Good morning. It’s Thursday, Sept. 5.
- Two women’s prisons face inquiry into sexual abuse.
- State forces Elk Grove’s hand on affordable housing.
- And photos of the blue fog forests of Santa Cruz.
Statewide
1.
Firefighting pilots die at an alarming rate while earning a fraction of the pay offered by large passenger airlines. Yet for a small fraternity of experienced aviators, the hot, dirty, and dangerous work of aerial firefighting is a calling. It’s “the closest thing to combat flying you’ll find in civilian life,” said Montie Vanlandingham, a retired aerial firefighter who did tours in Afghanistan. L.A. Times
2.
Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that they had opened a civil rights investigation into accusations that correctional officers engaged in systematic sexual abuse of women at two California prisons, in Chowchilla and Chino. The inquiry comes after more than 130 former inmates sued the state in December alleging that they were raped, molested, and sexually harassed by prison staff. More than 30 current and former correctional officers were named in the lawsuit. L.A. Times | Courthouse News
3.
In 1987, a Lakewood woman named Anita Ford was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of her husband after prosecutors told a story of a wife driven to kill for a $25,000 life insurance policy. She was given life in prison with no possibility of parole. Very little was said in court, however, about the years of abuse she endured. In that version of her story, Ford was a scared young wife and mother who felt she had no other escape. The New York Times opinion section featured Ford’s case in a jarring piece that asks: “Who gets to kill in self-defense?”
4.
California cemented its place as a national leader in higher education in the Wall Street Journal’s latest college rankings. Of the top 50 U.S. colleges, 17 are in California, up six from last year. Stanford University, the top California school, ranked No. 3 nationally, behind Princeton University and Babson College. Six California colleges ranked among the top 10 public institutions, with UC Berkeley at No. 1. Wall Street Journal
Northern California
5.
Elk Grove agreed to build more low-income housing to settle a lawsuit brought by California that accused the Sacramento suburb of illegally denying a 67-unit homeless housing development, officials announced on Wednesday. The city also agreed to pay the state’s legal fees. During a news conference, Attorney General Rob Bonta said he had a message for any other cities tempted to disregard California’s housing laws: “We will sue you. And we will win.” A.P. | Sacramento Bee
6.
Sutter Health, the largest and most dominant provider in Northern California, used its market power to raise prices 30% higher than those at comparable California hospitals, new research suggested. In the early 2000s, Sutter adopted an “all-or-nothing” contracting policy, meaning that insurers were forced to contract with all of its hospitals or none at all. The study, published in a hospital management journal, said the result was Sutter’s prices “were no longer restrained by competitive pressures.” S.F. Chronicle
7.
The Tahitian surfer Raimana Van Bastolaer has been winning new fans as an instructor at Kelly Slater’s surf ranch in the dusty San Joaquin Valley, appearing in videos helping novices get to their feet on perfect curling waves. In a clip posted this week that earned millions of views, Bastolaer performed an incredible — and heartwarming — save after a collision toppled his young pupil. See it here. 👉 @raimanaworld
8.
The Great Smoky Mountains region is said to have gotten its name from the Cherokee people, who called it the “place of blue smoke.” The blue refers to the way water vapor scatters light in that band of the color spectrum, an effect that has inspired the names of numerous “Blue Mountains” around the word. The tinted fog has been a source of wonder for the Santa Cruz photographer Caitlin Fullam, who shared a wonderful gallery capturing the phenomenon in the redwood and oak forests near her home. Behance
Southern California
9.
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law barring parental notification policies in schools. On Tuesday, Huntington Beach’s conservative City Council moved to circumvent the law, approving an ordinance that would require educators working at city parks and libraries — beyond school grounds — to notify parents if their children identify as transgender or gay. Councilman Dan Kalmick, who cast a dissenting vote, called the ordinance “ridiculous.” “We need to be working on our budget,” he said. Voice of OC | Daily Pilot
10.
Two months after a judge dismissed Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case, citing “egregious prosecutorial misconduct,” the prosecutor has now asked the judge to reconsider. In her 52-page motion, filed Wednesday, New Mexico special prosecutor Kari Morrissey argued that evidence her team was found to have mishandled was irrelevant to whether Baldwin was criminally culpable. “Human beings make mistakes,” she wrote. “It does not mean they are lying or that they intentionally buried evidence as claimed by the defense.” N.Y. Times | NBC News
11.
While political interest in the criminal tax evasion trial of Hunter Biden dropped off after his father quit the presidential race, the personal stakes remain high. David Weiss, the prosecutor overseeing the case in Los Angeles, where jury selection begins today, seems determined to win a conviction by portraying Biden as a high-living tax cheat. Mark J. Geragos, a lawyer for Biden, summed up his view of the prosecution during a pretrial hearing: “They want the character assassination; they want to slime him. That is the whole purpose.” N.Y. Times | Politico
12.
A Santa Monica startup says it will offer sunlight after dark by steering a fleet of satellites equipped with giant mirrors circling the Earth. Reflect Orbit hopes to sell “sunlight as a service” to solar farms tied to the intermittent schedule of the sun, said founder Ben Nowac: “We want to make it as easy as possible — like, log into a website, tell us your GPS coordinates and we get you some sunlight after dark.” The company said it already received more than 30,000 applications from interested customers. Mashable | Space.com
- Reflect Orbital is also marketing the idea for lighting. A concept video recently went viral.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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