Good morning. It’s Friday, June 23.
- Extreme weather threatens California’s dams.
- A politician’s housing struggle divides Ojai.
- And birds flock to resurrected Tulare Lake.
Statewide
1.
The reporter Christopher Cox wrote a sobering account of the time America’s tallest dam nearly failed at Lake Oroville, and whether it could happen again. The Army Corps analyzed what would happen to six dams in California in the event of a plausible megastorm lasting 30 days, Cox wrote: “The results suggested that two of them would probably be overtopped. It seemed unlikely that a third of all the dams in the state would fail, but would none of them?” N.Y. Times Magazine
2.
The California Supreme Court on Thursday expanded the right to sue police, overturning rulings that shielded officers from liability for actions taken during investigations. In a unanimous ruling, the justices reinstated the lawsuit of a woman who accused Riverside County sheriff’s deputies of negligence for failing to cover up the naked body of her murdered husband, which was left in the street for seven hours in 2017. Lower courts had dismissed the case, citing investigative immunity. After the latest ruling, attorney Leslie Zador said, “there’s no more investigative immunity.” S.F. Chronicle | Courthouse News Service
3.
Attorneys will be required to report misconduct by their peers under a rule approved Thursday that was crafted in response to the downfall of Tom Girardi, the prominent lawyer accused of embezzling from his clients. Reporting laws were already on the books in 49 other states. But California lawyers had resisted what they referred to as the “snitch rule,” with some saying it was unnecessary for members of California’s prestigious bar. That argument was undercut when news reports revealed that colleagues knew about Girardi’s misconduct. L.A. Times | Reuters
4.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Greg King, a redwood activist and author of the new book “The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods.” King recounted how activists rescued what remains of California’s redwood biome and warned of the present danger of biodiversity loss. The stakes couldn’t be higher, he said: “These are the vital components of the single living system ecosystem called earth that keep us all alive.”
Northern California
5.
Jessica Didia, a fentanyl addict in San Francisco, estimates that she has survived more than 100 overdoses. She receives excellent care during her hospitalizations, but gets sent right back into the drug-infested streets she came from. It’s madness, said Adam Mesnick, a local shop owner who has taken to caring for Didia. “They’re taking somebody who’s not gotten high for 10 days and dropping them into a sea of drugs,” he said. “That’s the exact opposite of harm reduction.” S.F. Chronicle
6.
Facing a wave of child sex abuse lawsuits, the Diocese of Oakland filed a motion in bankruptcy court to keep the names of accused priests secret. Church lawyers said confidentiality would “avoid the risk of identity theft and harassment.” The church has given “lip service” to the idea of transparency, said Rick Simons, a lawyer for abuse survivors. “But when it comes time to actually take actions to be transparent in their words, they’re as transparent as a brick wall.” NBC News | KGO
Southern California
7.
Last year, Suza Francina lost her rental housing in Ojai, the artsy community in a valley east of Santa Barbara. Unable to find an affordable alternative, she now faces the loss of her City Council seat over residency rules. Her predicament has divided Ojai. At a recent council meeting, speakers invoked Rosa Parks and the Jan. 6 riot in arguments over a local matter that seemed freighted with larger meaning. “She’s a living, breathing example of the problem they are in denial about,” said Dee Reid, a friend of Francina’s. CalMatters
8.
The refilling of the San Joaquin Valley’s long dormant Tulare Lake has wreaked havoc on the farmland that was submerged after torrential winter rains. But avian life has surged at the lake, which reached 182 square miles this month, roughly the same surface area as Lake Tahoe. White-faced ibises, cliff swallows, black-necked stilts, tri-colored blackbirds, egrets, western sandpipers, curlews, long-billed dowitchers: “Everywhere you look, birds,” wrote Bay Nature.
9.
☝️ This is Alice Chandler, the first woman to serve as an Orange County sheriff’s deputy. In the 1940s, her father worked as a gardener for a prominent real estate developer. Surrounded by cattle and cowboys, she fell in love with horses and by 21 was an expert rider. When word got to Sheriff James Musick, he handed Chandler a badge with orders to keep poachers and other trespassers off the land around Peters Lake. It was a short-lived assignment, and Chandler went on to become a cattle herder, pilot, Christian missionary, and caregiver. In her later years, she proudly displayed a sheriff’s coin on the front of her walker. Chandler died on June 10. She was 94. L.A. Times | O.C. Register
10.
Shirley Raines passes out food, toiletries, and unconditional support to homeless people on the streets of Los Angeles through her nonprofit Beauty 2 the Streetz. She has a gift for lifting moods, or administering what she calls “spiritual C.P.R.” Millions watch her TikTok videos. “Everybody wants to feel clean,” Raines said. “Everybody wants to feel good about themselves. I have a queen right now, we did her hair purple a couple weeks ago. I’ve never seen her smile so big.” N.Y. Times
11.
Driving through Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon in the summer of 1975, the young photographer Hugh Holland spotted a skateboarder catching air along a drainage ditch. He was hooked. For the next three years, Holland chronicled the young outsiders of the 1970s as they invented a new sport in the streets and backyard pools of Southern California. His work is featured in a new volume. Blind magazine | Vice
- Some deeper cuts from Holland’s archive. 👉 Los Angeles magazine
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- The Anna’s Hummingbird is the most common hummingbird in California, easily found in backyards and parks. It’s a flamboyant creature, with an iridescent magenta crown, a boisterous song, and one of the most thrilling courtship rituals in the animal kingdom. PBS captured high-speed footage of the display. 👉 YouTube (~3:20 mins)
- In Manhattan, the privacy of the rich and famous is secured with concrete and doormen. In Los Angeles, it’s all about the hedges. Entire blocks are made up of homes individually cordoned off by sky-high walls of vegetation. The reporter Debra Kamin took a peek at life behind the hedges in Los Angeles. N.Y. Times
- Max Park, who is autistic, was handed a Rubik’s Cube at the age of 7 or 8 and never looked back, practicing nonstop and eventually toppling multiple records. Now 21, Park recently broke his biggest record yet during a competition in Long Beach: solving a 3x3x3 cube in a blistering 3.13 seconds. @GWR (~3 mins)
- 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. A.P.
- Ian Gil, an outdoor guide, was fishing on Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay when he spotted a young bear starting his way up a tree. The animal’s target appeared to be an osprey nest perched at the very top. Gil captured harrowing video as the branches cracked under the bear’s paws roughly 80 feet off the ground. @vivachile (~1:30 mins)
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