.F. Chronicle | NBC News

In 2016, the U.S. government demanded that Apple help it hack the iPhone used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino shooting. The company refused, saying it would threaten consumer privacy. The FBI backed off after it found an outside group with a solution. Five years later, the Washington Post uncovered that company's identity: a small Australian hacking firm called Azimuth Security. The tale of the unlocking shines a fascinating light on the hidden world of bug hunters. 

Some investors have talked big about putting their cash in cities beyond the Bay Area. Silicon Valley is dead, they say. The money suggests otherwise. Of the $69 billion that U.S.-based venture funds invested in startups in the first quarter of 2021, more than $25 billion landed in the Bay Area, according to the latest Pitchbook data. That's more than the next three cities — New York, Boston, and Los Angeles — combined. WIRED

In 2000, syphilis rates were so low that public health officials believed eradication was near. It's since roared back. New CDC data showed that sexually transmitted infections reached an all-time high in 2019, with the biggest spike in syphilis cases. In certain circles of San Francisco, a case can be as common and casual as catching the flu. “In the 12-step community, if meth was your thing, everybody had syphilis,” said Billy Lemon, who runs a recovery program in the Castro. KQED

More than a third of the largest tule elk herd at Point Reyes National Seashore died over the last year, falling from 445 members to 293. The National Park Service blamed the die-off on drought and overpopulation. But activists say the agency is blocking the animals from water sources with a fence erected to protect nearby cattle ranches. Dozens of protesters gathered at the shore over the weekend to demand its removal. L.A. Times | KGO

☝️ Here's how San Francisco and the Marin Headlands looked from the International Space Station on April 4.

One observation: Golden Gate Park, the green rectangle stretching to the beach, is massive — more than 150 acres bigger than New York's Central Park. It resulted from a remarkable transformation. Until 1870, the area was dominated by windswept sand dunes. City gardeners, tasked with creating a pleasure ground of “warmth, repose, and enlivenment,” used a novel combination of barley and lupine to tame the sand and make it suitable for trees. Roughly 60,000 were added within five years. Today, there are twice that number, along with 130 acres of meadows and 10 lakes. Nasa.gov

Zoom in on individual homes in this big version of the photo. 👉 Nasa.gov 

Citing witness accounts and physical evidence, San Luis Obispo County prosecutors described on Wednesday how they believe the Cal Poly freshman Kristen Smart died in 1996: She was killed, they said, by classmate Paul Flores after he attempted to rape her in his dorm room. Smart's body has never been found, a mystery that District Attorney Dan Dow says "complicated" the case. But, he added, “We do believe we have the location where the body was buried.” He declined to elaborate. The Tribune | KEYT

The police officer who fatally shot a San Diego woman during the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 will not face criminal charges, the Department of Justice said Wednesday. Videos showed Ashli Babbitt, 35, being shot in the left shoulder as she climbed through the broken part of a door. Citing those videos along with witness statements, officials determined there was nothing to contradict that the officer was acting in self-defense or defense of members of Congress. NBC News | N.Y. Times

A bear met its match in two terriers after lumbering into a Pasadena home this month. In a video that went viral, the dogs, Mei Mei and Squirt, betrayed absolutely no fear as they tore after the intruder. The bear scrammed. “He actually peed on the steps as he was running away,” the homeowner said. Pasadena Star-News

If you enjoy the newsletter, please consider sharing it with someone in your life who might also.

Today's California Sun: Vaccine reluctance leaves doses unused in Kern County, scores of tule elk die at Point Reyes National Seashore, and government finds no wrongdoing in killing of Ashli Babbitt.

Vaccine doses go unused in Kern County // No wrongdoing in killing of Ashli Babbitt

Secretive militia faction in Turlock agitates for civil war.

A stunning arrest in the disappearance of Kristin Smart.

And a nuanced reflection on the legacy of John Muir.

California halted its use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine on the recommendation of federal health officials as they examine a blood-clotting disorder that emerged in six recipients. California officials said the disruption would not alter plans to expand vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and older starting Thursday, or to fully reopen the economy in June. L.A. Times | A.P.

Worrying because you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? The clots appear to be extremely rare. Washington Post

Across the Bay Area, many public schools have no plans to bring back most middle and high school students before the fall. Not far away in Manteca, all students have been back in classes since November — with no in-school transmissions of the coronavirus. The schools superintendent said it wasn't easy, requiring constant adapting and adjusting. "He noted, however, that no other districts have asked to visit, to see how they did it.” S.F. Chronicle

Education leader in TIME magazine: "The failure to resume normal rhythm of schooling in historically progressive states amounts to the most significant failure of public policy in a generation."

"Staff member Sylvia Vasquez was doing mandatory health checks on the first day of on-campus instruction at Heliotrope Avenue Elementary School, but students kept giving her the wrong answer when she tried to find out if they were healthy.

She’d ask how they were feeling, and the answer she kept getting was 'Excited.'" L.A. Times

And then there was one. After the latest tier moves in California's reopening plan, a single county remained in the most restrictive purple phase on Tuesday: Merced. The Central Valley county has been stuck in purple for more than five months, though some businesses have been flouting rules against reopening. As of Tuesday, just 15% of Merced County's residents were vaccinated, compared to 27% statewide. Merced Sun-Star | KFSN

With hundreds of court cases disrupted by a yearlong suspension of federal jury trials in California, defendants are increasingly alleging violations of their right to a speedy trial. Ronald Ware spent five months in a Santa Ana jail waiting for a trial on a federal gun charge. In January, a judge tossed his case, explaining that “nowhere in the Constitution is there an exception for times of emergency or crisis.” L.A. Times

Michelle Nijhuis, a science journalist, offered an nuanced reflection on John Muir's legacy that eschews a false choice between deification and cancellation: “Muir’s generosity toward and reverence for the members of other species was remarkable, for his time and for ours. But his failures of imagination about the human species were both significant and all too common among conservationists of his time.” The Atlantic

There's a secretive militia faction in Turlock called the "Grizzly Scouts" that has been preparing for a second Civil War. 

That's according to a chilling investigation by ProPublica into the case of Steven Carrillo, an Air Force sergeant accused of killing both a security officer at an Oakland federal building and a deputy sheriff in the Santa Cruz Mountains last summer. Carrillo's violent outburst, the report said, culminated from a long slide into extremism, nurtured by a militia group whose members held military ranks, adopted nom de guerres, and trained at a ranch near Yosemite. 

During the Gold Rush, miners took to calling the Sierra foothills town of Placerville "Hangtown" after three men were hung over accusations of cattle rustling. In a nod to that history, the city's official logo has included a depiction of a lynching tree. But not for much longer. Late Tuesday, after months of intense debate that ignited during the George Floyd protests, City Council members voted to remove the noose. L.A. Times | ABC10

Between 2011 and 2017, Travis Monson walked every street, trail, and path in San Francisco, snapping more than 80,000 photos. Over the last couple weeks, he went back through his archive and created collages, each dedicated to a single color. The result offers an enchantingly unique perspective on San Francisco. 

See a few of Monson's montages below, and more at his Reddit page.  

Nearly 25 years after the Cal Poly student Kristin Smart vanished, a former classmate of hers, Paul Flores, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder. Flores, 44, was the last person seen with Smart in 1996 after leaving a house party in San Luis Obispo. But investigators had been unable to tie him to her presumed death. Smart's body was never found. Flores' father was also arrested and is accused of helping to dispose of her remains. The Tribune | A.P.

The N.Y. Times checked in with the legendary architect Frank Gehry, who is 92 and still working vigorously. His projects include new office buildings for Warner Bros. in Burbank, a renovation of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and an ambitious project to revitalize the Los Angeles River. Asked if he's thought of slowing down, he scoffed. “What would I do?" he said. "I enjoy this stuff.”

Nestled a mile high in the San Jacinto Mountains, the neighboring towns of Idyllwild, Pine Cove, and Fern Valley are known for their gorgeous views, unpretentious art scene — and a concentration of amazing cabins. Field Mag found the 13 best rentals, including the cheerful number pictured above, which goes for less than many big-city hotel rooms.

Today's California Sun: Secretive militia faction in Turlock agitates for civil war, a stunning arrest in the disappearance of Kristin Smart, and a nuanced reflection on the legacy of John Muir.

Militia faction agitates for civil war // "Don’t Cancel John Muir"

Students with perfect grades are rejected by UC campuses.

Officials got repeated warnings before killings of three kids.

And a fantastic photo essay on bobcats of the Bay Area.

According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, California's test positivity rate is 1.6%, the lowest in the country. In Michigan, it's 17.5%. Experts cited a couple factors that appear to be protecting California from a spring surge:

California has mostly escaped the grip of the more contagious U.K. variant that is now ripping through Michigan.

The intensity of California's winter Covid-19 wave pushed the state closer to herd immunity. L.A. Times | Mercury News

California on Monday lifted capacity limits on places of worship after the Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state could not enforce its ban on indoor religious gatherings. Harmeet K. Dhillon, who spearheaded lawsuits on behalf of churches, said it should have happened a long time ago: “For over a year, the state of California has targeted the faith community for discriminatory treatment depriving them of their fundamental right to worship.” S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

California's reopening has led businesses to sputter back to life in many communities. But in areas hit hard by illness, death, and job loss, the rebirth is playing out much more cautiously. A struggling bakery owner in East Los Angeles: “I thought people might want to go out and spend their money. But no. Nothing has changed. It’s a sad situation.” L.A. Times

Salesforce, San Francisco's largest private employer, said it would reopen its headquarters in mid-May. But in a departure from other Bay Area businesses, returning workers must show proof of vaccination. Mayor London Breed hailed the announcement as major step toward reviving the city's downtown, where Salesforce's behemoth tower stands as a centerpiece. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News

"What more could our kids possibly have done?” 

A Burbank student applied for a freshman seat at seven University of California campuses last year with a 4.3 GPA, eight AP and honors courses, and a host of extracurricular activities. She was denied or waitlisted to all but Merced. Many California students who put in the work to gain admission to a UC school are seeing their dreams dashed this year. Rising rejections, the L.A. Times explained, is one consequence testing requirements being eliminated. 

Researchers uncovered the forgotten origin story of the Ku Klux Klan in the American West, a period of church burnings and savage beatings between 1868 and 1870. But in contrast to their southern counterparts, who attacked Black Americans, California's Klansmen targeted those they deemed a greater threat: Chinese immigrants. The Atlantic

"I think we’d all do well to pray for rain.”

For the first time in decades, hundreds of farmers straddling the California-Oregon border may get no irrigation water from sources within the Klamath Basin. Severe drought and demands to ensure that river flows sustain fish populations have led to tense battles over an ever-dwindling water supply. The last time irrigators were cut off, in 2001, “bucket brigade” protesters scooped water from the Klamath River and passed it, hand over hand, to a parched irrigation canal. A.P.

Protesters have increasingly targeted public officials at their homes over the last year. Many cities have tolerated the tactic. But when activists promoted a protest at a Sacramento bureaucrat's home with threatening "WANTED" posters, the city put its foot down. “No more,” a coalition of leaders said in a public letter. “A small group of people willing to embrace violence to advance their ill-defined agenda cannot be allowed to put our city leaders and their families at risk in their homes. Protest at City Hall, not outside someone’s bedroom.” L.A. Times

Bobcats live throughout the Bay Area. As development has marched into their habitat, they've adapted: stashing their young under decks, waiting for cars to clear before crossing a road, and nabbing jackrabbits from front yards. Here's a fantastic photo essay on the Bay Area's bobcats by Sarah Killingsworth, a naturalist who has observed them for years. 👉 Bay Nature 

In the months before three young children were found slain in a Reseda apartment, law enforcement and child welfare officials had been warned repeatedly about their mother's erratic behavior, records showed. The children's father said Liliana Carrillo suffered from bizarre delusions, refused to take psychiatric medicine, and expressed thoughts of suicide. A relative said she told police officers point blank: “She might kill the kids." L.A. Times | O.C. Register

ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres are closing for good. The owner of the movie chains, which include 17 locations in California, including the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, said on Monday that it had "exhausted all potential options" but saw no way forward after a yearlong hiatus. Hollywood figures called the news "painful," "devastating," and "a huge, huge loss." Timothy Simons, the "Veep" actor, tweeted: “Brad Pitt buy the arclight challenge.” Hollywood Reporter | A.P.

One morning in 1966, motorists discovered that a 60-foot-tall painting of a nude woman had been added above a tunnel along Malibu Canyon Road. The origins of the "Pink Lady" of Malibu, pictured above, were a mystery. But as word spread, many people, including newspaper columnists and art lovers, were smitten by the guerrilla painting. Others called it obscene. Government officials, claiming that the spectacle would distract drivers, declared that it could not stand. A week after the "Pink Lady" appeared, a county work crew covered it over with brown paint.

Lynne Seemayer, a 31-year-old paralegal, came forward as the artist, saying she had been dispirited by crude graffiti on the canyon wall. So, suspending herself by ropes under moonlight, she had scraped the old markings away and left the prancing woman in their place. "I gave them art," Seemayer told LIFE magazine at the time, "and they chose not to keep it." Though the painting was short-lived, it became seared into local lore. In January of 2017, days after the artist's death at the age of 81, the "Pink Lady" rose again, if just briefly. A group of rogue Malibu residents, again under the dark of night, gathered at the side of the road and projected an image of the artwork onto the wall — a tribute and a wish for what could be. 

Today's California Sun: Students with perfect grades are rejected by UC campuses, officials got repeated warnings before killings of three kids, and a fantastic photo essay on bobcats of the Bay Area.

Warnings preceded deaths of three children // Bobcats of the Bay Area

Signs point to extreme fire danger for California in 2021.

Wine country mayor denies allegations of sexual assault.

And a White Lives Matter rally roils Huntington Beach.

Los Angeles opened up Covid-19 vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and up, days ahead of the state's April 15 expansion. A number of counties have made similar moves, including Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Fresno, and Humboldt. Matt Haney, a San Francisco supervisor, said at this point eligibility should just be opened up statewide. “The inconsistencies and inequities are reaching peak ridiculousness,” he tweeted. L.A. Times | A.P.

California's latest vaccination numbers, per the L.A. Times:

37.7 — percentage of Californians who have gotten a dose

329,571 — average doses administered per day over last week

Students were poised to return to their classrooms in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco this week after more than a year of distance learning — and just a couple months from the end of the school year. Many parents and educators expressed relief. Other parents remained frustrated by the gradual pace of reopening: Last week, a group in Los Angeles sued to force a wider reopening. S.D. Union-Tribune | KABC | S.F. Examiner

L.A. Times editorial: "The past year was an academic calamity for hundreds of thousands of students."

The city of Burbank on Saturday put a chain-link fence around a restaurant that repeatedly defied coronavirus restrictions. The Tinhorn Flats grill became a focal point of lockdown resistance as the owner continued to operate even as he was slapped with fines. The owner's son, 20-year-old Lucas Lepejian, was arrested three times in six days. Residents on either side of the issue have staged protests. City News Service

California is poised to burn. The drought conditions that helped fuel last year's record-setting fires are now worse, experts say. Among the signs:

January saw 297 wildfires in California, triple the five-year average. 

70% of the state is now experiencing "severe" drought conditions or worse.

A new analysis of moisture levels in the Santa Cruz Mountains found them terrifyingly low.

“It’s extraordinary that there’s any fire risk in a lot of California right now," said the climate scientist Daniel Swain, "and yet here we are.” S.F. Chronicle | Washington Post

Thanks for your patience during my absence last week. The family and I went to Death Valley, my first time there. It's a truly beautiful place. Something about the vastness, the silence, the stark shapes and colors — it's no wonder artists and seekers are drawn to such settings. We made it to most of the recommended stops. A favorite was Artists Drive, a 9-mile loop along fantastic multicolored hills. So was Mesquite Dunes, which stood in for the desert world of Tatooine in "Star Wars." If you left in the morning from Los Angeles, you could hit both and be on your way home by early evening — a long day but totally worth it.

Dominic Foppoli, a prominent businessman and mayor in wine country, faced widespread calls to step down after a S.F. Chronicle report detailed allegations that he sexually assaulted four women. In the most serious case, Foppoli was said to pressure an 18-year-old to drink for the first time before raping her twice. After the article ran, a fifth accuser came forward. Foppoli denied the accusations, attributing them to "political and social machinations." S.F. Chronicle | Press Democrat

In a remarkable statement, the editor of the Press Democrat, based in Santa Rosa, said the newspaper knew of the allegations years ago but failed to get the story. "Put simply: It was botched."

Four dead whales washed up on Bay Area shores in eight days this month, an unusual spike. Necropsies found that two had experienced blunt force trauma, likely from ships. The causes of the other two deaths remained unclear. Gray whales are not endangered, but their population along the West coast has plunged by a quarter since 2016. “If this particular trend continues," a researcher said, "that would be extremely worrying." Washington Post | The Guardian

Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento, has been paying its homeless population to clean up their encampments. Those who fill trash bags delivered by city staff get $20 gift cards for the grocery store. It's working, officials said. The encampments are tidier, relationships with outreach workers are stronger, and the program actually saves the city money in cleanup costs. CBS13 | CNN

A 30-year-old mother was arrested after her three children — ages 3, 2, and 6 months — were found dead in their Reseda home early Saturday. The authorities said Liliana Carrillo fled the scene and led police on a chase in which she carjacked a pickup truck. The father had filed for custody of the children and requested that Carrillo's mental health be evaluated. He said she was supposed to turn them over on Sunday.  L.A. Times | L.A. Daily News

Kristine Hostetter, a fourth-grade teacher in San Clemente, held some controversial views. She attended a public mask-burning and a QAnon convention. But it wasn't until video showed her marching toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that a fight erupted within her school community. Many parents have declared that Hostetter has no business shaping young minds in a classroom. Others say she's being targeted for holding right-wing views. "It has not been a polite debate," the N.Y. Times wrote.  

A White Lives Matter rally in Huntington Beach on Sunday, one of dozens around the country, quickly fizzled after a small group of protesters was vastly outnumbered by hundreds of counterprotesters. Ku Klux Klan flyers appeared in several beach communities in recent days, and William Quigg, a KKK leader in California, was seen walking through the crowd. After scuffles broke out, police directed everyone to leave under threat of arrest. L.A. Times | Voice of OC

… Sam Hodder, the president and CEO of Save the Redwoods League, a nonprofit based in San Francisco dedicated to preserving California’s redwood forests.

Q: What is one place everyone should visit in California?

A: Redwood National and State Parks. It is an iconic place with primeval forests of the tallest trees in the world, massive ferns, and extraordinary coastal views. Visiting these bucket-list-worthy parks is life-changing, both because the old-growth forest reflects the grandeur and magnificence of the forest that dominated the California coast just a few generations ago, and because the restoration going on there today through the Redwoods Rising initiative demonstrates how we can heal the forest that we have lost and grow the old growth of tomorrow. In this way, Redwood National and State Parks is both a window into the past and a doorway into the future.

What’s the best book you've read or podcast you've listened to recently?

I know I’m biased, but I’m a fan of "I'll Go If You Go," a Save the Redwoods League podcast hosted by our outreach program manager Leslie Parra. The podcast centers the experiences of people of color in the outdoors and conservation, which has been really valuable for our different community members to either hear themselves represented in these conversations or hear new perspectives and understand that we all have shared values — a love for nature and an innate desire to protect it for our communities.   

What’s a hidden food gem in your area?  

Winter Purslane, also known as miner’s lettuce, is delicious right now and is growing all over the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s packed with Vitamin C and antioxidants and it tastes surprisingly good. My son picked some for me on a hike last weekend around Briones Reservoir in the East Bay and it was salad worthy, for sure.

You’re organizing a dinner party. Which three California figures, dead or alive, do you invite, and why? How would you get the conversation started?

First, I’d invite the secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot. He is a terrific guy who knows so much about the potential for California to lead in the healing of our planet through the protection and stewardship of our forests. And because he is in a position to bring that potential into a reality, I have two incredible historic Californians to help him to shape that environmental legacy for our state. Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt, a president of Mills College in the early 1900s, was elected as a founding board member of East Bay Regional Parks District and was a lifelong member of Save the Redwoods League who brought her advocacy for marginalized community members in her hometown of Oakland to bear in her vision for redwood conservation. Then I would invite Ah-da-dil-law, a.k.a. George Burt, a Mattole/Sinkyone man, believed to have been born in 1846 in what is now known as Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where he lived from the 1890s to the 1920s in the decades before it became a park. He was long recognized for his extensive knowledge of Sinkyone geography and customs and spoke an Athabascan language. These uniquely Californian individuals could offer a perspective about what our redwood forest once was, and how with care and respect for nature, we can help to heal it, and in turn, heal ourselves.

One surprising thing about redwoods I've learned in the past year is how resilient they are, at least in the wake of the most recent fires. What's another aspect of their lives and/or impact on the ecosystem that people might find surprising?

Our redwood forests, young and old, are key allies in the fight against climate change in California. Old-growth coast redwood forests store more carbon per acre than any other forests in the world. And what’s truly amazing is that the young, second-growth redwoods that are growing back from the roots of the ancient forest that was logged in the last 150 years have already accumulated as much as 339 metric tons of carbon per acre. That’s the equivalent of taking 270 cars off the road for a year. There are 1.1 million acres of young redwood forest that is unprotected in California, so if we invest in protecting and restoring them, that’s an incredible amount of carbon we can keep out of our atmosphere.

“5 questions with …” is a weekly feature by Finn Cohen, who edits the California Sun. Conversations are sometimes edited for brevity. Someone you’d like to see interviewed? Let him know: finn@californiasun.co.

Today's California Sun: Signs point to extreme fire danger for California in 2021, wine country mayor denies allegations of sexual assault, and a White Lives Matter rally roils Huntington Beach.

Signs point to extreme fire season // White Lives Matter rally roils Huntington Beach

Here are a few stories you missed in the California Sun in recent weeks.

Get the daily newsletter at 33% off using this link.

"As far as I’m a prisoner, I’m not signing anything.”

During the World War II internment of Japanese Americans, prisoners were asked two crucial questions: Would you swear absolute allegiance to the U.S., and would you serve in the military? Those who answered "no" to both were taken to Northern California's harsh Tule Lake camp, and became known derisively as "no-nos." Shunned, some hid their personal histories for generations, even from their own children. The L.A. Times produced a fascinating report on the Japanese Americans of Tule Lake reclaiming their stories.

Gripped by a housing shortage, California passed laws in 2016 and 2017 making it easier to build backyard apartments. That set off a boom in construction of so-called accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. In 2019, 12,000 were added, a tenfold increase from before deregulation. New companies now boast the ability to put up ADUs very quickly: Abodu, in Redwood City, can deliver a Scandinavian-style flat, from permit through construction, in 30 days. Bloomberg CityLab

Every Sunday at sunset, a parade of LED-decorated bicyclists winds through Venice Beach led by a pied piper with white dreads known as the Captain. Everyone is welcome. The Venice Electric Light Parade began in 2015 as a joyful way to promote bicycle safety. Over the last year, it's doubled as a much-needed antidote to despair. Voice of America produced a nice short video on the new tradition. 

There are only around 600 Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep in the wild, so when mountain lions developed a taste for them, wildlife officials began moving the cats 100 miles away. But the strategy has been complicated by the tenacity of the mountain lions. One relocated male promptly turned around and walked the entire distance back to the sheep. “Within the first 24 hours, he had 360 degrees to choose from in which to travel and he started making a beeline right back to where he came from,” a scientist said. The Guardian

Few city halls embody the character of a place so perfectly as the one in Palm Springs, pictured above.

Once a desolate desert landscape, the area that became Palm Springs began a transformation in 1909, when a visionary hotelier saw the potential for an oasis. It became a playground for Hollywood royalty, and in the 1950s developers targeted upper-middle-class buyers with mass-produced homes in the desert modern style — elegant but informal, with open floor plans, lots of glass, and swimming pools. It was in this decade that Albert Frey, the founding father of desert modernism, was commissioned to design a city hall befitting Palm Spring's new aesthetic. The result has become an enduring symbol, in yellow and turquoise hues, of a city dedicated to the good life. dezeen

In 1948, LIFE magazine dispatched the photographer John Florea to Santa Monica Bay to document the ways of the Southern California beachgoer. His photos recall a time along the shore when acrobatics were the rage, the old-timers played chess in suits and fedoras, and people just left their trash on the sand at the end of the day.

See a few of Florea's photos below, and many more here:  Google Arts & Culture

Empyrean — an elaborate, 40-foot-tall wooden temple — was supposed to be a major draw at Burning Man 2020 until the pandemic scuttled the event. Instead the artwork has found a hillside perch at Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa. Writing in the Press Democrat, the columnist Chris Smith said the site was fitting. Much of the winery was reduced to rubble during wildfires in 2017; Empyrean now serves as a sort of punctuation mark on its rise from the ashes. Visitors are welcome to come see it on weekends.Here's a great video of workers applying the final touches on the project. 👉 Vimeo 

A few items shared in the newsletter in recent weeks.

Sunday sampler: Tenacious mountain lions of the Sierra // Fantastic photos of beachgoers in 1948

Here are a few stories you missed in the California Sun over the last week.

An analysis of traffic data found that the number of daily passenger vehicle trips across the U.S. has reached pre-pandemic levels for the first time in a year. In Los Angeles, passenger vehicle miles hit 99% of their pre-pandemic levels on the weekend of March 20-21. San Francisco was at 88%. Researchers said the increased travel reflected the return of a humming economy. A.P.

The Washington Post published an eye-opening analysis of California's population slowdown, a consequence of three factors: an exodus to other states, a larger-than-normal baby bust, and slowing immigration. California has time to right the ship, the data specialist David Byler wrote. "Otherwise, states like Texas, Florida and Arizona will become the new promised lands of opportunity."

“Walking on Sunshine,” Katrina & the Waves

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin

At Moscone Center, the largest vaccination hub in San Francisco, they have an amazing playlist of happy songs on rotation. Peter Hartlaub got the story behind the song selections and compiled them on Spotify for all to enjoy. S.F. Chronicle

Cesar Chavez, born on March 31, 1927, is all but a saint in California. But the labor leader called undocumented immigrants "wetbacks," embraced a ruthless foreign dictator, and ruled over his organization with an abrasive style that pushed dozens of people away. His conflicted legacy is nowhere near pure enough for today's "woke warriors," wrote the columnist Gustavo Arellano. "To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: Every saint had a past, and every sinner has a future. And Chavez is perhaps as great an example of this in California history. It’s a thought that took me my adult life to realize and appreciate — and accept." L.A. Times

In 2019, a small bear was filmed ambling up to a Tahoe snowboarder, its head tilted at an inquisitive angle. The cute interaction help make the video go viral, but scientists sensed something was awry. The bear was later found to have an inflamed brain that made it uncharacteristically fearless around humans. California veterinarians have encountered four similar cases in the last year, and they don't know what's causing it. Sacramento Bee | NBC News

You can spend the night in Ewok-like redwood treehouses, then fly through the forest on ziplines.

Last summer, Sonoma Zipline Adventures added five yurts in the redwoods near Santa Rosa, suspended high above the ground and connected by swaying suspension bridges. A writer for Sonoma Magazine checked it out: "It turned out to be one of the most unique and memorable overnight stays I’ve experienced as a travel writer."

Some views of the aerial village:  YouTube

An entomologist once bet a museum trustee that he could find a new species of insect in her backyard in Los Angeles. He did, and a new project was born to investigate the fantastic biodiversity of America's second-largest city. Since the BioSCAN project began in 2012, scientists have identified more than 800 insect species, 47 of which are new to science. The team has been sharing images of their fabulous finds under high magnification. Atlas Obscura | WIRED

See a few of the images below, and more at the digital exhibition called "Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of L.A." NHM.org

A few items shared in the newsletter this week.

Sunday sampler: Reopenings bring traffic back to cities // The Ewok village of Sonoma

Mass shooting leaves four dead in Orange County.

San Francisco school board member sues colleagues.

And reports from California's premier wildflower spots.

Reminder: The newsletter is pausing through next Friday. Back in your inbox on April 12. 

“Our phones have been ringing off the hook."

More than 7 million Californians between 50 and 64 become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine today. Many will be frustrated. This week, Contra Costa County provided a preview of how the rush for appointments might unfold. When the county offered vaccines to anyone 16 and older on Tuesday, 30,000 requests came in overnight. Officials said those people should be prepared to wait "a few weeks" before actually getting a shot. S.F. Chronicle | KTVU 

State sign-ups, county sign-ups, drugstores, Twitter bots. Here are some strategies for getting an appointment. 👉 S.F. Chronicle  | L.A. Times 

Arnold Schwarzenegger on the parallels between the 2003 gubernatorial recall that put him in office and now: "It's pretty much the same atmosphere today as it was then. There was dissatisfaction, to the highest level. And it’s the same with the momentum. Something that sets it off to a higher level, kind of the straw that breaks the camel’s back ... like an explosion.” Politico

A CalMatters investigation found that at least 1,300 people have been incarcerated in California jails longer than three years without being tried or sentenced. Of those, 332 people have been waiting for longer than five years. "These are men and women for whom the notion of 'presumed innocent' has been turned on its head. They — along with the victims of crimes awaiting justice — are the human toll of a California judicial system that struggles to dispose of cases in a timely manner."

Alison Collins, a San Francisco school board member who was stripped of a leadership position for posting racist Tweets, sued the school district and her board colleagues, saying they violated her speech rights. Citing "spiritual injury to her soul" among other harms, Collins is demanding $87 million in damages. She also wants a written apology, her lawyer said. State Sen. Scott Wiener reacted with disbelief. "After years in politics, I thought I’d seen every inappropriate & self-absorbed thing a politician can do," he wrote. "I was wrong." S.F. Chronicle | Mission Local

The California inmate accused of fatally strangling the serial killer known as the "I-5 strangler" confessed in a five-page letter to the Mercury News. Jason Budrow explained that he was "avenging" Roger Kibbe's victims, who included at least seven women and girls. Budrow, a convicted murderer himself who has a "666" tattoo above his right eye, said he was unconcerned about legal consequences. No jury would see him executed for killing the "I-5 strangler," he wrote. Mercury News

The small farming town of Winters, near Sacramento, has a four-block downtown with 300 parking spots and a single, lonely parking meter. Installed by a mystery prankster on April Fool's Day in 2015, the meter was so amusing to city officials that they left it in place. Confused out-of-towners can sometimes be seen dropping a coin in the machine. The proceeds, roughly $100 a year, go toward a July Fourth fireworks fund. Atlas Obscura

Four people were killed, including a child, after a gunman opened fire in an office building in the city of Orange on Wednesday, the authorities said. A fifth victim, a woman, was in critical condition. Details were scarce late Wednesday, with no word on what might have prompted the shooting. A male suspect was taken into custody and transported to a hospital with a gunshot wound. The mass shooting was the third across the United States in two weeks. O.C. Register | L.A. Times

The son of a well-known business leader in Los Angeles has been charged with setting fire to a homeless encampment in 2019. Prosecutors accused Daniel Nogueira, 27, of throwing a device described as a “mortar” or “firecracker” at the encampment, sparking a brush fire that injured three people and threatened nearby homes. Nogueira's father, Michael Nogueira, is the president of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce. L.A. Times

Jill Biden, the first lady, traveled on Wednesday to Delano, the Central Valley town that helped birth California's farmworker movement. Joined by Gov. Gavin Newsom, she delivered a speech that praised farmworkers for keeping America fed. Without them, she said, "no one would have made it through this year." Valley leaders hope the visit signals the Biden administration's commitment to immigration reform. Bakersfield Californian | Fresno Bee

California's dismal rainy season has been followed by a dismal wildflower bloom — with notable exceptions. Here’s what reports from some of the state’s premier wildflower destinations have been saying:

The blooms in the desert lands of Anza-Borrego, Joshua Tree, and Death Valley have been spotty at best, though the resilience of desert life means visitors sometimes stumble upon surprising patches of color. California State Parks shared this comparison from Anza-Borrego, east of San Diego, in the spring of 2020 (upper image) and 2021 (lower image). 👇

The poppy fields of Antelope Valley, just north of Los Angeles, and Walker Canyon, near Lake Elsinore, have not donned their brilliant orange-colored hues of years past. The verdict of one family’s trip after walking through Antelope Valley’s brown landscape and getting gnats all over their clothes: “Worst poppy trip ever.”

At Carrizo Plain in Central California — a riot of purple, yellow, and orange in good years — there is hardly a wildflower in sight.

Wetter Northern California has done a much better job of heralding the season. There have been numerous reports of gorgeous tableaus across the Sierra foothills, including hillsides along the Merced, San Joaquin, and Tuolumne rivers. Kirk van Gorkom shared this view of Merced River Canyon, captured Sunday. 👇

The bloom at the North Table Mountain reserve has been described as average. But average at this volcanic mesa near Oroville, with its huge diversity of wildflowers and one of California's prettiest waterfalls, is still outstanding. 

Also popping, more or less: Colorful blossoms at Pinnacles National Park, yellow mustard fields along the coast south of San Francisco, golden poppies on Mount Diablo, and this amazing multicolored Napa Valley hillside captured over the weekend by the photographer Craig Philpott. 👉 @CphilpottCraig 

Today's California Sun: Mass shooting leaves four dead in Orange County, San Francisco school board member sues colleagues, and reports from California's premier wildflower spots.

4 dead in Orange County mass shooting // San Francisco school board drama 

How the Placer County sheriff fueled vaccine fears. 

Happy songs on rotation at San Francisco vaccination site.

And an Ewok-like village in the Sonoma County redwoods.

Emails obtained by the Sacramento Bee revealed that a public health official pleaded with Placer County Sheriff Devon Bell not to publicly imply that a man had died from his Covid vaccine in January. He did anyway, setting off reports that ricocheted around the world and fed into a wave of unfounded vaccine fears. A week later, the vaccine was ruled out as a cause of death. Sacramento Bee

California's return to normalcy took a leap forward Tuesday as 13 counties moved to more relaxed phases of the state's reopening framework. Among them were Los Angeles and Orange counties, the first and third largest, which entered the orange tier, allowing bars to reopen outdoors and higher indoor capacities for a variety of businesses. L.A. County's top health official said the region's progress in beating back the virus was remarkable. "It didn’t just happen," she added. "There was a lot of hard work.” L.A. Times | Sacramento Bee

Counties home to half of Californians are now in the orange tier. See your county's status. 👉 Covid19.ca.gov 

With restrictions lifting and spring break arriving, public health experts have offered varying levels of concern about whether California will fend off a fourth surge:

Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease expert at UCSF, via SFGate.com: "It feels like the clouds are coming back [in the Northeast, Midwest, and Florida]. But here in California, we’re in the sunshine. We’re that beach in Indonesia before the tsunami comes in."

Dr. Stefano Bertozzi, health policy professor at UC Berkeley, via L.A. Times: “Certainly in California, there’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a brief honeymoon, and then it will get worse again. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Dr. Monica Gandhi, infectious disease expert at UCSF, via Mercury News: “With roughly 30% of our population in California having received at least one dose of the vaccine and another 30% having some natural immunity, we will not see a fourth surge in our state.”

If a recall was held today, Gov. Gavin Newsom would easily survive it, a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found. Roughly 56% of voters oppose the recall, while 40% support it. “The support for keeping Gov. Newsom has become much more optimistic about where things are headed with COVID than they were in January," said Mark Baldassare, the PPIC president. "All of these things work to the benefit of keeping the status quo." L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle

On Sept. 23, Kurt Reinhold, a 42-year-old Black man, was crossing a street in San Clemente when two officers stopped him. A fight ensued, and two minutes later Reinhold, a father of two, was shot dead. Street safety experts say jaywalking laws rarely protect pedestrians and their enforcement is racially biased. That's why Assemblymember Phil Ting says he unveiled a bill last week that would decriminalize jaywalking statewide. S.F. Chronicle | KGO

The first arrest has been made in the human smuggling operation that left 13 people dead in a vehicle crash in Imperial County on March 2. Jose Cruz Noguez, 47, a legal permanent U.S. resident, was arrested as he crossed into the U.S. at the Calexico Port of Entry Monday night. The authorities said they were led to Cruz by an associate who surreptitiously recorded a phone conversation with him about the smuggling attempt. City News Service | A.P.

The New Yorker on the "blame game" at the southern border: "The word 'crisis' is both an overstatement and an understatement of the situation. There were more families and children seeking asylum at the border under Trump in 2019 than there are now. And the current numbers, if higher than Biden anticipated, are not unexpected. ... Yet, in another sense, the situation is worse than much of the public understands, because the issues involved are genuinely complex and nearly impossible to settle as long as policymakers in Washington continue to regard decency as a sign of political weakness rather than of moral strength." 

Cesar Chavez, born on this day in 1927, is all but a saint in California. But the labor leader called undocumented immigrants "wetbacks," embraced a ruthless foreign dictator, and ruled over his organization with an abrasive style that pushed dozens of people away. His conflicted legacy is nowhere near pure enough for today's "woke warriors," wrote the columnist Gustavo Arellano. "To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: Every saint had a past, and every sinner has a future. And Chavez is perhaps as great an example of this in California history. It’s a thought that took me my adult life to realize and appreciate — and accept." L.A. Times

You can spend the night in Ewok-like redwood treehouses, then fly through the forest on ziplines. 

Today's California Sun: How the Placer County sheriff fueled vaccine fears, happy songs on rotation at San Francisco vaccination site, and an Ewok-like village in the Sonoma County redwoods.

Newsletter Archive