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Good morning. It’s Thursday, Feb. 29.
- Governor faces scrutiny over carve-out in wage law.
- Billionaire Marc Benioff quietly buys up Hawaiian town.
- And celebrated comedian Richard Lewis dies at 76.
Statewide
1.
California’s new fast food wage law will exempt chains that sell bread as a standalone item after Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed for the carve-out on behalf of a donor who owns Panera franchises, Bloomberg reported. The exemption benefits Greg Flynn, a billionaire who has contributed generously to the governor’s causes over the years, including $100,000 to fight a recall effort. During deliberations over the law, which lifts the minimum wage to $20 an hour from $16 starting April 1, labor leaders accepted the oddly specific bread carve-out to win Newsom’s support, a source said. “The rationale was the governor’s longstanding relationship with a Panera franchisee, the person said,” Bloomberg reported.
- Republicans demanded an investigation. “Can any franchisee get an exemption from the $20 minimum wage law or do they need to donate more than $150k to Newsom first?” wrote James Gallagher, the Assembly Republican leader. S.F. Chronicle
2.
In October 2020, police responded to a man behaving erratically at a convenience store in Stockton. When Shayne Sutherland, 29, made a sudden move, the officers tackled him, held him with his stomach down on the ground, and cuffed his hands. That could have ended the encounter. Instead, the officers held Sutherland in the so-called prone restraint position for more than eight minutes, pressing on his back. Sutherland panicked. “Please let me breathe,” he cried out. Moments later, he turned blue. Then he died. An investigative report explored how California police have continued using prone restraint despite knowing its risks. KQED
- See body-cam video of Sutherland’s arrest. 👉 YouTube
3.
Selling insurance has become one of the least desirable jobs in California. Brian Harper, an 18-year insurance veteran in the Sierra foothills near Yosemite, used to find good home and auto policies for his clients. “Those days just don’t happen anymore,” he said. “You never get to deliver good news — every rate change is an increase, every coverage change is a restriction. My staff and I, we’ve had to build up some scar tissue.” Wall Street Journal
4.
The National Weather Service office in Reno issued an uncommon blizzard warning on Wednesday for a stretch of the Sierra Nevada from north of Lake Tahoe to south of Yosemite, effective from 4 a.m. Thursday through 10 a.m. Sunday. Forecasters said the storm would drop up to 13 feet of snow at the highest elevations while packing wind gusts in excess of 100 mph. The Reno office warned anyone tempted to venture outside: “If you do travel, bring a winter survival kit with you as you may get stranded in your vehicle for an extended period of time.” Weather Channel | Fox Weather
- See the storm timeline. 👉 @NWSSacramento
- UCLA’s Daniel Swain explained the science behind the forecast: “It’s the sweet spot of a ‘cold enough’ and ‘moist enough’ and ‘uplifty-enough’ setup, and those don’t come along too often!” Weather West
Northern California
5.
In 2021, Petaluma became the first town in America to ban new gas stations. Then Calistoga adopted a ban — then American Canyon, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Yountville, and several other wine country towns. Three years after Petaluma started the movement, Napa County just notched another first, becoming the only county where every municipality has prohibited new gas stations. There are now signs of an emerging backlash. Oil industry fliers have started showing up in mailboxes that read: “Banning gas stations = higher gas prices.” Grist
6.
Reporter Dara Kerr looked into why the billionaire Marc Benioff has been quietly buying up the Hawaiian town of Waimea. The islands have long attracted tech billionaires. But Benioff’s land purchases have been different, concentrated in a rural residential town. Hardly anyone knows his plans. While Kerr was reporting her story, Benioff called and mentioned that he knew where she was staying: “Unnerved, I asked how he knew, and he said, ‘It’s my job. You have a job and I have a job.’ During the interview, he brings up more personal details about me and my family.” NPR
7.
San Francisco appears poised to approve a pair of ballot measures next week that will mandate drug screening for recipients of public benefits and expand police surveillance tools. Malcolm Weitz, 41, runs a cannabis store in San Francisco. He voted for former district attorney Chesa Boudin, the face of the progressive prosecutor movement, in 2019, then supported his recall in 2022. He plans to vote in favor of both of the new law-and-order measures. “The pendulum is swinging,” he said. “It’s coming hard-core back to the center.” Wall Street Journal
Southern California
8.
A former Chula Vista City Council member and her brother pleaded guilty on Wednesday to felony grand theft for fraudulently obtaining state and federal relief funds during the pandemic. Andrea Cardenas, who abruptly resigned from the council last week, and her brother Jesus Cardenas obtained the funds for their influential political consultancy, Grassroots Resources. Prosecutors said the siblings claimed to have 34 employees. In reality, officials said, none of the workers were on the consultancy’s payroll, and the money was diverted to personal expenses and credit card bills. NBC 7 San Diego | City News Service
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9.
During Donald Trump’s presidency, surveys showed that public support for shoring up the southern border wall hovered mostly in the 30% range. Polling in recent months has pegged support between 52% and 57%. Reporter Aaron Blake suggested that removal of Trump’s unpopular brand and concern about record migrant encounters at the border have combined to shift public opinion. That’s despite broad pessimism that expanding the wall would do much good, he wrote: “But increasingly, given the situation, it seems Americans are ready to try something different.” Washington Post
10.
During the pandemic shutdown, Jessica Jacobs Dirschel, a mother of four in Topanga Canyon, was watching a documentary series about wrongful convictions on Netflix. She hit pause and called one of the attorneys on the show. When the lawyer answered, Dirschel said, “I want to help.” The attorney gave her a murder case to look into. Soon, Dirschel was obsessively poring over police reports and interrogation recordings. At one point, a detective advised her, “The only way you can really clear these guys, is to prove who actually did it.” In a gripping long read, reporter Harriet Ryan told the unlikely story of how Dirschel did just that. L.A. Times
11.
In several cases, a Los Angeles judge has ruled that police officers and firefighters who defied vaccination and testing mandates during the pandemic are not entitled to get their jobs back. In his latest decision, Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff said the city acted within its rights when it fired former officer Natalie Stringer, who refused to submit to Covid-19 testing, based on her “failure to comply with a valid condition of employment.” Thirteen LAPD employees have died of Covid-19, according to the latest department count. L.A. Times
12.
The celebrated comedian Richard Lewis died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack. He was 76. Lewis, a regular performer in clubs for decades, mined his neuroses for laughs, producing standup specials with titles such as “I’m in Pain,” “I’m Exhausted,” and “I’m Doomed.” As a fictionalized version of himself in HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” he and creator Larry David were constantly kvetching and arguing. David released a statement Wednesday: “[Richard] had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him.” L.A. Times | Washington Post
- Richard Lewis: a life in pictures. 👉 The Guardian
Correction
Wednesday’s newsletter misspelled the name of a journalist. He is Mark Arax, not Max Arax.
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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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