Good morning. It’s Friday, Aug. 9.
- Gavin Newsom warns counties to lose encampments.
- Kamala Harris faces criticism for avoiding press.
- And pandas get enthusiastic welcome at San Diego Zoo.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, dressed in aviator sunglasses and a baseball cap, showed up in Los Angeles on Thursday to pick up trash at a homeless colony under a freeway. The governor’s outing, with cameras rolling, appeared aimed at local leaders who have resisted his calls to crack down on such encampments. During a new conference, Newsom warned jurisdictions that fail to step up. “If we don’t see demonstrable results, I’ll start to redirect money,” he said. “This is a crisis,” he added. “Act like it.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
2.
David Remnick, the New Yorker editor, asked Nancy Pelosi to elaborate on her role in President Biden’s exit from the presidential race. She sat looking at him unblinking “past the boundary of awkward,” he wrote, then finally opened up. “I’ve never been that impressed with his political operation. They won the White House. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for this to happen,” she said. Her goal, she added, was simple: “That Donald Trump would never set foot in the White House again.” New Yorker
3.
Vice President Kamala Harris has granted no interview and held no news conference in the nearly three weeks since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. On Thursday, she held her first impromptu “gaggle” with reporters covering her campaign. It lasted 70 seconds. Some strategists say her reticence is prudent: why take risks when momentum is on your side? Former President Trump took another view: “She can’t do an interview, she’s barely competent,” he said on Thursday. N.Y. Times
- Jay Caspian Kang: “This appears to be Campaign Kamala’s strategy: don’t make any unforced errors, keep things vanilla, and eventually Trump or Vance will implode.” New Yorker
4.
During a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Trump told a shocking story about riding in a helicopter alongside Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor, and nearly crashing. On death’s door, Trump said, Brown dished about Kamala Harris, whom he once dated. “He told me terrible things about her,” Trump said. Reached by reporters on Thursday, Brown said the entire story was false. He’s never ridden in a helicopter with Trump and he’s never nearly died in any helicopter ride. N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle
5.
A California state senator switched parties from Democrat to Republican on Thursday, the first such party switch by a state legislator in 80 years. State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, who represents a stretch of the Central Valley, gave up her role as chair of the Senate Human Services Committee to join the minority party. She cited her frustration over Democratic efforts to undermine an anti-crime initiative. “This wasn’t a discussion I took lightly, but there was a last straw,” she said. Sacramento Bee | KCRA
6.
At least 10 people have fallen to their deaths from the cables that lead up Yosemite’s Half Dome. The latest fatality, a 20-year-old woman who slipped on the slick granite on July 13, has highlighted a question that has troubled many visitors: why aren’t there more wooden footholds drilled into the rock? On a recent day, reporter Jack Dolan interviewed more than a dozen hikers at the dome; all of them said more footholds would be welcome. “I consider myself a strong 19-year-old guy,” said Hudson Sauder. “I was scared my grip strength would go.” L.A. Times
Northern California
7.
Dave Hodges built a pair of churches in Oakland and San Francisco on the proposition that psychedelic mushrooms can reveal the meaning of life. Forbes has estimated that he is pulling in more than $5 million a year from 105,000 paying “congregants,” who receive mushrooms as a sacrament. Yet aside from a few managers, employees are considered volunteers, church insiders said. They’re paid in cash, with no benefits. “We’re just glorified drug dealers,” said Torrienne Ellis-Downs, who quit in May after becoming disillusioned. S.F. Examiner
8.
There’s a museum along the Mendocino coast that is dedicated, in a way, to the beauty of trash.
The historic lumber town of Fort Bragg claims to have the world’s highest concentration of sea glass. But the gems began as garbage. In the early 1900s, locals used the beaches as dump sites. Over the decades, the pounding surf transformed the remnants of glass and pottery into smooth colorful pebbles. Fort Bragg’s International Sea Glass Museum showcases the most brilliant specimens. Atlas Obscura
Southern California
9.
After three women were found murdered in Ventura County in 1977, the cases went cold. Then last year, there was a breakthrough. Crime scene DNA uploaded to a national database matched a suspect awaiting prosecution for a 1992 killing in North Carolina. All four of the victims were prostitutes and all died by strangulation, officials said. On Thursday, Ventura County authorities announced the extradition of Warren Alexander, 73, a former resident of Oxnard. “The day of reckoning has finally arrived,” said Erik Nasarenko, Ventura County’s district attorney. Biloxi Sun Herald | Ventura County Star
10.
For this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Zoë Bernard, who wrote recently in Vanity Fair about the defense tech enclave in El Segundo. She talked about how the military helped fueled the rise of Silicon Valley in the middle of the 20th century only to fall out of favor as the region’s liberal workforce became obsessed with consumer software in the 2010s. In that context, El Segundo represents a return to roots. “We’ve kind of come full circle now,” she said.
11.
The first two giant pandas to enter the United States in 21 years made their public debut at the San Diego Zoo on Thursday before a throng of journalists, dignitaries, and admirers, many dressed in panda-themed attire. Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, fuzzy ambassadors of the U.S.-China friendship, seemed unfazed by the attention, sunbathing and chewing on bamboo. Swept up in the moment, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Aug. 8, 2024, to be California Panda Day. S.D. Union-Tribune | A.P.
- See video of the pandas exploring their habitat. 👉@sandiegozoo
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- At Yosemite National Park, the guest services conglomerate Aramark is responsible for the restaurants, hotels, shuttles, gas stations, and more. On its watch, guests have endured maddening wait times, rotted buildings, and meals that call to mind hospital plates with industrial-grade meat. Bloomberg
- Paul Fong, 76, and his wife, Nancy, 67, proprietors of the Chicago Cafe in Woodland, had been thinking about retirement. Then, in January, a researcher dropped bombshell news: the Fongs’ diner is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in California, and probably in the U.S. They now feel stuck. L.A. Times
- Medicine Lake Highlands, in California’s remote northeast, was formed by ancient volcanic eruptions. Hardly anyone goes there. Yet the area has gorgeous lakes, forested hills, and hundreds of caves. The journalist John Bartell visited Little Glass Mountain, a giant mound of black obsidian. ABC10/YouTube (~3 mins)
- 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. See video of him wrestling with a stuffed animal. 👉 A.P.
- One of the best burritos in California comes from a bodega-turned-tortilla factory in the farming town of Salinas — and it costs $5. Some people buy 10 at a time, stocking up for future meals. S.F. Chronicle
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