Tech billionaires brawl over politics // An appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, July 30.

Fresno becomes latest city to ban encampments.
Silicon Valley billionaires openly brawl over politics.
And an appreciation of architect Frank Lloyd Wright Jr.

Statewide

1.

A crew cut a firebreak on the eastern front of the Park fire on Sunday. (David McNew/Getty Images)

Hard-won gains against the Sacramento Valley’s Park fire, now more than 580 square miles and 14% contained, allowed for some evacuation orders to be lifted on Monday. Even so, fire experts warned of the inferno’s potential to cause far greater destruction. “There’s more to be seen from this fire,” said Don Hankins, a specialist in pyrogeography at Chico State University. “As soon as those conditions change, [fire growth is] back on again.” L.A. Times | KCRA

2.

Other wildfire developments:

Ronnie Stout, suspected of igniting the Park fire by pushing his car into an embankment, was charged with felony arson on Monday. Witnesses said Stout had been drinking, prosecutors said. Red Bluff Daily News | CBS Sacramento
Ron Ward ignored evacuation orders to defend his ranch in the forested community of Cohasset in Butte County. His ranch was spared, he said, but he had to tell neighbors that their homes were lost. “They haven’t even been able to get back to look at their homes,” he said through tears. A.P.
The Park fire, in pictures. 👉 The Atlantic | N.Y. Times

3.

The coronavirus is surging in California at levels not seen in summertime since 2022. For seven straight weeks, Covid-19 levels in the wastewater have been “high” or “very high,” according to the CDC — with no sign of peaking. In San Francisco, health officials last week told residents the time had come to break out their masks again in crowded indoor places. “Almost everybody has it,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle

4.

For small airplane pilots, California is a wonderland of scenic airport landings. Among the bucket list destinations: Catalina Airport. Known as the “airport in the sky,” its single landing strip is perched on a hilltop 1,600 feet above sea level, surrounded by dramatic cliffs and sea. The aviation filmmaker Josh Flowers shared a great video of landing there a few years back. YouTube

Another stunning approach: Lake Tahoe Airport. 👉 YouTube

Northern California

5.

After five hours of raucous testimony, Fresno became the latest California city to ban encampments in public places on Monday, in response to a June 28 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed local discretion on homelessness policies. “This ordinance declares war on many of our citizens,” said attorney Kevin Little, echoing the sentiments of more than 60 speakers. Lawmakers pushed back, showing pictures of drug use and camping near schools. “The pictures say everything that needs to be said,” Councilman Garry Bredefeld said. “People have had enough.” GV Wire | Fresno Bee

6.

In March, San Francisco voters approved a measure that mandates drug screening for recipients of public benefits. Now city leaders are proposing a complimentary program to pay welfare recipients an extra $400 a month to stay sober. Mayor London Breed, whose reelection bid has been dogged by voter frustration over the misery on San Francisco’s streets, touted the measure in front of City Hall on Monday. “Whatever it takes to get people on the right path — that’s what we need to do,” she said. S.F. Chronicle | SF Standard

7.

David Sacks, left, accused Reid Hoffman of helping cause an attempted presidential assassination. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In Silicon Valley, tech billionaires are getting into public fights over politics, with pro-Trump executives and their Democratic counterparts attacking one another in strikingly vitriolic terms. “The animus has pit those who once worked side by side and attended each other’s weddings against one another, fraying friendships and alliances that could shift Silicon Valley’s power centers,” the New York Times wrote.

8.

One or more poachers shot and killed four elk in Redwood National Park, officials said. The carcasses, reported on July 21, were left intact, with no antlers or meat taken. The poachers used lead bullets, which the state banned in part because of the lethal threat the toxin poses to endangered California condors that feed on carrion. Since 2022, about a dozen of the large vultures have been released along the North Coast in an effort to reestablish the species there after more than a century-long absence. Times-Standard

9.

Runners who finished the San Francisco Marathon after the official six-hour cutoff time on Sunday were denied the recognition of being an “official full marathon finisher.” But they had some of the most inspiring stories. Among the stragglers was Rachel Maloney, 39, who acknowledged hating running when she first picked up the hobby with her husband. But it became “their thing,” she said. Then her husband died from a brain tumor in 2019. Maloney completed the race as a tribute to him with a time of 6:20:05. SF Standard

Southern California

10.

Newly released body camera video captured the falling death of a young Guatemalan woman who became stuck on top of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in San Diego as Border Patrol agents watched from below and waited for backup. On March 21, the woman clung to the top of the 30-foot-tall fence for more than 20 minutes, crying out in Spanish, “I’m going to fall!” Down below, a border agent twice rejected offers from others to prop up a nearby ladder for the woman. “We can’t do anything,” he said. Then there was a thud. inewsource

11.

A federal judge on Monday ordered UC Los Angeles to craft a plan to protect Jewish students after pro-Palestinian protesters were accused of blocking them from moving freely around campus. Three Jewish students sued the university in June alleging that their civil rights were violated when activists established what the plaintiffs called a “Jew Exclusion Zone” with the university’s blessing during the spring. UCLA argued that the issue had become moot after it adopted a policy of zero tolerance for protests that violate university rules. A.P. | L.A. Times

12.

Lloyd Wright’s Bowler House in Rancho Palos Verdes. (Albert Moote/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. shared both the name and career of his father, a giant of architectural history. But the late Lloyd Wright, as the younger Wright is known, left a body of work in Southern California that some architecture lovers admire as much if not more than the creations of his father. “Lloyd Wright is more minimal. More pure. But just as beautiful,” said the director David Lynch, who has lived in Lloyd Wright’s Beverly Johnson house since 1987. The Wall Street Journal published an appreciation of the younger Wright.

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