Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 22.
- Muddy mess in Coachella Valley and mountain towns.
- How the U.S. government has come to rely on Elon Musk.
- And a plan to save Humboldt County’s Roosevelt elk.
Statewide
1.
Tropical Storm Hilary focused much of its fury on the low-lying communities of the Coachella Valley such as Cathedral City, where dozens of mobile homes were flooded and first responders rescued nearly 50 residents trapped by mud. On Monday, a group of elderly residents was extracted from a home care facility in the bucket of a bulldozer on loan from a local waste company. “It’s not something I have ever done in my 34 years as a firefighter,” said Michael Contreras, the city’s fire chief. Desert Sun | NBC News
- Aerial video of the swamped city. 👉 @brittny_mejia | @KESQ
2.
Other storm developments:
- “I don’t know that we’re ever going to recover from this.” Morning light revealed dramatic mudslides and destroyed homes in several communities nestled within the folds of the San Bernardino Mountains, where some areas reported more than 10 inches of rain. KTLA | L.A. Times
- Numerous rain records fell Sunday, including in Death Valley, which had its wettest day in 112 years. Weather officials reported that 2.2 inches fell, which also happens to be the park’s average annual precipitation. A local conservationist got some impressive drone shots. @bitterwaterblue
- News organizations debunked reports that Dodger Stadium’s parking lot had flooded (one of which was unfortunately included in this newsletter). While aerial images appeared to show pooling water, it was an optical illusion created by light reflecting off of merely wet concrete. L.A. Times | A.P.
- See a satellite animation of Hilary’s extraordinary journey. 👉 @CIRA_CSU
3.
As the 2024 race presidential race heats up, some political watchers have wondered whether Vice President Kamala Harris will be a drag on the reelection ticket. But she’s the same person she was when the prevailing narrative of her was as a rising Democratic star, she told reporter Eugene Daniels. “I can’t get into people’s heads about why they characterize things as being one way or another,” she said. “It’s not as though I’ve just found myself. I’ve always been here and never went away.” Politico
4.
The New Yorker dropped a major new piece by Ronan Farrow on what it called Elon Musk’s “shadow rule.” A few highlights:
- Musk deliberately throttled his Starlink satellites in Ukraine, where they have been a crucial form of battlefield communications. “To the dismay of Pentagon officials,” Farrow wrote, “Musk volunteered that he had spoken with Putin personally.”
- As Musk’s power has extended to energy, transportation, and the exploration of space, several people close to the tech billionaire portrayed him as a megalomaniac. “Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it,” said Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI.
- Associates suggested that Musk’s use of ketamine has escalated in recent years, and that it might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic decisions. “You can feel grandiose and like you have special powers or special talents,” a ketamine researcher said.
5.
Earlier this year, a state appellate court blocked a new student housing proposal in Berkeley on the novel grounds that “noise impacts from loud student parties” amounted to a form of pollution under California’s marquee environmental protection law, known as CEQA. Now the “people as pollution” logic is being applied again to thwart a housing development in Los Angeles. Chris Elmendorf, a UC Davis law professor, warned that if something isn’t done, the precedent will continue to spread: “It just becomes one more part of the CEQA Hydra.” CalMatters
6.
Here are three eye-catching homes recently listed across California:
- A Spanish-style home in San Francisco has stained-glass windows in every room and handcrafted metal and woodwork. The real estate influencer Samir Mezrahi drew millions of eyeballs to the listing, saying he “screamed” when he saw how nice it was. Price tag: $4 million. @zillowgonewild | Realtor.com
- A concrete magnate built himself a sprawling log home at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Northern California that has a tree in the living room adorned by two sculpted wooden bears. Its best feature, however, is an incredible view of nearby Mount Shasta. Yours for $5.7 million. Sacramento Bee
- Pioneertown, 20 miles north of Palm Springs, began in 1946 as the movie set of a 19th-century Western town. It eventually morphed into a real town with residents drawn by the intoxicating desert landscape. A three-bedroom place in the heart of town was listed at $699,000. Dwell | Spaces
Northern California
7.
When San Francisco’s hometown newspaper set out to compare the city’s fentanyl crisis with that of other cities, it found that a robust data tool didn’t exist. So they built one. It shows that San Francisco’s fatal overdose rate was 8.8 per 100,000 residents in December 2022, the most recent month for which the CDC has data. For California, the rate was 2.4. The nation’s was 2.8. Explore the San Francisco Chronicle’s drug overdose tracker.
- “You think the coroner’s office is going to call you the next day and say, ‘Sorry, it’s a mistake, she’s alive.'” The Chronicle told moving stories of seven lives changed by the drug overdose crisis.
8.
The Archdiocese of San Francisco filed for bankruptcy on Monday, becoming the third California diocese to seek protection as they face a wave of child sexual abuse lawsuits filed after the state temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on such cases. Ahead of the filing, Dan McNevin, an advocate for clergy sex-abuse victims, told the Chronicle the move was designed to conceal both the secrets of perpetrators and the financial assets of the church. “It’s a double bottom line benefit,” he said. “They keep their secrets and they keep more of their wealth.” A.P. | Reuters
9.
This year alone, four Roosevelt elk have been killed in vehicle collisions along a stretch of Highway 101 in Humboldt County. The elk, sporting multibranched antlers and weighing as much as 1,000 pounds, came from a famed herd that likes to hang out in a meadow next to a scenic red schoolhouse in Trinidad. State wildlife and transportation officials are now developing a traffic warning system that will signal motorists when elk, equipped with collar transmitters, linger nearby. North Coast Journal
Southern California
10.
Law enforcement officials on Monday identified the man accused of killing store owner Laura Ann Carleton in Lake Arrowhead last Friday as Travis Ikeguchi, a 27-year-old who appeared to operate social media accounts filled with anti-LGBT hate. The officials confirmed that Ikeguchi had ripped down a rainbow flag hanging in front of the clothing shop and yelled homophobic slurs. Friends and family of Carleton said she had faced earlier demands to remove the flag and always refused. “She was fearless,” said Ari Carleton, one of her daughters, her voice breaking. L.A. Times
11.
For years, the scheduled closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant has stirred economic fears along the Central Coast, where the plant has employed 1,500 workers and funded local schools through its taxes. So plans for a massive wind farm off the shores of Morro Bay couldn’t have come at a better time, local supporters say. If it works out as planned, the region will get to keep the jobs and income while moving to renewable power. “It really is that good of an opportunity that you don’t get every day,” said Joshua Boswell, a business leader. Courthouse News Service
12.
During Hollywood’s Golden Age, the portrayal of stardom in newspapers and magazines was largely an illusion, meticulously crafted by studios. “The studios created personas for these actors and they were expected to live up to that, to those often unrealistic images,” wrote film historian Leonard Maltin. That extended to vacation photos, which were often posed to look candid. The Ankler published a gallery of early Hollywood “on vacation.”
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