Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 24.
- ICE brings enforcement to California courthouses.
- Jimmy Kimmel’s return is both defiant and conciliatory.
- And the lawn-loving people of 1970s San Fernando Valley.
Northern California
1.
California law forbids warrantless immigration arrests at state courthouses on the grounds that such enforcement would have a chilling effect on witnesses and victims. But ICE has been doing it anyway. Local lawmakers and court officials in Alameda County reacted with outrage after federal agents detained a man with no known criminal record during a routine court appearance in Oakland last week. “No one should be punished for showing up to court,” said Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas. Mercury News | CalMatters
2.
The Trump administration’s move to add a $100,000 fee for H-1B visas reverberated through Silicon Valley, where some executives warned that it would create a system of haves and have-nots. H-1B visas have been adopted widely in tech to recruit software engineers, artificial intelligence specialists, and other skilled workers from overseas. While the biggest companies can easily absorb the new fee, many of the smaller firms that have traditionally been engines of competition in the valley cannot. N.Y. Times | CNBC
- Some companies have begun talking about moving more jobs overseas in response to the new fees — precisely the outcome the policy was meant to avoid. Reuters
3.
San Francisco is using drones to crack down on illegal stunt driving, a Bay Area subculture that involves swarms of dirt bikers and all-terrain vehicle riders taking over sidewalks, streets, and bridges. Police on Sunday arrested four people and seized six dirt bikes, the department announced on Monday. The dirt bikers have tormented residents for too long, Mayor Daniel Lurie said: “That era is over. We’re restoring order back to our streets.” S.F. Chronicle | CBS News
4.
Casey Goonan, a self-described scholar-activist who carried out a series of arson attacks at UC Berkeley in June 2024 in protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly 20 years in prison. Ahead of sentencing, Goonan, 35, told Judge Jeffrey White that he had bipolar disorder and acted out of character. “My core belief is against perpetuating harm,” he said. White said he detected no remorse in Goonan and imposed a sentence harsher than prosecutors sought. KQED | CBS News
5.
San Francisco’s new most expensive private school is promising parents that their kids will learn 10 times faster than those in traditional education. Students at the $75,000-a-year Alpha School do just two hours of academic work a day, spending the rest of their time developing “life skills.” Teachers act as coaches for kids who learn from artificial-intelligence driven software, said principal Joe Liemandt. “For years, there have been way better ways to teach kids than a teacher in front of a classroom,” he said. “It just wasn’t technologically or economically doable until now.” S.F. Standard
6.
“THIS IS NOT A JOKE,” the fliers warned.
A Marin County community is on edge after a wild squirrel launched a series of attacks that sent two people to the emergency room, according to the local humane society. Joan Heblack never saw the squirrel coming. While on a walk in her San Rafael neighborhood, she looked down to see the animal digging its teeth and claws into her leg. “Very scary,” she said. “How do you get a squirrel attached to your leg off?” KGO
7.
Just for fun, a San Francisco software engineer named Riley Walz created an app that tracks the city’s parking officers by plotting their citations on a map. When he shared it on social media early Tuesday, it almost immediately went viral. But four hours later, his script stopped working. Walz suspects transportation officials tweaked the public data feed to break to his map. The fun was over — or so it seemed. Late Tuesday, Walz posted an update: “Figured out a workaround,” he wrote, “and it’s back up!” S.F. Chronicle | SFist
8.
After the Warriors, Raiders, and Athletics abandoned Oakland, the city’s beleaguered sports fans enjoyed a moment of redemption on Sunday. The Oakland Ballers, a minor league team launched by A’s fans in 2024, clinched the Pioneer League championship with a win over the Idaho Falls Chukars. Ballers players raced onto the field and poured beers on each other. Some fans shed tears of joy. “It feels like the start of a new chapter for baseball in Oakland,” said team co-founder Bryan Carmel. “They tried to take baseball out of the town.” Oaklandside | KQED
Southern California
9.
Jimmy Kimmel returned to his late show on Tuesday after a nearly weeklong suspension, delivering a monologue that was by turns defiant, funny, and tearful. He said he was moved by the wave of bipartisan support he received; he denounced attacks on free speech as un-American; and he taunted President Trump: “He did his best to cancel me, instead he forced millions of people to watch the show.”
Kimmel became emotional as he addressed his comments last week on Charlie Kirk that precipitated his suspension. “[It was] never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” he said, his voice cracking. Later, he recounted how Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, forgave her husband’s killer. “If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was,” Kimmel said. “That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow, and it touched me deeply.” N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
- Watch Kimmel’s full monologue.
- President Trump responded to Kimmel’s return Tuesday by threatening to take action against ABC. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million,” he wrote, referring to a December defamation settlement. “This one sounds even more lucrative.” Axios
10.
Maurice Hastings was 31 when he was arrested and later sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 1983 sexual assault and murder of a woman in Inglewood. In 2022, after 38 years in prison, he was freed after DNA evidence exonerated him of the crime. Now Inglewood has awarded 72-year-old Hastings $25 million in what his lawyers on Tuesday called the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history. “No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road.” A.P. | LAist
11.
Last fall, a top official in San Diego County’s animal services agency, Rachael Borrelli, sent an intemperate voice message. “In Carlsbad, they don’t euthanize anything — even if the dog fucking bit a kid. So that’s why I was like, ‘Euthanize the dog.’ Like, I’m so sick of us keeping shit dogs that aren’t going to get adopted.” She added: “Call me heartless, but I’m also realistic.” Asked for comment, a county spokeswoman said the message “does not reflect the values of the county.” Since the story surfaced, Borrelli has been “out of office for the near term,” the agency head said. KPBS
12.
Between 1971 and 1973, the student photographer John Divola turned his camera on his own neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley for lack of a better idea. Many years later, he would look back at the work as an unintentionally sociological project, capturing the quintessential look of a time and place. The subjects seem perpetually preoccupied with lawn maintenance, holding garden hoses under the hot valley sun. Divola published a collection of the photos in 2014, many of which are shared on his Instagram feed.
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