Good morning. It’s Friday, June 9.
- Lawmaker’s wife gets huge payments from lobbying group.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes 28th Amendment for guns.
- And professionals hold ketamine retreats in Santa Cruz.
Statewide
1.
“Money finds a way in politics.”
The League of California Cities paid Annie Lam’s consulting business nearly $600,000 over the last year and a half as it lobbied lawmakers on bills related to housing, homelessness, and public safety. Lam happens to be the wife of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, one of the most powerful politicians in Sacramento. The arrangement is legal, and Lam said her husband’s job has nothing to do with her success. L.A. Times
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called for a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would harden federal gun laws, including measures such as an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. The long-shot proposal was met with mockery from Republicans and skepticism from political analysts, who portrayed it as an attempt to elevate the governor’s national profile. Newsom, 55, has said he has “sub-zero interest” in running for president in 2024. But he terms out of the governor’s office in 2026, just in time for the 2028 campaign. Politico | S.F. Chronicle
3.
Two views on California’s reparations debate:
- Rev. Amos C. Brown, pictured above, a San Francisco pastor who was born in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era: “As a state, we need to have a moral compass that this brutal system of slavery was wrong, and its legacy was embraced here in California.” N.Y. Times
- Columnist George Will: “Reparations are another example of a metastasizing phenomenon: solemn silliness. All calculations of costs are fanciful, depending as they do on capricious inclusions and exclusions of categories of people from access to the trough.” Washington Post
4.
A study released Thursday found that more than one third of California families lack enough money to cover their basic needs. The United Way’s methodology included costs such as housing and health care to provide a nuanced portrait of poverty in the state, where it found roughly 3.7 million households, or 34% of the total, fall below a “real cost” threshold to make ends meet. The columnist Dan Walters said if lawmakers wanted to address the problem they would get serious – “even ruthless” – about eliminating barriers to housing construction. CalMatters | Sacramento Bee
5.
Mercedes-Benz on Thursday became the first carmaker to get permission to sell autonomous vehicles to the California public, beating Tesla, the world’s leading electric car company. California authorized the German carmaker to sell technology that does all the driving but requires a human to stand by to take control at a moment’s notice. That means drivers could watch videos, text, or play Tetris. For now, the system is only available on highways, in daylight, and during clear weather. Reuters | The Verge
Northern California
6.
San Francisco leaders on Thursday announced a plan to stamp out open-air drug markets with a six-month deployment of 130 sheriff’s deputies who will arrest dealers and force addicts into treatment. Nearly 60 people have already been arrested since last week, officials said. The crackdown might be unpopular with some, said Sheriff Paul Miyamoto. But he added, “In many cases, individuals suffering from drug addiction only seek help when they hit their lowest point, and the sad truth for many is that the low point is incarceration.” KQED | S.F. Chronicle
7.
Shortly after being sworn in as district attorney in Alameda County, Pamela Price announced that her office would re-examine eight cases of killings by police officers going back more than 15 years. The prosecutor, who campaigned on a liberal platform, said her predecessors routinely gave officers a pass: “Every case that we’re looking at now was determined under a double standard.” In a front-page story, the N.Y. Times noted that such reviews have rarely led to criminal charges and may unrealistically raise the hopes of grieving families.
8.
Recruiters for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis targeted a Catholic church that runs a migrant shelter in the Texas border city of El Paso in search of asylum-seekers they could send to Sacramento on private jets. El Paso’s Catholic bishop, Mark Seitz, called the stunt immoral. “Without going into the details of the politics of it, it does seem clear that they were being used not out concern for the migrants but in an effort to make a political point,” he said. A.P.
9.
“It’s OK to collapse.”
Midcareer professionals are holding ketamine retreats in Santa Cruz as a way to optimize their professional performance and work-life balance. The sessions, wrote Ellen Huet, have “echoes of Ken Kesey’s acid tests.” After a recent session, several participants likened the experience to visiting the celestial moon of the “Avatar” movies. One woman, a nonprofit director from the Bay Area, began to cry. She said she met herself as a child and came to terms with how she blamed herself for her childhood. Bloomberg
Southern California
10.
Marvel, once bankrupt, made its first movie, “Iron Man,” in 2008. That kicked off a run of 32 superhero movies that have grossed more than $29 billion, making the franchise the most successful in entertainment history. The reporter Michael Schulman wrote a fascinating account of how the Marvel Cinematic Universe swallowed Hollywood whole, along with some of its most talented actors. Leonardo DiCaprio is quoted in the piece offering advice to Timothée Chalamet: “No hard drugs and no superhero movies.” New Yorker
11.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Maureen Ryan, author of the new book “Burn it Down” on abuse and exploitation on the sets of shows such as “Lost” and “Saturday Night Live.” Ryan described a culture in Hollywood that excuses reprehensible and even criminal behavior under the banner of creativity. The end result, she said: people who abuse their power tend to get away with it.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In 1976, the brothers Jeff and Mark Rosenberg opened what they claimed was the first outdoor roller skate rental anywhere in Venice Beach. Soon the boardwalk was swarmed by rollerskaters — shaggy-haired, shirtless, and carefree. Mark Rosenberg posted a great series of photos. 👉 Flickr
- Ruth Solorzano was 13 when her stepfather first raped her at their apartment in Citrus Heights. Over the next four years, the sexual abuse led her to get six abortions. The S.F. Chronicle told the gut-wrenching story of how Solorzano brought her abuser to justice.
- “I swear this was not the case pre-pandemic.” Video captured from a cable car route on San Francisco’s Powell Street showed the bleakness of the retail exodus. 👉 Reddit
- If you have gone into the ocean off Santa Barbara or San Diego recently, chances are good that you had company. A study found that 97% of the time when people were in the water at two locations, juvenile great white sharks were close by. See video of a typical encounter between a surfer and shark from last summer. 👉 TheMalibuArtist/YouTube
- In a clearing along Humboldt County’s famed Avenue of the Giants, a private campground offers cabins and cottages for nature lovers seeking a more luxurious experience. Giant Redwoods RV & Cabin Destination was included in a list of the 25 best campgrounds in the Pacific region. The Dyrt
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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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