Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 28.
- Protesters shut down Israeli lecture at UC Berkeley.
- Macy’s plans to close store in downtown San Francisco.
- And the unleashed Klamath River finds its historic path.
Statewide
1.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “Intifada! Intifada!” stormed a UC Berkeley auditorium where Jewish students had gathered to hear a talk by an Israeli lawyer late Monday, breaking a door and smashing windows. Danielle Sobkin, an organizer, said the mob grabbed one attendee, spat on him, and called him a “dirty Jew.” Several students attending the event were injured, reports said. UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof condemned the protesters. “What happened last night was despicable,” he said. Jewish News | S.F. Chronicle
- Tiny Ojai became the latest California city to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza on Monday. L.A. Times
2.
California ranks 46th among U.S. states for providing preventive care to kids, according to a 2022 federal government survey. As a result, more than 70% of children aren’t getting recommended screenings, and 65% of 2-year-olds are not fully vaccinated. The problem isn’t insurance; some 97% of California children have health coverage. Many parents simply can’t get appointments. L.A. Times
3.
The March 5 primary election is on track to have one of the lowest turnouts in California history. Of California’s 22 million registered voters, just 1.7 million, or roughly 8%, had returned their mail-in ballots as of Tuesday. Meager turnout, which generally favors Republicans, could prove pivotal in deciding which party controls the House. Ten of the country’s most competitive races are in California, according to the Cook Political Report. Politico
Northern California
4.
Macy’s will close its massive flagship store in downtown San Francisco, city officials revealed on Tuesday, another devastating blow for an area that has faced a retail exodus since the pandemic. The move comes as Macy’s announced plans to shutter 30% of its locations nationwide because of flagging sales. The loss of the San Francisco location, which opened in 1947 and spans nearly an entire block, represents one of the biggest retail closures the city has ever seen. The timing was ominous for Mayor London Breed, who is facing a tough reelection campaign. S.F. Chronicle | KQED
- Employees said they believed rampant theft played a role in the decision. “It happens every day,” employee Steve Dalisay said. SF Standard
5.
San Francisco on Tuesday became among the first U.S. cities to formally apologize to Black residents for the city’s role in perpetuating racism and displacement. Boston was the first to apologize in 2022. The resolution says Black San Franciscans were “victims of systemic and structural discrimination, institutional racism, targeted acts of violence, and atrocities.” The apology came out of a reparations task force that made more than 100 recommendations, including $5 million cash payments for every eligible Black adult. Supervisors have endorsed the payouts. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle
6.
In a chamber known for chaos, a speaker on Tuesday held up a picture of a Shasta County supervisor’s license plate with the numbers “666” and demanded to know if the she worships Satan. “For the love of God, repent,” Laura Hobbs said during a Board of Supervisors meeting. Supervisor Mary Rickert, a moderate Republican on a board dominated by far-right conservatives, explained that the numbers were issued by the DMV without her input, adding, “You just embarrassed yourself.” Record Searchlight | KRCR
- Four months after California banned hand-counting of ballots, Shasta County isn’t dropping the issue. A panel on Monday urged the board to defy the state law. Record Searchlight
7.
The Klamath River is returning to its historic path after three reservoirs were drained in preparation for the removal of decommissioned dams along the Northern California waterway. Some visitors have been disturbed by a seemingly grim scene that has replaced the reservoirs: gray, sticky mudflats and masses of dead fish. But that’s how the early stage of healing was expected to look, said Barry McCovey, a Yurok tribal member, who likened the dams to blockages in a human circulatory system: “The river is on the operating table getting those blockages removed.” Arizona Republic | North Coast Journal
8.
Apple executives told workers on Tuesday that the company is abandoning its effort to build an autonomous electric car, shocking the roughly 2,000 people working on the multibillion-dollar project, Bloomberg reported. Apple began work on a car around 2014, but struggled almost from the start with leadership and technology challenges. More recently, the industry has been roiled by regulatory battles and cooling demand. Executives said many of the electric car staffers will be transferred to the artificial intelligence division. Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal
Southern California
9.
The Border Patrol is dropping off hundreds of migrants on the streets of San Diego after a county-run welcome center closed last week over lack of funds. Reporter Wendy Fry found a crowd of disoriented migrants with missing shoelaces — removed by border agents — at a trolley station over the weekend. Some didn’t know where they were. Other didn’t know whether they were still being detained. A man who spoke Arabic called a friend in Egypt and pressed his phone into Fry’s hand: “Is my friend still in custody?” the man on the phone asked, half a world away. CalMatters
10.
Fruit and nut tycoons Lynda and Stewart Resnick are among the most generous donors to academic and cultural institutions in America. They’ve given $90 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; $36 million to the Aspen Institute; and more than $750 million to Caltech. They are also, according to their critics, climate criminals who bought up vast amounts of San Joaquin Valley farmland, consumed 130 billion gallons of water a year, and transformed California’s landscape. “We’ve been attacked for water for generations,” Lynda Resnick said. “We’re not taking anyone’s water out of their tap.” N.Y. Times
- Journalist Mark Arax on Stewart Resnick: “The land to him isn’t real. It’s an economy of scale on a scale no one’s ever tried here.” California Sunday Magazine (2018)
11.
A middle school community in Beverly Hills has been shaken by news that students used artificial intelligence to create fake nude photos of their classmates. Police officials said they were conducting an investigation. The district schools superintendent, Michael Bregy, portrayed the incident as part of a growing scourge affecting schools across the country. He urged Congress “to take immediate and decisive action to protect our children.” NBC News | L.A. Times
California archive
12.
The predecessor to Highway 1 between Ventura and Santa Barbara was essentially a series of piers.
After a surge of automobile ownership in the first decade of the 1900s, a group from Santa Barbara raised private and public funds to construct a one-and-a-half-mile route made from eucalyptus beams skirting the coastal mountains that blocked easy passage between the two cities.
On Nov. 24, 1912, thousands of people attended a dedication celebration that featured beef and coffee served on long tables and speeches by local dignitaries. News dailies marveled at the highway’s spectacular scenery — “a pleasure not to be enjoyed anywhere in the country,” one wrote.
On opening day, a correspondent for the Santa Barbara Morning Press reported that a few accidents and instances of car trouble caused traffic. In a charming bit of naïveté, he added, “But all that will in time be overcome.”
After a little more than a decade, the causeway was replaced by landfill and paved road. Further north, crews used steam shovels and dynamite to lay highway along the harrowingly steep Big Sur coast, finishing the job in 1937. It was then that the north-south artery known to Californians simply as “the One” was completed, extending 656 miles from the white sands of Orange County to the misty redwoods of Mendocino County.
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled the name of a journalist. He is Mark Arax, not Max Arax.
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