All of the must-read news about the Golden State in one place.
Hi, I’m Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times. I survey more than 100 news sites, then send you a tightly crafted daily digest — no ads, no AI, just essential news.
Each weekday at about 6 a.m., you’ll get an email like this.
Good morning. It’s Monday, Nov. 9.
- El Niño drives tropical ecosystems to California.
- Nvidia investigates CEO over affair with suspected spy.
- And a cruise ship pianist is found treading water off coast.
Statewide
1.
Whale sharks from the Gulf of California seen off Malibu.
Giant manta rays recorded off the coast of San Diego.
And colorful reef fish found poking around Southern California piers hundreds of miles north of their normal range.
The balmy waters produced during this year’s El Niño are driving tropical ecosystems north, the Atlantic reported. In recorded history, “this is the most profound movement of tropical fishes into California that anyone’s ever seen,” one research biologist said.
2.
Sandy Friend’s 8-year-old son was raped, tortured, and murdered by a man who was later sentenced to death in California. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to commute his sentence along with 547 other condemned prisoners last Thursday was a betrayal, she said: “Each case has a family left behind. Each case has a story of a horrific, violent end to someone’s loved one. To wipe all of that away with one stroke of a pen, without looking at the details or looking into the eyes of the families, was completely unthinkable.” CalMatters
- Despite Newsom’s move, capital punishment remains legal in California, and prosecutors say they intend to keep pursuing it as they see appropriate. N.Y. Times
3.
The Associated Press called three more statewide propositions over the weekend, leaving five out of the 14 measures still undecided. All three of the latest calls were defeats:
- Proposition 41 would have required state audits of new special taxes before they appear on the ballot. The measure was backed by foes of the billionaire tax, which is still undecided.
- Proposition 43 would have raised the vote threshold for local taxes. It was pushed by the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and opposed by local government officials, unions, and affordable housing advocates.
- Proposition 45 would have expedited environmental reviews for “essential” projects such as new housing and healthcare facilities. It was placed on the ballot by the California Chamber of Commerce and opposed by environmental groups.
See the latest proposition results.
4.
President Trump’s appointment of the immigration hawk Stephen Miller as his new White House chief of staff on Friday drew rebukes even from Republican lawmakers. Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana called it a “horrible decision”; Sen. Thom Tillis said the the move was “a colossal mistake”; a third GOP lawmaker said he was in “utter disbelief.” California Democrats saw the elevation of Miller, a California native who has portrayed his home state as a den of “illegal alien invaders,” as a sign that Trump intends to forge ahead with his deportation campaign despite the midterm rout. L.A. Times | Fox News | The Hill
5.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, vowed on Sunday to lead a series of investigations into Trump administration officials. Among the targets: Elon Musk, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. “This is the most corrupt family to ever be in the Oval Office,” the Long Beach Democrat said. “The days of us not fighting back are over.” Attorney General Todd Blanche responded to Garcia’s remarks by suggesting that he could investigate Democratic lawmakers. Politico | Reuters
Northern California
6.
Nvidia said on Sunday that it was opening an investigation into its powerful CEO, Jensen Huang, after he acknowledged having an affair with a woman whom U.S. intelligence determined to be a Chinese spy. American officials concluded last year that Alice Huang, a Chinese citizen and tech executive, was collecting information on behalf of Beijing while working with the Santa Clara chipmaker to build data centers in Asia. Jensen Huang, 63, apologized to his staff on Sunday. “I owe my family and all of you an apology,” he wrote. “There is no excuse for what I did.” Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times
- President Trump was briefed about Jensen Huang’s entanglement in 2025. Trump, who has relished the Nvidia leader’s public flattery of him, chose not to do anything about it, the New York Times reported.
7.
The University of California quietly bought an oceanfront Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay for $193 million, an industry publication reported last week. UC officials have declined to say what their plans are for the 261-room resort. The buyer is UC Investments, which manages about $236 billion in retirement, endowment, and other assets for the school system. At least one Republican lawmaker demanded to know why UC was getting into the luxury hotel business. S.F. Chronicle | Coastside News
8.
After Dan White killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978, a psychiatrist named Martin Blinder testified at his trial. Whenever White was struggling, Blinder said, he would “start gorging himself on junk foods — Twinkies, Coca-Cola.” Several studies, he noted, showed that junk food “can precipitate antisocial and even violent behavior.” The testimony forever associated the psychiatrist with what became known as the Twinkie defense. Blinder, who spent the rest of his career trying to correct the record, died in the Bay Area on Oct. 30. He was 89. N.Y. Times
9.
On the night of Aug. 19, someone splattered white paint across a Berkeley mural honoring the immigrant experience. Its defacement rallied the neighborhood, turning the mural into something of a shrine. The artist Mokhtar Paki, himself an immigrant from Iran, spent 40 days painstakingly restoring the work, titled “Sinbad Voyage,” which depicts migrants crammed in a boat. But he left some of the vandal’s white paint. “It’s part of the history of this mural,” he said. Berkeleyside
Southern California
10.
Locals officials gathered in Kern County on Friday to celebrate the resumption of oil drilling after several years of regulatory uncertainty. For decades, California’s Democrats sought to reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. But last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom negotiated a plan to allow drilling in Kern County in response to soaring gas prices. Supervisor Leticia Perez said the milestone could not be overstated: “What the money does for Kern County, for parks, for roads, for nonprofits, for just quality of life, loving our neighbors stuff. I mean, we have to have money to do that.” Bakersfield Californian | KERO
11.
A pair of fishermen found a pianist for a Royal Caribbean cruise ship bobbing in the water nearly 20 miles off the coast of Southern California on Friday. Grant Garrett and Sean Norton were fishing for marlin when they saw the man. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s a human being. Stop the boat,” Garrett recalled. All the man said was, “Thank you. I thought I was gonna die.” The circumstances that led to his fall from the boat remained murky, but officials believe the man went overboard roughly nine hours before he was found. CBS News
12.
Sales of medjool dates have exploded in the last decade as consumers have moved away from ultra-processed snacks toward healthier alternatives. But few consumers know about the skilled palmeros who pick the sweet fruit from the crowns of palm trees cultivated in the Coachella Valley. Theirs is a job of punishing heat, terrifying heights, and sharp tools. The Offrange wrote about the valley’s “ghosts of the grove”: “As far as harrowing job descriptions go, the palmero is up there with trapeze artist and surgeon.”
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