Good morning. It’s Thursday, Sept. 4.

• Western states form alliance on vaccine recommendations.
• The Trump administration aims to crush the wind industry.
• And Clippers accused of secret payment to Kawhi Leonard.

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Statewide

1.

California, Oregon, and Washington announced on Wednesday that they formed a “health alliance” to establish their own vaccine recommendations in response to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine overhaul of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science,” the three Democratic governors said in a joint statement. Hours later, Republican-controlled Florida made its own announcement: The state is ending all vaccine mandates. KQED | N.Y. Times

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2.

A day after a wildfire tore through the Gold Rush town of Chinese Camp, a handful of shell-shocked residents toured what was left of their tiny community on Wednesday. The inferno destroyed dozens of homes while badly damaging the historic Oddfellows Hall and post office, reports said. Gail Alexander, a resident, blinked back tears. She recalled how the inferno engulfed nearby buildings while somehow sparing her own home. “I thought we were all going to die,” she said. “I was sure of it.” S.F. Chronicle | KCRA

• As of late Wednesday, TCU September Lightning Complex wildfire had spread nearly 21 square miles. See live fire map.

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3.

Last week, the Trump administration announced it was revoking $427 million in funding for Humboldt County’s offshore wind terminal. The move was just one part of what has become a sprawling effort to crush the wind industry, even drawing in agencies that have little to do with energy, the New York Times reported:

“At the Health and Human Services Department, for instance, officials are studying whether wind turbines are emitting electromagnetic fields that could harm human health. And the Defense Department is probing whether the projects could pose risks to national security.”

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4.

In February, a state legislator introduced what she thought was a fairly uncontroversial bill aimed at making it easier for undocumented immigrants to designate caregivers for their children in the event that they are detained by immigration agents. Months later, the measure has been swept up in Christian-right panic that portrays it as nothing short of an invitation to child trafficking. On Aug. 3, the megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs urged his many followers to fight against the bill. “If you have kids in the state of California, if this passes, you gotta go,” he said. S.F. Chronicle

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Northern California

5.

Last Chance Grade, a cliff-hugging stretch of Highway 101 about 30 miles south of the Oregon border, has been chronically failing for decades. Yet it’s a crucial link between Crescent City and neighboring Humboldt County. After spending more than $125 million on repairs since 1997, transportation officials are finally embracing a long-term solution: a 1.1-mile-long tunnel that bypasses the troubled cliff. But it won’t be cheap: The price tag is $2.1 billion. Where the money will come from is a mystery. L.A. Times

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6.

Some artificial intelligence researchers are casting doubt on the idea that simply training models on ever more data will lead to AI that is as smart and as flexible as any human. Gary Marcus writes:

“So-called scaling laws aren’t physical laws of the universe like gravity but hypotheses based on historical trends. Large language models, which power systems like GPT-5, are nothing more than souped-up statistical regurgitation machines, so they will continue to stumble into problems around truth, hallucinations and reasoning.” N.Y. Times

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7.

Nick Clegg, who served for years as a top executive at Meta, was asked about the culture of Silicon Valley:

“I couldn’t find culture. It is an oddly cultureless place. You speak to any of these people in the tech companies, all these pseudo-intellectuals in the VC industry, and they parade themselves as great consensus breakers. And yet everyone wears the same clothes, drives the same cars, listens to the same podcasts, repeats the same fads that they picked up in the same book that everyone recommends to each other.” The Sunday Times

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8.

Sometimes, the clouds over Yosemite Valley appear to unleash torrents of water from the sky.

A few months ago, Branden Willis captured video of one such occasion, an illusion created when the upper section of Yosemite Falls hides behind the clouds. At 2,425 feet, Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in all of North America. Willis shared his video on Reddit.

• Yosemite Falls has other tricks too: it can spawn rainbows, and it creates sugar-free ice cones as tall as 300 feet.

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Southern California

9.

A sports podcast reported bombshell allegations on Wednesday that the wealthy owner of the L.A. Clippers secretly funneled $28 million to NBA star Kawhi Leonard to circumvent salary cap rules. According to the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast, Steve Ballmer gave $50 million to Aspiration, a sustainability company that went bankrupt in March. Legal filings named Leonard among Aspiration’s creditors, a bread crumb that led Torre to discover that the athlete was to be paid $28 million, ostensibly to endorse the company. Yet Leonard did no work. The Clippers vehemently denied wrongdoing. ESPN | CBS Sports

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10.

Stanton, a city in Orange County, fined a resident $300,000 for setting off fireworks on July Fourth. The city rolled out a new drone program this year in an effort to crack down on rampant illegal fireworks. The cited resident was accused of setting off 300 fireworks, drawing a $1,000 fine for each instance. In neighboring Buena Park, an 8-year-old was killed by an illegal firework explosion on July Fourth. “We’re really trying to send across a message about how serious of an issue this is,” said Hannah Shin-Heydorn, Stanton’s city manager. O.C. Register

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11.

A group of mainly retirees in neon yellow vests gathers six days a week to pick up trash along the sidewalks and parks of west San Fernando Valley. They call themselves “trashers,” and they say they work has provided them with purpose and friendship. Jill Mather recently led a group along a mile-long stretch of Sherman Way, where they spent two hours plucking Q-tips and chicken bones off the ground with grabber tools. “It makes us feel good,” Mather said. “It’s visibly different. It’s instant gratification.” L.A. Times

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12.

Thanks to state legislation that made backyard rooms known as ADUs easier and faster to build, the market for prefabricated units has seen explosive growth. With billions of dollars up for grabs, ADU companies are offering more and more designs in kits that can be shipped directly to buyers’ homes. As part of an ongoing series on innovative prefabrication companies, Dwell recently showcased new fire-resistant cabins designed by Polyhaus, co-founded by an architect in La Jolla in 2021.

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The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412