Good morning. It’s Friday, Jul 18.

• Border Patrol raids come to California’s capital.
• State parole officer is fatally shot in Oakland.
• And Fresno freeway pillars become public art.

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Statewide

1.

After a federal judge barred the Trump administration from racial profiling during immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area, Border Patrol agents on Thursday descended on a Home Depot in Sacramento — where the ruling did not apply. Twelve people were arrested, officials said. After the raid, Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading deportation efforts in Los Angeles, shared a video of himself standing in front of the statehouse overlaid by the Kanye West song “Power.” “We’re here,” he said, “and we’re not going anywhere.” N.Y. Times | CalMatters

• Sacramento officials condemned the operation more than 500 miles from the Mexican border. “How do these individuals who are meant to protect our borders ostensibly end up in a place like Sacramento?” said Councilmember Caity Maple. KCRA | L.A. Times

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2.

The Justice Department asked sheriffs across California on Thursday to provide information on all noncitizens in their jails, warning that if they failed to comply, the department would “pursue all available means of obtaining the data.” Robert Luna, the sheriff of Los Angeles County, said the requests could conflict with California’s sanctuary law, which generally prohibits local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement. He signaled that his agency would not honor the request. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times

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Northern California

3.

A gunman fatally shot a state parole officer inside his Oakland office Thursday afternoon before fleeing into the city, the authorities said. A massive manhunt culminated hours later in the arrest of a parolee, Bryan Hall, aged 48. What prompted the shooting was not immediately clear, reports said. Joshua Byrd, 40, was the first employee of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to die in the line of duty since 2018. He left behind a wife and three children. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said flags would be flown at half-staff in the state capitol in his honor. Mercury News | NBC Bay Area

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4.

Elon Musk’s breakup with President Trump has created an open lane for the billionaire’s nemesis, Sam Altman, to influence artificial intelligence regulation and secure government support for an infrastructure build-out. A longtime Democrat who once compared Trump to Hitler, Altman has quietly forged an unlikely relationship with the president, dining with him and speaking on the phone from time to time. During a gathering in June, Trump introduced Altman as “a very brilliant man.” On July 4, Altman announced that he is no longer a Democrat, saying the party had drifted too far to the left. Wall Street Journal

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5.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum toured the former Alcatraz penitentiary in the San Francisco Bay on Thursday to start work, in Burgum’s words, “to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.” Bondi told a Fox News crew, which accompanied the officials, that the decrepit structure that closed in 1963 due to crumbling infrastructure and prohibitive repair costs “needs a lot of work.” S.F. Chronicle | KQED

• The San Francisco Standard on Trump’s “hallucinatory” reopening plan: “Think building a wall across the Southern border was hard? Wait till the Army Corps of Engineers gets a load of the missing sewage, electric, gas, and water systems on the island.”

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6.

Twenty giant pillars beneath the 180 freeway in Fresno now serve as the canvas for one of city’s largest public art displays. The San Pablo Park murals, which will have an official unveiling later this month, were made possible through a state-funded beautification program. Robert Amador, one of the artists, said his eyes kept welling up at the sight of so many Fresno artists at work together. “This is, for sure, almost like a mecca that’s being created in Fresno,” he said. “I can’t really think of anything else that’s like this.” Fresnoland

• See more pillar photos. 👉 @nusevillegasart

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7.

There’s a hotel on Monterey Bay with a “dog stick library.” Sanctuary Beach Resort has courted the dog lover demographic, offering water stations, pet beds, and treats on hand. When designer Chele McKee was brought in to freshen up the guest experience, she borrowed the tongue-in-cheek idea to add a booth with sticks for dogs. It paid off in a viral social media post last December. TimeOut’s Erika Mailman booked a stay with her family: It’s dog heaven, she wrote, but be prepared to be awakened by barking.

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8.

Fun fact: As recently as 1997, westbound motorists paid $1 to cross the Bay Bridge, equivalent to the buying power of roughly $2 in 2025. Today, it costs $8. With an average of around 120,000 vehicles paying to cross the bridge each day, the tolls add up to roughly a quarter billion dollars a year. Where does all that money go? Immersed in salty sea and air, the Bay Area’s seven state-owned toll bridges are in perpetual decline. Several are nearing centennials. As the San Francisco Chronicle explained earlier this year, the work to keep them in operation — reinforcing, repairing, painting — is relentless and increasingly costly.

Not-so-fun fact: In December, transportation officials approved new hikes that will bring the toll to at least $10.50 by 2030, roughly quadrupling in inflation-adjusted terms what motorists have paid throughout most of the bridge’s history. Aware of the grumbling from commuters, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Victoria Fleming sounded like a parent during the meeting. “This is just part of life,” she said. “We can’t buy this huge piece of infrastructure and expect it not to need care.”

• See a fantastic drone video of the Bay Bridge toll plaza during the morning commute by photographer Eric Thurber. 👉 @thurber_shots

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Southern California

9.

On June 30, friends, family, and activists gathered in downtown Los Angeles to condemn what they said was the kidnapping of Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon by masked men. A lawyer for the family said Calderon, 41, was held hostage in a warehouse and pressured by ICE agents to sign self-deportation paperwork. A GoFundMe was set up to support her. On Thursday, the authorities announced federal charges against Calderon, saying her story was entirely made up. CBS News | FOX 11

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10.

The reality TV show star Spencer Pratt recently told his 2 million TikTok followers that proposed state legislation would let L.A. County buy burned-out lots in Pacific Palisades and convert them into dense low-income housing. An X user @HustleBitch_ told his nearly 124,000 followers that the highest levels of state government were involved in a plot to intentionally torch Los Angeles: “Burn it. Buy it. Rebuild it how they want.”

None of that is true, wrote the Los Angeles Times’ Liam Dillon. But the furor over such conspiracy theories is having real-world consequences.

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11.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. He described the havoc that President Trump’s whipsawing tariff announcements are creating for the port economy. “Wherever the prices are going to land, they’re going to land,” he said. “Companies will have to make adjustments. But not knowing if another announcement is coming out this afternoon or whether it’s going to be two days, two weeks, or two months puts a lot of stress on these services providers and companies.”

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• A world of granite spires jutting from the forest in Shasta County; a Swiss-like village on a picturesque lake in the Eastern Sierra; and a little town in gorgeous Scott Valley where the vibe is quaint and the people are friendly. KQED put together a great list of alternatives to Yosemite that “are just as beautiful — and much less crowded.”
• A group of Indigenous teenagers completed a kayak trip along the entire 310 miles of the Klamath River, from headwaters to sea, last Friday. The trip, which took a month, commemorated the freeing of the river, made navigable by the removal of four dams last year. CNN | A.P.
  • Watch an inspiring short video on the adventure. 👉 Ríos to Rivers
• Trader Joe’s has found itself in the crosshairs of an aggressive animal rights group over the chain’s association with a Petaluma poultry supplier. Activists have marched down store aisles chanting slogans and removing chicken from customers’ carts, the company said. This month, Trader Joe’s sought relief from a judge. Press Democrat
• “It’s infuriating. … [We’re] arresting gardeners.” The Atlantic’s Nick Miroff spoke with a dozen current and former ICE agents and officers about sinking morale at the agency.
• The Santa Monica Mountains are molehills compared to Los Angeles’ much taller San Gabriels. But they rise directly out of the sea, granting hikers breathtaking views. The Desert Sun included the range’s Sandstone Peak in a short piece on “the most treasured views in California.“

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