Good morning. It’s Monday, Jan. 12.
- San Franciscans memorialize Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir.
- Berkeley homeowners resist fireproofing ordinance.
- And the best looks from the Golden Globes red carpet.
Statewide
1.
In the two years since State Sen. Mike McGuire created a ballot measure committee called “Progress for California,” it has amassed more than $850,000 in political donations from unions, tribes, businesses, and other entities. But despite its name, it has yet to donate to any ballot measure. The committee did, however, provide $40,000 for McGuire to go the Super Bowl in Las Vegas last year. The Sacramento Bee investigated how shady account practices are used to funnel money from interest groups to lawmakers.
2.
“I’m here because I want to keep my sanity.”
“I can’t live in a world like this.”
“I don’t want to grow up in 30 years’ time and say that I did nothing to stop it.”
Californians poured onto the streets of more than 60 cities over the weekend as part of nationwide “ICE Out for Good” protests over the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. On Ocean Beach in San Francisco, hundreds of people spelled out “It was murder” with their bodies. In Huntington Beach, tensions simmered when counterprotesters showed up and waved MAGA flags. And in Palm Desert, a retired Army veteran named Shelby Bixler attended her first public protest. “I had enough,” she said. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times | Desert Sun
3.
On Jan. 1, California became the first state to require that corn masa, the flour used to make tortillas, contain folic acid, a vitamin that has been credited with lowering the risk of certain birth defects. The law was drafted in response to disproportionately high rates of birth defects among Latino children. While public health officials have long advocated for folic acid fortification, some conservatives are portraying the move an egregious example of government overreach. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, called it “insanity.” Washington Post
Northern California
4.
Bob Weir died on Saturday. Born in San Francisco in 1947, Weir was 16 years old when he met a banjo player named Jerry Garcia at a music store in Palo Alto. With Weir’s inventive rhythm guitar, the band they formed in 1965, the Grateful Dead, became an American institution, creating one of rock’s original subcultures. After the death of Garcia in 1995, the Grateful Dead ceased to exist, but Weir became a torchbearer for the music, keeping it alive in several offshoot projects. In an interview last year, Weir said he looked forward to dying, even if if he wasn’t ready just yet. “I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived.” Weir was 78. S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times
- Bob Weir’s life, in photos. 👉 Rolling Stone
- Deadheads gathered in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district on Sunday. S.F. Chronicle
5.
Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, is seeking to intervene in regulatory proceedings over the planned retirement of two dilapidated dams along Northern California’s Eel River. Rollins has portrayed the dam removal as environmental overreach, accusing California of “putting fish over people.” But it was PG&E, which owns the hydroelectric complex, that sought the decommissioning for purely financial reasons: the dams are a century old and losing money. Karrigan Börk, a law professor, said it’s unlikely that the federal government could force the utility to keep operating them. S.F. Chronicle
6.
One of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups is hiring contractors to train artificial intelligence to do their own jobs. Mercor, based in San Francisco, is valued at $10 billion. It has hired more than 30,000 subject-area experts including astronomers, psychologists, filmmakers, comedians, legal experts, and investment bankers. A dermatologist can make up to $250 an hour developing “decision-support tools.” Poets can earn $150 an hour to “enhance AI’s understanding of poetic structure, literary nuance and emotional expression.” Wall Street Journal
7.
In 1935, the picture on the cover of this German pro-Nazi magazine was meant to depict the ideal Aryan baby, chosen by Joseph Goebbels himself. But the baby, Hessy Levinsons Taft, was Jewish. Her parents had no idea how the picture came to appear on the magazine and resolved to never speak of it. In adulthood, Taft eventually came to view the story with pride. “I feel a sense of revenge,” she said. “Good revenge.” Levinsons died at her home in San Francisco on Jan. 1. She was 91. The New York Times told her incredible story.
8.
During a congressional candidates forum last week, State Sen. Scott Wiener drew jeers from a San Francisco audience when he declined to call Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.” There were shouts of “shame on you” and “sellout.” On Sunday, Wiener, who is Jewish, changed course: “I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide,” he wrote, “but I can’t anymore.” His campaign rivals pounced. “People getting killed didn’t move him but boos at a forum did,” said Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Connie Chan’s campaign. “This is about politics, not principle.” S.F. Chronicle | S.F. Standard
- The Atlantic: “Scott Wiener has an unusual distinction in American politics: He upsets almost everybody.”
9.
Enacted this year, a mandate to fireproof homes in Berkeley has been seen as a model for the state. But the ordinance’s author, Brent Blackaby, is now facing a recall campaign. Fifteen of California’s 20 most destructive wildfires ever have occurred in the last 10 years. Even so, the Berkeley law requiring a 5-foot barrier around houses in the hills has outraged a cohort of homeowners. Rhonda Gruska said she felt betrayed by Blackaby. “Did he tell you about this?” she asked a neighbor. “When you invited him into your backyard for an iced tea, did he tell you, ‘Those camellias will have to go?’” S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
10.
Both the Biden and Trump administrations wanted to see the Ivanpah power plant closed. The unusual facility in the Mojave Desert, which uses the heat of the sun to spin turbines, creates expensive electricity, lacks the efficiency of photovoltaic solar panels, and kills thousands of birds a year. Yet California is insisting that it stay in operation another 13 years. One reason: the extraordinary electricity demands of artificial intelligence. L.A. Times
11.
A U-Haul plowed into a group of people marching in Los Angeles in support of Iranian antigovernment demonstrations on Sunday, leading protesters to scramble out of the way and then attack the driver. No one was seriously hurt, police said. Video footage showed angry protesters swarming the truck, which was draped with a banner that appeared to discourage potential U.S. involvement in Iran. They smashed a window and tried hitting the driver with fists and flagpoles before he was whisked away by officers. L.A. Times | KABC
12.
At the 83rd Golden Globes in Beverly Hills on Sunday, Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare drama “Hamnet” were the big winners in the film categories, while “Adolescence,” “The Studio,” and “The Pitt” led the pack in television. Timothée Chalamet, Rose Byrne, Noah Wyle, and Jean Smart won top acting honors. The political messaging was subdued, but a handful of celebrities wore anti-ICE pins. Variety | Wall Street Journal
- See red carpet looks. 👉 Hollywood Reporter | E! News
- See the full list of winners.
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.