Good morning. It’s Tuesday, July 7.
- Woman who sued Meta and Google can’t stop scrolling.
- Philosophers are suddenly in demand in Silicon Valley.
- And photographs of Hollywood’s “bright young things.”
Statewide
1.
July is the already the busiest month of the year for America’s national parks. In Yosemite Valley, the Trump administration’s elimination of the summer reservation system has worsened matters, evoking comparisons to Disneyland as a crush of visitors wait in hourslong traffic jams and jockey for space to walk. The chaos, critics say, is demoralizing staff, threatening wildlife, and damaging the park. N.Y. Times | Fresno Bee
- See video of overcrowding on Yosemite’s Mist Trail.
- “A reservation system does not deny the American people access to their national parks,” wrote the SLO Tribune editorial board. “It just requires them to do a little planning — just like they would do for a trip to Disneyland.”
2.
“They succumbed to the fad of the moment.”
Faced with a faculty revolt over its abandonment of SAT testing, University of California leaders have moved to study the issue, saying they need time to understand the data. That could lock in the current policy until 2029. In an editorial, the New York Times accused the university of dithering in response to an educational crisis: “The University of California is now rejecting students who would excel there, including low-income and minority students, and accepting growing numbers of students who flail.”
Northern California
3.
In March, a jury found that Google and Meta are liable for a woman’s addiction to social media — the most damaging verdict to hit the social media industry in a quarter century. Now Kaley Glenn-Mills, of Chico, is telling her story. When she agreed to go forward with the case at age 17, she was afraid of only one thing, she said: losing access to her social media accounts. “Are the companies going to get mad at me and delete my accounts?” she remembered thinking. “If they delete my accounts, what am I going to do with my life?” Bloomberg Businessweek
4.
The beauty of Lake Tahoe obscures a troubling paradox. Suicide rates in the outdoor paradise are far higher than the state average. “Tahoe is a place that presents itself as somewhere you want to be,” said Nathan Wheeler, a trainer in a suicide prevention workshop. “But beautiful places sometimes shadow these problems — a transient community, an economy that exists outside its residents, affordability issues. These kinds of things breed desperation and a lack of hope.” The Guardian
5.
Dharmesh Patel, the Pasadena radiologist who drove his family off the cliff known as Devil’s Slide south of San Francisco in 2023, will face no prison time after a judge dismissed attempted murder charges against him on Monday. In her ruling, Judge Sharon Cho cited Patel’s progress in two years of mental health treatment. Patel initially blamed the crash on tire issues, but psychologists testified that he suffered from delusions and believed his family would be better off dead. Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle
6.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Department was mourning the death of one of its K-9s after a fireworks blast spooked the animal Saturday night, causing him to jump a fence and dart into traffic, where he was fatally struck. The motorist fled the scene, leaving Santi, a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois who loved to have his belly rubbed, to die in the street, the authorities said. KSEE | KFSN
- After banning fireworks, Cambria became known as a refuge for dog owners. They now flock to the Central Coast town every Fourth of July. N.Y. Times
7.
Rob Fuentes, a candidate for Fresno’s City Council, raised some eyebrows late last month when he told a local news outlet that his support for abolishing ICE posed no conflict with his job as a federal prosecutor in the Trump administration. Since 2025, Fuentes argued in court on behalf of ICE in at least 124 immigration cases. Even so, he called the agency “unhinged” and “unlawful.” A day after the June 25 report, Fuentes was put on leave, and he later quit, recognizing the untenability of his situation. Fresnoland | Fresno Bee
8.
Philosophy majors have been panicking their parents for decades, raising the specter of a lifetime of underemployment. But philosophers are suddenly coveted in Silicon Valley. David Chalmers, a prominent philosopher, observed: “I think the demand for philosophers with A.I. training is, if anything, outstripping the supply right now. It’s an area I encourage students to go into. I think these issues with A.I. will be front and center for a good while.” N.Y. Times
Southern California
9.
Newport Beach is used to rowdy July Fourth celebrations. But the chaos that unfolded after thousands of teenagers and young adults descended on the city over the weekend was among the worst in years, reports said. Police blamed a viral “TikTok takeover” for attracting the crowds, including people who brawled, looted, blocked roads, and threw fireworks at law enforcement. Between Friday and Sunday, more than 400 people were arrested, the authorities said. “This was on another level,” said Newport Beach Police Lt. Eric Little. L.A. Times | O.C. Register
- See video of the mayhem.
10.
In Santa Monica, where the beach is picturesque and the tax base wealthy, times have taken a turn for the worse, the Wall Street Journal reported. The city has faced a pileup of problems in recent years, including $230 million in sex-abuse settlements, falling international tourism, and fading retail businesses. Business owners blame government complacency. “The open consumption of drugs in public is absurd,” said Michael Mandel, co-owner of Pier Pizza & Subs. “You clean that up, you start to see the streets get cleaned up again.”
11.
“We are just so proud to have been part of this.”
Last Thursday, a rescue team from Los Angeles County helped extract a man who had survived eight days under the rubble of a collapsed shopping center in Venezuela. It was among the most stunning rescues since two powerful earthquakes struck the South American country on June 24. It was also a powerful testament to the effectiveness of the California squad, whose 70 or so members have become regular life-savers at sites of calamity across the globe. L.A. Times
- “When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it.” See video from the rescue.
12.
“The magic about L.A. is the inside. It’s people’s houses, it’s the parties.”
When the photographer Shelby Duncan arrived to Los Angeles in the late 2000s, her home in the Hollywood Hills became a gathering place for a revolving cast of musicians, filmmakers, and other fellow artists. For six years, she documented everything. Her photographs are now part of an exhibit and accompanying book, called “House of Love,” that celebrate being young, strange, and wonderful in Los Angeles. AnOther magazine | Blind Magazine
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