Death Valley has hottest month ever seen on Earth // Snoop Dogg is "ambassador of happiness"

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Death Valley experiences hottest month ever observed.
San Francisco offers homeless bus tickets out of town.
And Snoop Dogg is ultimate hype man at the Olympics.

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Statewide

1.

Visitors walked along Death Valley’s Badwater Basin on July 9. (Brian van der Brug/L.A. Times via Getty Images)

Death Valley just experienced the hottest month ever observed on Earth. In July, the park recorded an average temperature of 108.5 degrees, the highest monthly value ever recorded among thousands of weather stations around the world, according to climatologist Brian Brettschneider. Death Valley was no aberration: dozens of California cities, and likely the state as a whole, recorded their hottest Julys ever, climate scientist Daniel Swain said. Washington Post | Weather West

More heat is on tap. Forecasters said a warming trend would push temperatures into triple digits across California’s interior from now through the middle of next week. @NWSHanford | S.F. Chronicle

2.

If all homeless people in California sought a night at an emergency shelter, less than half of them could get it. That hard fact would appear to doom Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order for officials to start dismantling the state’s encampments, wrote Nathan Heller. “The basic wish of the program … is Please, Just Make These People Disappear. But, with no permanent solution available, homeless people driven from the north side of town land on the south side, still homeless. Chase them from a city, and they find themselves in the next town.” New Yorker

3.

A person was detained during an encampment clearing operation in San Francisco on Thursday. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As San Francisco clears the city’s homeless camps, Mayor London Breed on Thursday issued an executive order directing city staff to offer homeless people bus tickets out of town. In her order, dubbed “Journey Home,” Breed cited a survey that found 40% of people on San Francisco’s streets arrived from other places. No matter the circumstances, sheltering locally is scarcely an option for most people living outside: as of Thursday, city shelters were 94% occupied. S.F. Standard | S.F. Chronicle

4.

For this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Kevin Fagan, a veteran reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle. Fagan explained how California sets chronically homeless people up for failure by providing inadequate support when they enter housing. “They need therapy,” he said. “They need help getting off drugs. They need help figuring out how to reenter a job market. … I’ve seen it over and over and over that once they get inside, they just kind of spin in place.”

Northern California

5.

Intel, one of the world’s leading chip makers, announced Thursday that it would cut 15% of its workforce, or roughly 15,000 positions, as the Santa Clara company struggles to gain a foothold in the artificial intelligence revolution. “This is painful news for me to share,” Patrick Gelsinger, Intel’s chief executive, wrote in a letter to employees. “I know it will be even more difficult for you to read.” The company’s stock fell 20% in after-hours trading. Wall Street Journal | A.P.

Tech companies have eliminated more than 120,000 workers in 2024, extending a run of layoffs that began around 2022 and has yet to run its full course. TechCrunch | Layoffs.fyi

6.

Cohasset, seen on Monday, was devastated by fire. (Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle via A.P.)

In 2018, Kristy and Michael Daneau lost their home in Paradise in the Camp fire, the deadliest in California history. Six years later, they found themselves once again fleeing for their lives as the Park fire bore down on the community of Cohasset, a mountainous enclave on the outskirts of Chico where they had resettled. As the couple and their 17-year-old daughter drove away from town last week, Kristy started hyperventilating. “I kind of knew then, like, we’re never coming home again — again, again,” she said. L.A. Times | KRCR

7.

Paul Fong, 76, and his wife, Nancy, 67, proprietors of the Chicago Cafe in Woodland, had been thinking about retirement. They had been working at the Chinese restaurant since emigrating from Hong Kong in 1973. Then, in January, a UC Davis researcher dropped bombshell news: the Fongs’ little diner is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in California, and probably in the U.S. Suddenly in possession of a piece of American history, they now feel stuck. “They’re getting too old to do this every day,” their daughter said. L.A. Times

Southern California

8.

Toxic dust kicked up from farm fields and the decaying Salton Sea has plagued the Coachella Valley for decades, but locals say the pollution has lately become intolerable. The dust covers cars, driveways, and even surfaces inside homes. After high winds, the haze can get so thick it causes car accidents. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the air quality has been worse than I’ve certainly ever experienced it in my 28 years in the Coachella Valley,” said Tom Kirk, the leader of a regional planning agency. CalMatters

It also stinks. Hydrogen sulfide rising off the Salton Sea has created a pungent odor of rotten eggs. “I’ve been here like forever, and I like living here, but I don’t know if I can stay,” one nearby resident said. Desert Sun

9.

Snoop Dogg checked out the women’s beach volleyball in Paris on Wednesday. (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

There’s been no better hype man for the U.S. Olympians in Paris than Long Beach’s own Snoop Dogg. Hired by NBC as a sort of “ambassador of happiness,” Snoop did an impromptu dance with Simone Biles; swam with Michael Phelps; and narrated highlights of a badminton rally. “It don’t stop till the casket drop,” he said. Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American studies, marveled at Snoop’s evolution since his gangster rap days. “I’m not sure who was betting on Snoop to be America’s sweetheart in the 1990s,” he said. Washington Post

10.

The New York Times went to Bakersfield for the latest edition of its popular “The Hunt” series, which tells the stories of people searching for a new home. Javier Herrera, 32, an elementary school teacher, had a budget of $350,000, significantly less than the median statewide sale price in June: $900,720. In the Central Valley, however, that figure plummets by 44%. So Herrera was able to find three promising options in his price range, all with three bedrooms, a yard, and a two-car garage. N.Y. Times

California the beautiful

11.

Roughly two-thirds of the way down California from the Oregon border, around Point Conception, the state’s coastline turns sharply inward toward the east. The L shape, sometimes called the Horn of California, shields points south from the harshest winds and waves that tumble out of the North Pacific, helping create the conditions for Southern California’s famously pleasant beaches. North of Point Conception, the beaches become less ideal for lazy afternoons sunning on the sand. But the pounding waves yield other pleasures, including thousands of elaborately carved sea stacks, rising from the surf like ancient ruins. Below, take a photo tour up the Northern California coast, from Davenport in Santa Cruz County to Crescent City in Del Norte County.

In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

For small airplane pilots, California is a wonderland of scenic airport landings. Among the bucket list destinations: Catalina Airport, perched on a hilltop surrounded by dramatic cliffs and sea. An aviation filmmaker shared a great video of landing there. YouTube
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. For the Santa Cruz writer Evan Quarnstrom, “nothing” about the story made sense. The Inertia
There’s a enclave in Malibu so coveted that three of its homes have sold for more than $100 million since 2020. “Rather than a beach house on the sand or a blufftop mansion with more far-reaching views, homes in Paradise Cove offer the best of both worlds,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
Two men killed each other in an apparent case of road rage in a suburb of San Bernardino late Saturday, officials said. Tempers flared after motorcyclist Jonathan McConnell, 38, clipped the side of a sedan driven by Aaron Harris, 37, on the 210 Freeway. San Bernardino Sun | KTLA
There’s a beach resort two hours north of San Francisco where you can rent a little cottage looking out on Point Reyes National Seashore for as little as $149 a night. San Francisco Standard included the resort in a list of five new high-style destinations between Big Sur and Mendocino County.

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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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