Good morning. It’s Friday, Dec. 19.
- Atmospheric rivers poised to deliver wet Christmas.
- Outrage over Bay Area mayor’s posts on Bondi shooting.
- And calls for an e-bike crackdown in Southern California.
Please note: The newsletter will be off next week, returning Monday, Dec. 29. Please enjoy your holiday and thank you for a great year. 🙏
Statewide
1.
It’s going to be a wet Christmas.
Forecasters said weather models are predicting a train of atmospheric rivers to roll into the West Coast through the holiday week. The northern half of the state was poised to see heavy precipitation between Friday and Monday, with as much as 12 inches of rain along the northern Sierra foothills. Close behind, another storm system was expected to spread out more broadly, drenching pretty much the entire state between Tuesday and Friday. Accuweather | L.A. Times
2.
A scenic winery on the edge of a cove near Hearst Castle.
Blue-corn waffles that inspire lines down the block in Cayucos.
And hidden dunes with dramatic views in Los Osos.
Travel writer Freda Moon, a California native, did an excellent “36 Hours” feature on San Luis Obispo region. N.Y. Times
It’s not too late.
Give the gift of the California Sun.
Northern California
3.
A Bay Area mayor faced calls to step down after he promoted a conspiracy theory that the deadly attack on a Jewish gathering in Bondi, Australia, was conducted by an Israeli soldier. Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez shared a post that claimed “paid actors have a history of carrying out false flag, anti-Jewish attacks in Australia.” He also shared an image of a Star of David with the text: “The root cause of antisemitism is the behaviour of Israel & Israelis.” Martinez later deleted the posts and apologized. “I’ve been ill, so my head hasn’t been that clear,” he said. Richmondside | S.F. Chronicle
4.
Palo Alto has had it with its billionaires. Once a city of just doctors, lawyers, and Stanford professors, the explosion of tech wealth introduced a cohort of unneighborly residents. Billionaires have bought up adjacent plots, taken over streets with construction equipment, and hired guards to shoo people away from public sidewalks. On Thursday, Greer Stone, a Palo Alto councilman, introduced legislation to clamp down on billionaire compounds. “The growing discrepancy between the top 1% and the rest of us has never been more clear,” he said. N.Y. Times
5.
A snoozing California bee was featured in National Geographic’s 2025 Pictures of the Year. Photographer Karine Aigner said she wandered the farmlands of Yolo County for hours in search of native sunflower chimney bees, pollen specialists common in sunflower fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Her remarkable close-up appeared to show a specimen zonked “after a long day’s work,” the magazine wrote. @natgeo
- See the full National Geographic photo series.
Southern California
6.
Sable Offshore’s stock price surged more than 60% on Thursday after the Trump administration removed an obstacle to the Texas oil company’s plan to reboot dormant oil platforms off the Santa Barbara coast. California regulators have repeatedly resisted the Sable proposal, calling it an environmental risk. But a federal agency said Wednesday that it was asserting jurisdiction over a key pipeline linking the platforms. A local environmental group said the move “disregards the voice of Californians.” KCBX | Houston Chronicle
7.
A viral video that showed a group of teens beating a 57-year-old man in Hermosa Beach on Nov. 21 has heightened debate over how to respond to teen e-bike culture in L.A. County’s South Bay region. The episode followed long-simmering frustrations over e-bikers who run stop signs, flip people off, and hold their phones while riding, the Los Angeles Times reported: “Some beach cities residents say the teens’ aggression reflects a broader attitude: that e-bike riders, emboldened by their protected status as minors, increasingly act as if they own the streets.”
8.
Saudi Arabia appears to no longer be a pariah in Hollywood. This month, Paramount turned to the Saudis to support its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. During a film festival in Jeddah this month, Adrien Brody, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kirsten Dunst joined a constellation of stars. The filmmaker Sean Baker described the vibe as akin to the “early days of Hollywood.” A publicist said the parade of celebrities through the kingdom has been “absolutely normalized.” “It’s as though Mr. Khashoggi never existed,” she said, referring to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. L.A. Times
9.
In the late 1990s, Gary Winnick had amassed an estimated $6.2 billion fortune. A protégé of the former junk-bond king Michael Milken, he donated millions of dollars to the Los Angeles Zoo and rubbed elbows with President Clinton. But since his death at the age of 76 in 2023, a very different financial picture has emerged: Winnick was severely strapped for cash and deeply in debt. The Wall Street Journal told the story of “how L.A.’s richest man went from billions to bust.”
10.
Rep. Robert Garcia is gay, a Latino immigrant, and younger than many of his colleagues. A former mayor of Long Beach, he has been in Congress fewer than three years, but has risen to become the top Democrat on the powerful Oversight Committee. In a new profile, the New York Times said that despite his congressional inexperience, Garcia has made a mark. “This idea of just, like, sending strongly worded letters and hoping that people catch that? That’s over,” he told the newspaper.
California Sun podcast
11.
Sausalito’s vanishing “anchor-out” community.
A journey through California’s underrated BLM lands.
And Joan Didion’s warning about America’s entertainment politics.
California Sun Podcast host Jeff Schechtman shared his favorite interviews from 2025. 👉 California Sun Podcast
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- The Central Valley’s tule fog has a salutary effect for the region’s fruit and nut trees, allowing them to store more energy for the growing season. But it’s notorious for causing vehicle pileups. Jordan Craft shared a video from her drive along Highway 36, dropping into Red Bluff, that showed what it’s like entering the fog. Reddit
- “I could see the helplessness. Could see the futility of forestalling the harmful acts of an addict.” In a thoughtful piece for the Hollywood Reporter, journalist Steven Zeitchik recalled a jarring dinner he had with the Reiner family in 2015.
- In 2025, the culture critic Peter Hartlaub explored the unheralded downtowns of the Bay Area. These are his favorite eight. 👉 S.F. Chronicle
- In the 1960s and 70s, a half-mile section of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip was lined with amazing, hand-painted rock billboards. Record companies sought to outdo one another in audaciousness. The Instagram account Forgotten Los Angeles posted a pair of galleries of the Sunset Strip’s rock billboard heyday.
- See more from the collection of photographer Robert Landau.
- A Filipino grocery store chain with locations throughout the Bay Area is throwing late-night parties where people joyously dance and sing in the aisles to songs like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The Seafood City parties, dubbed Late Night Madness, have been described as an expression of community pride. N.Y. Times
- See fun video from a party at the Milpitas Seafood City.
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