Good morning. It’s Thursday, May 16.
- Sonoma State leader faces backlash for Israel boycott.
- Activists occupy buildings at UCs in Irvine and Berkeley.
- And Huntington Beach loses housing battle against state.
Gaza protests
1.
The president of Sonoma State University, Mike Lee, was placed on leave Wednesday a day after he announced an academic boycott of Israel as part of a pact with campus protesters. In a campuswide memo Tuesday, Lee also pledged to establish a Students for Justice in Palestine advisory council. The backlash was swift, as lawmakers and academics called the plan “horrific” and “morally reprehensible.” According to CSU Chancellor Mildred García, who was blindsided by Lee’s missive, his actions amounted to “insubordination.” By Wednesday evening, Lee followed up with another letter. “I deeply regret the unintended consequences of my actions,” he wrote. Press Democrat | Bloomberg
2.
Police in tactical gear on Wednesday took back a lecture hall at UC Irvine hours after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied and barricaded the building. At least a dozen people were arrested, including a global studies professor who shouted “Shame on them!” as she was led away in zip ties. The police also dismantled a nearby “Gaza solidarity” encampment that had stood for more than two weeks. Irvine’s mayor criticized the police operation. “It’s a shame that peaceful free speech protests are always responded to with violence,” she wrote on X. O.C. Register | L.A. Times
3.
Activists also occupied a UC Berkeley building on Wednesday. One day after Chancellor Carol Christ hailed a negotiated end of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, a separate group took over Berkeley’s vacant Anna Head hall, near People’s Park, unfurling a Palestinian flag from the roof. Images captured inside the building showed walls covered in fresh graffiti that included “for the martyrs,” “a good soldier is a dead one,” and a Star of David equated with a swastika. “This is an active crime scene, it is not nonviolent civil disobedience,” said Dan Mogulof, a university spokesperson. Mercury News | Berkeley Scanner
4.
A union representing roughly 48,000 UC academic workers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to authorize a strike and cause “maximum chaos” over the administration’s crackdown on campus protests. Alleging that their speech rights were curtailed, the workers are demanding amnesty for students and faculty members arrested during the unrest. Heather Hansen, a UC spokeswoman, said the action would set a dangerous precedent: “If a strike is allowed for political and social disputes, the associated work stoppages would significantly impact UC’s ability to deliver on its promises to its students.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
5.
A Ventura County judge on Wednesday ruled that evidence was sufficient to try a college professor charged with two felonies in the death of a Jewish counterprotester during demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war in November. Prosecutors say Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, 51, struck Paul Kessler, 69, with a megaphone during a shouting match on a corner in Thousand Oaks, causing him to fall backward and hit his head. Kessler died the next day at a hospital. Ventura County Star | A.P.
Statewide
6.
Electric vehicles are a favorite foil of Donald Trump, who has portrayed the automotive technology as anathema to the American dream and an “assassination” of jobs. In a Gallup poll last year, more than 70% of conservative voters said they wouldn’t even consider buying one. But California’s Republicans love electric vehicles. In Sacramento, GOP leaders are pushing bills to bolster the state’s charging network and extend incentives for low-income buyers. “I do not know a single member of my caucus who is opposed to electric vehicles,” said Diane Dixon, a Republican Assemblymember from Orange County. Politico
7.
California restaurant and bar owners are so emphatically opposed to a new state law banning service fees that industry lawyers are weighing legal options. But diners hate the service fees, which restaurants tack onto bills to purportedly cover the cost of doing business. “You sit on a throne of lies,” one Reddit commenter put it. Columnist Soleil Ho argued that restaurateurs need to seize the opportunity to get back into diners’ good graces. “Restaurants with service charges have clearly lost control of the narrative,” she wrote. S.F. Chronicle
- “We can’t afford to be open, we can’t afford to be closed.” Los Angeles restaurants are struggling. L.A. Times
Northern California
8.
The Bay Area city of Antioch agreed to pay $7.5 million to the family of a Navy veteran who died in 2020 after a police officer pressed a knee to his neck for nearly five minutes, their attorneys said on Wednesday. Outrage over Angelo Quinto’s death led to statewide reforms, including a prohibition on chokeholds by law enforcement and a ban on the use of “excited delirium,” meant to convey mental distress, in autopsy reports. “It makes me feel a bit like his life was not lived in vain,” Quinto’s father, Robert Collins, said Wednesday. Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle
9.
Some people dream of working in the technological palaces of Silicon Valley. Others work in spare cabins in the wilderness — and wouldn’t trade it for the world. Herd Peak Lookout, pictured above, is perched atop a modest rocky pinnacle on the doorstep of Mount Shasta, the jewel of the southern Cascades. Built in 1933, the U.S. Forest Service station remains active, manned during the summer months. Visitors, who can either hike or drive right up to the lookout, are rare but welcome. MK Library
- “I can’t think of a better lifestyle.” See a 2016 news broadcast on what it’s like to work at Herd Peak Lookout. 👉 KTVL
- And see a great sweeping drone view of the peak. 👉 @rynotime
Southern California
10.
Huntington Beach lost its housing battle against California. The state sued last year, accusing local leaders of disregarding housing mandates on the grounds that they would spoil the surf city’s character. In a ruling issued Wednesday evening, a Superior Court judge said Huntington Beach presented no compelling justification to defy state housing law and gave it four months to come into compliance. Huntington Beach’s city attorney vowed to appeal. “This case is far from over,” he said. Voice of OC
11.
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday confirmed the hiring of a new chief of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power at a salary of $750,000 a year, nearly twice what her predecessor earned. Janisse Quiñones, a former Pacific Gas & Electric Co. executive, is also a U.S. Coast Guard reservist. “Very little rattles me,” she said in 2021. She’ll also get $75,000 for relocation and temporary housing costs. Few appointments are as consequential as this one, Council President Paul Krekorian said on Wednesday: “Leadership of the DWP is absolutely vital to this city.” City News Service | KABC
12.
The Los Angeles sculptor Colin Roberts specializes in the meeting of the hard and the soft. His technicolor balloons, teddy bears, and pillows — made by fusing together hundreds of tiny bits of plexiglass — have made him a darling among social media users and gallerists. Colossal shared photos of some favorite works. Colossal | Visionary Projects
- See more of Roberts’ work and a video showing how he does it.
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