Good morning. It’s Wednesday, May 25.
• | Steve Kerr delivers powerful call to action after Texas shooting. |
• | UC system pays record settlement in doctor sex abuse case. |
• | And the mystery of Southern California’s missing refrigerators. |
Statewide
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Steve Kerr addressed the school shooting before the Warriors played the Mavericks in Dallas on Tuesday.
Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via A.P.
A sampling of reactions after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at a South Texas elementary school on Tuesday:
• | Trembling with emotion, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr pounded the table during a press conference in Dallas. “In the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly black people killed in Buffalo, Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something?” he shouted. 👉 @warriors (~3 mins) |
• | Gov. Gavin Newsom: “Who the hell are we if we cannot keep our kids safe. This is preventable. Our inaction is a choice.” Sacramento Bee |
• | L.A. Times editorial: “This is who we are. This is what we have become. We can no longer send our children to school without pangs of anxiety that they will be in the line of fire in what ought to be havens of safety and learning.” |
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Hours after the shooting on Tuesday, the California Senate approved a bill that would allow private citizens to sue those who traffic in illegal firearms, mimicking a Texas law that lets people sue abortion providers. Gov. Gavin Newsom asked for the legislation in a gibe at the Supreme Court after the justices upheld the Texas law. California already has tough gun laws, but proponents of the new measure said it could help address the rapidly growing problem of homemade “ghost” guns. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle
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Lawns at office parks, churches, shopping centers, and other common areas will go brown this summer after California regulators on Tuesday banned watering grass that is purely ornamental. Water board members called increasing rates of water usage a “black eye” for the state. “We are in this unprecedented drought. We need to act like it,” said board member Laurel Firestone. A.P. | L.A. Times
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☝️ These are Humboldt’s Lilies.
Native to California, they grow mostly in the Sierra foothills and coastal canyons of Southern California, producing outrageously showy blooms with leopard-printed petals in early summer. They are rare to encounter in the wild, but hikers have been reporting sightings in recent days. iNaturalist | Calscape
Northern California
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Berkeley swim coach Teri McKeever in Berkeley in 2013.
Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group via Getty Images
More than a dozen UC Berkeley swimmers and parents accused the school’s longtime women’s swim coach of bullying so extreme that several athletes considered suicide and others quit the team. The swimmers said Teri McKeever, 60, would single out individuals each year, subjecting them to almost-daily verbal abuse. When one targeted swimmer, Danielle Carter, made plans to kill herself, McKeever pulled her out of the pool during practice, she said. “Teri literally laughed in my face and said, ‘Do you know how pathetic that is? How stupid that is?'” O.C. Register | Sports Illustrated
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Health officials in Sacramento County on Tuesday reported a suspected case of monkeypox in a person who was recently in Europe. If confirmed, it would be California’s first recorded case of a milder cousin of smallpox usually confined to West and Central Africa. More than 100 cases have emerged in countries where it doesn’t typically occur. Dr. Erica Pan, California’s state epidemiologist, said the risk of monkeypox to the public is “very low.” CapRadio | CalMatters
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Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said his fight with Speaker Nancy Pelosi has nothing to do with politics.
Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday pushed back against San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s decision to deny her Communion over her support of abortion rights. The San Francisco Democrat accused Cordileone of a double standard, asking why he doesn’t deny the sacrament to Catholics who support capital punishment, a group that includes many Republican leaders. She also criticized Cordileone’s record on other issues. “Our archbishop has been vehemently against LGBTQ rights,” she said. Washington Post | S.F. Chronicle
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The most compelling voice challenging San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is Brooke Jenkins, a progressive prosecutor herself. A Black and Latina woman, she deplores mass incarceration and looked forward to working with Boudin, she said. But he neglected a crucial part of his job: fighting crime. “He maintains the outlook or the mindset of a public defender,” she said. “His view is that crime is just a part of life, something that we all have to endure and deal with.” The Atlantic
Mission Local’s Joe Eskenazi: “The case for recalling the DA Chesa Boudin? There isn’t one. But that hardly matters.”
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Wildlife Emergency Services
A raccoon trying to reach her kits in the attic of a home in the Santa Cruz Mountains got stuck as she clawed through the roof. A picture of the trapped mother with lactating milk spilling out of her, above, was posted online by a local animal shelter and promptly went viral. “From working with wildlife for over 40 years, I can tell you raccoons are the best moms,” said Rebecca Dmytryk, an animal rescuer. The raccoon was freed after a work crew widened the hole. Santa Cruz Sentinel | SFist
Southern California
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Dr. James Heaps appeared in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2020.
Al Seib/L.A. Times via Getty Images
The University of California announced on Tuesday that it would pay nearly $375 million to 312 women who said they were sexually abused by former UCLA gynecologist James Heaps. The settlement brings total payouts in the abuse scandal to nearly $700 million, one of the highest amounts paid by a public university to resolve such allegations. At the heart of the litigation were accusations that UCLA ignored complaints of abuse over decades. L.A. Times | A.P.
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As Michael Maloney hunted for an apartment this month, he discovered one of Los Angeles’ least delightful eccentricities: The city’s apartments frequently come without refrigerators. “It’s the most backward thing I’ve ever heard of,” he said. “I can’t wrap my mind around it.” No one is entirely certain how Los Angeles became fridgeless, but the simplest explanation is that California law doesn’t require landlords to provide refrigerators. So they don’t. L.A. Times
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Giant Rock rises roughly seven stories high.
Laking Images
“This rock is so big. It’s just so big.”
Jessica Hester, a science journalist, visited one of the biggest freestanding boulders in the world. Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert is reached by driving several miles along a dusty unpaved trail. When you start to wonder if you’re lost, the boulder finally appears in the distance — plenty big to be sure. Up close, it’s mind-blowing. YouTube (~5 mins)
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