Health officials brace for a crucial week ahead.

Mansion-building continues under stay-at-home order.

And NRA sues the governor over gun store closures.

The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units in California doubled in a single day, from roughly 200 on Friday to more than 400 on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. Hospitalizations also jumped roughly 40 percent. The numbers may seem small in a state the size of California, but the percentage increase is troubling. Those numbers "are the first thing I look at when I get up in the morning," Newsom said. S.F. Chronicle 

Health officials braced for a crucial week ahead. A.P.

First cases in Kings County, 12 patients at a  nursing home in San Bernardino County, and five more deaths across L.A. County. Here are the latest coronavirus totals, according to tallies by the S.F. Chronicle and N.Y. Times:

Confirmed cases:
141,995 in U.S.
6,300 in California
1,903 in Bay Area
3,690 in Southern California

Cumulative cases and deaths in California:

See trackers of cases in California, the U.S., and worldwide.


In 2006, California spent $214 million on a massive emergency medical reserve, including mobile hospitals, ventilators, and N95 respirators. Then the ambitious effort hit a wall: a recession, falling state revenues, and a fiscally minded governor in Jerry Brown. The stockpile collapsed and the hospitals were defunded. Reveal

California let nearly a quarter of its public health labs close since 1999. Sacramento Bee

Meet Dr. Sara Cody, the doctor who ordered the nation's first coronavirus lockdown. Santa Clara County's public health officer, Cody got a call at 6:49 a.m. on Jan. 31. "You've got your first positive," a voice said. Since then, Cody's colleagues say, she has seldom hesitated in a furious race against the virus. Mercury News

Even as millions of people stay home in the Bay Area, construction sites have continued to hum along thanks to carve-outs in the shelter-in-place order. Among the projects: multimillion-dollar mansions, high-rise waterfront condos, and a stately Victorian — all deemed "essential" in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Washington Post

An analysis of tracking data from smartphones showed that Californians, overall, have performed admirably under stay-at-home orders, reducing their average distance traveled by a whopping 48 percent between February and March. Results varied by county. Napa and Mono counties, for example, were among the most conscientious. Modoc, Siskiyou, and Lassen counties: Not so much. Sacramento Bee

In the Seattle area, where the first U.S. cases were reported, evidence suggests that containment strategies are paying off. Experts cited hopeful signs in the Bay Area too. N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle

Sonoma County is under a strict shelter-in-place order. So what was the county's top emergency management official doing at the beach with his family over the weekend? Asked about the transgression, Chris Godley didn't have an answer. "Any reasoning or justification is going to sound thin," he said. Press Democrat

Outdoor options shrank further as officials closed vehicular access to all state parks and shuttered campgrounds on Forest Service and BLM land.

"Go ahead and arrest me," said a surfer to a lifeguard in Manhattan Beach Saturday morning. So the lifeguard saw to it. Summoned to the beach, the police issued the surfer a citation that carries a fine of up to $1,000 for violating a Los Angeles County order closing most beaches and parks to the public. Easy Reader News

Beaches across Southern California were mostly empty over the weekend as police enforced closures from helicopters and cruisers. L.A. Times | O.C. Register

The NRA sued Gov. Gavin Newsom and the sheriff of Los Angeles County over gun store closures. Newsom has given county sheriffs discretion over whether to close the stores, a step taken by Sheriff Alex Villanueva over concerns about crowding during a rapidly spreading pandemic. But what's really going on, the NRA explained, is a partisan scheme "to disarm you and your loved ones." Mercury News | CNN 

"Y'all, we are not Louisiana. We are not New York state. We are not California."

That was Alabama's governor explaining why she would not be ordering a stay-home order. In raw numbers, it's true that Alabama has fewer cases than the vastly larger California. But in terms of the spread, the data suggest the coronavirus is barreling through Alabama even faster. Washington Post

"The coronavirus isn't just a blue state problem." FiveThirtyEight

The federal government sent California 170 ventilators — but none of them worked. A Silicon Valley company is fixing them. L.A. Times

With everyone sheltering in place, coyotes have been spotted roaming San Francisco's empty streets. SFGate.com

"As the president fiddles," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "people are dying." Sen. Lindsey Graham responded: "That's the most shameful, disgusting statement by any politician in modern history." The Hill

The Grim Sleeper is dead. Lonnie Franklin Jr., a small-time car thief turned convicted serial killer, was found unresponsive in his cell at San Quentin State Prison, officials said. He was 67. Franklin preyed on women in South Los Angeles for more than two decades. "We can now be at peace," a victim's stepmother said. L.A. Times | A.P.

Today's California Sun: Health officials brace for a crucial week ahead, mansion-building continues under stay-at-home order, and NRA sues the governor over gun store closures.

Bracing for a crucial week ahead // NRA sues over gun store closures

Terrifying projections of the death that awaits.

Mask-sewing brigades spring up across the state.

And a run of crystal blue skies over Los Angeles.

Best-case scenario in Silicon Valley: 2,000 dead by June. 

That projection came from San Jose's office of emergency management, which modeled outcomes based on how faithfully people adhere to social distancing guidelines in California's coronavirus epicenter. County officials declined to endorse the estimate. Mercury News | San Jose Inside

In Southern California, Los Angeles County saw a surge of confirmed cases, rising from 808 to 1,229 between Wednesday and Thursday  — an increase of 52 percent. "If this rate of increase continues, in six days we will be where New York is today," Mayor Eric Garcetti said. L.A. Times | A.P.

Numbers also rose sharply in Riverside County, where officials warned that more than 1,000 people could die by May. Press Enterprise

Confirmed cases:
85,381 in U.S.
4,033 in California
1,418 in Bay Area
2,152 in Southern California

See trackers of cases in California, the U.S., and worldwide.

Farmworkers have been deemed "essential workers." That means every day, thousands of them are continuing to pile into buses to be driven to California's fields and orchards, where they ensure the nation's food supply — sometimes with few safety measures. No farmworker has been confirmed to be carrying the coronavirus, but it's been marching across the state's agricultural regions. Civil Eats | HuffPost

A statewide health care union based in Oakland said it found a whopping 39 million N95 masks that it would make available to hospitals in California and elsewhere. S.E.I.U.-U.H.W. said it tracked down the masks from a private company based in Pennsylvania. "There was nothing magical about it," a spokesman said. "We just rolled up our sleeves and tried anybody who we thought might have a supply." Buzzfeed | NBC Bay Area

Mask-sewing brigades have been springing up across Orange County. O.C. Register

An Irvine doctor who has treated several COVID-19 patients moved into a tent in his garage to safeguard against spreading the disease to his family. Dr. Timmy Cheng can see his wife, toddler, and parents, but only from a distance. "They bring me food from the garage door," he said. "They drop it off at the doorway, they run away, then I go pick up the food." NBC Los Angeles

There may never be a return to normal in Hollywood. Audiences have been retreating from theaters to home video for some time. But now the transition is getting an adrenaline shot. For the story, on the cover of this week's Hollywood Reporter, a photographer captured strange views of an abandoned Hollywood. Hollywood Reporter

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with CalMatters' Dan Walters. The longtime political columnist discussed how Gov. Gavin Newsom has been handling the coronavirus pandemic. His verdict: Meh. "He has a tendency to like the sound of his own voice," Walters said. He added: "I mean, he's a smart guy but he doesn't have to keep trying to prove to us how smart he is by talking and talking and talking and talking." California Sun Podcast

Los Angeles County supervisors moved to oust Sheriff Alex Villanueva as head of the county's emergency operations center, a move he called a "pure power grab at the worst time possible." L.A. Times

The California DMV is shutting down all of its field offices to the public starting today over COVID-19 concerns. Sacramento Bee

Two Tesla employees tested positive for the coronavirus. It wasn't clear whether either worked at the Fremont factory that defied an order to close last week. Business Insider

Los Angeles normally has some of the country's dirtiest air. But not lately. Rainfall has certainly played a role in L.A.'s run of pristine skies, but air quality researchers have been observing dramatic improvements in cities on coronavirus lockdown around the world. Laura Nelson, a transportation reporter at the L.A. Times, shared the image above on Twitter. "I've never seen the skies so clear in Los Angeles for so many days," she wrote. "So beautiful that it's almost painful to look at." 

Below, a few more views from the last week. 

This week, L.A. drivers averaged more than 70 mph at 5 p.m. L.A. Times

As you prepare for another weekend in isolation, make sure you haven't missed any classics: Hollywood Reporter surveyed studio chiefs, Oscar winners, and TV royalty to craft a ranking of the 100 best movies of all time, among them "Slumdog Millionaire," "Amelie," "Fargo," and "Chinatown." Hollywood Reporter

Also: The Louvre. The Guggenheim. San Francisco's De Young Museum. Here are 10 world-class museums that offer virtual tours. Smithsonian magazine

Nancy Pelosi turned 80 on Thursday. The Washington Post marked the occasion with a profile headlined "A troublemaker with a gavel." It included this anecdote: At a meeting a few days after President Trump's inauguration in 2017, he repeated his fantastical claim of widespread voter fraud. "There's no evidence to support what you just said," Pelosi snapped. "And if we're going to work together, we have to stipulate to a certain set of facts." "She's going to get us," Stephen Bannon whispered to colleagues. "Total assassin. She's a total assassin." Washington Post

Five items that got big views over the past week:

We've been through shutdowns like this before. Here's a look back at the way California responded to the 1918 influenza pandemic. California Sun

A videographer piloted a drone around San Francisco on Sunday and captured haunting views of boarded-up buildings and empty avenues. YouTube/Space Race Studio

A Stanford biophysicist correctly predicted that China would get through the worst of its coronavirus outbreak long before many health experts had predicted. His view of the U.S.: "We're going to be fine." L.A. Times

The S.F. Chronicle published a great photo essay on San Francisco's cooped-up residents, seen at their windows.

Here's what death looks like in the time of coronavirus. As Stacey Silva's father lay dying at a Gilroy hospital, she watched from the ICU hallway, behind two sets of glass doors. "It broke my heart into a million pieces," she said. Mercury News

Today's California Sun: Terrifying projections of the death that awaits, mask-sewing brigades spring up across the state, and a run of crystal blue skies over Los Angeles.

Terrifying projections // Crystal blue skies over Los Angeles

Rate of new cases now on par with New York.

Banks agree to a 90-day mortgage grace period.

And a look back at California during the 1918 pandemic.

The scarcity of PPE — or "personal protective equipment" — has become a flashpoint for California nurses who say they are being given N95 respirator masks only when treating patients confirmed to have COVID-19. "We are really afraid now," one said. "There are nurses writing their wills." NBC News

L.A. County officials told health workers to reuse face masks and wear expired gear in a desperate bid to conserve supplies. L.A. Times

About half of the patients at a hospital in San Jose are confirmed or suspected to have the new coronavirus, a hospital executive told a medical journal. Dr. Stephen Parodi said the "jury's still out" on the age group most affected. "We have people that are as young as in their 30s and 40s who have clinically deteriorated and required mechanical ventilation," he said. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle

California once expected the rate of new cases to double every six to seven days. That's changed, a top health official said: "We see cases doubling every three to four days." CalMatters | L.A. Times

A full lockdown was ordered at Laguna Honda Hospital, a large nursing home that serves some of San Francisco's most vulnerable people, after five staff members tested positive for the virus. Nursing homes, with their closely quartered residents, have been vectors for the coronavirus in other places, where death arrived quietly, then spread everywhere. S.F. Chronicle | SFist

Former gubernatorial candidate John Cox, a first case in Inyo County, and a doubling of infections in Humboldt County. Here are the latest coronavirus totals, according to the S.F. Chronicle and N.Y. Times:

Confirmed cases:
68,508 in U.S.
3,166 in California
1,176 in Bay Area
1,587 in Southern California

Kaiser Permanente, a major health group in Oakland, has halted filling routine chloroquine prescriptions for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and malarial patients because it wants to conserve the medication as a possible treatment for COVID-19. A Los Angeles woman with lupus asked about the denial and received a letter thanking her for her "sacrifice." Buzzfeed

Four of the nation's largest banks have agreed to suspend mortgage payments for 90 days for California homeowners affected by the coronavirus. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and U.S. Bank, along with about 200 state-chartered banks and credit unions, agreed to the grace period. More than 1 million Californians have filed unemployment claims since March 13. Mercury News | KQED

"Maria, I'm going to have to cancel tomorrow's cleaning. Thank you," said one text.

“Hi, plz cancel our cleaning for tomorrow," said another.

Job cancellations have been piling up on the cellphones of California's housekeepers and nannies, as the well-off dispense with their help. "I'll go crazy with despair," said Maria Zamorano, just before another text arrived on her screen. "Oh my God, she canceled, too." N.Y. Times 

"Everything came to a screeching halt." "It's terrifying." "I am scared."

Berkeleyside checked in with local business owners to see how they were faring through the shutdown. It found widespread despair, with receipts plummeting by as much as 75 percent and the decline only worsening. Also: customers rallying in support. Berkeleyside

A couple of the latest examples the hemorrhaging of jobs:

An ice skating rink in Santa Clarita closed permanently after 20 years in business, leaving youth hockey leagues and figure skating  in limbo. The Signal

The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, a zoo a botanical garden in Palm Desert, announced that it laid off two-thirds of its staff. Desert Sun

California has been slowly growing its financial surplus for more than six years, amassing the largest cash reserve in the state's history — projected to amount to $21 billion by next summer. Now analysts say the whole thing could be spent in a matter of months. "This is a sudden downturn unlike anything we've seen," one said. L.A. Times

Aidan Lower, a kid in Sonoma County, figured his 10th birthday would be a low-key affair. Then a parade appeared in front of his house, headed up by his grandparents. Friends and family cheered from inside their cars, blasting "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. "It brought tears to everybody," his granddad said. Press Democrat

Little Free Libraries in the Bay Area have been turning into coronavirus supply stations as neighbors fill them with food, soap, and toilet paper. S.F. Chronicle

The Chino Hills High School choir performed an a cappella rendition of "Over the Rainbow" — from their own houses — to cheer people up. It's been viewed 1 million times. O.C. Register

What would the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed by the Senate mean for California? Significant aid for airports, transit, and the homeless, as well as $1,200 for most American adults. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times

Tim Cook said Apple had procured 10 million masks and would donate them to the medical community in the U.S. Bloomberg

Stephen Curry is hosting a question-and-answer session with Dr. Anthony Fauci on Instagram today at 10 a.m. Watch it here. S.F. Chronicle

In September of 1918, a global flu pandemic made entry into California. What happened over the following months will sound familiar. City officials imposed "stay at home" orders and closed schools and places of "public amusement." Tents, hotels, and large halls served as makeshift hospitals. Panic was everywhere. Here's a visual look back at California's experience of the 1918 influenza pandemic. California Sun 

Today's California Sun: Rate of new cases now on par with New York, banks agree to a 90-day mortgage grace period, and a look back at California during the 1918 pandemic.

Quickening pace of infections // 90-day mortgage grace period

California braces for a N.Y.-style surge of infections. 

Mountain towns are incensed by influx of outsiders.

And haunting drone views of an empty San Francisco.

New York has 10 times as many COVID-19 cases as California. That has public health experts wondering if an early and aggressive response saved the Golden State from a similar fate. More testing in New York is likely a factor. And it may be that New York is simply a few days ahead of California, where an explosion of cases now looms. "Days matter," a researcher said. S.F. Chronicle | Reuters

A Lancaster teenager who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, officials said. If the cause of death is confirmed as the coronavirus, the boy would be the youngest known victim of the outbreak in the United States. Gov. Gavin Newsom said half of California's coronavirus patients have been between ages of 18 and 49. "It is a reminder to everyone to take this seriously," he said. L.A. Times | A.P.

Three Santa Rosa cops, hospital workers in Ventura County and Sacramento, and first deaths in Orange County and San Francisco. Here are the latest coronavirus totals:

Confirmed cases: 
53,852 in U.S. 
2,628 in California 
1,023 in Bay Area 
1,267 in Southern California

By Sunday, California had performed about 26,400 coronavirus tests on its 40 million people. New York, which has half as many residents, had performed more than 78,000 tests as of Monday. California's uncoordinated testing operation was likened to "an orchestra playing without a conductor." The result: An incomplete picture of the problem. L.A. Times

Jurisdictions across California have taken steps to halt evictions during the coronavirus outbreak — among them San Diego County, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Sonoma County, and Humboldt County. Now San Francisco supervisors are going further: urging a moratorium on all rent and mortgage payments. "Yes," one said, "this would be an unprecedented step but we are in completely unprecedented times." S.F. Examiner | KGO 

California's largest organization of rental property owners urged landlords to freeze rents and halt evictions for the next two months. O.C. Register

Sheriffs across the state have been improvising their own policies on the matter of whether gun shops should be forced to close. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva declared the businesses nonessential and in danger of losing their licenses. Then he reversed himself after talking with county lawyers. O.C. Register | A.P.

In Alameda County, the sheriff forced gun shops to close. Sheriffs in San Diego and San Luis Obispo counties declared them valuable services, free to operate. NBC Bay Area | NBC San Diego | The Tribune

"I'm worried someone is going to get shot."

As California's city dwellers swarm into little mountain towns, locals are becoming incensed. In Mammoth Lakes, they've banned short-term rentals. Others are calling for checking IDs on the highway. Sacramento Bee

A videographer piloted a drone around San Francisco on Sunday and captured haunting views of boarded-up buildings, empty avenues, and an abandoned Fisherman's Wharf in the normally bustling city by the bay. YouTube/Space Race Studio

The Chronicle published a photo essay on San Francisco's cooped-up residents, seen at their windows.

Humboldt Bay's vital crab fishing industry season has been devastated after demand for seafood plummeted overseas and domestically. Eureka Times-Standard

The San Joaquin Valley has a longstanding doctor shortage, making the threat of a rampaging virus more harrowing. Moreover, the region already suffers from higher rates of serious illness. Fresno Bee

"Why are we still listening to the president?" said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. She added: "We don't have time to waste. Lives are in jeopardy." SFGate.com | L.A. Times

The animal webcam is enjoying a renaissance in our newly hermetic reality. And California has some wild offerings. 

The San Diego zoo points live cameras at 10 animal enclosures, including baboons, koalas, and elephants. The Oakland Zoo has black bears. And here are the snorting northern elephant seals of the Central Coast. 

The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers 10 streams, including sea otters and hypnotic jellies. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has similar offerings.

Finally, a personal favorite: Watch endangered California condors devour carcasses along the Big Sur coast. 

Kaiser had planned to build a $900 million office tower that would have been Oakland's biggest commercial project. This week, the health group told city officials that the project was no longer happening. Kaiser blamed delays and costs. The withdrawal is a major blow that could compound the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis. S.F. Chronicle | East Bay Times

A few years back, the photographer Jeffrey Milstein hung out of a helicopter and captured gorgeous aerial images of Los Angeles. In contrast to the drone and satellite imagery now ubiquitous, his images possess exquisite clarity, expertly composed at 90-degree angles to the geometric patterns and shapes below. "You can see the same places on Google," he told WIRED, "but would you listen to an opera on a cell phone?" JeffreyMilstein.com

Today's California Sun: California braces for a N.Y.-style surge of infections, mountain towns are incensed by influx of outsiders, and haunting drone views of an empty San Francisco.

Bracing for N.Y.-style surge // Haunting drone footage of San Francisco  

Conflicting messages on the length of the shutdown.

The racist taunts faced by Asian Americans.

And PG&E agrees to plead guilty to 84 counts.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said new modeling projected that California needs 50,000 additional hospital beds to meet an expected surge of coronavirus patients. Many of those are to be added at current hospitals and three new facilities. But even with those, the state would be 17,000 beds short. Also needed: 1 billion gloves and hundreds of millions of masks. "It's going to take a heroic effort," Newsom said. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times | A.P.

Nurses at an Oakland hospital treating exposed patients said they have been asked to reuse disposable medical equipment, including masks and eye protection, endangering themselves and other patients. "Without widespread testing," one said, "there's no telling how many of us are going to silently pass Covid around." The Intercept

Gov. Gavin Newsom had hoped social pressure would suffice to enforce his statewide stay-home order. Now he's shutting things down. On Monday, dozens of parking lots at state beaches and parks were marked for closure — with more likely to follow. A recreation official in Los Angeles — where trails, parks, and beaches have been closed — said it was a shame: "Our whole mission as an agency is to provide open space for the public especially in times of stress, but people are putting everyone at risk." Ventura County Star | A.P.

Park goer in San Francisco: "I'm like prime age, you what I mean? Like not a lot of people my age are dying." KRON

That's how many jobs could be lost in California by the summer, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank. Already the daily average number of unemployment insurance claims in California has soared to 106,000 over the last week. The normal average? 2,500. Sacramento Bee | SFGate.com

A few of the reports of job losses from across the state:

The 150-year-old San Francisco Art Institute said it was closing and laying off its entire staff. KQED

San Diego Magazine said it would lay off the majority of its staff and temporarily cease operations. S.D. Union-Tribune

Los Angeles's storied Magic Castle said it was firing 189 employees, nearly its entire staff. Variety

Even as President Trump questioned whether stay-home orders have gone too far, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested California was in it for the long haul. "We are looking at the next eight weeks, on our curve, maybe the next eight to 12 weeks, to address this surge," he said. Mercury News

San Francisco public health chief: "I am sad to have to say the worst is yet to come." SFGate.com

Stanford biophysicist: "We're going to be fine." L.A. Times

On a call with White House officials, the police chief of Vacaville delivered a pointed message: "Stop testing NBA players, and start testing our first responders." Referring to reports of tests of players including Kevin Durant and two Lakers players, Chief John Carli said he had to rely on back channels to procure tests for first responders possibly exposed to the virus. He added: "We're gonna lose our first responders." ABC News

Coronavirus tests are hard to get — unless you have money, fame and the right doctor. L.A. Times

Two high schoolers along the Central Coast, at least eight LAPD officers, and the top health officer in Marin County. Here are the latest coronavirus totals, according to the S.F. Chronicle and N.Y. Times:

Confirmed cases:
43,499 in U.S.
2,246 in California
886 in Bay Area
1,060 in Southern California

Not only are police arresting fewer people, jails have been letting hundreds of inmates go in counties across the state, among them Los Angeles, Kern, Alameda, and Sacramento. Now that several coronavirus cases have emerged within California's massive prison system, pressure is increasing to release many more. A.P.

Former head of prisons: "It's a tinderbox of potential infection." KQED

The columnist Frank Shyong checked in with a number of Asian Americans across the state to see how they were holding up in a climate of xenophobic fear. They described being accosted, shunned, and bullied. It's too much, one woman told him. "I tell her I agree, it is too much, it's not fair. But there's nothing else to say, so I don't say anything, and for a minute, we're just on the phone, crying together." L.A. Times

California's chief justice ordered all jury trials across the state to halt for at least two months to put new health directives into place. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times

California companies have been stepping up to supply ventilators. Among those helping: Apple and Tesla. L.A. Times | Bloomberg

"A happy little miracle in dark times." The plant nursery business is booming as homebound Californians look to spruce up their yards. L.A. Times

Pacific Gas and Electric said it had agreed to plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, the state's deadliest wildfire. The Chronicle said the step amounted to one of the greatest corporate admissions of criminal liability in American history. California regulators determined last year that PG&E's equipment caused the fire. S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times

Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 101 years old today. Born in Yonkers in 1919, he was drawn to San Francisco and its radical traditions in his early 30s, becoming the city's de facto poet laureate for the next seven decades.

Arguably his greatest contribution: the City Lights Bookstore, which he opened on a tiny block in North Beach in 1953 in a bid to rescue literature from the ivory towers of academia and deliver it to the masses. 

City Lights became a haven for the Beats and other writers, and survived an obscenity trial in 1957 after publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." Its funky warren of rooms included sections with names such as "Anarchy," "Muckraking," and "Stolen Continents" (where American history could be found).

The shop belonged to a grittier version of San Francisco, before the tech boom and the juggernaut of online retail. Yet it has somehow survived for 67 years, open till midnight seven days a week — and with its revolutionary zeal intact. "It at once embodies the spirit that turned America on its head in the 1950s and invigoratingly carries it into a new generation," the novelist Pico Iyer wrote in 2014.

Last year, the N.Y. Times book critic Dwight Garner used the occasion of Ferlinghetti's 100th birthday to take a pilgrimage through old-school San Francisco, pausing at those places where the spirit of the Beats still lingers.

His first stop was City Lights, which Garner declared "pound for pound" the best bookstore in America. "It's so dense with serious world literature of every stripe, and so absent trinkets and elaborate bookmarks and candles and other foofaraw, that it's a Platonic ideal," he wrote. "It can inspire, even in jaded bookstore-goers, something close to religious awe."

Today's California Sun: Conflicting messages on the length of the shutdown, the racist taunts faced by Asian Americans, and PG&E agrees to plead guilty to 84 counts.

Predicting the end of the shutdown // Major admission from PG&E

Parks closed after Californians crowd together.

City dwellers flee to deserts and mountains.

And a silver lining of plummeting air pollution.

Some Californians didn't get the message.

Defying a statewide order to stay home, people crowded onto beaches in San Diego, played outdoor basketball in Venice Beach, and packed into parks across the Bay Area.  Frustrated, Gov. Gavin Newsom scolded "young people" in particular. "Grow up," he said in remarks Saturday evening. "It's time to wake up."

By Sunday, officials in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Marin counties had moved to close beaches and parks. O.C. Register | L.A. Times | Marin Independent Journal

A helicopter camera captured the "I am Legend"-like emptiness of Los Angeles's streets on Day 1 of the stay-home order. Micah Muzio/YouTube

City dwellers have been fleeing to rentals in California's deserts and mountains. The transplants say they are worried not only about the virus but also possible civil unrest. Joshua Tree, for example, has been inundated. "Every call I get is related to the coronavirus," one realtor said. L.A. Times

The belief that rural areas are safe from the virus is misplaced. That's because remote hospitals, hours from the nearest major city, often have fewer than 25 beds. "Try to imagine 100 people getting sick all at once tomorrow," said a doctor in Mono County. "If that happens, our small hospital, our small community, will be completely overwhelmed and people will die." Sacramento Bee

America's hospitals are expected to be understaffed as the coronavirus spreads, but the situation is poised to be even more dire in California. Clinical rotations have been halted for many of the state's nursing students, meaning as many 14,000 could be kept from graduation. "We see all the posts about staffing shortages, and I'm sitting at home thinking I could be helping," one said. N.Y. Times

At Newsom's request, President Trump declared a "major disaster" in California. That makes the state eligible for emergency aid, including food assistance and financial help for people who have lost work. Additional help will also come in the form of the U.S. Naval ship Mercy, a 1,000-bed hospital ship being dispatched to the Port of Los Angeles. Long Beach Post | S.F. Chronicle

Newsom deployed National Guard troops to help with food banks across the state, where demand has surged. Mercury News | L.A. Times

It took the founders of Boba Guys nine years to grow from a single pop-up in San Francisco to a bubble tea empire with locations in seven cities. It took 15 days for it to fall apart as they laid off 400 employees and shuttered all 17 of their locations. "I've never cried so much," one owner said. SFGate.com

UC Berkeley professor of public policy: "I think this is going to be larger than the Great Recession." CalMatters

Calpers, California's massive public pension fund, has shrunk by $69 billion in the last month — dropping from $404 billion to $335 billion — as the coronavirus pandemic roiled global markets. Absent a market swing in the other direction, the losses are expected to hurt governments, schools, taxpayers, and public workers. Sacramento Bee

First cases Siskiyou and Butte counties, first deaths in San Diego and Ventura counties, a sharp increase of patients in Orange County, and numerous cases inside the state prison system. Here are the latest coronavirus totals, according to the S.F. Chronicle and N.Y. Times:

Confirmed cases: 
33,018 in U.S.A. 
1,842 in California 
772 in Bay Area 
698 in Southern California

Sports columnist Bill Plaschke reached out to a voice of comfort in unsettling times, Vin Scully. 

On how he is hurting, Scully said: "It's a very difficult time to go without hugs, you know?"

On the road ahead: "From depths of depression we fought our way through World War II, and if we can do that, we can certainly fight through this." 

And a movie suggestion: "You can't watch 'Singin' in the Rain' without singing along." L.A. Times

A silver lining of the sheltering in place: Air pollution has plummeted as cars keep off the roads. N.Y. Times

Plans were in the works to mobilize tens of thousands of construction workers to retool and refit hospitals and hotels. Politico

Sen. Dianne Feinstein denied doing anything improper after a report emerged that she sold major stock holdings before the market crashed. S.F. Chronicle

Californians can now buy cocktails to go. Rules were eased to help restaurants weather the stay-home order. Eater Los Angeles

Turns out California's strict air pollution laws are good for farmers. Analyzing data from between 1980 to 2015, UC Irvine researchers found that reduction in pollution resulted in an annual increase in crop production of $600 million. "The irony is that by fighting against certain environmental regulations, these folks may be damaging their own earning capacity," a study author said. Futurity | The Verge

The photographer David Behar has made a study of the quiet side of Southern California's most popular beaches. In contrast to the more typical imagery of shorelines crowded with beachgoers, the subjects in his pictures are solitary, seemingly immersed in the beauty around them. Behar shared a handful of his images with the Sun. View them, if you will, as a guide to behaving correctly outdoors in a time of social distancing. 

Today's California Sun: Parks closed after Californians crowd together, city dwellers flee to deserts and mountains, and a silver lining of plummeting air pollution.

Californians crowd parks and beaches // Plummeting air pollution

Governor takes a dire step to curb outbreak. 

What death looks like in the time of coronavirus.

And California's eerie new reality in pictures.

In three weeks, California has gone from reporting its first case of community-spread coronavirus to ordering all 40 million residents of the state to isolate inside their homes "until further notice." Gov. Gavin News described the order, the most far-reaching in the nation, as painful but necessary to "bend the curve" on an outbreak that threatens to overwhelm the state. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times

How long will the restrictions last? When asked, Newsom was vague but said he didn't expect it to be "many, many months." He also emphasized "the significance of this next eight weeks." YouTube

Here is California's eerie new reality in pictures, by photographers from the S.F. Chronicle and L.A. Times.

What does the order mean, specifically? A few key points:

Essential services remain open. Those include gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, take-out and delivery restaurants, banks, laundromats, and more.

People are not barred from leaving their home, and walks are encouraged as long as people stay 6 feet from each other.

Violations of the order could result in misdemeanor penalties, but officials are relying on "social pressure" to enforce compliance.

California created a coronavirus website with more information.

Newsom took the dire step on Thursday as he warned President Trump that the coronavirus could infect 56 percent of Californians, or roughly 25 million people, in the next eight weeks if the state fails to curb the spread. The Mercury News ran the projection by the head of epidemiology at UC Berkeley. "Is it possible?" he said. "Yes." Mercury News | Sacramento Bee

The death of a 34-year-old Glendora man, the infection of two Lakers, and a growing foothold in Kern County. Here are the latest coronavirus totals, according to tallies by the S.F. Chronicle and N.Y. Times:

Confirmed cases:
12,392 in U.S.A.
1,058 in California
463 in Bay Area
455 in Southern California

Here's what death looks like in the time of coronavirus. As Stacey Silva's father lay dying in an isolation ward at a Gilroy hospital, she watched from the ICU hallway, behind two sets of glass doors. "It broke my heart into a million pieces," she said. "I didn't want him to feel alone." Mercury News

A Venice woman was told by an infectious disease specialist that she "clearly" had COVID-19, but that they couldn't spare a test to confirm the diagnosis because she wasn't high-risk or elderly. Her experience, health care workers said, is troublingly common, suppressing official tallies and making it even harder to control the outbreak. L.A. Times  

"We will be testing everyone on that ship." 
— Vice President Mike Pence, March 6

Two weeks after Pence made that pledge regarding the passengers aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship, the Chronicle has learned that roughly two-thirds of passengers have declined testing, often at the encouragement of federal health officials. They were said to be worried that a positive test would extend their quarantine at Travis Air Force Base. S.F. Chronicle | SFist

After several days of defying a county order, Elon Musk changed direction and said he would suspend work at Tesla's Fremont auto-making plant — but not until Monday. The continued work at the factory, near the epicenter of the Bay Area's coronavirus outbreak, has stoked intense criticism. Ars Technica | N.Y. Times

Musk has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus. He's called the panic "dumb," said children are "essentially immune," and declared there would "probably" be no new U.S. cases by the end of April. recode | The Verge

Today's California Sun: Governor takes a dire step to curb outbreak, what death looks like in the time of coronavirus, and California's eerie new reality in pictures.

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