Good morning. It’s Thursday, March 2.
- One teen said to kill another at Santa Rosa high school.
- Shasta County proposes teaming up with the MyPillow guy.
- And the beauty of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in 13 counties on Wednesday as residents remained trapped by snow in mountain communities from Lake Tahoe to Lake Arrowhead. Near Lake Tahoe, an avalanche struck an apartment building, engulfing the bottom floors. In the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento, officials said an 80-year-old woman died when her porch collapsed. In the San Bernardino Mountains, a market’s roof gave way. L.A. Times | A.P. | Sacramento Bee
- “Soft snow” fell at Disneyland on Wednesday, delighting visitors. Meteorologists said it was technically graupel, a form of frozen droplet. O.C. Register | Deadline
- Thursday was expected to be the coldest day of the week in parts of California, dropping as low as the 20s along the North Coast and into the 30s in Sacramento Valley and Bay Area. @NWSBayArea | @NWSSacramento
2.
A parole board on Wednesday denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, contradicting the decision of another parole board that found the Robert F. Kennedy assassin suitable for release two years ago. Sirhan’s lawyer Angela Berry noted that psychiatrists have said he is unlikely to reoffend. She said she believes the board “bent to the political whim” of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who reversed the 2021 parole decision. Sirhan has been in prison for 55 years. L.A. Times | A.P.
Northern California
3.
“This is truly a sad day.”
A 15-year-old fatally stabbed a 16-year-old classmate during an art class at a high school in Santa Rosa on Wednesday, authorities said. Police Chief John Cregan said two male 16-year-olds, both juniors, entered the classroom at Montgomery High School a little after 11 a.m. and instigated a fight with the 15-year-old, a freshman. The freshman pulled “a folding knife,” officials said, and stabbed one of the juniors, Jayden Pienta, three times in the chest. He died at the hospital. Press Democrat | KRON
4.
In January, Shasta County’s far-right Board of Supervisors voted to cancel the county’s contract with the Dominion voting software company that became the focus of conspiracy theories after the electoral defeat of former President Trump. On Tuesday, a supervisor announced that he had secured funding from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to test a new system of counting ballots by hand. Lindell is among the loudest champions of the election truther movement. Record Searchlight
5.
A 44-year-old man was arrested in connection with seven bombings in the Fresno area since December, authorities announced Wednesday. Fresno police said Scott Anderson made and detonated pipe bombs in six vehicles, including a probation department car, and a mailbox. As part of the investigation, law enforcement seized a trove of white supremacist and Nazi paraphernalia, along with 90 grams of methamphetamine and 11 illegal firearms. Four people linked to Anderson were also arrested. Fresno Bee | San Joaquin Valley Sun
6.
The Bay Area’s BART system is struggling with a homelessness crisis that spills over from city streets. With trains and stations operating as de facto shelters, the system’s spending on social service interventions has ballooned to $30 million a year. Meanwhile, ridership has plummeted. A recent survey found that just 26% of customers were “very satisfied” with the transit system. Their top concern: addressing homelessness. SF Standard
7.
The oldest surviving Major League Baseball player lives in a senior living community near Sonoma with his wife of 76 years. Born during the Roaring Twenties, Arthur Schallock, 98, fought in World War II then won three World Series Rings as a pitcher with the New York Yankees, playing alongside Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra. He shared his life philosophy with a reporter. “I never get mad or upset over anything,” he said. “If somebody hit a home run, well, so what? Move on.” Sonoma Index-Tribune
8.
Pizza acrobatics is an actual sport. And Tony Gemignani, a 49-year-old chef from the Bay Area, is one of the greats. Gemignani holds 13 titles from the World Pizza Championships, seven for acrobatics and six for cooking. He also has several Guinness World Records, including “largest pizza base spun in three minutes.” It was 33.2 inches wide. Washington Post
See Gemignani do his thing. 👉 YouTube (~2 mins)
Southern California
9.
Maurice Hastings first asked for the DNA in the murder case that imprisoned him to be retested 23 years ago. The request was denied. Prosecutors later said they couldn’t find it. When the DNA was finally analyzed last year, it matched someone else. Hastings was released, having spent 38 years in prison. On Wednesday, a Los Angeles judge took the rare step of declaring Hastings factually innocent, meaning the evidence proved he didn’t commit the 1983 murder. It meant a lot, Hastings said: “I’m ready to move on with my life. I’m a happy man today.” A.P.
10.
In 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, LIFE magazine published an effusive 13-page spread on “the California way of life.” It described a land of beauty and abundance where the people lived by the pool, dressed for comfort rather than “social elegance,” and enjoyed the good life at all levels of income. LIFE.com published a look back at the article, including 43 pictures by the photographer Nina Leen.
11.
There’s a fantastical shrine to frogs along a sandstone wall in Santa Barbara. The Wall of Frogs is said to have started in 1989, when a single plastic frog appeared. Over the next three decades, thousands more were added: firemen frogs, yoga frogs, frogs sipping tea, frogs posing like fashion models. Removing one, legend says, brings terrible misfortune. Noozhawk | Atlas Obscura
California the beautiful
12.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 1,250-square-mile system of water and farmland, is just an hour from San Francisco but a world apart. The unlikely landscape of green, blue, and gold is an explorer’s paradise, with secret backroads, riverbank communities, and hundreds of miles of waterways heading in all directions. Push off on the water, some say, and your worries melt away.
Below, a short visual tour with photographs by Sara Ferguson.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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