A survey last year found that 65 percent of voters thought Proposition 13 has been good for California. But four decades after the measure rolled back property tax assessments, voters also say they are ready to rethink the law. They’re likely to get the chance next year. A proposed voter initiative would strip tax protections from commercial property. The L.A. Times’s Sacramento bureau chief predicted “a political battle for the ages.” L.A. Times | N.Y. Magazine

The N.Y. Times put California’s debate over a high school ethnic studies curriculum on its front page. A Republican critic called the proposed education materials “progressive to the point of self-parody.” An ethnic studies teacher who worked on the document said it aims to “honor students as young intellectuals.” N.Y. Times

California’s schools chief criticized lack of instruction on anti-Semitism in the curriculum. “There’s no limit on groups who have experienced oppression,” he said. L.A. Times | EdSource

California is poised to post a record $3.1 billion in licensed marijuana sales this year, making it the biggest legal market in the world, an analysis found. Still, it’s dwarfed by the illegal market. Consumers are spending $3 in the black market for every $1 in the legal one. Among the reasons, according to sellers: high taxes and bans on cannabis stores in the majority of cities and counties. L.A. Times | A.P.

On June 23, Gov. Gavin Newsom said this: “The vast majority (of San Francisco’s homeless people) also come in from — and we know this — from Texas. Just (an) interesting fact.” That raised some eyebrows at PolitiFact, which truth-tested the comment. “In the end,” they concluded, “we found Newsom made a ridiculous claim.” PolitiFact

A few eye-catching homes on the market:

The surveillance video is terrifying: A man violently attacking a woman outside her San Francisco apartment building. Yet when the suspect was brought before a judge days later, she let him go to await a Sept. 12 court date, a move the victim found incomprehensible. Now the mayor has weighed in: It was “clearly wrong,” she said. “This man needs to be receiving mental health services under observation, not back out on the street.” S.F. Chronicle | KPIX

Rep. Devin Nunes has faced criticism from Democratic groups for claiming to be a farmer. Now, for the first time in a decade, the Central Valley Republican reported in a financial disclosure that he owns a farm worth less than $15,000. “Either he had a tiny stake in this farm all along and he’s been improperly filing financial disclosures,” an ethics lawyer said, “or he bought a tiny, tiny farm this year in order to protect his reputation as a farmer in his district.” McClatchy

Scooter companies have long pitched themselves as a means to democratize transportation. Scoot Networks, owned by Bird, made “transportation for everyone” its stated mission. Yet the San Francisco company has literally drawn a red line around the poorer parts of the city like the Tenderloin and Chinatown. L.A. Times

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, a Bay Area science writer who discusses the threat of the enlarging San Francisco Estuary. “The West Coast is going to suffer more from sea level rise than other coasts because of the way that the ice sheets are melting,” she said. “So we’re in the hot seat right now for the next 20 years. We need to really move fast to get people out of harm’s way.” California Sun Podcast

A United Nations observer on housing and homelessness has been touring the streets of San Diego. “It’s as bad, if not worse, than I anticipated,” she said. Especially galling, she said, are local laws aimed at the homeless. “The number of laws in place are really being used, in my opinion, to erase a population,” she said. “It’s a big claim, but I can’t figure out the logic otherwise.” S.D. Union-Tribune | KPBS

“They destroyed my husband.”

Frank Meza, a retired Los Angeles physician, was a devout runner who late in life began running marathons — and getting astonishingly fast times. Then doubts began to surface. They grew into amateur sleuthing, accusations, and in June, a front-page story in the L.A. Times that ran under the headline: “Is this 70-year-old marathon runner from East L.A. a record setter or a cheater?” Two weeks later, Meza was dead. He had jumped from a bridge onto the concrete bed of the L.A. River. L.A. Magazine

A woman who was caught on video dumping seven 3-day-old puppies into a recycling bin in the Coachella Valley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in the county jail. The case of Deborah Sue Culwell generated national media attention. The puppies were rescued by a passerby, but one of them died a week later. The authorities also impounded another 38 dogs found at Culwell’s residence. Desert Sun | A.P.

“With its Mission-style facades and showy tropical foliage, Santa Barbara could be a commercial for the California good life.”

The N.Y. Times gave the “36 Hours” treatment to Santa Barbara County, which it called surprisingly rural. Responding in comment threads, several locals gave their seal of approval to the suggested itinerary of vineyards, beaches, and markets. N.Y. Times

On this day 32 years ago, thousands of people tried to usher in world peace by unifying their souls. The Harmonic Convergence was said to be the first large-scale simultaneous multinational meditation in history.

It was the brainchild of José Argüelles, an art historian turned proselytizer of an eclectic philosophy drawn from Mayan and Aztec cosmology, the I Ching, the Book of Revelation, and more. Humankind, in his view, was thrown off kilter by adherence to the Gregorian calendar, resulting in war and depravity.

But according to Argüelles’s cosmological calculations, Aug. 16-17 of 1987 offered a crucial window to correct Earth’s “dissonances.” If enough people meditated together, they would spare the planet a quarter century of calamity foretold in ancient writings.

While derided by scholars and members of the news media, the idea resonated with a generation of seekers riding the New Age wave of the 1980s. Harmonic Convergence celebrations were held at Mount Shasta, Mount Tamalpais, and other “power points” around the world, with much humming, drumming, and hand holding. Shirley MacLaine and John Denver took part. Johnny Carson had his audience chant “om.”

Over the next few years, the Berlin Wall fell, dictatorship ended in Paraguay, and Taylor Swift was born, though it was unclear whether these events amounted to confirmation of a cosmic reboot.

Argüelles believed it did. Later, as the 25-year cycle that began in 1987 winded down, he anticipated a new “galactic age” in which people would communicate by telepathy. But he didn’t get the chance to welcome it. He died in 2011 while on retreat in the Australian bush.

Argüelles’s legacy lives on perhaps most brightly at U.C. Davis, where he taught art history. On the campus quad in 1969, he founded the Whole Earth Festival, whose musical vibrations now attract 30,000 people each year over Mother’s Day weekend. N.Y. Times | Smithsonian

Five blurbs that got big views over the past week: