Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 10.
- Study finds algorithmic pricing on grocery app Instacart.
- Police blocked I-5 for eight hours to talk to suicidal man.
- And a look at the dark drawings of Laurie Lipton.
Statewide
1.
In a new interview with the New York Times, Kamala Harris made it clear she doesn’t want to talk about whether she is running for president. She also isn’t ready to be written off. A few quotes:
- On her place in history: “I understand the focus on ’28 and all that. But there will be a marble bust of me in Congress. I am a historic figure like any vice president of the United States ever was.”
- On a President Gavin Newsom: “I think Gavin is very talented. I really do. And I think we have many talented people.”
- On what she stands for: “This sounds really corny. But we have to stand for the people. And I know that that sounds corny. I know that. But I mean it. I mean it.”
2.
California was the most generous state in the U.S. in 2025, an analysis of GoFundMe giving found. Among counties nationwide, five in California ranked among the 10 most generous based on the percentage of repeat donors: Los Angeles, Marin, Santa Cruz, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. Tim Cadogan, GoFundMe’s CEO, is an Altadena resident. On Jan. 7, his family fled the firestorm that led to hundreds of personal fundraisers. “The thing that struck me the most,” he said, “was the emotional support that a fundraiser created for people, this sense that, ‘I’m not alone.'” L.A. Times
3.
Gouged by ancient glaciers in the southern Sierra Nevada, Kings Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon, measuring as much as 8,200 feet from river to rim. Incredibly, you can drive right through it. Visit California, the state’s tourism arm, shared an inspiring video itinerary for the wildly underrated Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, with views of granite cliffs, ancient forests, and thunderous waterfalls.
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Northern California
4.
In an update on the investigation into the Nov. 29 mass shooting at a child’s birthday party in Stockton, Sheriff Patrick Withrow said on Tuesday that five guns were used to fire at least 50 rounds during the attack. Multiple masked gunmen took part in the shooting, which left three children and an adult dead, he said. But 10 days after the tragedy shook Stockton, Withrow warned that arrests may not come soon. “This is going to take months to process all this, figure out who did this,” he said. Stocktonia | L.A. Times
5.
Benicia has been shaken by the planned exit of a Valero refinery, which has been the Bay Area city’s largest employer and accounts for 20% of its tax base. Now Gov. Gavin Newsom, who not long ago denounced Valero as a rapacious profiteer, is pushing a new industry on Benicia: gasoline storage. His administration has proposed using the Valero site as a storage hub for increased imports from overseas as the state faces looming shortages. Benicia’s leaders are sharply opposed. Bloomberg
6.
In a series of tests, users of the San Francisco-based app Instacart who shopped from the same store at the same time were shown different prices. At a Target, for example, some were charged $3.59 for a jar of Skippy peanut butter. Others got it for $2.99. “This isn’t about managing scarcity or efficient markets,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a think tank. It’s about “pushing to figure out the maximum amount you are willing to pay and squeeze it out of you.” S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times
7.
Since Google released Gemini 3 in mid-November, praise for the chatbot has been overwhelming. “I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years,” Marc Benioff declared on X. “Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back. The leap is insane.” The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong said OpenAI’s ChatGPT, once the darling of the artificial intelligence world, is in trouble: “What should concern OpenAI most about the launch of Gemini 3 is not the model’s technical prowess but that Google immediately began integrating the bot into its existing ecosystem.”
8.
According to legend, Zeus was so enchanted by the beauty of a mortal woman, Cynara, that he turned her into a goddess. But when she secretly returned to Earth to visit her family, he fumed and turned her into an artichoke. Today, like so many outcasts and rebels, the fallen goddess has found its place in California, which produces nearly all of the commercially grown artichokes in America. Atlas Obscura featured a wacky roadside tribute to the artichoke in Castroville, the “Artichoke Center of the World.”
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the Valero refinery’s economic contribution to Benicia. It accounts for roughly 20% of the city’s tax base, not $20.
Southern California
9.
Commuters demanded an explanation after police closed Interstate 5 in San Diego County for eight hours on Friday to negotiate with a man threatening to jump from an overpass. He didn’t. But as the drama dragged on, trapped motorists seethed. A number of them were forced to take extreme measures to meet the call of nature, including one man who was said to get out and urinate on the highway. Nick Durham said he was stuck for five hours, missing a Christmas party. “Absolutely blows my mind they let one dude shut down an entire county,” he said. S.D. Union-Tribune
10.
A landlord in the San Fernando Valley rented storage sheds in his backyard to tenants for about $600 to $800 a month. Among the residents were a bike store manager, a grocery bagger, and a nursing student. They shared a single portable toilet and got their electricity from power stations. In a city where the average one-bedroom rental is about $2,100 a month, such substandard living situations have become increasingly common, the New York Times reported.
11.
Billowing titanium showpieces made Frank Gehry a household name. But some of his finest work was revealed on smaller scale: remodeling projects scattered around Los Angeles. The most visible was the 1978 reimagining of his own two-story bungalow in Santa Monica. Gehry, who died on Friday, didn’t have much money then, but he made use of cheap materials: chain-link fencing, plywood, and cinder blocks. The result was an early Deconstructivist icon, cited by the committee that awarded Gehry a Pritzker in 1989. The Atlantic | N.Y. Times
12.
“I draw about things that bother me,” Laurie Lipton once said.
In recent years, the Los Angeles-based artist has been bothered by the dark side of technology. In large, black-and-white drawings, Lipton’s subjects are seen locked away in isolation, paralyzed by screens and likes. Hi Fructose magazine recently checked in with an artist who reveals the grotesque sides of human nature.
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