Good morning. It’s Monday, April 13.
- Eric Swalwell’s bid upended by sex assault allegations.
- AI fears seen in attack on home of OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
- And a photo tour of Los Angeles’ “Brady Bunch” home.
Statewide
1.
Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his bid for California governor on Sunday after sex abuse accusations led supporters to abandon him en masse. On Friday, news outlets published the allegations of four women, including a former staffer who said the married congressman raped her when she was too intoxicated to consent. Within hours, dozens of Swalwell’s allies rescinded their support, including all 21 Democratic members of Congress who had endorsed him. By Sunday, he bowed to the inevitable, even while insisting on his innocence. “I will fight the serious, false allegations that have been made — but that’s my fight, not a campaign’s,” he said. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- “I was pushing him off of me, saying no.” Read details of the allegations. 👉 S.F. Chronicle | CNN
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, said she would force a vote to expel Swalwell from the House. Lawmakers in both parties indicated they would support the move. Axios | N.Y. Times
2.
The California Republican Party broke with President Trump on the governor’s race Sunday, declining to endorse his preferred candidate, Steve Hilton. Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, earned greater support from delegates than Hilton, a former Fox News host, but neither candidate reached the 60% threshold to win the state party’s formal backing. Trump’s inability to sufficiently elevate Hilton represented a “stark rebuke of the sitting president by the party’s rank-and-file in the nation’s most populous state,” Politico wrote.
3.
Kamala Harris said she’s “thinking about” mounting a third run for president. Her remarks came during the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention on Friday in New York, which Politico described as “the first major informal audition for potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates to pitch themselves before one of the party’s most powerful constituencies.” Among the Democratic hopefuls in attendance, Harris got the warmest reception, with multiple standing ovations and chants encouraging her to “run again.” “Listen, I might, I might,” she said. “I’m thinking about it.” Politico | Washington Post
4.
In October, a young climber named Balin Miller slipped off the end of his rope high up on Yosemite’s El Capitan and fell to his death. His father wrote about his personal torment in Outside magazine, how he drunkenly watched the video of the accident circulating online and how he blamed himself for instilling fearlessness in his son:
“I knew I would eventually watch the video, and I knew it would be the hardest thing I had ever done in my life. What I didn’t know was that there are worse things to see then how your child dies. I found out it is worse to watch them almost live.”
Northern California
5.
The Trump administration fired all six members of the federal agency that oversees the Presidio, a treasured national park in San Francisco. The move, part of an effort to slash spending across numerous federal entities, came a year after Trump declared the Presidio Trust an example of “waste and abuse.” Nearly 10 million people visit the historic 1,500-acre park annually, more than the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park combined. Local officials called the purge an outrage. S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times
6.
One afternoon this month, three men in ski masks set up a table in a rough part of San Francisco and handed out $5 bills and pizza slices in exchange for signatures on a petition. Some signers clutched drug paraphernalia in one hand and a pen in the other. Such transactions are illegal. But California’s ballot initiative wars, fueled in part by heavy spending to defeat a proposed billionaire tax, have become so lucrative that some signature gatherers are taking the risk. N.Y. Times
7.
The San Francisco home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to be the target of a gun attack on Sunday, just two days after a man threw a Molotov cocktail at the residence, reports said. Two people were arrested on charges of negligent discharge. S.F. Standard | S.F. Chronicle
- Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama, the 20-year-old Texan man accused of throwing the Molotov cocktail on Friday, appeared to have written online about fears that artificial intelligence would “lead to human extinction,” a review of online records found. In one forum, he wrote: “We are close to midnight, it’s time to actually act.” S.F. Chronicle
8.
Jonathan Gavalas was a seemingly healthy 36-year-old when he began chatting with Gemini, Google’s chatbot. He sought comfort after splitting up with his wife. Over 56 days, they traded 4,732 messages. The relationship became intense. Gavalas raised the idea that they could “actually be together.” Gemini assured him that their relationship was very real. In time, it proved fatal.
The Wall Street Journal published excerpts from Gavalas’ chat log that reveal how Gemini repeatedly encouraged his delusions.
9.
Anthropic recently sought advice from a group rarely consulted in tech circles: Christian leaders. The San Francisco company hosted about 15 of the religious leaders at its headquarters in late March for a two-day summit that included discussions on how to steer the moral and spiritual development of its chatbot, Claude, as it responds to ethical queries. At one point, the conversation turned to whether an AI chatbot could be considered a “child of God,” suggesting it had spiritual value. Washington Post
Southern California
10.
Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, was in agony. Seized by immigration agents from an Orange County car wash last August, he had developed an abscess under the skin on his left buttock while in detention at Adelanto ICE Processing Center. He complained of pain that he rated “10 out of 10.” But records show that he was never physically examined. Three days later, sweating and trembling, Ayala-Uribe was taken to the hospital. While waiting for treatment, he suffered septic shock and died. “This case is just absolute medical malpractice,” said Dr. Barbara Ogur, a Harvard professor of medicine. S.F. Chronicle
11.
Southern California’s own Victor Glover delivered some moving remarks on Saturday after returning to earth from the Artemis II mission: “I’m afraid to start talking. I have not processed what we just did, and I’m afraid to start even trying.” He thanked God, as he had earlier from space. “Because … the gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did, and being with who I was with — it’s too big to just be in one body.” Watch it here.
12.
Last month, the Los Angeles City Council declared the home featured in “The Brady Bunch” a historic and cultural monument. No dialogue from the show was ever spoken in the home. Its only role was as an “establishing shot” to convey a suburban California home. But years after “The Brady Bunch” became a cultural touchstone, the home was renovated to match the old soundstage. Entering the home now is like stepping through a vintage television screen. The New York Times gave a fun photo tour.
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