Another round of snow incoming // New crisis at the Salton Sea

Good morning. It’s Monday, Feb. 27.

Forecast calls for more stormy weather through midweek.
Anger as court halts housing at Berkeley’s People’s Park.
And the shrinking Salton Sea faces another water crisis.

California storms

1.

Predicted snowfall in California through Wednesday. (via @RobMayeda)

“Don’t go to the mountains.”

After one of the most powerful storms to ever hit southwest California late last week, meteorologists said another stormy pattern with high winds and precipitation was on tap for much of the state between Sunday and Wednesday. A rare blizzard warning was issued for the northern Sierra, where forecasts called for up to 7 feet of snow. The snow line was not expected to be as low as last week, but still much lower than usual. Accuweather | Santa Cruz Sentinel | S.F. Chronicle

2.

Santa Barbara County’s Cachuma Lake on Sunday. (George Rose)

The last few days have brought more great snow pictures. Some favorites:

Statewide

3.

A new poll of California Republicans found that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had surged ahead of President Trump for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. About 37% of GOP voters backed DeSantis, while 29% preferred Trump, according to the poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. California’s 5.2 million registered Republican voters, who are scheduled to vote on the first “Super Tuesday” next March, could play an outsize role in the primary. Politico | L.A. Times

4.

Seven weeks after their 5-year-old son was swept away by floodwaters in San Luis Obispo County, Brian and Lindsy Doan are still searching for him, digging with shovels. In the early weeks, hundreds of crews joined the search, using drones and sonar devices. Now, the Doans feel like they’re going it alone. They bought kayaks and wading boots. Without cadaver dogs, they deployed their family dogs, Murphy and Willow. “If it was your child, when would you give up?” Lindsy Doan asked. Bay Area News Group

5.

The show at El Capitan on Feb. 24. (AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

Yosemite’s firefall is winding down. An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 visitors gathered each night over the last few weeks to catch the February phenomenon, when the angle of the setting sun casts one of El Capitan’s waterfalls in a fiery glow. The Wall Street Journal published a beautifully done photo essay on what makes it so special.

Northern California

6.

People’s Park in Berkeley last summer. (Jane Tyska/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

A state appeals court halted construction of student dorms at People’s Park in Berkeley on Friday in a ruling that said UC Berkeley’s environmental study of the project fell short. Two nonprofits had sued to stop the plan for desperately needed housing, saying it would rob neighbors of green space and damage the park’s historic value. In a statement Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California is being “held hostage by NIMBYs.” UC Berkeley vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court. Berkeleyside | KQED

7.

A cottage industry of office furniture resellers is capitalizing on the wave of tech companies drastically shrinking their physical footprints in San Francisco. In the tech industry, where workers are used to being pampered, there is now a glut of empty Herman Miller Aeron chairs, which retail for $1,805. Some are going for as cheap as a few hundred bucks. The New York Times wrote about the “furniture hustlers of Silicon Valley.”

8.

Earlier this month, a jury convicted a Salinas Valley bus driver in the 1981 rape and murder of a Carmel mother after new DNA testing proved that his blood was under her fingernail. The result delivered justice long denied, but it also vindicated the woman’s former husband, Michael Stone. He was never formally accused in the case, but he also never escaped suspicion, even among some of those close to him. For 40 years, Stone said, he’s been known as “the guy who killed his wife.” The Union | KSBW

Southern California

9.

A satellite view of the Salton Sea and Imperial Valley farmlands to the south. (USGS/NASA’s Earth Observatory)

California’s landlocked Salton Sea was born in the early 1900s after a canal burst. It’s been evaporating ever since, kept alive primarily with runoff from crops in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, which are themselves fed by the Colorado River. Now, with farms facing cuts to their river water, the lake is expected to shrink even faster. “Less water coming to the farmers, less water coming into the Salton Sea,” said Frank Ruiz, of California Audubon. “That’s just the pure math.” N.Y. Times

10.

It’s been 19 months since police destroyed a South Los Angeles neighborhood in a botched fireworks detonation, and displaced families are still living in a luxury hotel paid for by the city. In a story published Friday, City Councilman Curren Price seemed to blame the families for their predicament. Some are not accepting help, he said: “I think others are kind of gaming the system a little bit.” A day later, after his remarks triggered a wave of condemnation, Price issued an apology. L.A. Times

11.

Evgeniya Chernyshova is one of the primary reasons Harvey Weinstein will be in prison for the rest of his life. On Friday, Chernyshova revealed her identity as “Jane Doe 1” in the former movie mogul’s Los Angeles rape trial. Chernyshova, a former model who now runs a floral design business in Beverly Hills, said she remained anonymous until now because she felt humiliated. “I thought it was a good decision to protect my kids,” she said. “But it was a horrible decision for myself.” Hollywood Reporter

12.

Jeff Reitz started visiting Disneyland in 2012, when he was unemployed, as a way to get some exercise. Then he went every day for an astonishing 2,995 days straight — or eight years, three months, and 13 days. The Guinness World Records recently recognized the feat as a world record. “It actually started out as a joke,” Reitz said. People | L.A. Times

Correction

An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the name of an Eastern Sierra highway. It’s U.S. 395, not I-395.

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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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