Good morning. It’s Monday, Feb. 2.
- Teacher strike threats roil San Francisco and L.A.
- Start-up aims to “eliminate grief as a human experience.”
- And musical artists call out ICE at the Grammy Awards.
Statewide
1.
In February 2025, labor leaders launched a campaign called “We Can’t Wait” to unify California teachers behind demands for better pay and smaller class sizes. A year later, the effort is roiling school districts across the state. In Los Angeles on Saturday, United Teachers Los Angeles announced that its roughly 37,000 members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. On the same day, United Educators of San Francisco said its 6,500 members had also authorized a strike. Other walkouts are being threatened in Sacramento and San Diego. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
2.
The New Yorker published a new profile of Gov. Gavin Newsom. A few highlghts:
- Newsom — tall, suave, and wealthy — has been at pains to come across as relatable. James Carville, the Democratic strategist, acknowledged that the governor is popular. “The question for Newsom is: Can he walk into a Black church in South Carolina and engage the audience? That’s to be determined.”
- The governor has been coy about his presidential ambitions. But Aaron Peskin, a former San Francisco supervisor, said Newsom “had that I-want-to-be-a-President vibe” 25 years ago. Willie Brown, a former San Francisco mayor, said: “I think he’s had that in mind from Day One.”
- Newsom hasn’t changed his cellphone number since becoming mayor of San Francisco in 2004, and has 9,022 personal contacts on his phone, the magazine reported. He “is in touch with a startling number of them.”
● ●
Newsom’s memoir “Young Man in a Hurry” is due to be released on Feb. 24. The New York Times, reviewing an early copy, said the book seemed designed to convince Americans that he struggled growing up.
3.
More and more Californians are surreptitiously installing “plug-in solar” at their homes without their utilities’ permission. Also known as balcony solar, the systems plug into wall outlets and can save hundreds of dollars a year on utility bills. In January, state lawmakers introduced a bill to allow balcony solar without utility authorization. “The impact of California passing legislation would be huge and will get manufacturers to come into the market,” said Kevin Chou, cofounder of Bright Saver, a nonprofit that sells plug-in solar. Bloomberg
4.
There’s a remote grove of redwoods 50 miles north of Mendocino where massive tree trunks branch out into candelabras of “reiterated” trunks, each big enough to be considered trees in their own right.
Visit California, the state’s tourism arm, included the Enchanted Forest of Candelabra Redwoods among its picks for 20 natural wonders “you won’t believe are in California.” Part 1 | Part 2
Northern California
5.
One California community in particular is bearing the brunt of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrant truck drivers. Sikhs, members of a religious minority that hails from Indian Punjab, comprise roughly 35% of the state’s commercial drivers. The revocation of 17,000 California commercial drivers licenses is now wrecking their livelihoods. Bikramjeet Singh Gill, who runs a truck depot in Stockton, said he’s lost $2 million over the last four months paying for dozens of parked trucks that no one can drive. It “totally devastated us,” he said. CalMatters
6.
When word spread that a new group was planning to hold a “March for Billionaires” in San Francisco on Feb. 7, many assumed it must be satire. It is not, organizers told Mission Local: “We sincerely believe what we’re saying. We think most American billionaires have had greatly positive societal impacts.” The organizers remained unnamed (they cited “threats” online), leaving question marks over whether they will follow through. Either way, Mission Local noted, their arguments mimicked those being made by some of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich since a campaign was launched for a one-time billionaire tax.
- Tech industry and labor leaders are planning to meet in March to discuss a compromise deal that might supplant the proposed billionaire tax, a source told Bloomberg.
Southern California
7.
For five years, James Brown, 77, tried to get answers about how his adult son came to die in a Riverside County jail cell. In 2025, with the help of a reporter from the Desert Sun, Brown finally got an official explanation: 30-year-old son Jamall Brown had died after refusing treatment for his diabetes for days, the coroner’s office said. But unreleased jailhouse video told a different story. It showed Brown in his cell pleading for his life: “Please. Tell them I’m diabetic.” And later: “Please, man! Somebody please!” USA TODAY
8.
In an episode of the dystopian sci-fi series “Black Mirror,” a grief-stricken woman has her dead husband recreated as an android replica, which she keeps locked in her attic. A Los Angeles start-up has embraced a similar idea with a platform on which users can chat with artificial intelligence versions of their dead loved ones. Justin Harrison, the founder of You, Only Virtual, believes the technology “can ultimately eliminate grief as a human experience” for anyone willing to pay the monthly subscription fee. The Atlantic
9.
Dense fog led to another pileup in the Central Valley. Days after 43 vehicles crashed along a highway in Bakersfield, a 59-vehicle pileup left 10 people injured on Highway 99 in Tulare County early Saturday. As visibility dropped to between 100 and 200 feet, crashes happened on both sides of the highway, piling up one-by-one as vehicles slammed into the stoppages. “The carnage out there,” said CHP officer Adrian Gonzalez. “Vehicles turned over and up on each other, under each other.” KFSN | Visalia Times-Delta
10.
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit against a San Diego hospital because it halted gender-related treatments for minors in response to a Trump administration threat to cut funding. “We will not allow Rady to violate its obligations to its patients and the state,” Bonta said in a statement. The hospital said the decision to halt the treatments was “very difficult,” but was unavoidable to preserve its broader pediatric services. S.D. Union-Tribune | NBC 7
11.
At the Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday night, the major awards went to Olivia Dean for new artist, Billie Eilish and Finneas for song of the year, Kendrick Lamar with SZA for record of the year, and Bad Bunny for album of the year. Several honorees used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s deportation campaign. Bad Bunny, who is scheduled to perform at the Super Bowl in Santa Clara on Sunday, said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.” The audience roared in approval. N.Y. Times | A.P.
- See the full list of winners.
- See the looks from the Grammys red carpet.
12.
A recent whale-watching group on Monterey Bay saw a dolphin “tail walking,” which involves leaping vertically from the water and briefly skipping across the surface on its tail. The tour company, Monterey Bay Whale Watch, said it had only ever observed dolphins performing the stunt “a handful” of times. In the video, a tour guide can be heard telling the guests, “I can’t express to you how uncommonly rare this behavior is.” See video. 👉 BBC Wildlife Magazine
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.