San Francisco police embrace drones // Hollywood actor accused in series of rapes

Good morning. It’s Thursday, Aug. 8.

Dangerous pesticide used on California crops is banned.
San Francisco police embrace drones to catch criminals.
And a Hollywood actor is accused of a series of rapes.

Statewide

1.

The EPA on Tuesday issued a highly rare emergency order suspending all use of a popular weed killer linked to serious health risks for unborn babies. Manufactured exclusively by the Newport Beach company AMVAC Chemical Corporation, the herbicide known as DCPA has been used in California for years to control weeds in crops such as broccoli, onions, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage. A 2020 study found widespread DCPA exposure among Latina girls living in the Salinas Valley. CalMatters | L.A. Times

2.

A tractor plowed a dry field in Madera. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The soil fungus that causes coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, thrives in places that cycle between wet winters and dry summers, such as California’s Central Valley. This year is shaping up to be perhaps the worst year yet for the respiratory disease, which can saddle patients with severe, lifelong symptoms. California has reported 5,370 infections through June, a 63% increase over the same period in 2023. Researchers predict the numbers to only get worse as climate warming creates more of the dangerous dust. CalMatters

Headaches, nausea, vomiting. Kern County’s top public health official recently recounted her own harrowing experience with valley fever. Bakersfield Californian

3.

Trees essentially hold their breath to avoid wildfire smoke, a new study revealed. In the fall of 2020, Colorado State University researchers were investigating how plants emit volatile organic compounds in the Rocky Mountains when their study site was enveloped in wildfire smoke. To their surprise, they found that the stomata of tree leaves, pores that inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, had completely closed. “They respond a bit like us, it turns out,” the researchers wrote. Atlas Obscura

4.

After five years of construction, one of the country’s largest Native American cultural centers opened in downtown Palm Springs last November. By many accounts, the 6-acre Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza does not disappoint. It includes a beautifully designed museum that tells the Indigenous history of the Coachella Valley and a resort-style spa fed by the ancient hot springs that gave the city its name. TIME recently included the plaza on its annual list of the “world’s greatest places.

Also honored by TIME: Guerneville’s Mine and Farm Inn.

Northern California

5.

A federal judge overturned the conviction of a Bay Area death-row inmate after California’s attorney general found that local prosecutors had barred Black residents from the jury. Curtis Lee Ervin, 71, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 in the murder-for-hire killing of an associate’s ex-wife. Under the new ruling, he will be released in 60 days unless the Alameda County district attorney, Pamela Price, elects to retry to the case. Price said on Wednesday that she is weighing her options. Oaklandside | KQED

6.

San Francisco may be a technology hub, but it’s been slow to embrace modern policing tools such as facial recognition and drones. In March, voters frustrated by crime approved Proposition E, which expanded police powers, including the use of drones. This week, police officials showed off some of the early results. Video showed cops aided by drones storming a sideshow, catching would-be thieves, and even arresting an attempted kidnapping suspect. “This technology is a game changer,” Police Chief Bill Scott said. SF Standard | SFGATE

7.

In Silicon Valley, therapists are giving up their clinical practices to become life coaches, advising executives on becoming their best selves:

“The high-end hourly rate for a therapist, after all, even in a pricey city like San Francisco, is about $350. A successful coach can charge four times that much, partly because coaching fees typically come out of a company budget, not a client’s own bank account, and partly because the stakes are so high — personal growth can support profit growth.” N.Y. Times Magazine

8.

The Oakland Zoo just rescued a 4-week-old mountain lion found wandering around motherless in El Dorado County. They named him Briar because his spots resemble the vines of a blackberry bush. KQED called him “the cutest mountain lion cub in California.” Judge for yourself. 👇

See video of Briar getting a checkup and wrestling with a stuffed animal. 👉 A.P.

Southern California

9.

Arrowhead traces its history of bottling water from the mountains to 1906.

The U.S. Forest Service has ordered the company that sells Arrowhead bottled water, BlueTriton Brands, to stop siphoning water from springs in the San Bernardino Mountains that it has relied on for more than a century. Environmentalists had accused BlueTriton of draining an important creek. “It’s a huge victory after 10 years,” said activist Amanda Frye. A Forest Service official said the decision cannot be appealed. Even so, BlueTriton is challenging it in court, calling the move “arbitrary and capricious.” L.A. Times

10.

Gabriel Olds, a 52-year-old actor who portrayed Pat Robertson in the 2021 film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” was arrested on Wednesday over accusations that he committed a series of brutal rapes, using his Hollywood cachet to lure victims. Several women reported meeting Olds, whose credits include roles in shows such as “Boardwalk Empire” and “Criminal Minds,” through dating apps. But encounters that began consensually turned violent, they said. Police said they suspect there are more victims. KTLA | KABC

11.

In 2014, Roy Cockrum, a former monk from Knoxville who once took a vow of poverty, picked up a Powerball ticket at a Kroger grocery store — and won $259 million. His luck is now reverberating across the country at San Diego’s Old Globe theater. Cockrum, who spent years as a struggling actor, has used his wealth to become a major theater benefactor. “The question I put to artistic directors is, ‘Is there a project you’ve always dreamed of doing that you couldn’t afford?’” he said. For the Old Globe, the answer was a large-scale staging of Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” plays. N.Y. Times

The Old Globe’s “Henry VI” plays are running through Sept. 15. Theoldglobe.org

12.

Vince Vaughn on why Hollywood no longer makes the sort of R-rated comedies the actor is famous for:

“When you talk about the R comedies in Hollywood, I feel like there’s a set of rules that the executives follow. The goal is not to get fired — they can defend why they greenlit something. The R comedies that took off was the studio saying to young people that were funny, ‘Go ahead.’ They didn’t micromanage. We were on the sets changing lines and trying to make each other laugh.” N.Y. Times Magazine

Thanks for reading!

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

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