Good morning. It’s Monday, Sept. 16.
- Wildfire rules to reshape California neighborhoods.
- Fentanyl crisis tests upscale Orange County high school.
- And tiny Mendocino coast town becomes travel darling.
Statewide
1.
Fire inspectors are telling homeowners in the forested Berkeley Hills to remove all combustible material within 5 feet of their homes. The standard, known as “zone zero,” is only a recommendation — for now. The state is preparing to mandate the buffer zone in high fire-risk communities across the state. Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley, said the alternative is catastrophe. “I think it’s going to require a reconfiguration of what a neighborhood is, a wholesale change in how it looks,” he said. Bloomberg
- “It’s helping out tremendously.” Falling temperatures aided firefighters battling blazes in Southern California over the weekend. Monday could deliver light rain, forecasters said. L.A. Times | S.D. Union-Tribune
2.
California’s fine-particle pollution from vehicles fell 65% over 20 years, a new study found. Fine-particle pollution, also known as PM 2.5, has been linked to premature death, strokes, and heart failure. Researchers, who looked at data from the years 2000 to 2019, attributed the improvement to California’s ability to set stricter standards than the federal government. “This is a massive win for public health,” said Joshua Apte, a UC Berkeley environmental scientist and co-author of the report. KQED
3.
Speaking to reporters at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club on Friday, former President Trump said that if re-elected he would withhold firefighting aid from California unless Gov. Gavin Newsom — whom he repeatedly called “Newscum” — enacted Trump’s policy priorities on water. The head of the state’s main firefighters union responded Saturday by accusing Trump of choosing to “play with” Californians’ lives. “It is a disgrace to our great nation and to every Californian that this man has a platform to threaten our livelihoods, safety, families and our state,” he said. L.A. Times
- Trump portrayed California as a dystopian nightmare. CalMatters fact-checked his claims.
Northern California
4.
Jesus Castillo, a 66-year-old worker who drowned in a waste pit at a San Joaquin Valley poultry plant in May 2023, may have been rendered unconscious by toxic fumes just before falling, a state inquiry concluded. Castillo’s daughter-in-law called the finding infuriating. “It seems his death was not merely an accident, but rather a result of neglect,” she said. Earlier this year, a Fresno Bee investigation found that the immigrant workforce at Pitman Family Farms, in Sanger, faced grueling and often dangerous conditions. Fresno Bee
5.
In Silicon Valley, aggregate household wealth has been estimated at nearly $1.1 trillion. Yet until recently 7-year-old Dimmi was sleeping in a tent at a homeless encampment along railroad tracks in the heart of the valley, in San Jose, where rumbling trains made sleeping through the night impossible. After the Mercury News featured Dimmi’s story last month, his family got an offer of a city-funded hotel shelter. A bed and a shower were a dream come true, he said. Mercury News
6.
In the 2010s, Twitter was one of the most prominent symbols of the tech boom that transformed San Francisco’s skyline and lifted the municipal budget to record highs. But on Friday the lobby was quiet as the company now known as X wrapped up its last official day in the city. Ludovic Racinet, the owner of a nearby comedy club, said San Francisco had done “so much” for X. “Most of the city and most of the neighborhood take it as a stab in the back,” he said. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
7.
A tiny town along the Mendocino coast has become an overnight travel darling. Earlier this month, SFGATE published an article about an unlikely two-star Michelin restaurant in the city of Elk, population 275. Around the same time, a panel of travel professionals enlisted by Travel+Leisure named Elk the country’s “Best Small Food + Wine Town.” Aside from the wonderful food, the magazine wrote, “Elk’s landscape is simply stunning.” SFGATE
Southern California
8.
At Dana Hills high school in an upscale corner of Orange County, drug overdose deaths used to be rare. Then fentanyl showed up. In the last four years, five students have died. “One teenager was a popular and ambitious cheerleader in her junior year; another was a freshman football player. One was an incoming high school student who never made it to the first day,” wrote the Guardian.
9.
At 72, after a lifetime of struggle, Alberto Castañeda Aco was finally ready to enjoy his life and his family in Los Angeles. Then he was hit by a car. “That Wednesday night, as Mr. Castañeda Aco lay on the pavement, both of his legs broken, blood in his ears, he was not seen as a former boxer, a dedicated employee, a grandfather of eight,” the journalist Corina Knoll wrote in a moving piece. “Instead, he became another tally mark of misfortune in a city of cars.” N.Y. Times
10.
“Shogun,” FX’s big-budget chronicle of feudal Japan, won best drama honors at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday night, while “Hacks” took the top comedy prize, an upset win over reigning winner “The Bear.” “All in all, it was a very normal Emmys, with a dash of drama in, well, the comedy categories,” wrote the Washington Post.
- Video highlights:
- Richard Gadd moved the crowd with an emotional speech.
- “Saturday Night Live” alums mocked its creator.
- John Oliver cursed out the Emmys when schmaltzy music interrupted his tribute to his departed dog.
- See the full list of winners.
- And see photos from the red carpet. 👉 Hollywood Reporter | NPR
11.
An 11-year-old boy named Liam was running a corner lemonade stand in the city of Ramona, northeast of San Diego, when he ran out of cups. As he darted into his house to grab more, a man in a pickup truck pulled alongside the stand and got out. Surveillance video showed him toss aside Liam’s sign — which read in part “saving for a dirt bike” — then put the table and chairs into the back of his truck and drive off. The boy returned moments later and fell to tears. NBC San Diego
12.
As a young son of Cambodian refugees in the Los Angeles area, the artist Andrew Hem was drawn toward the gang iconography on the walls of his neighborhood. Graffiti led him to figure drawing, which led to a celebrated body of work infused with the themes of the inner city and lives lived between cultures. The art historian John Seed once described Hem’s work as “ethereal,” creating “a poetic bridge” between memory and reality. Colossal published a selection of his artworks.
- See more of Hem’s work. 👉 @andrewhem
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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