Good morning. It’s Monday, March 14.
• | Not everyone is happy about the return of wolves to California. |
• | City dwellers are enamored with the High Desert way of life. |
• | And the friendship between Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. |
Scheduling note: The newsletter will be off Tuesday. Back Wednesday.
Statewide
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California’s progressives are about to find out whether they can translate their ideology into popular support that wins elections, with big implications for their efforts on a national scale. But as the author Miriam Pawel notes in a new column, “California has long been more centrist than its popular image. The ‘Mod Squad,’ a caucus of moderate Democratic state lawmakers, has had outsize influence for more than a decade.” N.Y. Times (gift article)
Politico: Anxiety about crime threatens to push California’s liberal prosecutors out of office.
2
A cattle ranch sprayed a pasture near Oildale on July 7, 2021.
George Rose/Getty Images
In 2020, 85 residential wells came up dry in California. In 2021, there were 973. Most were in the San Joaquin Valley, where a water hauler featured in a Bloomberg video report on California’s endangered aquifers makes deliveries to residents whose wells have failed. She could recall a time when there was plenty of water to go around. But as the drought forced cutbacks, farms pulled more water from the ground. “It seems like when they do that,” she said, “now the houses around them are starting to go dry.”
3
Ukraine roundup:
• | As millions of refugees have fled Ukraine, others are rushing in. Natalya Dyachok journeyed for four days from the Bay Area to reach the village of Chortkiv, where her 31-year-old daughter is caring for two sons and has refused to leave while her husband is fighting. Mercury News |
• | Surging gas prices appear to be boosting ridership on mass transit. Trips on the Bay Area’s BART system climbed 7% in the first week of March. “That’s a huge jump, considering we’ve just now come out of the Omicron slump,” a spokeswoman said. Bloomberg | KPBS |
• | Marcus Yam is a two-time Pulitzer-winning photographer for the L.A. Times. His photos from Ukraine are incredible. |
4
The Big Sur coast.
In 1970, a former Press Democrat reporter named Don Engdahl walked the entire California coast, from Oregon to Mexico. In dispatches tapped out on borrowed typewriters, he gushed over the wild Lost Coast — “you must go there to believe” it — and the Edenic, soft sands of San Diego. But no section of coast impressed him as much as Big Sur, which he described as perfect. “The Big Sur area is, briefly, truly magnificent country,” he wrote. Here’s a bucket list of nine must-see destinations. 👉 Lonely Planet
Northern California
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The California housing crisis is also pushing landlords to the financial brink. By one estimate, California renters still owed $3.3 billion in back rent as of January. In Berkeley, Susan Marchionna has lived for years in a tiny home in the backyard of an Edwardian house that she rents out to cover her mortgage. Last year, her renter declared he was unable to pay because of the pandemic. Now she may be forced to sell her home. “The city of Berkeley is trying to get individual homeowners to help solve the housing crisis,” Marchionna said, “then demonizing all landlords.” S.F. Chronicle
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Rich Fellers was accused of sexually abusing his underage protege.
Jerod Harris/Getty Images
The American equestrian community is elite and insular. It doesn’t like to see its heroes fall. So when Maggie Kehring, a Bay Area equestrian, told about how her 60-year-old trainer, former Olympian Rich Fellers, preyed upon her when she was just 16, some accused her of seducing Fellers to further her career. “She was a junior in high school,” said Carrie Kehring, Maggie’s mother, “and if it had been her math teacher, no one would have even questioned if he should be allowed to teach again.” Bloomberg
7
Emerald Johnson said she made more than a dozen reports to police and child services since January 2021 with concerns about the welfare of her 8-year-old niece, Sophia. In December, the girl went missing. Then on Friday, police found a child’s body while searching for Sophia at a home in Merced. Her mother Samantha Johnson, 30, was charged with murder. A manhunt is underway for her boyfriend. “This is a nightmare, especially because we feel like this could have been prevented,” Emerald Johnson said. KPIX | East Bay Times
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Wolves roamed a meadow in Lassen County.
Morgan Heim, via N.Y. Times
The return of wolves to Northern California over the last 10 years has been celebrated by conservationists. But not everyone is happy. It’s become common for rumors to spread on social media about shadowy efforts to transport breeding wolves into the state. “Wolves make people crazy,” said Kent Laudon, a wolf biologist. “And for the record: No, we’re not importing wolves. That never happened.” N.Y. Times (gift article)
9
Last November, a Sonoma resident named Troy Farrell got a troubling phone call from a veterinarian in Long Beach. A woman had shown up with Farrell’s cat, Nubbins, the office said. Eventually, Farrell pieced the story together: A Southern California couple vacationing in his neighborhood had simply driven off with Nubbins. Months of legal wrangling followed as the couple claimed that the cat was outdoors and was therefore neglected. On Friday, a judge gave a ruling: Return the cat, she said. Sonoma Index-Tribune
Southern California
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TV reporter: “You see Hoover Street here, officials say it’s one of the most dangerous streets in all of Los Angeles and now … “
Crash!
With timing so perfect it seemed staged, the KTLA reporter Gene Kang was delivering a live segment last Thursday about a deadly hit-and-run collision in South Los Angeles when two vehicles collided directly behind him. One of the motorists fled. YouTube (~1 min)
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California’s hottest real estate markets are in Southern California’s High Desert, running from northern Los Angeles County through the Mojave Desert to the east. A reporter asked transplants what it’s like to live there. Shelby Lemson, 48, and her husband bought a place with 2.5 acres in Landers. “It’s just a different way of life, it’s simpler, it’s a slower pace,” she said. “It makes you be a little bit more aware of what matters in life.” S.F. Chronicle
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Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe at the Tiffany Club in Hollywood on Nov. 19, 1954.
Bettman Archive, via Getty Images
In 1955, Ella Fitzgerald was struggling to land nightclub gigs in Los Angeles. Marilyn Monroe, a fan, told the club owners at Mocambo that if they booked Fitzgerald for 10 days in a row, Monroe would show up every night. “Ella got booked, and Marilyn was true to her word,” said Geoffrey Mark, a Fitzgerald biographer. On opening night, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland reportedly also showed up. The friendship of Fitzgerald and Monroe was featured in an article on “5 stories of sisterhood and support.” Washington Post (gift article)
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