Dianne Feinstein's husband named in admissions scandal.

Mexico lends 100 firefighters to battle California inferno.

And the songs of sparrows grow sweeter during lockdown.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband used his clout to help an unqualified student gain admission to UC Berkeley, the state auditor's office revealed. Richard Blum, a UC regent and wealthy San Francisco financier, acknowledged his role when questioned by the S.F. Chronicle. “I did it a bunch of times,” he said, adding that he wrote letters directly to university chancellors. Such influence is prohibited. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

Kamala Harris has a digital army of fans known as the KHive, with an estimated 50,000 members. They see themselves as defending Harris against racist abuse. But some members of the group have crossed the line from fandom to abusive and threatening harassment campaigns, such as calling Black people “house slaves” for backing other Democrats. HuffPost

San Francisco is embracing a novel approach to crack down on open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin: Civil lawsuits against 28 known drug dealers. They would essentially act as restraining orders, barring the dealers from entering the neighborhood under threat of arrest and fines. “San Francisco has become the place to go to sell drugs," said the city's mayor. "It is known widely, and that has got to stop.” A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Nick Neely, an environmental writer who recreated the 1769 journey taken by the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola. Neely walked for 12 weeks and 650 miles from San Diego to the Bay Area, linking the past with the present and discovering the Golden State anew. California Sun Podcast

Neely's book about the journey, "Alta California," has been called “tough-minded, poetic, and relentlessly strange."

Mexico sent 100 firefighters to California on Wednesday to help battle a sprawling wildfire in Sequoia National Park. "Fires do not have borders. Fires do not have different languages and cultures. In the end we all speak the same language when it comes to fighting fire," a Mexican official said. Canadian crews have also assisted in California's firefight. CNN | CBSLA

This N.Y. Times story on the West's wildfires contains some jaw-dropping graphs.

As many as 1,000 people are refusing to evacuate part of California's Emerald Triangle as a massive wildfire bears down on the cannabis-growing region. A Trinity County sheriff's deputy who went door-to-door warning of the danger said he couldn't force people to leave. “It’s mainly growers," he said. "And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.” L.A. Times | A.P.

Reversing course, the Pac-12 Conference has opted to play a shortened football season this fall, defying the risks of the coronavirus pandemic. The western conference — which includes UCLA, USC, Stanford, and Cal — said it would kick off Nov. 6 and play a seven-game season. “Covid-19 has taken so much away from these students," one official said. "I didn’t want to take this away from them.” N.Y. Times | ESPN

S.F. Chronicle's Ann Killion: This is all about money, pride, and power.

“I am a parent who is here ready to fight for my child.”

A group of Los Angeles parents has sued the public school district on behalf of 600,000 students, accusing it of failing to uphold basic education standards in its distance-learning program. The parents said teachers frequently end class early, sometimes soon after taking attendance. L.A. Times | CBSLA

California's awful 2020 has devastated much of the state's tourist industry — with a notable exception. Many small-town destinations have hummed with business as city dwellers flock to open spaces. "It’s like a water balloon,” the manager of a campground in Big Sur said. “You squeeze it and block off water to some parts, it bulges out in other parts.” The Guardian

The songs of sparrows became prettier after the Bay Area went on lockdown in March. Seizing a rare opportunity to study the birds' behavior on abandoned streets, researchers found that the males sang more softly and sweetly without a human din to drown them out. "Their songs actually sounded sexier to other birds in the population," one researcher said. Mercury News | Popular Science

Mark Hamill turns 69 today. The Oakland-born actor is by many accounts a wonderful human being.

The screenwriter Ed Solomon once told the story of how a friend's son dying of cancer had one wish: to meet Luke Skywalker. Solomon didn't know Hamill, but he made a call to his agent. Don't get your hopes up, came the reply. But moments later Hamill was on the phone. He'd do it, he said. Solomon recounted what happened next on Twitter:

"He not only met with the boy, but spent hours answering question after question (sometimes the same ones repeatedly), AS 'Luke.' Even posting this now makes me teary. He was compassionate, kind, and patient. And it literally meant the world to this kid and his family."

Five items that got big views over the past week:

Someone got their Jeep Wrangler stuck on a biking trail outside Loma Linda. Details of how the predicament came to pass were scarce, but it seemed certain that some poor decision-making was involved. The Drive 

The recovery operation 👉 @theanklefixer 

 A USC dean removed a longtime professor because a Mandarin word he used correctly in a lesson sounded like a racial slur. The decision has triggered an avalanche of criticism. The Atlantic

In 2020, nearly 8,000 fires have burned roughly 3.6 million acres. Alex Fuller, a hobbyist mapmaker from Britain, used a relief map to create this jarring depiction of California's 2020 blazes — so far. 👉 Imgur 

Redwood sorrel, an edible herb, belongs to a genus that gets a bad name for having some of the world's worst weeds. In the right setting, however, it completes a masterpiece of nature: towering redwoods surrounded by carpets of deep green. California Sun

Sizzler, a storied Southern California restaurant chain, declared bankruptcy. Here's a flashback to 2013, when the artist David Choe introduced Anthony Bourdain to a Koreatown Sizzler. 👉 YouTube (~3:30 mins) 

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Today's California Sun: Dianne Feinstein's husband named in admissions scandal, Mexico lends 100 firefighters to battle California inferno, and the songs of sparrows grow sweeter during lockdown.

Senator's husband in admissions scandal // Mexico lends firefighters

Governor announces aggressive bid to curb emissions.

Democrats doubt Dianne Feinstein in Supreme Court fight.

And Berkeley bans candy and sodas in checkout aisles.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring that all new cars sold in California have zero emissions by 2035. The commitment, the first among U.S. states, was portrayed as the beginning of the end for gas-powered cars nationwide. “For too many decades," Newsom said, "we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe." Honda and Ford applauded the announcement. The White House signaled a fight. CalMatters | L.A. Times | A.P.

The governor also called for phasing out fracking permits. Leaders in Kern County, California's oil heartland, denounced the moves: "Gov. Newsom today has decided that Kern County and our hard working 900,000 people don’t matter." Bakersfield Californian

At 87, Dianne Feinstein is the oldest member of the U.S. Senate. With a bruising Supreme Court nomination fight ahead, some Democrats are questioning whether she is up to it. One Democratic senator said a group of Feinstein's colleagues want to oust her from the top spot on the Judiciary Committee and replace her with a junior male colleague. “She’s not sure what she’s doing,” the senator said. Politico

Joseph Castro, a grandson of Mexican immigrants, has been named chancellor of California State University, the largest four-year system in the nation. After the recent appointment of Michael Drake as the head of the University of California, the elevation of Castro means all three leaders of California's public higher educations systems are Black or Latino. EdSource | A.P.

Five of the six largest wildfires in recorded California history started in the past six weeks. In 2020, nearly 8,000 fires have burned roughly 3.6 million acres, an area 14 times larger than what was burned in all of 2019. Alex Fuller, a hobbyist mapmaker from Britain, used a relief map to create this jarring depiction of California's 2020 blazes — so far. 👇

There's a movement to make the pig-nosed pallid bat California's official state bat.

California has more than 40 official symbols, among them an amphibian, bird, bear, and insect — yet no bat. Fans of the pallid bat say it's the right flying mammal to rectify that oversight. A California native, it has exquisite hearing and a golden sheen to match the Golden State. Moreover, the pallid bat and its bat cousins play a significant role in the state's well-being. As voracious insectivores, they provide massive savings to farmers in the form of free pest control. Pallid bats also eat scorpions, making it safer to put your shoes on.

Berkeley just banned candy in checkout aisles. The new policy, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, aims to remove what one City Council member called "poison" from the place where shoppers are most vulnerable to temptation. "I can’t stand the idea that they’ve figured this out and have been doing this to us,” the official said. Howls of nanny-statism abounded. Berkeleyside | Mercury News

The Verge published an inside view of the turmoil at Facebook, where the employees are liberal, the users are conservative, and Mark Zuckerberg is trying to hold the center. One fascinating tidbit: Facebook's own engineers are terrified about what the platform's algorithms are doing to people. “That’s where the bubble generation begins," one said. "A user enters one group, and Facebook essentially pigeonholes them into a lifestyle that they can never really get out of.” The Verge

Will Andrews, 23, was homeless and addicted to opiates. He wanted to get better. But in San Francisco, where the drug marketplace booms and treatment programs are difficult to navigate, he felt hopeless. One day he called his mom. "I feel like there is a demon inside of me,” he said. It was their last conversation. Here's the story of one personal tragedy from San Francisco's widening drug epidemic. 👉 S.F. Chronicle 

Forecasters warned of a mixture of searing temperatures, strong gusts, and low humidity this weekend that could put Northern California in critical fire danger. PG&E said it may preemptively cut power.  “When we say we are waiting for fire season, this would be the classic look,” a meteorologist said. Washington Post | Mercury News

Residents of the northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley breathe some of California's worst air. So when officials revealed last month that a gas plant in the mostly Latino community had been leaking methane for three years, outrage was loud and swift. “For Black folks, it’s police kneeling on their necks," one activist said. "For a community like Sun Valley, it’s poisoning you slowly for 75 years." L.A. Times

Someone got their Jeep Wrangler stuck on a biking trail outside Loma Linda. Details of how the predicament came to pass were scarce, but it seemed certain that some poor decision-making was involved. The Drive

Video of the recovery operation 👉 @theanklefixer 

In 1994, the photographer Joseph Rodriguez rode along with LAPD officers as they patrolled crime-ridden communities. He was on assignment for the N.Y. Times Magazine to chronicle how the police force was trying to restore its reputation after the Rodney King beating. The images, included in a new photo book, convey the empathy of a photographer who had himself been a subject of police attention as a heroin addict in his younger years. Huck Magazine  | N.Y. Times 

Today's California Sun: Governor announces aggressive bid to curb emissions, Democrats doubt Dianne Feinstein in Supreme Court fight, and Berkeley bans candy and sodas in checkout aisles.

Doubts about Dianne Feinstein // Backlash to climate order

California's reopening widens as infections hit new low.

Admissions favoritism at the University of California.

And a "ridiculous" example of Nimbyism in Bakersfield.

California's reopening took a significant leap forward on Tuesday as officials granted five more counties — Riverside, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Alameda, and Solano — the freedom to resume indoor dining, moviegoing, and other activities. Nail salons were given the go-ahead to reopen statewide, pending county approval. California's Covid-19 positivity rate fell below 3% for the first time this week. Hospitalizations are the lowest since April. A.P. | CBS SF

See your county's reopening status. 👉 Covid19.ca.gov 

Four University of California campuses admitted at least 64 students over the past six years as “favors to donors, family, and friends,” an audit revealed on Tuesday. One student's family was friends with a member of the Board of Regents. Another babysat for a former admissions director. “This is a significant problem that the university needs to deal with,” the state's auditor said. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

Kao Saelee, 41, came the U.S. at age 2 after his family fled Laos. As a young man in California, he committed an armed robbery and pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder, among other charges. Saelee served 22 years. On the day of his release last month, his sister waited outside the prison. Instead, Saelee was escorted by immigration agents to the airport. He's now being held at an ICE facility in Louisiana, facing deportation to Laos — a country he doesn't know. The Guardian

California granted temporary endangered species status to the western Joshua tree on Tuesday as the iconic yucca plant faces habitat loss due to warming temperatures. It's the first time the state's Endangered Species Act has been used to give protection to a species threatened primarily by climate change. Officials carved out an exemption to the rule for solar projects that require the removal of Joshua trees.  Desert Sun | A.P.

Cristian Proistosescu, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences, on our climate future: “Don’t think of it as the warmest month of August in California in the last century. Think of it as one of the coolest months of August in California in the next century.” N.Y. Times

After years of declining gun violence, San Francisco saw a 43% jump in gunfire incidents over the summer compared to the same period last year. The rise has corresponded with increasing homicides, including the death of a 6-year-old boy watching July Fourth fireworks. “People are feeling very unsafe in San Francisco,” a public safety advocate said. “I’ve been hearing from people who are afraid to take their kids to the park." S.F. Chronicle

Real estate foreclosures, permanently shuttered businesses, plummeting office rents.

Academics and executives believe that cities like San Francisco face a tough road ahead, wrote the business columnist Steven Pearlstein. "But the consensus is also that while this decade-long process will be painful and disruptive, big cities will emerge more livable, affordable, and economically viable than they were before." Washington Post

Apple's Tim Cook has warmed to remote work. "We’ve found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually.” Bloomberg

At the foot of the world's tallest trees, miniature wonders sprout underfoot. Redwood sorrel, an edible herb, likes it shady and cool, which makes the dense forests of the North Coast a version of heaven. The genus to which it belongs, oxalis, gets a bad name because it includes some of the world's worst weeds. In the right setting, however, redwood sorrel completes a masterpiece of nature: towering redwoods surrounded by carpets of deep green with flowers of pink and white in the spring. U.S. Forest Service | S.F. Botanical Garden

A Bakersfield nonprofit thought it found the perfect place to offer rooms to the homeless: an aging hotel alongside a freeway isolated from any residential areas. A zoning board signed off on the plan. Then it was blocked by the City Council after hearing from an unlikely opponent: A hospital up the street. This example of Nimbyism, a columnist wrote, "is so ridiculous on its face that it’s almost laughable." L.A. Times

Eric Briceno was having a mental health crisis when his mother called the police last March. Several Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies showed up and went into the room where he was sleeping. After a struggle, Briceno died. The cause: cardiopulmonary arrest, resulting from neck compression and restraint with a Taser. “We called them to come and help us, to get some help,” Briceno's mother said. “And instead, they came and killed him." L.A. Times | A.P.

Vanessa Bryant has sued the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after deputies shared photos from the site of the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, their daughter, and seven others. The lawsuit alleges that eight deputies at the crash site "pulled out their personal cell phones and snapped photos of the dead children, parents and coaches. The deputies took these photos for their own personal gratification.” A.P. | CNN

Sizzler declared bankruptcy. The storied Southern California restaurant chain known for its all-you-can-eat salad bar blamed the coronavirus for demolishing sales. The bankruptcy is the latest sign of turmoil among fast-casual chains in California, including the failure of the Cheesecake Factory to make rent, the bankruptcy of California Pizza Kitchen, and the permanent closure of Souplantation. Eater Los Angeles

Flashback: Here's the artist David Choe introducing Anthony Bourdain to a Koreatown Sizzler. 👉 YouTube (~3:30 mins) 

Today's California Sun: California's reopening widens as infections hit new low, admissions favoritism at the University of California, and a "ridiculous" example of Nimbyism in Bakersfield.

Reopening takes a leap forward // "Ridiculous" Nimbyism in Bakersfield

Mark Arax on California's contest with nature.

A surge of home burglaries in San Francisco.

And the season's first colors begin to emerge.

The Bobcat fire has grown into one of largest ever in Los Angeles County, sprawling across more than 165 square miles of the Angeles National Forest. On Monday, fire officials said it was making "a hard push" at Mount Wilson, again threatening the historic observatory. "Just when I thought the danger was over — it wasn't," the observatory's director said. L.A. Times | NBC News

A climate scientist warned of another heat wave by early October. The weather system, he said, should bring "extreme wildfire burning conditions once again." @Weather_West

"We’ve spent the past 170 years erecting a most intricate system — dams, aqueduct, canals, turbine pumps, power grids, roads, codes — to dull, if not defeat, nature.

Yet California remains one of the most calamitous places on earth."

March through July was California's deadliest five-month period in 20 years. A new analysis suggested that the official coronavirus death count during that period may have missed roughly 5,000 deaths, a toll concentrated primarily among Latinos.

Another statistic from the analysis: There were actually 383 fewer deaths among white Californians than would be expected in the absence of Covid-19. California Healthline

California's backlog of unemployment claims has been growing by a staggering 10,000 a day. Over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a “two-week reset” of the claims system, which relies on 30-year-old technology. The fix, he said, should result in claims being processed substantially faster. More than 2 million Californians are out of work. L.A. Times | Sacramento Bee

Hundreds of people gathered outside Fresno's City Hall on Monday to demand the reopening of the region's economy. Among the speakers was the owner of the salon where Nancy Pelosi got her hair done last month. Fresno business owners have vowed to reopen on Oct. 1 with or without permission. “We’re not asking," an organizer said. "We’re telling you we’re opening safely on Oct. 1.” Fresno Bee | KSEE

There have been coronavirus outbreaks at colleges across the U.S., but none may be more destabilizing than the one at San Diego State. More than 880 students have tested positive at the campus, and the surrounding county is in danger of having to re-close businesses. County supervisors, declaring that unfair, have threatened to sue. A.P. | S.D. Union-Tribune

California announced new anti-racism lessons for school districts, days after President Trump criticized the notion of teaching slavery as a founding tenet of the United States. Tony Thurmond, the superintendent of instruction, said he was heartbroken over examples of racism in America's public life. “Sometimes I’m not sure what to do," he said. "But in those moments, I’m reminded education continues to be one of our most powerful tools to countering hate.” Politico

Home burglaries are skyrocketing in San Francisco. This year, residents have reported an average of 21 burglaries a day, a 42% increase over the same period last year. Many have been so-called hot prowl burglaries, meaning the residents are home during the invasion. “The problem is real, and it is completely unacceptable,” one supervisor said. S.F. Chronicle | CBS SF

Since 2019, six prominent L.A. Times editors have been punished or pushed out over ethical lapses, bullying behavior, or other failures of management. One columnist resigned after being accused of plagiarism. The newspaper assigned two reporters to investigate the controversies in an effort to be transparent with its readers. L.A. Times

One skeptic warned that the story sounded like a “fabricated Reddit meme.” Another said it fit too neatly into a narrative of “wacky campus leftists repressing free speech.” But it was true. A USC dean removed a longtime professor because a Mandarin word he used correctly in a lesson sounded sort of like a racial slur. The decision has triggered an avalanche of criticism. The Atlantic

Cottonwoods showing off in Quincy. Pumpkin-colored leaves in the Sacramento Valley. A single Aspen in full yellow near Lake Tahoe. 

Today is the autumnal equinox and, according to leaf spotters across California, the season's first colors are beginning to emerge. Check out the latest reports at CaliforniaFallColor.com.

The five best places to bask in fall colors. 👉 California Sun  

If Los Angeles freeways are arteries, the Stack functions like a pumping heart. The world’s first stack interchange — a meeting of freeways akin to a boating knot — became fully operational on this day in 1953.

The Stack, as it became known, diverged from the cloverleaf design common at the time. Faced with the challenge of interweaving the 101 and 110 Freeways in a densely developed patch of Los Angeles, engineers built up, sandwiching layer upon layer.

Many people derided it as a monstrosity. 

But as an engineering feat — 32 lanes flowing simultaneously in eight directions — it's been widely regarded as a marvel, even beautiful. The L.A. Times once declared it “the most photogenic pile of cement in town." 

In the years since its debut, the stack interchange design has been replicated in cities around the world, with some adding even more layers. Five-level interchanges became so common in Texas — where everything is bigger — they were dubbed Texas-style stacks. Shanghai has one with six. 👇

Today's California Sun: Mark Arax on California's contest with nature, a surge of home burglaries in San Francisco, and the season's first colors begin to emerge.

A calamitous place // The season's first colors

How Facebook has curried favor with President Trump. 

Los Angeles County leaders call for sheriff to step down.

And a plan to place homeless in quiet suburban homes.

Please note: The newsletter will pause on Monday. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.

"If carbon dioxide is a bullet, methane is a bomb."

In 1984, a gas company drilled a well extending 2 miles below the floor of the Central Valley. After it proved unprofitable, the well was abandoned, left to leak roughly 30 tons of methane into the atmosphere. Such artifacts of the fossil fuel age are ubiquitous, with at least 1,000 deserted wells in Los Angeles alone. Bloomberg

Ever since China stopped accepting American recyclables two years ago, environmentalists have pinned their hopes on California to impose a crackdown on plastic waste. It seemed like a slam dunk in a state Legislature controlled by a Democratic supermajority. Yet intense lobbying from the plastics industry doomed the proposal for a second straight year. Politico

In a political ad, the union representing California prison guards announced its intent to target a Black lawmaker, putting a bullseye over his face. The politician, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, recently voted in favor of pay cuts for union members. After seeing the ad, he asked Capitol security services to provide protection for his family. KQED | CalMatters

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several new laws Thursday. 

One lets more people than almost anywhere else in the country take up to three months off from work to care for a family member. The law advanced in part because Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, in a galvanizing moment last month, returned from maternity leave to vote for it — while nursing her month-old daughter. A.P. | Politico

Another requires that companies tell employees if they've been exposed to the coronavirus in the workplace. The law was needed, supporters said, because agricultural companies concealed outbreaks. Sacramento Bee

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Leon Panetta, the former secretary of defense and director of the CIA. He talked a bit about his fondness for the Central Coast, where he grew up and now leads a think tank at Cal State Monterey. He's had the chance to see the world, Panetta said, "but I've got to tell you ... nothing is more beautiful than the Monterey Peninsula and the Big Sur coastline." California Sun Podcast

In 2018, Berry Creek was selected to get an $836,000 state grant to remove trees and brush that could fuel wildfires. It never happened. Then last week the Bear fire roared through town. It's impossible to know whether the forest management project would have saved Berry Creek, but officials believe it could have given the community a fighting chance. The reason it never happened? Stringent environmental reviews. S.F. Chronicle | Wall Street Journal

The smoke has gotten so bad that Yosemite announced the park's closure. What it looked like over the weekend 👇

As California cities struggle to manage their growing homeless populations, Placer County has launched an unusual program: Placing homeless people in houses on quiet suburban streets. The idea is to integrate destitute people in communities rather than sequester them in shelters. Some neighbors of one program house in Rocklin welcomed it. Others worried about their home values. Sacramento Bee

In a provocative cover story, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Facebook has gone out of its way to curry favor with President Trump, looking the other way, for example, when he spreads misinformation about voting. Sources told the magazine that Mark Zuckerberg has told employees the social media giant is better off under Republicans. 

Two Los Angeles County supervisors called on Sheriff Alex Villanueva to step down Thursday following accusations that he has alienated the board and resisted oversight. It was a remarkable public censure that carries limited real-world impact: the sheriff is independently elected. “I’m just gonna ignore it and move on,” Villanueva said. L.A. Times | CBSLA

“I made some mistakes in my life I regret. Can I change them? I can’t. What is done is done. I just got to learn how to accept it and revise it. We’re only human. We make mistakes.”

Ivan Kashinsky, an award-winning documentary photographer, spent years documenting the lives of one homeless community in the San Fernando Valley. The work is stunning. 👉 L.A. Times 

Silicon Valley began with a bad boss. In 1956, the physicist William Shockley opened Shockley Semiconductor in Mountain View, recruiting some of the brightest young engineering minds. 

Shockley was a brilliant inventor and winner of the Nobel Prize in physics. He was also, by many accounts, a lout. Before long, a core group of lab workers had enough of his bullying and, on this day in 1957, they struck out on their own.

The eight men were young, eager, and bound by a genuine fondness for one another. The company they founded, Fairchild Semiconductor, went on to build the first silicon transistors and integrated circuits. It begat company after company, including Intel, setting off an explosion of innovation that made California the world tech capital.

Shockley's lab failed. Embittered, he referred to his former employees as "the traitorous eight," a label that stuck and is now viewed with affection. Then, inexplicably, Shockley spent the second half of his career pursuing an intense interest in eugenics, arguing for the inferiority of Black people.

In a 2006 interview with NPR, his biographer, Joel Shurkin, said Shockley was a miserable man. "There was something wrong with him," he said. "What was wrong with him, we don't really know. He was at best paranoid. He was probably obsessive compulsive."

The father of Silicon Valley died in 1989 as a disgraced bigot, having earned nothing from his company. Fairchild's founders were by then fabulously wealthy, heroes of the tech revolution.

Along the slopes of the Sierra Nevada west of Lake Tahoe, several oddly symmetrical groups of trees rise from the middle of the forest. The backstory 👉 California Sun 

One of San Francisco's must-see structures is a Victorian-era columbarium, among the few remaining places in the crowded city to be laid to rest. Here's a beautiful short film about it. 👉 The Atlantic (~3:30 mins) 

A San Francisco Victorian that was once the home of architectural pioneer Julia Morgan is now owned by an interior designer. She expected some people to be appalled by her decision to paint it black. They were. Architectural Digest

In August, the police arrested a couple in Sonoma County, accusing them of abusing two of their children. Then they realized that a third sibling hadn't been seen in a decade. Press Democrat

Frederick Roberts was born on this week in 1879. California's first Black state legislator, he was the great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson. California Sun

Today's California Sun: How Facebook has curried favor with President Trump, Los Angeles County leaders call for sheriff to step down, and a plan to place homeless in quiet suburban homes.

How Facebook friended Trump // Calls for L.A. County sheriff to step down

Poll shows little appetite for reviving affirmative action.

Unraveling what happened inside the apartment of Ed Buck.

And a window into the bloody warfare of acorn woodpeckers.

Mitch Dorghalli emigrated from his Syrian village to the U.S. in 1988. He worked 80-hour weeks and eventually bought a gas station and convenience store in Berry Creek, nestlted in the foothills east of Chico. Early on Sept. 10, Dorghalli's daughter, a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, went to see whether the store had survived a wildfire burning in the area. She called her father. It was gone, she told him. Over the phone, she could hear him crying. L.A. Times 

Earlier this year, California lawmakers sensed that public attitudes had shifted as a result of rising activism over racial injustice. So they added a November ballot proposition that would reverse a decades-old ban on racial preferences in college admissions. Now a new poll has shown that fewer than a third of likely voters support the measure. EdSource | Sacramento Bee

George Will's view: “California, our national warning, shows how unchecked progressives inflict progress.”

A pair of numbers in the S.F. Chronicle last week:

16% of Marin county’s population is Latino.

71% of the county's coronavirus patients are Latino.

The L.A. Times's Gustavo Arellano on Wednesday: "If you’re Latino in California — even if, like me, you have the luxury of a white-collar job that grants you the privilege of working from home — it’s almost a certainty that Covid-19 will stalk the life of someone you love." 

A new study found that acorn woodpeckers wage long, gory battles over prime territory — and spectators come from miles around to see who wins. Native to California's oak woodlands, the birds stash thousands of acorns in holes drilled into the stumps of dead trees. Guarding these "granary trees" from would-be woodpecker thieves is a matter of life and death. “You can see birds with eyes gouged out, with blood on their plumage," said a study author. "They fall to the ground holding each other’s legs when they’re fighting.” Atlas Obscura | N.Y. Times

"Kaya was in the household and then she was not.”

In August, the police arrested a couple in Sonoma County, accusing them of abusing two of their children. Then they realized that a third sibling hadn't been seen in a decade. Kaya Centeno attended elementary school in Rohnert Park until the second grade, when she was taken out of school to be homeschooled, police said. Press Democrat | People

First, a 3,000-seat Baptist church in Santa Clara rejected health officials' demands to to stop hosting illegal indoor services. Then it racked up $112,000 in fines. Now, “after a great deal of prayer, fasting, and counsel,” the pastor decided to move services outside. The county has no plans to forgive the fines. KGO | HuffPost

"It’s as if Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone decided to build a McMansion. On acid."

That's urban critic John King on a new student residence in downtown Berkeley that is wrapped by a three-story cliff of fake stone. Many Berkeleyans are aghast. It's a head-scratcher, King acknowledged, but give the structure some credit: "It has nutty gravitas." S.F. Chronicle

A new photo exhibit aims to show that the Summer of Love did not actually happen in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury in 1967. That was just the aftershock of the real thing a year earlier at Rancho Olompali, the country estate in Marin County rented by the Grateful Dead. Unearthed images of a pool party there in June 1966 serve as evidence. Take a look. 👉 S.F. Chronicle 

The N.Y. Times Magazine published a gripping account of what happened inside the apartment of Ed Buck, a West Hollywood political donor accused of administering lethal doses of methamphetamine to two Black men. Buck changed around 2013, a former mayor of West Hollywood said. “Ed’s story is one I’ve seen happen to many individuals in West Hollywood, gay men who end up making the attachment of sex to meth, and then meth takes over and consumes their lives." 

Someone posted an alert on social media identifying Darnell Hicks, a youth football coach from Compton, as a suspect in last weekend's shooting of two L.A. County sheriff's deputies. It was fake, but the post was shared widely. Hicks, a father of two, has faced death threats. “It is a sign of the times," his lawyer said. "We have drifted far away from rational thought.” KTLA | L.A. Times 

KCRW, the influential public radio station based in Santa Monica, has reduced its staff by nearly 20%. Station officials announced the elimination of 28 jobs in a move they attributed to the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. Media watchers described it as a hard loss for an already battered media landscape in Los Angeles. L.A. Magazine | Variety

Danielle Spires, a Los Angeles photographer, creates 1980s-style portraits of pets with their humans. Fans say the photos are proof that the craft of double-exposure photography fell out of fashion too soon. For some reason this write-up calls Spires' work "humorous" when it's actually high art. 👉 PetaPixel 

Today's California Sun: Poll shows little appetite for reviving affirmative action, unraveling what happened inside the apartment of Ed Buck, and a window into the bloody warfare of acorn woodpeckers.

Weak support for affirmative action // Woodpecker warfare

Fire advances to within 500 feet of Mt. Wilson Observatory.

San Diego County faces re-closing over rising infections.

And a Victorian fit for a Bond villain in San Francisco.

“It’s pushing yourself to limits that you never knew you had.” 

A reporter and photographer spent time with an inmate firefighting crew in Plumas National Forest. Two takeaways: the work is hellishly hard and virtually every member of the crew hopes to do it for a living one day. With a new law on the books making it easier for former inmates to get firefighting jobs, that dream is now more plausible. S.F. Chronicle 

The L.A. Times published some stunning visualizations on the scale of California's wildfire crisis. One depicts how, taken together, the acreage devoured by fires burning right now dwarfs the total area of all 10 of the biggest wildfires between 2001 and 2010. Another illustrates the incredible property toll. In the last decade, nearly 30,000 structures have been destroyed by wildfires. That's the equivalent of more than five Los Angeles downtowns. 

A wildfire is now at the doorstep of Mt. Wilson Observatory. Officials said the Bobcat fire, burning in the Angeles National Forest, jumped a containment line to come within 500 feet of the 116-year-old facility on Tuesday. Firefighters were waging an all-out ground and air campaign. L.A. Times | A.P.

"Effectively, Hubble discovered the universe in the 1920s up on Mt. Wilson." The observatory holds a precious place in the history of astronomy. LAist

The N.Y. Times published a harrowing account of how millions of Americans could find themselves living in places inhospitable to human life within 50 years. One detail: A 2018 study suggested that one in 12 Americans in the Southern half of the country will move toward California, the Mountain West, or the Northwest because of climate influences alone. 

Smoke from the West Coast has now drifted across the entire country, obscuring skies in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities. S.F. Chronicle | NBC News

Sen. Kamala Harris toured wildfire damage in foothills northeast of Fresno. “Those chimneys remind me of tombstones,” she said. “These are the stories behind these fires.” KGPE | Fresno Bee

With coronavirus cases falling statewide, California health officials on Tuesday gave Marin, Tehama, and Inyo counties the green light to reopen movie theaters, indoor dining, and places of worship. San Diego County, however, received bad news: Rising infections among San Diego State University students could force businesses to close again. S.D. Union-Tribune | A.P.

For decades, a mining operation dredged sand from the small town of Marina, on Monterey Bay, marring the shoreline. Now the mine could be replaced by a desalination operation to help quench the thirst of a region desperate for fresh water. Yet not a drop would go to Marina. Critics say the reason is obvious: Marina is poor and powerless, and many residents speak little English. "Why would anyone think they could get away with that? Why?” one resident said. L.A. Times

☝️ Here's an 1870s Victorian in San Francisco fit for a Bond villain.

Once the home of architectural pioneer Julia Morgan, the home is now owned by an interior designer who fully expected some people to be appalled by her decision to paint it black. And they were. Architectural Digest did a spread on the home, dubbing it "the undisputed drama queen of 'Pacific Heights.'" Architectural Digest

Disneyland has been urging state officials to let it reopen for weeks. Now Anaheim, its home, is pleading too. The city is facing a $100 million deficit due in part to the dormancy of the park and nearby businesses. “What we need is guidance and an economic recovery roadmap so we know that we won’t go from coronavirus to a second great recession,” a city official said.  O.C. Register | KABC

A photo of a Patagonia clothing tag with the hidden slogan "Vote the assholes out" went viral last week on Twitter. Some were skeptical of the tag's authenticity. Now the Ventura company, known for its outspokenness, has taken credit. A Patagonia spokeswoman said the message was added to a line of shorts and refers "to politicians from any party who deny or disregard the climate crisis and ignore science." Mashable | Backpacker

Hollywood's "Tenet" experiment has failed. The Christopher Nolan thriller was supposed to be the industry's lifeline, but it has grossed less than $30 million since August 31 — a number so low that it set off a domino effect. The scheduled releases of "Wonder Woman 1984" and "Candyman" have now both been postponed until at least Christmas. The Atlantic

Along the slopes of the Sierra west of Lake Tahoe, several oddly symmetrical groups of trees rise from the middle of the forest. Shaped like wagon wheels, they are known as nelder plots and were planted in the 1990s as part of a study at the Blodgett Forest Research Station. The aim was to glean insights into resource competition among trees, said John A. Helms, a silviculturist involved in the project. "It's a little bit like putting rats in a cage or people in a tight suburban environment," he told the Sun. "People behave differently when they're jammed together." 

To visitors viewing the plots at ground level, the trees appear little different than the surrounding forest. Send up a drone, however, and their full magnificence comes into view. 

A few more pictures. 👉 I Love the Sierra 

Also, a great drone's-eye view rising up from a plot. 👉 @mirandaleconte  

Today's California Sun: Fire advances to within 500 feet of Mt. Wilson Observatory, San Diego County faces re-closing over rising infections, and a Victorian fit for a Bond villain in San Francisco.

Fire at doorstep of Mt. Wilson Observatory // A Victorian fit for a Bond villain

California's coronavirus rate drops to lowest since March. 

Wildfire creeps worryingly close to Mt. Wilson Observatory.

And false rumors of legalized pedophilia in California.

On Monday, Air Force One touched down at a smoke-shrouded airfield in Sacramento County, where officials briefed President Trump on the wildfires that have now burned 3.2 million acres of California. Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Trump to take heed of the dangers of the changing climate. “The hots are getting hotter. The dries are getting drier,” he said. Trump expressed doubt, citing the need to thin overgrown forests. "It’ll start getting cooler," he said. "Just you watch." L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

The two leaders made nice. "We actually have a very good relationship. Good man,” Trump said. CalMatters

A Black Lives Matter protest near the airfield grew tense as at least two vehicles struck protesters. At another point, a crowd chanting "You can't stop the revolution" surrounded a CHP cruiser. One protester climbed on top of the vehicle, which sped forward and flung him onto the pavement. As many as three people were injured, reports said. KCRA | L.A. Times

A couple videos of the CHP cruiser incident. 👉 Reddit  | @JodiHernandezTV 

Trump has a point about forest management. Experts say California's wildfire predicament is certainly linked to warming temperatures, but also forests that have become overgrown after a century of aggressive fire suppression. Vegetation is far denser than it was historically. In some places, the number of trees per acre has doubled or tripled. S.F. Chronicle 

Former Gov. Jerry Brown on those who might ponder fleeing California: “Tell me: Where are you going to go? What’s your alternative? Maybe Canada. You’re going to go to places like Iowa, where you have intensifying tornadoes? The fact is, we have a global crisis that has been mounting and the scientists have been telling us about. For the most part, it’s been ignored. Now we have a graphic example.” N.Y. Times

"The fire will probably be upon us today.”

A wildfire in the Angeles National Forest has crept to within 1.6 miles of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, the historic telescope that was once the biggest in the world. Firefighters were poised for battle. "We're not going anywhere," one captain said. "We are committed here." Pasadena Star-News | Pasadena Now

Also threatened: the Emerald Triangle. The August Complex Fire, now larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, is now moving toward the heart of California's celebrated marijuana farming region — with the harvest just a few weeks away. Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall said his greatest fear is that cannabis workers won’t evacuate in time if the fire comes. Press Democrat | SFGate.com

Climate scientist Daniel Swain: "I would expect the August Complex to become California’s first true modern 'megafire' in the coming days — a single contiguous event burning over 1 million acres."

California's coronavirus infection rate has dropped to its lowest level since the state began reporting data in late March. Over the last seven days, just 3.5% of Covid-19 tests statewide came back positive. A month ago, the rate was nearly twice as high. Hospitalizations are also sharply down. L.A. Times | Mercury News

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said he was "appalled" by the new law.

State Senator Melissa Melendez called it "absolutely disgusting."

Sen. Ted Cruz said its aim was "more adults having sex with children."

Conservative voices have railed against a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last Friday, with many claiming it legalizes pedophilia. That's false. Under a 1944 law, judges are granted discretion in deciding whether to list someone as a sex offender if they have engaged in vaginal intercourse with a minor. Senate Bill 145 extends that discretion to cases of oral or anal sex, a distinction that supporters say ends discrimination against LGBTQ youth. Reuters | PolitiFact

The shooting of two L.A. County sheriff's deputies over the weekend has transformed into a political talking point across Los Angeles and the nation, with speculation swirling about whether the shooter's motives were linked to anti-police messaging of recent protests. “Words have consequences,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said, apparently stoking the idea. L.A. Times

With the help of anonymous donors, a reward for information leading to an arrest in the case was increased to $200,000. L.A. Daily News

A movie critic declared Michael Mann's "Heat" the greatest heist movie ever made. The 1995 crime drama had three big stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro — and Los Angeles. "Watching 'Heat' recently," Gerardo Valero wrote, "I was struck by how very little of the film has aged: not the fads, the pace, or the attitudes. It is 25 years old and it looks as if it could have been made yesterday." RogerEbert.com

A clip from the classic diner scene. 👉 YouTube (~2 mins) 

Google marked the start of Hispanic Heritage Month on Tuesday with a Google Doodle of Felicitas Mendez, a civil rights pioneer from Orange County. Long before the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation in 1954, Mendez was among a group of Mexican-American families who filed a federal lawsuit demanding that their children be allowed to attend an all-white school. Against all odds, the court agreed. In 1946, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled that segregation violated the Constitution by suggesting inferiority among children where none exists.

It was a radical decision for the time, and ultimately paved the way for a bill to desegregate all California schools. The law was signed by Gov. Earl Warren, who later joined the Supreme Court and presided over the Brown v. Board of Education case that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine.

Mendez died in 1998 after working as a nurse for more than 30 years. In 2011, her daughter Sylvia accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in recognition of her family's fight for equal rights. She sobbed. “My parents just wanted what was best for their children," she said. Google | Library of Congress

"I don't know what happens when we go. But I know I am not the body."

Today's California Sun: California's coronavirus rate drops to lowest since March, wildfire creeps worryingly close to Mt. Wilson Observatory, and false rumors of legalized pedophilia in California.

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