Good morning. It’s Friday, Feb. 14.
- Yosemite faces staffing crisis ahead of peak season.
- Dam removals could unleash rugged Eel River.
- And Huntington Beach leaders approve “MAGA” plaque.
Please note: The newsletter will pause for Presidents’ Day. Back in your inbox Tuesday.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to veto a new bill to limit cooperation between state prisons and federal immigration agents, making a rare intervention that reflected the sensitivities around California’s handling of immigrants with criminal histories. Assembly Bill 15 would bar prison officials from holding offenders in custody at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “The governor realizes that popular opinion is contrary to what some people in the legislature want to do,” Roger Niello, a Republican state senator, said on Thursday. Politico | KCRA
2.
California on Thursday joined a coalition of blue states in a lawsuit to halt the work of Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, calling the billionaire a “designated agent of chaos.” The legal filing depicted a stark political moment: “There is no greater threat to democracy than the accumulation of state power in the hands of a single, unelected individual. Although our constitutional system was designed to prevent the abuses of an 18th century monarch, the instruments of unchecked power are no less dangerous in the hands of a 21st century tech baron.” L.A. Times | A.P.
3.
Yosemite, one of the most popular national parks, is facing the prospect of having a skeleton crew and no limits on visitors during the busy summer season. President Trump’s hiring freeze has led to hundreds of rescinded job offers just as the park would normally be staffing up. The crunch comes as the administration paused a reservation system that kept crowd sizes under control. The predicted result if nothing changes: crippling gridlock, overflowing trash cans, and unmonitored guests trampling sensitive areas. “This is honestly terrifying,” said Elisabeth Barton, a tour operator. SFGATE
- Also roiled by the hiring freeze: federal firefighters. Bloomberg
4.
Proposition 65, the 1986 law that required product warnings for a wide range of chemicals, was intended to recognize Californians’ right to know what they are being exposed to. The warnings became a source of mockery, as seemingly everything — from coffee to roasted asparagus — was deemed potentially cancerous. But according to a new study, the law might be working — by prodding many companies to stop using the chemicals altogether. As it turns out, manufacturers don’t want to sell products that carry cancer warnings. N.Y. Times | Washington Post
5.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Lili Anolik, author of the book “Didion & Babitz,” on the relationship between literary figures Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. Anolik quoted a letter that Babitz wrote to Didion but never sent: “Could you write what you write if you weren’t so tiny, Joan? Would you be allowed to if you weren’t physically so unthreatening?” For Anolik, the question revealed a source of friction between the women. “I think she felt that Joan, in a feminist sense, was a kind of Uncle Tom, that she pandered to men,” Anolik said. “And of course Eve was the opposite. Eve had enormous sexual presence.”
Northern California
6.
A historic pact was reached on Thursday that paves the way toward the removal of two aging dams along Northern California’s Eel River, which would make it the longest free-flowing river in the state. More than six years in the making, the agreement unites local, state, and tribal leaders behind the retirement of PG&E’s Potter Valley hydroelectric project and its two dams, while compensating the region’s Indigenous people and diverting some water for use by cities and farms in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. S.F. Chronicle
7.
The soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause made his first recording of the natural world in Muir Woods in 1968. Hooked, he’s been doing it ever since, amassing the world’s largest private collection of wildlife sounds from meadows and rain forests to coral reefs and the arctic tundra. Over the years, he’s detected a worrying trend. “A great silence is spreading over the natural world,” he said. In a new short documentary called “The Last of the Nightingales,” produced by the New Yorker, Krause invites viewers to become attuned to the wonders of sound. YouTube
- Hear one of Krause’s recordings from Crescent Meadow in Sequoia National Park, pictured above, then go visit it.
Southern California
8.
Southern California faced significant flooding and mudslides on Thursday as torrential rainfall soaked the region, but it largely avoided the worst predictions of widespread damage. Across parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, there were reports of damaged mobile homes, trapped motorists, toppled trees, and prolonged closures along Pacific Coast Highway, Mulholland Drive, and other roadways. Shortly after 5 p.m. a Los Angeles fire vehicle was swept off the road and into the ocean, a scare captured on video. The driver was able to escape with minor injuries, a spokesman said. L.A. Times | ABC7
9.
Charlie Springer, a former national sales manager at Warner Bros. Records, spent a lifetime building his music collection. It grew to 18,000 vinyl LPs, 12,000 CDs, 10,000 45s, 4,000 cassettes, 600 78s, and 150 8-tracks, along with hundreds of signed music posters and about 100 gold records. A friend in the music business called it the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame West. The Eaton fire incinerated it all last month. The Atlantic told the story of “the house where 28,000 records burned.”
10.
Huntington Beach advanced a plan to install a plaque at its Central Library that prominently displays the word MAGA. The tribute to President Trump was accomplished by arranging the words “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing, Adventurous” in a column and bolding each of their first letters. Dozens of residents objected to the design during a library commission meeting Tuesday night. Barbara Richardson initially thought it must be a joke, she said: “It turned out, the joke was on me, because this plaque really is the real design.” L.A. Times | KABC
11.
There’s a wealthy residential enclave in Palm Springs that is so secretive many locals don’t even know it exists. Smoke Tree Ranch dates to the early 1900s, before the city became a Hollywood playground, and has counted some of America’s wealthiest families among its residents, including Walt Disney, members of the Ford family, and an heiress of Gerber Products. But these are not mansions. Instead, the community has embraced a Wild West aesthetic, with dirt roads, no lawns, and modest ranch-style homes. The Wall Street Journal has pictures.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- In the 1950s, the late surfer-architect Harry Gesner designed 12 homes above Mulholland Drive, each cantilevered out over steep lots with sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills. The New York Times featured one of Gesner’s “boat houses” in the newest installment of its real estate series “What you get.”
- Chevron sank California’s first successful oil well in 1876, kicking off a boom that powered the state’s economy for more than a century. When the oil giant broke up with California last August, it delivered the message via text. The Wall Street Journal told the story “behind the oil industry’s biggest divorce: Chevron versus California.”
- Amid the scenes of near-complete devastation in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, some buildings were improbably left standing. Whether by design or accident, they had structural advantages that helped them survive. The Washington Post investigated “what the homes that survived the L.A. fires reveal.”
- The Oscars ceremony was first televised in 1953. In those days, Hollywood actors did more than just act; they were expected to be all-around performers. For the big awards night, the industry aimed to put on a barn burner of a show. LIFE magazine dug into its archive for a photo essay on the rehearsals for the 1958 Oscars production.
- The No. 1 restaurant in America is a seafood counter in South Los Angeles, according to an annual ranking by Yelp based on the volume and ratings of customer reviews, among other factors. Holbox, opened inside a historic food hall in 2017, has been widely celebrated for Yucatán-style ceviches, octopus tacos, and grilled spiny lobster. Yelp
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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