Good morning. It's Friday, Dec. 13.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 4 minutes

Planned Parenthood sets up at Los Angeles schools. 

UC grad students launch strike for higher pay.

And famous Californians before they made it big.

"Normal life has changed, and it's never going to be the same again."

Christchurch, New Zealand, offers a powerful example of what Los Angeles or San Francisco can expect when the next big earthquake hits. On Feb. 22, 2011, Christchurch shook violently, killing 185 people and toppling the skyline. Eight years later, the recovery is incomplete. Plausible quakes in California would be much worse. L.A. Times

Just a week ago, 85 percent of the state was deemed abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor. After another round of soaking rain and snow, that figure is now just 4 percent. "All of a sudden we went from people wondering when it would rain to people wondering when it will stop raining," a meteorologist said. SFGate.com | KTLA

The Trump administration signed off on an order to open up more than 1,800 square miles of Central California to fracking and conventional oil drilling. Most of the new development is expected in the Bakersfield and Santa Barbara areas, where significant extraction already occurs. But the plan also allows for drilling at the edge of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks and the Carrizo Plain National Monument, pictured above. S.F. Chronicle | Sacramento Bee

A group of graduate student instructors at UC Santa Cruz launched an unauthorized strike demanding higher wages — and they plan to withhold student grades if the administration doesn't capitulate. The workers say they can't afford food and housing on their monthly stipend of $2,000. "We're not playing defense anymore with these administrations," a striker said. Santa Cruz Sentinel | KPIX

Construction of a suicide net on the Golden Gate Bridge is two years behind schedule. Delays blamed on the lead contractor mean the project won't be done until 2023. With the bridge averaging 30 suicide deaths a year, that means two more years of a mounting and unnecessary loss of human life, champions of the project said. S.F. Examiner | S.F. Chronicle

Countless plump, pink worms were found strewn across two miles of beach in Point Reyes after a recent storm. Known as fat innkeeper worms, their distinctive shape is perfectly suited to a life spent underground. It's also the reason for the worm's other name, penis fish. Bay Nature | Vice

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman chats again with Sam Liccardo. The mayor of San Jose has been spearheading an effort to turn PG&E into a customer-owned utility. For a city wedded to the tech economy, power outages are more than an inconvenience, he said. "For us it's a pretty existential challenge." California Sun Podcast

Planned Parenthood is opening 50 reproductive health clinics at Los Angeles-area high schools in what is believed to be the most ambitious effort of its kind in the country. The program will offer a full range of birth control options, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy counseling, but not abortion, for an estimated 75,000 teens. Washington Post | LAist

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan congresswoman who has been critical of Israel, was scheduled to give a talk at a high school in Poway. Then protesters called the event an insult to local Jewish community. Now the school district has withdrawn permission to hold the event. The reason? They need to clean the theater that day. S.D. Union-Tribune | Times of San Diego

Los Angeles County adopted a boycott of automakers that fail to meet California's clean air laws, retaliating against companies like General Motors and Toyota that sided with the Trump administration in a skirmish over emissions standards. The state announced a similar move last month. "We don't want to go back to Smogville," a supervisor said. Courthouse News Service | L.A. Daily News

A group of residents has been meeting every month in South Los Angeles to talk about buying property in their neighborhoods. It's called Buy Back The Block L.A. and it was inspired by Nipsey Hussle, the rapper and entrepreneur killed last March. "We're anti-gentrification, and we're unapologetic about it," the founder said. He added, "This is our neighborhood. This is our culture. These are our streets." Curbed Los Angeles

A couple looks back at famous Californians before they made it big:

This is Saul Hudson, better known as Slash, jamming with his band at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in 1982. In his autobiography, the Guns N' Roses guitarist recalled how, at age 14, he heard his first music teacher play "Brown Sugar" by the Rolling Stones. "That's what I want to do," Hudson told him. "That." He practiced 12 hours a day.

That's Quentin Tarantino behind the counter at a video rental shop in Manhattan Beach in the 1980s. It was during this job at Video Archives that he worked on screenplays for "True Romance," "Natural Born Killers," and "Reservoir Dogs." 

One of the store owners later recalled Tarantino's encyclopedic answers when asked about obscure films: "Quentin would go on to tell you who the supporting cast was, who the DP was, who wrote the screenplay, and probably do a couple of scenes from the film with the dialogue verbatim." Here's that interview.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

Images of the violence at the 1969 Altamont Speedway concert were published in Rolling Stone without captions. The photographer feared retribution from the biker gang. Fifty years later, he's finally published a collection of his photos. S.F. Chronicle | Juxtapoz

An elderly couple's simple dispute with Allstate Insurance Company over $200,000 has been overshadowed by an unconventional tactic of their lawyer: ridiculously over-the-top profanity. Law & Crime | Above the Law

Sacramento is one of the great mural towns. Hundreds of outdoor walls have been transformed into works of art in an ongoing effort to enliven California's heart of bureaucratic dreariness. Here are a couple photographic tours. Wideopenwalls.com | Sacramento Journalism Review

Los Angeles's mountains are glorious year-round — but especially in the fall and winter. Here are nine choice cabin rentals in mountain towns nearby yet a world away. Curbed Los Angeles

It's uncertain what drew the photographer George Fardon to San Francisco at the onset of the Gold Rush, but he amassed a bounty far more precious than mere metal. His "San Francisco Album," published in 1856, is credited as the earliest published photographic record of an American city. Flickr

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

Today's California Sun: Planned Parenthood sets up at Los Angeles schools, UC grad students launch strike for higher pay, and famous Californians before they made it big. 

Planned Parenthood sets up at L.A. schools // Famous Californians before they made it big

Good morning. It's Thursday, Dec. 12.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

A proposal to put Oakland's homeless on a cruise ship.

"Beverly Hillbillies" mansion sells for $150 million.

And pictures from a year of catastrophes and conflict.

"This is a chance to solve a problem for America."

The House passed a bill creating a path to legal status for farmworkers in the country illegally, including roughly 250,000 in California. The vote was a rare moment of bipartisanship, but it was uncertain whether the Republican-controlled Senate would take it up. Salinas Californian | Fresno Bee

Natural gas bans are proliferating across California. Since Berkeley banned gas appliances in new homes over the summer, more than 20 municipalities have followed suit. California regulators just gave the go-ahead to six of them — San Jose, Menlo Park, San Mateo, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Marin County — to impose new limits starting in January. S.F. Chronicle

Several publications have compiled retrospectives on the year in pictures. California's wildfires have been widely featured. So has that striking image of Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointing at President Trump during a contentious White House meeting. Among the others: a homeless encampment in Oakland, Megan Rapinoe in celebration, Felicity Huffman in prison clothes, the deadly shooting at Saugus High School, and a gorgeous shot of the Lost Coast. N.Y. Times | Washington Post | CNN

According to dangerousroads.org, Mineral King Road curves an estimated 98 times in 25 miles before reaching its terminus at Mineral King Valley. It's a thrill ride for some but a deterrence to others, which is one reason the subalpine valley in Sequoia National Park is among California's greatest crowd-free natural wonders. A picnic lunch at Eagle Lake, pictured above, can be accomplished in a single day, no camping necessary. Modern Hiker | Valley Public Radio

Oakland's City Council president has a plan for housing the homeless: Put them on a cruise ship at the city's port. Rebecca Kaplan said she was reading an old article about cruise ships used for emergency housing after natural disasters when she got the idea. "I thought, well, we have a natural-disaster level of crisis," she said. S.F. Chronicle | USA Today

A Redding City Council member had a different idea: detaining homeless people until they "demonstrate self-sufficiency." Record Searchlight

President Trump has fulminated against the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as a liberal bastion. Now the Senate has confirmed two conservative Justice Department lawyers to seats on the court. One, Lawrence VanDyke, was labeled "not qualified" by the American Bar Association, which called him "arrogant, lazy, an ideologue and lacking in knowledge of the day-to-day practice including procedural rules." A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

Millions of Americans now use "smart speaker" devices such as the Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. The companies attest that privacy is paramount. Yet, Bloomberg reports, low-paid workers are inarguably listening to intimate moments inside people's homes — without their knowledge. "There's this creeping erosion of privacy that just keeps going and going," a tech professor said. "People don't know how to protect themselves." Bloomberg

It's uncertain what drew the British photographer George Fardon to San Francisco at the onset of the Gold Rush, but he amassed a bounty far more precious than mere metal. Unlike most of his contemporaries, who confined themselves to studios, Fardon lugged his camera to balconies, sidewalks, and hilltops to capture the architecture and landscapes of the burgeoning city. His remarkable "San Francisco Album," published in 1856, is credited as the earliest published photographic record of an American city. Southern Methodist University uploaded 30 of the images to Flickr.

Note the photo titled "Fort Vigilance," pictured above. It shows the Montgomery Block Building, lined with sandbags and surrounded by armed guards, that served as headquarters for the Committee of Vigilance. The group was established by San Francisco's business class to stamp out gangsterism, unrestrained by "quibbles of the law."

Six people, including at least two doctors, were arrested after they blocked an entrance to the Border Patrol's San Diego headquarters. Doctors and immigrant rights groups have been seeking to administer flu shots to detained migrant children at the border after three children died from the disease in custody last year. S.D. Union-Tribune | Newsweek

After two years of legal wrangling, Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio reached a tentative settlement that would allocate $25 million to dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims. Weinstein would not admit wrongdoing or pay anything to his accusers out of his own pocket. But he's not off the hook. His criminal trial in Manhattan starts in January. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times 

Disney, worth about $130 billion, is being sued by workers who accuse the company of failing to pay a living wage. Food servers, bellhops, doormen, and other Disneyland employees earn as little as $12 an hour, leading some to live in cars and on people's couches. The resort is accused of violating an Anaheim measure requiring companies that get city subsidies to pay workers at least $15 an hour. Daily Beast | LAist 

A Bel-Air estate has sold for the highest price in California history, about $150 million. Purchased by Lachlan Murdoch, the media executive and son of Rupert Murdoch, it's also the second most expensive residential sale ever recorded in the U.S. Classic TV watchers might recognize the French Neoclassical-style chateau. It's the home of the Clampett family from the credits of "The Beverly Hillbillies." The Real Deal | L.A. Times

Today's California Sun: A proposal to put Oakland's homeless on a cruise ship, "Beverly Hillbillies" mansion sells for $150 million, and pictures from a year of catastrophes and conflict.

A proposal to put homeless on a cruise ship // The year in pictures

Good morning. It's Wednesday, Dec. 11.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

Michael Bloomberg readies ad blitz in California.

Psychedelic microdosing looks to go mainstream.

And Kern County mounts challenge to oil pullback.

A group of students and community organizations filed a highly anticipated lawsuit seeking to bar the University of California from requiring SAT and ACT scores in admissions. The suit cites research showing how expensive preparation courses disadvantage low-income students and racial minorities. "What the SAT and ACT are doing are exacerbating inequities in the public school system," a lawyer said. NPR | CALmatters

Few Californians support Michael Bloomberg's bid for president — for now. The 77-year-old billionaire is skipping the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire and deploying $14 million worth of TV ads in California, a Super Tuesday state. He's already lined up endorsements from the mayors of San Jose and Stockton. And today, he's scheduled to appear with Jerry Brown in San Francisco. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra planned to issue subpoenas to half of the state’s Catholic dioceses in an escalation of his investigation into the church's handling of sex abuse cases. Under renewed public pressure over the last year, California churches have been releasing previously undisclosed names of clergy accused of abuse. L.A. Times | Sacramento Bee

A surge of new lawsuits in California and other states threatens to saddle the Catholic Church with payout liabilities topping $4 billion. A.P.

The Monterey cypress is a pretty perfect symbol for California. They only grow here, and their arching with the wind echoes California's resilience in the face of perpetual punishment by the forces of nature. 

The trees occur naturally no other place but around Pebble Beach and Point Lobos, as iconic to the area as the pyramids are to Egypt. The stretch of coast has been famously described as "the greatest meeting of land and water in the world." Parks.ca.gov | Roadtrippers

For years, Silicon Valley has embraced microdosing — or taking minuscule amounts of psychedelic drugs — as a way to be more alert, creative, and kind. Now startups are trying to move the practice into the mainstream. Kevin O'Leary from the TV show "Shark Tank" is an investor in MindMed, which is developing psychedelic-inspired medicines that promote wellness without getting people high. "This could save lives, cure depression, help alcoholism, get people off opioids," he said. "Why wouldn't I want to be invested?" Fast Company

The Fieldbrook Giant was one of the largest coastal redwoods to ever exist. Estimated at more than 360 feet tall and 32 feet across, it stood sentry over Humboldt County for more than 1,000 years before being felled in 1896 in what was described as a drunken bet. Now it's coming back. Using tissues collected from sprouts on the trunk, scientists have planted cloned saplings in San Francisco, Humboldt County, and Britain as part of an effort to recover the world's most impressive trees. North Coast Journal

"We're thrown out into this world and have little idea about what the heck we're supposed to do." 

At U.C. Berkeley, courses on "adulting" teach students such things as cooking, budgeting, job hunting, and time management. They've proven to be quite popular. L.A. Times

Sacramento is one of the great mural towns. Hundreds of outdoor walls have been transformed into works of art as part of an ongoing effort to enliven California's heart of bureaucratic dreariness. Among them are a towering technicolor Johnny Cash, and, pictured above, mom and baby orangutans made from scavenged materials by the Portuguese artist Bordalo II. Here are a couple photographic tours. Wideopenwalls.com | Sacramento Journalism Review

California's petroleum capital is mounting a challenge to Gov. Gavin Newsom's moves to curb oil drilling. Kern County supervisors voted unanimously to form a coalition that will extoll the importance of the oil industry in Sacramento. "The arrogance and hypocrisy of this administration to deny Californians access to our own natural resources is appalling," a supervisor said. Bakersfield Californian

As California retreats from oil production, Washington is expediting it on federal land in the state. CALmatters

Hollywood's Walk of Fame is taking product placement to a whole new level. The Chevy Suburban has become the first inanimate object to get a brass and terrazzo star on the sidewalk. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce said the vehicle was chosen for its many appearances on screen. Asked if money had changed hands, the group's president said, "I don't think that's relevant to your article." The Guardian

The increasingly ridiculous cost of living along the California coast is causing some inland cities to balloon with transplants. Take Beaumont. The Riverside County city is one of the fastest growing in the state, having quadrupled in size since 2000. The N.Y. Times published a portrait of life in Beaumont, where the community remains tight-knit and the median home goes for $345,000. N.Y. Times

Here's the San Diego California Temple. Opened in 1993, the Mormon house of worship became an instant landmark, rising like a giant white wedding cake beside the I-5 in La Jolla. Some architecture critics have dismissed the work as kitsch. But many tourists and locals love the structure, especially during the Christmas season when the temple dons one of the region's most dazzling light displays. Times of San Diego

Mormons have a deep history in California. California Sun

Today's California Sun: Michael Bloomberg readies ad blitz in California, psychedelic microdosing looks to go mainstream, and Kern County mounts challenge to oil pullback.

Bloomberg goes after California // Microdosing looks to go mainstream

Good morning. It's Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

Unexpected oases sprout from the Salton Sea.

Coffee roaster eliminates plastic and paper cups.

And a San Francisco man is jailed over a cookie.

A data analysis revealed that nearly every city and county in California is lagging on state-mandated housing goals. Plenty of jurisdictions plan projects, yet fewer than 3 percent have issued the permits to actually build them. A homebuilding consultant blamed political resistance. "Anti-growth stances seem to be the key to getting reelected in many cities," he said. O.C. Register 

California has pretty much cornered the nation's innovation jobs. A report showed that just five cities — San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Boston, and Seattle — accounted for 9 out of 10 jobs created in high-tech industries from 2005 to 2017. The danger, according to economists: Much of America is left to founder as superstar cities become more congested and unaffordable. N.Y. Times | WIRED

Another report analyzed how much Silicon Valley giants have avoided in taxes over the last decade. Answer: $100 billion. CNBC

A group of therapists is challenging a state law requiring them to report to police any patients who say they viewed child pornography. Instead of helping children, they say, the reporting requirement will keep pedophiles from seeking help to control impulses. "This is a terribly unpopular cause," a critic of the law acknowledged. L.A. Times

Telescope Peak, pictured above, rises from one of the crinkliest places on earth in Death Valley National Park. It gets the name from the great distances visible from the summit. From the 11,049-foot perch, you can spy both Mount Whitney and Badwater Basin, the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States. SummitPost | NPS.gov

A man was jailed over a cookie. Gregory Fields, who was participating in court-ordered drug rehab, was helping prepare food packages for donation at a Salvation Army facility in San Francisco when he ate a single leftover cookie. That landed him back in drug court, then jail. Outraged, a public defender said the system had "conspired to cage a grown man" to teach him a lesson. VICE | SFist

Blue Bottle Coffee, the prominent Oakland coffee roaster, announced it would eliminate plastic or paper cups from two of its cafes as it moves to adopt the policy across its entire chain by the end of next year. Customers will need to bring their own mugs. "We expect to lose some business," the company's CEO said. "We might fail. We know some of our guests won't like it — and we're prepared for that. But the time has come to step up and do difficult things." SFGate.com | Eater San Francisco

Ads now running on Facebook spread misleading information about medication meant to prevent the transmission of HIV, health advocates say. They've been viewed millions of times. Yet despite the appeals of 52 leading LGBT groups, the social media giant refuses to remove them. Washington Post | CNET

Megan Rapinoe, pride of Redding, was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year. The lavender-haired soccer star helped lead the U.S. to victory at the 2019 World Cup. She also courted controversy by refusing to kneel during the national anthem and dissing President Trump. "Playing the world's game, on the world's stage, under attack by a world leader," SI wrote, "she dominated." Sports Illustrated

A group of doctors that last month urged border officials to let them administer flu vaccines to detained migrant children is bringing the fight to a detention facility in San Ysidro. About 40 people marched to the center on Monday and vowed not to leave until they gain access. Three children have died from the flu while in federal immigration custody over the past year. S.D. Union-Tribune | Times of San Diego

The Salton Sea, California biggest lake, has been dying for years. Yet even as its shoreline recedes, marshlands have been forming in the depressions at the lake's edge where no one thought they could flourish. Insects, birds, and fish have moved in. "Beautiful, isn't it?" a biologist said to a reporter on a recent visit. "Not exactly the gloom-and-doom apocalypse some people have been predicting for this place, is it?" L.A. Times | KTLA

For the first time, not a single program or actor from the major networks was among the 55 nominees for the Golden Globes. Instead, Netflix led in both the TV and film categories, with 17 nominations apiece. "It's shocking and weird," one analyst said, "that NBC will still telecast the Globes even though voters decided that the network's programs aren't worthy to compete." A.P. | Buzzfeed News

Fascinating fact: Los Angeles is one of only two megacities in the world with a population of big cats. The other is Mumbai. The encroachment of urban development on wildlife habitat has introduced all sorts of perils for the animals, among them rat poisons, fragmented ranges, and deadly encounters with vehicles. Jason Klassi, a documentary filmmaker, shared a remarkable image captured last June by his trail camera in the Santa Monica Mountains, above. The mountain lion is P61. Sadly, he was killed in September while trying to cross the 405 Freeway. NPS.gov | New Yorker (2017)

Today's California Sun: Unexpected oases sprout from the Salton Sea, coffee roaster eliminates plastic and paper cups, and a San Francisco man is jailed over a cookie.

Oases sprout from the Salton Sea // Man is jailed over a cookie

Good morning. It's Monday, Dec. 9.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

Firefighters earn $300,000 salaries as overtime surges.

The fastest-warming counties in the Lower 48 states.

And Katie Hill's struggles with suicidal thoughts.

Another cost of California's intensifying wildfires: Overtime pay for firefighters that has risen a staggering 65 percent over the last decade. It's helped make firefighters among the best-paid government employees in California. In Los Angeles, for example, just three firefighters earned a salary of $300,000 eight years ago. In 2018, it was more than 200. L.A. Times | A.P.

PG&E announced a $13.5 billion settlement resolving claims from some of California's most devastating wildfires, including the Camp Fire of 2018 and the Tubbs Fire of 2017. The money will help build new homes, but one part of the deal also angered some families: half of the payout will be distributed to victims in company stock. "The very people who screwed us over think we want a part in their company," said a woman whose ranch was destroyed. Bloomberg | L.A. Times

A 2018 Supreme Court ruling gave states the right to legalize and tax sports wagers, and in California a powerful coalition of tribes is looking to dominate the action. Their proposal would grant tribal casinos a near-monopoly on sports betting in California while severely limiting bettors' options. They're aiming to put it on ballot in 2020. S.F. Chronicle | Desert Sun

"... spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
— John Muir

Pictured above is a view from the Mist Trail, Yosemite's signature walk  and a portal into a fairy tale landscape. Sheer granite monoliths pierce the heavens. Waterfalls tumble more than 900 feet, rainbows forming full circles in their mist. Not far from the end of the trail is a little-known panoramic view of the park. To behold it, wrote the outdoors expert Tom Stienstra, is to be reminded of how lucky you are to be alive. S.F. Chronicle | NPS.gov

Another natural wonder in Yosemite: the people. A photographer focused on the humans that shape the park's identity. Yosemitepeople.com

An analysis revealed how the Bay Area's most vulnerable have been disproportionately hammered by rising costs. Since 2012, median rents have surged 67 percent across the region's poorest ZIP codes. In wealthier neighborhoods? They increased just 30 percent. "Here you have people with incomes that are flat or barely moving trying to keep up with a housing market driven by unbelievable growth and enrichment at the top," a geographer said. "It's just pricing them out by droves." Mercury News

San Francisco has surpassed New York for the highest construction cost per square foot in the world. S.F. Chronicle

California law enforcement tactics are facing intense scrutiny after newly released videos showed officers fatally shooting and killing fleeing suspects in two separate incidents. In one, an officer in the Bay Area city of Danville fired a volley of shots at an unarmed driver. In the other, a 15-year-old was shot in the back as he fled into an orchard near Modesto. Only after emptying his gun did an officer yell, "Get on the ground." S.F. Chronicle | KQED

A Santa Rosa police officer fired at a suspect with an umbrella, mistaking it for a rifle. Press Democrat | S.F. Chronicle

A counselor at Sacramento State made designs in the fallen ginkgo leaves around campus. Joanna Hedrick's collaborations with the fall have been a campus tradition since 2013. Instagram

See more of Hedrick's creations from past years. California Sun

Katie Hill, the Democrat from Santa Clarita who resigned from Congress after naked photos of her were leaked online, said she contemplated suicide in a deeply personal essay. "I just wanted it all to be over," she wrote. "I got up and looked for the box cutter. I couldn't find it. A part of my brain was saying: 'Stop it, this is stupid.'" N.Y. Times | CBS News

The Washington Post analyzed more than a century of temperature data and discovered that the coastal region from Santa Barbara through greater Los Angeles is warming at double the rate of the continental U.S. Since 1895, the average temperature in Santa Barbara County has warmed by 2.3 degrees Celsius. In Ventura County, the increase is 2.6 Celsius, making it the fastest-warming county in the Lower 48 states. Washington Post

California Democratic primary voters' No. 1 issue for the next president is fighting climate change, a poll showed. L.A. Times | S.F. Examiner

A Methodist church in Claremont was getting national attention after unveiling a nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as refugees in cages. In a Facebook post, a senior minister called the holy family "the most well-known refugee family in the world." She added: "What if this family sought refuge in our country today?" L.A. Times | A.P.

An elderly couple's simple dispute with Allstate Insurance Company over $200,000 has been overshadowed by an unconventional tactic of their lawyer: ridiculously over-the-top profanity. Lawyers with Allstate said Christopher Hook, Southern California lawyer, sent more than 100 emails laced with graphic suggestions that you'll have to click through to see. A judge ordered Hook to explain himself. Law & Crime | Above the Law

Jim Morrison, Lizard King of Venice Beach, was born on this week in 1943. Morrison represented an outburst of individualism not only across society, but within his own family. His father, George Morrison, a Navy rear admiral and veteran of three wars, was mystified by the long-haired poet in leather pants. He urged him to abandon music, citing "a complete lack of talent."

The rebuke shattered their relationship. When The Doors' debut album was released in 1966, press materials falsely claimed that Morrison's parents were dead. 

The elder Morrison sat in astonishment as his son became one of the most magnetic performers in rock 'n' roll. In 1970, when the singer faced an indecent exposure charge, his father wrote a letter to parole officers seeking leniency. He called his estranged son "a fundamentally responsible citizen." He also said he was proud of him. 

Nine months later, on July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison died of a heart attack in Paris. His father thought long and carefully about what to inscribe on the gravestone. The ancient Greek phrase he chose has been interpreted as an expression of reconciliation: "ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ." It means, "True to his own spirit."

In an interview for the 2009 documentary "When You're Strange,"  George Morrison recalled his son warmly. "He was just somebody you would like to know," he said. It seemed like he could be talking about his own yearning. Electric Lit | YouTube (9 mins)

Morrison's death followed that of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, all within 10 months of each other and all at the age of 27. The coincidence became known as the 27 Club, and it's been collecting new members ever since.  Rolling Stone

Today's California Sun: Firefighters earn $300,000 salaries as overtime surges, the fastest-warming counties in the Lower 48 states, and Katie Hill's struggles with suicidal thoughts.

Firefighters collect $300,000 salaries // Katie Hill's suicidal thoughts

Good morning. It's Friday, Dec. 6.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 4 minutes

Insurers' pullback from wildfire zones is halted.

Animal liberation group tries Hail Mary tactic.

And cozy cabin rentals in the L.A. mountains.

California regulators took the highly unusual step of imposing a one-year ban on insurers dropping customers in areas hit by wildfires. Insurers have rapidly retreated from many communities as they've struggled to absorb massive losses following catastrophic fires in 2017 and 2018. "This needs to stop," California's insurance commissioner said. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

In California, where the Democratic presidential contest has been extremely fluid, Sen. Bernie Sanders has now surged into a narrow lead, a poll found. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is a close second, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden. Also ascendant: Pete Buttigieg, who has doubled his support since September. L.A. Times | The Hill

Sen. Kamala Harris is having a bigger impact on the presidential primary now than she did during the race as donors and politicians pick over the remains of her campaign. Politico

"A good part of any day in Los Angeles is spent driving, alone, through streets devoid of meaning to the driver, which is one reason the place exhilarates some people, and floods others with an amorphous unease."
— Joan Didion

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman chats again with David Ulin, the former L.A. Times book editor who has edited a new collection of works by Joan Didion. He cited the writer's observation, quoted above, adding, "I think that that is as good a description of the sort of narrative-less narrative of Los Angeles as anything I've seen." California Sun Podcast

Here's Tom Waits, an American original with a voice that, as one writer put it, "can take in the full breadth of human experience." Born in Pomona and settled in Sonoma County, he turns 70 on Saturday.

Once asked (by himself) what's wrong with the world, the gravelly-voiced troubadour said, "We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. We are monkeys with money and guns." NPR

Anxiety over life in the Bay Area is reaching extraordinary levels. In a five-county poll, 67 percent of residents said they were "unhappy or worried about changes happening in the Bay Area." That's up from just 10 percent in 2016. Chief concerns: housing affordability, homelessness, and traffic. Mercury News

In the past two years, homelessness has risen 47 percent in Oakland. City officials are now proposing a crackdown. S.F. Chronicle

Direct Action Everywhere, a Berkeley animal liberation group, has a Hail Mary plan to defeat factory farms. Its members have been breaking into farms, releasing animals, and filming it all with virtual reality cameras. Two members now face trial. The plan: get the jury to strap on VR headsets and immerse them in the horrors at the heart of the meat industry. WIRED

For the first time, Uber revealed the scale of the safety problem on its rides: 3,045 reported sexual assaults in 2018. That represents a small fraction — 0.0002 percent — of the San Francisco company's total 1.3 billion rides. Even so, some viewed the report as an affirmation that the app can be dangerous. "When you're in a car by yourself it is a vulnerable situation," a union spokeswoman said. Washington Post | NPR

It was on this day that in 1969 that the Altamont Speedway free concert descended into mayhem. Hells Angels hired as security for what was supposed to be the Woodstock of the West pummeled concert goers with pool sticks, and in one case, fatally stabbed an 18-year-old within 20 feet of the stage.

Images of the violence published in Rolling Stone appeared without captions. The photographer, Bill Owens, feared retribution from the biker gang. Fifty years later, he's finally published a collection of his photos, some never-before seen. S.F. Chronicle | Juxtapoz

"If the '60s were a great wave, it gets to Altamont and crests, and you see all the garbage and dead fish left behind when the water recedes." Here's a definitive look back at how the disastrous concert came to be. Washington Post

Another California Republican is defecting. Assemblyman Chad Mayes, the former Republican leader of the chamber, switched his affiliation to no party preference. His departure, along with that of a San Diego assemblyman who became a Democrat in January, reflects the tension felt by lawmakers as California voters drift left and President Trump pulls the Republican Party right. CALmatters | Sacramento Bee

Kelly Slater, the legendary surfer with deep connections to California, wants to compete in the Olympics at age 48. He just has to get past John John Florence, a 27-year-old surfer from Hawaii who grew up idolizing Slater. The men have a bond as neighbors and friends, but there's only one remaining spot on the American team. N.Y. Times

A flesh-eating bacteria linked to the use of black tar heroin has killed at least seven people in the San Diego area since October, health officials said. The medical community was advised to be on the lookout for myonecrosis, a soft-tissue infection that destroys muscles. S.D. Union-Tribune | A.P.

Los Angeles's mountains are glorious year-round — but especially in the fall and winter. Here are nine choice cabin rentals in mountain towns nearby yet a world away, including an Instagram friendly A-frame in Idyllwild, pictured above. Curbed Los Angeles 

Soak in a hot spring. Rent a pontoon boat. Peer into the heavens at Mount Wilson Observatory. Here are 21 things to do in the mountains around Los Angeles. Curbed Los Angeles

There's a movement to repurpose rice farms as surrogate floodplains during months they would otherwise lie fallow. "It doesn't have to be fish versus farms. It can be fish and farms," an ecologist explained. bioGraphic

In 2009, UC campuses accepted 85 percent of California high school applicants. Last year, that figure was just 59 percent. Here are some campus-by-campus stats. S.F. Chronicle

At least 40 percent of all elementary school students are homeless in Salinas. One family has three kids, two paychecks, and no home. California Sunday Magazine

Here's a gorgeous video of big wave surfers at Mavericks, the fabled break near Half Moon Bay. The Inertia

California's last volcanic eruption sent pulverizing debris down Mount Lassen in 1915. A plume shot five miles into the sky that could be seen from as far as Sacramento. California Sun

Get your California Sun mugs, shirts, and hoodies.

Today's California Sun: Insurers' pullback from wildfire zones is halted, animal liberation group tries Hail Mary tactic, and cozy cabin rentals in the L.A. mountains.

Animal rights group's Hail Mary // Best L.A. mountain cabin rentals

Good morning. It's Thursday, Dec. 5.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

Ending food stamps for 198,000 Californians.

An unfathomably big wave off the Lost Coast.

And a rumination by Joan Didion on self-worth.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hired a homelessness adviser who was ousted from the Trump administration after reported clashes over White House plans for a crackdown in California. His replacement? A consultant known for urging cities to ban charities from feeding homeless people. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times

Newsom released $650 million in state aid to combat homelessness. The money had been held up for months, a delay he blamed on "politicized roadblocks." A.P. | Mercury News

Nearly 200,000 California are poised to lose access to federal food stamps under a rule just finalized by the Trump administration. The plan makes it harder for states to waive work requirements for able-bodied adults without children. Farmworkers, who rely on seasonal work, were expected to be hard hit. CALmatters

California gets its rainfall in massive bursts known as atmospheric rivers. They are both life-sustaining and punishing, commonly swamping homes along waterways unable to contain their flow. Thanks to the first-ever economic analysis of atmospheric rivers, we can now assign them a cost in damages: Roughly $1 billion per year. Scientists warned that losses will likely surge with climate change. S.F. Chronicle | Sacramento Bee

In 1961, the California writer known for her spare and meticulously calibrated prose, wrote an essay for Vogue to fill a space in the magazine as it was going to press. She wrote it not to a word count, but to an exact character count. The result, a rumination on how we manifest our character and worth, is sublime.

"If we do not respect ourselves," she wrote, "we are on the one hand forced to despise those who have so few resources as to consort with us, so little perception as to remain blind to our fatal weaknesses. On the other, we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out — since our self-image is untenable — their false notions of us." Vogue

A police officer fired more than a dozen shots at a 15-year-old boy as he ran away into an orchard near Modesto, newly released body camera footage showed. Struck in the back, Carmen Mendez died. The killing, which unfolded after a high-speed chase on Aug. 18, 2018, resulted in a $2.1 million payout to the boy's family. It's easy for people to judge, a police official said, "but we were not in the officer's shoes when it took place.” Modesto Bee | S.F. Chronicle

A wave about 20 miles off the Lost Coast last week measured a monster 74.4 feet, among the largest ever recorded by Scripps' coastal buoys. It surged under cover of darkness during a storm that made landfall on Nov. 26. That led Surfline to wonder: if it isn't ridden at Mavericks, should it even count? Surfline

Here's a gorgeous video of big wave surfers at Mavericks. The Inertia

During a broadcast, a 49ers radio analyst said Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is exceptional at faking handoffs because of his "dark skin color with a dark football." That didn't go over well with team executives, who suspended the announcer. ESPN | East Bay Times

In the Lord of the Rings, the Eye of Sauron is depicted as all seeing. Within California, the Eye of Diablo comes close to doing the same. The aerial navigation beacon was installed in 1928 atop Mount Diablo, an East Bay peak of modest height that nonetheless offers the largest viewshed in the western United States. Since the 1960s, it's been ceremonially lit each December to honor those who died at Pearl Harbor. This year's lighting is Saturday. Atlas Obscura

Rocio Rebollar Gomez has lived in San Diego for 31 years. She owns a house and a small business, and has a son who serves as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. She's also in the country illegally and was just ordered to self-deport to Mexico within 30 days. The Trump administration has pushed for scaling back on protections for undocumented relatives of military service members. S.D. Union-Tribune

A viral video on Twitter showed two men climbing over a newly built section of border wall in Mexicali. Desert Sun

In an annual ritual more than 100 years old, people gathered at a rainy Boyle Heights cemetery on Wednesday to remember Los Angeles's forgotten people — 1,457 men, women, children, and babies. The unclaimed dead didn't know each other, but they were laid to rest together. One man said he excuses his son from school every year to attend the service. "It's important for me to teach my son to care about others," he said. L.A. Times

Rep. Duncan Hunter is showing no signs of quitting the House after pleading guilty to a felony campaign finance charge. Asked by a Politico reporter about whether and when he intended to resign, he blew off the question. "Good talk," he said. Politico

Peter Dunn, an urban planner, wondered what a Los Angeles freeway map would look like if reimagined as a subway system. The result — color-coded, smoothed out, and stripped of non-essential information — clarifies every route through 31 freeways, 75 interchanges, and more than 850 exits. It took months to complete. "It's a tedious hobby," he told CityLab. "It's like knitting." CityLab | stonebrown design

Wednesday's newsletter misspelled the name of a California writer. She's Miriam Pawel, not Miram Pawel.

Today's California Sun: Ending food stamps for 198,000 Californians, an unfathomably big wave off the Lost Coast, and a rumination by Joan Didion on self-worth.

Unfathomably big wave // Joan Didion on self-worth

Good morning. It's Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Today's edition: 12 items, < 4 minutes

Diagnosing the doomed bid of Kamala Harris.

Devin Nunes sues CNN over "false hit piece."

And rounding up the best books of the decade.

The political cognoscenti tried to diagnose what had doomed Sen. Kamala Harris after she announced the end of her presidential bid in what she called "one of the hardest decisions of my life." 

Miriam Pawel noted Harris's inability to connect with Californians. "Her candidacy appeared to have no real rationale and no clear constituency." N.Y. Times

Karen Tumulty said the former prosecutor may be able to dazzle in a hearing room. "But as a presidential candidate, she was uncertain and clumsy." Washington Post

Christopher Cadelago concluded that the stage was simply too large. "Kamala the campaigner," he wrote, "couldn't live up to Kamala the idea." Politico

The graphics wizards at the N.Y. Times built a fascinating visualization comparing air pollution among the world's cities. Intensifying wildfires have been a bane for California. Last year, for example, Sacramento temporarily earned the title of most polluted city in the world. N.Y. Times

In 2016, California passed one of the most wide-ranging sex education laws in the country. But lessons on gender identity have rankled some families, with some even pulling their kids out of school. What supporters call teaching respect, detractors call indoctrination. Vox

Various publications have been rolling out best-books-of-the-decade lists, with a handful of selections that intersect with California. Literary Hub | TIME | Esquire

“How to Do Nothing" by the Bay Area writer Jenny Odell is a critique of the attention economy. It reads at first like a self-help manual, wrote one critic, "then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto." 

Tommy Orange's novel “There There” centers on American Indians living and dying in Oakland. N.Y. Times critic: "'There There' has so much jangling energy and brings so much news from a distinct corner of American life that it's a revelation."

The satirical novel "The Sellout" follows a black narrator whose mission is to reintroduce segregation to a fictional Los Angeles hood. "Paul Beatty's Booker Prize-winning masterpiece," a Lit Hub editor wrote, "is one of the funniest — and most human — novels I've ever read."

"Bad Blood" recounts the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder behind the doomed Silicon Valley darling Theranos. "John Carreyrou's masterclass in investigative reporting might also be the best thriller of the decade," TIME wrote.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the Central Valley Republican, is suing CNN for more than $435 million, claiming the news network published a "demonstrably false hit piece." The Nov. 22 story reported that Nunes met with a Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden. CNN joins a growing roster of entities sued by Nunes, among them McClatchy, Fusion GPS, four of his constituents, and a fake cow on Twitter. Roll Call | Washington Post

Nunes was in frequent contact with President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, last April as Giuliani peddled allegations at the heart of the Trump impeachment inquiry, a congressional report said. Axios | Reuters

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Stanford graduate students who founded Google, are stepping down from executive roles at Google's parent company, ending an era at the search giant. Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, will become the chief of both Google and Alphabet. N.Y. Times | WIRED

"Google is no longer listening." A group of fired Google engineers planned to file a federal labor complaint against the company. The Guardian | S.F. Chronicle

George Atkinson III, a former NFL running back and Bay Area native, died at the age of 27. The cause of death was not disclosed. Atkinson had been dealing with depression since the suicide of his twin brother late last year. In an open letter in October, Atkinson wrote, "That's the moment I felt I lost everything." Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle

The Bay Area's rolling fog is chilly, damp, rent-deflating — and, viewed from a distance, achingly beautiful. This collection of time-lapses by the photographer Simon Christen has been viewed more than 3 million times. Title: "The Unseen Sea." Vimeo

A San Diego man is now the "the highest-ranking American fighting overseas with a terrorist organization." The F.B.I. said it was re-upping a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Jehad Serwan Mostafa, who left San Diego in 2005 at the age of 23 and joined the extremist militant group Al Shabab. N.Y. Times | Washington Post

Prosecutors were expected to seek at least a year in prison for Rep. Duncan Hunter. "I made mistakes and that's what today was all about," Hunter said after a hearing where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds. Sentencing was set for March 17. S.D. Union-Tribune | NBC News

A new transparency law requires California law-enforcement agencies to disclose records related to police misconduct and serious uses of force. But the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been accused of resisting requests. In a lawsuit, the ACLU said it had sought records from 400 law-enforcement agencies across California. "LASD is the only agency in the state of California to deny the ACLU's request in its entirety." L.A. Times

A palace in Spain? No, a hotel in downtown Riverside. The magnificently eclectic Mission Inn began as a boarding house in the desert in the 1870s. Built over several decades by an eccentric millionaire, it grew into a small-scale Hearst Castle with courtyards, bell towers, chapels, fountains, arches, and winding stairways that occupies an entire city block. Ten presidents have signed the guest book. December is when the Mission Inn really shines, donning 5 million lights in one of the nation's most spectacular festival of lights. Press Enterprise | DESERT magazine

An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled the name of a California writer. She's Miriam Pawel, not Miram Pawel.

Today's California Sun: Diagnosing the doomed bid of Kamala Harris, Devin Nunes sues CNN over "false hit piece," and rounding up the best books of the decade.

Newsletter Archive