Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 3.
- Judge scolds President Trump on use of National Guard.
- Wildfire burns a historic town in the Sierra foothills.
- And Anthropic raises its valuation to $183 billion.
Statewide
1.
A federal judge on Tuesday declared President Trump’s military deployment in Los Angeles illegal, ruling that it amounted to “creating a national police force with the president as its chief.” In a withering opinion, Judge Charles Breyer said the government’s rationale, “ostensibly to quell a rebellion,” was contrived. “There was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests,” he wrote. While Democrats hailed the result, legal experts warned that it might ultimately backfire. A reversal on appeal could hand the president near unlimited power to deploy soldiers on U.S. soil. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
2.
A dry lightning outbreak across the Central Valley and Sierra foothills on Tuesday sparked numerous wildfires. Several blazes combined to form what officials called the TCU September Lightning Complex, which engulfed the gold rush town of Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County, reports said. As of late Tuesday, fire officials could not confirm the number of lost structures, but a reporter captured video showing what looked like significant destruction. Stephen Provost, a historian of the town once settled by Chinese workers, was heartsick. “I just can’t. It’s just devastating,” he said. S.F. Chronicle | KCRA
- See a live fire map.
3.
An analysis found that across California, the most significant demographic trait associated with the shift to Donald Trump in 2024 was the Latino share of the population. It was predominantly Mexican and Punjabi immigrants who led Livingston, a working-class city in the San Joaquin Valley, to swing more sharply toward Trump than any other place in California. Anthony Barajas, a local barber, talked about his male cousins. “They turned 21 and got concealed carry permits,” he said. “They listen to Joe Rogan, they’re into guns and they voted for Trump.” S.F. Chronicle
4.
In 2023, California rolled out a new program to fast-track people with untreated psychotic disorders into housing and medical care — by force if necessary. Everything the state had tried before failed, Gov. Gavin Newsom explained, citing a treatment referral program called Laura’s Law that helped around 200 people in the span of a year. But after two years of Newsom’s CARE Court, it has reached only a few hundred people, CalMatters reported: “That’s barely more than the law he criticized, and certainly not the thousands he promised.”
Northern California
5.
Ranchers in Northern California have tried electric fencing, alarms, guard dogs, and horseback patrols to keep wolves from attacking their cattle. Now government scientists are experimenting with drones. Equipped with night vision and loudspeakers, the devices blast AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” recordings of gunshots, and human voices from movies such as “Marriage Story” during the predators’ nighttime hunts. “I am not putting up with this anymore!” Scarlett Johansson yells in one clip. It’s freaking the wolves out, A.P. reported.
6.
Farms in Sonoma County are known in the industry for their humane practices. That has not dissuaded animal-welfare activists from targeting the county in a battle that has involved lawsuits, restraining orders, and “open rescues” at farms and slaughterhouses. Direct Action Everywhere, based in Berkeley, believes animals should have the same rights as humans. “Supposedly ethical” practices are not enough, said Cassie King, a spokeswoman: “We want to show that regardless of how they’re labeled, there’s suffering behind these products.” N.Y. Times
7.
A federal judge on Tuesday spared Google from having to break itself up in a landmark antitrust case. The U.S. government had argued that Google should have to sell its Chrome browser after a judgement last year that the $2 trillion company monopolized search and advertising markets. Instead, Judge Amit Mehta ordered Google to make changes that would allow competitors to gain a foothold, including the sharing of some search data. Google stock jumped 8% after the ruling. Wall Street Journal | A.P.
- The Washington Post editorial board noted that the rise of artificial intelligence undercut the case for curbing Google’s power: “The company is no longer the only real player in the ‘finding out stuff on the internet’ business.”
8.
A 4-year-old San Francisco startup was just valued at $183 billion, a sum greater than the market capitalizations of Boeing, Citigroup, or Pfizer. The AI company Anthropic announced Tuesday that it had completed a funding round that nearly tripled its already eye-popping valuation of $61.5 billion in March. Analysts say the meteoric rise of generative AI firms reflects the belief that the companies are unlike those of older generations. Crucially, they sell services that replace human work. Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
9.
As of 2024, there were 1,135 people worth at least $1 billion in the U.S. Of those, 22% reside in California, making the state’s per capita population of billionaires among the highest in the nation. Collectively, America’s billionaires are worth about $5.7 trillion. Three men — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg — account for almost $1 trillion of it, roughly equivalent to the nominal GDP of Ireland and South Africa combined. The Wall Street Journal published a close-up look at the richest people in America.
10.
Joshua Amirthasingh’s photo series “Tales from the City” captures the romance of San Francisco — a couple on a park bench, a lone surfer, old buildings shrouded in fog. Andrew Sean Greer writes:
“What is not on display is wealth. No tech bros in hoodies and expensive watches, or old mansions with newly gutted interiors, or venture capitalists holding bursting bottles of champagne, or robot taxis or signs of any of the companies that have brought change to the city — Apple, Facebook, Google, X — in the latest gold rush of start-up grandees and paper billionaires.” Financial Times
Southern California
11.
On Tuesday, a Los Angeles jury unanimously found that Cardi B had not assaulted a security guard who claimed that the hip-hop star attacked her seven years ago in the hallway of a Beverly Hills obstetrician. Outside the courthouse, Cardi B posed for pictures with fans and reiterated her innocence. “The next person who tries to do a frivolous lawsuit against me, I’m going to counter-sue, and I’m gonna make you pay, because this is not OK,” she said. L.A. Times | A.P.
12.
In a podcast episode released Monday, a Los Angeles gambler named Brett Steigh admitted to paying the parents of football players $50,000 to secure their transfer to an Archdiocese of Los Angeles high school. “I ain’t doing nothing that others aren’t doing,” Steigh said. On Tuesday, the high school announced that it was forfeiting the remainder of the 2025 football season. The team’s coach, Ed Hodgkiss, was ousted. An L.A. sports columnist said Hodgkiss was made the fall guy for a scandal that the archdiocese should own. L.A. Times | Sports Illustrated
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