Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 28.
- Dam removal along Klamath River nears conclusion.
- San Diego police officer killed following pursuit.
- And women outnumber men in Caltech’s incoming class.
Statewide
1.
Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom, both products of San Francisco’s sharp-elbowed political culture, have been running side by side for decades. Now that Harris has surpassed him, Newsom seems unhappy, wrote columnist Mark Z. Barabak. “It’s hardly a secret the governor very much wished he was in Harris’ shoes. Throughout the [Democratic National Convention] week he wore the tight smile of a disappointed runner-up; the kind you see at the Oscars when they flash on the best actor nominees just before pulling away to show the winner take the stage.” L.A. Times
2.
Newly released video footage offered the most detailed glimpse yet of Nancy Pelosi’s rushed evacuation from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She lit into Capitol security officials for failing to anticipate the attack. “They thought these people would act civilized?” she said. “They thought these people gave a damn? What is it that is missing here in terms of anticipation?” Later, Pelosi discussed plans to label Donald Trump “a domestic enemy.” “Let’s not mince words about this,” she said. Politico | NBC News
3.
Steve Hilton, a FOX News pundit and former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, is said to be considering running as a Republican for governor of California. Hilton moved to the state in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021. Word of his interest in the governor’s mansion has already caught the interest of leaders in Silicon Valley and Sacramento. “I know he’s talking to a lot of the right people because I have heard from a lot of the right people that he’s talking to them,” said Jim Brulte, past chairman of the California Republican Party. Politico
4.
The Eastern Sierra’s Mono Lake, an ancient inland sea where tufa groves rise above black clouds of alkali flies, is weird enough. Now scientists have discovered an unknown creature the size of a dust grain thriving in waters laced with arsenic and cyanide. It’s called a choanoflagellate, a single-celled form of life that is not an animal but is among the closest living relatives. The scientists believe it can help unlock the origin of animals more than 650 million years ago. They named it Barroeca monosierra. Newsweek
Northern California
5.
The final pieces of four dams along Northern California’s Klamath River are scheduled to be demolished this week, wrapping up the largest dam removal project in U.S. history. It’s a long-delayed milestone for the “salmon people,” as local tribes call themselves, who link the decline of the river’s fish to myriad social and health problems. “It’s just so hard to express to people who are so used to fishing for sport or fun that salmon is really everything for us,” said Brook Thompson, 28. “The health of the river is literally our health.” N.Y. Times
- See aerial views of the dam removal project. 👉 @swiftwaterfilms
6.
A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Sonoma County man to six consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole for torturing and starving his three adopted children, in a case the judge said was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Prosecutors said Jose Centeno and his wife took in two girls and one boy, all under 5 years old at the time in 2006, then chained them up in a bedroom for years. One daughter testified that Centeno repeatedly raped her. The other girl vanished in 2012. Press Democrat | CBS Bay Area
7.
When a citizen sleuth in Portland named Bryan Hance uncovered a massive bicycle-theft pipeline leading from the Bay Area to Mexico during the pandemic, California police brushed him off. He tried to get Facebook, where the bikes were being sold, to do something. He got nowhere, he said. So Hance has spent years obsessively exposing the crime ring on his own. “I’m the only one doing it,” he said. “And you know, stupid me, I want to move on and do other things, but it’s just so egregious, and so out in the open.” L.A. Times
8.
On Monday, a free grocery store opened inside a San Francisco school, the first of its kind in California. Funded by Amazon and operated by an anti-hunger nonprofit, the store will provide produce, canned goods, and other foods to families at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, located in an area where roughly 40% of families live below the poverty line. Tyson Fechter, the principal, said he hoped the store would allow students to focus on learning rather than hunger. S.F. Examiner | KGO
Southern California
9.
A San Diego police officer was killed Monday night after a speeding vehicle slammed into his patrol car in a fiery crash that also killed the speeding driver, said Police Chief Scott Wahl. “Last night, we lost a good one,” said Wahl, who was visibly shaken. A second officer in the patrol car was in critical condition. The authorities said the driver had been fleeing an attempted traffic stop before he careened into the side of a patrol vehicle responding to the incident. Gov. Gavin Newsom said flags would be flown at half-staff in honor of the slain officer, Austin Machitar, 30. S.D. Union-Tribune | A.P.
10.
Tom Girardi, the once-vaunted Southern California trial lawyer, was found guilty on Tuesday of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from clients. Girardi, 85, portrayed himself as “as a champion for the little guy,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. But clients went unpaid as Girardi spent money on private jets, country clubs, and the career of his now-estranged wife, TV personality Erika Jayne. “In reality,” Estrada said, “he was a Robin-Hood-in-reverse.” L.A. Times | A.P.
11.
Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do skipped a supervisors meeting Tuesday days after FBI agents raided his home and accusations swirled that his daughter pocketed money funneled to a charity by Do. Two supervisors and the editorial board of Do’s hometown newspaper became the latest to call for him to step down. For nine months, as the scandal has mounted, Do has declined to speak publicly aside from brief remarks to a Vietnamese-language radio station owned by a political ally on Aug. 15. He said he was the victim of a smear campaign. Voice of OC | LAist
- Down the coast in Chula Vista, a former City Councilwoman is set to be sentenced on Wednesday for stealing pandemic relief funds. Times of San Diego
12.
For the first time, slightly more than half of Caltech’s new fall class will be women, the school announced. The milestone comes as the gender gap in higher education generally has narrowed the point of reversal, with roughly three women for every two men. In STEM, the gaps vary across fields, with greater numbers of men in math and engineering and more women in medical and biological sciences. The gender parity at Caltech has been a long time coming, arriving more than a half century after the Pasadena institution admitted its first female students in 1970. L.A. Times
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