Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 21.
- Shutdown threatens to halt food stamps for millions.
- Massive Greek god statue is proposed for San Francisco.
- And the year’s most audacious art exhibit in Los Angeles.
Statewide
1.
The ranking Democrats of two congressional oversight committees announced an investigation on Monday into reports of misconduct in President Trump’s deportation crackdown, focusing on arrests of U.S. citizens. Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, who spoke alongside Mayor Karen Bass during a news conference in Los Angeles, cited a ProPublica report that found more than 170 cases of American citizens being held by immigration agents. “Why? Because they look like me,” he said. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
2.
As the government shutdown stretches into its third week, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned on Monday that more than 5 million food stamp recipients in California may not receive their payments next month. Andrew Cheyne, an anti-poverty advocate, said even brief periods of food insecurity can be devastating for families. “It is unconscionable,” he said, “that we are only days away from children and families not knowing where their next meal is going to come from.” L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
3.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said his 14-year‑old son, Hunter, suggested a guest for his podcast earlier this year: the accused rapist Andrew Tate. “He’s coming to California. You should meet with Andrew Tate. He’s innocent,” Newsom recalled him saying. The governor answered: “Like, what? How do you even know who this guy is? What do you mean he’s innocent? He goes, ‘All my friends, we all know he’s innocent.’”
The anecdote came in a new Bloomberg profile of Newsom, whom the magazine said “seems to want to lead a Democratic version of the Republican-leaning manosphere.”
- In a hypothetical matchup, 46% of voters would support JD Vance for president and 45% would back Newsom, a poll found. Newsweek
Northern California
4.
In four years, Austin Draper has been diagnosed six times with deadly heart infections caused by injecting drugs, leading doctors to repeatedly open his chest for surgery and amputate all but one of his toes. Yet after each hospital stay, Draper, 35, has turned back to fentanyl. “I just couldn’t resist it,” he said. Draper allowed a reporter and a photographer to enter his world for a jarringly intimate portrait of one man’s relentless addiction in San Francisco. S.F. Chronicle
5.
A serial stalker who was sentenced in 2023 to more than five years behind bars for following and groping women in San Francisco is back on the street — and approaching women again. A reporter observed Bill Gene Hobbs, 37, on Monday as he slid up next to women in a park, at cafe tables, and on the street. San Francisco’s criminal justice system had faced criticism for seeming to ignore Hobbs — who stands 6-foot-4 and has the letters “E-V-I-L” tattooed across his fingers — until news stories highlighted his harassment campaign. S.F. Chronicle
- San Jose’s mayor, Matt Mahan, criticized a judge for returning a serial drug offender to the streets. “This person needs to be given a choice between treatment or jail, not endless drug use in our parks,” he wrote. KRON
6.
After years of legal wrangling, a wave of litigation is about to land in U.S. courtrooms accusing Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube of knowingly designing their platforms to addict users. One trial involves a 19-year-old woman from Chico who says a decade of nonstop social media use caused anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. Bloomberg previewed what amounts to a massive legal siege on the social media industry: “If successful, these cases could result in multibillion-dollar settlements — akin to tobacco and opioid litigation — and change the way minors interact with social media.”
7.
A cryptocurrency investor named Ross Calvin is pushing a $450-million proposal to build a statue of the Greek god Prometheus on Alcatraz island that would stand 145 feet taller than the State of Liberty. He’s hoping to realize his vision with help from another aspiring builder: President Trump. After Calvin had a letter hand-delivered to Trump last December, the president posted on Truth Social: “America is going to start building monuments to our great heroes and heroines again!!!” Bloomberg
8.
Katherine Boyle, a religious and Republican partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has been an outlier for most of her career in Silicon Valley. But as her contrarian views have made their way into the American mainstream, Boyle, 39, has become tech’s Phyllis Schlafly, the New York Times wrote in a profile:
“Like so many powerful conservative women before her, Ms. Boyle has a life that’s a tangle of contradictions. … She decries the impacts of feminism, yet enjoys them herself as one of the most successful female investors in Silicon Valley.”
Southern California
9.
The Marine Corps said on Monday that an explosion of live artillery over Interstate 5 in Southern California on Saturday occurred during the first volley fired from M777 howitzers during an artillery demonstration at Camp Pendleton, forcing its early halt. Lt. Col. Lindsay Pirek, a Marine spokesperson, said a fuse failure was likely to blame but the weapons system normally had “pretty much a 0% malfunction rate.” The incident set off a furious back and forth between California officials and the Trump administration over the wisdom of firing over a busy freeway. L.A. Times | Washington Post
10.
A long-awaited exhibition in Los Angeles combines felled Confederate statues with the work of contemporary artists. Art critic Jason Farago called it the year’s most audacious and contentious show:
“You will remember the debates when the statues here fell: A liberal consensus wanted them ‘retained and explained,’ more radical voices preferred a junkyard burial. The artists and organizers of ‘Monuments’ have a third response: Treat them as your inheritance, and use them as you like.” N.Y. Times
- “Monuments” debuts on Thursday at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the Brick.
11.
Every October since 1952, the Phillips 66 oil refinery in Wilmington has transformed one of its giant globular storage tanks into “the world’s largest jack-o’-lantern.” Known as Smilin’ Jack, the tank requires more than 100 gallons of paint to assume its pumpkin-like appearance, including a grin that is 73 feet wide. The peculiar tradition is going forward as usual this year — including a public viewing on Oct. 30 and 31 with free caramel corn — despite the planned closure of the refinery. Whether it will be the last time is an open question. @NBCLA | L.A. Times
12.
Claremont McKenna College recently opened a striking new science center that campus leaders hailed as “a carved jewel” for the private liberal arts college. Designed by the Danish firm BIG, the structure is shrouded in glass and arranged in rotating blocks that incorporate eight rooftop terraces. The designers imagined them as spaces for one of the privileges of campus life in sunny Southern California: studying outside. See more pictures: Archinect | dezeen
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