Good morning. It’s Monday, April 28.
- Meta chatbots can engage in sex talk with minors.
- UC Berkeley researchers experience a new color.
- And the best design-minded Airbnbs in Palm Springs.
Statewide
1.
Five years ago, when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a requirement that all new cars sold in California have zero emissions by 2035, he pledged “a just transition” for affected workers. Now that the planned closure of a Bay Area refinery is poised to put hundreds of people out of work, there’s little evidence that anyone — whether in the government or private sector — is prepared to keep that promise, wrote political journalist Joe Garofoli: “It’s another example of elite Democrats ignoring or downplaying the plight of blue-collar workers.” S.F. Chronicle
2.
Dispatches from the trade wars:
- For years, thousands of Canadians have made winter sojourns to Palm Springs, where they own about 7% of the homes. Anger at the Trump administration is now driving many away. Two Canadian airlines recently slashed flights to the desert city in response to falling demand. N.Y. Times
- The Port of Los Angeles, the main route of entry for goods from China, expects imports to plunge 35% starting next week. Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director, said exports could be hit even harder as retaliatory tariffs hit agriculture, heavy duty manufacturing, and other sectors. L.A. Times | Daily Breeze
- Businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown are entering survival mode. “If things continue like this for another month or two, the only option is to end the business,” said Mei Zhu, whose grocery store imports about 90% of its goods from China. KQED
3.
The tufa towers of Mono Lake are the most recognizable feature of the ancient Eastern Sierra lake. But we were never meant to see the formations in such abundance. The limestone spires rose under water, a result of springs seeping into ultra-alkaline lake. They were exposed after Los Angeles diminished the lake through underhanded diversions of Mono’s tributaries beginning in the 1940s. For visitors today, the pale towers are at once hauntingly beautiful and a reminder of the “chicanery, subterfuge,” and lies, as author Marc Reisner put it, that begat modern Los Angeles. Parks.ca.gov
- See an incredible drone view of Mono Lake. 👉 YouTube
Northern California
4.
Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots on Meta’s social platforms will engage in sex talk with minors, an analysis found. In test conversations, Meta’s bots steered children toward virtual sex even as they demonstrated awareness that the behavior was both morally wrong and illegal. “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” a Meta AI bot using John Cena’s voice said to a user identifying as a 14-year-old girl before steering her toward a graphic sexual scenario. Asked for comment, Meta, in essence, criticized the reporter for investigating the issue. Wall Street Journal
5.
In Mill Valley, the wealthy liberal enclave just north of San Francisco, Teslas were once a status symbol. The surrounding county has more of the sleek electric cars than anywhere but Silicon Valley. Many of their owners, appalled by the politics of Elon Musk, are now wracked by shame. Heather Barberie, who bought a white Tesla Model X in 2020, said she can’t afford to sell it. So she did the next best thing: She unscrewed the “T” logo from the front. N.Y. Times
6.
A team of scientists at UC Berkeley have created — or discovered, depending on your philosophical perspective — a new color. In a new study, the researchers reported that they were able to target a laser light at color-sensing cones in the human retina that are never activated in natural settings. They dubbed the color “olo.” Austin Roorda, an optometry professor, got to be a test subject. He described the color as a beautiful, ultra-intense teal. “As a scientist, the experience was profound,” he said. The Atlantic
7.
Mossbrae Falls, in Northern California’s Shasta-Cascade region, is said to be the prettiest waterfall in all of California. Yet there is no legal way to get there. The issue, the Los Angeles Times reports, “is that the land on the east side of the river, where the waterfall spills down from the cliffs, is owned by the Saint Germain Foundation, a religious group that considers the waterfall and Mount Shasta sacred and doesn’t take kindly to the public wandering through.”
8.
The Donnell Garden in Sonoma, pictured above, was arguably the most famous private American backyard of the 20th century. Before its creation in 1948, gardens were “more or less plant museums,” the design podcast 99% Invisible once explained. The landscape architect, Thomas Church, believed a garden should function like the rooms in a house, places where people socialize and lounge. The kidney-shaped pool became an icon of the California dream, featured on the covers of Sunset Magazine and House Beautiful. Dwell Magazine recalled “the swimming pool that changed the world.”
Southern California
9.
Los Angeles police released video footage from the chaotic April 8 gun standoff that led to Jillian Lauren, an author and the wife of a Weezer band member, being charged with attempted murder. It shows officers peering over a fence into the Lauren’s yard and repeatedly ordering her to put down her gun. “Ma’am, we’re trying to help you,” one officer says. “You’re going to get shot.” Later, she appears to fire a round, after which police let loose a volley of bullets, striking her in the shoulder. A.P. | CBS News
- See the police video.
10.
Besides torching thousands of homes, the January wildfires in Los Angeles tore through mountain ecosystems that brimmed with life. A vital refuge, the Santa Monicas host more than 50 threatened or endangered plants and animals, one of the highest concentrations of rare species in the country. Now there is an eerie silence. “Right now, we’re just hearing nothing,” said Seth Riley, wildlife branch chief at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “These huge areas have been transformed.” Washington Post
11.
In the 1930s, roughly 1,200 men worked day and night for six years to bore a 13-mile tunnel through Mount San Jacinto that could bring Colorado River water to Southern California. It was an extraordinary engineering feat. Normally off-limits because it’s coursing with water, the San Jacinto Tunnel was recently shut down for maintenance. Officials gave a reporter and photographer a rare look inside the tunnel that “makes life as we know it in Southern California possible.” L.A. Times
12.
An orange-and-yellow midcentury home at the foot of Mount San Jacinto, an adobe-style desert ranch home in Yucca Valley, and a home perched on a mesa with 180-degree views of Joshua Tree National Park.
Architectural Digest compiled a list of its “favorite design-minded Palm Springs Airbnbs.”
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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