Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug. 10.

Thank you for your patience during my absence the past two weeks. I’m rested up and ready to work. On to the news:

• California’s ability to protect coast faces threat.
• The life and death of a dog at Miranda’s Rescue.
• And former gang members clear encampments in Venice.

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Statewide

1.

Since 1972, federal law has granted coastal states like California the right to object to projects in federal waters that clash with state policy. Now, citing California’s “environmental extremism,” Trump officials are preparing to review that arrangement. Experts say the outcome seems preordained, and could usher in a “radically industrialized future” of desalination plants, floating nuclear reactors, offshore drilling, and more. “There is no parallel to what we are seeing here,” said Meg Caldwell, a specialist in environmental law. “This would result in a massive power grab.” S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times

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2.

Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, fell to its lowest level ever on Friday as the Southwest region suffers through a punishing drought. The development comes as California and six other states that rely on the Colorado River system quarrel over how to share the waters, while the Trump administration raises the threat of steep cuts. “This is a significant wake-up call,” said J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California. “We need to have long-term solutions that are going to get us away from the precipice.” N.Y. Times | A.P.

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Northern California

3.

Zora, a 3-year-old cane corso who loved everyone she met, needed a home. After being picked up by animal services in Oakland, she was transferred to a Humboldt County facility that billed itself as a no-kill sanctuary where unadoptable dogs could live out their lives in rural bliss. “Less than a month later,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Zora would be found dead in a 5-foot-deep pit. Buried on the grounds of the rescue that had, for a fee of $450, promised to care for her. A bullet hole in her square head.”

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4.

Local resistance, intense and bipartisan, has slowed the march of new data centers in communities across America. But in Gilroy, residents say they never had a chance. By the time they found out about a new $2 billion Amazon facility in their city, it was already under construction. Amazon negotiated quietly, urging haste, the Wall Street Journal reported. There were no public meetings, and a lone city staffer approved the 438,500-square-foot data center on 56 acres of farmland.

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5.

Everyone in tech is sad, writes Aaron Horwath in Noema Magazine:

“In coffee shops and in the low-lit corners of bars, professionals are sharing dreams of ‘disappearing’ or ‘living on a farm somewhere’ or ‘going off the grid.’ These aren’t fantastical daydreams; they are visions of escape shared in a tone that betrays … [a] fundamental doubt about work and careerism inspired by a seemingly increasingly common experience: waking up one morning at an existential precipice, struck with a sudden sense that knowledge work is, and perhaps always has been, pointless.”

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6.

“It’s almost like an atrocity.”

Someone has been drilling holes into the roots of dozens of towering pine trees on the north shore of Lake Tahoe and injecting chemicals inside, killing many of them. The motive is a mystery, but a popular theory among locals posits that a wealthy homeowner is trying to improve their view of the lake. Armchair detectives on a community Facebook group have even posted addresses where views would benefit from the bizarre tree killings. L.A. Times | SFGATE

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7.

In 1964, Ken Kesey bought a school bus and, with his band of Merry Pranksters, painted it in psychedelic hues and set off on a cross-country trip immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” Now, for the first time since 1969, the “Furthur” bus will leave the Kesey family farm in Oregon and return to San Francisco, where it will be parked in Golden Gate Park. “San Francisco is now known more for A.I. than LSD, more for billionaires than beatniks. But Zane Kesey aims to bring some of that old flavor back — with his dad’s bus,” the New York Times reported.

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Southern California

8.

Nathan Hochman, the Los Angeles County district attorney, has come under withering criticism from politicians, former police officers, and even some of his own prosecutors after he filed charges against an officer who reported his co-workers’ racist remarks. The officer, Daniel Flores, faces 16 counts of felony eavesdropping for recording fellow officers using slurs and making derogatory remarks about various groups. One prosecutor called the filing “insane.” Hochman is not backing down. L.A. Times

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9.

In Venice, some residents have given up on the police doing anything about homeless encampments. Instead, they are relying a new private company called Ghost Town Consultants, whose employees are said to include former gang members. They’ve cleared dozens of homeless encampments, using a combination of persuasion and cash payments. Clients love them. Critics say they are simply shuffling people around. L.A. Material

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10.

Between Thursday and Saturday, a man lived in a billboard shaped like a house high above Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The marketing stunt was devised by Netflix to promote its newest film, “The Last House.” On Friday, a reporter communicated with the man, who had no phone, by whiteboard from the street. “Only boring people get bored,” he wrote on his whiteboard. His biggest complaint was a dwindling supply of Sour Strips. N.Y. Times | Hollywood Reporter

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11.

Encased in concrete after a devastating 1938 flood, the Los Angeles River isn’t generally considered an inviting place to kayak. But people do, and by many accounts it’s a startlingly lush respite from the bustle of the city, with gentle rapids and great blue heron wading beneath willows. Justin Sullivan, a photojournalist with Getty Images, took a recent paddle. The Atlantic published a photo essay.

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In case you missed it

12.

Here’s a lightning round of news you may have missed from the past couple weeks:

• The California Democratic Party endorsed a proposed billionaire tax, breaking with Gov. Gavin Newsom, even as several unions announced their opposition to the measure. CalMatters | L.A. Times
• Tax filings revealed that a Los Angeles domestic violence shelter paid its CEO, who lives in Hawaii, more than $1.6 million in salary and other pay for the last two years. Nearly all of the organization’s revenue comes from taxpayers. L.A. Times
• Court filings revealed that immigration raids in L.A. last summer were random rather than targeted, and the agents who conducted them referred to Latinos with slurs. A few officers worried that that they were being asked to break the law. L.A. Times
• A judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address harms of its platforms to young people, the largest financial penalty yet against the tech giant in its legal battles over social media addiction. The judge called Meta a “public nuisance.” Ars Technica | Reuters
• A man who shoplifted from a Eureka bookstore 40 years ago mailed the book back along with a $100 bill. He explained that he had addiction problems and apologized for his “utter lack of principles.” It brought tears to the store employees’ eyes. Lost Coast Outpost
• And finally, investigators concluded that Edison equipment caused the Eaton Fire; a key forecast projected a very wet winter for California; Apple’s valuation touched $5 trillion; and a Santa Rosa airport rerouted planes to avoid disturbing the rich and powerful at the mysterious Bohemian Grove retreat.

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