Good morning. It’s Friday, May 22.
- San Francisco Symphony names first female music director.
- Family of San Diego mosque attacker breaks silence.
- And serial road rage driver gets seven-year sentence.
Please note: The newsletter will pause for Memorial Day weekend. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered state agencies to explore ways to mitigate mass job losses stemming from artificial intelligence. The executive order, said to be the first of its kind in the U.S., calls for expanded job training and safety nets like severance and company stock, among other measures. In a white paper released last month, OpenAI outlined its own blueprint for reorganizing society: It included four-day workweeks, taxes on automated labor, and a public investment fund focused on AI that distributes returns to Americans. CalMatters | Wall Street Journal
2.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman discussed the governor’s race with the Zócalo Public Square columnist Joe Mathews. Both men complained about the disconnect from state politics as candidates focus instead on President Trump and national talking points. “Have you heard a thing about the schools?” Mathews asked, referring to the debates. “Nothing, nothing,” Schechtman answered. “I mean, even despite some gains, we’re still well below pre-pandemic levels,” Mathews said.
3.
“Atop the lighthouse spins a Fresnel lens — four panels, 90 prisms, 6,800 pounds of optical muscle. The tower itself rises only 32 feet, but perched on the headlands it commands the Pacific like a quiet sentinel. At sunset, the whole scene glows — the lens, the tower, the white buildings — like something painted rather than built.”
John McKinney, a longtime California outdoors author, shared his three favorite California lighthouses along three very different stretches of coast. The Trailmaster
Northern California
4.
Elim Chan was just named music director of the San Francisco Symphony, making her the first woman to hold the post in the leading orchestra’s 115-year history. Chan, 39, was born in Hong Kong and played cello and piano in her youth. She was conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in Belgium from 2019 to 2024. In the past, Chan has called for less focus on her gender, wanting to be judged on the music. But she felt the weight of the honor, she said Thursday: “Before I walked into the hall to meet the musicians, I told myself, ‘Actually, yeah … it is a big deal.’” KQED | S.F. Chronicle
5.
Over the past few weeks, people toting shovels fanned out across San Francisco in search of a buried chest holding $10,000 in coins after a post on Reddit announced the treasure and offered clues to its location. On Tuesday, the whimsical diversion came to an end when three friends found the chest in a sea cave in the Marin Headlands. One of the treasure finders said they saw corners of the city they never knew existed: “I’ve never felt closer to my friends, never obsessed over a puzzle so deeply … and I didn’t know that I was capable of all of this.” S.F. Chronicle
6.
E-hiking is here. In the same way that e-bikes have taken the grind out of bicycling, AI-powered bionic leg boosters have now hit the market to help hikers conquer trails. Hypershell’s $1,999 X Ultra S consists of a waist band and a pair of hinged thigh braces and could theoretically help you run a four-minute mile. A Wall Street Journal reporter tested it out on San Francisco’s hilliest trails. “The contraption felt like a puppeteer controlling my legs,” she wrote.
7.
“We will be back in court.”
Fresno just approved the largest Costco in California — again. The proposal calls for 219,000 square feet of retail space, equivalent to nearly four football fields. The city first approved the retail colossus in 2024, but it was waylaid by a court ruling after a lawsuit challenged the project on environmental grounds. The new approval, according to city leaders, relies on an updated environmental analysis. Opponents said another lawsuit would be forthcoming. SFGATE | Fresno Bee
Southern California
8.
The family of Caleb Vazquez, one of the gunmen at the Islamic Center of San Diego, broke their silence on Thursday, apologizing for the bloodshed and saying they tried in vain to steer their son away from hate. They said their own family includes immigrants and Latinos. “Our son was on the autism spectrum,” the family wrote, “and it is painfully clear to us now that he struggled not only with accepting parts of his own identity but also grew to resent them.” S.D. Union-Tribune | NBC News
- Read the full statement.
- In 2025, Caleb Vazquez drew the attention of the authorities over his obsession with mass shooters and Nazism. The police were so alarmed they confiscated his father’s guns. N.Y. Times
- Roughly 5,000 people gathered in a San Diego park on Thursday to mourn the three men killed in the attack. They were remembered as heroes. S.D. Union-Tribune | KPBS
9.
In 2023, Nathaniel Radimak was arrested after at least 10 people came forward with reports of road rage attacks involving the Tesla driver in Southern California. He served 10 months in prison before relocating to Hawaii, where authorities soon began getting fresh reports of outbursts by Radimak. In an attack captured on surveillance camera on May 7, 2025, he got out of his Tesla and punched the faces of a woman and her daughter. On Wednesday, a Honolulu judge sentenced Radimak to seven years in prison for the attack, longer than prosecutors had requested. KHON2 | HawaiiNewsNow
- Harassment, disorderly conduct, endangering the welfare of a child: A journalist dug into criminal and newspaper archives and found a pattern of viciousness by Radimak dating back to his teen years. Honolulu Civil Beat
10.
Organizers have filled a shuttered Los Angeles hospital with art for an exhibit they’re calling the “Hospital of Emotions.” Inside St. Vincent Medical Center, former intake, surgery, and recovery floors have been transformed into an immersive art exhibition of emotion-based departments, including grief, fear, joy, and sadness. In the Compassion Department, crutches and walkers are arranged in a beastly figure. In the Hope Department, a section of a tree is hooked up to IV bags filled with vegetation, pictured above. The Los Angeles Times has photos.
11.
Skeletor appeared over Los Angeles on Tuesday night. The apparition was part of a promotion for the forthcoming He-Man movie, “Masters of the Universe.” Organizers used roughly 1,600 drones to put on a light show over Hollywood Forever Cemetery, setting a Guinness World Record for brightest drone show ever. See it here.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Wright Thompson, one of the finest feature writers in sports, wrote a profile of Steve Kerr, the longtime Warriors coach, as he faced a crossroads in his career. Fellow sports journalists called the piece “spectacular,” “riveting,” and “the greatest story I’ve ever read.” ESPN
- Scott Vincent Borba helped found a cosmetics company that grew into a $3 billion juggernaut. Then he walked away from it all, joined a seminary, and returned to the San Joaquin Valley, where he grew up. On Saturday, Borba’s remarkable journey will culminate with his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. N.Y. Times | KFSN
- The conductor Herbert Blomstedt has been hailed for his longevity and vitality, keeping up a demanding schedule well into his 90s. A performance at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall last week, however, did not go well. Concertgoers watched with alarm as a frail Blomstedt fell in and out of sync and at one point slumped over on a piano bench. S.F. Chronicle | Slippedisc
- Panum Crater in the Eastern Sierra formed only about 700 years ago, making it a newborn in geological terms. When rising magma encountered groundwater, it generated steam that set off a cataclysmic explosion, leaving a crater half a mile wide. NASA Earth Observatory shared satellite imagery of the “volcanic medley” of the Mono–Inyo Craters.
- A mellow trail follows the rim of Panum Crater, with brilliant views of Mono Lake. Here’s a nice trip report.
- An intrepid young wolf known as BEY03F just became the first to enter Sequoia National Park in a century. The California Wolf Foundation called her journey since being born in Plumas County in 2023 “remarkable.” “Each step tells a bigger story about resilience, connectivity, and the future of wolves in our state,” the group wrote. L.A. Times | KTLA
- Track California’s collared wolves.
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