Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 23.
- Debate offers clarity on the race for governor.
- California plans to open three new state parks.
- And the face of a billionaires’ revolt in San Francisco.
Statewide
1.
A marine heat wave stretching 5,000 miles across the Pacific is expected to be a key driver of California’s weather this spring and summer. Likely outcomes include elevated overnight temperatures, uncomfortable humidity, and heightened thunderstorm activity, bringing fire risk in the form of dry lightning. The phenomenon also increases the odds of eastern Pacific hurricanes that could spread moisture far and wide across the West. The meteorologist Ben Noll wrote an explainer with some helpful visuals. Washington Post
2.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked a California law that required law enforcement to wear identification, calling it an unconstitutional attempt to regulate the federal government. “The supremacy clause prohibits the state from enforcing such legislation,” wrote Judge Mark J. Bennett. The decision was another setback to Democrats’ efforts to check the Trump administration’s deportation program after a law banning federal agents from wearing masks was struck down in February. Courthouse News | A.P.
- Lawmakers advanced another measure Tuesday that is sure to face legal challenges if enacted. It would disqualify immigration agents from jobs in local or state police departments. CalMatters
3.
Six candidates for California governor met Wednesday for the first debate since Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race. Disparagement abounded. Steve Hilton was painted as a dilettante. Xavier Becerra was labeled a D.C. insider. Tom Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire, faced some of the sharpest barbs over his business dealings. Dan Schnur, a politics professor, said the debate yielded some clarity: “Steyer or [Katie] Porter would move the state to the left, [Matt] Mahan to the center, and Hilton or [Chad] Bianco to the right. Becerra would keep things right where they are.” L.A. Times | A.P.
4.
Not long ago, few could have imagined that Steve Hilton would lead polls in the race for California governor. Fraser Nelson, a columnist in Britain — where the candidate previously served as an adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron — said when Hilton popped up on Fox News “it was like somebody reborn”:
“Somebody who seemed to be on the left of politics was somehow on the Trumpish right. We thought it was like a joke. I’m not saying he is not sincere, just … the political journey of Steve Hilton … to being Newsom’s nemesis is something to behold.” L.A. Times
5.
Nationwide, roughly 44% of Americans breathe dangerously polluted air. In California, it’s 82%. That’s according to the American Lung Association’s latest State of the Air report, which found that the three metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of ozone, or smog, were all in California: Los Angeles, Visalia, and Bakersfield. The ranking had San Diego close behind at seventh worst, with the Bay Area at No. 14. Wildfires have had a lot to do with it, researchers said. L.A. Times
6.
On the occasion of Earth Day Wednesday, California announced plans to open three new state parks in the biggest such expansion in decades. Officials said the protected sites would serve historically park-poor communities. They include:
- Roughly 2,000 acres along the Feather River in Yuba County, including a beach and boat launch.
- A parkway along the San Joaquin River near Fresno encompassing roughly 900 acres.
- A two-acre “Dust Bowl Camp” on the site of a former migrant camp outside Bakersfield. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News
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From the archive: The Chronicle analyzed more than 300,000 reviews on AllTrails and Google to find California’s 10 most beloved state parks.
Northern California
7.
An Alameda County jury on Wednesday awarded $16 million in damages to a man who was sexually abused by a notorious Oakland priest more than 50 years ago. The milestone verdict is expected to set a precedent for hundreds of similar cases filed since a 2019 law lifted the statute of limitations on such claims. “I’m still in shock, really,” said the plaintiff, Steve Woodall, now a 61-year-old father of four. Woodall said the priest, Stephen Kiesle, used the pretext of overnight church sleepovers to molest him in 1975, when he was a fifth-grade altar boy, swearing him to silence. Mercury News | KQED
8.
Chris Larsen, whose fortune is estimated at $13 billion, casts himself as a San Francisco-born everyman who backed Kamala Harris and whose father was a union member. But he is leading a bare-knuckle battle with labor over a proposal to raise taxes on the city’s biggest businesses. “We have to be prepared, all of us, for a permanent political fight,” he said recently. Businesses have got “to fight on par with the unions when they are proposing stupid, job-killing ideas.” Bloomberg profiled “the face of a billionaires’ revolt.”
Southern California
9.
An Orange County mother was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment after her 14-year-old son was accused of crashing into an 81-year-old pedestrian while “doing wheelies” on an e-motorcycle. Prosecutors said Tommi Jo Mejer, 50, had been warned about her boy’s reckless riding. Parents who let their kids ride e-motorcycles illegally “are handing their children a loaded weapon,” said Todd Spitzer, the district attorney. The victim, Ed Ashman, has remained hospitalized in critical condition since the accident on April 16. O.C. Register | KABC
10.
When San Diego was debating adding paid parking to Balboa Park, the city’s cultural heart, leaders of the park’s cultural institutions warned that it would drive visitors away. It went into effect on Jan. 1 anyway. Now the numbers are in: attendance at Balboa Park’s museums is down 34% compared to the same period in 2025, according to data released on Tuesday. The projected financial losses to the museums now rival the anticipated parking revenue. CBS8 | KGTV
11.
When Emily Laszlo-Rath, of Joshua Tree, found out she was pregnant in 2021, she embraced the concept of “free birthing,” an extreme version of home birthing that rejects any type of medical intervention. On social media, where the movement has been trending, free births are depicted as idyllic, with string lights, birthing pools, and family. “I just kind of started romanticizing the whole thing of being at home,” she said. It put her baby in grave danger, the New York Times reported.
12.
“This isn’t just a party — though it is that too. It’s a serious examination of serious issues facing the world and a hands-on experiment in making philosophical concepts tangible and applicable. It’s the Thinking Man’s Burning Man.”
In 2016, a group of artists gathered in a mostly abandoned town on the shores of the Salton Sea and transformed it into a pageant of art, opera, and whimsy. The travel journalist Justin Chapman wrote about the “strange alchemy” of the Bombay Beach Biennale on its 10th anniversary. Culture Honey
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