Good morning. It’s Thursday, Dec. 18.
- Joyous dance parties fill Filipino supermarkets.
- Study shows jump in heart attacks after L.A. fires.
- And the staying power of Michael Mann’s “Heat.”
Statewide
1.
In California, cities pay far more for water from reservoirs and rivers than agricultural districts, some of which pay nothing at all, a new analysis found. The price difference largely comes down to the source: federally managed water, on average, is much cheaper than water from state-managed systems. As water shortages grow direr, that status quo has become unsustainable, said Noah Garrison, a UCLA researcher and lead author of the study: “Yet we’re still treating this as if it’s an abundant, limitless resource that should be free.” L.A. Times | CalMatters
2.
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled an initiative called CARE Court designed to fast-track people with untreated psychiatric disorders into medical care. Family members of troubled individuals allowed themselves to feel a spark of hope. But three years later, that hope has turned to despair for many of those families. Ronda Deplazes, of Concord, spent months navigating the CARE system before realizing that it was not going to save her son, who was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. “I’m giving up,” she said at one point. “Honestly, I’m giving up.” CalMatters
3.
Lawyers delivered closing arguments in the legal fight over California’s gerrymandered congressional districts on Wednesday — and it didn’t look good for the Republican side’s allegation of an unlawful racial motive. Two of the three judges on the U.S. District Court panel, one appointed by Barack Obama and the other by Joe Biden, repeatedly expressed incredulity that the reason for the map redrawing exercise was anything other than partisan. The third judge, a Donald Trump appointee, appeared more sympathetic. Courthouse News
Give something they’ll open every day.
Give the gift of the California Sun.
Northern California
4.
“In Portland, we’re just trying not to become San Francisco.”
Portland and San Francisco are cities of roughly equivalent size plagued by similarly severe housing shortages. In recent years, both have been subject to reforms designed to allow the construction of more affordable, small multifamily buildings on single-family lots, known as “missing middle” homes. Portland acted, permitting roughly 2,200 middle-housing units between 2021 and 2024. In San Francisco, around 350 such homes were permitted. Prices there have surged. S.F. Chronicle
5.
A Filipino grocery store chain with locations throughout the Bay Area is throwing late-night parties where people joyously dance and sing in the aisles to songs like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” The Bay Area has the largest Filipino American population in the U.S. after Los Angeles. The Seafood City parties, dubbed Late Night Madness, have been described as a outpouring of community pride, drawing on the Filipino tradition of big, rambunctious family parties. N.Y. Times
- See fun video from a party at the Milpitas Seafood City.
6.
The San Francisco photographer Mark Antonio has made a hobby of capturing couples and families engaged in wholesome moments around the city, then offering them a picture that he prints on the spot. On Nov. 11, he offered a photo to a couple who had been walking with their baby girl and dog at Crissy Field Beach. Their eyes filled with tears. Allison Furcolo explained that it was their last walk with the dog, Brees, after the pet was diagnosed with cancer in August. A moving video of the interaction has been viewed nearly 3 million times on TikTok. Newsweek
7.
In 1990, Cammie Toloui worked as a private booth strip tease at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady while studying photography in college. The job paid well. But she also wanted to make an art project out of the experience by turning a camera on her customers. Initially, she was sure no one would agree to being photographed. “The first customer I asked said yes,” Toloui wrote. “I couldn’t believe it. Even more unbelievable, he came back a few days later and asked me to take his picture again.” Flashback recalled the peep show performer who peeped back. (Proceed with caution.)
Southern California
8.
The Los Angeles wildfires in January appear to have taken a heavy toll on the health of residents, a study found. An unusually large number of people suffered from heart attacks, lung conditions, and other illnesses, according to the analysis of data from Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Susan Cheng said the findings underscore the danger of fires that spread from wildlands into urban areas. “You have a much greater magnitude and a much greater complexity of toxins being produced by the disaster affecting a very large, large population of people,” she said. Wall Street Journal
- The L.A. Times published a tough assessment of Mayor Karen Bass’ handling of the wildfire recovery: “Since the Jan. 7 fire destroyed thousands of homes, Bass has been announcing recovery strategies with great fanfare, only for them to get bogged down in the details or abandoned altogether.”
9.
In late November, a Home Depot in Los Angeles installed machines that emit a high-pitched tone designed to drive day laborers from its parking lot. On a recent day, a man named Juan was wearing a pair of earplugs. The noise, he said, “penetrates your bones.” On Wednesday, a nonprofit that supports day laborers held a news conference in the parking lot and demanded the noise makers be shut off. Home Depot has been a regular target for President Trump’s deportation campaign, inviting criticism of the company from both pro- and anti-immigrant camps. L.A. Times
10.
Nick Reiner made his first appearance in court on Wednesday to face charges that he had killed his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. It lasted just minutes. Nick, 32, wore a blue suicide prevention smock and sat behind a wall of plexiglass. He did not enter a plea as the arraignment was postponed until Jan. 7 at his lawyer’s request. L.A. Times | A.P.
- The Reiners’ other children released a statement on Wednesday. It said in part: “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day.”
11.
Stephen King wrote a touching tribute to Rob Reiner, whose 1986 film “Stand by Me” was based on a King story:
“When the movie was over, I thanked Rob and surprised the hell out of myself by giving him a hug. I’m not ordinarily a hugging man, and I don’t think he was used to getting them. … He asked me for notes; I had none. I had just let the whole thing wash over me. I marveled at what a good story the truth could make in the right hands.” N.Y. Times
12.
“Heat,” the Michael Mann crime thriller film that featured Los Angeles itself as a character, turned 30 this week. When it came out in 1995, it didn’t even crack the top 20 films of the year in earnings. Yet many critics now regard it as an American classic. Critic David Fear wrote about why “Heat” seemed to only rise in estimation with each passing year: “The more the era of enshittification infects mass entertainment, the more Heat feels like a unicorn. You can’t make crime movies like this anymore, even if you wanted to.” Rolling Stone
- “For me, the sun rises and sets with her, man.” The Atlantic offered another explanation for the film’s staying power: It’s really a love story disguised as crime epic.
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.