Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 17.
- Solar power surpasses natural gas generation in California.
- Two Inland Empire men are accused in White House plot.
- And slackline pioneer from Bay Area dies in BASE jump.
Statewide
1.
California is now getting more power from sunshine than natural gas. Utility-scale solar generation exceeded power from gas on 82% of the days in the first five months of 2026, up from just 21% in 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Association reported on Tuesday. The milestone was attributed to the state’s aggressive investment in solar, boosting capacity 19% in the two years through April, even as the Trump administration worked to thwart the use of renewable energy. Bloomberg
2.
If Xavier Becerra wins in November, he will be California’s fifth consecutive Catholic governor. In the 18th century, Spain colonized California through a chain of Franciscan missions, whose names were inherited by the territory’s cities. Later, Catholicism was a common thread among waves of immigrants, including those from Ireland, Italy, Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The columnist Joe Mathews writes in Zócalo Public Square: “While California is caricatured as crazy, uber-progressive, even godless, the truth is that we might be America’s most Catholic state.”
Northern California
3.
An extreme sports pioneer from Marin County died along with a client over the weekend in a tandem BASE jumping attempt within a remote canyon in southeastern Utah reports said. Andy Lewis, 39, grew up in Greenbrae and earned a degree in recreation administration from Humboldt State University before relocating to Moab, where he founded BASE Jump Moab. He won four straight slackline world championships and went mainstream when he performed tricks alongside Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl. CBS News | SFGATE
4.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul, has been talking regularly by phone with the journalist Simon van Zuylen-Wood from inside a federal prison in Lompoc, where he is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy. Bankman-Fried said he struggles with boredom, takes meds for clinical depression, and maintains a vegan diet. He still says he did nothing wrong, which means he “rejects the idea that the story of his life should follow some standard redemptive arc,” van Zuylen-Wood wrote. His mission now: to somehow convince President Trump to set him free. New York Magazine
5.
After the Marin County artist Vincent Serritella had brain surgery for glioblastoma, a deadly cancer, he chose a heartwarming way to express his gratitude: painting portraits of the people who cared for him. Serritella said he was grateful not just for the life-saving surgery but also the small gestures from nurses during 20 days and nights in the ICU at a Sutter Health hospital in San Francisco. “Those acts of kindness completely blew my mind.” he said. As of last week, Serritella had finished 30 portraits, including that of his neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Zhang, above. Vitals | S.F. Chronicle
6.
As the World Cup returns to the U.S., youth soccer is more popular than ever, surpassing even baseball in popularity, according to one poll. It’s also gotten much more expensive. One report found that the cost of playing youth sports rose 46% between 2019 and 2026, with soccer as a major driver. Bay Area families can easily spend up to $15,000 a year, wrote the columnist Ann Killion. Youth soccer, she continued, “has become a pay-to-play system that caters primarily to upper middle-class families and shuts out many, particularly in underserved communities.” S.F. Chronicle
7.
The Giants baseball hat uproar has widened into the latest culture war flashpoint. During a game last Friday, the San Francisco team wore Pride Night hats with a rainbow-colored logo, and three players wrote Bible verses on theirs as a sort of protest. A local backlash erupted. Then on Monday, the league said it had scolded the players, stoking a national debate. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley wrote a letter to baseball’s commissioner demanding an explanation. Vice President JD Vance posted on X: “Trump won, we don’t have to do this anymore.” State Sen. Scott Wiener, of San Francisco, responded to him: “Perhaps go back into your cave.” S.F. Chronicle
- Fresno County supervisors voted on Tuesday to declare June “Traditional Nuclear Family Month” after a contentious public hearing. KFSN | Fresno Bee
8.
Golden Gate Park was an audacious proposal. In 1865, San Francisco sought advice on a “public pleasure ground” from the noted landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, who proposed a greenbelt as the more practical option. But the young city imagined something grander.
Over several generations, San Francisco set about wresting a 3-mile-long oasis from the sand dunes on the city’s western half. The result, the historian Kevin Starr declared, “is the finest urban park in the world, a masterpiece of landscape design, the product of heroic vision, energy, personal direction and sustained civic will.” A few weeks ago, a break in the clouds allowed an astronaut to capture a magnificent view of Golden Gate Park set amid the dense metropolis. NASA Earth Observatory
Southern California
9.
Two Inland Empire men were among a group of alleged conspirators who planned to attack the White House with explosives dropped by drones and rooftop snipers during Ultimate Fighting Championship matches over the weekend, officials said. The group was said to harbor fringe conspiracy theories and a belief that the U.S., in one member’s words, “needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt.” Bryan Roa, 24, of Calimesa, and Michael Thomas, 32, of Pinon Hills, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. KABC | USA Today
10.
For months, the Huntington Beach developer behind a controversial data center project in Southern California’s arid Imperial Valley, Sebastian Rucci, pledged that he would not seek a drop of water from the strained Colorado River. But this month, Rucci sued to get 260 million gallons of water, needed for cooing components, from the river every year. He described the decision as a “last resort” after efforts to secure water by other means collapsed. KPBS
- In a surprise vote on Tuesday, Imperial County supervisors declared a 45-day moratorium on all data center projects, citing a need for more information. inewsource
11.
Los Angeles has been the world’s entertainment capital for 100 years. Now it’s losing its edge. California has enhanced a rebate program, but there is only so much the state can do to counter competition from 81 countries that have embraced filming as a means to economic development. “I watched the demise of steel and rubber and automotive manufacturing as I grew up,” said Mike Miller, a Hollywood labor leader who grew up in Cleveland. “This is identical in many ways. We have an undeclared trade war that our government is standing by and watching happen.” Variety
12.
Los Angeles is home to one of America’s largest swimming pools — a massive 1.5-acre lagoon with a maximum capacity of 3,500 swimmers. The Hansen Dam Aquatic Center, operated by the city, is appropriately located in one of the hottest parts of the city in the San Fernando Valley. With a sloped entry and surrounding sand with lifeguard towers, the pool essentially emulates a beach miles from the coast. The Los Angeles Times published photos as the pool welcomes crowds for the summer season.
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