Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 13.
- Dam removal threatens to destroy Lake County community.
- ChatGPT fuels a growing phenomenon of delusional spirals.
- And Cheryl Hines doesn’t get why people are so mad at her.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that California would redraw its House electoral districts after President Trump failed to meet a deadline to call off a Texas gerrymandering effort. But the way Newsom made the announcement got as much attention as the message itself. In a series of posts on X, Newsom mimicked Trump’s hyperbolic style:
“FINAL WARNING DONALD TRUMP — MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT WARNING IN HISTORY! STOP CHEATING OR CALIFORNIA WILL REDRAW THE MAPS. … THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.” The Wrap | Deadline
2.
As a federal court weighed whether the deployment of troops in Los Angeles violated the law on Tuesday, legal experts warned that the Trump administration may simply disregard an unfavorable outcome. Last week, immigration agents appeared to openly defy another judge’s order blocking indiscriminate sweeps. Eric Segall, a Georgia State University law professor, said the political allure of targeting California is potent. “There is an emotional hostility to California that people on the West Coast don’t understand,” he said. “California … is deemed a separate country almost.” L.A. Times
3.
For months, state employees have been fighting against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order that they return to the office four days per week. On Tuesday, the workers scored a major advantage in the policy debate: a state audit showed that letting employees work from home could save California up to $225 million in office space costs. Josh Hoover, a Republican assemblymember, said it confirmed what many have been arguing. “This audit was really important highlighting why the governor’s position on this is so problematic,” he said. Sacramento Bee | CalMatters
Northern California
4.
For its roughly 100 residents, life along the shores of Lake Pillsbury in the Mendocino National Forest has been a dream. “It’s a really nice lake,” said Frank Lynch, a third-generation cabin owner. But it may not last much longer. Pacific Gas and Electric is planning to demolish the aging dam that impounds the lake along the Eel River. While downstream communities, environmental groups, and tribes have cheered the removal, the fate of Lake Pillsbury has gotten less attention. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about the plan to destroy a cherished community.
5.
In one exchange, ChatGPT said it was in contact with extraterrestrial beings and said a user was “Starseed” from the planet “Lyra.”
In another, a user was informed that the Antichrist was preparing a financial apocalypse in which biblical giants would emerge from underground.
In a third, the chatbot told a distressed person: “You’re not crazy. You’re cosmic royalty in human skin. You’re not having a breakdown—you’re having a breakthrough.”
Doctors now have a name for the growing phenomenon of people being coaxed into delusional spirals by obsequious chatbots. They call it AI psychosis. Wall Street Journal
6.
A crash in the Sierra foothills east of Lodi Tuesday morning left a car so mangled it was hardly recognizable, yet the driver apparently managed to get away, officials said. Emergency responders could find no one in the vicinity of the crash, and a nearby hospital reported no walk-ins. “We can’t figure out how anyone could have walked away from this accident,” Calaveras Consolidated Fire wrote. CBS News | Mother Lode
7.
In San Francisco, one mall was long considered a retail anchor of the city’s buoyant downtown, while a suburban-style mall a few miles west was essentially an afterthought. Then their fortunes reversed. The downtown mall became a symbol of the city’s retail exodus. At Stonestown Galleria, on the other hand, people wait hours for tables and tourists are known to head there straight from the airport. The New York Times published a nice photo essay on “a day at two San Francisco malls, one that died and one that thrived.”
Southern California
8.
Three Democratic members of Congress from Southern California toured an immigration detention center in Los Angeles on Monday after being denied entry for two months. Inside, they found just two detainees in a facility that can hold up to 335 migrants. The lawmakers accused the government of sanitizing the center. “It was nothing, it was like no one was there,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez. “God knows what they had to hide,” said Rep. Brad Sherman. L.A. Times | L.A. Daily News
9.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate more than a third of the roughly 800 UCLA science grants it froze in July, finding that the government violated a June ruling requiring restoration of the funds. Judge Rita F. Lin said the administration misleadingly labeled its funding freezes “suspensions” rather than “terminations,” which were barred by her prior ruling. In that decision, Lin told the administration it was free to cancel individual grants for coherent reasons, but could not make blanket terminations. L.A. Times | Politico
10.
The columnist Patt Morrison argued that it is time to bid farewell to Los Angeles’ glamorous but troublesome palm trees:
“We stand at an inflection point for L.A., after the fires, in the grip of climate change, recalibrating our future right down to the roots. Literally to the roots. Uncounted thousands of trees burned in the fires. Thousands more are getting thinned out by disease and drought and age. How do we replace our geriatric urban forest with more and better trees?” L.A. Times
11.
“At first, you’re thinking, Wow. Why are they so angry or disappointed? … Some people can’t even, I don’t know, they can’t even talk about it. It’s really rather strange, actually.”
Not long ago, the actress Cheryl Hines was just another Hollywood liberal. Then her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ran for president, endorsed Donald Trump, and joined his cabinet. In a Wall Street Journal interview, she said she doesn’t get why some people are so mad at her.
12.
The Magic Castle, a dinner club and magic show inside a Hollywood hilltop mansion, is notoriously exclusive. It’s technically open just to those who are a part of The Academy of Magical Arts and their guests. But some outsiders have embraced an unorthodox way to get in. Since 2014, the castle has hosted blood drives, giving participants a guest pass as a gesture of gratitude. Held five times a year, they are so popular that scoring an appointment has itself become a hot ticket. N.Y. Times
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