Good morning. It’s Thursday, Dec. 4.
- California startups try to blot out the sun.
- Petaluma chicken thief is sentenced to jail.
- And the fabulousness of 1970s Hollywood Boulevard.
Statewide
1.
As part of a legislative deal with business and labor interests in 2023, California agreed to form a fast-food council that would oversee working conditions and wages in the industry. But so far in 2025, the full nine-member council has never met and has made no decisions, KCRA reported on Wednesday. California taxpayers, meanwhile, are spending $1.1 million to fund four staff positions for the council this year. A government official confirmed that the council’s next meeting has not been scheduled.
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading early polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. In a conversation with DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at a business summit in New York on Wednesday, Newsom delivered a message that appeared tailored for the cameras. He told financial power brokers in the audience they should look into the kneepads he’s selling to people “groveling” to Trump. The country is tipping into authoritarianism, Newsom said. “And I’m sure a lot of you are fine with it.” Politico
- Halle Berry, who also spoke at the summit, surprised some in the audience by denouncing Newsom over his veto of legislation that would have expanded coverage for menopause care. “He probably should not be our next president,” the actress said. S.F. Chronicle | Deadline
3.
California’s Democratic leaders on Wednesday unveiled an online portal that lets residents submit reports of misconduct by federal agents or members of the military in the state. “They are not above accountability,” state Attorney General Rob Bonta said. Bill Essayli, who is acting as Los Angeles’ top federal prosecutor, responded with his own invitation. “We have a portal too,” he wrote. “People can report California state officials engaged in illegal activity at the following link: tips.fbi.gov.” L.A. Times | KCRA
4.
California startups are trying to block the sun. Make Sunsets lets customers fund the release of balloons loaded with sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, where they hope they will burst, releasing particles that block sunlight and cool the planet. Another company, Stardust Solutions, has raised $75 million to develop a new reflective particle and the technology to sprinkle it in the stratosphere. Critics of the burgeoning industry say it is moving too recklessly, but private geoengineering companies have few rules to follow. Washington Post
Northern California
5.
Alison Galvani, a renowned Yale professor, was 5 years old in 1982 when her mother’s body was found in the San Francisco Bay, stuffed in a sleeping bag and weighted with a cinder block. Nancy Galvani had recently filed a restraining order against her husband, Patrick Galvani. He was charged with the murder, but the prosecution was dropped for lack of evidence. Even so, Alison grew certain of her father’s guilt, lobbying for years to have him arrested. Last week, she got her wish. Prosecutors said new evidence would prove Patrick Galvani killed his wife. L.A. Times
6.
Joaquin Phoenix could not save the Petaluma chicken thief. Last week, the Oscar-winning actor released a statement denouncing the prosecution of Zoe Rosenberg, an animal-rights activist convicted of stealing four chickens from a poultry farm in Sonoma County. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Rosenberg to 30 days in jail and another 60 days to be served through home confinement, work release, or another supervised alternative. “Not once did I hear you say you’re sorry for your criminal conduct,” the judge told her. Berkeleyside | East Bay Times
7.
President Trump’s decision to pardon a man convicted of running a Latin American narco state stunned even some members of his administration. In an article on the influence campaign behind the pardon, the Wall Street Journal cited a link to Silicon Valley. The former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, had strongly backed a project funded by Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, and others to build a libertarian “startup city” known as Próspera in Honduras. Trump allies argued that pardoning Hernández could undercut the leftist government that succeeded him and help save Próspera.
8.
San Francisco’s newest social-media star is its mayor. Daniel Lurie is often seen wandering around the city, phone in hand, sharing his sometimes hokey musings on how San Francisco is progressing. Critics say he’s become overly enamored with social media. But Lurie’s round-the-clock boosterism has won many fans. His Instagram following has grown from fewer than 20,000 people to more than 180,000. His most popular post: a video clip of the mayor at a high school football game throwing a tight spiral to a player. Wall Street Journal
Southern California
9.
An F-16 fighter jet crashed in a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert early Wednesday morning, with the pilot ejecting safely moments before impact, officials said. It was unclear what caused the crash near the town of Trona. The $19 million jet was assigned to the Air Force Thunderbirds, the aerial acrobatic demonstration team. A video circulating online appeared to show the pilot’s parachute open as a fire ball rose from crash site. N.Y. Times | A.P.
10.
Salvador Plasencia, a Malibu physician who repeatedly gave Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks before the actor’s overdose death in 2023, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Wednesday. The day he met Perry, Plasencia messaged another doctor about how much to charge the actor for ketamine, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.” In court Wednesday, family members of Perry gave tearful impact statements. Plasencia said he had “no excuse” for his actions before turning the family. “I’m just so sorry,” he said. N.Y. Times | A.P.
11.
Since the 1950s, water districts in the West have used cloud-seeding, which involves adding silver iodide to clouds to stimulate rainfall. Rainmaker, an El Segundo startup, is now overseeing one of the largest cloud-seeding projects in U.S. history. But it has been dogged by an intractable problem: “chemtrails” conspiracy theorists who think malign forces are spraying the sky with chemicals to poison the population or other nefarious ends. Proponents of the theory occupy some of the highest levels of American government. Wall Street Journal
12.
In the early 1970s, according to photographer Ave Pildas, Hollywood Boulevard was the place to be seen. Pildas took thousands of pictures along the Walk of Fame, where tourists, drifters, and aspiring starlets strutted for his camera. He shelved the pictures for decades before revisiting them a few years ago for a volume called “Star Struck.” According to one reviewer, the images preserved not only the scenes, “but somehow the taste, sound, smell and feel of that moment, too.” FRAMES Magazine | New Yorker
- See more pictures from “Star Struck.”
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