Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Nov. 25.

• “Brutality” of raids aired at congressional hearing.
• Oakland faces steep cost in fight against coal.
• And Sebastopol gets a Little Caesars by mistake.

Please note: The newsletter will pause for the rest of the week and return on Monday, Dec. 1. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. 🦃 🍁

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Statewide

1.

Christine Bish, a Republican activist and real estate agent in Sacramento, spent years doing opposition research on politicians, including Adam Schiff, who she became convinced committed mortgage fraud. When President Trump posted a document on Truth Social in July that he said proved the California Democrat was a “thief,” Bish was stunned. She recognized the page by its markings as one she had sent to an administration tip line. Bish’s experience is providing a window into the unusual tactics Trump loyalists have used to build its case against Schiff. Washington Post

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2.

A pastor talked about how the pews at his church have gone empty.

A woman fought back tears recounting how she hadn’t seen her husband since he was grabbed leaving a laundromat on June 21.

A school principal recalled his horror finding out that one of his students had no parents to return home to.

During a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday, dozens of people testified about the upheaval caused by federal immigration operations that have resulted in roughly 9,000 arrests in the L.A. area since June. N.Y. Times | Long Beach Post

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3.

Other dispatches from the deportation crackdown:

• As the harvest winds down, small Central Valley towns are facing the prospect that many of the seasonal field workers who help power the local economy may not return. In Firebaugh, tax receipts are already down, forcing leaders to weigh cuts to their police force, parks, and senior center. CalMatters
• When a Green Card holder spent his life savings to buy a car wash in Los Angeles, it seemed like a safe investment. But after federal agents repeatedly descended on the business this summer, he is now unsure it can survive. “Americans don’t want to do this work,” he said. L.A. Times
• About four in five Latinos think Trump administration policies are harming Latinos, a new Pew survey found. The finding represents a sharp decline in approval of the president’s job performance since the start of his term. Reuters | NPR

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4.

The Atlantic wrote about the return of involuntary treatment in California:

“The general consensus in America has long been that people, regardless of how ill they are, should be given the greatest possible degree of autonomy. Now many political leaders — including the governor of California and the mayor of San Francisco — are acknowledging that Californians are dying in the streets from the freedom they’ve been afforded.”

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Northern California

5.

Under pressure from environmentalists, Oakland reneged on a contract allowing coal shipments from its waterfront in 2016. That set off a chain of events that undermined a Kentucky coal company and left the city potentially liable for hundreds of millions of dollars. In September, Oakland exhausted its last option to appeal in a legal saga that could push the struggling city toward bankruptcy. “We lost, lost, lost, and we continue to lose,” said Ken Houston, an Oakland city councilman. N.Y. Times

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6.

After years of relatively stable crash rates on the Golden Gate Bridge, 2025 has seen a spike in motorists driving into the tollbooths. In the last four months, crashes have become a nearly weekly phenomenon — and it’s unclear why. Bridge officials cited “people on their phones,” among other forms of driver misbehavior. “The toll plaza is stationary,” said David Rivera, the Golden Gate Bridge manager. “It doesn’t move, and it’s been the same way for a number of years.” What’s changed, he said, is drivers: “They’re not paying attention.” S.F. Chronicle

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7.

San Quentin has a baseball team that plays against college, high school, and men’s league teams from outside the prison walls. The inmates are known as formidable opponents, but the games have become about much more than baseball: they are as rehabilitative as therapy or vocational training. “When we’re out here, it’s more than just the feeling of playing baseball,” said Angelo Mechi. “It’s the feeling of being free again.” Reporter Eli Tan wrote a moving portrait of “the best baseball team behind bars.” N.Y. Times

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8.

At first glance, 2025 appears to have been a good year for the stock market. But the Silicon Valley stocks known as the “Magnificent Seven” — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — have been responsible for spectacular gains despite an otherwise softening economy. An index that strips them out — call it the S&P 493 — reveals a far weaker picture. The Washington Post charted the divergent fortunes of the “Magnificent Seven” and the rest of the stock market.

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9.

Sebastopol is about to get a Little Caesars, which wouldn’t normally be noteworthy. But the sleepy Sonoma County town with a high concentration of yoga studios and crystal shops has banned chain stores since 2018. Asked to explain, Sebastopol issued a notice that said, in short, “oops”: “Upon review, the city … acknowledges that administrative approvals occurred in error.” Steve DeCosse, owner of Acre Pizza, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the bright orange sign. “There it was,” he said. “Little Caesars. How the hell did that happen?” CBS News | Press Democrat

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Southern California

10.

More than a year ago, utility companies cut service to part of Rancho Palos Verdes because of landslide movement. Yet the occupants of roughly 120 homes have stayed put, living off-grid “like we’re out in the middle of the Mojave Desert,” as one resident put it. Joe Badame and his wife do laundry on sunny days and obsessively turn off lights to preserve their solar power capacity. “The inconvenience is worth it,” he said, taking in the view of the Pacific. “We can’t afford a place like this anywhere else.” L.A. Times

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11.

A recent report showing that many incoming freshmen at UC San Diego can’t do middle-school math generated some strong opinions:

• The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle: “Instead of rectifying disparities in preparation and achievement, people decided it would be simpler to adjust the measurements.”
• The Argument’s Kelsey Piper: “Here is the absurd image that the report slowly and painstakingly paints: A number of high schools are awarding A grades to AP Calculus students who do not have any calculus skills.”
• The Wall Street Journal editorial board: “Remember when the University of California kicked off a trend by eliminating the SAT test as an admissions requirement five years ago? Now arrives the dispiriting result.”

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12.

For more than half a century, the Los Angeles photographer Anthony Hernandez sought to create a record of the unseen corners of his hometown. In 1979 and 1980, it was the bus stops that intrigued him. He set up his large-format camera and tripod at stops around Los Angeles to create formally composed images of individuals engaged in the ostensibly mundane act of waiting. Yet through Hernandez’s lens, multiple critics said, scenes hummed with tension. Flashbak published a set of pictures from “Public Transit Areas.”

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The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412