Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 13.
- Stanford suspends instructor for targeting Jewish students.
- Migration fuels “Californization” of Texas housing market.
- And Modoc County prepares for crush of eclipse watchers.
Israel-Hamas war
1.
“Hersh is my whole world, and this evil is the flood that is destroying it. I really don’t know if anything can save it. If anyone knows, please tell me.”
Rachel Goldberg wrote a gut-wrenching essay about her son Hersh, a 23-year-old born in Berkeley who was gravely injured and taken hostage by Hamas. N.Y. Times
- “What more must the children of Gaza suffer?” The Times also ran a powerful essay from a parent inside Gaza. N.Y. Times
2.
Stanford University suspended an instructor after students said he asked Jewish and Israeli students to identify themselves during a freshman seminar, then directed them to stand in a corner. “This is what Israel does to the Palestinians,” he was reported to say. “How many people died in the Holocaust?” he asked. When a student answered “Six million,” the instructor said: “Colonizers killed more than 6 million. Israel is a colonizer.” S.F. Chronicle | Forward
3.
Other developments:
- Adrienne Neta, a Fresno native living in Israel, called her family screaming as militants burst into her home. Then the line went dead. She hasn’t been heard from since. McClatchy
- Three Jewish day schools in the Bay Area planned to close on Friday over security fears. “This is not a decision I take lightly,” one of the school heads told families. Jewish News of Northern California
- The outbreak of violence in the Middle East has been one of the biggest tests yet for X. So far the social platform’s been a “vortex of false claims and doctored footage,” wrote tech reporter Scott Nover. Slate | Wall Street Journal
- Follow live updates from Gaza. 👉 BBC | Al Jazeera | N.Y. Times
Statewide
4.
California to Texas was the most common interstate route of relocation in the country in 2021. That year, about 111,000 people — or roughly 300 a day — moved from California to Texas. The migration has helped cause housing affordability to take a nosedive in cities like Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio, leaving many longtime residents grumbling. The Wall Street Journal called it the “Californization” of the Texas housing market.
5.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Rosanna Xia, an environmental reporter at the Los Angeles Times and author of the new book “California Against the Sea.” Xia talked about the imperative facing coastal communities to rethink their relationship with the ocean — and the natural disaster that awaits if they don’t. “The disaster is us,” she added. “We are in the way of the ocean.”
Northern California
6.
The man who crashed a car into the Chinese consulate in San Francisco on Monday before being shot and killed by police was identified as Zhanyuan Yang, 31. Reporters were welcomed inside his apartment in the Inner Sunset, where they found a cache of replica guns along with a book about political assassinations. “If he became radicalized, it was recent,” Yang’s roommate said. SF Standard
7.
There’s one place in California where people can potentially get a full view of Saturday’s eclipse: Modoc County, wedged in the state’s northeastern corner. With just one incorporated city, and a population of about 8,700 people, the county is expecting a crush of visitors for the cosmic phenomenon when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, creating a “ring of fire.” Hotels, campgrounds, Airbnbs — everything is full, officials said. “We’ll have more visitors than residents,” said Jimmy Jarrett, of the Super 8 in Alturas. “It’s going to be something else.” SFGATE | S.F. Chronicle
- See the path and timing of the eclipse. 👉 Timeanddate.com
Southern California
8.
The actors’ strike negotiations broke down again this week, and workers are reeling. Katie Reis, 60, a Hollywood lightning technician for 27 years, hasn’t worked since May. She was turned down for jobs at Target and Whole Foods. She is now looking into work at the mall. She’s also eyeing college savings for her son, Alex, a high school senior. “If I go into Alex’s college fund, I have probably four, five months left,” she said. “But then I have nothing.” N.Y. Times
9.
People used to get made fun of for installing air conditioning in Ventura County, known for perfect 70-degree weather. But since the 1980s, the number of days per year with high temperatures of 85 or above has surged from 10 to 27. Air conditioning units are now commonplace. Pacific Aire, a vendor based in Oxnard, said its business has been growing 30% a year. Micaela Dritz, a homeowner in Ventura, finally got a unit in 2017. “The final push was, we just couldn’t sleep through the night,” she said. Ventura County Star
10.
A $1.76 billion Powerball ticket was sold by a liquor store in a tiny Kern County mountain town just west of the Grapevine, lottery officials said. The grand prize, the second largest in U.S. history, means the owners of the Midway Market & Liquor in Frazier Park will be awarded $1 million. Nidal Khalil, a co-owner, was born in Syria and arrived in California at age 22. He said he would use his winnings to put his kids through college. L.A. Times | A.P.
11.
The Mecca Hills Wilderness, just north of the Salton Sea, is a maze of wrinkled, colorful cliffs and plunging canyons, formed over millions of years by the restless San Andreas Fault. The drive along Box Canyon Road, pictured above, which winds through the heart of the wilderness, is an attraction all by itself, popular with motorcyclists. But it’s also BLM land, so you can camp pretty much anywhere you like for free, wander surreal trails, and take in dazzling nighttime stars. The weather in late fall is usually perfect. The Outbound | BLM
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Nearly three years after Kamala Harris became vice president, Democrats have still not embraced the president in waiting. Astead W. Herndon interviewed 75 people for a profile of a candidate who, he says, is still struggling to make the case for herself “and feels she shouldn’t have to.” N.Y. Times Magazine
- A Union Pacific train barreled into a tractor trailer stuck on the tracks near Redding last week in a thunderous collision that was captured on video. Investigators said the truck driver had tried to cross an elevated section of track while hauling a low-clearance trailer, causing it to bottom out. KRCTV
- The Cuban-born photographer Carlotta Boettcher was drawn to San Francisco for adventure in 1971. A global hub for artists, bohemians, and gays, it was a street photographer’s dream, she said. Her black-and-white photos pulse with the color and vitality of the period. CarlottaBoettcherPhotography.com | tumblr
- You can stay in an amazing old fire lookout in Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Built in 1931, the Girard Ridge Lookout was restored in the 1990s and opened to public use for $75 a night. The views unfold all around, with lines of sight to Castle Crags, Mount Lassen, and Mount Shasta. Active NorCal
- In 2017, on a lark, the landscape photographer Reuben Wu tested a long-exposure photograph of an illuminated drone over a nighttime landscape. The result was a revelation. He began to see himself less as a photographer than as an artist who uses drones as his paintbrush. Colossal | Behance
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