Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 10.
- Anthropic takes its Pentagon dispute to court.
- Trump administration may restart California pipeline.
- And Rihanna shooting suspect posted deranged rants.
Statewide
1.
The war in Iran is reverberating through military communities across California, home to more than 157,000 active-duty military personnel. When Brandi Jones, of Monterey County, learned that the U.S. and Israel had attacked Iran, an old fear overwhelmed her: What if her husband, an active-duty Marine, is deployed? And what if he doesn’t come home? “Families are saying, ‘What is the mission?’ They wonder, what is the timeline?” Jones said. “And, of course, everyone is fearful that it will be years and years.” L.A. Times
2.
A year ago, news that California needed to borrow billions of dollars to fund the Medicaid coverage of unauthorized immigrants exposed the state’s Democrats to fierce criticism. In a subsequent budget vote, nearly every legislator agreed to cut the benefits. But a Los Angeles Democrat, state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, is now trying to reinstate Medicaid eligibility for all qualifying residents, regardless of citizenship, arguing that driving uninsured people to emergency rooms is even costlier. “These decisions do not save money for California,” she said. CalMatters | Sacramento Bee
3.
In the past, California’s governor contests have typically been dominated by commanding front-runners like Gavin Newsom or, before him, Jerry Brown. This time, the next leader of America’s most populous, most prosperous state is likely to be whichever Democrat ekes out a fifth of the vote in the June primary, wrote Politico’s Jeremy B. White: “Welcome to California’s most muddled gubernatorial race in a generation.”
4.
Central California’s Carrizo Plain is home to one of the highest concentrations of vulnerable species in the state. There are blunt-nosed lizards, antelope squirrels, kit foxes, and American badgers. Undergirding it all is the giant kangaroo rat, so-called for its hopping gait. The rodents are industrious landscapers, clipping the grass around their burrows. Their crop circles increase plant diversity, keep invasive grasses at bay, and allow other animals to move easily over the landscape. Plus, they’re cute, noted Tim Bean, an ecologist. “Our state mascot should be the kangaroo rat,” he said. bioGraphic
- The Carrizo Plain is getting more colorful by the day. On Sunday, the AFP photographer Frederic J. Brown found carpets of gold. @AccuWeather
Northern California
5.
In 2022, a repeat reckless driver named Kostas Linardos drove a 3-ton pickup truck into the back of a sedan, killing a toddler. When the DMV renewed his license barely a year later, Placer County prosecutors sought records on the state agency’s investigation of the crash. But the DMV not only declined to share information, it fought to keep it secret. When a court case finally forced the issue, the DMV made a stunning admission: There was no record of any investigation at all. CalMatters
6.
Since Anthropic took a principled stand against the Pentagon, downloads of its chatbot Claude have topped 1 million a day. Letters of support have circulated in Silicon Valley, where engineers across the AI industry demanded that their companies honor the same red lines. At the same time, users are also abandoning Anthropic rival OpenAI, which quickly signed its own deal with the Pentagon. Anthropic gave up a $200 million contract, wrote the Atlantic’s Ken Harbaugh. But they “might be getting something more valuable in return.”
- Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday, accusing the Pentagon of illegally retaliating against the company for ideological reasons. Wall Street Journal | A.P.
7.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, of suburban Sacramento, announced on Monday that he is leaving the Republican Party, becoming the sole independent member of the House. The move narrows the number of Republicans in the chamber to 217. Democrats hold 214 seats, and there are three vacancies. Kiley attributed his decision to frustration with “partisanship” and the ways it is “weakening the country.” Another consideration: His district was gerrymandered to be more blue. Sacramento Bee | Washington Post
8.
A Santa Cruz restaurant was compelled to scrap its logo after critics accused the owner of making it with artificial intelligence. In a sign of the public angst toward the spread of inauthentic content, or slop, people flooded the Salty Otter with negative reviews over the image of a river otter on a surfboard, pictured above, which owner Rachael Smith admitted creating with “a little bit” of help from AI. “A lifelong dream has been crushed by a group of locals,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Friday. Smith unveiled a new minimalist logo of plain white text against a black background. SFGATE | Lookout Santa Cruz
9.
For Big Sur lovers, it’s an enticing goal: to sample the full glory of the coastal mountain range by hiking from its eastern flank all the way to the Pacific. For most of the past decade, one of the only east-west routes has been impassable because of landslides and fire damage. But after years of trail work, the 14-mile Marble Peak Trail recently reopened, just in time for the spring. It features dreamy swimming holes, redwood forest, and some of the finest views of the Big Sur coast. S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
10.
For more than a year, California officials have blocked a Texas oil company’s plan to reboot dormant oil platforms off the Santa Barbara coast, calling it an environmental risk. Last week, three days after U.S. and Israeli bombs fell on Iran, the Justice Department issued a legal opinion declaring that President Trump has the authority to permit the Sable Offshore project under the Defense Production Act. Environmental groups portrayed the move as a cynical ploy to override California’s environmental protections. N.Y. Times
11.
Ivanna Ortiz, the Florida woman accused of opening fire on the Los Angeles home of Rihanna, had posted a series of erratic videos during which she referenced her Christian faith and accused the pop star of being a “witch” who was stealing from her. “Her face is the devil,” she says in one video. “Rihanna’s face is the devil.” Court records showed that Ortiz, a 35-year-old speech pathologist, had several prior arrests, including suspicion of domestic violence and battery. L.A. Times | TMZ
12.
Professors running a UC San Diego lab turned to Jeffrey Epstein for funding to research telepathy in autistic children, files released by the Justice Department revealed. It was in 2017, years after Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls as young as 14 was widely known, that Epstein cut a $50,000 check for the research. In an email, the renowned neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran offered reassurance to his collaborator on the study, the new age personality Deepak Chopra. “I don’t have a problem with my lab being funded by Epstein,” Ramachandran wrote. S.D. Union-Tribune
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