California Sun

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 14.

California is threatened on alleged noncitizen voters.
Sausalito’s anchor-outs face deadline to leave water.
And a crack opens in bluff below PCH in Orange County.

Statewide

1.

The Justice Department on Tuesday provided California officials with a list of suspected noncitizen voters and gave them 48 hours to confirm their citizenship status. In a letter addressed to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the agency demanded that the individuals’ ballots be set aside until the review is complete. Otherwise, the federal government “will have no choice but to seek emergency relief,” the letter said. Weber has earlier accused the administration of hurling “seemingly baseless allegations” of noncitizen voting in effort to intimidate Californians. Reuters

2.

A comparison of California’s $4.3 trillion GDP, left, and the $497 billion that the state’s billionaires added to their wealth last year. (via New York Times)

Last year alone, the total wealth of California’s billionaires increased by $497 billion, an amount more than the entire GDP of the Philippines. The New York Times Magazine produced an interactive article that illustrates the mind-boggling wealth of California’s richest residents — and how they are able to shield most of it from taxation. As the state’s voters weigh a proposed billionaire tax, the magazine asks: “Why is it so hard to tax the ultra-rich?”

3.

Kamala Harris had plenty of time to redefine herself ahead of a potential presidential bid. But she didn’t do that, according to interviews with nearly 20 Democratic insiders. Politico reports: “Harris has offered voters almost nothing in the way of specifics about how she would remake a Democratic Party hungry for change after another term of Donald Trump. … She has entirely sidestepped the ideological civil war consuming the Democrats and has acted more like a party elder at a time when voters and donors are demanding a break with the past.”

4.

A view of crops between Stockton and Modesto on Chhabria’s map.

It’s a classic road-trip game: trying to identify which crops are growing from the seemingly endless farmland along California’s highways. Sabhya Chhabria, a Bay Area software engineer, has now created a user-friendly map that identifies all 384,000 agricultural fields across the state, based on state data. Regional preferences stand out: In the Sacramento Valley, rice abounds; in the Salinas Valley, it’s lettuce and grapes; in Kern County, almonds and pistachios. Explore the map.

Northern California

5.

The community of anchor-outs on Sausalito’s Richardson Bay, whose members have lived illegally on sailboats for decades, has been all but dismantled. But Chad Wycliffe remains. “They’re having a hard time finding out how to get me out of here,” said the 45-year-old who has lived on water for nearly half his life. “They’re going to have to kill me.” Wycliffe is not the only one. A reporter and photographer spent three days aboard boats with the last of the anchor-outs. N.Y. Times

6.

The FBI arrested an OpenAI employee after he was accused of planting a hidden recording device in one of the company’s conference rooms, reports said on Tuesday. OpenAI said the device, discovered during a security sweep on Sept. 30, used advanced encryption and had a way to transfer data without being detected. The Department of Justice identified the worker as a Saudi national, Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, who joined the company as an engineer in July 2025. Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg

7.

Anthropic warned on Monday that artificial intelligence models are months away from being able to create rogue “AI worms” that self-replicate across home devices such as smart ovens and TVs. The warning raised alarms in cybersecurity circles, raising the possibility that the kind of attacks that have hit companies and governments could spread to homeowners and businesses. More troubling, the technology would be “challenging to shut down,” Anthropic said in a blog post, “since there’s no centralized point to shut off.” Reuters | The Guardian

8.

Kimberly Guilfoyle said she dedicated her life to “standing up for what is right.” (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

Kimberly Guilfoyle is out. The ambassador to Greece submitted her resignation Tuesday after a string of reports in the Wall Street Journal uncovered evidence that she was trading on her role for personal profit. In a social media post, the 57-year-old San Francisco native said she would defend her reputation. “I will not allow false accusations to define my decades of public service,” she wrote. Asked about Guilfoyle, Trump downplayed his connection to her. “She, I guess, dated my son a long time ago,” he said. Guilfoyle was once engaged to Donald Trump Jr. Wall Street Journal | Washington Post

As she scrambled to save her job, Guilfoyle reached out to the White House to claim that damaging texts attributed to her were AI generated. They didn’t believe her. Wall Street Journal

9.

Since August, a horde of sea lions has crowded a roadway on the edge of Monterey Bay. California Highway Patrol officers in Moss Landing tried shooing the blubbery creatures away with sirens and barriers, but ultimately acknowledged defeat, reducing traffic to a single lane. As of Tuesday, several hundred sea lions remained, basking in the sun and barking at anyone who dares to venture near. KSBW | SFGATE

See video of the CHP-sea lion standoff.

Southern California

10.

A gaping crack has appeared along a bluff below Pacific Coast Highway between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach after days of powerful waves battering the coast. Caltrans officials closed the highway’s southbound lane as they investigate whether the slope needs to be reinforced. Blair Conklin, a champion skimboarder from Laguna Beach who is also a popular online video creator, went to the bluffs for a look. His video report captures a nerve-rattling view of Southern California’s collision of land and sea. O.C. Register | Surfer magazine

11.

For at least the last 10 years, the chief executive of a Los Angeles nonprofit serving domestic violence survivors has lived in Hawaii, records showed. When Carol Adelkoff, the CEO of 1736 Family Crisis Center, visits California, the organization puts her up in a luxury Santa Monica apartment that rents for $6,500 a month. Those and other perks have come on top of more than $1.6 million in compensation over two years, an amount one expert on nonprofits called “stunningly large.” Roughly 94% of 1736 Family Crisis Center’s revenue comes from taxpayer dollars. L.A. Times

12.

Katie Zacharia spoke to reporters at the White House on Tuesday. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

California has given the Trump administration Stephen Miller, Harmeet Dhillon, and Kimberly Guilfoyle. Its latest contribution is Katie Zacharia, a Huntington Beach native who held her first press briefing Tuesday as President Trump’s new press secretary. It was a rocky debut. In a briefing that lasted less than 15 minutes, Zacharia read nervously from a script, accidentally referred to her husband as “my president,” and took just three questions. Trump called the performance “very good.” N.Y. Times | Wall Street Journal

Zacharia calls herself a lawyer. She holds a law degree from Pepperdine University, but reporters could find no evidence that she passed any state’s bar exam. Washington Post

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