Good morning. It’s Tuesday, May 13.
- Gavin Newsom escalates homeless camping crackdown.
- Elizabeth Holmes’ partner has blood-testing startup.
- And a chirping fire alarm drives an L.A. man bonkers.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom exhorted California’s cities and counties to ban homeless encampments on Monday, pressing a voter priority while seeking to shift blame for the crisis away from his administration. He offered a model ordinance for municipalities that includes prohibitions on “persistent camping” and blocking sidewalks. “It’s time to take back the streets,” Newsom said. Critics pointed to a nagging paradox: The state has three times as many homeless residents as shelter beds. “Cities need funding, not model encampment ordinances,” said the League of California Cities. KQED | LAist | Politico
- “It is an actual humanitarian crisis.” A homeless takeover of a park in Berkeley has infuriated neighbors. S.F. Chronicle
2.
The New York Times talked to three former governors about growing signs of economic trouble in California.
- Pete Wilson, a Republican, recalled the collapse of the aerospace industry and a major earthquake during his tenure in the 1990s: “It’s much worse now than it was then, and it was pretty bad then.”
- “We have problems, we have challenges,” said Gray Davis, a Democrat. “We can overcome them. We’ll see the evidence of that over the next few years. I wouldn’t bet against California.”
- Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said the state’s wealth would soften the blow of inevitable cutbacks: “But a lot of people are going to get hurt in the process.”
3.
In 1998, California’s Republican governor signed into law an assistance program for disabled and aged noncitizens who were cut off from federal aid that served the same population. The Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants now serves about 16,500 lawful residents and is fully state-funded. Even so, the Trump administration announced an investigation into the program on Monday, issuing subpoenas for the identities of applicants. “If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now,” said Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security. “The gravy train is over.” Critics said the move appeared designed to scare immigrants. L.A. Times
Northern California
4.
A proposal to raise Shasta Dam by 18 feet to provide more irrigation water is gaining traction in Congress. This month, lawmakers designated $2 billion for increasing water storage capacity. President Trump, for his part, instructed federal agencies to waive environmental rules with the aim of delivering more water to growers. Project supporters such as Rep. Doug LaMalfa have pushed the idea that a higher dam would actually help threatened salmon spawn by keeping water colder. Barry Nelson, a conservationist, called that “absurd.” CalMatters
5.
While Elizabeth Holmes has been sitting in prison for defrauding investors, her partner Billy Evans has reportedly raised millions of dollars for a startup with a familiar mission: to revolutionize blood testing. Before its spectacular downfall, Holmes’ company Theranos became a darling of Silicon Valley on exaggerated claims about the capabilities of its blood-testing technology. Evans’ company, called Haemanthus, insisted on Tuesday that Holmes had no involvement in the new venture. “This is not Theranos 2.0,” it said. Mercury News | N.Y. Times
6.
Three years after a San Jose 17-year-old killed himself, the authorities said they arrested four men in Cote d’Ivoire on charges of driving the boy and other victims to despair in an “international sextortion scheme.” In 2022, scammers posing as a young girl sent Ryan Last a nude photo, then asked him to reciprocate, investigators said. When he did, they threatened to make the photo public if he didn’t send $5,000. In a suicide note, Last apologized for not being smarter. Pauline Stuart, Last’s mom, said she hoped the arrests would send a message of deterrence to other scammers. L.A. Times | A.P.
7.
Neighbors along a street in the Bay Area city of Richmond said more than 50 birds have fallen lifeless to the ground after perching on a stretch of power line. Witnesses reported hearing firecracker-like sounds just before birds plummeted. “It was just horrifying,” said Sharon Anderson. But wildlife officials said they found no evidence of electrocution, suggesting that a BB gun or slingshot could have been involved. Residents remain skeptical. “I can’t fathom someone being so accurate all the time,” said Jan Solomon. KGO
8.
“We have some really big news.”
San Francisco’s mayor, Daniel Lurie, announced that Dead & Company, the Grateful Dead offshoot, would play three shows over one weekend in Golden Gate Park in August. The shows are expected to draw up to 60,000 fans per day, generating tens of millions of dollars in economic activity. Lurie called it “a San Francisco homecoming” for some members of the band, which stayed in a communal house in the Haight-Ashbury district in the 1960s. SFist tried to see how many song title puns it could squeeze into its story.
9.
The San Francisco oil painter Kim Cogan specializes in portraying the city’s unsung landmarks — liquor stores, narrow alleys, old motels — often enveloped in Pacific fog. “To view a Kim Cogan painting is to be dropped into what is recognizable only as San Francisco,” the arts writer Ciara Shuttleworth once noted. Cogan himself has described his work as an expression more of mood then place. In a recent Instagram post, he shared a little bit about his process. @kimcogan
- See more of Cogan’s work. 👉 @kimcogan
Southern California
10.
For 12 hours last Friday, not a single cargo vessel left China with goods bound for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, as importers sought to avoid massive new tariffs. More than half of container ship berths at the nation’s top port sat empty. Yet on Monday, after President Trump agreed to a temporary pullback from sky-high tariffs, local officials and businesses saw little cause for celebration. “Let’s be clear,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, “what we need is certainty.” CNN | Washington Post | Long Beach Post
- Wall Street Journal editorial board: “The President started a trade war with Adam Smith. He lost.”
11.
“I think you could live with it, and just get over it.”
A couple in Los Angeles canvassed their neighborhood in search of a beep that’s driving one of them insane. It was the intermittent ping of a smoke alarm with a battery that was running low. An amusing New Yorker documentary chronicled their quest as they encountered laughter, empathy, and open hostility.
12.
Everyday, motorists zip along Route 58 through the Mojave Desert unaware of a hidden marvel just off the highway. The Rio Tinto borax mine in Boron, which yields a salt used primarily in cleaning agents, is the biggest mine of its kind anywhere — two miles long and deeper than two stacked Statues of Liberty. The tires of the work trucks stand 12 feet tall. A visitor center includes a lookout at the edge of the mine, where the enormous gash in the desert likely registers for many as another line item in humankind’s ledger of environmental destruction. But the Rio Tinto has actually been praised for its green record. The science writer Jared Diamond called it “perhaps the most cleanly operated mine in the U.S.” The ABC10 travel reporter John Bartell paid a visit. YouTube
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