Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 26.
- Republicans renew effort to block redistricting.
- California schools brace for religious opt-outs.
- And Lil Nas X is charged with four felonies in L.A.
Statewide
1.
A leading California Democrat and a spokesperson for the state’s farmers, who lean Republican, co-authored a column warning of the dangers of rounding up undocumented farmworkers:
“These immigrants are nothing less than the backbone of America’s food supply, doing jobs that few native-born Americans seek,” wrote Robert Rivas and Shannon Douglass. They continued: “These workers are not strangers, and they’re not a burden on California or the nation. They are part of the fabric of our communities.” N.Y. Times
2.
California schools are bracing for a wave of opt-out demands after the Supreme Court held that parents have the right to withdraw their children from lessons that conflict with their religious beliefs. While the lawsuit dealt with books that include gay and transgender themes, legal analysts said opt-outs are likely to reach more broadly, encompassing science, literature, history, and more. Greg Burt, of the California Family Council, said the ruling properly returned power to parents: “We’re now in charge of deciding what we think is good and what we think is not good.” EdSource
3.
After Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election, she struck a deal with the Democratic National Committee. They would cover her outstanding bills, sparing her the embarrassment of ending the race in debt, if Harris would raise the money to cover the leftover costs. Over subsequent months, her team sent nearly 100 email solicitations to small donors. But they failed to disclose that the money would settle old bills. “They will put your donation to work immediately toward winning the next set of elections,” Harris wrote in an email to supporters in February. N.Y. Times
4.
California Republicans tried again on Monday to block Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting effort, arguing in an emergency petition to the state Supreme Court that a November ballot initiative would violate the public’s right to fair and nonpartisan electoral maps. “They’re trying to destroy democracy in California,” Republican state Sen. Tony Strickland said. A UCLA law professor said the new lawsuit appeared to be a longshot. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- Also on Monday, President Trump said his Justice Department would sue to stop the reapportionment in California. Newsom answered on social media: “BRING IT.” Washington Post
Northern California
5.
A recent survey of company executives by M.I.T. researchers found that 95% of organizations are getting zero return from their artificial-intelligence initiatives. “We’re processing some contracts faster, but that’s all that has changed,” one respondent wrote. The New Yorker wrote about a possible explanation for the AI-profit drought:
“For many established businesses, generative A.I., at least in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be.”
6.
In recent months, animal-rights activists upset over conditions at a processing facility in Petaluma have held regular protests outside the homes of company executives. At a typical demonstration in March, activists from Direct Action Everywhere wore chicken costumes outside the Santa Rosa home of Jason Arnold, a Petaluma Poultry executive. “Jason Arnold shame on you!” a woman chanted through a megaphone. “Shame on you for what you do!” the protesters responded. A judge denied requests from the executives for restraining orders. Press Democrat
7.
Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, drew a record crowd on Saturday — but not for the team you might think. More than 40,000 fans turned up to watch the women’s professional soccer team Bay FC face the Washington Spirit, notching the highest single-game attendance in U.S. pro women’s sports history. The turnout had sportswriters and fans asking whether Bay FC, a one-year-old team that normally plays in San Jose for crowds numbering around 13,400, ought to be playing in San Francisco. S.F. Chronicle | The Athletic
Southern California
8.
Lil Nas X was charged with four felonies on Monday after prosecutors accused the “Old Town Road” rapper of charging at police officers who approached him as he walked nude down a Los Angeles street last week. A law enforcement source told NBC News that the musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, punched an officer in the face twice and that it was unclear whether he was in mental distress or experiencing a drug overdose. Hill pleaded not guilty. NBC News
9.
A Los Angeles caterer is delivering regular meals to roughly 25 undocumented immigrants who are afraid to leave home because of immigration raids. Duran Zecca, a James Beard Award-nominated chef and co-owner of Amiga Amore in Highland Park, said the idea came to her when several of her employees had expressed fear about coming into work. “If they didn’t want to leave their homes, how many others were like this and how many weren’t eating,” she said. The Guardian
10.
California agricultural barons Stewart and Lynda Resnick recently listed their Aspen home for $300 million. If it fetches that much, it will be the most expensive home ever sold in the U.S. The property includes a 18,466-square-foot main house, a wellness spa, and a lake stocked with trout and carp. Stewart Resnick, the country’s richest farmer, made his fortune in fruits and nuts. Critics accuse him of building his empire on abusive water practices, transforming California’s landscape in the process. The Wall Street Journal toured the house.
11.
Less than 48 hours after Tyrone Huntley took the stage as Simon in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl, he was back at his day job: ushering people to their seats at the amphitheater. The Los Angeles Times explains:
“Huntley is one of many working actors caught between ambition and survival. As film and TV production in the region drops to historic lows, many industry workers have turned to service jobs or side gigs to stay in the entertainment capital.”
California archive
12.
When the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl set off an exodus out of the Great Plains, more than 300,000 migrants showed up in California, a place seen by many as a land of opportunity. The welcome was not warm. Many Californians denigrated the newcomers as dirty and crime-prone. Schoolchildren called migrant classmates “maggies,” or “maggots.” In 1936, Los Angeles police officers were posted on the state’s borders to turn migrants away in what was dubbed a “bum blockade.”
It was in this caustic climate that a photographer from the Bronx named Arthur Rothstein arrived at a migrant camp on the outskirts of Visalia in early 1940.
Rothstein, a son of Jewish immigrants, was the first recruit to a team of government photographers, later to include Dorothea Lange, hired by the Farm Security Administration to capture the plight of the rural poor and thereby win favor for New Deal initiatives.
Rothstein, then 24, spent several weeks at Visalia, one of more than a dozen FSA camps in California. In a letter to Roy Stryker, the government official who led the photography project, Rothstein remarked on the public hostility. The Californians were “reactionary, super-patriotic, fascist-minded,” he wrote. “Practically every newspaper features a daily red-baiting article.” Stryker wrote back: “With the fight as bitter as it is in California,” Rothstein should focus his lens on “the positive side” of the camp.
Rothstein captured a Saturday night dance, baseball games, and children at play. But more than any other pictures he produced in Visalia, it was his close-ups of faces that stirred viewers. Along with the images of his fellow FSA photographers, Rothstein’s pictures would stand a reminder, in Stryker’s words, “that the man with the holes in his shoes, the ragged clothes, can be just as good a citizen as the man who has the better shoes and the better clothes.”
See a selection of Rothstein’s Visalia photos below, and many more here.
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