Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 15.
• | Two police officers are killed in the San Gabriel Valley. |
• | Mexican sewage befouls San Diego County coastline. |
• | And photos show the passion of California’s inmate artists. |
Statewide
1
Immigrants who come to the U.S. as students make up an outsize proportion of start-up entrepreneurs and researchers. But what if they can’t afford to live here anymore? In California, roughly 90% of graduate students struggle to make rent. Surojit Kayal, an Indian doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara, typifies the hardship of foreigners who face even greater obstacles to housing. Unable to find accommodations near the university, he stayed in Kolkata, taking his classes over Zoom. L.A. Times
2
Houses in the East Bay city of Hercules on May 31.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
There are now signs that California’s red-hot housing market is cooling. Fewer homes are going into escrow, inventory is rising, and sellers are increasingly cutting their asking prices. The reason is simple, real estate experts say. Mortgage rates have shot up from below 3% for a 30-year fixed mortgage last November to more than 5% last week. That can amount to monthly payments nearly $1,000 higher for the median California home. L.A. Times | MarketWatch
3
Since 2020, three wildfires have killed as much as 19% of the entire population of ancient giant sequoias. This summer, climate experts say, the dice are loaded for similar threats after the driest five months in California in at least 125 years. “The scale at which we are seeing high-severity fire right now — sequoias haven’t evolved with that,” said Linnea Hardlund, of Save the Redwoods League. “It continues to be surprising to a lot of people that giant sequoias are dying at this rate.” Washington Post
4
When the San Francisco photographer Peter Merts began sharing his pictures of California prison art programs, some people would recoil. “I received comments such as, ‘They don’t deserve art classes,’” he said. But research has shown that art practice can be transformative for inmates, boosting confidence, patience, and discipline. The passion of the inmate artists shines through the photography in Merts’ new volume, “Ex Crucible.” huck magazine | Petermerts.com
Below, a few selections.
A student during class at Ironwood State Prison.
Peter Merts
A portrait session at San Quentin State Prison.
Peter Merts
Students of Shakespearean theater at Solano State Prison.
Peter Merts
Northern California
5
On June 24, 2021, Soobleej Kaub Hawj was shot dead by law enforcement after he drove up to a wildfire evacuation roadblock in Siskiyou County, a killing that sparked protests and accusations of anti-Hmong racism. On Tuesday, District Attorney Kirk Andrus said no officers would be charged. Hawj was high on methamphetamine and was wanted on a Colorado warrant, he said. When officers ordered him to stop, he pointed a loaded .45-caliber handgun, rammed his truck toward them, and died in a hail of gunfire, Andrus said. Sacramento Bee | A.P.
6
Google has touted its ban on gun ads for years — a reflection of the Mountain View company’s ethics, Sergey Brin once explained. But an analysis found that a purposefully built loophole facilitates the placement of more than 100 million gun ads each year. “The truth of it is Google makes money while looking the other way,” said Zach Edwards, a security researcher. He compared the approach to a mullet: “Google has corporate policies in the front and exchange-of-exchange internet chaos in the back.” ProPublica
7
Researchers modeled the possible spread of the lanternfly.
A new study found that the invasive spotted lanternfly could reach California’s wine region by 2027. Native to Asia, the voracious insect eats all sorts of fruits but has a special taste for grapes, causing mayhem for crops. Since first spotted in Pennsylvania in 2014, the lanternfly has spread to at least 11 states. “This is a big concern for grape growers; it could lead to billions of dollars of losses in the agricultural sector,” said Chris Jones, a study author. CNET | Axios
Southern California
8
The suspect’s body laid on the pavement as investigators worked in El Monte on Tuesday.
Robert Gauthier/L.A. Times via Getty Images
Two police officers were fatally shot Tuesday evening as they responded to a possible stabbing at a hotel in a suburb east of Los Angeles. A law enforcement source told the L.A. Times that the suspect shot through a door at the Siesta Inn in El Monte as the officers knocked. A shootout left the suspect dead. Police declined to share more details on the identities of the officers or suspect. “These two men were loved. They were good men,” said Ben Lowry, El Monte’s acting police chief. L.A. Times | A.P.
9
“Right now our beaches are going to be closed all summer.”
For years, regulators believed that sewage spoiling 15 miles of San Diego County coastline resulted largely from wastewater and runoff in the Tijuana River, which flows into the Pacific at Imperial Beach. But a study this year showed that much of the pollution emanates from a wastewater plant that regularly dumps massive amounts of raw sewage into the ocean south of the border. It’s so bad that the shorelines at Imperial Beach and Coronado have been largely off-limits since May. S.D. Union-Tribune | FOX 5 San Diego
10
During a Senate hearing Tuesday, water officials said the Colorado River’s reservoirs have fallen so low that major water cutbacks will be necessary next year. John Entsminger, a Nevada water official who said he was “not a person who’s prone to hyperbole,” noted that the surface of Lake Mead is now 1,045 feet above sea level. Below roughly 895 feet, water would no longer pass through Hoover Dam. “We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River,” he said. L.A. Times | Desert Sun
11
The Trebek Center opened at the site of a former roller rink in Northridge.
Hans Gutknecht/L.A. Daily News via Getty Images
Alex Trebek wanted to do something to help the most vulnerable in Los Angeles. So in early 2020, he reached out to Ken Craft, founder of the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission, and handed him $500,000. The Jeopardy! host died later that year, so he didn’t get to see the opening in May of the San Fernando Valley’s first homeless shelter, made possible by his generosity and other donors. The charity gave it the perfect name: the Trebek Center. L.A. Magazine
12
Pictured above is the natural habitat of Hans Zimmer.
The celebrated film composer has spent countless hours inside the dimly lit studio he built in Santa Monica, giving birth to some of the most memorable scores in Hollywood history. A few years ago, he described for an interviewer how he wanted the space filled with books, guitars, mixers, and plush velvet furniture to feel like an incubation chamber where awareness of time falls away: “What happens here all the time is somebody starts tapping something. Next thing you know somebody is playing something. We’ve recorded whole scores in here.” YouTube
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