Good morning. It’s Wednesday, July 1.
- Bay Area Bosnians jubilant ahead of World Cup match.
- A food itinerary for the ride from L.A. to Big Sur.
- And man loses foot saving daughter from crash in Venice.
Statewide
1.
New Supreme Court rulings reverberated in California on Tuesday:
- A decision allowing states to prohibit trans athletes from competing in female events requires no action from California. But it is expected to add pressure on the state, which is facing a lawsuit by the Trump administration for allowing such participation. “Blue states with boys on girls’ podiums … you’re next,” said Kristen Waggoner, the president of the Alliance Defending Freedom. N.Y. Times | CalMatters
- The court’s reaffirmation of birthright citizenship was personal for many in California, where an estimated 24,500 children are born each year to noncitizen parents. Rep. Dave Min, a Democrat from Irvine, is among them. “Donald Trump does not get to rewrite the Constitution by executive order because he wants to decide who counts as American,” he said after the ruling. O.C. Register
2.
Before the University of California ended the use of SAT and ACT scores in admissions in 2020, a faculty task force had advised against the move, citing data that such testing actually helps boost enrollment of disadvantaged students. Then-UC President Janet Napolitano did it anyway. Mina Aganagic, a UC Berkeley math professor, writes: “Six years later, the experiment has run its course. The faculty task force was right. Napolitano was wrong. And the outcome is even worse than the task force predicted.” Washington Post
3.
Melt-in-your-mouth beef tartare in the Santa Ynez Valley.
Lobster risotto along a dramatic cliff above the Pacific.
And chocolate truffles from California’s kitschiest hotel.
Eater Los Angeles shared a food itinerary along a road trip from Los Angeles to Big Sur.
Northern California
4.
Last year, Jennifer Raymond bought a Victorian home in the small town of Fortuna along the Eel River. But she didn’t buy it for the architecture or the square footage. Raymond harbored suspicions of animal abuse at an adjacent dog-rescue operation. On April 12, in the dead of night, she cut a hole in her neighbor’s fence, found an earthen mound, and began to dig. “Within about a foot and a half, I came up with fur,” she said. “I uncovered a dead dog. Its muzzle was covered in blood.” Her discovery set off raids that have turned up 117 dead dogs and counting. SFGATE
5.
When Bosnia-Herzegovina faces the United States for their round of 32 knockout World Cup match in Santa Clara today, they will feel the embrace of some 10,000 Bosnians living in the South Bay Area. Many came as refugees from the Balkan wars of the 1990s and can now scarcely believe that their new home is playing host to the Bosnian national team. “Not even in my wildest dreams,” said Aida Sibic, a resident of Gilroy. “It’s pretty surreal to be here to experience this, the excitement. Reuters | KGO
6.
Before he died in a helicopter crash in Brazil in June, the Santa Cruz musician Oliver Tree talked about where he wanted his money to go in the event of his death. “I’ll get my kids through college,” he said on a podcast earlier this year. “That’s the agreement, but there’s not gonna be a silver spoon. All the money is going to go back to artists.” On Saturday, just two weeks after Tree died, his vision became a reality. It’s called the “Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses,” and it plans to support art projects for “at least 50 to 100 years.” Rolling Stone
7.
Elliot Roth, 32, wanted to test whether a brain-AI interface could control a lobster. “Roth did not have any experience with lobster surgery, so he had enlisted a co-conspirator: William Joy, a lanky, 19-year-old redhead who also had never operated on a lobster but seemed confident in his fine motor skills. … ‘I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the first real instance of a complex AI agent interfacing with a biological organism,’ he said.” The Atlantic ventured into the hacker houses at the center of San Francisco’s AI boom.
Southern California
8.
The only post office serving Los Angeles’ Skid Row closed after repeated break-ins. A postal service official said the decision was driven by “safety risks to people and property.” Estela Lopez, a downtown business leader, said the city had given up on fighting crime: “[Criminals have] already claimed the street lights, fire hydrants. They have wreaked havoc on city infrastructure, and now taken away the right to postal services. … It’s surrender. We are surrendering in Los Angeles.” L.A. Times
9.
“Until they can control the flow, we’re just going to be awash in explosives.”
If Fourth of July in Los Angeles is a celebration of America, it’s also a crazed spectacle of citywide disregard for the law. Fireworks are banned, yet year after year the sky booms with amateur pyrotechnics launched from city streets and yards. A deadly explosion at a warehouse near Sacramento last July shed light on how some illegal fireworks are being sourced from China. But a report by L.A. Material showed how law enforcement is far from getting a handle on the black market.
10.
Jordan Stannard was loading his 2-year-old daughter in the car outside a Venice grocery store two weeks ago when a GMC truck came barreling toward them. In an instant, he “literally just threw her into the car,” Stannard recalled. But he wasn’t able to get out of the way. The truck hit him, mangling his foot. Doctors ultimately had to amputate his leg below the knee. There’s little doubt, however, that he saved his daughter’s life. “There’s no room for feeling bad for myself or being angry,” he said. “I have so much to look forward to.” L.A. Times | KABC
11.
György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto is a work of such extreme complexity that it is seldom programmed. But at this month’s celebrated Ojai Music Festival, the violinist Leila Josefowicz delivered a performance that bowled critics over. The L.A. Times’ Mark Swed said it “has to be heard (and seen!) to be believed for its fantastic virtuosity, whimsical weirdness and Josefowicz’s absorption of music into her body.” The New Yorker’s Alex Ross wrote: “She applied a thick, bristling tone and dispatched swirls of notation with meticulous abandon.”
12.
Reporter Santi Elijah spent five days at a Benedictine monastery in the Mojave Desert with no phone and no Netflix:
“By the end of the week, the retreat guests I met earlier have left; they’re replaced by new guests, and I realize that I’m the only one who has stayed the entire week. I’ve more or less gotten the hang of the chants, the gesticulations, when to stand and when to sit. … I also find that I don’t miss scrolling on my phone or circling back on emails or anxiously refreshing my news feed every two minutes. I don’t know if I believe in an afterlife, but if there is a heaven, I’m certain it will not have TikTok.” Alta magazine
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