Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Jan. 13.
- San Jose’s mayor is considering a run for governor.
- A slice of the Sonoma coast opens to the public.
- And an artist creates sculpture of L.A.’s graffiti towers.
Statewide
1.
Mayor Matt Mahan of San Jose said on Monday that he is seriously considering a run for governor. Mahan, 43, has become a rising Democratic star in recent years, cultivating a reputation as a moderate with tough-on-crime streak. He has repeatedly scolded Gov. Gavin Newsom, accusing him of “choosing online antics over sensible policies.” The suggestion of a potential campaign came a day after Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he would forgo the contest, which has yet to produce a clear front-runner. Mercury News | KCRA
2.
“This will be defeated — there’s no question in my mind.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday that he is working relentlessly behind the scenes to stop a proposed 5% tax on California billionaires that has become a fixation among Silicon Valley titans. While critics of the governor have sought to link him with the proposal, Newsom has repeatedly opposed wealth tax legislation. The latest effort seeks to sideline him by putting the measure on the ballot, beyond the reach of his veto. Politico | N.Y. Times
3.
Last week, Gov. Newsom’s proposed budget projected a $2.9 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year. On Monday, a report by California’s nonpartisan legislative analyst said it would be more like $18 billion. The report attributed the divergent estimates to Newsom’s overly optimistic forecast of the stock market. But growing signs suggest the market is “overheated,” the analyst’s office said: “These trends raise serious concerns about the state’s fiscal sustainability.” Sacramento Bee | KCRA
4.
California’s towering coast redwoods host secondary forest floors in the sky. Hundreds of feet off the ground, the trees produce their own soil and retain massive amounts of water for aerial ecosystems known as canopy mats, comprised of ferns, mosses, huckleberry, spiders, salamanders, and dozens of other species that know nothing of the world below. Cal Geographic wrote about the “shrouded and complex island ecosystem” that exists high up in the “monumental architecture” of the world’s tallest trees.
Northern California
5.
For decades, San Francisco workers escaped skyrocketing housing costs by moving farther and farther away. Now even exurbs like Vacaville, where average monthly rents have doubled since 2010, are pushing people out. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
“With the housing crisis now stretching into remote pockets once considered bastions of affordability, priced-out renters wonder: Is anywhere in the Bay Area within their budgets anymore?”
6.
A stunning slice of the Sonoma coast is opening to the public after a century of being privately operated as a ranch. Just south of Bodega Bay, the Estero Americano Coast Preserve is roughly 550 acres of rolling prairies and tidal marshes on the edge of the Pacific. A coalition of conservation groups bought the property in 2015, then spent years acquiring permits and performing trail work. Misti Arias, a conservationist, said the preserve is especially dazzling in the spring, when golden poppies and purple irises cover the treeless hillsides. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. S.F. Chronicle
7.
A holographic anime desk companion that watches you and offers advice.
A robot panda with “emotional AI” that provides comfort to older adults.
A toothbrush that plays music via bone conduction in your mouth.
TechCrunch highlighted some of the bizarre offerings from the tech world trade show known as CES 2026.
Southern California
8.
In 2020, President Trump granted a full pardon to Duncan Hunter, a former Republican congressman from San Diego who pleaded guilty to corruption after being accused of paying for extramarital affairs and other indulgences with campaign funds. Now Hunter is asking Trump to pardon another San Diego felon, Raymond Liddy, who was convicted in 2020 of possessing child pornography. Liddy later violated his probation, driving drunk and hurling a racial slur at his probation officer, court records show. S.D. Union-Tribune
9.
A jury on Friday found a former Navy SEAL with neo-Nazi beliefs guilty of planning to injure police with fireworks during a “No Kings” protest in San Diego, the authorities said on Monday. Prosecutors said Gregory Vandenberg, 49, stopped at a travel center en route from El Paso to San Diego and bought mortar and M-150 fireworks, telling a clerk he planned to fire them at law enforcement in California. Shaken by the encounter, employees wrote down his license plate and contacted police. L.A. Times | Albuquerque Journal
10.
“He found that by drawing his thumbnail across certain wood, he could almost strum it: hard grain, soft grain, hard, soft. He could listen, and hear how a piece would transmit sound.”
Mario Miralles, a renowned luthier, spent decades acquiring world-class spruce and maple for string instruments worthy of Yo-Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel. Then the Eaton fire came howling into his neighborhood. The New York Times wrote a heartbreaking account of the deep wound the fire inflicted on one man’s livelihood.
11.
For an upcoming exhibition, the artist Sayre Gomez has created precise replicas of Los Angeles’ abandoned Oceanwide Plaza towers, which were notoriously used as a massive canvas by graffiti artists in 2024. His most ambitious sculpture to date, the work involved capturing more than 7,200 drone photographs of the buildings. Gomez said he was drawn by the symbolic potency of the towers. “You can read a million books about the end of capitalism, but then you see that, and it’s like, oh they’re right,” he said. The New York Times got pictures.
- The Gomez exhibit opens Jan. 16 at L.A.’s David Kordansky Gallery.
12.
Emma Dorsey, a 27-year-old editor, lives in a run-down apartment in Orange County with no fireplaces or ivy-covered walls. So when she sits down to read fantasy novels, she turns on her projector and casts YouTube videos on the walls. Known as “ambiances,” the videos show enchanted gardens, Gothic libraries, a starry night sky with dragons flying by. “The videos don’t just create a vibe,” the Washington Post wrote, “they help readers to feel like they are a part of the story.”
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