Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 12.
- Paramount weighs California exit over antitrust fight.
- Brutal renter’s market worsens still in San Francisco.
- And remarkable homes seek buyers across California.
Statewide
1.
California lost two oil refineries in the past year, straining fuel supplies. Now one of those refiners, Phillips 66, is coming back in the form of a 900-mile pipeline project to carry fuel from Texas to Arizona and California. Phillips 66 and two partners said on Tuesday that they had agreed to proceed with the $5 billion Western Gateway Pipeline system, which will connect with an existing pipeline that reaches San Bernardino County. One analyst projected that it would shave “around a nickel” off the price of each gallon of gas sold in Southern California. Wall Street Journal | S.D. Union-Tribune
2.
California on Tuesday released an investigative subpoena against a German energy company that accepted $1.2 billion from the Trump administration to abandon offshore wind projects, including one off the Humboldt coast. “These are unlawful actions … they’re using funds that are not dedicated to those purposes, and we’re going to vigorously contest those,” said David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission. “We’re going to court.” Politico
- Attorney General Rob Bonta has so far sued the second Trump administration 82 times. Who’s winning? New numbers showed that courts have blocked Trump officials’ actions in 83% of the cases. Washington Post
3.
Seven months after Big Sur’s Highway 1 reopened, allowing motorists to traverse the entire coast for the first time in years, the fury of nature was again putting a damper on the storied tourist economy. By late Tuesday, the Timber fire had spread across nearly 5 square miles of rugged terrain. James Hilton, the restaurant manager at the Big Sur River Inn, said the community had learned to accept the tradeoff between natural beauty and disruption. “When times get tough, we don’t complain,” he said. “We just go into get-stuff-done mode.” S.F. Chronicle
4.
Calexico is a mix of California and Mexico.
Carpinteria is based on the Spanish word for “carpenter’s shop.”
Antioch was named after a classical city in Syria.
Yreka is a transposition of the letters in “bakery.”
The federal government once catalogued the origins of 10,000 city names in the U.S. The Wall Street Journal mapped those with a population of more than 5,000 people. Explore the project here.
5.
Here’s a look at some remarkable homes currently seeking buyers across California:
- A circular house that rotates 320 degrees overlooking Highway 101 in Novato has fascinated generations of commuters. The “round house” was just listed as part of a 2.25-acre property that includes seven residences for $3.3 million. Wall Street Journal
- Before Bilbao and Disney Concert Hall, Frank Gehry created a humble home in the Calabasas Highlands. The residence showcases his “deconstructivist” style, in which buildings appear to be permanently under construction. Asking price: $1.7 million. Dwell
- In the 1970s, an artist couple in Solana Beach enlisted Kendrick Bangs Kellogg to remodel their home. A master of organic architecture, he transformed what was an ordinary tract house into a work of art. Yours for $4.75 million. Wallpaper
- Also up for grabs: a brilliantly mauve Victorian in Siskiyou County, a conical home overlooking the San Francisco Bay, and a converted Gold Rush brewery in the Sierra foothills.
Northern California
6.
Pedestrian injuries and fatalities are a sadly familiar occurrence on California streets, but the case of a car that barreled into a woman walking a dog in Oakland last Thursday stood out because of the motorist behind the wheel: a 6-year-old boy. The woman, Kiara Bowling, had yet to regain consciousness on Tuesday as she struggled with a brain injury and multiple fractures. Karon Markham, her aunt, said she doesn’t blame the boy. It’s the parents who have explaining to do. “We need answers,” she said. Mercury News
- Video captured moments before and after the crash.
7.
“Flowers and wine for listing agents at open houses. A year’s rent up front. And $2,250 for a room with no closet.”
San Francisco was already a brutal proposition for renters. Now, as the lack of housing supply collides with sky-high artificial intelligence salaries, the average rent has surged to $3,728 a month, up 18% in less than two years. Saundra Davis, a financial coach, noted that San Francisco’s affordability crisis is nothing new. “The difference right now, quite frankly, is it’s touching a population that’s not used to being poor,” she said. Wall Street Journal | S.F. Standard
8.
Wealthy Californians are snapping up “golden visas” from New Zealand, the Financial Times reported. More than 700 foreigners, drawn by the island country’s remoteness and beauty, have applied to become New Zealanders in the past 14 months under a new program that grants citizenship in exchange for minimum local investments of roughly $3 million. “It is becoming a badge of honour in Silicon Valley,” said Lachlan Nixon, of the venture capital firm Motion Capital. California Post | Fox Business
9.
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park stands alone as a redwood park that has it all: sandy beaches, the exquisite Fern Canyon, meadows grazed by Roosevelt elk, and a dense collection of the world’s tallest trees. An 11-mile loop through the park has been called the finest redwood hike anywhere. Los Angeles travel writer Amelia Mularz recently included Elk Prairie Campground among her picks for the “5 most beautiful places to camp in California.” Architectural Digest
Southern California
10.
David Ellison told his senior leadership that he will move Paramount out of California as soon as October if progress isn’t made toward settling an antitrust lawsuit brought by Attorney General Rob Bonta to block the company’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, reports said on Tuesday. “Ultimately, you know, go to a place where you’re wanted,” Paramount’s chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, said at a conference on Tuesday. Bonta said Ellison’s remarks amounted to “an attempt to blackmail regulators who are daring to enforce the law.” Variety | N.Y. Times
11.
Reporters examined 169 hours of body-camera footage and other materials drawn from court cases alleging that immigration dragnets in Los Angeles and other cities have been defined by brazen racial profiling. The video showed federal agents repeatedly referring to suspected unauthorized immigrants as “tonks,” a derogatory term derived from the sound a flashlight makes when swung against a migrant’s skull. They also called targets “wet,” shorthand for the slur wetback. In a deposition, one officer described what he considered suspicious: “older Hispanic males.” N.Y. Times
12.
Swells generated by Hurricane Genevieve, which peaked in the Eastern Pacific on July 27, did more than keep lifeguards busy performing rescues along the Southern California coast. They also devoured beaches. In Malibu, Point Dume State Beach was closed after “extreme erosion” left the bluff unstable. At the Wedge in Newport Beach, an old buried pier was exposed. And in Carlsbad, a popular state beach lost most of its sand, transforming what was an inviting soft shore into a bed of rocks. SFGATE | KGTV
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