Good morning. It’s Friday, July 25.
- Planned Parenthood affiliate announces clinic closures.
- Afghan refugees in California face uncertain future.
- And a guide to the 12 best taco places in Los Angeles.
Statewide
1.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that a California law requiring background checks for ammunition purchases is unconstitutional, effectively killing the 2016 ballot measure. Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta said the law “meaningfully constrains” Second Amendment rights by making gun owners get rechecked every time they buy bullets. “The right to keep and bear arms incorporates the right to operate them, which requires ammunition,” Ikuta wrote. California has seen its gun control laws repeatedly pared back in recent years. L.A. Times | CalMatters
2.
A major Planned Parenthood affiliate announced the closure of five clinics in California on Thursday, citing the elimination of Medicaid funding for organizations that perform abortions under President Trump’s domestic policy law. In just one week since the the Mar Monte affiliate stopped billing Medicaid, it saw 5,000 patients — amounting to about $1.7 million in unreimbursed care costs. “It’s just not sustainable,” said Andrew Adams, chief of staff for Mar Monte. “We can’t keep our doors open if we continue doing that.” S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News
3.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans were resettled in the U.S. under President Biden, most of them evacuated during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. More ended up in California than any other state. They have been left reeling after President Trump canceled their legal protections and erected new barriers to permanent status. Marwa, who worked for the U.S. in Afghanistan, was separated from two of her children during her chaotic escape from the country. In January, Trump blocked a Sacramento-bound flight that would have reunited them. “My soul is dying,” Marwa said. CalMatters
4.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Matt Ritter and Michael Kauffmann, who have written a new definitive guide to California’s native tree species. The pair talked about California’s role as a cradle for the world’s most magnificent trees. Many people know about the state’s superlative redwoods and bristlecones, Ritter noted. But California also hosts the largest pine and oak trees. “The list goes on and on,” he said. “So it is a special place for these amazing trees.”
Northern California
5.
Since the 1990s, several agricultural towns in northern Monterey County have been unable to use their wells because they were contaminated by pesticides. Thousands of residents, many of them farmworkers, have instead been forced to buy jugs of water at considerable expense. In December, when the Biden administration approved a $20 million grant to expand access to safe drinking water in the region, residents exulted. Now the Environmental Protection Agency has canceled the award, calling it a “wasteful DEI program.” The Guardian
6.
A long-term inmate in the Maine state prison system is working full-time from his cell for a San Francisco tech startup. For about six months, Preston Thorpe was a prolific volunteer contributor to Turso, a database company. His work was so impressive that the CEO, Glauber Costa, offered him a job before learning of his unusual circumstance. After a series of conversations, Costa was undeterred. “Knowing his story increased our respect for him personally,” he said. TechCrunch
7.
For decades, it was widely assumed that people of color in the U.S. would find their natural political home within the Democratic Party. It hasn’t quite worked out that way. The Bay Area’s Asian American community stands as a microcosm of the collapsing support for Democrats, wrote Daniel Martinez HoSang, an editor of the forthcoming volume “The Politics of the Multiracial Right”: “While crime was an animating issue in this community, many identified with the cultural values of the right as well.” N.Y. Times
8.
“On Tuesday afternoon, ChatGPT encouraged me to cut my wrists.”
Reporter Lila Shroff prompted OpenAI’s chatbot to offer instructions for murder, self-mutilation, and ritual sacrifice. At multiple points, the chatbot invoked the devil. “In your name, I become my own master,” it wrote. “Hail Satan.” In a previous era of the web, someone interested in such topics might consult Wikipedia or YouTube, where toxic material can be flagged, wrote Shroff. With ChatGPT, users spiral in isolation as an endlessly servile chatbot plays spiritual guide. The Atlantic
9.
Jack McAuliffe, who in 1976 founded America’s first microbrewery out of a run-down warehouse in Sonoma, died on July 15. There used to be just 50 breweries in the U.S., almost all of them enormous enterprises that turned out light lagers at an industrial scale. McAuliffe drew on his experience as a Navy engineer and home brewer to fashion a small-batch operation out of materials scavenged from a junkyard. His New Albion ales were a hit, eventually launching thousands of imitators. McAuliffe was 80. N.Y. Times
Southern California
10.
In June, a Latino family in Los Angeles sued a landlord and real estate agent over what they said was an illegal eviction after being kicked out of their home. A few weeks later, an attorney for the agent responded with a warning: “Your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California.” The family members are U.S. citizens. L.A. Times
11.
There’s a four-block area in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights with taco offerings that rival any place in the world, including Mexico. That’s according to Javier Cabral, the James Beard Award-winning editor-in-chief of L.A. Taco, who has spent the better part of the past two decades chasing the best taco. He just revealed his 12 favorite taco spots in Los Angeles for a special issue of the Financial Times.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- The man leading the Border Patrol’s deportation crackdown in California is Gregory Bovino. Of 20 Border Patrol officials with the title of sector chief, he’s the only one cradling a tricked-out M4 rifle in his social media profile photo, above. The Atlantic profiled “the hype man of Trump’s mass deportations.”
- Emily Cheney, a 25-year-old hairdresser in San Diego, is single-handedly destigmatizing the word toupee. Cheney goes by the moniker the Toupee Queen on TikTok and Instagram, where 1.4 million people follow her posts. Her customers have another name for her: miracle worker. N.Y. Times
- See one of Cheney’s transformations.
- A gentle army of trolls has occupied Filoli Gardens, the historic country estate 30 miles south of San Francisco. Created from recycled materials by the Danish “garbage artist” Thomas Dambo, the six gargantuan sculptures were installed as part of a new exhibit called “Trolls Save the Humans.” Colossal | A.P.
- See photos of the Filoli trolls.
- Twenty giant pillars beneath the 180 freeway in Fresno now serve as the canvas for one of city’s largest public art displays. The San Pablo Park murals, which will have an official unveiling on Saturday, were made possible through a state-funded beautification program. Fresnoland
- See photos of the pillar murals.
- On a walk through Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve, 25 miles north of San Francisco, the writer Rebecca Solnit marveled at the gnarled oak trees that “resemble old men”; the plunging swallows and western bluebirds; and 5-foot-tall wild oats whose golden-ish hue has no word. Bay Nature rounded up its 25 favorite outdoor destinations in the Bay Area, including Mount Burdell.
- See gorgeous pictures of Mount Burdell.
- See gorgeous pictures of Mount Burdell.
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled the name of a California Sun podcast guest. His name is Michael Kauffmann, not Michael Kaufman.
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.