Democratic lawmakers in California are pushing again for a tax on “extreme wealth.” It would target “all wealth” rather than income, taking 1% from people with a net worth of at least $50 million and 1.5% from those worth more than $1 billion. Assemblymember Alex Lee said the proposal was drafted in response to reports of billionaires avoiding income taxes. “We want the obscenely ultra rich to be paying their fair share,” he said. L.A. Times | SFist

Adora Perez, of Hanford, repeatedly gave birth to babies high on methamphetamine. On Dec. 30, 2017, her tenth baby died. She was charged with murder, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and was sentenced to to 11 years in prison. But this week Perez will return to court, where her lawyer plans to argue that the science doesn’t support prosecution claims that methamphetamine causes stillbirths. “You can’t just plead to something you couldn’t have done,” she said. CalMatters

After one of the state’s driest Januarys on record, a storm en route from Alaska is finally poised to deliver rain and snow to much of California in the first half of this week. Forecasters said the Arctic air would send temperatures tumbling, with snow falling at lower elevations in the Sierra and other mountain ranges across the state. “If you’re going to the mountains, you need to be prepared,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist. “People need to be very, very cautious.” Accuweather | L.A. Times | Mercury News

Across urban California, the Milky Way is little more than an idea, theoretically arching across the night sky but erased from view by the city lights. There are still pockets of the state, though, where the nights shimmer with countless points of light. Among them is Death Valley, which has made a priority of protecting the darkness, earning the remote park the highest rating from the International Dark-Sky Association. On moonless nights, the Milky Way can be so bright that it casts shadows. KCET included Death Valley in a ranking of the 10 darkest places in California.

The Death Valley Dark Sky Festival is this weekend. Scientists with the James Webb Space Telescope will be among those delivering talks. NPS.

The drama over looming enrollment cuts at UC Berkeley escalated as the city of Berkeley and Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to formally urge the California Supreme Court to intervene. A lower court ordered the campus to cut more than 3,000 seats from its incoming fall class in response to a legal challenge from a neighborhood group on environmental grounds. “We’ll end up like Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur,” the group’s president explained last year. Bay Area News Group | Daily Californian

The economics writer Joseph Politano: “What’s happening in California is a microcosm … of what is happening throughout much of America. Local politics are centered around enforcing housing scarcity to the benefit of homeowners.”

“We’re looking. We’re looking every day.”

Five Native American women have disappeared or been killed along California’s isolated Lost Coast in the past 18 months. The crisis has led the Yurok Tribe to issue an emergency declaration and brought increased urgency to a longstanding but largely ignored epidemic. Native women face murder rates almost three times those of white women overall — and up to 10 times the national average. A.P.

Zazie, a French restaurant in San Francisco, follows a “tip-free” model. Instead, all workers get a percentage of profits. Benefits include paid family leave, health and dental insurance, and a 401(k) with employer match. As a result, Zazie has managed to avoid the labor shortage that has hampered much of the restaurant industry, co-owner Megan Cornelius said. “Everyone returned after we reopened,” she said. Insider

Since summer, a bear in South Lake Tahoe has broken into more than 28 homes, stealing leftover food and ballooning to 500 pounds. Wildlife officials have tried to deter the behemoth dubbed Hank the Tank with paintballs, bean bags, sirens, and Tasers, but nothing has worked. Now they are talking about euthanasia. “This is a bear that has lost all fear of people,” said Peter Tira, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s a potentially dangerous situation.” N.Y. Times | CBS13

In January, Hannah Tubbs, 26, was sentenced to two years in juvenile custody for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl. Tubbs, a transgender woman, was 17 at the time of the assault in 2014. As recently as last week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón had defended the sentencing, which adhered to his controversial policy of not trying juveniles as adults. On Friday, however, as Fox News prepared to broadcast a jailhouse recording of Tubbs gloating about her light punishment, Gascón suddenly reversed the policy. L.A. Times

Los Angeles has its share of problems. Yet in a new poll, nearly three-quarters of respondents rated the city as either “one of the best places to live” or “nice but not an outstanding place to live.” “Los Angeles is this fabulous city of discovery,” said John Szabo, who moved to the city 10 years ago. “It is a city that is constantly revealing itself to you. I feel like I’m constantly learning something new about L.A. I think that is incredible.” L.A. Times | LAist

The photographer Emanuel Hahn describes the Los Angeles neighborhood of Koreatown as “a spiritual home for the Korean diaspora.” As it changes, with construction cranes crowding the landscape, the mom-and-pop shops have become fewer. But vestiges of the old Koreatown still exist. For his project “Koreatown Dreaming,” Hahn captured the lives of shopkeepers and vendors trying to stay afloat. It’s Nice That | National Geographic

The Santa Barbara startup that built a popular luxury campground 30 miles west of Yosemite has now added a location in the Southern California desert. AutoCamp Joshua Tree has 47 Airstreams with small kitchens and high-thread-count linens. Also on the grounds is a midcentury modern Quonset clubhouse with a heated pool and a bar serving craft beer. design boom | Spaces