Good morning. It’s Friday, June 6.
- Yurok Tribe reclaims 73 square miles in “land back” deal.
- ACLU accuses Sonoma County of drone spying scheme.
- And five Richard Neutra homes that you can rent.
Statewide
1.
A horrifying murder.
A shady witness.
A vulnerable suspect.
And a confession coaxed from prolonged interrogation.
In California, poor people accused of crimes are routinely convicted without anyone investigating their side of the story. Maurice Possley, an exoneration researcher, said people would be astounded by how easily many convictions can be disproved. “If someone had just made the effort,” he said. CalMatters examined how California stacks the criminal justice system to overlook wrongful convictions through the story of a 1976 murder and the flawed investigation that followed.
2.
As the Trump administration escalates its deportation campaign, California legislators advanced a package of bills this week to prevent immigration agents from entering schools, shelters, and hospitals. Republicans generally opposed the measures, portraying the concern as overblown. But in a state where one in four residents is foreign-born, Republican state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh joined Democrats on the school measure. Requiring a warrant, she said, “is really a no-brainer.” CalMatters
- At least 15 people were arrested during routine check-ins at the San Francisco ICE office on Wednesday, advocates said. Rep. Nancy Pelosi called it “stupid” to arrest people obeying the law. S.F. Chronicle
3.
A California appeals court ruled Wednesday that it’s illegal to hold a cellphone for navigation while driving. State law prohibits “operating” a phone while driving. But until now, it’s been contested whether simply looking at the map on a screen in one’s hand should be included along with activities such as texting or playing games. The law’s intent, the appellate judges ruled, “is to prohibit drivers from holding and using a phone’s functions in any manner while driving.” Mounted phones are still OK. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
4.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Michael Hiltzik, the author of “Golden State: The Making of California.” Hiltzik discussed how California hardly fits many of the mythologies ascribed to it: The state fomented hatreds as it became a land of immigrants and ravaged its landscape while spearheading the environmental movement. Now home to one in eight Americans, California is no outlier, Hiltzik said: “California is America.”
Northern California
5.
Roughly 73 square miles of forested land along the lower Klamath River has been returned to the Yurok Tribe, according to an announcement on Thursday, in what appears to be the largest “land back” deal in state history. The transfer was accomplished after a two-decade conservation campaign that raised $56 million to buy properties owned by the timber industry. The Yurok people lived and fished along the Klamath for millennia before being displaced during the Gold Rush. “No words can describe how we feel,” said Joseph James, a Yurok leader. Grist | A.P.
- See gorgeous video of the region known as Blue Creek.
6.
The ACLU sued Sonoma County this week, accusing officials of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents’ homes in what the civil liberties group called a “runaway spying operation.” The county began the flights six years ago to uncover illegal cannabis cultivation. But according to the lawsuit, the program expanded into monitoring code violations at residential properties that netted millions of dollars in fines. The ACLU said the flights amounted to warrantless searches in violation of California Constitution. Press Democrat | SFist
Southern California
7.
A jury awarded $3 million to a female former prosecutor in Orange County after determining that District Attorney Todd Spitzer retaliated against her because she defended colleagues who reported being sexually harassed by one of Spitzer’s allies. Tracy Miller accused Spitzer of lobbing “gender-based slurs,” humiliating her in front of staff, and threatening to dismantle programs she had spearheaded. County taxpayers will be on the hook to pay the judgement, and possibly much more: another eight sexual harassment lawsuits have been filed. Voice of OC | L.A. Times
8.
Rancho Cucamonga is positioning itself to become America’s first bullet-train hub. A place of suburban subdivisions 40 miles east of Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga never developed a proper downtown. But it was chosen as the western terminus for a $12 billion private rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California that expects to open in 2028, at least two years before the better-known train project in the Central Valley. City leaders hope to leverage the hub to build a dense, walkable district. “We think it’s going to bring a lot of attention,” said Matt Burris, a city official. Bloomberg
9.
After a wildfire ripped through Altadena in January, hundreds of yard signs reading “Altadena Not for Sale” popped up on the burned lots. Many residents hoped to rebuild what had historically been a unique Black haven. But a recent analysis of real estate records found that developers have been buying up the lion’s share of listed lots. For many sellers, it just hasn’t made financial sense to rebuild, said Ann Marie Ahern, an Altadena real estate agent: “We wanted to keep things local, but unfortunately, Altadena is for sale.” L.A. Times
10.
The founder of the San Diego website GirlsDoPorn pleaded guilty on Thursday for his role in coercing hundreds of young women to agree to appear in explicit sex videos. The women were told the videos would go to private DVD collections overseas, but they were instead disseminated widely on the GirlsDoPorn website. Michael Pratt, a 42-year-old from New Zealand, fled the U.S. after being charged in 2019. He was captured three years later in Spain. He faces a minimum of 15 years in prison. S.D. Union-Tribune | Courthouse News
11.
Austrian-born Richard Neutra became one of the most important modernist architects by perfecting the Southern California style that blurs the boundary between inside and outside. One of his finest creations, the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, sold for a record $13 million in 2022. Architectural Digest found five Neutra homes that you can rent. A couple are only a few hundred dollars a night.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In 2015, an Arcata city worker happened upon a secret cabin in a forested municipal park. The two-story home had real windows, shelves loaded with books, wall art, and a neatly organized pantry. A new short film explores “the mysterious cabin in the Arcata Community Forest.” Lost Coast Outpost
- The wildlife photographer Sukhjot Singh captured an incredible video of a peregrine falcon known as Dragon Lady in San Diego’s Torrey Pines area. @singhsukhjot
- Chapman Hamborg had just returned home from taking a walk with his infant daughter in Huntington Beach when a police officer showed up. A neighbor thought Hamborg, who wore his long hair in a bun and clothes stained with paint, was homeless and had stolen the baby, the officer explained. L.A. Times | NBC Los Angeles
- “This is the road that in-the-know mountain ramblers take to avoid the high-season throngs of Sequoia and Big Sur.” The Wall Street Journal did a nice write-up with photos on Highway 395.
- Jacaranda season is here, when the charismatic South American trees burst into flaming purple along boulevards and parks from San Diego to Santa Barbara. The journalist Matt Stiles created an interactive map showing where Los Angeles’ more than 30,000 jacarandas are blooming. Jacarandamap.com | LAist
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