Newsletter
The California Sun gathers all the must-read stories about California in one place.
Good morning. It’s Monday, March 16.
- Summerlike heat wave to scorch California this week.
- Government orders oil drilling off Santa Barbara.
- And Paul Thomas Anderson finally gets his Oscar.
Statewide
1.
The first major heat wave of the year is about to bake California, as area of high pressure in the atmosphere, known as a “heat dome,” acts like a lid. Forecasters said temperatures would surge into the 80s along the coast and into triple digits across pockets of the state’s interior over the next five days or more. Numerous cities are expected to set all-time records for the hottest day in March. If Palm Springs hits its forecast of 109 degrees on Friday, it would be the hottest March day ever recorded in the U.S. Accuweather | S.F. Chronicle
- Mendocino County’s lazy Gualala River, the Red Rock pools of the Santa Ynez Valley, and “the most beautiful pool you’ve ever seen” in Big Sur. The authors of “Places We Swim California” shared their favorite wild swimming spots. The Guardian | N.Y. Times
2.
In July, the U.S. agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, declared there would be “no amnesty” from deportations for unauthorized farmworkers, predicting a transition to a “100% American” workforce. Since then, immigration raids have only worsened the agricultural industry’s labor crisis. So the administration has moved to make hiring immigrant labor cheaper through the visa program known as H-2A. “Are there hard-working Americans?” said Bruce Talbott, a peach farmer. “Of course there are, and they’re in construction and they’re in oil and gas and they’re in career jobs. They’re not in seasonal farming.” N.Y. Times
3.
“Thirteen months was all it took to break the Kennedy Center.”
President Trump announced Friday that Richard Grenell would step down as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Grenell, a fiery Trump loyalist who lives in Manhattan Beach and floated a bid for California governor last year, transformed the cherished cultural institution into a culture-war battleground, repeatedly insulting performers who questioned his changes. Audiences and artists abandoned the center. Trump said he did “an excellent job.” The Atlantic | Washington Post
4.
The Trump administration ordered the resumption of oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast on Friday, invoking a Cold War-era law that gives the president power to direct industry in the name of national defense. Chris Wright, the energy secretary, said the green light for Sable Offshore, a Houston oil driller, would ensure military installations have reliable energy. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Trump’s true objective was to reward his oil-industry friends. “We will see them back in court,” he said. CalMatters | Bloomberg
Northern California
5.
While much of the U.S. housing market remains stuck in the doldrums, San Francisco has been on a tear. Rents were up 14% in February compared to a year earlier, the fastest growth in the country. Mansion sales are booming. And bidding wars are breaking out over single-family homes and condos in desirable neighborhoods. Kelsea Carlson, 34, said she’s been house hunting for nearly a year and getting repeatedly outbid. “With AI, everyone’s coming in with these huge salaries,” she said. “We just can’t keep up the pace.” Wall Street Journal
6.
Planted in 1870, the eucalyptus trees that line Burlingame’s main thoroughfare have been a central part of the Bay Area’s community’s identity, which calls itself “the city of trees.” Caltrans is now planning to cut almost all of them down. Locals fought for decades to preserve the roughly 400 eucalyptuses. But even many of the people have come to accept the reality that the 150-year-old trees have become intolerable, with overgrown branches and roots that split the sidewalks. S.F. Chronicle
7.
The Pentagon wanted Anthropic’s artificial intelligence model, Claude, to behave like an obedient soldier. What officials haven’t seemed to grasp is that Claude isn’t merely sophisticated software, the New Yorker wrote. It’s an increasingly autonomous agent:
“Anthropic wouldn’t care to fight if it wasn’t absolutely convinced that the normal-technology view is naïve and misguided. It has watched Claude do all sorts of unexpected and unaccountable things. [Dario] Amodei’s point has never been that he alone should control Claude. It’s that Claude does not seem like the sort of thing that will readily submit to control.”
8.
OpenAI is planning to allow erotic conversations in its ChatGPT chatbot, but its own advisers are panicked about the potential dangers, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some have cited cases of ChatGPT users taking their own lives after developing intense bonds with the bot: “OpenAI staffers have identified several risks, including the potential for compulsive use, emotional overreliance on the chatbot, a drive toward more extreme or taboo content, and crowding out offline social and romantic relationships.”
9.
Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford biology professor whose 1968 bestseller “The Population Bomb” predicted that runaway population growth would lead to food shortages and mass starvation, died on Friday in Palo Alto. Ehrlich became one of the environmental movement’s most recognized leaders, appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” roughly 20 times. Critics denounced his predictions as sky-is-falling rhetoric. “Some things I predicted have not come to pass,” Ehrlich acknowledged in a 2004 interview with Grist. But hunger, he insisted, is “still horrific.” Ehrlich was 93. N.Y. Times
Southern California
10.
“One Battle After Another,” a tale of political revolution that featured a sweeping tour of California, was the big winner at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, taking home six trophies, including best picture. The movie’s director, Paul Thomas Anderson, a San Fernando Valley native who has been one of Hollywood’s most lionized filmmakers for decades, finally clinched the best director award after three prior nominations for the prize. “Sinners,” directed by Oakland’s Ryan Coogler, followed with four awards, including best actor for Michael B. Jordan. Jessie Buckley won best actress for “Hamnet.” A.P. | Variety
- “Marty Supreme” left empty-handed despite nine nominations. Hollywood Reporter wrote about the snubs and surprises.
- See all of the red carpet looks. 👉 Harper’s Bazaar
- Read the full list of winners.
11.
For some longtime residents, the slow-motion landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes ended an idyllic life in a coastal enclave, as they fled homes in danger of collapsing. Others saw an opportunity. Eilen Stewart, 45, and her husband are among a cohort of homebuyers who snapped up distressed properties at deep discounts. On a recent day, she marveled at her view of Catalina Island, the New York Times wrote: “Her view keeps improving. That’s because since she moved in, the houses directly in front of hers have sunk several feet.”
12.
Companies are paying hundreds of people in Los Angeles to strap cameras to their heads and go about their household chores. The video data is being collected to train robots, or “physical AI” systems, on how to make coffee, scrub toilets, water plants, and wash dishes. Goldman Sachs forecasts that the market for humanoids could reach $38 billion by 2035. Salvador Arciga was assigned to do the dishes and clean his kitchen. “I need to do chores anyway,” he said. “Now I get a chance to get paid to do it.” L.A. Times
Get your California Sun T-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, hats, and totes!
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412