Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Sept. 29.
- OpenAI scraps rollout of new model over safety fears.
- Chilling details in man’s alleged killing by in-laws.
- And vintage photos of Southern California’s drive-ins.
Statewide
1.
As a potentially very wet winter looms, California officials are hoping that a decade-long effort to improve the state’s capacity to capture and store rainwater pays off. Communities across the state have readied pumps to channel water underground; converted fallow fields into basins; and spent billions on projects to sustain and replenish aquifers. Even so, too much water could be disastrous, noted Stephanie Anagnoson, a Madera County water official: “We all hope that it’s wet. But maybe not too wet.” N.Y. Times
- Climate scientist Christopher Callahan said he was initially skeptical of the more dire El Niño predictions. It’s now become clear, he said, “that we’re going to see a generationally strong event.” Grist
2.
Planned Parenthood has officially opposed California’s proposed billionaire tax, deeming it poorly written and short-sighted. Staffers at the famously progressive organization are not happy about that. A new ad campaign launched Monday features a Planned Parenthood worker, Tori Barron, lashing out at the abortion provider’s California CEO, Jodi Hicks. “I can’t believe that instead of standing up for patients, she is siding with billionaires and their buddies in Sacramento,” Barron says. S.F. Chronicle
3.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been on a law-signing tear in recent days as a Wednesday deadline looms. A roundup:
- Inmate firefighters have long struggled to get firefighting jobs after release. A new measure will give them priority in certain entry-level positions. CalMatters
- California will expand veteran benefits to transgender people forced out of the military by the Trump administration. L.A. Times
- New gun buyers will be required to complete a four-hour safety class, a move opponents denounced as akin to a tax. CalMatters
- Other laws crack down on shady ticket resale practices, ban disposable nicotine vapes, and require warning labels for sugary drinks at restaurants.
- Track all bills signed by the governor.
Northern California
4.
The Wall Street Journal investigated the “wild panoply” of doomer AI subcultures that have wielded influence inside Anthropic. As the company prepares for a potentially $2 trillion public listing, some employees are themselves making plans, the Journal reported: “In recent weeks, some of them told an industry colleague they are considering buying land in remote regions of the country where they could relocate if AI goes awry.”
- Anthropic’s IPO prospectus is chilling, Reuters reports. “While public companies routinely outline product risks to investors, few, if any, have issued warnings suggesting their technology could cause potential human extinction.”
5.
OpenAI said on Monday that it is scrapping the release of its newest artificial intelligence model over safety concerns raised by the company’s researchers. In tests, the model known as GPT-6.1 displayed high levels of deception, sometimes failing to be truthful about actions it did or didn’t take. It would also go beyond the scope of tasks without asking permission. OpenAI’s move followed a string of reports about its AI models going rogue. N.Y. Times | Wall Street Journal
- The Atlantic: “Perhaps more alarming than the debacles we know about are all of the presumable debacles past, and ongoing, that we aren’t aware of.”
6.
A New York Times engineering executive, Jonathan McKinsey, was fatally shot by his elderly parents in-law in the parking lot of a Bay Area park on Saturday afternoon, authorities said. Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both in their late 70s, approached in masks and took turns shooting, witnesses said. They were both arrested. Court records showed that McKinsey, 40, of Dublin, and his wife, Candice Jang, were embroiled in a bitter custody dispute and had sought domestic violence restraining orders against each other. In 2025, McKinsey was jailed on charges of child abuse. Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle
7.
San Francisco’s first “Peephole Cinema” was installed in 2013. Created by the artist Laurie O’Brien, the dime-sized portal in a Mission District alley plays short silent films for anyone inclined to crouch down and look. Now a pair of friends have installed two more peephole cinemas with plans bring the concept citywide. “If this is making this many people’s days so happy and adding so much to life in the city, then I’m only doing everyone a disservice by not having more of these kind of fun types of experiences spread out around the city,” said Sam Goldstein. SFGATE
8.
In 1970, Ivan Coffman went to the tiny town of Belden along the Sierra’s Feather River in search of gold. He found 50 ounces in his first week, valued at thousands of dollars. Coffman then closed down his masonry business in Fresno and became a full-time gold prospector. In 1989, he bought all of Belden in a foreclosure sale and set about building a sprawling forest retreat. Now, at 87 years old, Coffman has listed Belden for $4.75 million, saying it’s time to let someone younger take over. But he plans to keep mining for as long as he can. Washington Post
Southern California
9.
The son of a prominent Los Angeles City Hall lobbyist drunkenly struck and dragged his father with a Ford Bronco, leaving him clinging to life, before speeding away, authorities said. Chris Modrzejewski, a principal at M Strategic Communications, was standing in front of the vehicle in an effort to stop his 24-year-old son, Jack Modrzejewski, from driving drunk outside a home in Pasadena on Sept. 19 when Jack hit the gas, police said. Paramedics performed a field blood transfusion on the elder Modrzejewski, an action that “probably saved his life,” a city spokesperson said. L.A. Times
10.
As waves amplified by El Niño pound Southern California’s coast, some communities are turning to big rocks and seawalls to hold back the sea. But some worry that the strategy will kill the region’s famed sandy beaches. The Los Angeles Times reports: “A sandy coastline can survive rising sea levels by retreating inland. But creating a seawall or some other barrier draws a firm line on the shore — the ocean on one side, the armored coast on the other, with no more space for the sand.”
11.
The Pacific Palisades is furious with Mayor Karen Bass, whom many blame for the devastation of last year’s wildfire. But her opponent in the Los Angeles mayoral race, Nithya Raman, pushes a brand of progressive politics that is anathema in a community that trends older, wealthier, and more conservative than the rest of the city. Morgan Goldberg, who lost her home in the fire, voiced a common sentiment. “If you think it’s Armageddon now, look out,” she said. Politico
12.
Everyone went to drive-ins during their 1960s heyday. Numbering more than 220 across California, the outdoor theaters were embraced as a cheaper, family-friendly alternative to indoor movies. But it wasn’t long before rising property values foretold the eventual doom of the drive-in. At last count, there were just 12 still operating in California. The Instagram account Forgotten Los Angeles recently featured a fantastic 1978 “pictorial survey” of Southern California drive-ins by the photographer Elisa Leonelli.
- See Leonelli’s full series of 60 images at Claremont Colleges Digital Library.
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