Good morning. It’s Friday, April 17.

• Xavier Becerra surges in California governor’s race.
• D4vd is arrested on suspicion of murder in Los Angeles.
• And a tiny desert town that just wants to be left alone.

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Statewide

1.

Since February, the waters off California have been hovering at record or near-record heat, according to readings from the Scripps Pier in La Jolla. Deep, persistent, and widespread, the marine heat wave is likely to last through the year, with the potential for highs in the upper 70s this summer, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist. The phenomenon is undoubtedly linked to climate change, he aded. “From an ocean warmth perspective, we are now entering a pretty dramatic period” for this part of the world, he said. L.A. Times

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2.

Gov. Gavin Newsom employed a dubious tactic to move copies of his new memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry.” He offered a free copy to anyone on his formidable email list of supporters who donates any amount to his political action committee. So a person who gave $1, for example, got a roughly $25 book in return. Funded by the PAC itself, the transactions amounted to a full two-thirds of the total print sales of the book, propelling it onto bestseller lists. The achievement was promptly touted in a press release by Newsom’s team. N.Y. Times

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3.

The first major poll after Eric Swalwell’s exit from the race for California governor showed a rise of support for Xavier Becerra. According to the Emerson College survey, released Thursday, the former U.S. secretary of health and human services now has 10% voter support, up from 3% last month. He trails three candidates: Republican Steve Hilton with 17% support; Chad Bianco, also Republican, with 14%; and Democrat Tom Steyer at 14%. Katie Porter’s standing rose two percentage points to 10%. Bloomberg | Sacramento Bee

• Tom Steyer has spent staggering $120 million on advertising. “Weeks before the June primary, he has already nearly quadrupled the roughly $33 million spent by Gavin Newsom’s 2018 run for governor,” Politico reported.

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4.

Darwin just wants to be left alone. To get to the tiny town on the outskirts of Death Valley, visitors turn off a lonely desert highway then plunge 5 miles into the middle of nowhere, past a sign that warns “No gas or services in Darwin.” There are also no schools, churches, street lights, or sewers. Yet Darwin is home for a hardy band of roughly 30 aging artists and retirees drawn by the promise of freedom and cheap housing. SFGATE profiled one of California’s oddest little towns.

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5.

The California quail, our state bird, is an exquisitely round creature. Abundant throughout the western half the state, they prefer the ground, scurrying about in large groups that seldom take flight. Stylish black tufts adorn their foreheads, and the feathers across their bellies are arrayed in the colors of a California sunset. A couple weeks ago the photographer Christian Howard captured a great close-up of a quail looking fabulous in Point Reyes National Seashore.

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Northern California

6.

Bloomberg reported on how Anthropic learned that its latest artificial intelligence model was too dangerous to be released:

“In testing an earlier version of the model, they found dozens of examples of ‘concerning’ behavior, including not following human direction and even, in rare cases, covering its tracks when violating human instructions. In one incident, the model developed a multi-step exploit to escape the limited environment it was inside to gain broad access to the internet and begin to publish material online, all on its own initiative.”

• It’s been estimated that the latest AI chatbots contain trillions of mathematical functions. The technology baffles its own creators. “That’s a problem,” wrote the New York Times Magazine.

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7.

Meet the latest arrival at Safari West, a wildlife preserve near Santa Rosa. Born on Monday, the yet-to-be-named baby giraffe was rejected by his mother. So veterinarians have been hand-feeding him every two hours from a Coke bottle filled with goat milk. Keepers have even stayed overnight in his stall to be sure he feels cared for. The photojournalist John Burgess got some heart-warming pictures. 👉 Press Democrat

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8.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Peter Richardson, author of the new book “Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine.” Born out of the 1960s Bay Area, the music magazine pioneered covering everything that surrounded rock and roll — the drugs, the politics, the rebellion. “It was an audacious idea, really, to just bet everything on the significance of the counterculture and its music,” Richardson said.

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Southern California

9.

Los Angeles police arrested the musician D4vd on Thursday on suspicion of murder in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in the trunk of his Tesla in Hollywood last September. It was unclear what specific evidence led to the arrest. Lawyers for D4vd, 21, whose name is David Burke, said they would “vigorously defend” his innocence. “He was not the cause of her death,” they said. Celeste Rivas Hernandez was 13 when she ran away from home in 2024, law enforcement sources have said. L.A. Times | A.P.

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10.

Quality of life in Los Angeles is lower now than during the depths of the pandemic, a new survey found. UCLA’s Quality of Life Index has been measuring public satisfaction in the city each year since 2016. The results have never been more grim, with rankings down in nearly all categories, including the economy, public safety, and relations across racial and religious groups. Despite that, 80% of respondents said L.A. offers the opportunity to live a good life. “I think people still have hope and still think things can get better,” said UCLA’s Zev Yaroslavsky. L.A. Times | City News Service

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11.

For 42 years, John Ayala delivered the mail in the same Los Angeles neighborhood. He liked to talk sports with people along his route. He sometimes invited residents to shows he played with his metal band. When delivering college materials, Ayala would ask where soon-to-be graduates were headed. He helped create a sense of community. So when the gregarious 61-year-old arrived for his retirement party, hundreds of people were there. Ayala wiped tears as he slowly made his way through the crowd. L.A. Times

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• “The chute’s pull-door swung down, crashing onto [Christopher] Dennis’s throat. He struggled, hands and feet free of the ground — like Superman in flight, but all wrong.” The Believer wrote about an entirely avoidable problem that is killing dozens of homeless people across the country.
• In October, a young climber slipped off the end of his rope high up on Yosemite’s El Capitan and fell to his death. His father wrote about his personal torment in Outside magazine, how he drunkenly watched video of the accident and how he blamed himself for instilling fearlessness in his son.
• Photographers captured rare video of bioluminescent fireworms in a Long Beach lagoon. The glow of the fireworms, bright green squiggles set against the inky black water, is created when females release their eggs, signaling to males to swim there and release their own gametes. See videos. 👉 @patrickc_la | @markgirardeau
• The Atlantic’s Matteo Wong put in stark terms the power now being harnessed by Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence companies: “In theory, nothing governs these companies other than their own morals and their investors. They are developing the power to upend nations and economies. These are the AI superpowers.“
• A 432-square-foot studio in Laguna Beach has been listed for $18.8 million. It has no garage, no bedroom closet, and one bathroom. But you should see the backyard. SFGATE

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