Good morning. It’s Monday, March 10.
- Army Corps knew reservoir water would be wasted.
- People in their 20s are abandoning San Francisco.
- And under-the-radar cabins in far Northern California.
Statewide
1.
The Army Corps of Engineers knew that irrigation water released from two Sierra Nevada reservoirs at President Trump’s direction in late January would go to waste, according to an internal memo obtained through a public records request. The Army Corps dumped the federally managed water into a dry lakebed anyway and sent pictures to Washington at its request, an official said. The next day, Trump posted a photo of flowing water on X, declaring a “long fought victory” in the battle against wildfires. California’s Sen. Alex Padilla called it “nothing but a poor publicity stunt.” Washington Post
2.
Before the reservoir dump, the Department of Government Efficiency pressured the Bureau of Reclamation to restart a pumping plant on the California Delta that was temporarily offline for maintenance, a CNN investigation found. Trump had repeatedly blamed the Los Angeles wildfires on California’s alleged failure to open a mysterious “faucet.” On Jan. 27, two DOGE officials traveled to the delta in hopes of getting a photo of themselves restarting the plant’s pumps. Rebuffed, they posed instead for a picture in a public area of the facility. At the same time, Trump declared on X that the military had entered California “under emergency powers” and “turned on the water.” The Independent | CNN (paywall)
3.
A top State Farm executive, Haden Kirkpatrick, was fired after he was captured on video saying that the insurer’s rate hikes are “kind of” orchestrated. Kirkpatrick said he was recorded on a Tinder date. The recording was published by the O’Keefe Media Group, a right-wing activist organization known for deceptive practices. In the video, Kirkpatrick describes how State Farm pressures state regulators to approve rate hikes by threatening to cancel policies. “That is exactly how things are playing out in California,” the San Francisco Chronicle noted.
4.
Several California prisons are using virtual-reality headsets to help inmates escape the bleak confines of solitary confinement. Carlos Ortega, a former inmate, said that in prison, “hell is normalized.” When he participated in the VR program, he found himself sitting near in Paris near the Eiffel Tower. “You see tourists, regular people going to and from work,” Ortega said. “And that’s when it hit me: I want to live life like that. I deserve it. I owe it to myself.” The Guardian
5.
Political columnist Rachael Bade on the backlash to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s opposition to allowing transgender women to play women’s sports:
“The backlash to Newsom’s comments — not to mention the dearth of Democrats defending him — shows that the party is not only grappling with how to approach one of the nation’s most explosive issues but also struggling to even have an open conversation about it.” Politico Magazine
- Newsom administration officials discouraged Democrats from introducing transgender rights legislation weeks before he publicly broke with the party on the sports issue, sources told Politico. They ignored him.
Northern California
6.
During the pandemic, San Francisco’s population of 20-somethings fell by more than a fifth. Distressingly, the number of young people in the city has only dwindled more since then. In interviews, 20-somethings who left the city complained about street crime, lackluster nightlife, and exorbitant rents. Their assessment of the city, once a young adult’s ultimate playground, could be distilled into three words, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “Not worth it.”
7.
In its desperation to enter the lucrative China market, Meta was prepared to let the Chinese Communist Party censor Facebook, according to a new whistleblower complaint from a former global policy director at the company. In 2015, the company built a censorship system specially designed for China and agreed to hire 300 moderators to support it. It also planned to install a “chief editor” who would have the ability to shut down the entire Chinese version of the social platform during times of “social unrest,” according to the filing. Washington Post
8.
Driving in the Bay Area has become an unnerving experience for Tesla owners, as they are yelled at, flipped off, and threatened by critics of Elon Musk. In recent weeks, there have been increasing reports of windows being smashed and doors keyed. Some motorists have taken to plastering their Teslas with anti-Musk stickers. Others are looking for buyers. “The biggest thing I’m hearing is people want to sell their Teslas and can’t,” said Matt Hiller, who designed a sticker that reads, “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” S.F. Chronicle
- “At this point, we don’t see any signs of recovery.” Tesla shares have been in free fall since Trump’s inauguration. Wall Street Journal
9.
Roosevelt Elk, standing nearly as tall at the shoulder as a typical American woman, are awe-inspiring to behold even from a distance. At Elk Meadow Cabins, set beside a creek in dense redwoods of Humboldt County, guests commonly look out in the morning and see the great beasts up close from their front windows. Sometimes the bulls put on a heart-pounding show, locking horns in a battle herd dominance.
- The outdoors journalist Tom Stienstra once included Elk Meadow Cabins in a piece on five under-the-radar cabin getaways in Northern California. S.F. Chronicle
Southern California
10.
“I feel she was just using me as a commercial.”
For decades, the Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred has run the go-to law firm for women’s rights cases in the U.S. In the public eye, she is a feminist crusader who hugs and consoles her clients as they give tearful accounts of their alleged abuse. Behind closed doors, an investigation found, she scolds and intimidates clients while pressuring them to sign nondisclosure agreements and settle sex-abuse claims. The Wall Street Journal wrote about “the high-pressure tactics Gloria Allred uses — on her own clients.”
11.
Under state law, “any writing” related to the conduct of government is deemed a public record. Yet when the Los Angeles Times submitted a public records request for Mayor Karen Bass’ texts around the time catastrophic wildfires erupted in Los Angeles, they were told no such correspondence exists: her phone automatically deletes text messages. A lawyer for the city explained that Bass is not bound by law to retain “ephemeral” communication. Public-records experts consulted by the Times disagreed. L.A. Times
12.
After years of trying, a celebrity bald eagle couple that lives atop a 150-foot pine tree in Big Bear Lake are now the parents of three chicks, as the third hatchling emerged from its shell on Saturday. The parents, Jackie and Shadow, have become among the world’s most-watched bald eagles thanks to a 24-hour, solar-powered camera fixed on the nest since 2015. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people were simultaneously watching the family of eagles at any given time. LAist | L.A. Times
- See the live camera. 👉 YouTube
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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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