Good morning. It’s Tuesday, May 2.
- AI pioneer quits Google and warn of dangers.
- A desperate struggle for housing at UC Santa Cruz.
- And four people found dead in desert town of Mojave.
Statewide
1.
California’s task force on reparations released an estimate for what it would cost to compensate Black residents for the damages caused by the state’s history of racial harm: up to $1.2 million per individual. The panel faces a July 1 deadline to make its final recommendations to the Legislature, where they are expected to face intense scrutiny, particularly from Republicans and moderate Democrats. An economist has said the plan as it stands could cost more than $800 billion; California has a roughly $297 billion annual budget. S.F. Chronicle | CalMatters
- Also exploring reparations: Berkeley’s school district, which may pay cash payments to Black students. SF Standard | Berkeleyside
2.
The New York Times’ “What You Get” real estate column highlighted three examples of California architectural styles at the price of $1.1 million. They include a two-bedroom bungalow in upscale Oakland, a midcentury-modern-style home in Palm Springs, and a 1918 Craftsman in Oxnard. Notably, the Oxnard property offers triple the lot size and almost twice the square footage of the Oakland home. N.Y. Times
Northern California
3.
Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather” of artificial intelligence, revealed that he quit his job at Google so he can speak freely about its risks. He said he worries now that future versions of the technology pose a threat to humanity. “The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that,” Hinton said. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.” N.Y. Times
4.
California on Monday sued Elk Grove for rejecting an affordable housing project, accusing local leaders of discriminating against low-income families. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the Sacramento County city broke a 2017 law that requires quick approval of low-income housing proposals in municipalities with housing shortages. “It’s clear this project was denied because of the intended residents,” he said. Sacramento Bee | A.P.
5.
For a 2021 survey of UC Santa Cruz students, researchers created a new category called “obscene rent burden” for those spending 70% or more of their monthly wages on rent. Some 44% of students fell into the category. In one house near campus, two out of its seven residents live in spaces that are unheated and unpermitted. Laura Chappell, a 31-year-old doctoral student, pays $963 a month for the smallest of them. “This is a steal,” she said. Wall Street Journal
6.
Driverless cars have gone from novelty to a near-ubiquitous feature of life in San Francisco. But firefighters are now calling to get them off the streets as the cars increasingly wander into emergency situations. In one case, a firefighter resorted to smashing a driverless car’s window to get it to stop. In another, a police officer yelled at a car like a bad dog: “No! You stay!” Mission Local
7.
“It’s going to be seen from everywhere.”
San Francisco has a new sculpture: a twisting stainless steel branch that rises some 102 feet from a downtown plaza. The artist, Roxy Paine, described the artwork, known as “Node,” as “an elegant line connecting earth to sky, people to underground systems and sculpture to city.” Passersby have described it as “smoke billowing in the air” and something out of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” S.F. Chronicle | SF Standard
Southern California
8.
Three women and a man were found dead from gunshot wounds inside an RV in the small desert community of Mojave late Sunday night, the authorities said on Monday. There were no immediate arrests and the names of the victims were not released. Tina Hayden, a Mojave resident who showed up at the crime scene on Monday, told reporters that one of the victims was her friend’s daughter. “They’re all on crystal meth,” she said. “This is all part of drugs, sad to say.” L.A. Times | Bakersfield Californian
9.
Thousands of film and television writers planned to go on strike for the first time in 15 years on Tuesday, bringing productions to a halt. The Writers Guild of America, which represents roughly 11,500 members, is seeking a larger slice of the streaming pie that has transformed the television business. The group bargaining on behalf of Hollywood companies said its offer included “generous increases in compensation.” The walkout is expected to reverberate across myriad businesses that depend on the industry. Hollywood Reporter | L.A. Times
10.
Three years after California enacted a law providing a new window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits, Los Angeles County delivered an estimate for its potential liability that stunned even most seasoned sex abuse attorneys. County officials predicted that they may be forced to spend up to $3 billion to resolve roughly 3,000 claims of sexual abuse at foster homes, children’s shelters, and probation camps dating to the 1950s. If the estimate is accurate, said Stewart Mollrich, a lawyer, “It would be on the order of what we’ve seen from the Catholic Church.” L.A. Times
11.
In a feature on Los Angeles’ world-class donut scene, reporter Tejal Rao gave a shout out to Holey Grail, a shop in Santa Monica that specializes in “the luxury doughnut.” Each one is fried to order: “An unhurried countertop machine drops rings of dough into hot coconut oil, flips them over as they set and color, and spits out deep golden rings that the shop workers glaze neatly with vanilla and maple, chocolate, or honey and sea salt.” N.Y. Times
California archive
12.
When fears spread about the solvency of Silicon Valley Bank on March 9, depositors withdrew $42 billion in a single day. Scholars marveled at the swiftness of the bank run, which was turbocharged by mobile phones and social media. Not long ago, bank runs unfolded only after days or weeks of reports disseminated via television and radio. Longer ago, word of banking distress spread at steamship speed.
So in early 1855, as a financial panic began to engulf California’s banks, Louis Remme still had time. The cattleman had recently deposited $12,437.50 — his life savings — with the Adams & Company bank when the Sacramento Daily Union carried the news on Feb. 24, 1855, that Adams had “given way before the storm.”
“This monied calamity is unexampled in the history of California finances,” the newspaper reported.
Remme, as one version of the story goes, joined a crowd of fellow depositors outside the shuttered Adams branch in Sacramento and overheard a fellow lamenting that he wasn’t in Portland, where another branch remained open and unaware of the bank’s collapse.
“The steamer Columbia just left the Golden Gate this morning carrying the news up north,” the man said.
Remme’s mind raced: Could he beat the ship to Portland on horseback? He set off, galloping “as if the devil were after him.” He passed Red Bluff, Mount Shasta, and the Oregon line, through rain and darkness, stopping only to trade his tired horse for fresh ones along the way.
After six days, 665 miles, and just 10 hours of sleep, Remme arrived in Portland to find the local Adams branch still open. He stumbled through the door and presented his certificate of deposit. Minutes later, he had his money. The Columbia arrived later that day. The story of Remme’s run was told over campfires for years to come.
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the name of a children’s book. It’s “Jack and the Beanstalk,” not “Jack in the Beanstalk.”
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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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