Good morning. It’s Friday, Jan. 16.
- Judge rejects Trump administration demand for voter rolls.
- Outrage over murder acquittal in 2021 shoving attack.
- And photos capture the beauty of survival in Altadena.
Please note: The newsletter will pause for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Statewide
1.
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that sought the personal information of California’s 23 million voters. Administration officials have contended that California and other states are illegally impeding federal efforts to ensure “only American citizens are voting.” Judge David Carter called the demand for data “unprecedented and illegal.” “The taking of democracy does not occur in one fell swoop,” he wrote. “It is chipped away piece-by-piece until there is nothing left. The case before the court is one of these cuts that imperils all Americans.” N.Y. Times | A.P.
2.
A private law firm contracted to provide public defense in San Benito County performed so poorly that the district attorney found himself worrying about the people being sent to prison. The firm hardly ever challenged evidence, he said: “Police officers must make mistakes sometimes.” The firm was paid on a flat-fee basis, regardless of time spent on cases, CalMatters reported: “These arrangements so clearly disincentivize investigating and litigating cases that they’ve been banned in other parts of the country. But they have flourished in California.“
3.
Videos shared online early Thursday showed what looked like a fireball streaking across California’s night sky. It was caused by a spacecraft carrying crew members from the International Space Station, returning to earth about a month earlier than planned because an astronaut needed medical attention. The SpaceX Dragon splashed down at 12:41 a.m. local time in waters off San Diego, where they were greeted by curious dolphins. KCRA | FOX26
- See video of the splashdown.
Northern California
4.
One day in early 2021, a 19-year-old ran up to an elderly Asian man walking in his San Francisco neighborhood and pushed him violently to the ground. Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, died. Surveillance video of the attack galvanized a nationwide movement against anti-Asian hate crimes. But on Thursday, a jury acquitted the suspect of murder, convicting him instead of involuntary manslaughter and assault. The verdict was met with immediate outrage. “The system just told every Asian elder in America: Your life is negotiable,” one activist said. S.F. Chronicle | SFGATE
5.
As activists seek to identify officers engaged in President Trump’s immigration crackdown, ICE is trying to identify the activists too. A federal judge in San Francisco held a hearing Thursday on whether the government can demand that Meta identify owners of anonymous accounts that tracked raids. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, has called efforts to identify agents criminal. An ACLU lawyer argued that the government isn’t pursuing criminal behavior. Rather, he said, “the government wants to tamp down on people” opposed to the crackdown. Washington Post
6.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Esther Mobley, a wine critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. She talked about the crisis engulfing California’s wine industry as it faces a glut of grapes, competition from cannabis, and changing tastes among consumers. “The wine industry is doing a lot of hand-wringing over, ‘Why won’t Gen Z drink wine,'” Mobley said. “I’m not sure that 22-year-olds ever drank that much fine wine.”
7.
There’s a boulder atop a hill in San Francisco that serves as an ever-changing canvas for artistic expression. Every so often, the Bernal Hill Rock is painted anew, appearing as an avocado, Cookie Monster, a pumpkin, or a placard for political messages or homages to the dead. Inevitably, controversy ensues. In 2020, the slogan “Black Lives Matter” was added, then painted over no fewer than six times within a week. At the moment, the rock is a turtle, pictured above, which only the crankiest critic could dislike. Atlas Obscura
- See the many incarnations of the Bernal Hill Rock.
Southern California
8.
Nick Reiner was placed into a yearlong mental health conservatorship in 2020, sources told the New York Times. The revelation underscored the mental health challenges that are likely to be central to Reiner’s defense as he faces charges that he murdered his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. “You have to be pretty severe to be placed on a mental health conservatorship in California,” said Lee Blumen, a lawyer. “Of all the people who come into this system, a very small group of people actually get placed on conservatorship.”
9.
The Los Angeles region’s “million-dollar club,” neighborhoods where the typical home value surpasses $1 million, is spreading farther and farther from the city. The latest additions include once-semi-affordable neighborhoods in Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley, and the foothills of the Verdugo and San Gabriel mountains. The Los Angeles Times rounded up L.A.’s newest million-dollar neighborhoods.
10.
Los Angeles landlord Dave Goldstein says he doesn’t care much about credit scores. Instead, he places significant value on astrology, asking prospective tenants to provide their signs as part of his application process. Scorpios are “particular,” he said. Aquariuses “can’t make up their mind.” “If they say that they’re a Leo, I go, ‘Great,'” Goldstein said. “‘I can’t wait to rent to you.'” The legality of astrological vetting is another matter, housing rights attorneys said. LAist
11.
The wildfire photographer Kevin Cooley watched his home burn in the Eaton fire last year. Devastated, he sought refuge in his craft, taking pictures that reveal the beauty of survival: flowers emerging through ash, grass reclaiming scorched yards, and people putting their lives back together. “The fire did not test Altadena and reveal its strength; it changed it irrevocably,” Cooley wrote. “It will not be the same place, and that may be the hardest truth to accept. Yet it remains a place I want to be.” See photos from “In the Gardens of Eaton.” 👉 Lenscratch | LAist
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Dec. 23, 2024, has gone down in surf lore as perhaps the biggest day of the surfing era at the big-wave destination known as Mavericks. A new short film on the session includes some fantastic drone shots of surfers braving mountains of water as tall as 75 feet. YouTube
- Hardly any of the plastic you put in your recycling bin gets recycled. A report found that just 2% of polypropylene packaging, used for items such as yogurt containers and margarine tubs, is getting recycled. Colored shampoo and detergent bottles, made from polyethylene, are recycled at a rate of 5%. L.A. Times
- California’s towering coast redwoods host secondary forest floors in the sky. Hundreds of feet off the ground, the trees produce their own soil for aerial ecosystems. Cal Geographic wrote about the “shrouded and complex island ecosystem” that exists high up in the world’s tallest trees.
- About 10 years ago, an artist planted a garden in the median in front of her house in San Francisco. In time, it burst with purple-flowered ceanothus, Mexican marigolds bushes, and lupines. On Wednesday, city workers ripped much of it out, leaving behind what neighbors viewed as a crime scene. S.F. Standard
- Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Lopez. See red carpet looks from the 83rd Golden Globes. 👉 Hollywood Reporter | E! News
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