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Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Jan. 2.

  • Appeals court allows firearm carry ban to go into effect.
  • Bird flu devastates Petaluma’s egg-farming industry.
  • And the reasons cats rule the streets of Los Angeles.

Statewide

1.

In Monterey County’s fertile Pajaro Valley, berry farmers pay hefty fees for irrigation water — essentially a tax on water. Some experts believe the unusual system amounts to a case study on how to save aquifers in dangerous decline. New research shows that it’s working: a 20% increase in the price of groundwater resulted in a 20% decrease in the extraction of groundwater. And despite the high price, agriculture is thriving. N.Y. Times

2.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday allowed California’s ban on carrying firearms in most public places to take effect on Jan. 1, temporarily halting a lower court ruling that had called the law “repugnant to the Second Amendment.” California’s Democratic leaders hailed the injunction as a win. Chuck Michel, president of the California Pistol and Rifle Association, portrayed the law as a doomed effort “to get around” the Supreme Court, which has shifted the standard for restrictions on firearms. A.P. | N.Y. Times

  • Explanations for police stops. Time off for a miscarriage. Cursive in schools. See a roundup of new California laws. 👉 L.A. Times
3.
(Tucker Wooding Media)

Dangerous coastal conditions that started Thursday sent towering waves ashore, flooding homes and injuring eight people in Ventura, and lingered through the weekend, pounding beaches with some of the heaviest surf in years. Numerous piers and beaches remained closed. L.A. Times | Fox Weather

  • Surfers travelled from long distances to the legendary Mavericks Beach break in Half Moon Bay. A videographer shared incredible drone views from the Thursday session. 👉 YouTube (~3 mins)
  • A photographer captured some astonishing shots of waves lashing Pebble Beach’s iconic Lone Cypress. @journey_to_inspiration

Northern California

4.

After a secret $1 billion land-buying spree, the backers of an effort to create a new city on farmland in Solano County unveiled their vision last summer, describing the project as “a California company backed by California investors.” But its creator is a Czech-born entrepreneur who became an American citizen midway into the venture. His right-hand man is South African. They went to great lengths to conceal the venture’s foreign roots. Local lawmakers are demanding an investigation. Wall Street Journal

5.

A bird flu outbreak has devastated Petaluma’s historic egg-farming industry as more than 1 million birds have had to be slaughtered since late November. Small family farms that lost their entire flocks are required to wait three months before rebuilding them. In the meantime, once-busy farms sit silent with “Keep Out” signs warning visitors away. Jennifer Reichardt, a fifth-generation farmer, is so desperate she launched a GoFundMe. “We’re still in the midst of wrapping our heads around it all,” she said. Mercury News

6.
Mychal Threets spreads the gospel of “library joy.”

Mychal Threets, a Solano County librarian, is so dedicated to his work that he has a library card tattooed on his arm. The 33-year-old’s infectious videos on the joys of the library have made him an unlikely social influencer, with roughly half a million followers on both Instagram and TikTok. “You belong,” is one of his mantras, wrote reporter Julie Johnson, along with “unhinged library joy.” S.F. Chronicle

7.

When Darryl Beardall tried out for his high school track team in Santa Rosa, the coach told him to run the track until he got tired. After 48 laps, he told his coach, “I’m not tired.” Beardall, who died in November at the age of 87, went on to work as a postal carrier and railway worker, but he never stopped running. For decades, he logged 20 miles a day, six days a week, potentially running further than any known human: more than 300,000 miles. Reporter John Branch told Beardall’s remarkable story for the N.Y. Times Magazine’s annual feature “The Lives They Lived.”

Southern California

8.
A cat wandered through a Los Angeles market. (Mark Boster/L.A. Times via Getty Images)

Los Angeles has a kitten problem. No one knows exactly how many cats live outdoors in the city, but estimates range as high as 3 million. The author Jonathan Franzen wrote about how the “No Kill” movement, championed by animal-welfare groups, has made it possible for cats to rule the streets — with troubling consequences for wildlife, residents, and the cats themselves. “The allure of simple prescriptions derives from an aversion to hard choices, and to the truth of human carelessness and cruelty,” he wrote. New Yorker

9.

San Diego County, once home to more than 15 drive-in theaters, is now down to one. On Sunday night, Santee Drive-In screened its last double feature — “Wonka” and “Aquaman II” — after entertaining generations of moviegoers bundled in blankets under the stars for 65 years. Locals said it was more than a place to watch movies: the drive-in was a community builder, a host to weddings, funerals, and graduations. A Los Angeles developer plans to clear the site and build a 50-foot-tall warehouse. S.D. Union-Tribune

10.
(Greg Bulla)

A San Diego-area man who strapped a motor and wheels to a piece of plywood and filmed himself riding abandoned railroad tracks in Southern California has upped his game since enjoying a brush with internet fame last year. In a recent video, he traversed a series of trestles and tunnels to reach the Goat Canyon trestle, pictured above, a spiderweb of redwood beams that spans a 600-foot-wide gorge in the austere Anza Borrego desert. It looks exceptionally fun. YouTube

In case you missed it

11.

Here’s a catch-up on headlines you may have missed during the holiday break:

  • Donald Trump’s name will appear on the March 5 primary ballot in California after the secretary of state rejected a request to have him removed on Thursday. Politico | Courthouse News
  • Rather than pay California’s looming $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers, Pizza Hut is planning to lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers, the company revealed. SFGATE | CBS Los Angeles
  • An Oakland police officer was shot and killed Friday while responding to a burglary at a marijuana dispensary, officials said. Tuan Le was the first officer killed in the line of duty in Oakland in 14 years. Mercury News | A.P.
  • A 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of murdering his parents and severely injuring his sister in Fresno last week, authorities said. He initially blamed the attack on an intruder. Fresno Bee | A.P.
  • The Bay Area author Anne Lamott faced a wave of online vitriol after she expressed annoyance over the media’s fascination with Taylor Swift. She apologized and promised to “try to do better.” Daily Beast

Year in review

12.

With 2023 now behind us, here’s a look back at 10 of the most popular items that appeared in the California Sun, in no particular order, based on clicks, reader response, and social media shares:

  1. A group of friends built an animatronic puppet and piano robot that plays “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton, then filmed it cruising around San Francisco. Watch for the little girl in the pink sweater at about the 1:50 mark. 👉 bendhoward/YouTube (~4 mins)
  2. In San Francisco, the Mission burrito includes rice, beans, guacamole, and pico de gallo inside a grilled tortilla. In Los Angeles, Chicano restaurants serve stew-filled bean-and-cheese burritos. In San Diego, they pack their burritos with french fries. Eater published the ultimate guide to California burritos.
  3. Lesley Hu wanted to vaccinate her 9-year-old son, Pierce. Her ex-husband, Stephen O’Loughlin, was adamantly opposed. One day in early 2021, Hu went to pick up Pierce from his school in San Francisco and he wasn’t there. Atavist Magazine
  4. The Nov. 18, 1940, issue of LIFE magazine featured a photo essay on an idyllic lifeguard party in Southern California. The “happy healthy guards,” the magazine wrote, dove for seafood, boiled their catch on the shore, then dozed off in the late afternoon sun. LIFE.com republished 12 photos from the essay.
  5. California invented the motel in 1925, catering to a new demand for single-night stays that coincided with the rise of the automobile. Tacky to some, the often flamboyant roadside architecture has lately been enjoying renewed interest. AFAR curated a list of 11 revamped motels across the state.
  6. In the 1950s, Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park in Malibu hosted a community of blue-collar workers. Starting in the early 2000s, celebrities such as Stevie Nicks, Minnie Driver, and Matthew McConaughey began moving in. Here’s a tour of what may be the most expensive trailer park in America. 👉 Wall Street Journal
  7. When Snoop Dogg, on a tour of Europe, stepped onto a drizzly tarmac at Glasgow’s airport, he was greeted by a kilted bagpiper playing a plaintive rendition of his and Dr. Dre’s classic “Still D.R.E.” Video of Snoop dancing was shared widely on social media. Glasgow Live
  8. Charles Cushman, a voracious traveler from small-town Indiana, was an early adopter of color photography. From 1938 to 1969, he created more than 14,500 Kodachrome color slides, including nearly 2,000 in San Francisco. Here are 22 favorite pictures from the Cushman archive. 👉 California Sun
  9. In July 2022, doctors diagnosed Chad Vanags with terminal Stage 4 lung cancer. Eight months later, his wife Stacie, in search of a sanctuary, planted 1,100 flower seeds in their Ventura backyard. The garden exploded with color. “It was like nature was telling me, ‘You’re going to need this,’” she said. L.A. Times
  10. In the early 1970s, Richard Misrach used to walk along Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue on the way to his job in a photography studio. The street bustled with hippies, hustlers, and vagabonds. Then it occurred to him: “This is what’s going on. Why am I not photographing it?” Misrach’s “Telegraph 3 A.M.” became a celebrated document of a bygone era. MoMa Magazine

Thanks for reading!

The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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