Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 31.
- E. coli outbreak linked to Fresno raw dairy farm.
- Mexico denounces deaths at Adelanto ICE facility.
- And a charismatic Sacramento pig wins hearts online.
Statewide
1.
When the Supreme Court considers President Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship on Wednesday, the justices will test the landmark 1898 precedent set in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was American. Ark’s great grandson, a San Francisco area resident, said he fears that the principle enshrined by his ancestor’s case could be in peril. “Wong Kim Ark didn’t make the rule,” Norman Wong, 76, said. “He affirmed the rule.” Reuters
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday issued a first-of-its-kind executive order requiring safety and privacy guardrails for artificial intelligence companies that do business with the state. He took the step in defiance of President Trump, who has ordered states not to get involved in regulating AI. “We’re not going to sit back and let that happen,” Newsom said of Trump’s effort to supersede state action. “It’s taking a sledgehammer to the very protections Californians rely on.” N.Y. Times
3.
Lawyers for Rep. Eric Swalwell sent a cease-and-desist letter to the FBI on Monday, seeking to block the release of files connected to a decade-old investigation into his ties to a suspected Chinese spy. Failure to comply would result in further legal action, the letter said. Democrats have accused FBI Director Kash Patel of trying to smear Swalwell, an earnest critic of President Trump, as he campaigns to become California’s next governor. Washington Post | A.P.
- Politico suggested the FBI’s move is a political gift to Swalwell, elevating him as a leading opponent to Trump.
Northern California
4.
Nicole Daedone, the founder of a San Francisco wellness company that built a large following around “orgasmic meditation,” was sentenced to nine years in federal prison on Monday after being convicted of forced labor conspiracy. Women who testified at the trial likened the group to a sex cult, saying Daedone coerced them into performing sexual acts with company clients. Yet Daedone, 58, still has fans, and she has found ways to continue spreading her message to them from behind bars, the New York Times reported.
5.
Sheryl Davis, once San Francisco’s most powerful civil rights watchdog, was arrested Monday on a raft of felony misconduct charges. Davis resigned in disgrace in 2024 amid allegations of extravagant spending and conflicts of interest. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said on Monday that Davis misused roughly $350,000 in public funds and engaged in “pervasive” self-dealing: “She created a scheme that she believed no one would challenge, that no one would shed light on.” S.F. Chronicle | KQED
6.
Raw Farm, a 400-acre dairy operation in Fresno, has carved a successful niche on the unfounded belief that raw milk and cheese are more nutritious than their pasteurized counterparts. Now the FDA is pointing to Raw Farm’s cheddar cheese as the reason nine people, most of them children, have fallen ill from E. coli. Three of the individuals have been hospitalized, and one developed a serious kidney condition. “Pasteurization exists for a reason,” the Atlantic wrote. “It is a time-tested way to make sure that dairy products don’t contain bacteria that can make you sick.”
7.
Marc Andreessen, a chief ideologist of the Silicon Valley elite, said recently that he aims to have “zero” introspection in his life. “If you go back 400 years ago, it never would have occurred to anybody to be introspective,” he said. The columnist David Brooks enumerated the flaws with Andreessen’s worldview:
“In the first place, he is an ignoramus of epic proportions. The idea that it would not have occurred to people to introspect before the 20th century would have been news to, say, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine, Ignatius of Loyola, Montaigne, Jane Austen, or George Eliot.” The Atlantic
8.
A Sacramento woman’s pig, Merlin, has become an internet sensation by pressing buttons lined up against a kitchen wall to express his moods and desires. One says “I’m mad.” Others say “Fruit, please,” “Outside,” and “Dance with me, mommy.” Merlin, 4, is a Vietnamese potbellied pig, a species smarter than most people think, researchers say. His owner, Mina Alali, says Merlin is like a toddler, adorable and headstrong. “I love him like I would my own child,” she said. Washington Post
Southern California
9.
Woody Brown, diagnosed with severe autism as a toddler, would never be able to speak or process language, doctors thought. Then he began spelling words by tapping letters on a laminated card. By age 8, he was spelling out stories about a hero cop who went around saving people. Brown, who grew up in Monrovia, went on to collect an English degree from UCLA, becoming the first nonverbal autistic person to graduate. This month, he is publishing his debut novel. “I have all the thoughts, dreams, longings and intelligence as any neurotypical person,” he told the New York Times.
10.
NASA is about to send astronauts on a journey around the moon and back in humanity’s first return to the lunar vicinity since 1972. Among the four astronauts aboard Artemis II will be Southern California’s own Victor Glover, 49, a Navy test pilot, father of four, and former Ontario High School wrestler. If the mission succeeds, Glover will be the first Black person to reach the moon. Over the weekend, he said he hopes young people of color will look at him and think: “Hey, he looks like me and he’s doing what?” L.A. Times | O.C. Register
- See a multimedia guide to the historic Artemis II mission. Bloomberg
11.
The Mexican government demanded the Adelanto ICE Processing Center answer for “evident deficiencies” in medical care at the facility after the deaths of four Mexican detainees since September. Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano, 52, was the latest to die, succumbing on March 25 after a witness reported seeing him struggling to breathe. His wife wiped tears while describing how he came to the U.S. more than 28 years ago and worked at an industrial laundromat. “My husband was a good person, dedicated to his kids and to his wife,” she said. L.A. Times
12.
It took 5,000 workers, $23 million, and five years to construct the aqueduct that first carried water more than 200 miles from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles in 1913. Over the subsequent century, the true costs of Los Angeles Aqueduct — environmental, monetary, and human — would be greater than almost anyone could have imagined. Grady Hillhouse, a civil engineering vlogger, told the story of the “wild” water conveyance that made Los Angeles as it exists possible. Practical Engineering
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