Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 14.
- Highway 1 in Big Sur to reopen after three-year closure.
- Vanderbilt University plans new campus in San Francisco.
- And “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams dies after cancer battle.
Statewide
1.
Highway 1 in Big Sur will reopen today, allowing motorists to traverse the entire coast for the first time in three years, officials said on Tuesday. Landslides are a part of life along the 70-mile ribbon of steep coastline between Carmel and San Simeon. But overlapping slides that began in January 2023 amounted to the longest closure ever, hurting a region where 90% of the economy relies on visitors. Reopening, a local hotel manager said, “will be like getting back the oxygen we’ve been deprived of for so long.” S.F. Chronicle | The Tribune
- “The world’s most dramatic drive.” The New York Times included Big Sur in its list of 52 places to visit in 2026.
2.
The Louisiana authorities on Tuesday moved to extradite a California doctor on a charge of providing abortion pills to a Louisiana resident. “This is not healthcare; it’s drug dealing,” Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, said of the indictment against the doctor, Rémy Coeytaux of Sonoma County. California has an abortion shield law that precludes officials from cooperating with extradition requests. “California protects patients and their doctors,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “We will not be complicit in efforts to strip away their privacy, autonomy, or dignity.” N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle
3.
President Trump announced on Tuesday that his administration will halt federal funding to sanctuary jurisdictions beginning Feb. 1. Trump’s directive is notable for targeting not just cities but entire states, which would encompass pro-Trump strongholds such as California’s rural north and Central Valley. Courts have repeatedly rejected the president’s attempts to cut off funding to California over sanctuary policies, noting that such spending powers are constitutionally vested in Congress. A.P. | Politico
- Also on Tuesday: the Trump administration quit its effort to withhold transportation funding from blue states over immigration enforcement after a court ruled the action “lawless.” Politico | Reuters
Northern California
4.
“A generational investment.”
Vanderbilt University is planning to open a full-time academic campus near downtown San Francisco, the prestigious Nashville school announced on Tuesday. Vanderbilt said it would acquire the facilities of the California College of the Arts, where it will create a campus focused on innovation, arts, and design for roughly 1,000 students by 2027. The 119-year-old art school, struggling financially for years, said it would close for good by 2027, shocking faculty. Wall Street Journal | S.F. Chronicle
5.
Scott Adams, the Bay Area creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, died on Tuesday. In May, Adams was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told that he had only months to live. For more than 30 years, “Dilbert” skewered corporate life, inspired by Adams’ job as an engineer for the Pacific Bell telephone company. He later rebranded himself as a digital provocateur. In 2023, publishers cut ties with him after he called Blacks a “hate group” and urged white people to “get the hell away” from them. He was 68. Washington Post | A.P.
6.
Dec. 23, 2024, has gone down in surf lore as perhaps the biggest day of the surfing era at the legendary big-wave destination known as Mavericks, near Half Moon Bay. A new short film recalling the historic session includes some fantastic drone shots of surfers braving mountains of water as tall as 75 feet. Surfer magazine likened the footage to a horror film: “It’s scary yet impossible to look away.” YouTube
7.
More than most cities, San Francisco abounds with natural areas, comprising roughly 21% of the total landmass. Reminders of the region’s wild side came last week in two widely shared videos. On Jan. 5, a pair of coyotes played against the backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge in Crissy Field. A few days later, a deer trotted across the same bridge, frustrating halted commuters but no doubt giving them a good story to tell.
Southern California
8.
In 2021, Joanna Cloonan was cut off by another driver on an Orange County freeway and responded with a middle finger. The passenger in the other car then pulled out a Glock 17 pistol and fired one shot, killing Cloonan’s 6-year-old son Aiden Leos, who was sitting in the rear seat. Cloonan’s life was shattered, and the shooter was imprisoned. That was the end of it, she thought. But five years later, Cloonan is now being sued by the boy’s father. If not for her “act of road rage,” he argues in the lawsuit, “Aiden Leos would still be alive.” L.A. Times
9.
Stan Kroenke, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Rams, is now America’s biggest landowner. He earned the distinction after buying nearly 1,500 square miles of New Mexico ranchland last month, bringing his land holdings to roughly 4,220 square miles, or nearly 90 San Franciscos, according to The Land Report. The ultrarich have been increasingly moving into land investment for its slow, steady appreciation, said Eric O’Keefe, editor of The Land Report. N.Y. Times | Bloomberg
10.
Last Thursday, an Altadena man breathed a sigh of relief after a massive bear living in his home’s crawl space for six weeks finally skedaddled under the onslaught of a paintball gun. But just days later, a bear settled below another house a half mile away. It was unclear if it was the same 500-pound squatter. Deborah Wilson, a neighbor in Altadena, which abuts the San Gabriel Mountains, said people need to close up their crawl spaces: “What are you gonna do? Grab the bear and tell him to get out? I mean, they’re gigantic.” KTLA | People
11.
The actor Kiefer Sutherland was arrested and booked into jail on Monday after police said he assaulted a ride-share driver in Hollywood and made “criminal threats” toward the person. Sutherland, 59, has had earlier run-ins with the law, including drunk-driving arrests in 2004, 2007, and 2020. In 2009, he was charged with assault after being accused of head-butting a fashion designer at a Manhattan nightclub. NBC Los Angeles | L.A. Times
12.
Southern California is getting a professional women’s flag football league, promoters announced on Tuesday. The So Cal Women’s Pro Flag Football League will have teams in all eight counties across the region and play a 14-game season between June and August. Since becoming an official high school sport in California in 2023, girls’ flag football has exploded in popularity, drawing nearly 20,000 players. “Women’s flag football has reached a tipping point,” said Roy Englebrecht, the new league’s founder. City News Service | KTLA
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