California legislation introduced Monday would make the coronavirus vaccine compulsory for all schoolchildren, with exemptions granted only in rare medical cases. If enacted, it would be stricter than the mandate proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which would have allowed personal belief exemptions. “What we’re saying is that if you choose not to vaccinate your child, there’s a consequence,” said state Sen. Richard Pan, the bill’s author. “It’s to protect the other children because they have rights as well.” Republican lawmakers vowed to fight the measure. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

The N.Y. Times’ Ivan Penn depicted California’s rooftop solar debate as a battle over profits: “For years, the rooftop solar business was ascendant in California, growing as much as 62 percent a year. That angered utilities and their labor unions, which long controlled the production, sale and distribution of electricity, and they lobbied state leaders to rein in the rooftop solar business — an effort that is on the cusp of success.”

A pair of dispatches from California’s NIMBY wars:

There’s still gold in California’s hills. Mining became unprofitable during the Great Depression when gold prices were fixed. But that’s no longer the case, and price gains have lured prospectors back to the Sierra. On the outskirts of Grass Valley, a Canadian company called Rise Gold bought up land and mineral rights with plans to revive a mine shuttered in 1956. Community groups have been holding protests and planting “NO MINE” signs in their yards. Undark Magazine

Tuolumne County prosecutors planned to charge a retired Bay Area police officer with murder after they say he steered his pickup truck into oncoming lanes and slammed head-on into a woman’s vehicle last week, killing her. The authorities said Theodore Young, 63, was drunk. More than 150 people gathered over the weekend to remember the woman, 27-year-old Rebekah Gall. “She loved everybody she met,” her sister said. Modesto Bee | KTXL

Eureka has for some time claimed to be the center of the marble universe. National Geographic lent credence to the boast with a feature on the region’s community of marble hunters, whose hobby is similar to geocaching. Marble hunting, however, eschews GPS, relying instead on clues posted on social media that lead to handcrafted glass orbs hidden atop a mountain or in driftwood on the beach. Competition can get fierce.

The business of celebrity-branded ghost kitchens, which to consumers exist only online, is booming. The S.F. Chronicle food critic Soleil Ho wrote a delightful takedown of “uniquely terrible” offerings from DJ Khaled, Steve Aoki, and a YouTuber named MrBeast. An excerpt:

“You know how sometimes you can taste the suffering in a dish? Tragedy was the main note in the six-piece wing set ($9.85). The flesh in the fried wings was withered and mummy-like requiring lingering dips in sauce to rehydrate.”

When the architect Willis Polk designed a new building for San Francisco in the early 1900s, he pushed himself to create something unlike anywhere else in the city — or the country, for that matter. Ahead of the completion of the Hallidie building, he declared in the San Francisco Examiner, “I’ve turned a building wrong side out.” Curbed told the story of what some architectural historians call the most important modern building in San Francisco.

The Hallidie building. Condominium One. Wayfarers Chapel. The American Institute of Architects once named the 25 California structures that everyone should see. USA Today

Rick Caruso is exploring a run for Los Angeles mayor. His entry would inject high drama into the campaign. The current front-runner is Rep. Karen Bass, a progressive Black congresswoman who did community work in South Los Angeles. Caruso is a white billionaire developer who spent most of his life as a Republican. His assessment of Los Angeles’ leadership: “No one believes that the same group of politicians who allowed our city to become this unsafe, corrupt, and cruel can solve any of the problems we face.” L.A. Times

In Amazon warehouses, which abound in the Inland Empire, workers are summoned to regular mandatory wellness “huddles,” where they are told about the importance of using their core muscles to lift bins and reminded to stretch and eat vegetables. One worker called the sessions “hands down the most infantilizing experience I have to endure at work.” Another: “It’s nice to get a break from a task for a few minutes but at the cost of feeling like the company views me as a toddler who needs constant reminders on how to do basic things like bending my knees and holding a box, I’d rather just keep working.” Vice

The N.Y. Times Magazine ran an article titled “The Tao of Wee Man,” about the life of the Southern California skateboarder and TV personality whose real name is Jason Acuña — and it’s a masterclass in profile writing.

“I asked what his job would have been if he hadn’t managed to make a career out of ‘Jackass.’ He stopped what he was doing — which was whistling — and thought for a few seconds. ‘I think I would have just been a guy that grew old and worked at a skate shop,’ he said. His tone suggested this was an almost equally desirable outcome. It’s sort of already what he does, for no pay. He threw back his head and boomed in an old-timey prospector voice: ‘”Wee Man,” they called him!'”

“Go live and be and do, and I love you so much, Andrea.”

Since Bob Saget died on Jan. 9, there’s been an outpouring from friends testifying to what an unusually present and loving person he was. He seemed to never end a conversation without saying, I love you. An archivist made a heartwarming video compilation. 👉 YouTube (~7 mins)

“Bob put it all on the table for us — leaving nothing behind.” John Stamos delivered an appropriately raunchy and touching eulogy at Saget’s memorial. L.A. Times