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Good morning. It’s Friday, July 29.
- San Francisco declares a monkeypox emergency.
- Los Angeles County decides against mask mandate.
- And bougainvillea brightens Southern California.
Statewide
1.
A California drought official, Max Gomberg, quit on principle this month, publicly accusing the Newsom administration of failing to meet the moment on climate change. Among his frustrations: the state’s indulgence of powerful agricultural interests. “There are the zillions of acres of almonds and grapes. It’s not sustainable,” Gomberg said. “Everyone knows it’s not sustainable … But it’s almost like it’s a game of chicken right now. Everyone’s waiting for someone else to blink.” L.A. Times
2.
Rep. Adam Schiff, of Burbank, is exploring a bid to lead the House Democrats if Speaker Nancy Pelosi retires after the midterms. His push, a surprise to many Democrats, has focused on consolidating support among the expansive California delegation. If he can amass enough interest, it would upend a shadow race that has centered on candidates who reflect voters’ demands for a more diverse leadership. Washington Post
Northern California
3.
San Francisco on Thursday declared a public health emergency in response to a growing monkeypox outbreak. Mayor London Breed noted that cases in the city had nearly doubled in a week to 261, as demand for the vaccine far surpasses supply. She blamed bias for the shortfall: “If there were any other community that was disproportionately impacted by monkeypox the way the gay community has been impacted, this whole country would be up in arms.” A.P. | SFGATE
An analysis found that San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are roughly tied for the highest per capita rates of monkeypox in the country. SF Standard
4.
Keith Papini and his children are among the saddest victims in the kidnapping hoax perpetuated by his wife, Sherri Papini. Keith was outraged by public skepticism over her 2016 disappearance in Redding, calling doubters “subhuman.” When the truth emerged, the family’s world was shattered all over again. In his divorce filing, Keith wrote, “The fact that their mother lied to them on such a major issue is something they, and I, are having a hard time dealing with.” A three-part series on the Sherri Papini saga takes stock of the people who were harmed. Sacramento Bee
5.
The famed Arts and Crafts architect Charles Greene is best known for his exquisite wooden bungalows. But one of his most ambitious projects was a sandstone structure that seemed to rise out of the rocks along the Monterey County coast. Built in 1918, the D.L. James House drew on influences from the Mediterranean and medieval England. It now has a new owner: Brad Pitt, an architecture enthusiast, who paid $40 million. Wall Street Journal
6.
A four-day long national marble hunt culminated on Wednesday in Eureka, known as a world epicenter for self-described “marbleheads.” Beginning in Colorado Springs last Saturday, teams followed clues to checkpoints along a roughly 1,750-mile route that included stops at the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a donkey herd in Beatty, Nev. The prize for the winning team, hailing from Crescent City, was a trove of 158 exquisitely handcrafted marbles valued at $45,000. Lost Coast Outpost
7.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Diane Power Zimmerman, whose grandparents founded the legendary Nut Tree in Vacaville in 1921. The roadside fruit stand become a pioneer of California cuisine and a mandatory stop on car rides from San Francisco to Sacramento and Tahoe that drew visitors such as Herbert Hoover, Shirley Temple, and Neil Armstrong.
Southern California
8.
After weeks of anticipation, Los Angeles County made its decision Thursday: There will be no mask mandate after all. As recently as mid-July, public health director Barbara Ferrer portrayed it as all but inevitable that mandatory masking would return to public indoor spaces in response to surging coronavirus infections. Then case and hospitalization rates started to stabilize. “We’re on a decline right now,” Ferrer said Thursday. “We’re glad to see this.” L.A. Times | LAist
9.
A journalism controversy that has been the talk of the town in Los Angeles this summer got the New York Times treatment on Thursday. An L.A. Times reporter, Paul Pringle, accused his editors of slow-walking his 2017 exposé on the drug abuse of a powerful figure at USC. One of those editors, Matthew Doig, called Pringle a fabulist. “But both men are still unhappy about how it all went down — and deeply certain that they are in the right.” N.Y. Times
10.
A collective of more than 400 television creators and showrunners sent a letter to the heads of major studios calling for specific protocols in states where abortion is outlawed. Among their demands: subsidies for travel to get abortions and indemnification for anyone who helps an employee obtain an abortion. They did not spell out the consequences should the studios refuse, Variety wrote. “But any potential boycotts from top talent would surely spell disaster.” Variety | Deadline
11.
“I just thought it would be nice.”
Corinne Carrey
The color of summer in Southern California is bougainvillea. One of the best displays of the South American plant is a brilliant magenta heap that spills over a retaining wall along the 101 Freeway in Hollywood. Its heart shape was no accident. Since 2013, a local artist named Corinne Carrey has made it a practice to clip the top of the bush into two humps. She told the California Sun she hasn’t tended to it since before the pandemic. But a Google Maps image captured in June, pictured above, showed it looking splendid, if a bit unruly.
● ●
After creating the Hollywood heart, Carrey branched out, adding hearts in other public places. See pictures. 👉 CorinneCarrey.com
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In 1990s San Francisco, rent was cheap enough to attract a world of artists and free spirits. As a student, the photographer Chloe Sherman took candid pictures of her social circle of “femmes and butches, punks and studs.” See a selection. 👉 Vice
- An influx of California remote workers and other Americans is transforming some of Mexico City’s most treasured neighborhoods. Posters appeared around town: “You’re a fucking plague and the locals fucking hate you. Leave,” they read in English. L.A. Times
- Mike Davis, the great chronicler of Los Angeles, has terminal cancer. He said he takes comfort in having control over “the final act” thanks to California’s aid-in-dying law: “If I have a regret, it’s not dying in battle or at a barricade as I’ve always romantically imagined — you know, fighting.” L.A. Times
- Rudolph Schindler’s Kings Road House in West Hollywood, built in 1922, set the tone for California residential modernism for decades. The writer Alex Ross paid a visit and “fell into a happy stupor, lost in time.” New Yorker
- Reporters tracked down Rick Singer, the mastermind behind the college admissions scandal, at a trailer in St. Petersburg, Fla. “Why he’s living in a little crappy old motorhome, I have no idea,” said a neighbor. “It’s the dullest mobile home park in the whole country.” Mercury News
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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