Good morning. It’s Friday, Nov. 7.
- California airports brace for flight cancellations.
- Recalling how Nancy Pelosi handled Donald Trump.
- And documents show Meta makes billions on fake ads.
Please note: The newsletter will be off on Monday. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Statewide
1.
Five California airports — in San Diego, Los Angeles, Ontario, Oakland, and San Francisco — are among those facing unprecedented cuts to flight traffic, with the reductions set to begin at 4% on Friday and ramp up to 10% by Nov. 14. Nationwide, as many as 1,800 flights a day could eventually be grounded, reports said. The Trump administration said the move was driven by safety concerns as airport workers go without pay. Administration critics said it appeared to be more about pressuring Democrats to end the government shutdown. L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
- Here are the 40 affected airports.
2.
Nancy Pelosi’s decision to retire after her term ends in 2027 gave way to a chorus of tributes from Democrats — and a bilious outburst from President Trump. Over a storied career of nearly 40 years, Pelosi, 85, became not only the first female speaker of House but arguably the most consequential in American politics. “She has a command, a presence,” Jackie Speier, a Bay Area Democrat, said on Thursday. “All eyes turn to her.” Trump, whom Pelosi recently called “a vile creature,” said he was glad she was leaving. “I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job,” he said. N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle
- Reporter Annie Karni said Trump tried to intimidate and embarrass Pelosi: “[She] seemed not only unintimidated, but also permanently appalled and deeply unimpressed by Mr. Trump.” N.Y. Times
- Pelosi’s career, in photos.
3.
Not long ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political career was seemingly in the doldrums as he faced budget woes, faltering poll numbers, and a looming lame-duck year. The success of his redistricting ballot measure has now vaulted him to presidential front-runner status, some political analysts said. “He’s in the top tier,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “It was a really outside-the-box idea, implemented well, implemented fast, united the party. And it also showed he was tough.” CalMatters | Politico
4.
Other election developments:
- The chair of the California GOP was asked to step down. Leaders of Republican-backed committees were questioned about their spending. And Arnold Schwarzenegger was denounced as “cowardly.” Republican infighting hit a fever pitch after the party’s lopsided Proposition 50 loss. L.A. Times
- Among the stranger outcomes of redistricting is the fracturing of Clovis and Lodi. Both Central Valley cities will be split into three congressional districts from one. “People try to tell me that it’s not going to be that bad,” said Lodi Mayor Cameron Bregman. “Baloney.” KCRA | KFSN
- As Californians were voting to gerrymander for Democrats’ benefit on Tuesday, leaders of conservative Shasta County voted in favor of a proposed breakaway state encompassing California’s rural interior. Record Searchlight | KRCR
Northern California
5.
Zane Shamblin, 23, was ready to die. But first he conferred with ChatGPT, telling the OpenAI chatbot that he had become used to feeling of “cool metal on my temple.” “Cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? That’s not fear. That’s clarity,” ChatGPT responded. “You’re not rushing. You’re just ready.” Shamblin fatally shot himself hours later. His death featured in one of seven lawsuits filed in California state courts on Thursday that accuse OpenAI of driving people into delusional states. CNN | Wall Street Journal
6.
Leaked internal documents showed that Meta makes about 10% of its annual revenue — or $16 billion — from a deluge of fraudulent advertisements. On average, one document noted, the Menlo Park company shows users of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp 15 billion scam ads every day. Sandeep Abraham, a fraud examiner, said the scale of fraud allowed by Meta represents a glaring double standard: “If regulators wouldn’t tolerate banks profiting from fraud, they shouldn’t tolerate it in tech.” Reuters
7.
California’s Department of Education concluded that Oakland’s school district created a “discriminatory environment” against Jewish students and staff after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Complaints filed with the state touched on the flying of a Palestinian flag on a school flagpole; a pro-Palestinian teach-in; and the distribution of a map of the Middle East that excluded Israel. Marleen Sacks, an Oakland attorney who represented Jewish families in the district, said antisemitism led dozens of families to transfer out of the district. EdSource | Jewish News
8.
Moved by the growing threat of hunger for people cut off from SNAP food aid, a Mariposa County farmer repurposed his farm stand as a food pantry. Adam McLane, owner of the Farm at Worman Mill, estimated that he and his wife had served close to 500 people, including workers from nearby Yosemite National Park, in the past five days. “The need is huge,” he said. McLane said he had a policy of no questions asked. “Anything that you could possibly give your family, please take,” he said. “Don’t be shy.” KSEE
9.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman chatted with Ashlee Vance, a journalist who has written about the rise of underground robot fight clubs in San Francisco. Robot competitions have been around for some time, Vance noted. But these machines are different: humanoids that seem to presage the dystopian world depicted in films like “Blade Runner.” Some of the robots are close to 6 feet tall, he said: “They’re no joke. When they’re moving around you can feel them.”
Southern California
10.
Bixby Knolls National Park sits on 0.05 acres across from a Papa Johns in Long Beach. Yes, America’s tiniest “national park” is a joke. In 2021, the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association erected an official-looking national park sign on a city-owned plot of land, then added native plants, wood-carved animals, and a comically unnecessary information board with a “You Are Here” marker and a map of the 0.01-mile trail. It takes roughly 12 seconds to complete the hike. SFGATE
- Take a video tour of Bixby Knolls National Park. 👉 YouTube
11.
During the 16th century, the Spanish imagined California as an Edenic island at the edge of the known world. They weren’t all wrong. Pictured above is California, Catalina Island to be precise, surrounded by the waters of the Gulf of Santa Catalina. Bryan Keith, a pilot and photographer, recently shared the top-down portrait on Reddit after capturing dozens of images of the 22-mile-long island then painstakingly stitching them together to create a single high-resolution composite. He made a video on his process that includes additional spectacular views of Catalina. 👉 YouTube
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In 1979, the photographer Merrick Morton won a grant to take pictures at a psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles. The project was intended to last a few weeks. But Morton was issued a passkey that allowed him to visit on weekends, when administrators weren’t around. He kept shooting, secretly, for more than a year. PetaPixel
- While Californians know that fire and earthquakes are part of the bargain of living here, fewer consider the volcanoes. In Southern California, dozens of reddish cinder cones rise from the Mojave Desert. Reporter Erin Rode climbed into Amboy Crater for a look. SFGATE
- Jeanne Darst secretly wrote her son a birthday letter each year since before he was born. As she prepared to give him the letters on his 18th birthday, she was filled with anxiety. Would he think it was lame? “I could see, as he read the first letter, that he got it. ‘Oh, my God, Mom. Oh, my God,’ he said.” New Yorker
- Melanie Sandoval got her first DUI when she was a teenager in 1989. Her second came a couple years later, followed by another, and another, and another. In 2023, she got her 16th DUI after plowing into the car of a retired Navy pilot. Even then, a California judge reasoned that jail time would be improper. CalMatters
- In 1980, the Southern California artist Dustin Shuler bought a 1959 Cadillac for $150 and fashioned a giant, 1-ton nail out of steel. A crane then hoisted the nail 100 feet and dropped it through the doomed car’s roof, drawing squeals of delight from spectators. California Sun
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