Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 7.
- Trump endorsement shakes up California governor’s race.
- Critics say Sam Altman is “unconstrained by truth.”
- And a corporate retreat that went very badly wrong.
Statewide
1.
President Trump endorsed Steve Hilton for California governor on Sunday, calling him “a truly fine man.” Hilton, a MAGA-friendly Republican and former Fox News host, welcomed the backing. But it could paradoxically harm his long-term election prospects. As Trump drives votes toward one candidate, it decreases the chances that the two leading Republicans — Hilton and Chad Bianco — advance from the state’s nonpartisan “top two” primary to the runoff, in which the victors will compete for the votes of a solidly Democratic electorate. L.A. Times | CalMatters
2.
Markwayne Mullin, the new homeland security secretary, suggested on Monday that he may withdraw customs officers from airports in “sanctuary” hubs, effectively halting international travel in cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. “If they’re a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city?” he told Fox News in his first interview since being sworn in. He added, “I’m going to have to be forced to make hard decisions. Who is willing to work with us and partner with us?” S.F. Chronicle | The Hill
3.
In California, 14% of the nearly 8,000 aspiring young lawyers taking the bar exam last July got extra time because of disability diagnoses, according to the state bar. That’s up from 4% a decade earlier. Perry Zirkel, a disability-law scholar, said he worried people are gaming the system. “This gives a benefit to those who already have power and privilege, and once they get good at it, they just simply keep playing the game,” he said. Wall Street Journal
Northern California
4.
The New Yorker interviewed dozens of people for a searing account of the doubts surrounding Sam Altman and OpenAI as the company prepares for an initial public offering that could value it at $1 trillion. Most shared the view of Altman’s critics:
“Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart. ‘He’s unconstrained by truth,’ the board member told us. ‘He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.'”
5.
Opinion writer German Lopez argued that San Francisco has taken lessons from its “slide into disorder” after embracing a relaxed posture toward drug use. Under Mayor Daniel Lurie, the city has moved toward a middle path — between decriminalization and the old war on drugs — that prioritizes getting addicts into treatment, even if that means coercion. “The transformation is in its early stages,” Lopez wrote, “but what I saw in San Francisco was promising — a big step closer to safe and orderly streets.” N.Y. Times
6.
Harmeet Dhillon, the sharp-elbowed San Francisco lawyer who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, has spent a year trying to realign the agency toward conservative priorities and away from what she calls the “woke” ideology of previous administrations. Some conservative figures are now promoting her as the next attorney general after the ouster of Pam Bondi. “She’s the whole package deal and she’s been unflinchingly loyal to President Trump,” said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio. “She checks all the boxes. She’s a freedom fighter.” Politico
7.
“Everyone got bit by the sand fleas.”
In 2017, a Bay Area streaming service company called Plex took 120 of its workers on a “Survivor”-themed retreat in Honduras. It was a disaster. The CEO ignored warnings to avoid the vegetables, got E. coli, and “lost 8 or 10 pounds.” One employee was mauled by fire ants and had to get an antihistamine shot in his rear end. Another found a porcupine in his hotel room shower after it crashed through the ceiling. The Wall Street Journal recalled “a corporate retreat that went very badly wrong.”
8.
The crookedest street in San Francisco is not Lombard Street, as many believe. It’s Vermont Street. And it’s there that both kids and grown-ups in silly costumes mount Big Wheels every Easter Sunday to participate in San Francisco’s greatest race: The Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race. SFist has the pictures from the 2026 contest.
Southern California
9.
Imperial County is a place of poverty, joblessness, and relentless heat. It’s also home to more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium, more than enough to power all domestic electric vehicle batteries for decades to come. “Perhaps nowhere in California needs a lifeline more than this arid borderlands region in the southeastern corner of the state,” the New York Times wrote. “And a mile underground, there might just be one.” But not everyone is eager to welcome the so-called white gold rush.
10.
After Javier Hernandez was arrested in Fontana with nearly 22 pounds of meth in 2015, he agreed to testify against two alleged drug smugglers to minimize his sentence. But in March 2025, six months before trial, ICE agents arrested Hernandez during a routine check-in and deported him to Mexico. His attorney said the move amounted to a death sentence with cartel threats looming. Without Hernandez’s testimony, the two alleged smugglers were acquitted of all charges. L.A. Times
11.
Since Los Angeles’ mayor, Karen Bass, launched a homeless initiative called Inside Safe in 2022, the city has spent more than $300 million clearing scores of homeless encampments and moving thousands of people into hotels and motels. But a new analysis found that about 40% of the people who had gone indoors, 2,300 of 5,800, have wound up back on the street — and the exodus is growing. In many cases, people chafe at stringent rules — including a prohibition on guests — violate them, and get kicked out. L.A. Times
- Bass warned that President Trump may install detention centers for the homeless in L.A. after he threatened to use “force” to ensure public order ahead of the World Cup this summer. Bloomberg
12.
A family discovered a human skull while taking part in an Easter Egg hunt at a Long Beach park on Sunday, the authorities said on Monday. Video from the scene at DeForest Park showed the partially buried skull under an investigative white canopy with colorful Easter eggs scattered nearby. Officials offered few details except to say an investigation has been opened. A family told CBS LA that the remains appeared to be those of a child. CBS LA | KABC
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