Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 23.
- Supreme Court seems ready to allow homeless crackdown.
- Students begin sit-ins at Berkeley and Cal Poly Humboldt.
- And bluffs near UC Santa Barbara keep claiming lives.
Statewide
1.
The Supreme Court appeared ready on Monday to let cities across the West crack down on homeless encampments, as justices questioned a lower court ruling that said it was cruel and unusual to punish people sleeping outside. During more than two hours of sometimes fiery argument, the justices explored the line between conduct and status, which is protected, and whether courts should be involved in deciding how to cope with homelessness. A few quotes:
- Justice Elena Kagan: “Sleeping is a biological necessity. It’s sort of like breathing. I mean, you could say breathing is conduct, too. But, presumably, you would not think that it’s OK to criminalize breathing in public.”
- Justice Neil M. Gorsuch: “How about if there are no public bathroom facilities? Do people have an Eighth Amendment right to defecate and urinate outside? Is that conduct or is that status?”
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “Where do we put them if every city, every village, every town lacks compassion and passes a law identical to this? Where are they supposed to sleep? Are they supposed to kill themselves, not sleeping?”
- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: “This is a serious policy problem, and it’s a policy problem because the solution, of course, is to build shelter to provide shelter for those who are otherwise harmless. But, municipalities have competing priorities … Why would you think that these nine people are the best people to judge and weigh those policy judgments?” N.Y. Times | NPR
2.
In an intensely polarized political environment, California’s Democratic and Republican leaders have found common cause on at least one issue: the right of local governments to clear homeless encampments. “Californians across parties and levels of government — from the Newsom administration to Democratic mayors to House Republicans like Issa — have implored the Supreme Court to consider reversing the ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson that prohibits dismantling encampments without moving people indoors,” Politico wrote.
3.
Developments connected to the Israel-Hamas war:
- Pro-Palestinian students began sit-ins at UC Berkeley and Cal Poly Humboldt on Monday. The Berkeley protesters pitched about 10 tents and demanded the university divest from companies linked to Israel. In Arcata, dozens of students barricaded themselves inside a building, drawing a heavy police response. Late Monday, campus leaders announced the cancellation of classes through Wednesday. Berkeleyside | Lost Coast Outpost
- State lawmakers advanced a bill Monday that would double the penalty for people who block highways, a response to shutdowns by pro-Palestinian protests across the state. It has bipartisan support. Politico | Courthouse News
- Google fired 20 more employees for protesting against a company contract with Israel, bringing the total number of ousted employees to more than 50. Washington Post
4.
At last count, California had nearly 47 gigawatts of solar power installed, enough to provide more than a quarter of the state’s electricity. But on sunny days, all those solar panels create a problem: a glut of power that has to essentially be thrown away. “We drastically underestimated the speed at which residential solar was going to come in,” said Clyde Loutan, a renewable energy adviser for California’s grid operator. Washington Post
Northern California
5.
A federal judge ordered Alameda County on Monday to review all of its death penalty convictions after he found “strong evidence” that prosecutors may have deliberately excluded Jewish and Black jurors from capital trials. U.S. District Judge Vincent Chhabria said the discovery of prosecution notes from a 1995 jury suggested “a pattern of serious misconduct” in which the jurors were systematically excluded on the belief that they were more likely to oppose the death penalty. District Attorney Pamela Price said her office identified 35 cases that could be impacted. KQED | Oaklandside
6.
The Rev. Cecil Williams, a pastor who brought a small church in San Francisco’s Tenderloin to national prominence with a boisterous choir and a social justice mission, died on Monday at 94. Williams was recruited to become a minister at Glide Memorial Church in 1963, when the congregation numbered just 35, all white. He built a flock from the addicts and assorted characters of the Tenderloin, welcoming people of any faith — or none at all. Today, Glide has a membership of 11,000. Among those drawn to its pews: Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, and Maya Angelou. S.F. Chronicle
7.
Once a reliable bloc for the left, Chinese-Americans are now pushing San Francisco toward the political center. The community’s members have been incensed by incidents of anti-Asian violence, school policies they believe emphasize equity over merit, and homelessness. A galvanizing moment came in 2021, when an attacker killed an 84-year-old Thai man on the street. Chesa Boudin, then district attorney, called the suspect’s actions a “temper tantrum.” “I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Garret Tom, a former San Francisco deputy police chief. Wall Street Journal
8.
California will open its first new state park in more than a decade on June 12, officials announced Monday. A decade in the making, Dos Rios spans about 2.5 square miles of former dairy pastures and almond orchards, restored to resemble the valley’s lush past near the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers. The preserve, featuring river access and recreation trails, will be a standout in the San Joaquin Valley, where state parks are scarce. Modesto Bee | A.P.
Southern California
9.
In November, local officials gathered along steep coastal bluffs near UC Santa Barbara where a college student had recently become the 13th person to fall to his death since 1994 and announced a safety enhancement plan, including higher fencing and more lighting. Last Saturday, the death toll grew to 14 after a 23-year-old named Jacob Parker accidentally fell 50 feet during a daytime alumni party, the authorities said. Beth Krom, the mother of a falling victim who died in 2009, asked when enough is enough: “How many more young people are going to lose their lives on the cliffs in Isla Vista?” KEYT | Santa Barbara Independent
10.
More Los Angeles police officers are leaving the force than recruits are joining it. An analysis found that the size of the department has shrunk by about 1,200 officers since 2019, to 8,832, as the police academy graduates a dismal average of just 30 officers per class. Interim Chief Dominic Choi said the department needs about 12,000 officers to properly patrol the city. The shortage, he said, has extended non-emergency response times from “about 20 minutes upward to 40 minutes, up to an hour.” L.A. Times
11.
Work began Monday on a $12 billion bullet train connecting Southern California and Las Vegas. Brightline West aims to be operational in time for the the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, whisking passengers from Rancho Cucamonga to the Las Vegas Strip in about 2 hours and 10 minutes at top speeds approaching 190 mph. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg attended the groundbreaking in Las Vegas. “People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” he said. “It’s really happening this time.” Washington Post | A.P.
12.
One of the natural world’s strangest mating rituals is now unfolding on Southern California’s beaches. Spring is grunion run season, when thousands of shimmering, silver fish are lured onto the shore by the moon for a nocturnal orgy. The females swim as far up as they can, then dig a hole into which they deposit their eggs. The males follow and fertilize them. The eggs incubate for about 10 days until the tide is once again high enough to to help them hatch. The BBC wrote about efforts to rescue the grunion from the threats of erosion, light pollution, and beach grooming.
Correction
Monday’s newsletter misspelled the name of a New Yorker writer. He is Jay Caspian Kang, not Jay Caspian King.
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