Good morning. It’s Monday, April 24.
- Fever in California’s gold country after winter storms.
- Lawyer accused of deluding inmates with false hopes.
- And the most expensive trailer park in America.
Statewide
1.
In 2021, California officials promised $1 million to anyone who could come up with a way to provide cheap, high-speed internet access across the state. Odion Edohomon, a Bay Area small business owner, took up the challenge, investing $700,000 on a pilot project in rural Humboldt County that delivered the first reliable internet access the area ever had. Everyone was thrilled. But Edohomon didn’t win; neither did any other contestant. It was all “a devastating farce,” they told the S.F. Chronicle.
2.
Columnist Conor Friedersdorf on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign against authoritarianism in red states:
“Though he remains the most powerful elected official in America’s most populous state, he often acts as if he’s an influencer with no better tool for effecting change than callouts. He recently raised $10 million to spend not on the poor, or the sick, or the young and full of potential, but rather on the governing elite’s answer to slacktivism: a political action committee.” The Atlantic
3.
When successive atmospheric rivers pounded California this winter, it was as if Mother Nature took a pressure washer to the hills. That has modern-day prospectors giddy with hopes that gold became dislodged. Among them is Jim Eakin, a firewood dealer in Placerville. “Mr. Eakin, whose gravelly voice betrays the pack and a half of cigarettes he smokes daily, does not own a computer and has never sent a text message,” the N.Y. Times wrote. “He revels in the hunt for treasure.”
Northern California
4.
A hospital in Madera held an emotional “honor walk” early Saturday for 10-year-old Anthony Duran, who died after a fight with another boy at a trampoline park. A local news crew captured video as Duran was wheeled down a hallway lined with medical staff and loved ones to donate his organs, precious gifts for at least four other children, including one who will receive his heart. KFSN
Here is a GoFundMe for Duran’s family.
5.
A line of RVs and other vehicles that stretches nearly 2 miles has come to symbolize Marin County’s affordability crisis. A handful of RVs had long dotted Binford Road on the outskirts of Novato, but the number has swollen in recent years to at least 135. They ended up there in part because Novato and San Rafael stepped up enforcement of RV bans, and Binford Road crosses county land. Some county officials and business owners are mobilizing to ban them from there as well. S.F. Chronicle
6.
“I’ll bury that n– in my fields.”
“(W)e kill more mexicans than anything else. Soo blacks can feel safe.”
“Ungreateful n-s, Jackass n-s, Jaywalking n-s, 11-25 n-s, ACO n-s, Beaner n-s.”
The text logs uncovered in an investigation into officer misconduct in the Antioch Police Department exposed a culture of virulent racism that could implicate as much as 40% of the force. The columnist Justin Phillips said nothing short of a complete revolution could repair a department so rotten. S.F. Chronicle
7.
Twitter last week removed the blue check marks from users who declined to pay for the privilege of retaining the symbols that once signified notable accounts — with the exception of one group. A cohort of famous people were surprised to see their check marks still in place despite never signing up to pay. Many rushed to disavow them. “It’s an astonishing business story. Famous people from every walk of life you could think of have, in the span of a few days, grabbed their megaphones to tell the world they did not pay for a specific product,” Slate wrote.
8.
“This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.”
Richard Powers
The bright patches of sun and dark shadows characteristic of California’s dense redwood forests can be difficult to photograph. To solve the problem, the videographer Steven Poe used a technique known as high dynamic range during shoots in Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park, Marin County’s Samuel P. Taylor State Park, and Humboldt County’s Avenue of the Giants. His meditative short film was recognized by the award-winning documentary showcase The Atlantic Selects. Vimeo
Southern California
9.
A Princeton-educated lawyer named Aaron Spolin built a booming practice by convincing nearly 2,000 California inmates that he could shorten their prison sentences. Desperate families borrowed against their homes and dipped into retirement accounts to hire him. Yet every single application he brought failed, an outcome that legal experts say was scarcely in doubt. Questioned by a reporter, Spolin acknowledged that he overpromised: “We are different than other lawyers in that we fight for the way the law should be,” he said. L.A. Times
10.
Gail Christian, who broke barriers as a Black on-air correspondent in the 1970s and 1980s, died on April 12 in Los Angeles. Christian, a Southern California native, became a visible presence in American living rooms, reporting for NBC News on stories such as the trial of Patricia Hearst, in an era when the industry was dominated by white men. In retirement, she settled in Palm Springs, where she and her partner started the annual Palm Springs Women’s Jazz Festival. She was 83. N.Y. Times
11.
“Well, uh, Disneyland is on fire.”
A 45-foot-tall animatronic dragon erupted in flames at Disneyland in Anaheim on Saturday night, forcing throngs of spectators to flee the area. No injuries were reported after the mishap at the popular “Fantasmic!” show, but it provided some dramatic video posted to social media. When firefighters doused the flames, there was a chorus of cheers. LAist | L.A. Times
12.
There’s a trailer park in Southern California where the homes sell for $5 million and more. In the 1950s, Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park in Malibu hosted a tight-knit community of blue-collar workers. Starting in the early 2000s, celebrities such as Stevie Nicks, Minnie Driver, and Matthew McConaughey began buying trailers. Here’s a tour of what is widely believed to be the most expensive trailer park in America. 👉 Wall Street Journal
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