Good morning. It’s Tuesday, March 19.
- Eye-popping salaries at Central Valley hospital.
- Spring heralds bear invasion in mountain village.
- And a historic movie theater revival in Los Angeles.
Statewide
1.
Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera is paying its executives double what their counterparts are making at comparable hospitals across California, tax records showed. The hospital’s total executive payroll in 2021 was nearly $27 million; for similar children’s hospitals in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, and Orange County, that figure was less than $13.5 million. Valley Children’s CEO Todd Suntrapak alone collected $5.1 million, records showed. The lavish salaries, funded by charitable donations and Medi-Cal, pose a jarring contrast with the impoverished patients the hospital serves, wrote the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
2.
Water so scarce that people can’t take proper showers.
Unauthorized migrants promised mansions and pensions.
Children seized from their parents and sterilized.
This is California according to Donald Trump, who is pledging to undo the laws of a state that he casts as “a symbol of our nation’s decline” if given another term in the White House. In a column, Doyle McManus said Trump would likely face fewer roadblocks than in the past, after his allies forged detailed plans to concentrate far more authority directly in his hands. L.A. Times
Northern California
3.
An elderly driver was arrested after her Mercedes sport utility vehicle barreled into a bus stop in San Francisco on Saturday killing three members of a family — and gravely injuring their 3-month-old infant — police said on Monday. Mary Fong Lau, 78, was charged with three counts of felony vehicular manslaughter, felony reckless driving causing bodily injury, and other violations. A witness recalled seeing Lau emerge from her vehicle after the crash. “She had this reaction like, ‘What have I done?'” she said. S.F. Chronicle | SF Standard
- More than 100 people, including Mayor London Breed, gathered around a makeshift memorial on Monday. “I’m just trying to process this right now,” Breed said. SF Standard | Mission Local
4.
In many major cities, the unclaimed dead are buried in communal cemetery plots. Since the 1980s, San Francisco has embraced the symbolism of its perch on the continent’s edge: scattering the ashes of the city’s poor and forgotten in the waters below the Golden Gate Bridge. During a service last week, “What a Wonderful World” played from the boat speakers as a bow-tied funeral director said a prayer and emptied 28 bags of ashes “where the calmer waters of the bay meet the seemingly infinite expanse of the Pacific Ocean.” SF Standard
5.
In a world teeming with empty social-media outrage, Wayne Hsiung is an anomaly. In 2013, the Berkeley activist co-founded an animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere now known for political actions that entail high personal risk. Hsiung, 42, has collected multiple felonies. When Wisconsin dropped charges against him for breaking into a dog-breeding facility this month, he expressed “profound disappointment” that he no longer faced up to 16 years in prison. “There are incredibly important legal and moral issues that need to be addressed,” he said. New Yorker
6.
Don Lemon released his ballyhooed interview with Elon Musk that led the billionaire to scrap a partnership between Lemon and X. Three moments that got attention:
- Musk explained that he takes ketamine to treat a “negative chemical state in my brain.” “From an investor standpoint,” he said, “if there is something I’m taking, I should keep taking it.”
- He said Donald Trump did not ask him for a donation and that he had not made up his mind about who to support for president. “I may, in the final stretch, endorse a candidate, but I don’t know yet,” he said.
- Musk grew visibly irritated when questioned about the possibility of an advertiser boycott tanking X. “Doesn’t the buck stop with you?” Lemon asked. “Choose your question carefully,” Musk replied. “There’s five minutes left.” Washington Post | N.Y. Times
Southern California
7.
“It’s outrageous. It’s infuriating.”
In 2018 and 2019, California ordered a construction contractor to pay $16.2 million in back wages and penalties for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California, making him the state’s worst known wage thief. Yet as of last month, regulators had collected just 2% of that total, and the contractor, Rafael Rivas, is still doing business, an investigation found. KQED
8.
Los Angeles consistently ranks as the city with the worst organized-retail-crime problem, according to the National Retail Federation. In 2019, a California Highway Patrol task force was formed to disrupt the networks behind the crime trend. It was initially meant to “sunset” in 2021, but was extended to 2026. “The amount of theft blew my mind, even being in law enforcement and seeing crime my entire career,” said Sergeant Jimmy Eberhart, the task force’s supervisor. New Yorker
9.
The residents of a cul-de-sac in Sherman Oaks became concerned when a reclusive neighbor seemingly vanished and a young red-headed woman named Caroline Herrling appeared at his home. She explained that she was trustee of the estate, the neighbor was fine — staying at a beach home in Carpinteria — and she was fixing up his home. All of that was a lie. Reporter Brittny Mejia chronicled a disturbing story of forgeries, falsehoods, and an effort to dispose of a man’s body. L.A. Times
10.
For years, the leaders of a mosque and nearby synagogue in the San Fernando Valley had forged a connection between the two faith communities, with the rabbi and imam occasionally grabbing coffee. After Oct. 7, the bond remained strong enough that the synagogue leased its facilities to the mosque for overflow crowds during Ramadan. Then congregants learned that the synagogue leaders had covered up posters of Israeli hostages in the lobby as a courtesy to their Muslim guests. Outrage, apologies, and a fractured alliance followed. Forward
11.
For many California communities, spring heralds the arrival of warmth and wildflowers. In the small village of Pine Mountain Club in the San Emigdio Mountains, about 75 miles north of Los Angeles, it also means the bears are coming. Around this time of year, the hungry giants emerge from their winter torpor to search for food. They rip tiles from roofs, tear doors from refrigerators, and defecate on counters. It doesn’t help that residents like James Weinstock, 75, openly feed the wild animals. “I love bears,” he explained. “They’re just big puppy dogs.” L.A. Times
12.
Los Angeles’ historic movie houses have been enjoying a revival since facing devastating pandemic closures. Netflix spent $70 million restoring the Egyptian Theatre. Quentin Tarantino saved the Vista Theater. And a coalition of Hollywood directors bought the art deco Village Theater with plans for a major renovation. In a travel piece, the writer Anne Kim-Dannibale said the architectural masterpieces make perfect entry points for exploring the city’s fabled neighborhoods. National Geographic
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled a Central Coast city. It’s Carpinteria, not Carpenteria.
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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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