Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 17.
- California braces for potential thunderstorms and rain.
- San Francisco politician is recalled over highway closure.
- And movie star and Sundance founder Robert Redford dies.
Statewide
1.
Henry Stern, a Democratic state senator from the Los Angeles area who has long been considered an environmental leader, marveled at the fact that he once wrote anti-fracking laws and was now working on legislation to allow more drilling in Kern County. His shift is emblematic of a party stung by last year’s election losses, the New York Times wrote: “If they gain traction by tilting toward pocketbook issues, even at the expense of long-held environmental orthodoxy, it could provide lessons to Democrats nationally even if it angers activists locally.”
2.
Kash Patel, the FBI director, got into a shouting match with Sen. Adam Schiff during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. As the California senator demanded an explanation for the decision to move Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower-security prison, Patel called Schiff a “liar,” a “political buffoon,” a “coward,” and “the biggest fraud to sit in the United States Senate.” For his part, Schiff called Patel “nothing more than an internet troll.” A CBS News reporter said he had never seen such an exchange in 20 years of covering Washington. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times
3.
Moisture from a tropical storm moving north off the coast of Mexico is poised to surge into Southern California on Wednesday, reaching the northern half of the state by Thursday, meteorologists said. A strong possibility of dry lightning raised fears of wildfires. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist, predicted “fairly widespread thunderstorm outbreaks,” but said much remained uncertain. “Some locations may stay completely dry, with no lightning; others could see locally torrential downpours, or otherwise multiple hours of dry lightning,” he said. Accuweather | Weather West
- Track the remnants of Tropical Storm Mario.
4.
“It’s amazing to me that this group of people has been denied a dignified life, when they are the ones who are actually picking the food that sustains us. I feel like farmworkers have been used politically as a scapegoat. … It’s just kind of sad.”
The artist Narsiso Martinez paints portraits of largely unseen California agricultural workers on discarded produce-packing boxes. In an interview, High Country News asked him about the meaning of his work.
- See more of Martinez’s paintings.
5.
American pikas, northern pygmy owls, black bears, North American river otters, gray foxes, Mexican freetail bats, California newts.
Yosemite is home to roughly 90 mammals, as well as hundreds of birds, amphibians, and reptiles — and Robb Hirsch has spent 20 years photographing them. His work is featured in a new volume, “Yosemite Wildlife: The Wonder of Animal Life in California’s Sierra Nevada.” PetaPixel published a selection.
Northern California
6.
Residents on the west side of San Francisco voted overwhelmingly to recall a supervisor they blamed for turning a 2-mile stretch of a highway into a public park. Supervisor Joel Engardio, who represents the nearby Sunset District, backed a 2024 ballot measure to close the Great Highway stretch to cars, which voters narrowly approved. But his constituents revolted. Early returns in the recall vote showed 64% in favor. Engardio expressed no regret late Tuesday: “We can still celebrate because we are on the right side of the history,” he said. Mission Local | N.Y. Times
7.
Gooder Foods, a Santa Cruz company that has positioned itself as healthy alternative to big name food brands, has recalled its popular Goodles vegan macaroni and cheese after discovering it may contain milk. Another mac and cheese product was recalled after being found to contain undeclared cashews, a potentially deadly allergen. Founded in 2020, Gooder Foods enjoyed rapid growth with the help of endorsements from celebrities such as Gal Gadot, Christina Aguilera, and Klay Thompson. Lookout Santa Cruz | SFGATE
8.
An albino alligator named Claude lives in a patch of swampland inside San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences — and he has a cult following. Among the devoted are the employees of Anthropic, the $183 billion artificial intelligence company whose chatbot coincidentally shares the name Claude. At the company’s headquarters, stuffed albino alligators decorate workdesks and a 24/7 livestream of the alligator plays on screens at elevator banks. “We stand around and we watch Claude, and we talk about what Claude’s doing,” said Margaret Vo, Anthropic’s head of user education. Wall Street Journal
- Watch the “Claude Cam.”
Southern California
9.
Robert Redford died on Tuesday. Born in Santa Monica and raised in Los Angeles, Redford attended college on a baseball scholarship before dropping out and taking up acting classes. With his blond hair and boyish grin, he became one the most desired leading men of the 20th century, starring in films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” and “All the President’s Men.” He won an Academy Award for directing “Ordinary People.” He forged an even more profound legacy as the force behind the Sundance Film Festival, helping create an ecosystem for independent filmmakers that transformed the industry. Redford was 89. Washington Post | N.Y. Times
- The L.A. Times recommended 10 essential Redford movies.
- See Redford’s life, in photos.
10.
In recent months, at least six wild donkeys have been shot with arrows in the Moreno Valley area of Riverside County. In the latest incident, a young female donkey was discovered with an arrow lodged above her right shoulder on Sept. 10. The animal was treated and is expected to be OK. But locals, many of whom revere the wild donkeys as local icons, are beside themselves. DonkeyLand, a wild animal sanctuary, is offering a $14,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. A.P. | NBC Los Angeles
11.
An influx of wealthy residents is transforming the Coachella Valley as skyrocketing home prices push more Californians from cities to suburbs. Two of the top three California communities with the greatest growth in income between 2017 and 2022 were Indian Wells and Thousand Palms. In Indian Wells, average incomes nearly doubled, from $139,000 to $256,000. In Thousand Palms, they tripled. Jessica Bond, 31, bought her home in Thousand Palms in 2018. “It’s crazy,” she said. “The same house that was on the market five years ago has doubled in price.” L.A. Times
12.
Bat rays, natives of the Pacific coast, are known for their graceful movements, gliding lazily through shallow water. But they can generate surprisingly explosive speed. When startled, a bat ray will flap their powerful winglike pectoral fins in a wave-like motion, generating thrust. The popular Southern California drone photographer Carlos Gauna captured a nice view of a group of bat rays scattering as a shark approaches. YouTube
- Here’s a close-up view of a bat ray hitting top speed off La Jolla Shores. (Wait for it). 👉 Reddit
Correction
Tuesday’s newsletter quoted a Bloomberg article that contained an error. At noon on July 30, solar generation on California’s CAISO grid hit 21.7 gigawatts, not 21.7 megawatts.
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