Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 26.
- Silicon Valley parents push back on tech in schools.
- The near collapse of a wunderkind’s AI hedge fund.
- And a surge of Catholic conversions in California.
Statewide
1.
A campaign backed by Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder with an estimated personal wealth of $275 billion, launched an ad opposing a proposed billionaire tax on Tuesday. It was the first volley in what is set to be more than $90 million worth of initiative spending. The New York Times reports: “It’s a staggering outlay, more than 11,000 times the amount of airtime reserved by supporters of the billionaire tax, known as Proposition 40. Tax proponents have booked just $8,000 in advertising so far.”
2.
The Supreme Court’s Monday decision allowing President Trump to pursue plans to restrict mail voting came too close to the midterms to alter California’s normal election practices, experts said. The impact on voters, said Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor, will be “next to nothing.” What the ruling did do was inject confusion into the process, risking weaker voter participation, California election officials said. Critics of Trump suggested that’s precisely what he wants. S.F. Chronicle | O.C. Register
3.
A 35-year-old California man was arrested near the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday after he showed up with a guillotine in the bed of a pickup truck. Philan-Tam-Duy Le, of Julian, drove across the country to Washington, police said. Investigators said they were trying to figure out what his intentions were with the guillotine, a beheading apparatus known for its wide use during French Revolution. Reached by a reporter, Le’s brother said the guillotine was likely intended as a symbol of political frustration. “I don’t think he’d hurt anyone,” he said. L.A. Times | Washington Post
4.
Quaking aspens are the stars of the Eastern Sierra fall, draping the valleys and lake shores in brilliant shades of gold and yellow. Draw near, and you can hear what sounds like ocean waves as their leaves tremble in the breeze. The aspen performs more wonders beneath the soil, where its roots spread laterally and sprout genetically identical copies of the parent tree. Root networks can sprawl for acres and live for thousands of years, making up a single massive clonal organism. That makes the aspen a contender for the titles of both the oldest and largest living things on earth.
- Where to find aspens in California.
Northern California
5.
Solano County supervisors voted to kill a proposal to fast-track a new shipyard along the rural outer Bay Area waterfront — at least until the end of this year. California Forever, backed by a roster of Silicon Valley billionaires, aggressively pushed the jobs-creating proposal as part of its vision to build a walkable city on nearby agricultural land. It had the blessing of Gov. Gavin Newsom. But the county leaders balked at the pressure campaign. “We shouldn’t be doing it because we’re rushed,” Supervisor Mitch Mashburn said on Tuesday. “We do have time.” CalMatters | Sacramento Bee
6.
The blacklash to tech in schools is even more pronounced in the heart of Silicon Valley. At a recent Palo Alto school board, a tech investor with three school-aged children asked the board members point blank: “Where is the evidence for your technology?” Another parent who works in tech addressed the irony of anti-tech attitudes in the valley: “The way I square it is this: The tech that I work with is geared toward adults. … Tech is not the enemy, but kids need to learn critical thinking, and experience that cognitive struggle, first.” S.F. Chronicle
7.
After graduating from Columbia University in 2021 at age 19, Leopold Aschenbrenner set off for the Bay Area, in his words, “to find the true American spirit.” He linked up with the crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried and took a job at OpenAI. Before long, Aschenbrenner had built an AI-focused hedge fund that would manage $45 billion in assets. He had no investing experience, yet he dazzled investors with his proximity to Silicon Valley’s power players. Last month, his hedge fund nose-dived. The Wall Street Journal chronicled the valley’s latest cautionary tale of hubris outpacing common sense.
8.
There’s a new sort of athlete in the Bay Area: the competitive subway rider. Transit “speedrunners” compete to hit all of a city’s subway stations as fast as possible. They painstakingly analyze schedules, forgo bathroom breaks, sprint between platforms, and hope for lucky timing on train transfers. Enzo Wu, 17, shares the record for BART supremacy at 50 stations in five hours and nine minutes. Whether he followed the rules, however, has become a subject of fierce drama. Wall Street Journal
Southern California
9.
One woman conceived a baby. Another carried him. A judge now faces an impossible question: Who is the mother? Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, a Los Angeles couple who struggled to have a baby, hired a nurse named McKenna West to be their surrogate. When the fetus was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, the couple asked West to get an abortion. She refused, and now she’s claiming parental rights. “He’s our child,” Gilkar said from the stand on Tuesday, wiping tears. In her testimony, West said she’s the reason the baby was born at all. N.Y. Times | A.P.
10.
In April, when the Catholic church traditionally registers new members, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles reported nearly 8,600 people poised to be baptized or formally enter the church, a 54% jump over 2025. Some people are talking of a revival in the Catholic church as people dismayed by the shallowness of internet culture grow spiritually hungry. Matt Wheeler, a pastor at USC’s Our Savior Parish, looked out recently at a sea of student faces and marveled to himself: “Wow. Nobody dragged these young adults here.” The Guardian
11.
The New Yorker’s Alex Ross wrote a eulogy to Jackie the bald eagle:
“I felt a twinge of grief when the Ojai Raptor Center reported Jackie’s death, and I didn’t feel foolish for doing so. Perhaps she was no different from any other eagle, in that she lived her life according to ageless eagle principles. But she demonstrated the restless labor that goes into such a life — twenty-eight sticks in one day! — and the fragile beauty that emerges from it.”
12.
☝️ This was Dolly Parton’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday. The country legend, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80, had significant ties to California. After conquering country radio with hits such as “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” she was embraced by Hollywood, where she had a breakout film role in 1980’s “9 to 5.” She bought homes in West Hollywood, Idyllwild, and Solvang. In recent years, she brought her Imagination Library to California, sending millions of free books to children. Kitten Kaysera, a superfan who visited Parton’s star dressed all in pink on Tuesday, called the singer “the light” in a dark world. SFGATE | Hollywood Reporter
- Parton’s extraordinary life, in pictures.
Get your California Sun T-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, hats, and totes!
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.