Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 17.
- Oil flows off Santa Barbara for the first time in a decade.
- The most colorful neighborhood in San Francisco.
- And Dolly Parton’s secret life on the Central Coast.
Statewide
1.
The processing of quartz-based slabs into hugely popular kitchen countertops is causing a hidden epidemic of silicosis. More than 500 Californians who work with the material have contracted the incurable lung disease, according to state figures. Workers say nobody ever talked about the risks. Fibrous masses have grown in the lungs of Jose Peña, an Oakland father of five. He’s likely headed for a lung transplant, a procedure with grim survival rates. “I’m scared,” he said. “My kids are very sad.” Mercury News | N.Y. Times
2.
Roughly 200,000 commercial truck drivers will start losing their licenses under a Trump administration rule that took effect on Monday barring immigrants who are asylum seekers, refugees, or DACA recipients. The rule change, along with tougher English language enforcement, has jolted California’s Sikh diaspora, many of whose members built livelihoods in trucking. The administration has justified the crackdown by portraying immigrants as dangerous behind the wheel. Analysts predicted that consumer prices would rise as trucking shortages ripple through the supply chain. Washington Post | NPR
3.
Marches planned this month in San Antonio and Corpus Christi to honor the labor leader Cesar Chavez were abruptly canceled over what organizers described as “a sensitive matter,” reports said. Dolores Huerta, who helped found the National Farm Workers Association with Chavez in Delano in 1962, was scheduled to appear at the Corpus Christi event, but withdrew prior to the cancellations. Sources said the discord was connected to an unflattering expose on Chavez that is poised to be published in a national outlet. San Antonio Express-News | KRIS 6 News
4.
In the quaint Central Coast town of Solvang, a tiny cottage off the main drag has some odd features. The windows are one-way mirrors; the master bedroom has seven locks; and the latticework is made of steel. The security measures reflect the prominence of the home’s former tenant, Dolly Parton, who secretly owned it for a decade. It’s unclear how often the country legend stayed there, but the Dolly superfan who bought the house in 2022 is trying to turn it into a landmark. He put a plaque on the fence and a stained glass panel above the front door that reads “Dolly.” SFGATE
Northern California
5.
Rep. Jared Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat, came out eight years ago as the only openly nonbelieving member of Congress. Under Donald Trump’s second administration, he’s been galvanized like never before to defend the constitutional separation of church and state. This month, he and a cohort of fellow House members asked the Defense Department’s inspector general to investigate whether military officials are using “biblical end-times prophecies” from the Book of Revelation to justify the war in Iran. S.F. Chronicle
6.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur who was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers, is trying to charm President Trump in an apparent bid to win a pardon, frequently praising him on Truth Social. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Bankman-Fried blamed his conviction on “Biden’s lawfare machine,” echoing Trump rhetoric. But cryptocurrency supporters are urging the president not to take the bait. “I hope the president doesn’t fall for that,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican who’s been dubbed the Senate’s “crypto queen.” “He hurt a lot of people.” Politico
7.
San Francisco’s hometown newspaper pulled data from Google Street View to find the most colorful neighborhood in one of America’s most colorful cities. Bernal Heights — a microcosm of both the city’s palette and architectural style, including bungalows, Mediterraneans, and Italianate cottages — stood out. Some 40% of the neighborhood’s homes in are painted in pinks, yellows, purples, oranges, and, most of all, blues. The San Francisco Chronicle included a great photo tour of Bernal Heights.
8.
A lush ravine lined with ferns and redwoods in Mill Valley.
A loop along brilliant wildflowers and waterfalls in Morgan Hill.
And a spiraling path along headlands with stunning ocean views.
The Chronicle analyzed more than 1.6 million AllTrails.com reviews of nearly 3,000 trails to find the 10 best easy trails in the Bay Area.
Southern California
9.
Oil began flowing through a pipeline system off Santa Barbara for the first time in a decade after the Trump administration ordered production to resume there over the fierce objections of California officials. The pipeline had been shut since a rupture caused one of the state’s worst oil spills in 2015. Sable Offshore, the new owner of the pipeline, said it would begin its first sales by April 1 at a rate of 50,000 barrels a day. The company’s stock price has more than doubled since February. Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times
10.
Gregory Bovino, the swaggering El Centro Border Patrol official who became the face of President Trump’s deportation crackdown, is planning to retire at the end of March, he told Breitbart on Monday. Critics on either side of the immigration debate accused Bovino of favoring tough-guy antics over results. “They could have quietly roamed the field, hitting worksite after worksite by surprise, but that doesn’t get you followers or attention,” said RJ Hauman, an advocate for tougher immigration enforcement. “The whole thing was a sham.” ABC News
11.
In 1948, a woman named Eleanor Abbott was among those afflicted by a polio outbreak that ravaged San Diego. While at the hospital, she was distressed to see so many children suffering from the disease. So when she returned home, she spread butcher paper over her kitchen table and drew a meandering trail, adding sweet stopping points. Candy Land would become one of the most recognizable board games in history. A pair of journalists spent months reconstructing Abbott’s colorful life for a belated obituary. N.Y. Times
12.
Atsushi Nishijima, an on-set stills photographer, has worked on some of the biggest films of the last decade. The job requires a discreet presence, hovering unobtrusively on the sidelines. What emerges is an art form of its own that captures the sensitive, stressful moments of the cast and crew between takes. The New Yorker published a series of Nishijima’s images from the sets of Oscar favorites “Bugonia” and “Marty Supreme.”
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