Good morning. It’s Thursday, May 5.
• | Venture capitalist gives Stanford its largest donation ever. |
• | Alice Walker says she has “no regrets” in new book. |
• | And Dave Chappelle is attacked on stage at Hollywood Bowl. |
Statewide
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Capitol police officers separated rival demonstrators outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Roe v. Wade roundup:
• | Speaking at a Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a fiery defense of abortion rights, faulting his own party for setbacks in the culture wars. “They are coming after you,” he said. “You think for a second same-sex marriage is safe in the United States?” A.P. | SFGATE |
• | The S.F. Chronicle examined abortion clinic data to estimate what proportion of the nation’s providers would be in California if Roe v. Wade is overturned and 26 states impose bans. The projection: nearly 30%. |
• | The leaked Supreme Court opinion has become a factor in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Rick Caruso, a former Republican, is facing heat for past support of antiabortion politicians. L.A. Times | Bloomberg |
2
California is bracing for another potentially catastrophic fire season as forecasts call for record-breaking temperatures, dry landscapes, and the potential for dry lightning. “The dice are loaded for a lot of big fires across the West,” said Park Williams, a climate scientist at UCLA. “And the reason for that is simple: The vast majority of the western U.S. is in pretty serious drought.” L.A. Times | Press Democrat
The International Space Station captured video of the Sierra’s meager snowpack on April 29. (Lake Tahoe enters frame at 40 seconds). 👉 @ISSAboveYou
3
Methane emissions from cows was detected from space.
In a first, satellites captured imagery of methane emanating from a cattle feedlot near Bakersfield. An environmental data company said the site was emitting enough of the potent planet-warming gas, if captured for a year, to power more than 15,000 homes. Cows belch methane as a result of their digestive process, known as enteric fermentation. California, home to the country’s largest dairy industry, has faced intense pressure to cut the emissions. Reuters | CNN
One proposal: cow masks. Bloomberg
4
California, an economy larger than all but four countries, became the first state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency. Under an executive order signed on Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, state agencies will move to craft regulations for digital currencies and incorporate blockchain computer coding into government operations. Critics said the moves would help make investors richer but do little for the public. A.P.
Crypto lobbyists and executives have been going state by state to get favorable rules enacted. N.Y. Times
Northern California
5
Intuit, the TurboTax maker based in Mountain View, agreed to a $141 million settlement for tricking people into paying for tax preparation that should have been free. Under the terms signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states, the company will suspend its “free, free, free” ad campaign and send up to $90 apiece to more than 4 million taxpayers. “For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us to make a profit,” New York’s attorney general said. Intuit, which made $2 billion last year, admitted no wrongdoing. ProPublica | A.P.
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John Doerr attended a conference in Houston on March 9.
Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images
John Doerr, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, donated $1.1 billion to Stanford to create a new climate school. The gift announced on Wednesday ranks as the largest ever to the university and the second-largest donation to any academic institution in U.S. history. “Climate and sustainability is going to be the new computer science,” Doerr said. “This is what the young people want to work on with their lives, for all the right reasons.” N.Y. Times | Mercury News
7
Reporters interviewed more than 30 people who have worked with Elon Musk to try and understand how his mind works: “To a degree unseen in any other mogul, the entrepreneur acts on whim, fancy and the certainty that he is 100 percent right … While Mr. Musk has successfully bet on electric cars, space travel and artificial intelligence, he often wings it in the biggest moments, eschews experts and relies almost solely on his own counsel.” N.Y. Times (gift article)
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Alice Walker in San Francisco in 1985.
Mikki Ansin/Getty Images
“I have no regrets.”
Alice Walker’s new book draws from her own life — and there’s copious material. She was born to sharecroppers in rural Georgia. As a college student in 1965, she had an illegal abortion. Two years later, she married a white Jewish man before the Supreme Court outlawed bans on interracial marriage. She met with Fidel Castro and dated Tracy Chapman. In 1983, she became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel “The Color Purple.” More recently, she has cast a shadow over her legacy by promoting the ideas of David Icke, a notorious conspiracy theorist accused of spreading anti-Semitic tropes. Walker, now 78, sat for a nearly four-hour interview at her home in Mendocino County. N.Y. Times (gift article)
Should Walker be shunned? The Bay Area Book Festival recently rescinded an invitation to the author. A San Diego community college rejected calls to cancel a talk. Berkeleyside | S.D. Union-Tribune
Southern California
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A man rushed the stage as Dave Chappelle performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night.
A man holding a replica gun that contained a blade rushed the stage at the Hollywood Bowl as Dave Chappelle performed late Tuesday and tackled the comedian. Security guards swiftly subdued the man, identified as Isaiah Lee, a 23-year-old who once recorded a rap song titled “Dave Chappell.” His brother said he has a history of mental illness. Chappelle was fine. “It was a trans man,” he joked, calling back to criticism of his remarks on transgender people. Rolling Stone | L.A. Times
See the moment Chapelle was attacked. 👉 TMZ/YouTube
10
A new study found high levels of inbreeding in Los Angeles’ mountain lions. With their habitats fragmented by freeways, the cougars have been increasingly closed off from mating opportunities, restricting gene flow. Scientists found that nine mountain lions had either kinked tails or very high levels of abnormal sperm, both signs of low genetic diversity. National Geographic
Crews broke ground last month on a wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway, establishing a link for cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains to the south and in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains to the north. L.A. Times | KABC
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A residential development in Lancaster, in the desert outside Los Angeles.
Sam Lafoca/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images
In 1998, the author Mike Davis wrote: “Suburbanization is like another one of Southern California’s natural disasters — recurrent, inexorable. After the Santa Clara River Valley dies, there is only desert to feed the developers’ insatiable hunger.”
Since then, developers have, in fact, turned their sights to the desert, building tract housing in the Mojave Desert on the eastern fringe of Los Angeles County. The New Yorker explored whether Southern California’s new towns can really be sustainable.
12
A veterinarian named Kwane Stewart spends his off hours roaming homeless communities to offer free treatments for their pets. The outings began as a hobby in Modesto in 2012. But he found the work so rewarding — treating allergies, fleas, and ear infections right out of his medical bag — that he couldn’t stop, he said. NBC San Diego did a nice video report.
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