Good morning. It’s Thursday, Oct. 10.
- Plan to close schools triggers outrage in San Francisco.
- An audacious proposal to dismantle Google monopoly.
- And fascinating L.A. museums you’ve never heard of.
Statewide
1.
In August, Chevron announced plans to move its headquarters to Texas after 145 years in California. Now one of the company’s top executives, Andy Walz, is threatening to pull investment from California in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to set new fuel storage requirements for oil refiners. “Lawmakers need to know it,” Walz said on Wednesday. “They need to be held accountable because what they’re doing is driving the industry out of the state and we just won’t be there.” KCRA
- “This measure has the potential to save Californians billions.” The state Senate appeared poised to pass the gas storage bill on Friday. Courthouse News
2.
Late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a ban on hemp products with any detectable amount of THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis. The governor said it was necessary to protect kids. But the backlash has been fierce from merchants who market hemp gummies and tinctures for things like insomnia and stress. An industry coalition that includes the comedy duo Cheech & Chong has sued, likening the crackdown to a ban on sugar in candy. If allowed to stand, they argue, the rule would crush an entire market, good actors and bad alike. S.F. Chronicle
3.
As Hurricane Milton carved a destructive path across Florida on Wednesday, more than 140 California rescue personnel were on the ground to help, having shipped out earlier in the week. California maintains eight urban search-and-rescue forces that operate as fully self-sufficient units, responding to disasters around the world as needed. Task Force 3, based out of Menlo Park, expected to focus on water rescues, said spokesman Jon Johnston. “Once we land in the area, we’re on,” he said. KQED
4.
Meet the great gray owls of Yosemite. The birds are breathtakingly large, nearly 3 feet long with a 5-foot wingspan. Yet they are seldom seen. The owls number fewer than 200 or so individuals in a small pocket of the Sierra Nevada, blending silently into the trees. They are so elusive that scientists only uncovered some of their major characteristics in the last 20 years. Blood samples revealed that they are distinct subspecies, Strix nebulosa Yosemitensis, separated from Canadian brethren by glacial ice 30 millennia ago. Remote audio recorders yielded another surprising insight, Audubon Magazine reported: the owls are positively chatty when humans aren’t around.
- “Damn, what a sight.” The photographer Michael Frye captured a curious gray owl in Yosemite in 2018. 👉 MichaelFrye.com
Northern California
5.
“Devastating.”
“A gut punch.”
“I’m honestly scared.”
San Francisco has proposed eliminating 9% of its public schools in response to declining enrollment and budget pressures. The plan to shutter 11 of the district’s 121 schools, revealed in a tentative list on Tuesday, has shocked affected families, some of whom marched in protest on Wednesday. Abby Davis, the PTA president at one of the schools, accused the city of targeting a heavily Asian community on the belief that families would “just roll over.” She added: “It’s not true. They’re about to find out.” S.F. Chronicle | SF Standard | KQED
6.
Analysts said a Department of Justice proposal to break off parts of Google was remarkable in its aggressiveness. The filing late Tuesday came after a judge found in August that the tech giant monopolized search and advertising markets. “That U.S. enforcement went from being way behind Europe — comatose until 2019 — to this in five years is a testament that antitrust is mainly about posture and drive, and regulators getting their act together,” said Cristina Caffarra, an economist. Google called the plan “radical” and warned of “unintended consequences.” Politico | Ars Technica
Southern California
7.
A small plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Catalina Island late Tuesday, killing all five adults aboard, officials said. The plane wreckage was found about a mile west of Catalina Airport, a single runway atop a hill known as the “airport in the sky.” One of the victims was identified as Ali Safai, 73, who owned the plane and once operated a flight school in Santa Monica. The weather Tuesday night was balmy and free of fog. The cause of the crash remained unknown, officials said. NBC Los Angeles | L.A. Times
- “Can’t imagine trying to fly there at night.” Pilots on a flying forum discussed the dangers of Catalina Airport. Reddit
8.
Matthew Serafin, a 32-year-old school board trustee in Moreno Valley, was already in hot water with the public over his two charges of driving under the influence and a habit of cussing during board meetings. On Sept. 27, he was arrested again, this time on suspicion of public intoxication, police said. Serafin skipped the board meeting on Tuesday. “Here we go again,” said resident Fred Banuelos during public comment. He continued: “I hope he gets help. He needs help.” San Bernardino Sun
9.
On opening day in 1955, the ticket price for Disneyland was $1, or about $12 in today’s money. On Wednesday, the Anaheim theme park raised its ticket prices by about 6%, crossing the $200 mark for the first time. On the most popular days, a one-day ticket for adults will now cost $206. Wall Street Journal | KTLA
- Even loyal Disney fans have begun to ask whether the cost of tickets and hotel rooms is still worth it. “At some point a Disney vacation starts competing with ‘Let’s go see Europe’ and I think that’s what a lot of people are doing,” said Len Testa, a Disney guide author. N.Y. Times
10.
For decades, toxic dust kicked up from the receding shore of the Salton Sea has plagued nearby communities, where child asthma rates are said to be triple the national average. Officials now say they have some good news to report: A dust-suppression project that involved planting native bushes and laying thousands of hay bales as wind breaks across 2 square miles of exposed playa led to a 90% drop in dust emissions. Among locals, who favor proposals to refill the lake with imported water, skepticism abounds. Calexico Chronicle
11.
After the death of his mother, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Forrest Gander wandered the desert near his hometown of Barstow.
“In the apparently vast, flat, and silent sameness of the desert, our drawn-out looking leads us quickly to those first moments of boredom when we’re inclined by habit to look away, when our eyes rove and our minds drift, when we feel the need for some amphetamine hit of new stimulation. But for those who keep looking, who look right through and to the other side of desert tedium, a different sort of seeing begins, the kind that has, for eons, drawn from many cultures and religions who seek visionary experience.” Orion Magazine
12.
America’s oldest operating tattoo shop. A celebration of Black American history in miniature dioramas. And a museum dedicated to historical street lights.
There are many more museums than you might expect in the Los Angeles area — 788 to be exact. That’s according to a decade of scouting by Todd Lerew, a compulsive researcher whose new book “Also on View: Unique and Unexpected Museums of Greater Los Angeles” celebrates 64 of his favorite destinations. L.A. Times
- Explore the museums on Lerew’s website, everymuseum.la.
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