Good morning. It’s Friday, March 22.
- Steve Garvey owes at least $350,000 in back taxes.
- Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
- And shady tactics alleged in bid for new Solano County city.
Please note: The newsletter will be off next week for spring break. Back on Monday, April 1.
Statewide
1.
State Farm said this week that it will discontinue coverage for 72,000 California homes, nine months after announcing that it was halting new policies in the state. The Illinois-based insurer, California’s largest, cited costs and the rising threat of wildfires. “This decision was not made lightly,” it said in a statement. As big insurers have fled California, growing numbers of homeowners have obtained policies from the state’s “last resort” insurance program, whose risk exposure has ballooned to more than $300 billion, up sixfold from 2018. Mercury News | A.P.
2.
The Republican Senate candidate Steve Garvey owes at least $350,000 in back taxes, according to a new financial disclosure. After retiring from professional baseball in 1987, Garvey founded a marketing firm and worked as a broadcaster and motivational speaker. But he accumulated serious debt, drawing multiple lawsuits over unpaid bills, the L.A. Times reported in 2006. The leader of a government accountability group called the size of Garvey’s tax liability, which dates to 2011, extremely rare for a congressional candidate. Sacramento Bee
3.
In the evenings, Dennis Morris enjoys watching the wild peacocks wander through his front yard in the rural San Joaquin Valley town of Exeter. “I love these birds,” he said. So when he noticed one of the iridescent creatures had an arrow poking out of his chest, he was shocked. A group of neighbors united in a plan to rescue the bird, whom they dubbed Cupid, setting up a trap rigged with watermelon and mealworms. Cupid took the bait a few days later and was whisked off to surgery. He’s now arrow-free and thriving. Washington Post
Northern California
4.
The Justice Department and 16 attorneys general, including California’s, announced a sprawling lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, the latest in an aggressive antitrust crackdown on Big Tech. The government accused the company of operating a monopoly that locks out competitors and keeps prices artificially high. “Apple has consolidated its monopoly power not by making its own products better, but by making other products worse,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. Apple said the lawsuit, if successful, would hinder innovation and vowed to “vigorously defend against it.” A.P. | N.Y. Times
- “The iPhone is at the center of everything.” Here are five takeaways from the lawsuit. 👉 The Verge
5.
California’s wine industry is facing a painful downturn after a long period of unbridled success. Since the late 2010s, Americans have been drinking less wine, setting off a domino effect that now has growers tearing out vineyards en masse. The state’s wine-grape acreage has been reduced by about 18,000 acres in the past six years. By one estimate, it needs to shrink another 50,000 to reach equilibrium with demand. Garret Schaefer, whose family has been growing grapes in Lodi since 1894, has begun letting his land sit fallow. “At some point you have to say this isn’t working,” he said. S.F. Chronicle
6.
People collecting signatures in support of building a new city in the farmlands of Solano County have been tricking residents by saying the petitions address other causes — such as road fixes or harsher drug penalties — several residents said. In a statement Thursday, the county registrar of voters said it received multiple reports of deceitful campaigners and warned residents to read carefully before signing anything. A retired teacher recalled a signature gatherer lying to her outside a Target. “This is a scam!” she told the man. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Daily Beast | Times-Herald
7.
A complaint lodged with Stanford University on Wednesday accused the math professor Jo Boaler of a “reckless disregard for accuracy,” taking aim at an academic whose work has helped shape California’s math education framework. The 100-page document, first reported by the conservative media darling Aaron Sibarium, cites 52 instances in which Boaler is alleged to have misrepresented research in her work. Boaler has drawn praise from many educators for advocating a more inclusive way of teaching. Critics say her approach hamstrings high achievers in the name of equity. EdSource | Chronicle of Higher Education
Southern California
8.
Police arrested a 40-year-old female teacher at a high school in San Diego this week over accusations that she lured a 15-year-old girl into sexual relationship that lasted more than two years. The authorities said Stacy Michelle Walker, who taught drama and theater tech, began having sexually charged conversations with the girl that progressed to sharing photos and video. She faces 17 felony counts. S.D. Union-Tribune | CBS8
9.
People are transforming old newspaper boxes into free Blockbuster lending libraries. The project began in 2019, when Brian Morrison, a film and television producer in Los Angeles, painted Blockbuster’s blue-and-yellow logo onto an old box and filled it with DVDs. Since then, more than 200 other boxes have opened across the country, including more than a dozen in the L.A. area. “There’s a nostalgia attached to it that is resonant for a whole generation,” Morrison said. N.Y. Times
- Find a Blockbuster box in California.
10.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Dr. Susan Partovi, a pioneer in street medicine in Los Angeles and author of the new memoir “Renegade, M.D.,” about the time and compassion required to help the homeless. Partovi recalled a reporter asking about an initiative under Mayor Karen Bass that ushered about 1,900 people into shelters. “‘Out of 65,000 who are living in the streets in L.A., isn’t that just a drop in the bucket?'” the reporter said, she recalled. “And I was like, ‘1,900 people! Oh my gosh. That’s amazing! Do you know how hard it is to just house one person?'”
11.
Someone built a walkable scale model of the solar system on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park. The seed took root when an innkeeper in Twentynine Palms decided to act on a common suggestion from visitors awed by the desert stars: There should be an observatory out here. Partners and funding were secured, and the groundbreaking for the Sky’s The Limit Observatory and Nature Center was held in 2007. For the solar system model, they used a 20-billion-to-1 scale. That means Earth is within 100 feet of the sun, while the dwarf planet Eris is a half mile away. California Through My Lens | Atlas Obscura
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- When the architect Brett Woods built a home in the Palm Springs desert in 2020, he moved the surrounding boulders out of the way, then rolled them back into place. He gave an architecture magazine a video tour of what he calls “the anti–Palm Springs house.” YouTube (6 mins)
- They’re seldom seen, but bobcats have adapted to the urban environs of San Jose. The photographer Shravan Sundaram has been documenting the cats long enough to discern individual personalities. The Mercury News published a collection of his photos.
- See more pictures on Sundaram’s Instagram.
- Deep within Redwood National Park, a group of ancient coast redwoods soars well above 350 feet. With a backcountry permit, you can camp anywhere along a creek a quarter-mile from the grove. Backpacker magazine included the site in a list of the 10 greatest camping experiences across the national park system.
- The residents of a cul-de-sac in Sherman Oaks became concerned when a reclusive neighbor seemingly vanished and a young woman appeared at his home. She explained that she was trustee of the estate, the neighbor was fine, and she was fixing up his home. All of that was a lie. L.A. Times
- For several months, the FBI has been searching properties and demanding documents among some of the biggest names in Napa Valley wine circles. The L.A. Times tried to figure out what’s going on.
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the team Steve Garvey played for at the end of his career. He retired from the Padres in 1987, not the Dodgers.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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