“We don’t imitate, we’re a model to the world.”

In contrast to his bitter relationship with former President Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom has had productive personal conversations with President Biden on climate policy. Now California’s influence is shaping federal policy, the N.Y. Times reported: the Biden administration is preparing strict new limits on tailpipe pollution that are drawn from rules enacted in California.

A wildfire that erupted in the Owens Valley Wednesday created a fascinating spectacle: fire and smoke juxtaposed with the snowy Eastern Sierra. Winds drove flames that began near Bishop across roughly 3 square miles of brush. Residents were ordered to flee their homes in parts of Big Pine. Wildfire Today | L.A. Times

See a live fire camera. 👉 AlertWildfire.org

California lawmakers are preparing a bill that would force tech platforms like Meta and YouTube to limit the data they collect from young users. Modeled on rules introduced in Britain, the bill has bipartisan support. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a coauthor, said the legislation would be the first of its kind in the country. “We have the ability to have a ripple effect,” she said. Ars Technica

More than 200 Cal State Long Beach faculty and staff members signed a petition demanding the resignation of the Cal State university system’s new chancellor, Joseph Castro, after he was accused of mishandling past sexual harassment complaints against an administrator. Castro, the petition said, “did nothing to stop a predator for six years.” The Cal State Board of Trustees is scheduled on Thursday to discuss whether to launch an investigation of Castro. L.A. Times

Coronavirus roundup:

One of California’s most dramatic cliffside promenades, a rare 170-foot-long swinging bridge, and a spiritual sanctuary that holds some of Gandhi’s ashes.

Travel + Leisure compiled a list of 20 “secret” spots along the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

A Sacramento County supervisor tried to help coordinate support for a U.S. version of the trucker protest that has paralyzed Canada’s capital. Supervisor Sue Frost, known for refusing to wear masks at meetings, joined a Telegram channel dedicated to a California “Peoples Convoy,” screenshots showed. “Do you need a group to coordinate in Sacramento?” she wrote. “Maybe I can help.” Frost later distanced herself from the group after being accused of collaborating with Proud Boys. Sacramento Bee | ABC10

It was the recall that launched a thousand takes. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about why San Franciscans so resoundingly voted out three school board members on Tuesday.

An Orange County prosecutor who was fired last week wrote a memo in December accusing District Attorney Todd Spitzer of making racist comments in the case of a Black murder defendant. Ebrahim Baytieh alleged that during a meeting last October, Spitzer said he knew many Black men who only date white women to “get themselves out of their bad circumstances.” Spitzer on Wednesday denied saying anything improper and accused Baytieh of attacking him to avoid being fired for misconduct. L.A. Times | Voice of OC

“It is fantastic technology and a lousy company.” A Los Angeles company called Second Sight made retinal implants used by more than 350 patients, transforming lives. Then in 2019, the company abandoned the technology and nearly went bankrupt, leaving early adopters with bionic eyes that were suddenly obsolete and unsupported. Now they are scrambling for secondhand parts to preserve their vision. IEEE Spectrum

A new Disney venture called Storyliving by Disney unveiled plans Wednesday to build a residential community in the Coachella Valley with the same pampered tranquility found at its theme parks. “Picture an energetic community with the warmth and charm of a small town and the beauty of a resort,” a promotional video said. The Rancho Mirage project includes 1,900 housing units clustered around a 24-acre “grand oasis,” with a lagoon and clubhouse staffed by “cast members.” Desert Sun | O.C. Register

When the photographer Bob Fitch was asked to take a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. lying in an open casket on April 9, 1968, he paused. Recalling the moment for an interviewer years later, Fitch choked up with emotion: “It was a tough decision to take that photo. It felt like blasphemy to put a camera in his face. But then I thought, ‘The world needs to see this horrible truth.’”

Fitch, a preacher’s son who became an ordained minister himself, was influenced during his teenage years by the socially conscious milieu of 1950s Berkeley. Over his career — beginning with a job taking pictures for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King’s organization — he captured some of the most searing images of America’s 20th-century protest movements, many of them in California. Yet Fitch resisted the label of photojournalist, viewing his work as an act of service for causes he believed in.

It was that calling that, before his death from Parkinson’s disease in 2016, led him to give his entire archive of more than 200,000 images to Stanford University to be freely used by the public. See eight favorites below, and explore several curated galleries at the Stanford archive.