Newsletter
The California Sun gathers all the must-read stories about California in one place.
Good morning. It’s Friday, Aug. 21.
- Record start-up investment flows into California.
- FBI raids Eric Swalwell’s home and seizes devices.
- And a farmworker’s skill dazzles social media.
Statewide
1.
When the Bureau of Land Management rounded up hundreds of wild horses from the high desert of Lassen County, the animals were supposed to end up in caring homes. But an investigation of horse roundups across the American West revealed a grim reality: “Slaughtering wild horses is illegal, but the bureau’s actions create a loophole that enables people to get mustangs on the cheap and then quickly resell them to be exported alive, processed into cuts of meat and sold abroad.” N.Y. Times
2.
An extraordinary wave of investment is pouring into California. Companies in the state have collected roughly $366 billion in venture capital so far in 2026, according to PitchBook. “That’s more than three times the amount of venture funding that has gone into the other 49 states combined, and nearly double California’s previous record, set in 2025,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Fueled by the artificial-intelligence craze, the investment is reverberating across the state, supercharging housing prices and boosting tax revenue.
3.
President Trump has gone much further to attack California’s environmental protections than he did during his first term. The New York Times found that at least a half-dozen federal agencies were working to undermine the state’s pivot toward clean energy. “There are almost too many examples to list,” the Times wrote. A White House spokesman said the moves were intended to “unleash American energy dominance.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said it’s really about fossil fuels: “Follow the money … This is a White House run for Big Oil, by Big Oil.”
4.
While machines handle the harvesting of sturdier crops in California, such as nuts and rice, most fruit and vegetable varieties are still collected by hand. For migrant workers, commonly motivated by dreams that their children will escape such labor, that means hunching over in the fields, cutting and picking for as many as 14 hours a day. After years, workers develop blinding efficiency. An Oxnard farmworker who goes by Rosalba on social media dazzled followers with a video demonstration of her cilantro harvesting technique. @AlmazanRosalba/TikTok
Northern California
5.
Federal agents raided Eric Swalwell’s Washington home, seized his electronic devices, and even briefly detained the disgraced former congressman at the San Francisco airport as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual assault, reports said on Thursday. The moves came as newly declassified records from an earlier investigation revealed that Swalwell told the FBI in 2015 that he had sexual relations “on a handful of occasions” with a suspected Chinese operative. Swalwell’s lawyer accused the government of trying to punish a critic. Mercury News | L.A. Times
- Aisha Wahab, a progressive state senator, defeated a moderate Democrat in special election to replace Swalwell, results showed on Thursday. Wahab will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress. S.F. Chronicle
6.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Theo Baker, author of the new book “How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University.” Baker recalled feeling like he had reached paradise as a freshman on the Silicon Valley campus. But he came to see Stanford as less a school than a business. Students, he said, “are handed huge opportunities, told to make very, very big promises, and learn time and time again that deceitful behavior will not be followed up on, that winning at all costs is the only way to get ahead.”
Southern California
7.
Residents were told that the air around a massive warehouse fire in L.A.’s Boyle Heights in June was safe to breathe. But a new study found that 469 patients seen at mobile clinics suffered health problems “directly related to toxic exposure and smoke inhalation.” The report, said Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, “puts hard numbers behind what Boyle Heights residents have been telling us since June 17: this was not simply a warehouse fire — it was a public health emergency.” Boyle Heights Beat | L.A. Times
8.
AltaMed, a nonprofit healthcare provider in Southern California, has six members of the CEO’s family on its payroll and is paying them millions, according to a new IRS complaint. Cástulo de la Rocha, the chief executive, was paid more than $1.9 million a year as of 2024, while his wife, Zoila Escobar, AltaMed’s chief administrative officer, earned $904,000. AltaMed also employs five of the couple’s children, whose salaries were not disclosed — with one exception. Marco de la Rocha, the couple’s son, collected $619,000. A watchdog group called the nepotism and excessive pay “shocking.” L.A. Material
9.
A Netflix crime drama series with a budget of more than $100 million and a crew of 350 was set to begin filming Los Angeles last month when the producers learned that the project didn’t make the cut for California’s film tax and TV credit. They were stunned. They opted instead to shoot in New Jersey, where the incentives are easier to get. The episode was emblematic of Hollywood’s crisis. L.A. once “stood in for everywhere,” said the filmmaker Jonathan Nolan. “Now L.A. doesn’t even stand in for itself.” L.A. Times
10.
The leader of the Galactic Empire, it seems, has strong views about Flock cameras, the surveillance technology that has drawn intense opposition from civil liberties groups. A man dressed as Darth Vader made an appearance at a San Diego City Council meeting on Wednesday, drawing smirks from the audience, as he declared the technology a “necessary force.” “We must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground,” he added. KUSI | 404 Media
11.
Caitlin Simmers, a world champion surfer from Oceanside, sees her sport as dance. The dance critic Gia Kourlas explored the parallels between sport and art in a column: “With little hesitation, her small, agile frame zips through water like a mercurial ballerina whipping across the stage in tight, rapid-fire turns. … What’s most striking about her style is its seamless flow. When she rides through water, it’s as if she’s filling every note of a musical phrase.” N.Y. Times
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views in the past week.
- Believe it or not, you can grow bananas in Northern California. Kyle Hagerty’s home in Sacramento looks inconspicuous from the front. But around back, the city fireman has transformed what was a weed-filled yard in 2019 into an astonishingly lush edible garden. The Sacramento Bee paid a visit.
- Hagerty shares his gardening adventures on Instagram.
- The deaths of two horses during a rodeo in Humboldt County on Saturday have led to widespread outrage. Multiple witnesses said horses in the “bucking bronco” event at the Ferndale fairgrounds appeared to be out of control, slamming into gates and falling repeatedly. Lost Coast Outpost | Eureka Times-Standard
- Annie Morgan, a former Oakland Raiders cheerleader living in Rancho Cordova, has spent years caring for her special-needs child. The toll has grown quietly. The Washington Post wrote a powerful piece on the unsustainable burden facing many family caregivers.
- In April, Morgan posted a video on tough school-morning routines. It went viral.
- Jamaal Harrison was riding his e-bike in West Hollywood on Saturday when he came upon a little pig running down the street. He chased the tireless swine but found that catching a pig is harder than he realized. Harrison’s videos, posted later to TikTok, delighted the internet to no end. L.A. Times
- The drumbeat of delays and cost overruns plaguing California’s bullet train has been relentless for years. Yet progress is increasingly visible in the Central Valley. A new drone video traces part of the route, giving a sense of what it might feel like to ride the train. Jason Dronin Around/YouTube
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