Good morning. It’s Thursday, Oct. 3.
- Judge blocks deepfakes law championed by governor.
- OpenAI announces massive venture-capital round.
- And the mystery of the “Piss Bandit” of Pasadena.
Statewide
1.
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a new California prohibition against doctored political imagery that had been championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to a manipulated viral video of Vice President Kamala Harris. The creator of that video, Christopher Kohls, sued over the law, arguing that his work was protected by the First Amendment. Judge John A. Mendez agreed. Even if deepfakes are reason for concern, he wrote, that “does not give legislators unbridled license to bulldoze over the longstanding tradition of critique, parody, and satire.” Courthouse News | Politico
2.
California has collected nearly $2 billion more than expected since April in an unexpected tax windfall. On just one day, July 16, the state received more than $800 million in corporate tax payments. Analysts suspect much of that sum may lead back to Nvidia, which has reported huge profits fueled by the artificial intelligence craze. The surge highlights California’s lopsided reliance on tax collections from Silicon Valley and the tensions that legislators face when trying to regulate its increasingly powerful companies. CalMatters
3.
Three eye-catching homes on the market:
- In 1980, the organic architect Mickey Muennig built a home out of two giant redwood wine barrels along the rugged cliffs of Big Sur. The windows of the Barrel House, as it’s known, open up on the purple sands of Pfeiffer Beach. Yours for $3.3 million. Realtor
- Later in life, Jack London settled on a ranch in the gentle hills of Glen Ellen, in Sonoma County. His creekside property, including the tree stump where he was said to sit and write, underwent an extensive renovation in 2014. Asking price: $5 million. Sonoma Magazine | Mansion Global
- In the 1970s, a pair of art lovers asked the sculptor Robert Graham to make them a custom piece for a home they were planning in Marina del Rey. Graham asked instead if he could design the house. His attempt to blur the lines between art and architecture has been listed for $17.5 million. Wall Street Journal
Northern California
4.
With fewer than five weeks until Election Day, Rep. Eric Swalwell on Wednesday announced his support for the effort to recall Alameda County’s progressive district attorney, Pamela Price, exposing a fissure in the East Bay’s Democratic Party. Swalwell, a former prosecutor, said Price has embraced “pro-criminal policies where the cops catch the bad guys and she releases them back into the community.” Price has accused Swalwell of targeting her because she is Black. KQED | East Bay Times
5.
Berkeley’s school district on Tuesday approved a settlement of $13.5 million to be split among nine women who said they were sexually abused and harassed by a science teacher. A Berkeleyside investigation found that Berkeley High knew for 15 years about allegations against Matthew Bissell but allowed him to keep teaching. In 2021, the district agreed to let him resign quietly and keep his misconduct file hidden from prospective employers. Bissell has maintained his innocence. S.F. Chronicle | Berkeleyside
6.
OpenAI announced Wednesday that it raised $6.6 billion in one of the largest venture-capital rounds ever. The funding values the San Francisco company behind ChatGPT at $157 billion, putting it on par with household names like Goldman Sachs Group and AT&T. The Wall Street Journal cited a source saying ChatGPT now has 250 million weekly active users and 11 million paying subscribers. Still, OpenAI is losing billions of dollars because of the enormous cost of building and running artificial intelligence technologies. Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
7.
Mokelumne Hill is so teeming with history that the whole town has been designated a California Historical Landmark. The tiny river town was once the main trading hub for a stretch of Gold Country southeast of Sacramento. At least 45 of the old homes and Main Street haunts remain largely as they were in the middle of the 19th century, including the stately Hotel Léger, one of California’s oldest hotels. Mokelumne Hill is prettiest in the fall, when the whole region lights up in red and gold. Comstock’s Magazine
Southern California
8.
Los Angeles police booked three suspects in a series of 7-Eleven robberies thanks to some unexpected help: their mothers turned them in. On Sept. 25, police officials released surveillance video showing a group of teenagers ransacking convenience stories across Los Angeles over the summer, many of them with faces exposed. Over the next few days, three mothers marched their boys into Los Angeles police stations. KTLA | L.A. Times
9.
On Feb. 17, 2011, Isiah Meza, age 3, died after suffering head injuries. His mother’s boyfriend, Jose Olivares, said the boy had fallen from a bed. But after a 16-day trial in 2014, Olivares was convicted of assault based on the testimony of doctors who attributed the death to shaken baby syndrome. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. Ten years later, on Sept. 19, a judge vacated Olivares’ conviction after attorneys argued that his prosecution was based on medical testimony that is now outdated and wrong. He walked free on Wednesday. L.A. Times
10.
The man convicted in the 2022 murder of 24-year-old UCLA graduate student Brianna Kupfer at a furniture store in Los Angeles was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Shawn Smith, 34, had tried to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, which the judge rejected. Audio captured during the slaying was key to the conviction. In it, a woman identified as Kupfer can be heard screaming and Smith says: “It’s over, it’s over, it’s over, it’s over, bitch.” He stabbed her 46 times. L.A. Times | NBC Los Angeles
11.
For years, someone has been leaving bottles full of urine along a street in Pasadena. That would be strange enough. Making it weirder is the number of bottles — as many as a dozen at any given time — and the specificity of the placement, carefully arranged atop one seemingly random electrical box. The mystery inspired a filmmaker to capture images of the urine depositor with hidden trail cameras. Then the mystery deepened. L.A. Times
- “Nothing made sense.” Watch the “PISS SAGA” investigation.
12.
Last year, Aubrey Laue was a third-string kicker on the JV football team at Helix High School, in La Mesa. During the offseason, she showed up for 6:30 a.m. workouts — the only female in the room — determined to earn a place on the varsity squad. It was an audacious goal: Helix is a big school and football team alums include college and NFL stars. Not only did Laue make the team, but she earned the starting role. Last month, she had her finest moment yet, drilling a 27-yard field goal with 23 seconds on the clock to lift Helix to a homecoming victory. The crowd went wild. N.Y. Times
- See Laue’s game-winning kick. 👉 @thefemaleathleteproject
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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