Good morning. It’s Tuesday, July 21.
- Magazine declares Kamala Harris 2028 front-runner.
- San Francisco quietly shelves many of its rape cases.
- And military tests AI-powered drones over the Mojave.
Statewide
1.
The prospect of Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028 has filled many senior party officials with dread. But the former vice president has been leading in polls of prospective candidates, usually by double digits. During a book-tour swing through the South, she was greeted like a rock star. In Jackson, Mississippi, the mayor bowed in front of Harris. “You don’t know what you mean to Mississippi,” he said. “You don’t know what you mean to America.” New York magazine reports: “Like it or not, Kamala Harris is the front-runner.”
2.
Two-thirds of Californians now oppose Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found. The attitude marks a striking shift: In 2021, Californians were evenly divided on the issue. Cost appeared to be a major concern for respondents in the latest survey, as many cannot afford electric vehicles. Californians have supported clean energy for many years, said Mark Baldassare, PPIC’s survey director: “But they aren’t willing to pay more for it.” Mercury News | L.A. Times
3.
The FDA said on Monday that a test incorrectly identified the cyclosporiasis parasite in iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, but said “overwhelming epidemiological data” still linked the California company to a multistate outbreak. Taylor Farms touted the updated result, claiming the “FDA apologized to us.” The FDA said it didn’t apologize. As consumers sorted through the conflicting messages, visits to Taco Bell, a buyer of Taylor Farms lettuce, plummeted. N.Y. Times | Bloomberg
4.
President Trump has accused “sanctuary jurisdictions” of unleashing sex offenders and killers onto the streets, even once calling the actions of blue-state leaders “a lawless insurrection.” But a New York Times review of 18 states targeted by Trump showed that all cooperate extensively with ICE in cases involving serious crimes. Since 2019, the Times wrote, California “has coordinated with the agency to transfer nearly 13,000 people convicted of murder, sexual assault, child molestation, or other grave felonies into federal custody.”
Northern California
5.
“If we don’t get an admission, it’s a he-said, she-said thing.”
San Francisco has among the worst track records for solving rape cases among U.S. cities of its size. Last year, the city made an arrest in just 14% of its rape cases, half the national rate. It’s not a caseload problem, according to an investigation by the San Francisco Standard. One illustrative case last summer produced a DNA match to an accused rapist, who was already in the FBI’s database. “And then San Francisco did what it almost always does with rape cases: nothing,” the Standard wrote.
6.
Millions of immigrants in the U.S. work in elder care. But the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is now removing workers in an industry already strained by labor shortages. At Channing House, a senior living community in Palo Alto, residents reacted with outrage to news that caregivers who have fed, showered, and dressed them for years could be forced out. They met recently to discuss what could be done, such as writing letters to Congress or hiring lawyers. One resident called the effort naive. The administration, he argued, is not going to change. N.Y. Times
7.
Albertsons, which owns Safeway, Vons and other supermarkets, appears to be keeping vacant properties empty within its vast real estate portfolio to block the opening of competing grocery stores, an SFGATE report found. In downtown Larkspur, a former Lucky Supermarket owned by Albertsons has remained empty since 2023, forcing residents of the famously walkable city in Marin County to leave town for the nearest major grocer. Christopher Leslie, a law professor, suggested it qualified as a “food desert by design.”
8.
People in tech are now routinely recording meetings and chats between colleagues in the name of productivity. It’s so common that few bother asking permission, even though that’s legally dubious in California. Emmie Chang, a San Francisco entrepreneur, said she records everything, even dates. After a date is over, she has Claude analyze the conversation. “Can I be more engaging and empathetic?” she said she might ask. “What are the percentages of me talking versus them talking?” Wall Street Journal
9.
In Silicon Valley — where employers once promised secure jobs, fat salaries, and cushy offices — workers are now being measured by how quickly they can automate their jobs with artificial intelligence. Since 2022, 800,000 tech workers have been laid off, according to Layoffs.fyi. Ruth Milkman, a labor sociologist, said tech workers are getting a dose of what many in other industries have always felt: unsteady and robbed of autonomy. “Low-wage workers are used to it,” she said. Washington Post
Southern California
10.
The U.S. military is launching AI-powered drones over the Mojave Desert in tests that could reshape modern warfare. The two drones being tested, products of Southern California’s booming military tech industry, are not controlled by a pilot or remote control. They fly entirely on their own, making hundreds of split-second decisions to maneuver and attack targets. In an opinion essay, the national security writer W.J. Hennigan said we’re not ready for AI drones: “As in the doomsday nuclear scenarios of the Cold War, the world could find itself in an escalatory exchange that could quickly spiral out of control.” N.Y. Times
- See video of Anduril’s YFQ-44A drone firing its first missile.
11.
A federal judge on Monday paused Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery while she considers a lawsuit brought by California and 11 other states, disrupting one of the biggest media deals in history. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín said the merger “raises serious questions” about whether it violates antitrust law. The pause is only for 14 days. But Martínez-Olguín’s order raised the prospect of a delay that could last for months. Wall Street Journal | L.A. Times
12.
In 1947, George Van Tassel walked away from a career in the aerospace industry to live near a giant boulder in the Mojave Desert. A man of esoteric interests, he hosted “channeling” sessions in a room beneath Giant Rock, a massive freestanding boulder, and reported being visited by spacemen. By the 1950s, the UFO contact movement was in full swing, and Van Tassel was among its notable proponents. For nearly two decades, he hosted the annual Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention, drawing thousands of people to the desert to camp, listen to talks, and trade stories around campfires. In May 1957, the renowned photographer Ralph Crane documented the curious gathering for LIFE Magazine. Google Arts & Culture published a gallery of his pictures.
- See many more images from the collection.
Correction
Monday’s newsletter mischaracterized the Northridge earthquake of 1994. It was the last major quake to strike urban Southern California, not all of Southern California.
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