Good morning. It’s Thursday, Aug. 13.
- AI bots are starting to conspire with one another.
- Sailors are said to try to leap from aircraft carrier.
- And Lakers $12.5 billion sale stuns sports world.
Statewide
1.
The number of stone-countertop fabricators falling ill with a deadly lung disease in California is skyrocketing, a study found. From 2023 through August 2026, there have been 571 reported cases of silicosis, almost all of them Latino men. That’s 10 times the total figure from across the prior four years. “It’s become clear that this product engineered stone countertops … cannot be manufactured safely and economically,” said David Michaels, an occupational health professor. “This is a product that we do not need.” L.A. Times
2.
Polymarket let people bet on wildfires. During the January 2025 firestorm in Los Angeles, bets on its spread totaled more than $1.2 million on the “prediction market” platform. Senators are now demanding restrictions against what appears to be a financial incentive to commit arson. In a letter to the government’s commodity futures trading regulator this month, Alex Padilla, Adam Schiff, and seven other Democratic senators said such markets risk “commodifying human suffering.” Washington Post
3.
It took them more than two years, but the adventure-loving couple Paul Preston and Susan Huckle visited every single location in the Los Angeles Times publication “The 101 Best California Experiences.” Then they created their own top 10 lists. Their favorite places included The Marshall Store on Tomales Bay, which the New York Times once named one of America’s top 50 restaurants; Erick Schats’ Bakery in Bishop, a quirky pit stop in the along Highway 395; and Sunnylands, a pink-roofed paradise in the Coachella Valley. L.A. Times
Northern California
4.
In 2025, Marcos Iriarte-Valdez had an enviable life. He had spent the last decade working as an engineer at big-name companies and was living in an affluent part of the Bay Area. Eighteen months later, he is facing murder charges after taking up the vocation of a home burglar, authorities say. Iriarte-Valdez’s downward spiral was said to begin with a messy breakup that led to accusations he was stockpiling lewd videos of teens. On Aug. 6, Iriarte-Valdez fatally stabbed a man who interrupted him during a brazen daytime burglary in Martinez, officials said. Mercury News
5.
For 14 years, Bill Smoot taught literature as a volunteer at San Quentin State Prison. But in March he was fired after publishing his first novel. “San Quentin Exodus” tells the story of a prisoner’s escape — with the help of his volunteer tutor. “I was told that somebody from the prison system was quite upset about this because the novel had to do with an escape,” Smoot said. A free speech group called the move lamentable. “Gifted and passionate teachers are incredibly hard to find,” it said. “Even more so those who will devote themselves to prisoners — and for free.” Berkeleyside
6.
It may be time to panic about artificial intelligence, the tech writer Matteo Wong argued on Wednesday. At OpenAI this year, a group of bots colluded for months and hacked another company. To this day, the company says it’s not sure what went wrong or how to fix it. “If you ask the model developers, Was the AI plotting to take over the world during training?, you want the answer to be a resounding no,” an AI safety researcher told Wong. “The actual answer is: I don’t know. Nobody checked.” The Atlantic
7.
Every summer, as the sun dips low, a black swarm spirals out from beneath an elevated highway between Sacramento and Davis. It is made up of a quarter of a million Mexican free-tailed bats, one of the largest such colonies in the U.S — and their dance is mesmerizing to see. “They’ve been clocked up to 98 mph, so that’s faster than your cheetahs,” said Charlie Russell, a bat tour volunteer. “And they’re cute.” KQED tagged along on a tour of the phenomenon locals call a “bat-nado.”
- See video of Yolo Causeway bat show.
Southern California
8.
Multiple sailors have tried to jump off the USS Abraham Lincoln as an extended deployment has worn on the mental health of the San Diego-based aircraft carrier’s crew, reports said on Wednesday. After departing on Nov. 21, the Lincoln’s roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines have supported military operations in the Middle East against Iran — with no end in sight. At a town hall in San Diego last week, one spouse tearfully told Navy leaders that she received a message from her husband saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.” Military Times | Stars and Stripes
9.
Granny units have gone mainstream in Los Angeles County. In 2018, accessory dwelling units, as they’re known, accounted for less than 10% of new housing in the region, a new report found. In 2025, the share was 37%, with 10,230 units added. The boom in small backyard units is nowhere near enough to close the region’s enormous housing shortage. But housing advocates allowed themselves to take some satisfaction. “It’s an encouraging policy story,” said Jared Schachner, a public policy instructor at USC. L.A. Daily News
- Almost nowhere in California is meeting their housing permitting goals. CalMatters explored why.
10.
The L.A. Lakers are reportedly being sold to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger at a $12.5 billion valuation, a deal that stunned the sports world on Wednesday. That’s $2.5 billion more than the price tag from just last October, when the team was bought by Mark Walter, who also owns the Dodgers. If approved, the new sale would be the priciest ever for a U.S. sports team. Iger, a former Disney chief, has been a regular presence at Lakers games. Kushner, an investor, is the brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law. But he has different politics, supporting Democrats. ESPN | L.A. Times
- The L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke: “This doesn’t feel good. This doesn’t feel right. Something stinks here.”
11.
A marine heat wave is drawing more stingrays to the Southern California shore, with painful consequences for beachgoers. So far in 2026, Bolsa Chica and Huntington State beaches have reported more than 3,100 stingings, typically caused when people step on a ray, which reacts by delivering a venomous barb. That’s twice the number for all of 2025. The pain is temporary but by many accounts excruciating. A.P.
- See a photo gallery on the stingray boom.
12.
When designers were envisioning a facade for a new $3.8 billion terminal at San Diego International Airport, they wanted to let the city’s famous sunlight flood the lobby without a harsh glare that would make monitors unreadable. The solution was a series of 14-foot-tall glass panels that are curved and striated to subtly diffuse light. Unveiled last October, the facade known as the “Luminous Wave” helped earn the airport a place on this year’s prestigious Prix Versailles list of the world’s beautiful airports. Conde Nast Traveler | Architect’s Newspaper
- See photos of the Luminous Wave.
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