Newsletter
The California Sun gathers all the must-read stories about California in one place.
Good morning. It’s Monday, July 14.
- Immigrant worker dies from injuries in pot-farm raid.
- An 80-year-old runs 135-mile Badwater ultramarathon.
- And a proposal to transform San Francisco’s skyline.
Deportation crackdown
1.
A farmworker died from injuries suffered during the chaotic immigration raid on a cannabis farm in Camarillo last week. Jaime Alanis Garcia, 57, fell from the roof of a greenhouse where he fled to elude capture, his family said. He broke his neck and died at a hospital on Saturday. Garcia had worked at the farm for a decade, sending earnings to his wife and daughter in Mexico, his family said: “Jaime was not just a farm worker, he was a provider, and a human being who deserved dignity.” Thomas Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said the death was tragic but that ICE agents were doing their jobs. KABC | L.A. Times
- A GoFundMe campaign set up by Garcia’s family had raised more than $150,000 by late Sunday.
2.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop making indiscriminate immigration arrests in the L.A. area. The criteria used to justify raids, Judge Maame E. Frimpong wrote, “seem no more indicative of illegal presence in the country than of legal presence — such as working at low-wage occupations such as car wash attendants and day laborers.” A day later, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, accused Frimpong of “making up garbage” and vowed to “come harder and faster” at illegal immigrants. “He’s an idiot. He’s frankly an idiot,” Noem said of the female judge. CNN | Politico
3.
In 1942, a Los Angeles fish boat navigator named Joseph Kurihara was incarcerated at Manzanar, the East Sierra prison established to hold Japanese Americans during World War II. A Hawaiian-born veteran of World War I, he was outraged. After his release, he renounced his citizenship and moved to Japan, staying even after growing homesick for Hawaii. “Kurihara remained principled — or imperiously stubborn — to the end. He never returned to Hawaii. He died of a stroke in Tokyo on November 26, 1965.” The Atlantic told the story of a man who lost his faith in America.
4.
Other dispatches from the deportation crackdown:
- On Thursday morning, Juan Martinez, 15, got a frantic call from his mother. Immigration agents had showed up at the cannabis farm where she works, she said. Later, she sent a voice text from inside a federal van, telling him to take care of his brothers, ages 8 and 9. Martinez sobbed. “I’m actually really lost right now,” he said. Santa Barbara Independent
- Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan to provide cash assistance to undocumented immigrants who are too afraid to leave their homes. The aid will be distributed using cash cards with a “couple hundred” dollars on them, she said. L.A. Times
- A deaf Mongolian man has spent more than four months in the Otay Mesa Detention Center without access to an interpreter, his lawyer said: “He’s basically been in solitary confinement.” CalMatters
Statewide
5.
A stunning 64% of California voters think American democracy is under attack, a new UC Berkeley poll found. Democrats were most fearful, with 81% saying democracy was under attack. But the anxiety cut across party lines, with nearly 40% of Republicans agreeing. The unease was pervasive regardless of income, education, race, or age. “I do think that it’s at a pretty dangerous point right now. The concerns are justified,” said political scientist Eric Schickler, a co-director of Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. L.A. Times
6.
Ben, a volunteer with Inyo County Search and Rescue, was at a gym in Bishop when his cellphone buzzed: a lone injured hiker was stuck on California’s second-tallest peak. Dark clouds were forming; the clock was ticking. Rescuers aboard a helicopter spotted the woman, but the slope was too sheer to approach. They would need another plan. Ben, 49, volunteered, but after a lifetime of risk-taking in wild places he was not he was not eager for the assignment. “It’s a thrill I don’t really need,” he said. The San Francisco Chronicle told the blow-by-blow story of an incredible rescue on a rugged Eastern Sierra peak.
7.
In 1977, a running hobbyist named Al Arnold became the first to run between the lowest and highest points in the contiguous U.S. — from Death Valley’s Badwater Basin to the summit of Mt. Whitney. The Badwater ultramarathon — billed as the world’s toughest footrace — became an annual event, held in summer to ratchet up the torture. This year’s race, held last week, brought a new milestone: the oldest finisher ever. Bob Becker, 80, ran the 135-mile route in under 48 hours. He had tried before at age 77, fell short, then came back stronger. Gear Junkie
- “I had a score to settle.” See Becker’s post-race interview.
8.
A world of granite spires jutting from the forest in Shasta County; a Swiss-like village on a picturesque lake in the Eastern Sierra; and a little town in gorgeous Scott Valley where the vibe is quaint and the people are friendly.
KQED put together a great list of alternatives to Yosemite that “are just as beautiful — and much less crowded.”
Northern California
9.
San Francisco may sprout the tallest American tower outside of New York and Chicago. A proposed downtown skyscraper would soar 1,225 feet, dwarfing the nearby Salesforce Tower by 15 stories. It would also rise above the 1,100-foot Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles, currently the tallest building on the West Coast. City officials appear thrilled by the proposal, which could bring a jolt to the languishing downtown. San Francisco’s “comeback depends on bold ideas and real investment, and this project promises to deliver both,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie. S.F. Chronicle | KGO
10.
For decades, a landowner named Ed Filbin stockpiled old tires on his property on the edge of the San Joaquin Valley. By the time lightning struck in 1999, igniting a fire, it was considered the largest pile of scrap tires in the country. The inferno raged for five weeks, sending up enormous black clouds of smoke that filled the lungs and burned the eyes of nearby residents. An image of the Westley tire pile, before it went up in flames, was included in a remarkable photo essay on the landscapes being ravaged by human activity. New Yorker
Southern California
11.
The Trump administration told transgender troops to leave the military by June 6 or wait to be forced out. Now that the deadline has passed, many are refusing the order. They describe a storm of emotions: anger, betrayal, fear of being untethered from all they have known. Marine Corps Capt. Sye Savoie, a Marine for six years, is defiant: “They can come and find me, and they can tell me word for word why I’m not fit to do the job that I was selected so carefully from so few people to do.” The San Diego Union-Tribune investigated how the transgender ban is rippling through San Diego’s military community.
12.
Against the odds, the Valley Plaza Mall in Bakersfield is thriving thanks in part to packs of kids who have embraced the lost 1980s culture of simply hanging out at the mall. But a cohort of local residents want them gone. A petition calling for a ban on unsupervised teens has collected more than 7,400 signatures on the grounds that they are messy, uncouth, and exhibit “inappropriate behavior.” Eating lunch with a friend at the food court recently, Alana Rodriguez, 18, said it’s a little silly. “We don’t do anything. We’re just here walking around,” she said. SFGATE
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