Good morning. It’s Friday, July 24.

• State attorney general is said to rig ballot language.
• Three people die in separate drownings on Trinity River.
• And a photo report on “the ‘Cheers’ of Oakland.”

Please note: The newsletter will be off for the next two weeks. Back in your inbox on Monday, Aug. 10.

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Statewide

1.

Republican backers of a voter ID measure on California’s November ballot accused Attorney General Rob Bonta of trying to rig the outcome after his office rewrote the title of the proposition. It originally read, “Establishes Additional Voter Identification and Citizenship Verification Requirements.” Now it says, “Prohibits Citizens from Voting Unless They Present Government Issued Identification.” Bonta defended the change as “more accurate.” The flare-up is just the latest to stem from California’s practice of assigning ballot-writing duty to the attorney general, a partisan post. The San Francisco Chronicle once called it “a huge disservice to the electorate.” Sacramento Bee | CBS News

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2.

Measles cases are surging in California. So far this year, there have been 52 confirmed cases, more than double the total from all of 2025. If the pace continues, it would be the state’s worst year for measles since 2015, when an outbreak at Disneyland drove cases. Of the 52 cases, 49 patients were either unvaccinated or had an unknown vaccination record. Most are teenagers or younger. Measles — a disease that can cause permanent disabilities or death — was declared eliminated in the U.S in 2000. Its resurgence has been attributed in part to rising vaccine hesitancy. L.A. Times

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3.

“There’s an industry that knows your name, your address, your phone number, and a guess at your income and your health. You’ve never bought anything from it. You’ve never signed up for anything it runs.”

Data brokers are companies you’ve never heard of, such as Acxiom and Epsilon. They hold so many data points on American consumers that they can make inferences about who is pregnant, low on cash, or the kind of person who enters sweepstakes. Thanks to a new California law, however, starting on Aug. 1 all brokers registered in the state must delete everything they have on you — but only if you ask. Fresh From Cache

• Submit your opt-out request.

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Editor’s note

Thursday’s newsletter had an errant link inviting readers to look up their latest sunrise in the event of permanent daylight saving time. Here is the correct link.

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Northern California

4.

In the span of one week, three people died in separate drownings on the Trinity River, officials said. The river flows out of the Trinity Alps in northwestern California and tumbles swiftly through tight canyons and broad valleys before meeting up with the Klamath River. It can be “deceptively dangerous,” with water so cold it incapacitates muscles even on a hot day, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. Officials cited a fierce current in each of the three drownings. S.F. Chronicle | SFGATE

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5.

When Joanna Ruth Shields, a 37-year-old skateboarder from Carlsbad, was found dead in the Big Sur backcountry on April 9, law enforcement deemed it “suspicious.” Hikers reported seeing “markings around her neck” that suggested strangulation and said a man claiming to be Shields’ friend appeared nervous. But on Thursday, the county coroner revealed Shields’ cause of death: seizures due to alcohol withdrawal. The markings on her body, they said, were consistent with “postmortem insect activity.” KSBW | S.F. Chronicle

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6.

“He’s just standing there, you know, on all fours, and he’s got drool coming down. And he walks around the couch and does a big ol’ pee on the floor.”

An estimated 60,000 black bears now roam California, triple the number in the 1990s. Few places feel their presence more acutely than along the shores of Lake Tahoe. Police field regular bear calls, residents spend thousands of dollars to bear-proof their homes, and bear advocates fight among themselves about how to handle the hungry beasts. The Wall Street Journal reported on the bears “running amok in Lake Tahoe.”

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7.

Few bars in Oakland open before noon. Club 2101 opens at 8:30 a.m., and within a couple hours there are often as many as two dozen people at the bar. Alton George Jr., 76, a former Army officer who favors Hennessy and Coke, is part of a devoted crew of regulars dubbed “The Breakfast Club.” “We all sit up here, eat, we talk bullshit, play pool, have a good time,” he said. “I go home, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next morning.” Oaklandside published a fantastic photo essay on what one patron called “the ‘Cheers’ of Oakland.”

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8.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Greg Sarris, an author and the tribal chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria in Sonoma County. Sarris’ six books, including “Grand Avenue,” which became an HBO original film in 1996, have made him an essential voice of Native America. Now he’s back with his first novel in 28 years, “The Last Human Bear,” the story of an old Pomo woman who spent a lifetime refusing what she inherited.

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Southern California

9.

Each year, only around 200 children and teens in the U.S. are diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, an extremely rare and highly malignant cancer. Yet in Ladera Ranch, an Orange County community of roughly 26,000 people, as many as nine kids have been diagnosed with the disease since 2007. At a community meeting on Tuesday, more than 300 residents turned up to voice their concerns. Doctors say Ewing sarcoma has no known environmental causes. But the residents were united behind one objective: an urgent halt to the spraying of pesticides. O.C. Register | The Guardian

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10.

Voters ousted George Gascón from his job as L.A. County district attorney in 2024 — but he is still costing taxpayers. The county has so far agreed to more than $14 million in settlements with prosecutors who accused him of retaliation. Gascón had sought to usher in an era of progressive criminal justice, including directives to minimize sentences and drop the use of “dehumanizing language” such as “criminal.” But by the time he lost his reelection bid, about two dozen employees of his office had sued, accusing Gascón’s team of lashing out against those who questioned his policies. L.A. Material

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11.

The homeless population is rising again in Los Angeles after two years of the number going down. A count performed in January found a 7.9% increase in the number of people living outdoors or in their vehicles. The data is a significant setback for Mayor Karen Bass, who made fighting homelessness a central plank of her political agenda and is facing a tough reelection battle. She sought to shift blame on Thursday to the Trump administration, which she said had driven up the costs of food and gas, “pushing more families to the edge.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Times

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• The architect Mickey Muennig gave the Big Sur region its signature flowing architecture. One of his most celebrated homes sits at the lip of a canyon, enveloped by oak and Monterey pines, on the Monterey Peninsula. In the last few years, the Owl House has undergone a restoration, with a new stone driveway, copper roof, and glass doors. Wallpaper published photos.
• In the early 2000s, Emily Shur was an in-demand celebrity photographer in Los Angeles for magazines such as GQ, Spin, and Rolling Stone. During shoots with a large-format camera, she would also take a quick Polaroid of her subjects. On Tuesday, the New Yorker published 20 of the images for the first time.
• The U.S. military is launching AI-powered drones over the Mojave Desert in tests that could reshape modern warfare. The two drones being tested, products of Southern California’s booming military tech industry, are not controlled by a pilot or remote control. They fly entirely on their own, making hundreds of split-second decisions to maneuver and attack targets. N.Y. Times
  • See video of Anduril’s YFQ-44A drone firing its first missile.
• If you ever wanted to feel like a character in an end-of-the-world movie, step off a train at the Palm Springs Amtrak Station. Located in the open desert, the salmon-colored structure is surrounded by mounds of sand that rise like snow drifts. A pair of travel vloggers went to take a look. YouTube (~11 mins)
• Grace Cathedral in San Francisco is the third largest Episcopal cathedral in the U.S. — and among the most elegant religious buildings of any faith. Now you can fly through a 3D rendering of the landmark thanks to a project by a software engineer named Vincent Woo, who shot and mashed together thousands of photos using a technique called Gaussian splatting. VincentWoo.com

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