Good morning. It’s Thursday, Feb. 19.

• Authorities ask why Tahoe skiers risked storm.
• A predictable embezzling scandal in San Diego.
• And Mark Zuckerberg testifies in Instagram trial.

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Statewide

1.

The bodies of eight skiers were found in the Lake Tahoe area after one of the deadliest avalanches in U.S. history, the authorities said on Wednesday. A ninth person remained missing and was presumed dead. The backcountry ski group, including six others who survived, had little time to react when a wall of snow the length of a football field roared to life on Tuesday, said Capt. Russell Greene of the Nevada County sheriff’s office: “Someone saw the avalanche, yelled ‘Avalanche!’ and it overtook them rather quickly.” A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

• Mothers of Sugar Bowl youth team skiers. The spouse of a rescue team member. Three mountain guides. Here’s what is known about the dead, whose names were not released. 👉 N.Y. Times | Mercury News | KTVU

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2.

“Why were they out on a day like that?”

The Truckee mountain guide company, Blackbird Mountain Guides, sent 15 people out for a three-day backcountry skiing adventure on Sunday even as forecasters warned of a powerful winter storm with the potential to trigger “large avalanches.” Many people, including the authorities, were trying to understand why. “Those are the decisions that the guide company clearly had made,” Nevada County Sheriff Shannon Moon said Wednesday. “We’re still in conversations with them on the decision factors.” S.F. Chronicle | Sacramento Bee

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3.

Appearing before a rapt audience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders implored California voters to fight “grotesque” levels of economic inequality by supporting a proposed tax on billionaires. The Vermont senator railed against the “greed and arrogance and moral turpitude” of billionaires, comparing them to the oligarchs of past centuries. “We’ve got some bad news for them, starting right here in California,” he thundered. “These billionaires are going to learn that we are still living in a democratic society where the people have some power.” N.Y. Times | The Guardian

• California has the highest concentration of billionaires in the U.S. But the ultrawealthy have ways to avoid taxes that are unavailable to most Americans, wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Ryan.

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4.

After the sewage system collapsed last year at James Monroe Middle School in Ridgecrest, faculty members had to use porta-potties in the absence of money for repairs. Ultimately, the district closed the school altogether. Like many districts across the state, Sierra Sands Unified is facing a financial crisis after a 2019 state law lifted the statute of limitations on sexual abuse lawsuits. April Moore, the superintendent, said victims deserve justice. But when limited resources are siphoned away from students, “then I see injustice at a very large scale.” Bloomberg

• “It’s become unmanageable.” It’s not just lawsuits hobbling school districts. For some, annual insurance costs have shot up by $1 million or more, CalMatters reported.

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Northern California

5.

In just five years, the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust in Berkeley has become one of the wealthiest tribal land trusts in the nation, with $54 million in assets. Founded by a pair of tribal activists, Sogorea Te’ created the windfall through what it calls a “shuumi land tax” that allows donors to atone for “benefiting from the genocide waged against the Ohlone people.” “Pay Shuumi” yard signs dot lawns across the East Bay. Other tribal groups have been among the sharpest critics of the fundraising mechanism. Donors believe the money supports the broader Ohlone community, said Vincent Medina, president of the Ohlone Indian Tribe: “It does not.” Berkeleyside

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6.

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s city-issued SUV was stolen on Monday after someone broke into her City Hall office and grabbed the keys, reports said. The vehicle was later recovered in Vallejo, officials said. Police are investigating but no suspect has been identified. After years of rising public anger over street dysfunction in Oakland, the city saw significant declines across multiple categories of crime in 2025. California Post | Oaklandside

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7.

The White House tapped Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a former Stanford professor who was embraced by conservatives for his criticism of coronavirus lockdowns, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an acting basis. Bhattacharya will also continue in his current role as director of the National Institutes of Health. A medical economist, Bhattacharya has no formal training in public health. He has said he supports vaccination for childhood diseases. N.Y. Times | Washington Post

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8.

The photographer Mimi Plumb grew up in 1970s Walnut Creek, when suburbia overran the East Bay. A sense of upheaval made its way into her work — in images of a house on fire, overturned cars, a gas station being swallowed by the Salton Sea. Decades later, Plumb’s pictures “burn with prescience,” the critic Quinn Moreland wrote, as crises that were just beginning “now saturate daily life.” A collection of Plumb’s work is featured in a new book, “Blazing Light,” and a major museum exhibition. Aperture | Arts ATL

• See more of Plumb’s work.

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Southern California

9.

In 2014, Amy Knox was convicted of embezzling from a construction firm. A year later, she pleaded to stealing from a subsequent employer. Later still, Knox was hired as chief operating officer at Harm Reduction Coalition of San Diego, a nonprofit that partnered with the county to distribute overdose reversal drugs. Last Thursday, yet again, Knox was charged with embezzling. Prosecutors say she used taxpayer dollars to pay for breast implants and a trip to Hawaii, among other personal indulgences. No one seems to be able to explain the vetting debacle. Voice of San Diego

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10.

Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Wednesday in a Los Angeles courtroom, where he defended Meta on the witness stand against a lawsuit that claims social media platforms harm children. Zuckerberg, pugnacious at times, denied that Meta targets children. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiff, cited a 2018 internal Instagram document that read: “If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.” “And yet you say that we would never do that,” said Lanier. “You’re mischaracterizing this,” Zuckerberg replied, using a phrase he uttered repeatedly. Reuters | Wall Street Journal

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11.

In 2014, crews completed a $1 billion widening of the 405 between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles in an effort to bring relief to the notoriously congested freeway. Traffic only got worse, making the project a canonical example of “induced demand.” Now officials have approved plans to dig a subway parallel to the 405. “With a projected ridership of more than 100,000 passengers per day and a decade-plus development timeline, it’s the most ambitious transit expansion currently planned for a region that has been on a transit-building tear,” Bloomberg wrote.

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12.

The artist Sayre Gomez created a scale model of Los Angeles’ graffiti towers. Sharon Mizota writes for the Los Angeles Times: “The sculpture is over 8 feet tall and amazingly accurate, recording the details of each individual work of graffiti, the textures of concrete and iron, and the construction debris left haphazardly about the site. Gomez’s attention to recreating these nuances not only provides views of the towers that can’t be seen from the street but asks visitors to pay attention to the waste, neglect and thwarted possibility they symbolize in our urban core.”

• “Precious Moments” is on display at the David Kordansky Gallery through March 1.

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