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Good morning. It’s Thursday, Aug. 18.
- More sleep and better food for California students.
- The far right’s quest for power in Shasta County.
- And L.A. strippers make landmark bid to unionize.
Statewide
1.
The last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of California children in 1976 is being released by the state’s parole board. Frederick Woods, now 70, and his accomplices held the captives in a buried truck in Livermore as part of a botched ransom plot. Gov. Gavin Newsom had urged the parole board to reconsider its decision, but couldn’t block it because no one was murdered. A.P. | L.A. Times
2.
Rep. Liz Cheney’s loss in the Wyoming primary means that of the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last year, just two remain. One is David Valadao, a Central Valley dairy farmer who barely beat back his Republican primary opponents in June. That means Trump supporters must choose in November between Valadao and a Democrat. “It’s a tough thing that everybody’s cussing about,” said Todd Cotta, a Hanford gun store owner. Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle
3.
Students returning to classrooms across California are adjusting to a couple of welcome changes:
- More sleep. Under a new state law, middle schools now start no earlier than 8 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Nationally, more than 80% of high school start before 8:30 a.m., a norm dictated by convenience more than the needs of adolescents. Bloomberg | Bay Area News Group
- Better food. Thanks to an influx of state and federal funding, school districts have been upgrading meals — now free for all students. In Los Angeles, that’s meant kung pao chicken, ramen bowls, and smoothies. EdSource
4.
Idyllwild has the standout home in the N.Y. Times’ latest “What You Get” feature, showcasing three California properties for sale at about $850,000. The 1998 redwood home has windows and decks facing Tahquitz Peak, one of the highest points in the San Bernardino Mountains. The other houses: a 1925 Craftsman bungalow in San Diego and a 2006 ranch house with a giant lot near Central Coast wineries. N.Y. Times
Northern California
5.
On Aug. 9, Chuslum Buckskin, 18, and a 14-year-old companion entered the tent of a homeless woman in Red Bluff and stabbed her 40 times, police said. One of the suspects was alleged to say he hated homeless people. A reporter visited a nearby encampment and spoke to a man named Albert, who had tears in his eyes. “The majority of us, we’re good people,” he said. “Stop thinking of us as below. We’re not below. We’re human.” KRCR
6.
Isaac Chotiner interviewed Tanuja Gupta, a former senior manager at Google News who quit the company after a talk she scheduled on caste discrimination was canceled. Other employees said that such a talk was offensive and made them feel unsafe. “I don’t fault people for not knowing the intricacies of caste discrimination,” Gupta said. “I fault people for not wanting to learn about it.” New Yorker
7.
Earlier this week, the ultrarunner Dean Karnazes’ story of being attacked by a coyote near the Golden Gate Bridge drew widespread coverage. But some coyote experts have doubts. Karnazes said he heard the coyote snarl. But Camilla Fox, of Project Coyote, said the animals don’t make that sound. Julian Espinoza, a National Park Service official, said flatly that there was no attack. Facial injuries shown in a video Karnazes shared online resulted from a fall, he said. SFGATE
8.
A new Bloomberg podcast called “Bedrock, USA,” explores how a far-right recall movement took control of Shasta County. In Episode 4, reporter Laura Bliss searches for what exactly they plan to do. The answer: Aside from declaring the pandemic over and firing the county public health officer, not much. “There is no plan,” said Supervisor Mary Rickert, a moderate Republican, “other than they want to be in power.” Bloomberg
Southern California
9.
Over the last five months, the dancers of the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood have picketed their own workplace, complaining of unsafe conditions and unfair terminations. Now it could become the first unionized strip club in the U.S. since 1996. The dancers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking an election for representation through the Actors’ Equity Association. Velveeta, a dancer, said they like their jobs: “We would like our jobs even more if we had basic worker protections.” AFP | L.A. Times
10.
Six murder charges were filed against the driver of a Mercedes-Benz that barreled through a red light in the violent Aug. 4 vehicle collision in Windsor Hills. But one of the victims was not yet born. Armani, posthumously named, was weeks from his due date when he died. His killing is being prosecuted under California’s primary statute for murder, which was amended in 1970 to include fetuses. The controversial law has faced renewed scrutiny as activists push to ban abortions on prenatal personhood grounds. L.A. Times
11.
After beating a medical malpractice lawsuit in April, the defendant’s Orange County attorney boasted that the patient “was probably negligently killed, but we kind of made it look like other people did it.” A video of his remarks sparked outrage and drew the attention of the judge. Now he’s thrown out the verdict. The bragging itself was not the problem, Judge James Crandall said: “Bragging that justice wasn’t done — that’s what bothers the court.” L.A. Times | Fox 11
California the beautiful
12.
In California, everyone seems to stop what they’re doing to watch the sun make its nightly swan dive into the Pacific Ocean. Here’s a photographic trip around the state showing how people pause for a show that never gets old. 👇
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misstated where schoolchildren were buried in the infamous 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping. The children were buried in a box truck in Livermore, not Chowchilla. They were kidnapped in Chowchilla.
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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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