Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 20.
- No Kings protesters gather in cities across the state.
- The Wall Street Journal declares “San Francisco is back.”
- And sports writers gush over Shohei Ohtani’s epic game.
Statewide
1.
An artillery shell prematurely detonated over Interstate 5 during a Marine Corps celebration attended by Vice President JD Vance at Camp Pendleton on Saturday, striking a CHP vehicle. No one was hurt. Gov. Gavin Newsom had strongly objected to the firing of munitions over the major artery between Los Angeles and San Diego, but backed off threats to close the freeway after safety assurances from the Marines on Wednesday. After artillery rounds flew across Interstate 5 late Friday during a test run, the state went ahead with the closure on Saturday. Newsom condemned the episode as an “absurd show of force.” N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
2.
There were more than 2,500 protesters in Eureka, about 800 in Willits, roughly 50,000 in San Francisco, around 2,000 in Cathedral City, and more than 25,000 in San Diego. Protesters gathered in communities big and small across California on Saturday as part of the nationwide No Kings demonstration, held in a broad repudiation of President Trump. Organizers estimated that nearly 7 million people attended the rallies nationwide, making it substantially larger than similar protests in June. The California gatherings had street party vibes, with music, flags, frog costumes, and colorfully worded signs. USA Today
- See photo collections:
3.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a last-minute package of energy bills into law last month that he said “reduces the burden on ratepayers.” But tucked into one of those bills was language that allows Edison to charge customers for any Eaton fire costs exceeding the state’s $21 billion wildfire fund. Damages for the Eaton fire have been estimated to be as high as $45 billion. “I was shocked to see that,” said April Maurath Sommer, executive director of the Wild Tree Foundation, which tracks government responses to utility-sparked fires. “It’s effectively a bailout.” L.A. Times
Northern California
4.
In San Francisco, crime has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, homeless encampments have become increasingly scarce, and transit ridership is up. Rents overall are up 12% year over year, with 13 months of consecutive growth. The hotel industry is showing signs of recovery. And on a recent sunny Friday afternoon, dozens of workers tapped away on laptops in a downtown park while restaurants hummed with diners. “San Francisco,” the Wall Street Journal reported, “is back.”
5.
On Sunday, President Trump repeated his intentions to send the National Guard to San Francisco, adding that the Insurrection Act gave him “unquestioned power” to do so. “We’re going to go to San Francisco — the difference is I think they want us in San Francisco,” Trump said on Fox News. In San Francisco, the mayor, sheriff, district attorney, congresswoman, all three state lawmakers, and every member of the Board of Supervisors have condemned the proposal to send troops. S.F. Chronicle | N.Y. Times
- After igniting a backlash for saying the National Guard should come to San Francisco, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff apologized on Friday. “I do not believe the National Guard is needed to address safety in San Francisco,” he wrote. S.F. Chronicle
6.
Doug Martin, a former NFL All-Pro running back, died Saturday after a struggle with Oakland police officers, unnamed sources told local news outlets. Details were sketchy, but the sources said Martin, 36, died at a hospital after being arrested by police responding to a home break-in. Martin was born in Oakland, raised in Stockton, and attended Boise State. He spent seven years in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders. East Bay Times | S.F. Chronicle
7.
This month, environmental groups, tribal leaders, and scientists said the Klamath River is booming as they marked the one-year anniversary since the last of the dams along the mighty Northern California waterway was removed. Damon Goodman, a conservationist, said the fish returned in greater numbers than expected. “There’s just fish jumping all over the place, bald eagles, other wildlife, all throughout what was a reservoir and is now a river,” he said. Times-Standard | Underscore Native News
- “Incredibly exciting.” Scientists tracked Chinook salmon in the Upper Klamath Basin, having migrated nearly 300 miles upstream. It’s the first time they’ve been spotted there in more than 100 years. OPB
8.
Photographer Matthew Raifman was hiking with his family in an East Bay wilderness area when they spotted an entirely white deer. Wildlife biologists say albino deer are extremely rare, occurring in roughly 1 in 30,000 members of the species. “It was surreal,” Raifman said. “It’s something I’ve certainly never seen. And I mean, most people will never see it. We all collectively did a double take.” SFGATE
- See more of Raifman’s photos.
Southern California
9.
After January wildfires destroyed more than 16,000 homes and buildings in greater Los Angeles, politicians vowed to streamline the notoriously labyrinthine permitting process so that victims could quickly resume their lives. That has not happened, the Washington Post editorial board wrote. L.A. has issued just 782 rebuilding permits, out of 1,843 applications. The county’s record is even worse: 568 of 2,200. “It turns out that streamlining regulations only goes so far when the regulatory machine itself is put in charge of the streamlining,” the Post wrote.
10.
Joe Sanberg, a Los Angeles entrepreneur who listed his occupation as “anti-poverty advocate,” got the Clippers billionaire owner Steve Ballmer to invest $50 million in his online bank, Aspiration. Then he struck a bizarre $48 million endorsement deal with the team’s star Kawhi Leonard. Inside the company, jaws dropped at a deal that had the hallmarks of a salary cap workaround. By then, Sanberg’s world was already starting to come crashing down. The Wall Street Journal profiled “the fraudster behind Steve Ballmer’s NBA nightmare.”
11.
Nory Sontay Ramos, 17, was a typical L.A. teenager. She was on the track team, excelling at the hurdles and cross country. She listened to indie rock, studied hard, and had a flair for style. She dreamed of studying fashion in college. One day in June, she suddenly stopped responding to texts from friends. Finally, on July 4, she explained: “We are in Guatemala,” she wrote, referring to the country she and her mother fled when Nory was 8 years old. “They deported us back.” Her hardship was just beginning, the New York Times wrote.
12.
After Shohei Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and blasted three home runs to send the Dodgers to the World Series on Friday, sports writers grasped for superlatives to describe what they’d seen. ESPN’s Jeff Passan said Ohtani was “redefining the game in real time.” The Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes declared Ohtani the greatest baseball player ever: “And Friday night … was his Mona Lisa.” The New York Times’ Jayson Stark called Ohtani’s performance the single greatest game any human has ever had on a baseball field. “There are stars,” he wrote. “There are rock stars. And then there’s whatever supernatural phenomenon that Shohei Ohtani is.”
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.