Good morning. It’s Friday, Sept. 8.
- Lawmakers pass bill to fine school boards over book bans.
- Australian said to drive on wrong side of road, killing two.
- And Danny Masterson is sentenced to 30 years for rapes.
Statewide
1.
State lawmakers on Thursday approved a law backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that would allow fines against school boards that reject textbooks for discriminatory reasons. It was crafted in response to culture war battles at conservative school boards, most notably Temecula’s attempt to block a curriculum over its inclusion of gay rights icon Harvey Milk. The bill was opposed by the California School Boards Association, which called it “draconian and duplicative.” Politico | L.A. Times
- Other bills advanced on Thursday: unemployment benefits for striking workers, a first-in-the-nation excise tax on firearms and ammunition, and the decriminalization of magic mushrooms.
2.
Partisanship now plays a huge role in Americans’ perception of crime and safety. A Gallup poll found that only 21% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents considered Los Angeles safe. For Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, the figure was 64%. The perception gap is similar for San Francisco. Both cities, commonly singled out as dens of lawlessness in conservative media, have lower violent crime rates than dozens of other big cities, among them Dallas, Anchorage, Nashville, Tulsa, Muskogee, and Miami. L.A. Times
3.
“How am I in this war?”
Elon Musk ordered SpaceX engineers to disable the company’s Starlink satellite internet service near the Crimean coast to thwart a Ukrainian attack on Russian forces, according to Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire. Musk feared that Russia would respond to the attack with nuclear weapons, according to Isaacson. As Ukrainian submarine drones approached the Russian naval fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” he wrote. CNN | Washington Post
Northern California
4.
Prosecutors charged an Australian race car driver with two counts of vehicular manslaughter after he was accused of driving on the wrong side of a highway in the Santa Cruz Mountains and killing an elderly couple in a head-on car crash. The authorities said Luke Nardini, 31, who broke his back in the collision, hadn’t been in the U.S. long and got confused. Nardini’s father called the situation “just horrible.” “I’m sorry for the people that were left behind,” he said. “We know that there’s going to be things that will happen to Luke, there is no way there is not.” Mercury News | Perth Now
5.
The reporter Jonathan Martin spent a day with Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco for a profile on the House speaker emerita. She let loose about what she sees as a sexist double standard in the treatment of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “It’s OK, you know they can vote, and it’s all they need to do,” she said of the rationalizations offered for aging male lawmakers. “And then Dianne comes along and then they’re making such a fuss? Uh-uh. It’s a guy thing, but that’s the way the world is.” Politico Magazine
- Feinstein’s daughter, Katherine Feinstein, spoke out about the family’s financial squabbles. “Do I wish it were in the public view? Of course not.” L.A. Times
6.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Tony Platt, author of the new book “The Scandal of Cal.” Platt argues that the West Coast’s premier public university has failed to properly reckon with its original sins, expressing particular outrage over Berkeley’s hoarding of Native American remains. “These are examples of behaviors that are very much in the present,” he said. “They can’t just be written off as the work of bad actors in the past.”
7.
Of 124 beaches along the Bay Area coast, just one includes campsites, fire pits, and food: Casini Ranch Family Campground on the banks of the Russian River. That’s according to a new beach map tool that allows you to filter results by any combination of 15 features. Give it a try. 👉 S.F. Chronicle
- Also offered at Casini: movie nights, kayaking, and farm animals. A campground reservation site declared Casini the No. 2 best private campground for weekenders in North America. Campspot
Southern California
8.
Peter Navarro, a former UC Irvine professor and trade advisor to former President Trump, was convicted on Thursday of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro, a vocal election denier, has repeatedly insisted that Trump ordered him not to cooperate. He vowed to appeal his conviction. “This case is not over by a long shot,” he said. A.P. | Washington Post
9.
A judge in Los Angeles sentenced actor Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison on Thursday after he was convicted of raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home in the early 2000s. The accusers spoke in court before the sentencing. “You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” one said. The other expressed regret for not going to the police earlier. “I am so sorry, and I’m so upset,” she said. Masterson, 47, planned to appeal. “Sometimes they get it wrong,” his lawyer said. A.P. | Variety
10.
In 2020, a progressive newcomer named Nithya Raman won more votes than any Los Angeles City Council member in the city’s history. But according to her supporters, Raman was seen as a threat to the “liberal Democrat” status quo, so a redistricting panel threatened to dismantle the constituency that elected her. “The redistricting battle in Los Angeles underscores how some big city leaders — often Democrats — have used gerrymandering for their political advantage, much the way Republican lawmakers have redrawn legislative lines to secure or expand their control over some statehouses,” the N.Y. Times wrote.
11.
The sand is disappearing in Oceanside. That’s a problem for a city that hosts surf competitions and beckons tourists with the slogan “Tan Your Hide in Oceanside.” So officials solicited submissions from 36 firms with ideas for getting and keeping sand on the city’s beaches. They have proposed floating islands, a dune system anchored by cobblestones, and an artificial reef to collect sand. A coastal science professor suggested that it’s an exercise in wishful thinking. “There’s absolutely nothing we can do to hold back the Pacific Ocean,” he said. “Everything we do is short term.” N.Y. Times
12.
Rolling Stone published a 3,600-word piece that described alleged mistreatment on the set of Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Show,” citing anonymous interviews with two current and 14 former employees. Among the claims:
- The magazine said it reached out to 80 current and former staffers and “not a single one agreed to speak on the record or had positive things to say about working on ‘The Tonight Show.'”
- As the result of what was described as a “toxic” work environment, one worker said they experienced an anxiety attack, another said they lost 20 pounds, and others said they were driven to suicidal ideation.
- Employees accused Fallon of being erratic and “passive-aggressive.” In one case, he was said to scold a cue-card holder during a segment with Jerry Seinfeld. After the Rolling Stone story was published, Seinfeld disputed the account, calling it an “idiotic twisting of events.”
● ●
“It’s embarrassing and I feel so bad.” Fallon apologized to his staff over Zoom on Thursday. Hollywood Reporter
Get your California Sun T-shirts, phone cases, hoodies, mugs, and hats!
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
Make a one-time contribution to the California Sun.
Give a subscription as a gift.
Get a California Sun mug, T-shirt, phone case, hat, or hoodie.
Forward this email to a friend.
Click here to stop delivery, and here to update your billing information. To change your email address please email me: mike@californiasun.co. (Note: Unsubscribing here does not cancel payments. To do that click here.)
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.