Good morning. It’s Thursday, Oct. 9.
- Oakland becomes a city awash in garbage.
- A 29-year-old man is charged in the Palisades fire.
- And drug rehabs lure patients for insurance money.
Statewide
1.
The turmoil in Katie Porter’s campaign for California governor intensified Wednesday after newly surfaced video showed her berating a staffer. “Get out of my fucking shot!” Porter yelled when the aid ducked into view during a video call in 2021. The report came a day after a viral clip of the Democratic frontrunner threatening to walk out of a CBS News interview drew a bipartisan pile-on. Gale Kaufman, a Democratic strategist, said the news cycle was a disaster for Porter. “And the reason it’s a disaster is because it amplifies what her reputation already is.” Politico
2.
Matt Mahan, the Democrat mayor of San Jose, is increasingly becoming a thorn in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s side. That could turn into a big problem for the potential presidential candidate, Politico reported:
“Past presidential runs are littered with home-state haters who turn into quote machines for unflattering assessments of candidates — all the juicier if they hold a respectable title in the same party. And in the run-up to 2028, the Democratic mayor of San Jose is emerging as one of the most outspoken critics of Newsom from within his own party.”
3.
In the San Joaquin Valley, Proposition 50 would stretch the Republican-held 22nd congressional district to include parts of Fresno, where Democratic voters abound. For many rural voters in the region, the Nov. 4 special election feels like a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise them. Jenny Holterman is a fourth-generation farmer in Kern County. “This is not a game,” she said. “This is our livelihood. This is our representation that you’re playing with.” CalMatters
Northern California
4.
Seven years after retiring in 2018, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy gave rare wide-ranging interviews ahead of the publication of his new book “Life, Law and Liberty.” Kennedy, whose jurisprudence was forged in his hometown of Sacramento, criticized the increasing “vulgarity” of elected officials and said he was worried about partisanship “creeping its way into the court.” Without naming names, he said, “The justices have to resist thinking of themselves as being partisan.” A.P. | N.Y. Times
5.
Apple banned an app that collects videos of suspected abuses by federal immigration authorities. The removal of Eyes Up came days after the Cupertino company banned several other apps that track the locations of ICE agents under pressure from the Justice Department, drawing condemnation from advocates who said the services fell under free speech protections. Apple said Eyes Up, which functions simply as an archive with no tracking component, violated policies on “objectionable content.” 404 Media | engadget
6.
In Oakland, it’s become egregiously common for sidewalks and alleys to be choked with piles of cardboard boxes, mattresses, and busted appliances, the New York Times reported:
“Oakland has become so infamous for street garbage that a local artist erected a sign renaming the city ‘Trashland,’ and a city councilman suggested that the moniker might be more apt than being named after the oak trees that once predominated. ‘It is hurtful, but we are a land full of trash, and we have to own it,’ said Sandra Bethune, 76, a resident who was born and raised in Oakland.”
Southern California
7.
Nine months after a wildfire in the Pacific Palisades destroyed 6,837 structures and left 12 people dead, the authorities arrested a man accused of “maliciously” lighting a blaze that later grew into most destructive inferno in L.A. history. According to federal prosecutors, Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, walked up a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains after working as an Uber driver on the night of Dec. 31, 2024, lit a fire — likely with a “barbecue-style” lighter — and returned later to watch firefighters put out the flames. Days later, powerful winds rekindled buried embers. L.A. Times | A.P. | N.Y. Times
- Acquaintances described Rinderknecht as a shy son of missionaries. “I can only tell you the Jonathan I know would never do anything like that,” a former roommate said. L.A. Times
- “I think this is only going to infuriate people.” Palisades residents demanded to know why the initial fire was not fully extinguished. L.A. Times
8.
Two House Republicans — Kevin Kiley of California and Jim Jordan of Ohio — announced an investigation Wednesday that they said would examine how a nonprofit run out of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office used a $500,000 grant from the disaster-relief charity FireAid. But the nonprofit, the California Volunteers Fund, said it received no such grant. Newsom’s office also responded: “We had absolutely no role in FireAid, and any implication otherwise by these Republican stooges is an asinine conspiracy theory.” L.A. Times
9.
Recruiters are flying people with drug addiction from across the country to Southern California with promises of free stays in glamorous seaside rehab facilities. Instead, they are signed up for private insurance plans and shuttled to overcrowded properties where drug use is common and treatment is lacking. When the insurance money runs out, the patients are kicked out. “It was just a holding facility for human trafficking,” said Robert Millspaugh, who was flown to California from Las Vegas. “And they was getting paid to do it.” Wall Street Journal
10.
Oil refinery closures in California are putting hundreds of employees out of work, with grim prospects for finding new jobs. Wilfredo Cruz is a worker at the Phillips 66 refinery complex in Los Angeles, which announced plans to shut down last year. “You have people earning between $80,000 to $200,000 a year, and almost everyone is a high school graduate and that’s it,” he said. “To go out and look for another job that’s even somewhat comparable, it just doesn’t exist.” CalMatters
11.
A tribal casino that rivals the size of the largest casinos in Las Vegas is about to open at the base of the Grapevine in Kern County. Hard Rock Casino Tejon will have more than 2,000 slot machines and dozens of table games in a gaming space of roughly 150,000 square feet, equivalent to nearly three football fields. After generations of struggling for federal recognition, the Tejon tribe finally got it 2011. Talks with casino operators began soon thereafter. L.A. Times | SFGATE
12.
Before being encased in concrete in the 1930s, the Los Angeles River rambled through marshes and willow forests. It came to be regarded as little more than a drainage ditch. But the river, the city’s namesake and the anchor of human settlement, remains a place where life, and even beauty, finds a way. For a decade, the photographer Mathew Scott has been documenting the people and places of the L.A. River as part of an ongoing project. His pictures are fantastic. The Concrete River | MathewScott.com
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