Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 2.
- Witnesses recall horror of mass shooting in Stockton.
- Study offers hope in the quest for an HIV cure.
- And front doors in L.A. real estate get bigger.
Statewide
1.
Over the years, oil industry figures have learned to steer clear of California, whose regulatory regime they say is kryptonite for their companies. Many of them have been puzzled by the actions of James Flores, a hard-charging Texas oil mogul who has bet his entire business on rebooting dormant oil platforms off the Santa Barbara coast. Since July, the market capitalization of his company, Sable, has fallen from $3.2 billion to about $600 million. “It’s pretty bleak, honestly,” Elmer Danenberger, an independent industry expert, told the Wall Street Journal.
2.
“The bills are piling.”
Roughly three-quarters of California families with young children reported difficulty in meeting at least one basic need in July, according to newly released data from Stanford researchers. That’s up from about half a year earlier. The most common areas of hardship were utilities, health care. and housing, the survey found. The numbers are among the direst since Stanford began collecting the monthly data in 2022. KQED
3.
American colleges and universities have seen a 17% drop in new enrollments of international students, a recent report found. Interviews with foreign students on California campuses suggest that many of those already here are weighing escape plans. Syed Tamim Ahmad, a senior from the United Arab Emirates at UCLA, said he planned to pursue medical school in Australia, where he said he can study “in peace” without fear of changes to his visa status or funding. CalMatters
4.
For decades, electric car owners have been allowed to drive solo in California’s carpool lanes, an incentive designed to promote adoption of vehicles that produce less pollution. But on Monday, the perk expired after Republican leaders in Congress declined to reauthorize the federal law that allowed it. The change is expected to ruin the commutes of many drivers who had grown accustomed to whizzing past traffic jams of gas-powered cars. “Some people are definitely going to be in for a rude awakening,” said John Stringer, president of Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley. Mercury News
5.
Behold the wonderfully weird feet of the American coot. Abundant on lakes and ponds across California, the bird looks like a mashup of species, with a plump chicken-shaped body and a duck-like head. Then there are those giant feet. Ornithologists say the coot’s long, yellow-and-green toes are multipurpose adaptations, with flaps that act like miniature paddles in the water while folding away on land to allow walking. Audubon Magazine
- The American coot’s feet enable another remarkable talent: running on water. See video. 👉 @MarkSmithphotography
6.
An appointment-only suit maker in Beverly Hills.
A reseller of luxury menswear, often at a steep discount, in Los Angeles.
A specialist in refined attire for highbrow people in San Francisco.
The New York Times included 10 California locations in a painstakingly researched list of America’s 50 best clothing stores.
Northern California
7.
Children were playing amid balloons and a swan-shaped bouncy house when a gunman stormed into a birthday party in Stockton on Saturday and opened fire, killing four, witnesses recalled on Monday. Teresa Spivey, 64, pushed over a table, using it as a shield, she said. “We all fell to the ground,” she said. “Babies just falling.” Before he could react, Patrick Peterson saw his 14-year-old son, Amari, bloodied and crawling on the floor. He tried to administer CPR, but the boy didn’t make it. “Every night, every morning that boy would tell me he loved me,” Peterson said, sobbing. ABC10 | Stocktonia | L.A. Times
8.
San Jose police said on Monday that they arrested a 17-year-old boy suspected of a shooting inside a mall on Black Friday that wounded three people and panicked hundreds of shoppers. A 21-year-old woman is expected to face charges for helping the teen escape the mall, authorities said. Police Chief Paul Joseph said the boy had a prior gun charge but avoided a criminal conviction through a deferred judgment. He denounced what he described as leniency for underage offenders. “I’m not sure what tragedy will finally be the watershed moment when we fix what is clearly broken,” Joseph said. Mercury News
9.
A small study out of UC San Francisco offered a glimmer of hope in the quest to cure HIV patients. In a paper published Monday in the journal Nature, researchers said 10 volunteers with HIV underwent a complex immune therapy before being taken off daily antiretroviral medication. Seven of the volunteers were able to control the virus for several months. “It’s provocative, but I’ve been doing treatment interruption studies for 30 years, and this is unexpected and unparalleled,” said Steven Deeks, a professor of medicine at UCSF. Washington Post | S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
10.
Under California’s congressional redistricting, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa would see his reliably red district in San Diego County turn into a slightly blue one. Issa has said he plans to run again, no matter whether the law withstands legal challenges. But Punchbowl News reported on Monday that he is crafting an extraordinary backup plan: He’s considering a bid for a House seat in Texas, the state California countered in an escalating gerrymandering war.
11.
Simone Cromer, 59-year-old Los Angeles woman with a full-time job in the health-care industry, didn’t intend to become the story when she started a Timothée Chalamet fan club in 2018. She just wanted to support her favorite actor. But her dramatic and lengthy posts have led some to accuse her of taking an unhealthy, romantic interest in Chalamet, now 29. “I didn’t anticipate, expect or want this kind of attention,” Cromer said. “I’m just a fan at the end of the day.” WSJ. Magazine unmasked the divisive founder of Club Chalamet.
12.
When the Bel Air mansion of the owners of Erewhon was featured on the Netflix real estate reality series “Selling Sunset,” it was arguably the front door that most stood out: standing an almost comical two stories high. Oversize doors have long been a staple of Los Angeles’ toniest neighborhoods. But in recent years, the big doors have gotten noticeably bigger, brokers say. Nowadays, Curbed reported: “Everyone in L.A. wants a giant front door.”
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