Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 25.
- Millions of dollars pour into bets on governor’s race.
- A looming chip disaster hovers over Silicon Valley.
- And Alysa Liu returns to a starstruck East Bay.
Statewide
1.
Dispatches from President Trump’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday:
- Trump bestowed the Medal of Honor on Royce Williams of Escondido, a 100-year-old former Navy fighter pilot who downed four Soviet MiG aircraft over Korea in 1952 in a storied aerial dogfight. “This brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves,” the president said. Military Times | L.A. Times
- Trump repeatedly conjured the spectre of an immigrant menace. Among his guests was Dalilah Coleman, a young girl from Bakersfield who was left disabled in a crash caused by an unauthorized immigrant truck driver in 2024. He urged passage of a “Dalilah Law” that would bar unauthorized immigrants from obtaining commercial driver’s licenses.
- The president announced a “war on fraud” targeting California and other states to be led by Vice President JD Vance. He suggested the effort would uncover enough fraud to balance the national budget, a claim fact checkers called implausible. S.F. Chronicle
- Sen. Alex Padilla delivered a Spanish-language rebuttal on behalf of the Democratic Party. “We just heard Donald Trump do what he does best: lie,” he said. L.A. Times
2.
In recent months, bettors on popular prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket have wagered more than $3 million on the outcome of the California governor’s race. The current favorite is Eric Swalwell, who has made a habit of boasting about the odds. Others are troubled by concerns over insider trading and the undermining of democracy. Antonio Villaraigosa said he would ban the prediction markets if elected. “Without question, they violate the state gambling ban,” he said, “and they’re trying to get cute and go around them.” Politico
3.
Leading a group of 15 states, California filed a lawsuit Tuesday that aims to reverse a recent momentous shift in federal vaccine policy. In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of diseases children are routinely immunized against to 11 from 17. During a news briefing, Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said the government is “flouting decades of scientific research, ignoring credible medical experts, and threatening to strain state resources and make America’s children sicker.” N.Y. Times | A.P.
4.
The Atlantic’s Helen Lewis shared a telling passage from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new memoir:
“Newsom’s first experience of public office comes when another of his father’s friends, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, appoints him as chair of the city’s parking and traffic commission. In an anecdote that could feature in the dictionary under ‘entitlement,’ Newsom recounts that he turned up at city hall for the swearing-in ceremony thinking that Brown had appointed him to the film commission. That presumably requires a somewhat different skill set from parking, although neither of them obviously flowed from his experience as a wine merchant.”
5.
Eleisa Aparicio and Thomas Wolter, both nurses at a hospital in greater Los Angeles, got engaged in October 2024. On a lark, they sent an invitation to Wolter’s favorite musician, then forgot about it. On Jan. 15, Aparicio got a text from a Puerto Rican phone number claiming to be from an associate of Bad Bunny — and that’s how the couple found themselves being pronounced husband and wife during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, inspiring countless viewers to ask: Was that a real wedding? It was. The New York Times featured the newlyweds in a “Vows” column.
Northern California
6.
Silicon Valley gets more than 90% of its high-end computer chips from Taiwan. Presidents Biden and Trump both tried to wean the tech industry from its dependence on the island, with billions of dollars in grants and tariffs. But the industry has stubbornly refused, a New York Times investigation found. As China’s posture toward Taiwan grows more belligerent, White House officials are making dire warnings. “If that island were blockaded, that capacity were destroyed, it would be an economic apocalypse,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last month.
7.
During a tense meeting on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday to give the military unrestricted access to its artificial intelligence model or face being labeled a “supply chain risk,” threatening its business. Thus far, the San Francisco company has refused to allow its technology to be used for domestic surveillance or to develop fully autonomous weapons. Anthropic is said to be prepared to walk away from its $200 million contract with the Defense Department over the dispute. Washington Post | Politico
8.
In a city that lost the Warriors, A’s, and Raiders in rapid succession, Alysa Liu seems to have all of Oakland’s attention. After she collected figure-skating gold at the Winter Olympics, the San Francisco Chronicle published no fewer than three stories about her on Tuesday. One covered her arrival at SFO; another revealed plans for a celebration of her medals in Oakland; and a third broke the news of where Liu chose to eat dinner: Trabocco in Alameda. As giddy messages about the restaurant sighting spread online, some residents urged their neighbors to be cool. S.F. Chronicle
- Before Milan, Liu was just an East Bay kid. The San Francisco Standard published photos.
Southern California
9.
The Justice Department sued UCLA on Tuesday over allegations that campus leaders failed to protect Jewish employees from antisemitic harassment during pro-Palestinian protests. The 81-page lawsuit focuses heavily on an encampment in the spring of 2024 where checkpoints allowed pro-Palestinian protesters to pass but blocked Jewish people. “UCLA’s administration turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts,” the lawsuit said. UCLA said it had already taken steps to enhance safety and combat antisemitism. L.A. Times | A.P.
10.
Warner Bros. Discovery said on Tuesday that Paramount had raised its takeover offer, potentially derailing a rival bid from Netflix, which had a deal to buy Warner’s studios and HBO Max streaming service for $83 billion. If Warner decides Paramount’s offer — estimated at $111 billion — is better, Netflix will have a chance to match it. President Trump remains a wild card. He recently lashed out at Netflix over partisan remarks by Susan Rice, a board member, and he is friendly with Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. Wall Street Journal | Variety
11.
Jack in the Box, the San Diego burger chain founded in 1951, “has lost its spring,” the Los Angeles Times reported. Customers are dwindling and the company’s shares have fallen roughly 80% in the last five years. Sardar Biglari, an investor, is leading a campaign to bring in new leadership, citing “catastrophic value destruction.” One pain point: Latinos comprise a significant portion of Jack in the Box’s customer base, and immigration crackdowns have kept many them home.
12.
The Hollywood sign stands alone as a symbol of hopes and dreams in Southern California. But in the 1920s, a splashier sign promoted a rival housing development a couple hills away. The neon red “Outpost” sign stood 30 feet high and was said at the time to be the largest sign of its kind in the U.S. The name was derived from a nearby clubhouse built by the L.A. Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, which he called the Outpost. During World War II, amid fear of a Japanese aerial assault, the sign was dimmed and ultimately fell into disrepair, its wreckage left to sink into the earth. Vanished from memory, the site was rediscovered by hikers in 2002. A pair of travel vloggers, in the spirit of archaeologists, recently went searching for it and found at least four of the letters. YouTube (~15 mins)
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