A federal appeals court on Wednesday struck down California’s prohibition on the sale of semiautomatic rifles to adults under 21. Lawmakers enacted the ban after a 19-year-old opened fire at a Poway synagogue in 2019. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, said the law violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms. “America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army,” Judge Ryan D. Nelson wrote. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.

California taxpayers would help fund abortions for uninsured women under a new plan Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday as part of an effort to make the state a national haven for abortion rights. He also proposed tax incentives explicitly aimed at luring employers from states that limit access to abortions. We’re “making sure that all women — not just those in California — know that this state continues to recognize their fundamental rights,” he said in a statement. A.P. | Sacramento Bee

A Lloyd Wright, an Eichler, and a minimalist marvel in the desert — here are three eye-catching homes now on the market across California:

1. Southern California is home to some of the country’s finest examples of Mayan Revival-style architecture, most designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. But his son, Lloyd Wright, was also a master in the style. His landmark Derby House in Glendale, completed in 1926, was listed for $3.3 million. L.A. Times | dwell

2. This home in Walnut Creek is no ordinary Eichler — the celebrated tract homes built during the postwar housing boom. It is a rare “super” Eichler, meaning it comes with an exceptionally large floor plan. It was built in 1969 by Claude Oakland, a star in Eichler’s stable of architects. Asking: $2.5 million. dwell

3. The Los Angeles firm Woods + Dangaran wanted this contemporary modernist home in Palm Springs to blend into the surrounding boulders and desert. To build it, they moved massive boulders aside, then pushed them back in place after construction. Asking: $5.75 million. The Spaces | Architectural Digest

Workers at two Starbucks locations in Santa Cruz became the first in California to vote in favor of unionizing on Wednesday, joining the burgeoning national union Starbucks Workers United. Since the effort to organize Starbucks workers went public last August, 63 stores have voted to join, upending decades of union-free labor at the company’s corporate-owned stores. More than 200 others have filed petitions for union elections. KSBW | S.F. Chronicle

When Alex Harrison first testified more than a decade ago that his revered high school tennis coach had abused him, he was ostracized by his insular hometown in Marin County. The case ended in a mistrial, and the coach, Normandie Burgos, walked free. By the time Harrison told his story again last week, as part of a civil trial against the school district, circumstances had changed: Burgos was in prison for molesting two other students. This time, a jury awarded Harrison $10 million in damages. N.Y. Times (gift article)

In 2018, a pair of entrepreneurs sank their life savings into the $1.4 million price for the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, once a rollicking silver town on the slopes of the Inyo Mountains. Their plan was to reinvent the town as a tourist destination with overnight accommodations in original homes and hotel rooms. One of the new owners, Brent Underwood, has been living full-time in Cerro Gordo for two years, overseeing the renovation. He gave a video tour of their progress. YouTube (~28 mins)

A California nonprofit sent scuba divers into the water along Lake Tahoe’s 72-mile shoreline to collect garbage for a first-of-its-kind project completed on Tuesday. They made 189 dives over 81 days and collected 25,200 pounds of trash, including cell phones, sunglasses, plastic bottles, cigarette butts, lost wallets, condoms, “no littering” signs, and entire lampposts. They plan to repeat the cleanups at other lakes in the region. The Guardian | KCRA

The snowfall this year has been disappointing, but it was still enough to engorge the waterways of Yosemite, fed almost entirely by snowmelt. The park’s soaring waterfalls typically reach peak volume in May and June, which means rainbows are breaking out all over. Below, a close-up of Bridalveil Fall. 👇

● ●

See a livestream of Yosemite Falls, one of the world’s tallest waterfalls. 👉 Yosemite.org

A wildfire that erupted Wednesday near Laguna Niguel barreled through a parched canyon lined with mansions, destroying at least 20 homes, fire officials said. Fire experts said the ferocity of the fire underscored how drought conditions have primed fuels to ignite. The Coastal fire was fanned to 200 acres not by notorious Santa Ana winds but by cool gusts blowing in from the Pacific. “I guess it’s just disheartening that we’re already seeing a fire that’s this aggressive and it’s only May,” said Brandt Maxwell, a meteorologist. L.A. Times

Aerial video captured homes engulfed in flames. @CBSLA

In June 2021, a third-grade teacher in Glendale showed videos celebrating gay pride to her students. A year later, she’s been transferred from her classroom for safety reasons after receiving threats. Parents have packed school board meetings to express strongly held views — at times shouting or jeering — about whether and when such lessons are appropriate in the classroom. At one point a school board member walked out during public comments. L.A. Times

“A celebration of sexual diversity.” See the video that drew the strongest objections. 👉 YouTube

“Brazen.” “Absurd.” “Ridiculous.”

In December 2020, the Orange County lawyer John Eastman pressed a Pennsylvania lawmaker to retabulate the state’s vote — tossing tens of thousands of absentee ballots — to hand victory to Donald Trump, according newly released emails. The episode, wrote the political reporter David A. Graham, perfectly encapsulated what Judge David Carter meant when he described the actions of Eastman and Trump as “a coup in search of a legal theory.” Politico | The Atlantic

Even if Eastman’s gambit succeeded, Biden would have won Pennsylvania anyway. Washington Post (gift article)

One America News, the right-wing cable network based in San Diego, aired a segment Monday walking back false claims about voter fraud in Georgia as part of a settlement with two election workers who sued for defamation. OAN is also facing a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems. The litigation, however, has not stopped the network from continuing to aggressively push election fraud conspiracy theories. Times of San Diego | Daily Beast