Ukraine roundup:

California once produced nearly 60,000 tons of figs year. They fell out of favor starting in the 1930s, as farmers turned to less labor-intensive fruits. By the 2000s they were only a handful of American fig farmers left. But birds and other animals never stopped spreading fig seeds, causing random trees to sprout in drainage ditches, behind strip malls, and other odd places. Smithsonian Magazine profiled an obsessive and tightly guarded community in California: the wild fig hunters.

Additional details emerged Tuesday about the man who fatally shot his three daughters and a man inside a Sacramento Church Monday. His name was David Mora, 39, and he had been ordered by a judge to attend anger-management classes after the mother of the girls said he was dangerous, records showed. Five days before the shooting, he was arrested in Merced County on suspicion of assaulting an officer and drunk driving. Sacramento Bee | L.A. Times

A big reader. A hugger. A kind soul. Mourners recalled the slain girls — Samia Mora Gutierrez, 13, Samantha Mora Gutierrez, 10, and Samarah Mora Gutierrez, 9 — at a vigil Tuesday night. KCRA | ABC10

Cain Velasquez, a two-time UFC heavyweight champion, was arrested on a charge of attempted murder in San Jose on Monday. Multiple news reports cited sources that said Velasquez shot at a man accused of molesting a child closely related to the former fighter. Since his retirement in 2019, Velasquez has trained and coached at a San Jose gym. Mercury News | NBC Bay Area

On June 7, San Franciscans will decide whether to recall their progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin. In a N.Y. Times Magazine interview, Boudin echoed an argument made by three school board members who were recently ousted: that the recall is the handiwork of right-wing elites. “What any political consultant in California politics will tell you,” he said, “is that you can qualify anything you want for the ballot if you spend enough money to hire professional signature gatherers.”

The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey took a walk around Berkeley with Phil Bokovoy, the “NIMBY king” whose litigious neighborhood group is forcing UC Berkeley to slash its incoming freshman class. A former investment banker, Bokovoy is a gregarious, dyed-in-the-wool liberal who lives part of the year at his second home in New Zealand. He agrees that the housing situation in Berkeley is untenable, Lowrey reported — but because there are too many people, not too few houses.

In Silicon Valley, people from India make up a full quarter of the technical workforce. Many come from historically privileged castes and have brought with them ancient prejudices largely invisible to outsiders, say Dalits, the most oppressed class in the hierarchy. Wired spoke with Siddhant, who was born in a cowshed in India and now works at Meta. “It is very, very dangerous revealing the identity even to any person,” he said. WIRED

In 2014, the photographer Ed Drew was invited to photograph the Klamath people along the border area between California and Oregon. His subjects were drawn from a series of intensive “talking circles,” sessions organized by tribal mental health services to work through struggles with addiction, abuse, racism, and other issues. Drew used the 19th-century tintype process, drawing a link from past to present. See a few of his photos below and many more at the National Museum of American History and Drew’s website.

Los Angeles County is poised to lift its indoor mask mandate for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents on Friday, a significant acceleration of the expected timeline. Even after state and federal officials eased masking guidelines and orders, Los Angeles County has been a rare holdout. But health officials have been encouraged by the improving pandemic conditions. Covid-19 hospitalizations in L.A. County dropped to 927 as of Monday, down 80% since the January peak. L.A. Times | L.A. Daily News

The State Bar of California revealed on Tuesday that it has been investigating John Eastman for ethics violations after the former dean of Chapman University law school advised President Trump on how he could overturn his election defeat in 2020. Experts said it is rare for bar associations to confirm the existence of an ethics investigation. Jessica Levinson, a Loyola law professor, said officials “think it’s in the public’s interest to know that they got all the complaints and they’re taking them seriously.” Reuters | L.A. Times

Orson West, 3, and his brother Orrin West, 4, disappeared in the desert town of California City shortly before Christmas in 2020. Their adoptive father said the boys were playing outside the home when he stepped inside and returned to find them gone. Neighbors joined search parties. The authorities interviewed more than 80 people. Businesses raised $100,000 in reward money. Months went by. Then late Tuesday, a stunning development: The adoptive father and mother were arrested and charged with murder. KERO | Bakersfield Californian

Neal Templin, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who grew up in La Jolla, wrote about the wisdom of surfers. Growing up in the 1970s, his surfer classmates were “the golden gods of my teenage years.” Some put down their boards and pursued high-powered careers; others gravitated to work that allowed for maximum time in the water. Now in his 60s, Templin considered the benefits of both paths: “the surfers were right,” he wrote. Barron’s