Good morning. It’s Thursday, Sept. 3.
- Los Angeles banishes AI from school classrooms.
- Clippers face huge fine over salary-cap violations.
- And lessons on the art of letting go from Joan Didion.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has called Southern California’s Salton Sea “the Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a place that sits atop 18 million metric tons of the metal needed to power smartphones, electric cars, and electricity grids. Yet three years after Newsom declared the region a global center of lithium mining, the Salton Sea remains untapped as lawsuits and funding problems impede the project. Most recently, a court ruled in August that developers failed to show there is enough water to sustain operations. CalMatters | Capital & Main
2.
Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, spent much of the primary courting the endorsement of President Trump. But since he got it in April, Hilton has worked to distance himself from the president. In an opinion essay, Samuel Earle, an author on British politics, argued that Hilton embodies where Trumpism is headed: “a style of politics that is uninhibited and sensationalist when necessary, and capable of rational debate and pragmatic rhetoric when not. We might call it MAGA with a nice accent.” N.Y. Times
3.
After the death of her husband, Joan Didion recalled the Hawaiian ritual of tossing a lei into the water to symbolize the wish for a traveler’s return. “I know why we try to keep the dead alive,” the late California author wrote. “We try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead … Let go of them in the water.”
The essayist Maria Popova explored the lessons on letting go in Didion’s classic reckoning with grief, “The Year of Magical Thinking.” The Marginalian
Northern California
4.
“It’s not worth it to fight Trump over something so stupid.”
President Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario is forcing tech companies to pick a side, risking either the wrath of a vengeful president or that of a public that overwhelmingly dislikes the change. Google and Apple have now both chosen Trump, updating their maps to show Lake America. MapQuest has turned its resistance into a marketing coup. On Tuesday, it became the No. 1 overall mapping application on the U.S. App Store. Politico | TechCrunch
5.
When former congressman Eric Swalwell flew from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, D.C., on Aug. 8, federal agents were watching him the entire time. The FBI asked the Federal Air Marshal Service to covertly try to ascertain Swalwell’s device passwords, records showed. Such operations have historically been targeted at suspected terrorists or potential hijackers. But Swalwell, the Atlantic wrote, “is an enemy of sorts to the Trump administration.”
6.
Not long ago, Desiree Lynch was a top-two finisher in the primary election for a seat on Stockton’s City Council, with the backing of the city’s vice mayor. On Wednesday, Lynch, a nurse, entered court to face six felony charges, including perjury, election fraud, and possession of an assault weapon. Her dizzying change of fortunes came after authorities accused Lynch of using false addresses to qualify as a candidate. A search of her home then turned up the firearm, prosecutors say. She faces up to seven years in prison. Stocktonia | KCRA
7.
Writing in the Atlantic, Matteo Wong and Charlie Warzel argued that the AI future is already here:
“Anything and everything could be a lie; you might be arguing with, confiding in, or falling in love with a machine. All of these AI-enabled disorientations … are adding up to something bigger and weirder: This is how things are. Whether you believe that Silicon Valley is building a god or that large swaths of the economy are swept up in a mass delusion, some version of the AI future long promised by self-described “builders” in San Francisco has formed beneath our feet. Whatever it is, we’re in it now.”
Southern California
8.
Los Angeles’ public school district, the second largest nationwide, quietly adopted a moratorium on student use of artificial intelligence. The existence of the policy, imposed unilaterally by administrators, emerged during a school board committee meeting on Wednesday and came as a surprise to board members. They did not object, but suggested letting parents know. “We should publicize that,” one said. The move followed the district’s trailblazing ban on smartphones across all grades. L.A. Times | LAist
9.
The NBA levied the largest fine in its history — $30 million — against the L.A. Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer on Wednesday after finding that they violated salary-cap rules to funnel extra money to player Kawhi Leonard. The league also stripped the team of five future first-round draft picks and suspended Ballmer for one year. The outcome vindicated sports podcaster Pablo Torre, whose reporting on the curious financial arrangements surrounding Leonard drew sharp pushback. The Clippers called the investigation a “witch hunt” and vowed to fight the penalties. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
10.
After years of waiting on the federal government and Mexico to take action, San Diego County moved this week to do something itself about the raw sewage flowing across the border via the Tijuana River. County supervisors backed a $1 billion plan to divert and treat the river sewage. For years, the pollution has turned what should be prime coastal territory surrounding Imperial Beach into a place where the stench of rotten eggs fills the air and residents suffer headaches and nausea. S.D. Union-Tribune | CalMatters
11.
After 286 days at sea, the San Diego-based USS Abraham Lincoln docked at a beach resort town in Thailand on Wednesday, giving nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines some much needed R&R. A small crowd of Americans and others greeted them with cheers. “Feels great,” one of the men coming off the ship said. The carrier’s unusually long deployment in a Middle East war zone led to consternation from family members and lawmakers as reports surfaced of fresh-food shortages and deteriorating mental health. Wall Street Journal
12.
The Democratic Socialists of America endorsed Nithya Raman in the race for Los Angeles mayor on Wednesday after weeks of heated debate within the group’s local chapter. Raman was the first DSA member elected to the City Council in 2020. Today, there are four councilmembers who belong to the left-wing group. The endorsement puts the resources of the DSA to work for Raman but risks alienating moderates and conservatives as she seeks to unseat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, an establishment Democrat. L.A. Times | LAist
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