Good morning. It’s Friday, Sept. 19.

• President Trump threatens to go after critical broadcasters.
• Anger mounts over gerrymandering push in rural California.
• And father of three Marines fights to avoid deportation.

Please note: The newsletter will be off on Monday. Back in your inbox on Tuesday.

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Jimmy Kimmel suspension

1.

ABC executives initially supported Jimmy Kimmel after his controversial Charlie Kirk comments on Monday, according to reports citing sources inside ABC and its parent company Disney. But pressure mounted. Some advertisers were skittish. On Wednesday, after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC, Kimmel planned to address the situation in that night’s monologue. But the head of television at Disney, Dana Walden, and other executives felt his planned remarks “did not strike the right tone,” a source said. Walden huddled with Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, and with only an hour to go before taping was to begin, the decision came down. Disney would suspend the show rather than risk making matters worse. L.A. Times | Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times

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2.

More than 100 protesters crowded onto the sidewalk outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is taped, on Thursday. Another sizable group of entertainment workers demonstrated at the gates of Walt Disney’s headquarters in Burbank. The protest signs included: “Did you even watch Andor?” “ABC bent the knee,” “Here Comes Hitler: A new comedy from ABC,” and “Jimmy said nothing wrong!” Deadline | L.A. Times | Hollywood Reporter

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3.

The Trump administration signaled plans on Thursday to go after other targets in the entertainment industry. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump called the networks “an arm of the Democrat party” who are out to get him, saying they should “maybe” have their licenses revoked. “It will be up to Brendan Carr,” Trump said. For his part, Carr, the FCC chairman, warned networks of their obligation to act in the “public interest.” “If broadcasters don’t like that, simple solution: they can turn their license in to the FCC,” he said. N.Y. Times | Bloomberg

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4.

Democrats, Hollywood figures, and free-speech advocates expressed unqualified outrage over the Kimmel suspension, while the response from conservatives ranged from concern to outright glee. A sampling of reactions:

• Wall Street Journal editorial board: “Maybe now our progressive friends understand why these columns oppose government control of business and fought liberal cancel culture.”
• Washington Post editorial board: “The warriors against progressive government censorship were out in force Thursday to explain why it’s different when conservatives do the same thing.”
• Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, said she used to consider the right to free speech sacrosanct. “I don’t feel that way anymore,” she said. “I feel like something’s changed culturally.”
• New York Times’ David French: “We’ve never seen a comprehensive attack on free speech like this in our lifetimes.”
• House Speaker Mike Johnson: “You don’t have a First Amendment right to stay employed.”
• Former President Obama: “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent.
• David Letterman: “We all see where this is going, correct?”

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Statewide

5.

Pete Buttigieg said on Thursday that he was surprised by a passage from Kamala Harris’ forthcoming book in which she said he was her first choice for a presidential running mate in 2024 but believed she couldn’t risk choosing a gay man. “And I think Pete also knew that,” Harris wrote. Buttigieg disagreed: “My experience in politics has been that the way that you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories,” he said. Politico

• Harris said she reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom right after President Biden dropped out of the race, but he ducked her. “Hiking. Will call back,” she wrote in her notes that day. But he never did. Politico

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6.

Solar-powered cars are almost here. Aptera Motors, based in Carlsbad, created sinuous solar panels that conform to the shape of its new electric car, while a tough glass skin protects it from a hailstorm or stray freeway pebble. Aptera plans to ship a $40,000 car as soon as next year that can travel as far as 40 miles a day from the sun alone. Two other solar car companies, both in California, are also getting ready to debut their own offerings. Wall Street Journal

• See the Aptera’s car in action. 👉 YouTube

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7.

Of roughly two dozen owl species in the U.S., 14 can be found in California. Among them is the long-eared owl, superbly camouflaged birds that cruise stealthily over grasslands, plunging their talons into voles before they know what hit them. A photograph of a long-eared owl in the Bay Area’s Coyote Hills Regional Park, seen above, was just honored along with three other images of California birds in the 2025 Audubon Photography Awards. See winning photos. 👉 The Atlantic | Audubon

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Northern California

8.

“It just feels like an assault on rural California.”

In solidly conservative Modoc County, where cattle outnumber people and secessionists flags flutter in the breeze, many locals have more in common with Texas than California. Yet the ranching region in state’s northeastern corner would be folded into the same congressional district as uber-liberal Marin County if Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gerrymandering push prevails. CalMatters talked to the exasperated residents of Modoc County.

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9.

Frank Somerville, a fixture of Bay Area television news for decades, has been arrested five times since 2021, after a new arrest on Monday and another one last November that was reported for the first time on Thursday. In the November episode, Somerville, 67, punched his girlfriend, then punched his daughter when she tried to intervene, according to police. “I was completely drunk off my ass, and I’m ashamed,” he said on Thursday. Somerville has blamed his head-spinning downfall on alcohol but said he’s been sober since December. S.F. Chronicle

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10.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Jeff Chang, the author of a new Bruce Lee biography, “Water Mirror Echo.” Lee, born in San Francisco’s Chinatown, was rejected by Hollywood at a time of emergent Asian American political consciousness. When he finally broke through, culminating with “Enter the Dragon” in 1973, he became a symbol of community pride. “They begin to really see him as a hero,” Chang said. “He is somebody who represents the rising generation’s idea of trying to cast themselves in a new light, to be able to shake off the shackles of the past.”

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Southern California

11.

Narciso Barranco, an Orange County landscaper who has lived in the U.S. since 1994, has an American wife and three sons who served in the Marines. But Barranco, 48, is in the country unlawfully, and the U.S. is trying to deport him. His story has become a rallying point for those who think President Trump’s deportation crackdown is going too far, the New York Times wrote: “A slight man with a reserved demeanor, Mr. Barranco had built a life in the shadows, tending the lawns and flower beds of Southern California’s suburban homes and commercial properties. He had no criminal record.”

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• The Los Angeles artist Andrew Hem creates dreamlike works that seem to capture figures caught in moments of deep introspection. A child of Cambodian refugees and former Disney illustrator, he has been drawn to themes of hope and interconnection, he said, portraying “us as human beings in the same boat.” Hi-Fructose Magazine
• A man found himself in handcuffs after launching from a tree swing at Lake Tahoe. On Sept. 6, a group of daredevils were putting the finishing touches on a rig that would send swingers 100 feet in the air when law enforcement pulled up in a boat. After a tense exchange, an officer gave a warning: “If you do decide to jump, you’re going to jail.” SFGATE
  • See video of the stunt. 👉 YouTube
• In an interview, Tucker Carlson stopped just short of accusing Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, of ordering the murder of one of his former researchers, Suchir Balaji. In August 2024, Balaji left OpenAI and accused the company of breaking copyright law. A few months later, he was found dead in his San Francisco apartment. The authorities ruled it a suicide. Fortune | Gizmodo
  • Watch the exchange.
• The far Northern California city of Yreka grew out of the Gold Rush, a period of prosperity reflected in its magnificent old buildings. Near the charming downtown, a 1895 Queen Anne Revival with a wraparound porch and a third floor that once served as a ballroom was recently listed for $995,000. N.Y. Times
• Yosemite is home to roughly 90 mammals, as well as hundreds of birds, amphibians, and reptiles — and Robb Hirsch has spent 20 years photographing them. His work is featured in a new volume, “Yosemite Wildlife: The Wonder of Animal Life in California’s Sierra Nevada.” PetaPixel published a selection.
  
  

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