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Good morning. It’s Tuesday, May 12.
- An effort to end California’s “jungle” primary system.
- Santa Clara County sues Meta over scam ads.
- And L.A. County mayor admits to being agent of China.
Statewide
1.
A campaign has been launched to eliminate California’s “jungle” primary system after the specter of an all-Republican election for governor panicked the state’s Democrats. Introduced in 2010, the current system that advances the top two finishers regardless of party was designed to encourage candidates to seek broader appeal. Party leaders have opposed it because both Democrats and Republicans can be shut out of key races. The latest push to revert to a traditional primary is said to have support from across the political spectrum. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
2.
Some mountain climbers seek out the tallest peaks as part of a quest for personal achievement. The San Francisco Chronicle put together a bucket list of seven California summits that comprise the state’s most unforgettable high points: “Not the tallest seven. Not the hardest seven. The essential seven.” One of the climbs can be accomplished in half a day and capped off with a ribeye at a mountainside steakhouse.
Northern California
3.
Santa Clara County sued Meta on Monday, alleging that the Menlo Park company “knowingly facilitates and profits from billions of scam advertisements,” resulting in huge personal losses to Californians. Santa Clara County’s lead attorney, Tony LoPresti, estimated that Meta accounts for about one-third of all internet scams. “Meta has lied to its users and violated the law for years,” he said. The case is said to be the first of its kind in California, pitting a Silicon Valley county against one of the world’s most powerful tech giants. Mercury News | KQED
- Meta is dying, wrote tech journalist Julia Angwin: “It’s about time.” N.Y. Times
4.
Wayne Hsiung, the Berkeley activist who cofounded the animal-rights group Direct Action Everywhere, has collected multiple felonies as part of what he sees as a moral crusade. His latest action, an “open rescue” of hundreds of floppy-eared beagles from a breeding facility in rural Wisconsin, is the most audacious yet. “The fallout has included lawsuits, political tussles, attention from influencers like Laura Loomer and Lara Trump, and more than a thousand activists — from across the nation — converging on a town of 900,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.
5.
A new poll found public support for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie at 74%, rarefied territory for any politician. By comparison, the approval rating of his predecessor, London Breed, was 28% during the last of her six years in office in 2024. Respondents gave Lurie strong marks on revitalizing downtown, fighting crime, and keeping neighborhoods clean. Progressives were the coldest toward Lurie, the poll found, but even among that cohort, a slim majority said they approved of his performance. S.F. Chronicle
6.
A reporter talked to a dozen students at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State about their use of artificial intelligence, and half said they use the technology to do some or most of their work. A freshman said she has ChatGPT turn her notes into polished assignments: “It’s basically what I submit.” A speech and language major said she couldn’t remember the last book she had read for school. She consults AI summaries instead. “Everybody uses” it, she said. “Since high school. It’s like a tool.” S.F. Chronicle
7.
In October, OpenAI allowed employees to cash out as much as $30 million worth of shares each, sources told the Wall Street Journal. In a single stroke, more than 600 employees collectively pocketed $6.6 billion. Roughly 75 of them walked away with the full $30 million. “No other tech boom in history has lavished that magnitude of wealth on such a swath of employees even before a public listing,” the Journal wrote.
- On a related note, “San Francisco’s housing market has lost its mind,” reports TechCrunch.
8.
Roughly 20 miles from the Big Sur coast and half a mile below the surface is an undersea mountain called Sur Ridge that teems with fantastical marine life. Their names evoke a Seussian world: pom‑pom anemones, bubblegum coral, slime stars, glowing sea cucumbers, cupcake jellies, and vampire squid. Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers piloting underwater robots recently shared a new high-resolution video tour of the offshore oasis. YouTube (~10 mins)
Southern California
9.
Mayor Eileen Wang of Arcadia, an affluent San Gabriel Valley suburb, resigned on Monday after agreeing to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of China, the authorities said. Wang worked with Yaoning Sun, her former fiance, to operate a website called U.S. News Center, aimed at the Chinese American community. Under direction from Chinese officials she published pro-China propaganda, including claims that there is no genocide in Xinjiang, according to the complaint. In federal court on Monday, Wang wiped tears as a judge ordered a $25,000 bond. L.A. Times | A.P.
10.
In one television advertisement, Representative Young Kim, an Orange County Republican, is called a “Trump-hating liberal.” Another ad says Representative Ken Calvert, a Republican fixture in Riverside County, is guilty of “sabotaging President Trump’s agenda.” Kim and Calvert, both incumbents, have been forced to face off in a redrawn and heavily Republican district that combines their districts. They’ve responded by accusing each other of being insufficiently MAGA, the New York Times reports.
11.
Overlooking the Pacific, the Palos Verdes Peninsula includes the wealthiest suburb in Los Angeles, with an average household income of $367,000. But the area is highly prone to landslides. Rather than retreat from paradise, vast sums of public money are being spent to maintain an untenable status quo, wrote The Baffler. “What ultimately binds the peninsula together is a deep-seated faith that prosperity makes possibility infinite, that with enough wealth and persistence and political leverage the limits of land, geology, and climate can be overcome. But faith is a slippery slope.”
12.
After decades of anticipation, Los Angeles is celebrating the extension of a subway line along the city’s most congested boulevard. The D Line extension, connecting downtown L.A. and Beverly Hills along Wilshire Boulevard, transforms a soul-crushing crawl across the city to 21 minutes underground. Yet only about 4% of city residents regularly use public transit, noted the New Yorker: “The car is not just a convenience in Los Angeles; it is, for many people, a matter of identity. The D Line extension is the most significant test yet of whether any of that is changing.”
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