Good morning. It's Thursday, Oct. 10.
Today's edition: 14 items, < 6 minutes

Californians react angrily to massive blackout.

A town seemingly frozen in time goes up for sale.

Scheduling note: The newsletter will pause Friday and Monday. Back on Tuesday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new laws aimed at boosting housing construction. One makes it harder for communities to halt desperately needed housing projects. Another makes it easier to build so-called granny flats. A report found that California needs roughly 1.4 million more affordable housing units. A.P. | Sacramento Bee

A couple  dispatches from the NIMBY wars:

About 80 people gathered outside Newport Beach City Hall to protest a planned homeless shelter, waving placards with messages like "Newport Beach — the new Skid Row." L.A. Times | CBSLA

Neighbors are fighting to stop an affordable housing project in Redding. "This is not being built in your neighborhood," an opponent said. "It's being built in mine." Record Searchlight

California will ban the widely used agricultural pesticide chlorpyrifos starting next year under an agreement reached between regulators and manufacturers. Chlorpyrifos has been linked to brain damage in children. The state planned to set aside money to help growers make the transition to safer alternatives. A.P. | NPR

Also banned: Those tiny plastic bottles at hotels, and facial recognition in police body cameras.

Barely half of California public school students tested at grade level in English, and only 4 in 10 are proficient in math, according to newly released data. The rates actually represent a slight improvement. Still, education experts called the results troubling. A UCLA professor cited lack of investment in early education in poor communities. "No one ever says, 'Wow, we should do for the kids in Compton what we do for the kids in Brentwood,'" he said. L.A. Times | EdSource

There's a loose fraternity of Californians obsessed with the state's quirky vintage road signs. They are documenting gems like Circus Liquor and Roy's Motel in photographs and models as the cultural touchstones slowly disappear from the landscape. Chris Raley recalled when the Astro Motel sign came down north of Fresno. "One day I drove down the freeway, and it was gone," he said. "I didn't get choked up, but I came real close." Atlas Obscura 

Millions of people across Northern California lost power on Wednesday as PG&E initiated the largest preventive outage in state history in a precaution against wildfires. By midday at least 500,000 homes and businesses had been cut off across a swath of the state from the forests of Humboldt County to the densely populated cities near San Francisco. The second phase of the shutoff began kicking in late Wednesday, with blackouts planned to hit another roughly 234,000 houses and businesses across the Bay Area and Sierra foothills. Officials said the outages could last into next week. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

Winds in the Bay Area were gusting up to 70 mph late Wednesday, and were expected to pick up overnight. National Weather Service

Here are live outage maps by the S.F. Chronicle and PG&E.

"Excessive." "Out of control." "All political." Many Californians weren't buying the rationale for the shutoff. S.F. Chronicle | Washington Post | L.A. Times

Eggs were thrown at a PG&E office in Oroville. In Colusa County, a PG&E truck was hit by gunfire. And in San Francisco, the utility erected barricades outside its headquarters. KRCR | KCRA

Newsom blamed PG&E for decades of mismanagement. "I'm outraged because it didn't have to happen,” he said. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times

A researcher estimated the blackout could cost $2.6 billion if it lasts two days. Bloomberg | S.F. Chronicle

Fresno County is the No. 1 agricultural producing county in the nation, new data showed. The county's farms cranked out a record value of $7.9 billion in crops and commodities in 2018, with top exports in almonds, pistachios, and grapes. Kern County was No. 2, and Tulare County No. 3. California grows about a third of the country's vegetables and two thirds of its fruits and nuts. Fresno Bee | YourCentralValley

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office owes the Sacramento Bee and L.A. Times $100,000 after a judge ordered it to cover the publications' legal fees in a court fight over law enforcement records. Judge Steven M. Gevercer said sheriff's officials first refused, then slow-walked the release of records on deputy misconduct to which the public is entitled under the Public Records Act. Sacramento Bee

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Soleil Ho, who took over as restaurant critic at the S.F. Chronicle this year. Young, smart, and highly readable, her approach emphasizes the story of food. Everything from wall color to the language on menus "tells us so much about the cultural zeitgeist," she said. "What's happening, and why do we care, and what are we aspiring to — I find that so fascinating." California Sun Podcast

"Soleil Ho is a young, queer woman of color who wants to redefine food criticism." Washington Post

Southern California could face power outages of its own Thursday as forecasts call for Santa Ana winds that could spark fires. San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison issued shutoff warnings that could affect as many as 200,000 customers across the region. "The vegetation is very, very dry. We haven't had any significant rain. And the humidity will be low," a forecaster said. L.A. Times | S.D. Union-Tribune

Adam Langevin was the top tennis player at Newport Beach's Sage Hill School. He trained long hours with renowned coaches and sacrificed his social life. A former professional player called him "pro potential, tour level." Langevin didn't make it onto a Division I college squad, but a weaker player from Sage Hill named Grant Janavs did — thanks to a payment from his billionaire family to the mastermind of the college admissions scandal.

"For every student like Grant who benefited from Singer's crimes, there was a student who aspired to attend premier schools and sports programs," wrote ProPublica. "Despite their stronger credentials, some were rejected." ProPublica

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill designed to pry open beach access at Hollister Ranch. Powerful landlords have fought to keep the 8-mile stretch of coast near Santa Barbara largely to themselves. "As Californians, respect and reverence for our beaches is in our DNA," Newsom said, "so much so that we enshrined public beach access into our state constitution." L.A. Times | KEYT

Campo, once home to the African-American Cavalry unit known as the Buffalo Soldiers, is a town seemingly frozen in time. Now it can be yours. The rural community about a mile from the U.S.-Mexican border is being offered for sale by a Las Vegas investor who's owned it since the early 2000s. He hasn't named a price. "It's a place where children can ride their bikes after dark," a longtime resident said. "Everybody looks after each other." S.D. Union-Tribune

California's missions, elegant and aspirational, formed the spine of what became the 31st state. They were also, some scholars say, cauldrons of repression, designed to seize native land, convert the inhabitants, and train them to be subjects of the Spanish crown.

Failure to conform could mean whippings and incarceration. "It is evident," an 18th-century missionary explained, "that a nation that is barbarous, ferocious, and ignorant requires more frequent punishment than a nation which is cultured, educated, and of gentle and moderate customs."

California's Indians sometimes lashed out in retaliation. Among the most sensational examples unfolded on this week in 1812, when the Indians of Mission Santa Cruz kidnapped and killed Father Andres Quintana.

The most detailed account was related to a historian in 1877 by Lorenzo Asisara, whose father was one of the conspirators. Quintana kept order though flogging, using a wire-tipped whip that cut into flesh.

One day, Asisara recounted, a group of about 15 native men and women gathered in secret to discuss what to do. "We aren't animals," one said. They discussed complaining to higher authorities, or chasing Quintana away. They settled on murder.

The next night, Quintana was lured from his quarters and ambushed. "Oh, my son," he was said to implore. "What are you going to do to me?" The priest begged for his life, explaining that only "bad Indians" were subject to his beatings. "You're among the bad Indians now," came the reply. The assassins strangled Quintana with his own cape, then mutilated his testicles.

The deed done, they returned Quintana's body to his bed. Then they unlocked the dormitories where the mission's single Indian men and women were kept in seclusion and had a party. 

Church officials deemed the death natural. But years later, two women were overheard discussing the killing. The plotters were taken to the Presidio in San Francisco and punished with lashings and imprisonment. Of nine people convicted, all but two died in incarceration. Quintana became a martyr, celebrated by colonial historians. The assassins too were celebrated, in the oral histories of tribal communities. 

It was two centuries before an apology was offered — by the church. In 2012, the Diocese of Monterey held a Mass of Reconciliation that included the church's first formal apology to indigenous groups over the mistreatment of their ancestors at Mission Santa Cruz. It was accepted. "Perhaps most important," a tribal leader told Good Times, "was testament to the fact that we're still here." East Bay Times | Academia.edu

Today's California Sun: Californians react angrily to massive blackout, a town seemingly frozen in time goes up for sale, and dispatches from the NIMBY wars.

Outage anger // Old West town for sale

Good morning. It's Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 5 minutes

PG&E takes drastic measures in the face of fire danger.

The first-ever statewide cap on rent increases.

And an epicenter of California's cowboy culture.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California's first-ever statewide cap on rent increases, one of the strongest such measures in the country. The law limits annual rent increases at 5 percent plus inflation for the next 10 years and bans landlords from evicting people for no reason, meaning they can't kick people out just to raise the rent for a new tenant. More than half of California's tenant population — about 9.5 million renters — is considered rent-burdened. S.F. Chronicle | Curbed Los Angeles

Starting next year, California will allow voters to register on Election Day anywhere ballots are cast under new legislation signed by the governor. As many as 6 million Californians are eligible to vote but not registered. Supporters of the new law hope it will significantly reduce that number as voters realize they can register at the last moment. L.A. Times | A.P.

Newsom is directing money collected through gasoline taxes away from road repairs in favor of rail projects, and Central Valley leaders are furious. Highway 99 stands to lose out on $17 million to widen lanes in Madera and Tulare counties. "What the hell were you thinking?" Assemblyman Jim Patterson, a Fresno Republican said of the move. "I don't normally talk like this, but it's hard for people who are out of touch in Sacramento to fully understand what it's like to try to fix Highway 99." Sacramento Bee | YourCentralValley.com

An L.A. Times investigation found that 21 military bases in California are contaminated with toxic chemicals left from firefighting foam, which was used since the 1960s in training exercises. In communities surrounding at least six of the bases, contaminants have spread to both private wells and public drinking water systems. Yet the Pentagon has conducted only limited testing and cannot say how many civilian water sources they've polluted. L.A. Times

Parkfield, a rural patch of land in Monterey County with just 18 permanent residents, is an epicenter of California's cowboy culture. Each weekend, hundreds of city slickers descend on the town to indulge their inner cowboy at the V6 Ranch, 20,000 acres of untamed land where they teach you how to handle a horse and a rope and go on real-live cattle runs. "This is really where cowboys started," owner Jack Varian told the California Now podcast. "Everyone seems to forget that there really is a huge amount of open land and cowboys that do it very similar to the way they did it 100 years ago." California Now | Sacramento Bee

PG&E began cutting power early Wednesday to what could total 800,000 California homes and businesses — representing roughly 2.4 million people  — in the largest preventive outage in state history. Forecasts called for windy, dry weather that creates extreme fire danger. For PG&E, forced into bankruptcy by devastating fires caused by its equipment, there was no alternative, officials said. 

The outages were expected to hit 34 counties across northern and central California and could last as long as until next Tuesday. "We are doing everything we can to minimize the impact on our customers' lives," a PG&E official said. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

The affected regions include the Bay Area, the northern Sierra foothills, and Shasta and Humboldt counties. Here are outage maps by the S.F. Chronicle and PG&E (though the utility's web site has been repeatedly crashing). And here is the full list of potentially affected counties and cities.

PG&E said it would open dozens of emergency resource centers, offering restrooms, bottled water, charging stations, and air-conditioned seating areas: Their locations (scroll down).

Store drinking water. Keep phones charged. Replenish emergency kits. Learn how to operate your garage door. Here are a couple checklists on preparing for life without electricity. Ready.gov | SFGate.com

The Warriors crossed the bay to San Francisco. The Raiders are headed for Las Vegas. Now Rob Manfred, baseball's commissioner, has warned Oakland that the A's could be the next team to leave town. He told local officials if they can't stop squabbling over a new waterfront stadium the Oakland A's could become the Las Vegas A's. "Obviously," Mayor Libby Schaaf said, "he chose his city wisely as far as exposing a pain point that all Oaklanders feel about losing our sports teams." SFGate.com | S.F. Chronicle

Dorothea Lange had a studio in San Francisco in the 1920s, where she captured the city's high society. After the stock market crashed in 1929, she turned her lens to the streets. "The Depression woke me up," she said. The images invite comparisons with the human misery now on display on San Francisco's streets. Petapixel | SFGate.com

"I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the unpurified air."
— Joan Didion

Santa Ana winds are expected to whip through Southern California starting early Thursday, causing humidity levels to plummet and bringing potentially critical fire danger during one of the worst times of the year for wildfires. Red flag warnings were set for most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Southern California Edison said it was considering power cuts to more than 160,000 customers across eight counties. L.A. Times | O.C. Register

An L.A. Times analysis found that Los Angeles police officers search blacks and Latinos far more often than whites during traffic stops — and whites are more likely to be found with illegal items. "All you're doing is dragnetting, with a very high cost in trust," a civil rights attorney said. L.A. Times | The Guardian

With sea rise threatening coastal properties, California's Coastal Commission recommended 25 modifications to Del Mar in San Diego County. The city rejected every one. Rather than retreat from the encroaching ocean, Del Mar's plan favors seawalls and sand replenishment. Coastal property, the city reasoned, is simply too expensive. S.D. Union-Tribune

"In the last 100 years, the sea rose less than 9 inches in California. By the end of this century, the surge could be greater than 9 feet." L.A. Times

Two mountain lions have been found dead in the Santa Monica Mountains and both had rat poison in their systems. The anticoagulant rodenticide gets passed on to other animals as dead rats are eaten, poisoning eagles, great-horned owls, and mountain lions, among other wildlife and pets. "Just about every mountain lion we've tested throughout our study has had exposure to these poisons," an ecologist said. LAist | A.P.

L.A. Times editorial: "Rat poison is killing California's mountain lions. We need to act."

Today's California Sun: PG&E takes drastic measures in the face of fire danger, the first-ever statewide cap on rent increases, and an epicenter of California's cowboy culture.

Mass shut-offs begin // California's cowboy culture

Good morning. It's Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 4 minutes

PG&E warns of shutoff across vast area of California.

Inmate is called deadliest serial killer in U.S. history.

And fascinating portraits of Los Angeles motorists.

Samuel Little, an elderly California prison inmate, was convicted in 2014 of killing three women in Los Angeles in the 1980s. But he claimed to have killed many more — 93 altogether — in a cross-country rampage that lasted decades. Now, after years of painstaking investigation, the F.B.I. says it believes all of Little's confessions are credible, making him the most prolific known serial killer in American history. N.Y. Times | A.P.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a measure that makes California the first state to allow pharmacists to dispense HIV prevention pills to patients without a prescription. Doctors recommend the drugs known as PrEP and PEP to people at high risk of contracting HIV. However, few in that category avail themselves of prescriptions. A supporter of the new bill called it "a giant step forward in getting to zero transmissions, zero deaths and zero stigma." L.A. Times | A.P.

California has launched its first toll-free mental health line, expected to operate 24/7 by the end of the year. The so-called "warm line" is intended not for people in crisis, but anyone seeking emotional or mental assistance. "You can use it anytime you want for any reason you want," a lawmaker said. The number: 855-845-7415. KPIX | NBC Los Angeles

Gas prices are soaring to painful levels across California. In San Francisco, the average price hit $4.27 a gallon on Monday. In Southern California, the average was $4.18. A broadcaster spotted $4.99 gas at a station in San Diego. The national average is about $2.66. Analysts blamed the spike on refinery maintenance. O.C. Register | S.F. Chronicle

Believe it or not, California is a "tax-friendly" state. That's according to an analysis by Kiplinger, which pointed out that the state is much easier on modest earners than it is on the wealthy. Marketwatch | Kiplinger

Behold Quincy, pictured above, "California's most beautiful undiscovered town," now resplendent in the colors of autumn. CaliforniaFallColor.com 

Lakes, mountains, and gardens. Curbed recommended 15 reliably colorful destinations within two hours of Los Angeles. Curbed Los Angeles

Here's the California Fall Color Map, updated each Friday with reports from color spotters from across the state. Google.com

PG&E said it may shut off the power to more than 600,000 customers across 29 Northern California counties starting Wednesday and through Thursday as strong and dry winds pose a threat of fire. The warning was by far the largest since the utility began conducting the preemptive shutoffs in 2018. Officials said the blackout could last for days. S.F. Chronicle | KQED

Look up the latest shutoff information at pge.com.

A granite memorial was dedicated just north of Santa Rosa in honor of the 24 people who died in the 2017 wildfires in Sonoma County. Glyn Evans, 90, a onetime rodeo cowboy, touched the name of his late wife, etched into the rose-colored slab, and wept. He said he thought of her every day and that he wished he had died instead of her. Then he thanked the sculptor of the memorial. "This takes out a lot of the poison," Evans told him. Press Democrat

Competition is fierce in San Francisco's district attorney race. The mayor favors Suzy Loftus, a former police commissioner and loyal acolyte of Kamala Harris. Arguably her most dangerous competitor is Chesa Boudin, a public defender and son of imprisoned radicals whose candidacy is backed by figures like Shaun King and John Legend. Boudin, the New Yorker wrote, represents a yearning for to-the-studs reform. "I genuinely believe that prison should be the last resort," he told the magazine. New Yorker

"Walking into the club really feels like stumbling onto a secret and delightful world where books and letters are king."

San Francisco's Book Club of California, founded more than a century ago, is all at once a publisher, library, museum, and cultural center. Open to the public, it includes more than 10,000 rare and letterpress-printed volumes on display along with an old-world-style reading room with Victorian-era couches, lamps, and dark wood tables. The Mercury News called it San Francisco's best-kept secret. Roadtrippers | Mercury News

The L.A. Times analyzed survey data and found that mental illness and substance abuse are far more pervasive in Los Angeles County's homeless population than officials have reported. Of those living on the streets, 67 percent suffer from those afflictions, compared to the official finding of 29 percent. The homeless services authority didn't dispute the analysis. "We're acknowledging that there are more layers to the story," an official said. L.A. Times

Los Angeles has been moving aggressively to repave the city with "cool pavements" that lower temperatures by reflecting the energy from sunlight. Experts have predicted that the city could reduce its so-called urban heat island effect by nearly 3 degrees. One problem: Scientists have now discovered that the reflected sunlight actually makes pedestrians feel hotter — by as much as 7 degrees. Still, the city is pressing ahead. CityLab 

Today I learned: A 2015 study found that there were roughly 18.6 million parking spots across incorporated Los Angeles County, covering a jaw-dropping 14 percent of the land area. That amounts to about 200 square miles, an area big enough to fit Manhattan eight times over. 

The area dedicated to parking was 1.4 times larger than the area dedicated to streets and freeways.

There were 3.3 parking spaces for every one car in the region.

The total number of parking spots more than tripled since 1950, when there were roughly 6 million. CityLab | Transportation LCA

Many urban planners say abundant parking contributes to Los Angeles's traffic woes. Now the city is now getting serious about easing codes that require developers to include parking spots in their plans. Curbed Los Angeles

From 1989 to 1997, photographer Andrew Bush captured fascinating portraits of everyday people cruising the freeways of Los Angeles. He snapped the photos while driving alongside his subjects, often moving at 60 mph, creating a split-second connection. The result, wrote the reviewer Cathleen Medwick, is "a meditation on character, class, the human condition, precarious at any speed." AndrewBush.net | Flashbak

Today's California Sun: PG&E warns of shutoff across vast area of California, inmate is called deadliest serial killer in U.S. history, and fascinating portraits of Los Angeles motorists.

Massive power shutoff plan // Prolific serial killer

Good morning. It's Monday, Oct. 7.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 5 minutes

Bird populations in the Mojave Desert fall by half.

The EPA as an instrument of political retribution.

And California's most beautiful small towns.

A deadline for wildfire damage claims against PG&E is three weeks away and as many as 70,000 Californians from Paradise and other devastated places may be left out. Many are unaware, overwhelmed, or misinformed. Some mistakenly think their claim might take away money from those needing it more. N.Y. Times

California is ignoring the science as it approves more homes in wildfire zones, researchers say. Gov. Gavin Newsom has said restricting building would run counter to the state's "pioneering spirit." L.A. Times

A mystery surcharge on gas is costing California families an estimated $1,800 a year — and no one seems to know why. Enough is enough, wrote the editorial board of the Mercury News: "They deserve to know whether that money — roughly $4 billion a year —  is going to further enrich oil companies at the expense of consumers." Mercury News

The Trump administration finalized plans to open up more than 1,100 square miles of federal land in central California to oil and gas leasing. Supporters said the decision promotes energy independence. An environmental lawyer said, "This reckless move is the toxic convergence of Trump's climate denial, loyalty to the oil industry and grudge against California." The Hill | Sacramento Bee

Climate change, bark beetles, and intense wildfires. Conservationists are struggling to save the Sierra's giant sequoias. The Guardian

In California, Trump lost the vote 2 to 1 in 2016, and he's been hammered by a drumbeat of lawsuits from Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Now, the N.Y. Times editorial board wrote, the president is making a weapon out of the EPA "Never, so far as we can recall, has it been so obviously deployed as an instrument of political retribution." N.Y. Times

California's 2018 wine grape harvest was the highest-yielding in decades. But now the wine industry is facing a major oversupply problem, and some farmers say it could drive them out of business. A Monterey County farmer said as much as two thirds of his crop may go unsold. "It's as bad a market as we've ever seen," he said. S.F. Chronicle

In Stockton, 125 residents have been getting $500 a month in a test of guaranteed income. Critics worried the money would be spent on things like alcohol and gambling. Researchers have now released data on how the money has been spent, and most of it went to food, clothing, and utility bills. "There are people who are working hard who are struggling," Stockton's mayor said, "not because they're lazy, but because wages haven't kept up with inflation, wages haven't kept up with costs." CityLab | A.P.

Prosecutors haven't given up on holding Derrick Almena accountable in the deadly 2016 Ghost Ship blaze. Almena, who was the  manager of the Oakland warehouse where 36 people died, avoided conviction last month after a jury deadlocked. A new trial is now scheduled for the spring. "We want to go to trial," Almena's attorney said. "He will sit and he will wait, and he will be prepared. And at the next trial, we will prevail." East Bay Times | NPR

Architectural Digest named the country's 50 most beautiful small towns, and included Carmel, Mendocino, and Boonville, where "the town's bucolic-meets-boho-chic vibe extends to the Boonville Hotel and Pennyroyal Farm, a creamery that also makes wine." Architectural Digest

"Dying days of harpin Boont." Boonville is home to a whimsical dialect created by 19th century farmers that is now fading away. California Sun

Bird populations have collapsed in the Mojave Desert over the last century. Researchers now say they know why: The animals can't cope with the heat stress from climate change in the desert, where average temperatures have risen about 2 degrees Celsius. "Simply put," an ecologist said, "what we've found is that birds don't have enough water to keep themselves cool anymore." L.A. Times | KQED

Body-worn cameras in the LAPD have helped to both shed light on misconduct and exonerate officers subjected to false accusations. In 2018, the recordings identified 56 cases of officer misconduct, up from five a year earlier. But another 264 complaints were found to be false or resulted in exoneration, up from 79 a year earlier. "It helps both sides of the camera," Police Chief Michel Moore said. L.A. Times

The Marine Corps has quietly disciplined more than 20 Marines for misconduct at its San Diego boot camp since 2017. Incidents included physical attacks and racism targeting recruits. In one case, a drill instructor used a staple gun on a recruit and ordered another to eat a pine cone. Washington Post

Incidents surrounding the "Joker" movie are spooking audiences in disturbing ways. A Huntington Beach movie theater was closed last Thursday after a credible threat associated with the film. Then on Saturday, an assembled audience fled a theater in Long Beach after a man wearing a backpack walked to the front of the theater and was "surveying the crowd." He was detained and found not to have weapons. Deadline | Long Beach Post

Reviewer: "Joker" has stirred up a fierce debate, "but it's not interesting enough to argue about." N.Y. Times

A few miles from Apple's flawlessly crafted spaceship campus is a monument to chaos.

In 1886, Sarah Winchester, a widowed heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, bought a small farmhouse in San Jose, then spent the next 38 years expanding it — stopping only upon her death. The result, later dubbed the Winchester Mystery House, is a jumble of 160 rooms, 10,000 windows, and 2,000 doors. It has skylights that never see the sky, staircases that go down then up again, and doors that open onto blank walls. 

There's little record of Winchester's motivations. In the void, a legend has grown — repeated in news accounts, marketing materials, and a 2018 film starring Helen Mirren — that she built the labyrinthine mansion to ward off vengeful ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles.  

But historians give the tales little credence. Letters written by Winchester suggest that she less a madwoman than a novice hopelessly in over her head. "I am constantly having to make an upheaval for some reason," she once wrote to her sister-in-law.

In this view, according to Colin Dickey, a historian of haunted places, Winchester was an architectural pioneer at a time when women were absent from the profession. "The Winchester mansion sprawls and flops in a dozen different directions, moving like a coral reef," he wrote. "Its aesthetic, its beauty, is precisely in its lawlessness."

Still, after Winchester’s death in 1922, her house was deemed worthless. It fell into the hands of John H. Brown, a theme park worker who reinvigorated the spooky rumors and turned the mansion into a tourist attraction. Harry Houdini came for a visit, declaring "Never was there such a marvelous place." With the great illusionist's seal of approval, the business grew.

In time, the project that had warded off visitors throughout Winchester's life became after her death a destination for hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. Atlas Obscura | SFGate.com

Scheduling note: The newsletter will pause Oct. 11-14 over the Columbus Day weekend. 

Today's California Sun: Bird populations in the Mojave Desert fall by half, the E.P.A. as an instrument of political retribution, and California's most beautiful small towns.

Die-off in the Mojave // Beautiful small towns

Good morning. It's Friday, Oct. 4.
Today's edition: 15 items, < 6 minutes

Hordes of tourists present a crisis for Big Sur.

Experts say sprinklers won't save your home from fire. 

And a plan to plant 90,000 new trees in Los Angeles.

As California’s wildfires have become more destructive, homeowners have spent thousands of dollars on elaborate sprinkler systems. But those investments do little good, fire experts say. That's because wind-driven embers spread like an airborne virus through towns. The key to stopping them: group immunity. "If we don't mitigate together, we will surely burn together," a wildfire expert said. L.A. Times

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 22 wildfire-related bills, including one that increases assistance to homeowners who make their properties more resistant to fire. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

MGM Resorts International agreed to pay up to $800 million to settle lawsuits filed by victims of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, making it the third-largest victims compensation fund in U.S. history. The massacre left 58 people dead, including dozens of Californians. The settlement would resolve claims that MGM was negligent in allowing the killer to stockpile rifles and ammunition in his hotel room. N.Y. Times | A.P.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Republican of Bakersfield, fired off a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling on her to halt the House impeachment inquiry, which he said had proceeded with "recklessness." She replied in part: "I received your letter this morning shortly after the world witnessed President Trump on national television asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections." NBC News | The Hill

McCarthy and other House Republicans introduced a measure to formally censure Rep. Adam Schiff, the Burbank Democrat who is leading the impeachment inquiry, for his exaggerated rendition of Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine. The move is largely symbolic. "We're going to fight to get the truth out," House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said. Politico

Jurisdictions across California have been cracking down on vaping, but public health experts are warning of unintended consequences. Lawmakers have been reacting to reports of vaping illnesses, but those have been largely linked to black market THC cartridges. In San Francisco, for example, e-cigarette sales have been banned. Yet cigarettes, which experts agree are more dangerous, remain on the shelves. L.A. Times

San Francisco's district attorney, George Gascón, announced that he would resign to prepare a run for Los Angeles D.A. The surprise move sets up an important test for the criminal justice reform movement. Gascón has led reform initiatives to keep people out of jail. The incumbent in Los Angeles, Jackie Lacey, has taken a tough stance on crime, sending people to prison at a rate far higher than in San Francisco. N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle

Each year, an estimated 5.8 million tourists visit Big Sur, which has a population of 1,728. A reporter who grew up near Big Sur investigated whether the onslaught had killed the once idyllic slice of coast: "Locals are overwhelmed. The people, the selfie sticks, the traffic, the litter — it's all too much. Somewhere, something went terribly wrong. Big Sur has joined the unhappy global family of destinations like Venice, Italy, and Mount Everest, where tourists have overrun what they came to celebrate." Outside magazine

A bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will allow San Francisco to force more severely mentally ill people into treatment. Despite the growing crisis on San Francisco's streets, the number of court-ordered mental health referrals has toppled by half in the last five years. "It's neither compassionate nor progressive to allow people to die on our streets," the new law's author said. S.F. Chronicle

Here's a reminder of how gorgeous Lake Tahoe is. "The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious," Mark Twain once wrote of the lake. "And why shouldn't it be? — it is the same the angels breathe. I think that hardly any amount of fatigue can be gathered together that a man cannot sleep off in one night on the sand by its side." Atlas Obscura

Fun fact: Lake Tahoe is so enormous that if you emptied its water across California, it would cover the entire state 15 inches deep. KQED

Los Angeles International Airport is banning curbside pickup by Uber and Lyft. Instead, travelers will have to take a shuttle to a parking lot, where they can book their rides. The move is in response to worsening congestion at the world's fourth-busiest airport. L.A. Times | KTLA

A guidebook publisher named LAX the worst airport in the world. Fodor's Travel

Rachel Malarich is Los Angeles's first city forest officer. Her mission: Plant 90,000 new trees by 2021. The mayor has highlighted the climate benefit of a healthy urban forest, but there's another perk, said Malarich. "They also bring communities together," she said. "The research shows us that they improve feelings of social cohesion in a neighborhood." Mother Jones

Study: Living near trees, not just green space, improves well-being. CityLab

James Franco is being sued by two former students of his acting school, which they allege was just a setup to provide Franco and his collaborators with a stream of young, impressionable women for sexual exploitation. The women said the school, which had branches in Los Angeles and New York, dangled acting opportunities that never materialized. Franco's lawyer denied the accusations and called the lawsuit "ill-informed." L.A. Times | Hollywood Reporter

In the last decade, there's been a renaissance of the work of Eve Babitz, the It girl of 1970s Los Angeles. Like Joan Didion, the N.Y. Times wrote, Babitz "was a woman sending dispatches from the front lines of '70s-era West Coast bohemia, gently satirizing the incestuous music and art worlds of Los Angeles. But she seemed to be having lot more fun than Ms. Didion: she wasn't just at the party; more often than not, it seemed, she was the party itself." N.Y. Times

"Take a tour of the sexy, smoggy city that was Eve's Los Angeles of the 1960s and '70s." Curbed Los Angeles

On this week's California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Rocky Lang and Barbara Hall about their new book, "Letters From Hollywood," which gives a delicious peek into the private correspondence of film stars during Hollywood's Golden Age. California Sun Podcast

Janis Joplin's body was found in her room at Landmark Motor Hotel in Hollywood on this day in 1970. The cause was a heroin overdose. She was 27. 

Joplin's premature death has been portrayed as the denouement of a life haunted by demons. Growing up in Port Arthur, Tex., she was bullied relentlessly. At the University of Texas at Austin, a fraternity campaigned to elect her the "ugliest man on campus." On "The Dick Cavett Show," Joplin later recalled: "They laughed me out of class, out of town, out of the state."

San Francisco, in its 1960s heyday, was both her salvation and ruin. She moved there at age 20 and embraced the life of a hippie hedonist, draped in pink feather boas and layers of bracelets, a bottle of Southern Comfort always at hand.

Some in the paternalistic music scene doubted whether she could play with the boys. But Joplin was a force of nature. Her voice was visceral, raw, anguished. A sensational performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival catapulted her to fame.

The misfit from small-town Texas became a hero of America's counterculture. Yet even in success, Joplin struggled with insecurities. "On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people," she once said. "Then I go home alone."

Her addictions deepened. One night in the fall of 1970, Joplin was stood up by two of her lovers. She shot up heroin alone in her hotel room and died. Just days earlier, she had recorded "Me and Bobby McGee." It became her biggest hit. 

Joplin's road manager, John Byrne Cooke, told NPR that the singer presented a brash public persona, but she was sweet and vulnerable and compassionate: "She could be this little girl who was so full of doubt about whether she was doing a good enough job that she could come offstage with this tumultuous ovation happening out there, and saying, 'Did I do OK?'" NPR | Washington Post

Five items that got big views over the past week:

The West coast is a gold mine of architectural experimentation, with unconventional structures perched among redwoods, beside highways, and atop cliffs. Here's a photo tour of 10 marvels. DeZeen

Daniel Duane, author of the surfing memoir "Caught Inside: A Surfer's Year on the California Coast," investigated the history of racism in California surfing and found copious swastikas. N.Y. Times

The Sierra Vista Scenic Byway sets off from the geographic center of California then meanders nearly 100 miles into the heart of the Sierra. It's included in a list of California's eight best-kept secrets. VisitCalifornia.com | SierraVistaByway.com

Just months before his death in 1955, James Dean allowed photographer Dennis Stock to shadow him for a time. The photo essay that resulted arguably did almost as much to create the actor's public persona as his performances. TIME

About 4,000 people gathered on the edge of the Mojave Desert last weekend to live out their post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" fantasies. A photographer got some fantastic shots. Daily Mail

Today's California Sun: Hordes of tourists present a crisis for Big Sur, experts say sprinklers won't save your home from fire, and a plan to plant 90,000 new trees in Los Angeles.

Overtourism kills Big Sur // 90,000 new trees for L.A.

Good morning. It's Thursday, Oct. 3.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 4 minutes

Housing crisis sweeps inland as rents rise in Fresno.

Allyson Felix breaks a record held by Usain Bolt.

And a photo tour of L.A.'s finest Art Deco buildings.

President Trump  kept up his broadsides against Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from Burbank, calling him "a lowlife" who "should resign from office in disgrace, and frankly, they should look at him for treason." The president seized on a N.Y. Times report that outlined how Schiff had gotten an early account of allegations that Trump abused his power. Schiff is now leading the impeachment inquiry. 

"Big stuff. That's a big story," Trump said, waving a copy of the article and claiming, without evidence, that Schiff "helped write" the whistle-blower complaint. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield, declared Schiff got caught "orchestrating" the complaint, and that Democrats "rigged this process from the start." A Times reporter corrected McCarthy on Twitter: "Nope. Not what the NYT reported," he wrote. N.Y. Times | Washington Post

California cities will be allowed to establish public banks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, making California the second U.S. state to permit the institutions. Supporters say public banks help projects in the public interest, such as affordable housing, by providing capital at interest rates below those of commercial banks. Critics say the ventures are risky and impractical. L.A. Times | Sacramento Bee

Starting next year, Californians will have the right to ask retailers, airlines, banks, and other companies what data they're keeping on them — and get it deleted. Thousands of business are scrambling to get ready for the landmark privacy law, spending millions on software and attorneys. Since it makes little sense for companies to maintain a separate protocol for non-Californians, some analysts anticipate the law will become a de facto national standard. Axios | Wall Street Journal

Lab tests confirmed that the red liquid in a menstrual cup thrown at lawmakers by an anti-vaccine protester in the California Senate chamber last month was indeed human blood. The Sacramento Bee said Rebecca Lee Dalelio, 43, of Boulder Creek, yelled "That's for the dead babies" after hurling the object. At least six lawmakers got hit. Dalelio was arrested. S.F. Chronicle | Sacramento Bee

In 1916, New York adopted a regulation that forced architects to create "setbacks" in skyscrapers, meaning they would need to step back as they rise to let sunlight reach the street. It led to the tiered Art Deco style and caught on in cities around the world. Curbed created a great photo tour of Los Angeles's 10 finest examples, including the Eastern Columbia Building, above. Curbed Los Angeles

Fun fact: Salinas has one of the largest collections of art deco and Moderne buildings in California. Why? Crop production meant Salinas was one of the few areas to thrive during the Great Depression, when the style flourished. The Californian | CityofSalinas.org

The most comprehensive study ever conducted on microplastics in California found that a staggering 7 trillion tiny pieces of plastic wash from city streets into San Francisco Bay each year. About half of it appears to be tire particles. Researchers were stunned by the findings. "We were not anticipating such high levels," the study's lead author said. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News

By California standards, Fresno is a bargain. But newcomers priced out of pricier cities are driving up rents. Nearly 60 percent of renter households in Fresno are now considered "rent burdened," meaning that they spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing. Juliana Seguín, a mother of four, said her monthly rent increased from $850 to $1,550 since 2017. "If this is the Bay Area, then bring us the beach," she said. City Lab

The Environmental Protection Agency made good on President Trump's threat to issue an environmental violation notice against San Francisco. The agency accused the city of improperly discharging waste into the ocean and bay, a charge city officials said had no merit. San Francisco leaders have accused the administration of trying to inflate the city's problems in a bid to showcase a failed liberal agenda. "I don't quite understand the point they're trying to make here," a public utility official said. S.F. Chronicle | The Guardian

When the Oakland Coliseum opened in 1966, it was hailed as a Brutalist gem. Today, as the Oakland Athletics forge ahead with an exit plan, it is perhaps America's most hated sports stadium. A fan penned a love letter: "Yes, the Coliseum is ugly, but it is cheap, gritty and fun." He added: "If Marlins Park is the flashy new nightclub, and Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the historic pubs, the Coliseum is baseball's last dive bar." N.Y. Times

Over the years, more than 60 beachfront homeowners in Newport Beach illegally extended their yards onto the public beach. Outraged that wealthy homeowners took public land, the Coastal Commission is now making the city tear the yards up. Homeowners could get fines as high as tens of thousands of dollars. O.C. Register

Allyson Felix, Los Angles native and USC alum, has broken Usain Bolt's record for the most gold medals at the track and field World Championships. On Sunday, she earned her 12th gold in the mixed-gender 4x400-meter relay. Oh, and she gave birth to a baby girl 10 months ago. CNN | CBS News

Felix on her treatment by Nike after becoming pregnant: "I asked Nike to guarantee that I wouldn't be punished if I didn't perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth. ... Nike declined. We've been at a standstill ever since." N.Y. Times (May 22)

Los Angles officials announced that they were voiding nearly 2 million minor citations and warrants that had kept people trapped in the court system. The dramatic move is intended to ease the challenges faced by homeless people who have been repeatedly ticketed and arrested. L.A. Times | A.P.

"Surfin'" was recorded on this day in 1961. The Beach Boys' first single, it became a hit in Los Angeles, catapulting the band's career and creating a blueprint for what became known as the California Sound. But there were detractors. Brian Wilson had turned the composition in as a school assignment at Hawthorne High School. His teacher, Fred Morgan, gave it an F. It's unclear why. But 58 years later, Hawthorne's principal addressed the injustice. Last year, she officially changed the grade to an A. Consequence of Sound | Daily Breeze

Today's California Sun: Housing crisis sweeps inland as rents rise in Fresno, Allyson Felix breaks a record held by Usain Bolt, and a photo tour of L.A.'s finest Art Deco buildings.

L.A. sprinter bests Usain Bolt // Housing crisis sweeps inland

Good morning. It's Wednesday, Oct. 2.
Today's edition: 13 items, < 6 minutes

Trump suggests shooting border crossers in the legs.

Mark Zuckerberg rallies workers against foes in leaked audio.

And campaign raises $46,000 for homeless subway singer.

A federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration cannot block California's net neutrality regulations, among the most robust in the country. The law barring internet providers from throttling web traffic was passed last year but has been on hold pending legal challenges. A Stanford law professor called the ruling "a historic win for California." Politico | S.F. Chronicle

California said it would appeal a federal judge's order blocking a law that would have required President Trump to release his tax returns to appear on primary ballots. "States have a legal and moral duty to restore public confidence in government," a spokesman for the governor said. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. said California may have been well-intended but that its law likely violates the Constitution. A.P. | L.A. Times

"There hasn't been any real buyer's remorse about the initiative. If anything, support has gone up."

Nearly two-thirds of California voters want marijuana stores in their communities, according to a new poll, yet the vast majority of cities have outlawed them. Many local officials have said they are worried about crime. L.A. Times | U.S. News & World Report

An audit found that California's black market is at least three times the size of its regulated industry. NBC News | L.A. Times

Two of the Bay Area's most outspoken professional athletes lashed out at the NCAA over its resistance to a new California law that lets college athletes earn money from endorsements. 

The Warriors' Draymond Green: "Someone needs to force this dictatorship to change because that’s exactly what it is. It's no different than any country that's ran by dictators. The NCAA is a dictatorship."

The 49ers' Richard Sherman: "I hope it destroys the NCAA in general because I think it's corrupt and it's a bunch of people taking advantage of kids." East Bay Times | Sports Illustrated

The Verge obtained two hours of audio from open meetings between Mark Zuckerberg and employees at Facebook, during which he sought to rally the company against competitors and the U.S. government. 

On Sen. Elizabeth Warren's call to break up the company, Zuckerberg promised a legal fight: "If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And does that still suck for us? Yeah." He added: "But look, at the end of the day, if someone's going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight." The Verge | N.Y. Times

Warren responded on Twitter: "What would really 'suck' is if we don't fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy."

Rep. Devin Nunes, a Central Valley Republican, filed his fifth lawsuit of the year, this time suing a former Esquire reporter and Hearst Magazines over a story on how the congressman's family had moved its dairy operation to Iowa and relied on unauthorized immigrants. The complaint claims the story harmed Nunes's reputation and accuses the reporter of behaving "like a sex offender or pedophile." It seeks $75 million in damages. McClatchy | Courthouse News Service

Bolinas, the quirky beach community in Marin County, has tried to stay hidden, famously tearing down road signs along Highway 1 to keep tourists away. Now Bay Area wealth and Airbnb are threatening the town's character. Since 2010, Bolinas's permanent population has dropped by nearly a quarter. "The internet has just torn through" the town, one local said. Curbed San Francisco

Erin Davis, an artist and cartographer, thought it would be interesting to color-code city streets according to suffix. Her San Francisco map, above, reveals an elegant logic. "Driving around your city, you're probably somewhat aware of Avenues and Boulevards and Streets and Roads and so on," she wrote. "By coloring them, we can suddenly see a new, stunning view of what we normally take for granted." erdavis.com

"You are making me look like an idiot! I ran on this. It's my issue."

Today's California Sun: Trump suggests shooting border crossers in the legs, Mark Zuckerberg rallies workers against foes in leaked audio, and campaign raises $46,000 for homeless subway singer.

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