Good morning. It’s Tuesday, May 7.
- Wet spring pushes California’s lakes to brim.
- More arrests at UC protest encampments.
- And tiny Santa Cruz outlet wins Pulitzer Prize.
Statewide
1.
Dispatches from California’s lakes after a surprisingly wet spring:
- As of Monday, the state’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Oroville, was 100% full, state data showed. The biggest reservoir, Shasta Lake, was 97% full. SFGATE | KCRA
- Also filled to the brim: Lake Casitas outside Ojai. The last time that happened was 26 years ago. VC Reporter | Ventura County Star
- KMPH shared dramatic drone video of Millerton Lake, outside Fresno, which is now lapping at the very top of Friant Dam.
- O.C. Register photographer Jeff Gritchen shared before-and-after photos of Big Bear Lake, in the San Bernardino Mountains, which is now higher than it’s been in 13 years.
2.
The bounty has also trickled underground. On Monday, California reported the first increase in groundwater supplies in four years. Water storage in basins across the state increased by roughly 8.7 million acre-feet during the water year that ended Sept. 30, 2023, data showed. That’s equivalent to nearly two Shasta Lakes. In some places, the ground actually rose, reversing a trend of dipping topography known as subsidence. Water officials attributed the turnaround in part to pumping restrictions. FOX40 News | A.P.
- California is having a really good water year. Neither environmentalists nor farmers are happy. Politico
3.
It used to be that home buyers looked for insurance only after getting an offer accepted. Since insurance companies began retreating from the state, buyers are now scrambling to preemptively obtain policies while some are choosing not to buy homes at all. “I think we’re just beginning to understand that [insurance] might be an issue on almost every sale,” said Emma Morris, a Berkeley-based Realtor. S.F. Chronicle
- Travelers Insurance, the sixth largest insurer in California, is planning to raise its rates by an average of 15%, filings showed. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News
4.
Law enforcement arrested more than 100 people at the UC campuses in Los Angeles and San Diego on Monday as university leaders indicated that their patience for antiwar protests had worn thin. In San Diego, police in riot gear cleared a five-day-old encampment, prompting scuffles and 64 arrests. University officials said the arrested students would face immediate suspension. At UCLA, police arrested 44 activists who had gathered to protest in a parking structure. Classes were moved online for the remainder of the week as a safety precaution. L.A. Times | NBC 7
5.
Other developments:
- Even as some campus encampments are flattened, new ones are rising. On Monday, students established tent colonies at Pomona College and UC Davis. Identifying as the “Student Intifada,” the Davis group demanded “total and immediate divestment from the genocidal zionist state.” Sacramento Bee | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
- San Francisco State’s president, Lynn Mahoney, negotiated with protesters over their demands in an open-air meeting surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. “I welcome the opportunity to look at our investment policy to better align with our role as an agent of social justice,” she told them. KQED | Jewish News
Northern California
6.
A federal judge in San Jose approved a settlement on Friday that requires Google to pay $62 million over claims that it unlawfully tracked and stored location data for users without their consent. Consumers won’t see a penny. Instead, the deal awards $18 million to the plaintiffs’ lawyers and $42 million to various advocacy groups. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila said the number of Google users involved meant any monetary award to class members would be impracticably small. Consumer groups vowed to challenge the deal. Reuters
7.
San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is known as a hub of brazen open-air drug use and homelessness. It’s also home to the city’s largest concentration of children, who walk the streets to get to and from school. Reporter Janie Har profiled the everyday heroes of “Safe Passage,” volunteers in bright safety vests who guide the children around people acting erratically or overdosing. A.P.
8.
The tiny news outlet Lookout Santa Cruz won the biggest honor in journalism on Monday: a Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category. Lookout launched in 2020 with a mission to revive journalism in a lively university town that its founders believed had become a news desert. The newsroom’s moment of truth came in early January, as a series of atmospheric rivers unleashed havoc on the area’s beach communities. The stories Lookout produced were “detailed,” “nimble,” and “community-focused,” the Pulitzer board said. Poynter | Lookout Santa Cruz
- Reached by the California Sun on Monday, Lookout founder Ken Doctor said everyone was “tingling with excitement.” See video of the staff watching the award announcement. 👉 @tamsinrm
- The L.A. Times’s Justin Chang won the Pulitzer in the criticism category. In one notable piece, he defended Christopher Nolan’s choice to avoid depictions of the atomic bombings of Japan in “Oppenheimer.” L.A. Times
9.
The Mavericks Awards, a video contest that celebrates surfers of the storied big wave near Half Moon Bay, announced the winners of the 2024 season over the weekend. Surfer Magazine
Here are the winners along with links to their videos:
- San Diego’s Jojo Roper got the men’s prize for “biggest wave.”
- Wilem Banks, from Santa Cruz, claimed the men’s “ride of the year” for this wild drop.
- And Alo Slebir, also from Santa Cruz, won the coveted “performer of the year.”
- San Francisco’s Bianca Valenti swept all three awards in the women’s categories: wave, ride, and performer.
10.
Sacramento has an ordinance that sets aside 2% of construction project budgets for public art. At the Sacramento International Airport, that has resulted in a giant red rabbit bounding through Terminal B, a pedestrian bridge carpet that displays aerial views of the Sacramento River, and the most popular work: luggage pillars that appear to be holding up the ceiling in baggage claim. Jet-lagged passengers have been known to gasp at the sight of the columns, wondering if they will have to sort through them for their bags. Metaphorm.org | Visit Sacramento
Southern California
11.
A highly anticipated study found that hundreds of tons of DDT that was dumped just off the coast of Los Angeles decades ago is continuing to show up in zooplankton and deep-sea fish. The discovery provides alarming evidence for how the toxins might be making their way from the ocean floor into the food web, said Lihini Aluwihare, a chemical oceanographer: “It really [hits home] this concept that nothing is untouched.” L.A. Times
12.
During the two full years since police were removed from Los Angeles public school campuses, incidents of fights and physical aggression almost doubled from their prepandemic levels, to 4,569. A safety task force established by the district is now recommending that individual schools be allowed to decide for themselves whether to station officers on campus. Many parents are demanding the change. They face a formidable coalition of opponents: antipolice student activists, professional organizers, and the L.A. teachers union. L.A. Times
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