Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 27.
- Biggest snow storm of the season is forecast to slam Sierra.
- Activists plan new recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom.
- And the most underrated destinations in the Golden State.
Statewide
1.
Forecasters said a storm moving into California from Thursday through Sunday would deliver the biggest wallop of snow to the Cascades and Sierra Nevada yet this season, with as much as 12 feet in upper elevations and accumulation as low as the foothills. The storm is expected to be crippling for mountain communities, as travel becomes all but impossible, weather officials said. Meteorologists called the forecast “impressive,” “eye popping,” and a “big deal.” Accuweather
- See storm timeline. 👉 @NWSSacramento
2.
The U.S. government sued Monday to stop the largest supermarket merger in history between Kroger and Albertsons. The Federal Trade Commission said the $25 billion deal — which would bring together properties including Vons, Safeway, and Ralphs — would result in fewer stores and higher prices at a time when the portion of Americans’ income spent on food has reached a three-decade high. Nine states including California joined the F.T.C.’s case. The companies said they “look forward to litigating this action in court.” Wall Street Journal | L.A. Times
3.
Conservative activists launched a fresh campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday. The group Rescue California accused Newsom of absconding to pursue presidential ambitions while the state faces rising crime and a yawning budget deficit. “We cannot do this trajectory for three more years,” said recall leader Anne Dunsmore, referring to when Newsom terms out in 2027. Voters overwhelmingly defeated the only recall attempt against Newsom to make it onto the statewide ballot in 2021. CalMatters | Politico
4.
A Central Coast college town surrounded by dramatic green peaks. The island home of adorable rust-colored foxes. And a lazy river valley through lush Northern California wine country.
Travel writer Chelsee Lowe gave her picks for “the most underrated destinations in the Golden State.” Travel+Leisure
5.
For centuries, people thought California was an island. Hundreds of maps produced before the 19th century showed California as a carrot-shaped landmass hovering off of the mainland. While geographically incorrect, separateness has remained a persistent trait of the state in more ways than one, wrote Frank Jacobs, the author of “Strange Maps”: “Both the 1849 Gold Rush and the birth of Hollywood, half a century later, merely confirmed the image of California in the popular mind as the final destination of the American Dream — there to flourish or wilt.” Atlas Obscura
- Explore maps showing California as an island. 👉 Stanford Libraries
Northern California
6.
UC Berkeley professor Elizabeth Hoover claimed she was Native American her whole life. A colleague, Audra Simpson, recalled how Hoover would don an unusual amount of beads and Native American signifiers. There was something suspicious about it, Simpson said: “It looked like an Etsy shop exploded on her.” When Hoover was forced to admit that she’s white, she insisted it was an honest mistake. Her critics say she has been lying for more than a decade. New Yorker
7.
For a series on what Bon Appétit readers eat and how much they spend doing it, an anonymous orchestra conductor said he earned $950,000 a year in San Francisco. In one week, he spent $3,506.41 dining out — and $0 on groceries. Bon Appétit
- The conductor’s astonishing pay was met with skepticism from members of San Francisco’s classical music community. Critic Joshua Kosman endeavored to unmask the mysterious musician. “Nobody could come up with an even remotely plausible candidate,” he wrote. S.F. Chronicle
8.
A scientist-turned-relationship coach named Jessica Gold is charging “powerful nerds” in the Bay Area up to $15,000 for relationship advice. To train, she spent four years living in a tantric community on a Southeast Asian island. Engineers and scientists she’s worked with often “don’t trust the embodiment, somatics, conscious sexuality world,” Gold said. “But then they saw that I went to MIT.” SFGATE
9.
A drone operator had his aircraft in the air and recording when a landslide peeled away from a coastal bluff along the Lost Coast Headlands in Humboldt County on Saturday. Two people standing near the cliff’s edge can be seen scrambling away as the ground fĐ°lls. Bureau of Land Management officials said landslides have been occurring periodically there since January. Redheaded Blackbelt
- See before-and-after photos of the crumpled cliff. 👉 @2buav
Southern California
10.
For years, Alexander Smirnov lived a quiet, seemingly unremarkable life in the suburbs of Los Angeles. But he worked secretly as an informant who fed information to the FBI on the shadowy world of oligarchs and public officials around the globe. His job came to an abrupt halt this month when Smirnov was charged with what prosecutors described as a brazen lie: that a Ukrainian energy company had arranged to pay $5 million in bribes to both President Biden and his son Hunter. On Monday, a judge in California ordered him to remain jailed until trial. Politico | L.A. Times
11.
An older adult renter in L.A. County needs about $2,900 a month to cover basic necessities, according to a calculation by the Elder Index. That’s about 50% more than an average social security check. For people like Karen Kropp, 78, the longtime owner of a bookshop in Arcadia, that math is untenable. She is closing The Book Rack at the end of the month and moving in with her sister in Albuquerque. “I put everything I had into this place,” she said. “Everything.” L.A. Times
12.
The Los Angeles writer Patric Gagne was diagnosed with sociopathic personality disorder in her 20s. Her forthcoming memoir, “Sociopath,” aims to destigmatize her experience of remorselessness and lack of empathy. When she tells people about her diagnosis, they sometimes spill their secrets, Gagne told an interviewer:
“What secrets do they tell you?”
“Oh, man. I was sitting across from a man at a dinner party — this was like two years ago — and my diagnosis came up, and 30 seconds afterward he said, ‘You know, I have thoughts of killing my wife a lot.'” N.Y. Times Magazine
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