Newsletter
The California Sun gathers all the must-read stories about California in one place.
Good morning. It’s Friday, July 10.
- Jared Huffman is Congress’s most outspoken nonbeliever.
- Prescribed fire in Sonoma County is a great hang.
- And jury convicts in murder trial that fixated Chula Vista.
Statewide
1.
For years, law firms have extracted settlements of up to $25,000 from mom-and-pop businesses across California over small violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2023 and 2025, state lawmakers introduced bills that would give businesses time to fix problems — such as broken fixtures and misplaced mirrors — before facing potentially crushing litigation. Both measures had bipartisan backing. And both were killed by one lawmaker: Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose who, as chair of the Assembly’s judiciary committee, refused to give them a hearing. CalMatters investigated.
2.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with journalist Mark Arax about his recent essay in the Guardian, published under the headline “California: Land of Plunder and Hypocrisy.” Arax described the state as a place of both light and dark. “And we politely call it the California paradox,” he said. “But I think we’re letting ourselves off easy when we do that because the darker impulses are tremendously dark right now. I mean, they’re taking humanity to a place that is post human.”
Northern California
3.
Sometimes setting fire to the forest is just a great hang. On a crisp morning in late May, about 45 people made their way into the oak woodlands of Sonoma County to participate in a prescribed burn, a practice that rejuvenates overgrown forests and mitigates against catastrophic wildfires. They gathered like friends around a campfire, catching up since the last burn. One regular described the work as “a religious-like experience.” Another observed, “It’s just a lot of fun to hang out and burn.” Bay Nature tagged along and published a photo essay.
4.
Rep. Jared Huffman, a Marin County Democrat, is one of just four openly agnostic or religiously unaffiliated lawmakers on Capitol Hill. And he is by far the most outspoken. He has a new book, due in August, on the rising tide of Christian nationalism with chapters titled “Breaking Faith” and “Christian Privilege.” “I believe in a lot of things,” he told the Los Angeles Times’ Mark Z. Barabak. “I just don’t believe in magic and a sky god that looks like an old bearded man sitting just beyond the clouds.”
5.
“There is a lot of bullying.”
Over the last decade, the Bay Area city of San Ramon has converted six baseball diamonds and four soccer fields into three cricket fields at various parks. In a city where a quarter of the population is now of Indian origin, it’s still not enough. The demand for field time has sparked increasingly bitter turf wars between youth cricket organizations over who gets to play. S.F. Chronicle
6.
Whenever Joni Kamlet takes a walk around her neighborhood in San Francisco, a crow often lands on her head. This is by design. Kamlet, a veterinary technician, began by placing peanuts and cashews on fences along her walk to draw the birds near. After about two months, the first crow landed on her head. “Now it happens regularly, almost daily,” Kamlet said. “It is more than one crow. I can tell this by the weight.” Her videos have been a sensation on TikTok. The Dodo
7.
The Bay Area’s last ghost town is slowing vanishing into a marsh. During its peak, a century ago, Drawbridge was home to an eccentric community of people seeking to live off the grid on an island at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay. Brothels, gambling, and duck hunting drew trainloads of visitors on summer weekends. Long after the last resident left in the 1970s, Drawbridge can now only be glimpsed from a distance after being deemed illegal and unsafe to visit. An SFGATE reporter got as close as she could.
Southern California
8.
A Chula Vista jury on Thursday found Larry Millete guilty of killing his wife after she had an affair with a coworker, in a case that has transfixed the city since Maya Millete vanished in January 2021. Defense lawyers had argued that Maya Millete, whose body was never found, could plausibly have skipped town. But they ultimately failed to persuade jurors that the 39-year-old mother of three would have abandoned her kids. “She loved her children, it was obvious,” said Beverly Feldman, a juror. S.D. Union Tribune | Courthouse News
9.
The authorities said on Thursday that another “takeover” event is in the works in Huntington Beach after a mob of thousands of young people rampaged through Newport Beach over the July Fourth weekend. “Dear ‘Beach Bash’ organizers,” the Huntington Beach Police Department wrote in an Instagram post. “Thanks for the flyer. We’ve seen it too.” The agency went on: “We have no intention of allowing that to happen here.” O.C. Register | L.A. Times
10.
The 29-year-old influencer who helped bring down the Maine Democrat Graham Platner also played a key role in surfacing accusations of sexual misconduct against former Rep. Eric Swalwell. Cheyenne Hunt, who lives in Orange County, leads Reckoning Action, an anti-misogyny group. Posting regularly to her hundreds of thousands of followers, she became a friendly face for accusers to reach out to. This is just the start, she told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s this general sense of people being fed up with this idea of a class of powerful men who act with impunity and treat violence against women as a currency of power,” she said.
11.
La Mesa Drive in Santa Monica teems with architectural history. Along a stretch of roughly half a mile, four homes are designated as landmarks; architects include Paul R. Williams, J.R. Davidson, Oscar Niemeyer, and Lloyd Wright. That means strict rules govern how much properties can change. For some deep-pocketed owners, it’s a source of growing tension. Otto Haselhoff sued to remove his home’s landmark designation. “Anything you want to do requires approval,” he said. “There are constant questions. Is it your property if you can’t change it?” Wall Street Journal
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past couple weeks:
- Jeff Goldblum has lived in the hills above West Hollywood for more than four decades. He invited Architectural Digest to tour the renovation of his guest house, which includes a nightclub-style social space and a gym with pink workout equipment.
- While flying his drone off the California coast, Nick Bertocchini has seen a lot of sharks. But even he got nervous watching a great white circle a surfer in Aptos last month. He tried to warn him by revving the drone’s motors, which got his attention. Video of the encounter went viral online. The Inertia | Lookout Santa Cruz
- When the photographer Shelby Duncan arrived to Los Angeles, her home became a hub for a revolving cast of musicians, filmmakers, and other artists. For six years, she documented everything. Her photos are now part of a collection that celebrates being young, strange, and wonderful in L.A. AnOther magazine | Blind Magazine
- György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto is a work of such complexity that it is seldom programmed. But at the Ojai Music Festival, the violinist Leila Josefowicz delivered a performance that bowled critics over. The L.A. Times’ Mark Swed said it “has to be heard (and seen!) to be believed for its fantastic virtuosity, whimsical weirdness and Josefowicz’s absorption of music into her body.”
- The sights alone are enough to make the meandering drive along Highway 1 worthwhile. So is the food. Michelin Guide published a culinary itinerary from the North Coast to Laguna Beach.
Scheduling note: The California Sun will be off for two weeks beginning later this month: July 27 to Aug. 7. We’re taking the kids on an overseas adventure.
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