Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 6.
- California pharmacies are making millions of mistakes.
- Fresno plans a mega-development of 45,000 homes.
- And Dodgers pitcher is charged with domestic violence.
Statewide
1.
“At this point it’s completely unsafe.”
California pharmacies make an estimated 5 million errors a year, handing out incorrect drugs or doses that sometimes kill, according to the state’s Board of Pharmacy. In a 2021 survey, 91% of California pharmacists working in chain stores said staffing was too low to provide adequate care. Yet the industry has fought legislation that would increase transparency around errors and give pharmacists more freedom to boost staffing. L.A. Times
2.
Death Valley National Park expects to remain closed for months as crews work to repair roads mangled by the floodwaters of Tropical Storm Hilary. More than a year’s worth of rain — 2.2 inches — fell on Aug. 20. That may not sound like much, but the hard valley floor doesn’t absorb water like other places. “It certainly reshaped the landscape,” said park ranger Matthew Lamar. “Alluvial fans were reshaped, canyons were reshaped. Things that were there before will no longer be there.” L.A. Times
3.
Patti Davis, a daughter of President Ronald Reagan, wrote a powerful essay on the “untold story” behind Senator Dianne Feinstein’s cognitive struggles:
“Dementia has not been stated, but the symptoms are similar and all too recognizable for thousands of people who have become caregivers for a loved one. They know the looks, the behavior; they live with all of it day after day, month after month.” N.Y. Times
Northern California
4.
In San Francisco, car break-ins are so frequent that the streets commonly sparkle with broken glass. The annual rate of thefts per 100,000 residents has exceeded 2,000 for much of the last decade, about triple the rate statewide. Reporter Susie Neilson said evidence pointed to a culprit: “People are getting caught less. In 2011, the earliest year with complete data available, city police made arrests in about 2% of reported car break-ins. Today, that figure is under 1%.” S.F. Chronicle
5.
Fresno has advanced a proposal to build a mega-development on farmland southeast of the city that would include 45,000 homes and 150,000 residents. “We know that the demand is there,” said City Councilmember Luis Chavez. Opponents are already mounting a resistance campaign. John Buse, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity, called the project shocking. “This is blatantly against their greenhouse gas plan,” he said. Fresnoland | GV Wire
6.
Last November, the release of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT triggered a tech explosion not seen since the internet went mainstream. The people who work at the San Francisco company that built it, OpenAI, “assume that AI’s trajectory will surpass whatever peak biology can attain,” wrote the tech journalist Steven Levy. “The company’s financial documents even stipulate a kind of exit contingency for when AI wipes away our whole economic system.” WIRED
7.
Someone once flew a drone through the entire length of the Glory Hole.
The bellmouth spillway at Lake Berryessa, between Sacramento and Santa Rosa, inspires nightmares when in use, drawing comparisons to a spiraling portal into hell. Even after our generous water year, the lake remains short of Glory Hole level, but not by much — just 16 feet at last check. Take a journey inside. 👉 YouTube
Southern California
8.
The Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías was arrested late Sunday on suspicion of felony domestic violence after an altercation with his wife at BMO Stadium, where they had attended a soccer game, officials said on Monday. The arrest comes four years after police arrested Urías, 27, for “intimate partner battery.” One of the best pitchers in baseball, Urías signed with the Dodgers at age 16 and became the most beloved Mexican Dodger since Fernando Valenzuela. Club leaders said they were disappointed but declined to speculate on his future with the team. O.C. Register | ESPN
- Sports columnist Bill Plaschke: “Julio Urías cannot throw another pitch as a Dodger.” L.A. Times
9.
A jury was seated on Tuesday in the criminal trial of Peter Navarro, a former UC Irvine professor who promoted “stolen election” claims while working under President Trump. The 74-year-old economist was charged with contempt after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. During a news conference last week, Navarro complained about his legal expenses. “Do I look like a rich man?” he said. “This is the same suit I wore in 2017 going into the White House, okay?” Washington Post
10.
A new accounting found more than 523 institutions that were part of the Native American boarding-school system, which for more than a century removed students from their homes and forcibly assimilated them into white culture. The Sherman Institute, founded in Riverside in 1902, sent Navajo and Hopi girls to work as servants and boys to labor in the fields. At Fontana Farms, hundreds of male students picked fruit, dug ditches, and tended to livestock for 10 hours a day, six days a week. N.Y. Times
- See archival photos from the Sherman Institute. 👉 Los Angeles Public Library
11.
Helen Pashgian was one of the founding members of the Light and Space movement that dominated the Southern California art scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Yet she lacked the recognition given to male members of the group, which experimented with geometric abstraction and luminosity. That’s changed in the last decade as art historians have reappraised the movement. Pashgian’s groundbreaking work is celebrated in a new short documentary, “Visible Invisible.” L.A. Times
In case you missed it
12.
A quick catch-up on headlines you may have missed from the past week:
- After being trapped by heavy rains, tens of thousands of Burning Man partygoers slowly began making their way out of the Nevada desert on Monday. They left behind large amounts of trash. Insider | SFist
- A 93-year-old woman was mauled to death on her doorstep by a neighbor’s dogs late last week in Modesto, police said. “It was chaos. It was a matter of 80 seconds,” a witness said. KCRA | Fox 40
- Two Cruise driverless taxis delayed an ambulance in San Francisco carrying a critically ill patient who later died at a hospital, the Fire Department said. Cruise disputed the report. SF Standard | SFGATE
- The struggling Santee Drive-In Theatre, a beloved community hub since 1958, will shutter in January, the owner said. A warehouse is expected to rise in its place. Just 15 drive-ins remain in California, down from more than 220 in the 1960s, according to Driveinmovie.com. East County Magazine
- Stanford, California, and Southern Methodist announced they were joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024, all but cementing the death of the the 108-year-old Pac-12 conference. It’s all about television money, wrote Matt Bonesteel. L.A. Times | Washington Post
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