Good morning. It’s Friday, July 26.
- Usha Vance adjusts to role as MAGA political spouse.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom pushes cities to clear encampments.
- And Butte County fire becomes state’s largest of year.
Election 2024
1.
Before the Republican Convention last week, Usha Vance had remained largely a private figure. A daughter of Indian immigrants, she grew up in suburban San Diego and enjoyed an unbroken chain of successes in elite institutions including Yale, Cambridge, and the Supreme Court. So her elevation to the national stage is unsurprising. But her role as a political spouse in the MAGA movement has been jolting to those who understood her to be a liberal or a centrist. The New York Times charted “the evolution of Usha Vance.”
2.
Vice President Kamala Harris is projecting a tough-on-crime image as she seeks to draw a contrast with Donald Trump. But her record as a prosecutor in California infuriated both progressives and law enforcement. As district attorney of San Francisco, she oversaw a rise in conviction rates and threatened parents with prosecution if their kids missed too much school. She also introduced implicit bias training for police officers, embraced the Black Lives Matter movement, and launched a jail diversion program for drug offenders. Wall Street Journal | NBC News
3.
Other campaign developments:
- Around the time Harris dropped out of the presidential race in late 2019, she was polling in fifth place in her home state. Now, she’s California’s favorite daughter. Politico wrote about how the state’s Democrats “learned to stop worrying and love Kamala Harris.”
- A new poll showed remarkably strong support for Harris among young voters. In a matchup between President Biden and Trump, 53% of 18- to 34-year-olds said they would favor Biden compared to 47% for Trump. In a Harris-Trump contest, the same respondents split 60% for Harris and 40% for Trump. Axios
Statewide
4.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered state agencies and urged local governments to remove homeless encampments in their jurisdictions, citing a Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on people sleeping in public places. “No more excuses. … It’s time for locals to do their job,” he said. Some critics accused Newsom of grandstanding. “It’s not ramping up punitive approaches and moving people around that will solve this,” said Ray Bramson, a homeless advocate in San Jose. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- “People are frustrated, people are angry, and people want to take their public spaces back.” Many California cities have already begun reworking their approach to encampments. Bloomberg
5.
Humboldt County has more homeless people per capita than anywhere else in the state. So leaders in Eureka proposed what they thought was a no-brainer: turn some city-owned parking lots into affordable housing. Then all hell broke loose. Business owners descended on public meetings; opponents filed four environmental lawsuits; and a local tycoon funded a ballot measure that would scuttle the city’s plan. Reporter Ben Christopher told the story of “the parking lot wars on California’s Lost Coast.” CalMatters
6.
California’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 2020 voter measure that allows ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as contractors rather than employees entitled to more benefits, ending a protracted legal battle over the law. The unanimous ruling is a huge win for the industry, which spent $200 million luring voters to its cause in one of the most expensive political campaigns in American history. Labor leaders said they would turn their attention to unionizing drivers. Reuters | Politico
7.
For this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Caroline Paul, a former San Francisco firefighter and author of the new book “Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking — How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age.” Paul encourages women to pursue a life of outdoor adventure well into their later years. “Bravery,” she said, “opens up our lives.”
Northern California
8.
Hot, blustery weather helped a wildfire near Chico grow from 10 square miles late Wednesday to nearly 260 square miles on Thursday — making it California’s largest fire of 2024. Ronnie Stout, 42, was arrested on suspicion of arson after witnesses saw him pushing a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, officials said. He was later seen “calmly leaving the area,” blending in with those running from the flames. More than 4,000 people were told to evacuate. Officials released no data on destroyed structures, but photos and video showed homes engulfed in flames. SFGATE | S.F. Chronicle
9.
On June 21, when a bedraggled man was found after being lost in the Santa Cruz Mountains for 10 days, the story ricocheted around the world. But some people were skeptical. The area where Lukas McClish got lost, traversed by busy roads and dotted with towns, could hardly be described as remote, they noted. For the Santa Cruz writer Evan Quarnstrom, “nothing” about the story made sense. So he went out and retraced McClish’s steps. The Inertia
10.
“Fattened up and blissed out, floating through virtual space, like the mother-ship émigrés in ‘Wall-E,’ we jam our senses with sounds and visions, to the point of obliteration.”
Nick Paumgarten, an essayist and longtime Deadhead, wrote a delightful romp about going to see Dead & Company at the Sphere in Las Vegas. New Yorker
Southern California
11.
Padres pitcher Dylan Cease threw the second no-hitter in franchise history against the Nationals in Washington on Thursday. After 94 pitches through seven innings, manager Mike Shildt met Cease as he entered the dugout. “I think that’s good today,” Shildt said. Cease pushed back, telling Shildt he still felt good. “Give me a shot, at least,” he said. Shildt relented. Two innings and 20 pitches later, the feat achieved, Cease raised his arms to the sky and the stadium full of opposing fans erupted in celebration. Washington Post | ESPN
- See Cease’s final pitch. 👉 @Padres
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- After a devastating flood in 1938, Los Angeles undertook one of America’s largest infrastructure projects: encasing the L.A. River in concrete. It led to an explosion of urbanization in what was once a tapestry of marshes, pools, and streams. The podcast 99% Invisible told the story of a peculiar river.
- Dave Benzler, a San Francisco artist, has lived for nearly 15 years in a 230-square-foot earthquake shack — and he loves it. A reporter and photographer did a spread on the home fit for Architectural Digest. SF Standard
- At an elementary school in Orange County, a first-grader drew a “Black Lives Matter” picture that included the words “any life” and gave it to a Black friend. The 7-year-old was prohibited from drawing at school and banned from recess for two weeks. A lawsuit over the incident is now headed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. S.F. Chronicle
- DeeAnn Noland lives in a 6,000-square-foot Spanish-style villa with a swimming pool perched on 7 acres in the hills overlooking the city below. This dream mansion cost her $740,000 in 2015. The only catch: It’s in Hemet. L.A. Times.
- Dunes that turn soft pink at sunset, a cathedral of volcanic spires, and an alpine desert where the oldest living things congregate. A veteran outdoor adventurer listed her 13 all-time favorite California hikes. Outside magazine
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