Good morning. It’s Thursday, June 4.
- Election results suggest a “billionaire bust.”
- Monterey Park becomes first city to ban data centers.
- And deer are first over a wildlife crossing in California.
Election 2025
1.
The race for California governor remained too close to call late Wednesday, with Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra well out front, trailed by Tom Steyer. Political analysts said the lackluster showings so far for both Steyer, a billionaire, and San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, a centimillionaire, underscored the limits of money in elections. “What can $200 million buy you?” wrote reporter Alexei Koseff, referring to Steyer’s spending. “Perhaps not the California governor’s office.” S.F. Chronicle
- Track results in the governor’s race.
2.
In Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass has secured a spot in the November general election, the battle for the No. 2 spot intensified Wednesday as Nithya Raman, currently in third, cut into Spencer Pratt’s lead. That Bass must face a runoff at all amounts to a rebuke of the Democratic incumbent. Few of Bass’s predecessors ever failed to top 50% of the primary vote, which counts as an outright election win. “One thing is clear,” wrote columnist Gustavo Arellano, “Angelenos want change.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
- Track results in the mayoral race.
3.
A lightning round of other developments:
- Sonja Shaw, a culture-war conservative from the Inland Empire, surged into the lead in the race for California’s superintendent of public instruction. KQED
- Less than 24 hours after the close of polls, conservative figures on X, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were already alleging foul play in California. @RonDeSantis
- Shasta County voters appeared to have ousted their election-denying elections chief, Clint Curtis. CalMatters
- San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, got “every last thing” he wanted at the ballot box, Mission Local reported.
- Monterey Park became the first U.S. city to ban data centers. L.A. Times
- And San Diegans rejected a tax on second homes that are left vacant. Bloomberg
- Track other contests:
Statewide
4.
A proposed wealth tax has stoked worries of an exodus of California’s richest residents — along with their tax revenue. But millionaires have already been fleeing. Since 2018, roughly 103,000 millionaires moved out of California, according to data compiled by CitizenX, a company that markets dual citizenship. (The findings echo other reports on outmigration). Over the same period, 133,000 millionaires moved to Florida. Columnist Frank Jacobs said the trend reveals not so much the blight of high taxation as “a sorting of the country by political and cultural values.” Big Think
Northern California
5.
Ken Jones, a retired San Francisco firefighter whose cancer treatment was denied by his Blue Shield insurance plan, died on Saturday, 14 months after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer. Outrage over the denial reached all the way to Mayor Daniel Lurie, who in January demanded that Blue Shield reconsider. Media attention to the case revealed that other firefighters were similarly denied care. “I believe, wholeheartedly, that they expedited his death,” Jeanine Nicholson, the city’s former fire chief, said of Jones. He was 70 years old. NBC Bay Area | KGO
6.
A 36-year-old Bay Area woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime in connection with the March 26 burning of a historic meditation hall at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center near Big Sur, the oldest Japanese Buddhist Soto Zen monastery in the country. A 2,000-year-old stone Buddha statue was among the items destroyed in the flames. The suspect, Fiona GuoGuo Lu, posted video of the fire on social media and threatened to target other Buddhist temples across California, officials said. S.F. Chronicle | KSBW
7.
Three mule deer just became the first animals confirmed to have traversed a wildlife crossing in California, Caltrans announced. A trail camera captured the milestone on a new $20 million wildlife bridge in Siskiyou County, pictured above, in late May. The structure crosses Route 97, which laces through remote mountainous terrain. The highway is among the deadliest for wildlife in Northern California, killing more than 50 elk and deer in the five years ending in 2020. SFGATE
8.
Karley Webb is paid by Bay Area restaurants for wild edible plants and herbs foraged from parks and wild places. Fine dining chefs like to use elderflower, nasturtium, baby sun rose, wood oxalis, honeysuckle, and other herbs and flowers as garnishes. Some days Webb hikes for miles, braving poison oak and ticks. But it pays the rent. “Even if I wasn’t making money, I’d probably still be doing it,” she said. “It’s just so cool that you can eat things. You can find things and eat them yourself.” S.F. Chronicle
9.
The Santa Cruz stonemason Michael Eckerman uses river rocks to create chimneys, walls, and arches that would be fitting in a world imagined by J.R.R. Tolkien. A son of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement, Eckerman embraced an unorthodox approach to stonework, aspiring for structures that “flow like water” but also last for centuries. The Santa Cruz Sentinel recently showcased an Eckerman arch that serves as a whimsical gateway to a local park.
- See more of Eckerman’s creations.
Southern California
10.
After a 15-hour standoff with police, a hostage taker inside a downtown Bakersfield building was shot and killed by FBI personnel in the predawn hours on Wednesday, the authorities said. No physical harm came to the 10 hostages, some of whom were tied up in the second-floor offices of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Officials identified the suspect as Anthony Scott Searles-Harris, 41, an Army veteran who claimed to have been framed for sex crimes against children. No motive was disclosed. Valley Public Radio | L.A. Times
11.
Conspiracy theories have flourished around the deaths and disappearances of at least 10 scientists since 2024, including four in the Los Angeles area, reaching the highest levels of government and media. Journalists who have looked into the narratives have dismissed them as nonsense. Yet they are having real consequences for families in grief. Donald Wilcock said the lies spread about his son’s suicide have layered indignity on top of tragedy. “Nothing in my life of 82 years has come close,” he said. N.Y. Times
12.
Expressionless faces are becoming a problem in Hollywood. The new look — pillowy lips, stretched-out skin, and a stationary forehead — has bothered some moviegoers who find it distracting or downright unrealistic. What’s more, stiff faces present “an existential threat” to quality acting, wrote journalist Alaina Demopoulos: “Beauty has always been a job requirement for being a star, but so has facial dexterity.” The Guardian
A note on use of artificial intelligence
The California Sun is made by a human. AI plays no part in the newsletter’s writing or visuals and no significant part in the research. I haven’t been able to avoid it entirely: I use search tools infused with AI. But the work of crafting the newsletter is otherwise accomplished with my own eyes, fingers, and brain — and I plan to keep it that way.
— Mike
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