Captive dogs supply blood for California's veterinaries // Massive AI funding round

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Dec. 18.

Captive dogs supply blood for California’s veterinaries.
Nima Momeni found guilty in murder of Bob Lee.
And San Francisco start-up scores massive funding round.

Statewide

1.

Almost all of the canine blood used by California veterinaries comes from kennels where hundreds of captive animals live in “closed colonies” as full-time blood suppliers. Many of the donor dogs are bred into the program. An effort launched by state lawmakers in 2021 to establish a more humane system has failed, leaving California tethered to the kennels for many more years to come, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. “I don’t want to see captive dogs,” said Ken Pawlowski, the director of a voluntary blood bank. “However, it’s a necessary evil at this point.”

2.

Staffing agencies have been a crucial provider of labor for California’s businesses. They have also been among the top employers of undocumented workers, an open secret that politicians, business owners, and consumers have lived with for years. As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, employers are bracing for a crackdown that they say will be devastating. “California has set up a real, real, real big problem,” said Geetesh Goyal, chief executive of Human Bees, a staffing agency. N.Y. Times

3.

PG&E workers installed power poles in St. Helena. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Energy Department said on Tuesday that it would provide a record $15 billion low-interest loan guarantee to Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, to modernize its power grid and expand clean-energy infrastructure. PG&E has faced difficulty raising money from Wall Street after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2019. The utility said the loan could save ratepayers as much as $1 billion, in part by lowering how much it pays to borrow money. Wall Street Journal | A.P.

Northern California

4.

Krista Lee, Bob Lee’s ex-wife, at the San Francisco court on Tuesday. (Benjamin Fanjoy/A.P.)

A jury on Tuesday found the tech consultant Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, a case that riveted Silicon Valley and ignited debate over crime in San Francisco. Prosecutors said Momeni, 40, stabbed Lee, 43, under the Bay Bridge on April 4, 2023, after accusing him of introducing his younger sister to a drug dealer who abused her. Momeni claimed self-defense. After the reading of the verdict, Lee’s family members embraced and teared up. “Bob was here with us today for sure,” said Lee’s former wife, Krista Lee. “I can feel him.” S.F. Chronicle | Washington Post

5.

The U.S. government will pay roughly $116 million to 103 women who said they were sexually abused by staff at a now-shuttered federal prison in the Bay Area that became known as the “rape club.” The settlement, approved on Tuesday, is the largest ever paid by the Justice Department for misconduct in federal prisons. Since an FBI investigation opened in 2021, at least eight employees of the Dublin prison have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. Five pleaded guilty. Two were convicted at trial, including former warden Ray Garcia. Another case is pending. A.P. | L.A. Times

6.

Irma Olguin Jr., left, and Jake Soberal walked out of court in Fresno on July 17. (Craig Kohlruss/Fresno Bee, via Getty Images)

The two cofounders of Bitwise Industries, once a Fresno tech start-up darling before its abrupt collapse in 2023, were sentenced to prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraud. Jake Soberal got 11 years and Irma Olguin Jr. nine years. They were also ordered to pay $114 million in restitution. Founded in 2013, Bitwise grew into an ascendant coding academy that symbolized Fresno’s tech industry aspirations. Prosecutors said Soberal, 38, and Olguin, 43, led investors to believe the company was financially solvent when it was in fact spiraling into debt. KVPR | Fresno Bee

7.

The fire that consumed Chico’s historic Bidwell Mansion was caused by arson, investigators concluded. “This was an intentional act and we can confidently rule out any accidental fire that happened here,” Aaron Wright, a parks official, said on Tuesday. No suspects were identified. Built by Chico’s founding family in 1865, the pink-hued Victorian was a gathering place for luminaries in its heyday, including John Muir and President Rutherford B. Hayes. Turned over to the parks department in 1964, it became a cherished symbol of the city. Sacramento Bee | Enterprise-Record

8.

In October, OpenAI completed one of the largest-ever fund-raising deals, raising $6.5 billion. On Tuesday, another artificial intelligence start-up based in San Francisco, Databricks, said it had secured a whopping $10 billion from investors, valuing the company that sells software for storing and analyzing data at $62 billion. Two years into an AI boom, the deal underscored the still-ravenous appetite for the technology. “These are still the early days of AI,” said Ali Ghodsi, Databricks’ CEO. N.Y. Times | CNBC

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9.

Everyone seemed to love the Bay Lights, a 1.8-mile adornment of shimmering white lights along the Bay Bridge that illuminated the span for a decade before wear and tear forced it to go dark in 2023. By popular demand, plans were made to revive the display in early 2025. But at least one group is not on board: the Soft Lights Foundation has filed a lawsuit to block the project, arguing that LED lights are “neurologically intolerable” for people with autism or epilepsy. “It’s just too intense,” said Mark Baker, the group’s president. KRON

Southern California

10.

A remote Christian school in Riverside County that has been accused of confining students and forcing them to work without compensation was ordered by state regulators to cease operations. Olivet University, headquartered in the high-desert town of Anza, has drawn students mostly from East Asia seeking an education rooted in Christianity. Instead, students said they faced a loss of independence and near-constant surveillance. L.A. Times | KCAL

11.

Southern California’s wild donkeys are descendants of 19th-century pack animals. (Wendy Miller/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

For decades, thousands of wild donkeys have roamed the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains, becoming a part of the community’s identity. But county officials are now planning to relocate the vast majority of the burros to a nonprofit rescue organization in Texas, citing dangers posed by the nonnative beasts wandering onto roads and railroad tracks. Many locals are outraged. “That’s stealing,” said resident Janel Ruiz. “Those donkeys belong here.” KABC | KTLA

12.

Opinion page staffers at the Los Angeles Times said the newspaper’s billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong instructed them to “take a break from writing about” Donald Trump, a report said. In a memo to the paper’s executive editor, the employees suggested Soon-Shiong’s increasing interventions were undermining a journalistic obligation to “act in service of the public.” An estimated 20,000 readers have dropped their subscriptions since Soon-Shiong killed a planned Kamala Harris endorsement a few weeks before the election. The Independent | New York Post

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

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