Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 15.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom signs law to rein in gas prices.
- Ranchers lose cattle after comeback of gray wolves.
- And Google backs new nuclear plants to power AI.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a law that he said would end gas-price spikes by authorizing regulators to force oil refineries to store more inventory. In an animated video posted to X, Newsom accused the oil industry of being in “cahoots” with former President Trump in a scheme to drive up prices and “scare voters” into backing Trump. ”They’ve been screwing you for years,” Newsom told reporters. An industry spokeswoman, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, has accused the governor of his own secret plot: “It’s about intentionally raising [gas prices] so Californians drive less,” she said. Politico | L.A. Times
2.
Under one California mandate, all big rigs sold in the state must be zero emissions by 2042. Under another, awaiting approval from the Biden administration, the sale of new gas-powered cars would be banned after 2035. But Donald Trump, who has denounced Gov. Gavin Newsom as an “environmental maniac,” has vowed to gut such policies if elected president. With that in mind, the state’s Democratic leaders have been working for months to “Trump-proof” California’s climate rules, the New York Times reported.
3.
The Biden administration on Monday commemorated the designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the Central Coast, the first such preserve in California to be managed in cooperation with Indigenous peoples. The 4,543-square-mile sanctuary came into being after years of tense debates over its name and boundaries. Other local tribes felt sidelined by elevation of the Chumash, while offshore wind companies hoped to develop waters within the proposed footprint. In the end, the Chumash name stayed, and the waters sought by developers were carved out. KQED | L.A. Times
Northern California
4.
During a conservation forum in the Northern California mountain town of Quincy last June, a wildlife official announced that California’s wolf population was growing “exponentially.” A cheer rose from the crowd of locals, but not everyone. Ranchers called out one by one.
“These wolves are eating more farm animals than they are wild animals,” one said.
“We’re losing cattle daily,” said another.
“It’s like having some burglar come into your yard every night,” shouted a third. S.F. Chronicle
5.
On Monday, lawyers laid out drastically different narratives during opening arguments in the murder trial over the April 2023 killing of technology executive Bob Lee. Prosecutors said video and DNA evidence would show that Nima Momeni stabbed Lee in a rage, believing the tech executive had raped his sister. Momeni’s defense lawyers countered that Lee was on a cocaine binge and had tried to stab Momeni, who turned the knife on Lee in self-defense. “Somebody’s dead,” said lawyer Saam Zangeneh. “Nobody likes that, but you have the right to defend yourself.” S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
6.
The University of Nevada women’s volleyball squad announced on Monday that they would become the fifth team to boycott their match against San Jose State University over the presence of a player who has been identified as transgender. “We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” the players said. But hours later, the Nevada administration disavowed their statement, which it said was made without consulting with the school. “The university intends to move forward with the match,” it said. Mercury News
7.
Google has ordered the construction of seven small nuclear reactors in the U.S. to help feed the company’s growing appetite for electricity to power artificial intelligence. Under the first-of-its-kind deal, Kairos Power, a startup based in Alameda, will add 500 megawatts of nuclear power, enough to power a midsize city, by the end of the decade. “The end goal here is 24/7, carbon-free energy,” said Michael Terrell, senior director for energy and climate at Google. Wall Street Journal | Bloomberg
8.
While most of San Francisco slept early Monday, thousands of people gathered around a bonfire on Alcatraz Island before sunrise in an annual commemoration of the 1969 Indigenous occupation of the rock. The occupiers argued that an 1868 treaty gave them the right to claim unused federal land, in a protest that awakened many Americans for the first time to the plight of Native Americans. Mission Local published photos from this year’s event, which included singers and dancers swirling at the center of a ring of spectators.
9.
A Minnesota horticulture teacher named Travis Gienger was crowned champion at the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay for a second year in a row on Monday, with a gourd that weighed 2,471 pounds. At the first competition in 1974, the winning specimen was a mere 132 pounds. Winners crossed the 1,000-pound mark around the turn of the century. “I do feel it is mainly genetics of the pumpkins mixed with better growing biotechnology,” Gienger told Axios. Minnesota Star Tribune | A.P.
Southern California
10.
After a man was arrested on weapons charges near a Coachella rally for former President Trump, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told reporters on Sunday: “I truly do believe we prevented another assassination attempt.” It subsequently emerged that the suspect, Vem Miller, 49, is an avid Trump supporter who ran as a Republican for political office in Nevada in 2022. Even so, Bianco, who has teased a bid for California governor, doubled down on Monday. Asked by Fox News if he still thought his deputies thwarted an assassination attempt, Bianco answered: “In our minds, we did.” Fox News | San Bernardino Sun
- Miller, who was released on bail, said on Monday that he was planning a “massive lawsuit” against Bianco: “Everything they said about me is untrue.” L.A. Times | USA Today
11.
Some of Los Angeles’ finest beaches, the BBC declared in a provocative headline, are “fake.”
The claim is drawn from the work of historian Elsa Devienne, whose newly published book “Sand Rush” recounts the campaign to make the booming shoreline of Santa Monica Bay more inviting in the middle of the 20th century. Crews trucked in enormous amounts of sand from nearby dunes, creating vast expanses of golden, flat beach. “It kind of worked,” Devienne said. But the staying power of those largely lifeless beaches, she added, is running out. BBC
12.
To help pay his tuition at Cal State Long Beach, the Oaxaca-born artist Narsiso Martinez spent his summers picking asparagus and apples in the fields. The largely unseen agricultural workforce later became a focus of his art, which included portraits of the people who feed America painted on discarded cardboard produce boxes. Martinez’s art is now being celebrated in an exhibit at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. This is Colossal
- See more of Martinez’s work. 👉 @narsisomartinez
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