Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 15.
- California DMV renews licenses of dangerous drivers.
- Homeless man wins $1 million on lottery ticket.
- And immigration raid stokes anger in San Diego County.
Statewide
1.
Ivan Dimov had six DUIs in six years. Kostas Linardos had 17 tickets, including violations for street racing and reckless driving, and had been in four crashes. Ervin Wyatt fled police twice, drove without a license four times, and collected a dozen speeding tickets. Yet after all of that, all three men had their driver’s licenses renewed by the California DMV, and all three went on kill other people in collisions, records show.
CalMatters published an investigation on California’s practice of allowing dangerous drivers to keep operating on our roadways.
2.
California largest public union, SEIU Local 1000, has faced a decline in dues-paying members in recent years. But the workforce of roughly 95,000 state employees has been galvanized like seldom before thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new requirement that they come back into the office four days a week. At a recent rally, hundreds of workers filled a city block in Sacramento, dancing to loud music. “We are the union!” they chanted. “The mighty, mighty union!” Newsom has showed no sign of backing down. Sacramento Bee
3.
The New York Times profiled Darryl Cooper, a history podcaster who has become “a man of this second Trumpian moment.” Cooper, who was born and raised in California, has the most subscribed-to history newsletter on Substack. His podcast, “Martyr Made,” is among the 10 most popular on Spotify. To his detractors, Cooper, 43, is a fascist, sloppily peddling debunked arguments. To his followers, he is a font of ostensibly hidden truths. “His project syncs up with the radical skepticism ascendant on the American right,” the Times wrote.
4.
A man living on the streets of San Luis Obispo just won $1 million on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Wilson Samaan, who owns the liquor store that sold the ticket, said the unidentified man was stunned by what he saw: “He’s like, ‘Oh my God, come take a look at this. Is that true?'” It was. Samaan described the winner as “a good guy.” “I was so excited, I believe more than him, because he deserves it. It’s gonna change his life forever,” he said. The Tribune
- “I just can’t wait to get off the streets.” Meet the winner.
Northern California
5.
Since last summer, San Francisco has made 756 arrests for “illegal lodging” as part of its crackdown on homeless encampments. That’s more than the prior six years combined. As a result, there are now fewer tents across the city — around 220 — than at any time since record keeping began in 2019. Government officials say the figures are proof that the crackdown is having its intended effect. What that means for the homelessness crisis is less clear. As one housing advocate noted: “Arresting homeless people doesn’t make them any less homeless.” S.F. Chronicle
- After 100 days in office, Mayor Daniel Lurie, a moderate Democrat, is drawing accolades from some unexpected political quarters, such as old-school liberal and former campaign rival Aaron Peskin. L.A. Times
6.
Meta faced off with the Federal Trade Commission on the opening day of a blockbuster antitrust trial that accuses the tech giant of buying up Instagram and WhatsApp to create a monopoly. In opening remarks, FTC attorney Daniel Matheson cited a “smoking gun” 2012 email in which Mark Zuckerberg discussed the rise of Instagram and the importance of “neutralizing a potential competitor.” “For more than 100 years, American public policy has insisted firms must compete if they want to succeed,” Matheson said. “The reason we are here is that Meta broke the deal.” Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times
7.
Photographing the Santa Cruz coast, it’s been remarked, can feel a bit like cheating. Every picture looks amazing. Outdoor writers recommend a walk through Wilder Ranch State Park, a coastal preserve where you can explore the historic structures of a 19th-century dairy ranch. But the real magic begins along the bluffs, where a trail traces the jagged edges of several coves. The travel blogger Josh McNair gave a nice video tour. 👉 YouTube (~7 mins)
Below, see a few views along the Wilder Ranch coastline.
Southern California
8.
Jorge Lopez is a youth soccer coach who has been living in the U.S. since he was 13 years old. His wife and four children are all American citizens. On March 27, he was arrested along with 15 others during an immigration raid at an industrial paint shop in El Cajon. Now he’s in the Otay Mesa Detention Center facing deportation. Tessa Cabrera, his lawyer, said immigration agents used to overlook individuals like Lopez. “Typically, we see more of a targeted enforcement rather than an entire workplace being detained at one time,” she said. “I expect that to become more of the norm.” KPBS
9.
In her 20s, Mary Faith Casey’s life was a dream. She married a handsome tennis player and raised two children in a Coachella Valley home surrounded by bougainvillea. Then her personality began to shift. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and found herself in a cycle of addiction and incarceration. In 2022, she died after experiencing severe weight loss in a county jail. The reporter Sarah Stillman spent a year studying the deaths of Casey and other incarcerated people like her. What she found, she wrote, “is hard to describe as anything other than a pattern of widespread torture of people with mental-health issues in county jails.” New Yorker
10.
There were no reports of injuries or major damage after a 5.2-magnitude earthquake shook Southern California early Monday. But the scare introduced a number of Americans to the phenomenon of an elephant “alert circle.” When the ground rumbled at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a herd of African elephants ran to protect their young by encircling them, a moment captured in a video shared widely online. “It’s so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing — that any parent does, which is protect their children,” said Mindy Albright, curator of mammals at the zoo. L.A. Times | A.P.
11.
Thieves made off with $20 million in merchandise and cash from a family jewelry store in downtown Los Angeles during an overnight heist, the owners said on Monday. The culprits appeared to have burrowed through a 3-foot brick wall from an abandoned theater next door, the store owner’s son said: “They probably went in there every night, slowly dug it until there was enough room for them to get in.” At some point, they were able to disable an alarm and security cameras, then gain entry into two safes, he said. NBC4 | Fox11
12.
After years of griping from moviegoers and critics about the barrage of sequels and comic-book adaptations coming out of Hollywood, the industry invested in more original ideas over the past year. It hasn’t gone well, the Wall Street Journal reported: “Nearly every movie released by a major studio in the past year based on an original script or a little-known book has been a box-office disappointment.”
- One blockbuster that no one predicted: “A Minecraft Movie,” based on a video game. It took in more than $500 million in 10 days. Bloomberg
I count on word of mouth to grow the California Sun. Please consider sharing it with a friend. Send them here.
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 T-shirt, phone case, hat, hoodie, or tote.
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.