Newsletter
The California Sun gathers all the must-read stories about California in one place.
Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 24.
- Mortgage fraud investigation into Sen. Adam Schiff stalls.
- Gunfire erupts at immigration protest in Oakland.
- And a “broke” Francis Ford Coppola plans to sell watches.
Statewide
1.
The federal mortgage fraud investigation of California Sen. Adam Schiff, one of President Trump’s political nemeses, has stalled for lack of evidence, according to unnamed sources cited by NBC News. After months of working the case, the lead prosecutor met with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top deputy, Todd Blanche, this week and asked how he wanted to proceed. The response was to keep looking, the sources said. Schiff’s attorney, Preet Bharara, called the probe “transparently vindictive.” NBC News
2.
A powerful California union has proposed a one-time 5% tax on California’s roughly 200 billionaires to help cover the state’s health care costs. The Service Employees International Union is planning to gather signatures to get the initiative on the November 2026 ballot. Four of the top 10 richest people in the world live in California: Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Huang, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, together worth more than $840 billion. Those four alone could owe more than $40 billion combined. Bloomberg | A.P.
3.
The motel is turning 100 this year. The pioneering Milestone Mo-Tel — an abbreviation of “motor” and “hotel” — opened in San Luis Obispo on Dec. 12, 1925. Coinciding with the rise of the automobile, the motel offered a place to sleep for $1.25 a night roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, back when the drive took two days or more on poor roads. The idea took off. The New York Times looked back at a century of “neon signs, swimming pools and American dreams.”
4.
Because California has nine national parks — more than any other state — you can explore more than one in a single weekend. Extend the road trip a few days and you can take in three. Lonely Planet drew up the “ultimate road trip” between Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia national parks. A route of superlatives, it includes North America’s deepest canyon, tallest waterfall, and biggest tree.
5.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with John Freeman, author of “California Rewritten: A Journey Through the Golden State’s New Literature.” Freeman argues that California has become America’s new literary center, producing more Pulitzers in literature in the past decade than any other U.S. region. He attributes this in part to the state’s fantastic diversity of geography and people. “There’s a gateway to something much more many-sided and sophisticated,” he said.
Northern California
6.
“He just hit the gas and sped towards them.”
Late Thursday, armed officials opened fire on a U-Haul truck that accelerated backward toward them at the entrance to a Coast Guard base on the edge of Oakland, where federal officials had planned to stage immigration raids. Two men arrived at hospitals with gunshot wounds, authorities told the Mercury News. The base was targeted throughout the day by protests that were met with flash grenades and CHP officers in riot gear.
During a news conference Thursday, Oakland officials pleaded with residents to stay peaceful. The Trump administration is “baiting” their city, said Ursula Jones Dickson, Alameda County’s district attorney: “We know that their expectation is that Oakland is going to do something to cause them to make us the example.” Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle | CBS News
- The U-Haul shooting was captured on video. 👉 KTVU
7.
The chaos in Oakland unfolded despite President Trump having earlier called off a planned deployment of federal forces in San Francisco. He said on Truth Social Thursday that he changed his mind after “friends of mine who live in the area” asked him to back off. He name-checked Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang. OpenAI’s Sam Altman was also said to have reached out to the president. It remained unclear, however, whether Trump meant to spare the whole Bay Area or just San Francisco. Gov. Gavin Newsom warned against thinking Trump was done with California. “This guy’s just winding up,” he said. N.Y. Times | KTVU
- S.F. Chronicle: “The president’s reversal became an object lesson in how to get anything done with him: The voices of a few wealthy elites trump the power of the people.”
8.
Francis Ford Coppola announced plans to sell his watches after he personally funded his $120 million film “Megalopolis,” which flopped at the box office, grossing just $14.4 million. “I don’t have any money because I invested all the money, that I borrowed, to make ‘Megalopolis,’” the Napa Valley filmmaker said in March. Coppola said he would auction off seven watches, ranging in value from $3,000 to $1 million. “I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” he said. N.Y. Times | S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
9.
In Los Angeles, roughly 43% of rebuilding permit applications have been approved in the aftermath of January’s devastating wildfires. In Malibu, the figure is 2%. A “slow growth” city, Malibu is known for its painfully stringent permitting rules. Fewer people live there now than when the city was incorporated 34 years ago. Frustrated fire victims are increasingly deciding to flee, which is threatening to turn the city into a buyer’s market for international developers. L.A. Times
10.
A Southern California start-up wants to launch 4,000 giant mirrors into space to direct sunlight toward solar panel farms on Earth at night. Reflect Orbital’s investors include Sequoia Capital and the tech billionaire Baiju Bhatt. Astronomers, who rely on darkness to study the cosmos, are alarmed. “It will be like having the full Moon up every night,” said Siegfried Eggl, an assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “And that will be devastating to astronomy.” Gizmodo | Space.com
11.
“The fraud is mind boggling.”
The NBA was rocked Thursday by indictments in a pair of sprawling gambling schemes that ensnared dozens of people, including figures connected to the L.A. Lakers. Prosecutors said that in 2023 former NBA player Damon Jones, then an unofficial coach with the Lakers, leaked information to sports bettors about the injury status of LeBron James. A year later, he leaked information about Lakers star Anthony Davis, prosecutors said. Neither James nor Davis were accused of wrongdoing. L.A. Times | CBS Sports
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- One of California’s prettiest autumn destinations, Plumas County, is ready for showtime. The Northern Sierra region has an East Coast character with 19th-century towns shaded by colorful oaks, dogwoods, and maples. The photographer Michael Beatley captured recent pictures in Quincy. 👉 California Fall Color
- In four years, Austin Draper was diagnosed six times with deadly heart infections caused by injecting drugs, leading doctors to repeatedly open his chest for surgery. Draper allowed a reporter and a photographer to enter his world for a jarringly intimate portrait of one man’s relentless addiction in San Francisco. S.F. Chronicle
- Los Angeles has one UNESCO World Heritage Site: the Hollyhock House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Built between 1918 and 1921, the structure was initially conceived as an arts complex for the oil heiress Aline Barnsdall. Dwell magazine published a photo essay on the enduring vibrancy of “Frank Lloyd Wright’s ode to California.”
- Nory Sontay Ramos was a typical L.A. teenager. But one day in June, she stopped responding to texts from friends. Finally, on July 4, she explained: “We are in Guatemala,” she wrote, referring to the country she and her mother fled when Nory was 8 years old. “They deported us back.” Her hardship was just beginning, the New York Times wrote.
- The Spanish runner Kilian Jornet summited all 72 peaks in the contiguous U.S. that stand over 14,000 feet tall, including 15 in California, cycling between and running up each one — in 31 days. “Most people can’t understand how much truly bigger this is than most any major mountain endurance event we’ve ever seen,” said mountaineer Melissa Arnot. S.F. Chronicle | CNN
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