Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 1.
• | San Francisco students to stay masked as state mandate lifts. |
• | Officials say man killed three kids then himself near Sacramento. |
• | And a map of the 69 tacos that define Los Angeles. |
Statewide
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Band members played through their masks at a school in Maywood on Feb. 16.
Gary Coronado/L.A. Times via Getty Images
Starting March 12, many California students will be allowed to walk into classrooms without masks for the first time in two years. But children in San Francisco, and possibly Los Angeles, will not be among them. After California, Oregon, and Washington announced plans on Monday to end their school mask mandates, San Francisco school officials responded by saying they would adopt no changes. Gabriela López, the recalled school board president, said “we are all in agreement” that students should stay masked until the end of the school year. SF Standard | S.F. Chronicle
Also announced on Monday: Even the unvaccinated will be allowed to go maskless in most indoor settings starting today. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
2
Nobody alive today has experienced weather in California this dry during what are normally two of the wettest months of the year. After a big boost to the Sierra snowpack in December, California had the driest January and February in recorded history. With one month left in the rainy season, there are no major storms on the horizon. Jan Null, a meteorologist, made a prediction: “The fire season is going to start early.” Mercury News
3
The summer sky in the Bay Area.
An L.A. Times analysis found that roughly 3,900 people died from extreme heat in California between 2010 and 2019, more than hurricanes and tornadoes combined. Yet there is no system of escalating warnings to communicate the danger of impending heat waves. California lawmakers have now introduced legislation to create the nation’s first ranking system for heat waves, similar to those for hurricanes or fire risk. There’s talk of giving them names too. CNN
Attack on Ukraine
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A top official in San Francisco’s teachers union, Frank Lara, shared a post that said Russia’s attack on Ukraine was provoked by the U.S., “which rejected Russia’s legitimate security concerns in the region.” That angered state Sen. Scott Wiener, who accused Lara of peddling Russian propaganda. The union then came to Lara’s defense. “This is 1950s McCarthyite red-baiting rearing its ugly head in 2022,” it said in a statement. S.F. Chronicle
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Other Ukraine developments:
• | A bipartisan group of California lawmakers planned to introduce legislation forcing the nation’s two largest public pension funds to divest from any Russian assets. It was estimated that California has more than $1 billion in Russian investments. L.A. Times | A.P. |
• | Tech companies took new actions in response to the conflict in Ukraine on Monday. Facebook and TikTok said they would block access to Kremlin-controlled sites RT and Sputnik in Europe. Twitter said it would label all posts with links to Russian state media. And Airbnb pledged to house 100,000 Ukrainian refugees at no charge. N.Y. Times |
Northern California
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People watched investigators outside the Sacramento County church where a shooting unfolded Monday.
Andri Tambunan/AFP via Getty Images
“A tragedy beyond words.”
A man fatally shot his three daughters and their chaperone, then turned the gun on himself inside a church just east of Sacramento on Monday, officials said. The 39-year-old gunman, whose name wasn’t disclosed, had been on a supervised visit with the girls, ages 9, 10, and 13. Their mother, police said, had a restraining order against the father. That should have prevented him from having a gun. Sacramento Bee | KCRA
7
Richard Blum and then-San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein in San Francisco in 1983.
Carl Viti/A.P.
Richard Blum, a financier and husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, died on Sunday in San Francisco. Blum led an outsized life. A friend of the Dalai Lama, he wrangled with Chinese leaders over human rights abuses against Tibetans and helped rescue thousands of Nepalese girls from possible sexual bondage, putting them in school. A self-made multimillionaire, he counseled several presidents and was once chairman of the UC Regents. The cause of death was cancer. He was 86. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
8
The mansion at Filoli Gardens.
Lynn Yeh
On the outskirts of Woodside, where Silicon Valley gives way to mountain wilderness, is one of California’s grandest estates. From 1916 to 1975, Filoli Gardens was the private residence of two of California’s most prominent families, the Bourns and the Roths, before being handed over to the public. Visitors stroll the 43-room mansion and 16 acres of gardens — with ponds, ivy-veiled archways, and countless flowers — surrounded by a nature preserve. The writer Helen Carefoot described the experience as cinematic, evoking “a magical feel that I wasn’t prepared for.” Washington Post
Southern California
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One night in November 2020, Ray Mascolo decided to end his yearlong sobriety. He texted “What’s good babe” to a woman in his phone under the name “Mimi Snowie.” The reply included offerings of acid ($40), ecstasy ($20), mushrooms ($120), and other drugs. After cutting a deal, an aspiring actor who had small part on the CBS series “S.W.A.T.” made a delivery to Mascolo’s home in Beverly Hills, authorities say. The next morning, Mascolo was found dead in his kitchen. The federal investigation that followed uncovered a booming Hollywood drug business. L.A. Times | Daily Mail
10
A South Los Angeles home that was damaged by a botched police detonation of fireworks last summer.
Al Seib/L.A. Times via Getty Images
“Relax.”
A bomb squad technician repeatedly raised concerns before a botched detonation of fireworks in South Los Angeles last summer, according to an inspector general’s report. He recalled saying: “Uh, this is too much to do one shot,” “I have a bad feeling,” and “this is not good.” Yet he was told repeatedly to relax. The catastrophic blast injured 27 people and caused damage estimated in the millions of dollars. A.P. | LAist
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Dr. Bronner’s, the soap company, is one of the country’s biggest corporate boosters of psychedelics. It has donated more than $23 million to drug advocacy and research organizations focused on mainstreaming acceptance of mind-altering drugs. In January, the company became among the first to offer ketamine therapy as part of its employee health benefits. The N.Y. Times paid a visit to Dr. Bronner’s Vista headquarters, where the vegan meals are free and C.E.O. stands for Cosmic Engagement Officer. N.Y. Times
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Dishes from Goat Mafia.
There is no better taco city in America, many say, than Los Angeles — and it’s only getting better. Over the last decade, audiences have been drawn to more regional styles such as birria, the “it” dish of the moment known for goat meat smothered in chiles, herbs, and spices. On a recent episode of Broken Bread, the chef Roy Choi tried the birria tacos of Compton’s Goat Mafia. He said simply, “Wow.” KCET (begins about 16-minute mark)
L.A. Taco mapped the 69 tacos that define Los Angeles.
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