Elizabeth Holmes reports to prison // Blythe faces existential crisis

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, May 31.

Appeals court deems Manson follower entitled to parole.
Elizabeth Holmes reports to federal prison in Texas.
And the desert town of Blythe faces an existential crisis.

Statewide

1.

Leslie Van Houten, left, and other Charles Manson followers in Los Angeles in 1970. (Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library)

In March of 2022, the former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten had her fifth parole recommendation denied by a California governor. But on Tuesday, an appeals court overruled that decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom. In a 2-to-1 opinion, the panel said Van Houten, now 73, had been rehabilitated during more than half a century behind bars since taking part in the cult’s 1969 killing spree at the age of 19, writing there is “no evidence to support the governor’s conclusions” about her fitness for parole. Reuters | S.F. Chronicle

2.

“California is becoming uninsurable.”

State Farm last week became the latest insurer to pull back from California, saying it would halt new home insurance policies in the state because of rising costs and “catastrophe exposure.” “In other words,” wrote Alissa Walker, “it’s getting too expensive to rebuild homes lost to the state’s increasingly destructive wildfires. And the largest property-insurance company in the country retreating from the country’s largest property-insurance market isn’t just an inconvenience for potential homeowners — it’s a sign of what’s to come.” Curbed

3.

A humorous 1947 map showed the United States “as Californians see it.” (Stanford Libraries)

In an interview, Gov. Gavin Newsom discussed his combative stance on red-state politics: “This is not my natural state. But as I pray, I’ve got to move my feet.” He said his decision to pull a contract from Walgreens emerged out of his anger over Florida’s push to reshape high school curricula. “You want to know why I did that to Walgreens? That was my blood boiling on the A.P. on Black studies.” N.Y. Times Magazine

4.

Other dispatches from the culture wars:

Last Friday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw announced the “relaunch” of Christian Faith and Family Day at the ballpark. On Monday, he said he pushed to expedite the announcement as a response to the club’s decision to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which he opposed. L.A. Times | KABC
Two transgender girl runners withdrew from the California track and field championships late last week after the fairness of their participation drew fierce debate. The state’s high school sports authority denounced what it described as “discriminatory or harassing behaviors” aimed at the runners. L.A. Times

Northern California

5.

A group of tech industry leaders issued a single-sentence statement on Tuesday warning that artificial intelligence could end human life. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” it read. Among the more than 350 signatories were Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI; Demis Hassabis, who heads Google DeepMind; and Dario Amodei, chief executive of the prominent AI startup Anthropic. Bloomberg | Washington Post

6.

Elizabeth Holmes was escorted by prison officials in Bryan on Tuesday. (Michael Wyke/A.P.)

Elizabeth Holmes reported to a federal prison in Bryan, Tex., on Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence after being convicted of defrauding investors in her blood-testing company Theranos. In video footage, she could be seen walking onto the prison grounds wearing jeans and smiling as she spoke to prison employees. Holmes, whose net worth peaked at more than $4 billion, will share bathing facilities and work in the cafeteria or in a manufacturing facility, where pay starts at $1.15 an hour. N.Y. Times | A.P.

“I want to be her friend.” Inmates described what life is like in the prison. Wall Street Journal

7.

In a beautifully written piece, the journalist Daniel Duane explored how Californians like his mother are struggling to accept that YIMBYs have now seized the moral high ground. While the old Berkeley where Duane grew up is never coming back, he wrote, “we all want to grow old among loved ones and familiar faces. So there’s just something inescapably painful about an economy that makes this impossible for all but the superrich — a place where a vast majority of local children know they will have to leave as soon as they grow up.” N.Y. Times Magazine

8.

Tara Reade, the California woman who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault in 2020, said on Tuesday that she had defected to Russia and was seeking citizenship there, the Russian-government-run news site Sputnik reported. In a lengthy interview, Reade criticized the West and gushed about how accommodating the Kremlin has been toward her. “I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” she said. “I feel very surrounded by protection and safety.” The Guardian | Daily Beast

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9.

☝️ Meet Duke Ellington Morris.

San Francisco International Airport added a new member to its Wag Brigade, a crew of animals tasked with spreading comfort amid the anxious churn of air travel. Duke, a 14-year-old acquired from a shelter, was trained as an animal therapist and worked at several hospitals before being recruited for airport duty, where he works alongside a LiLou the pig and a rabbit named Alex the Great. SFGATE

Southern California

10.

Blythe hugs the Colorado River in southeastern California. (Wikimedia Commons)

As California moves to draw down its $15 billion-a-year prison system, small towns that counted on prison jobs are being left in the lurch. Among the next to close is Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe, a desert town of 18,000 people along the Colorado River. Blythe was already dying; now it’s going to lose hundreds of jobs. CalMatters

11.

Nine juvenile suspects were arrested Tuesday after a dozens of teenagers pummeled three off-duty Marines near the San Clemente Pier over the Memorial Day weekend in an attack captured on video. One of the Marines said the altercation kicked off after he asked the group to stop lighting fireworks because firework debris hit him in the face. In the ensuing melee, two Marines curled up in the fetal position as they were punched and kicked. San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan called the beating “barbaric.” KTLA | L.A. Times

12.

The night sky above Palomar Mountain. (Sky Rock Media)

Less than 20 miles east of sunny San Diego, the mountains rise so steeply they capture snow in winter. In the 1940s, Caltech astronomers chose the range beyond the city lights as a perfect perch from which to search the sky for asteroids and comets. Palomar Observatory boasted the world’s most powerful telescope for decades and remains productive even today. Visitors are welcome. For the full experience, campers stay overnight at the adjoining Observatory Campground, which is organized specifically around the cosmos, with restricted artificial light, concrete pads for telescopes, and monthly “star parties.” hikespeak | Forest Service

California’s 10 darkest places for stargazing. 👉 KCET

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The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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