Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 20.
- Environmentalists oppose governor on effort to build.
- Dueling fundraisers for Joe Biden and Ron DeSantis.
- And an appreciation of the magnificent Sierra juniper.
Statewide
1.
In California, environmental groups celebrated as ambitious decarbonization targets were etched into law. Now they are behaving a bit like the dog that caught the car, wrote the columnist Ezra Klein. “More than 100 environmental groups — including the Sierra Club of California and The Environmental Defense Center — are joining together to fight a package [Gov. Gavin] Newsom designed to make it easier to build infrastructure in California.” N.Y. Times
2.
Since April, at least 16 people have died or gone missing in rivers across California, according to a count by the Mercury News, including two fatalities last week on the American and Kern rivers. In the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills, swimming holes and rafting trips are a way of life each summer. But the waterways, powered by melting Sierra Nevada snow, have become so dangerous that several counties have banned people from entering the water. N.Y. Times
3.
Wild black mustard has been one of the most prominent blooming plants after California’s unusually wet winter, growing seemingly everywhere on hillsides and along freeways. But pretty yellow flowers are not welcome. The invasive species from Eurasia smothers native plants and provides tinder for wildfires. In Southern California, a group of artists, designers, and chefs is doing its part to beat the mustard back by harvesting it for dyes and pesto. A.P.
4.
In a land of superlative trees, it’s understandable that the Sierra juniper gets overlooked. They don’t live as as long as California’s seemingly immortal bristlecone pines, and they don’t reach into the heavens like the regal coast redwoods. But for some nature lovers, the juniper is the state’s most impressive tree: survivors that rise out of the rocks and twist into fantastic shapes after centuries of wind and snow. The environmental journalist Tom Knudson once wrote about the “underrated” junipers of the Sierra: “Stocky, sinewy and statuesque, those conifers were more than magnificent. They were works of art.” Tahoe Quarterly
- You can find many Sierra junipers in the Lake Tahoe area, including trails around Donner Summit and Carson Pass. See a tree map. 👉 Calflora
Northern California
5.
President Biden and his would-be replacement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, made dueling appearances in California on Monday.
- Biden toured a tidal wetland with Gov. Gavin Newsom in Palo Alto, touted $600 million in climate investments, and attended fundraisers hosted by tech figures in Los Gatos and Atherton. Washington Post | A.P.
- DeSantis courted donors at several fundraisers, including a stop in Sacramento, two weeks after his administration sent two planeloads of migrants to the state capital. His signaled his arrival with a new campaign ad that depicted California as a misgoverned state littered with needles and feces. N.Y. Times | San Joaquin Valley Sun
6.
Several of the migrants sent to Sacramento by Florida have now spoken out, saying they were misled and even lied to. A married couple said they left their three children with a relative in Venezuela and traveled thousands of miles, walking till their feet bled and going for days without food. In Texas, they were pressured into signing paperwork to make the trip to California on the promise that they would get better-paying jobs elsewhere. “I didn’t know that all of us were being deceived,” the man said. L.A. Times
7.
As the Supreme Court prepares to rule this month on cases that could end affirmative action, universities are looking for lessons from California, where voters rejected race-based admissions in 1996. Since then, the state has spent more than $500 million to help create diverse student bodies across the University of California system. Results have varied. At Berkeley, the top campus, just 3% of the 2022 freshman class identified as Black. The state’s population is 6.5% Black. Reuters
8.
Apple has been making trademark claims around the world for the image of apples, the fruit that grows on trees. Over the past few years, the Cupertino tech giant has opposed the logos of a German cycling route, a Minneapolis stationery maker, and a life-coaching blog, among others. In Switzerland, a farming organization said a trademark application by Apple may force it to surrender its red apple logo. “Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal,” the group’s director said. WIRED | Mashable
Southern California
9.
Tory Carlon, a firefighter at a sleepy station about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, told his superiors that he feared another firefighter would shoot him. Jonathan Tatone, who was notoriously quick to anger, had grown increasingly hostile over small disputes around the workplace. On April 29, 2021, Carlon texted his wife: “It’s obvious he will not stop harassing me until he hurts me or my family.” About a month later, Tatone shot Carlon dead. “Nobody did anything — from captain to chief,” Carlon’s wife said. L.A. Times
10.
China dominates the market for rare earths, the group of minerals used to make the magnets inside consumer electronics, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. But a mine on the northern edge of the Mojave Desert is trying to break China’s grip on the industry. The Mountain Pass mine, which resumed operations in 2018, supplies about 14% of the world’s rare earths but relies on China to carry out the multistep refining process. Now the mine’s owner is investing hundreds of millions of dollars on facilities to process the rare earths itself, establishing a full supply chain in the United States. Grist
11.
The news last week that Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum theater was canceling its 2023-24 season is being seen as a bellwether for regional theaters nationwide. The forum is the creative heart of one of the country’s largest regional companies, yet it has been unable to lure audiences back in the numbers needed to make budgets. Similar crises have unfolded at theaters in New York, Oregon, and San Francisco. “The result is a painful, and unprecedented, contraction of regional theaters nationwide,” the L.A. Times reported.
12.
“I was simply interested in the beach and the beautiful Los Angeles light.”
In 1975, the East Coast photographer Tod Papageorge took a cross-country trip to California, where he was enthralled by the blinding sun. He returned several times over the years, creating a body of work showcased in his new photo book “At the Beach.” Critics have suggested that the images transform California’s sunning beachgoers into high art. Vice
- See more of Papageorge’s images. 👉 Danziger Gallery
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