Good morning. It’s Thursday, Dec. 19.
- EPA allows state to ban gas-powered cars by 2035.
- Los Angeles official investigated over bomb threat.
- And California ground squirrels turn out to be killers.
Statewide
1.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday authorized California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, setting up a clash with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration. Trump has pledged to end California’s “attacks on gas-powered cars.” But some experts said the new approvals mean Trump’s EPA must mount a legal fight to revoke them that could drag on for as long as two years. During that time, automakers may be obliged to make crucial investments in electric vehicles. Politico | Washington Post
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in response to a devastating outbreak of bird flu among California’s dairy herds. The announcement came as news emerged that a man in Louisiana was the first infected American to become severely ill. While the virus, H5N1, does not spread easily among humans, each infection gives it a chance to take on a form that could cause a pandemic, experts have warned. According to state figures, the virus has been found in 645 dairies and 34 people this year. L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
3.
Over the past few years, a modest jump in monarch butterfly numbers allowed for some cautious optimism about the recovery of the endangered species. But early numbers from this year’s migration to the California coast, a major wintering destination, have been crushing. In one representative example, just four monarchs were counted this month at Goleta’s Ellwood Mesa, a butterfly habitat along the Santa Barbara coast. Last year the figure was roughly 26,000. “If there’s not intervention at this level, they’re likely to go extinct,” said George Thomson, a Goleta parks official. SFGATE | Santa Barbara Independent
4.
As California prepares to get soaked by another barrage of storms over the next week, the state’s snowpack and reservoirs are already in great shape for this time of year. As of Wednesday, all but a few major reservoirs are sitting above their historic averages, while the Sierra snowpack is 131% of normal. Andrew Schwartz, director of the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, issued the usual caveats that it’s still early in California’s rainy season and anything can happen. But, he said, “It’s been a wonderful start to the season.” S.F. Chronicle
Northern California
5.
California ground squirrels, long known to be foragers, are also active predators that hunt, kill, and eat voles, a study published on Wednesday revealed. Researchers said they were floored to gather the first evidence of hunting behavior among squirrels in the Bay Area’s Briones Regional Park last summer. “I could barely believe my eyes,” said co-author Sonja Wild, of UC Davis. “From then, we saw that behavior almost every day.” Experts speculated that the behavior could be driven in part by an explosion in vole numbers. S.F. Chronicle | Popular Science
- Yes, there’s squirrel attack video. 👉 YouTube
6.
In 1982, a Livermore deacon named Dave Rezendes decided go big on his Christmas display. With the help of a hired local teenager, he built an elf village and hung an impressive 2,000 bulbs. Four decades later, that seems like nothing. Rezendes’ Christmas display, now known as Deacon Dave’s House of the Dove, has grown into an over-the-top tradition that draws visitors from across the Bay Area. The number of lights this year: more than 900,000. Crowds have been bigger than ever after Rezendes, 81, won a $50,000 prize on ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight.” S.F. Chronicle
- See video of this year’s display. 👉 YouTube
7.
Along an interminable stretch of the 101 in Mendocino County, a road splinters off that passes a concrete supplier and meat market before arriving at a golden arched gate. On the other side is the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastic community created on the grounds of the decommissioned Mendocino State Hospital in the 1970s. The self-contained city includes 70 buildings, including a vegetarian restaurant, senior home, and true to its name, 10,000 sculptures of Buddha lining a prayer hall. After a visit, travel writer Silas Valentino described it as a “city that appears to have been dropped into the Northern California foothills from a faraway land.” SFGATE
Southern California
8.
Brian Williams, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, was placed on leave Wednesday after allegations that he made a bomb threat against City Hall earlier this year, officials said on Wednesday. Los Angeles police referred the matter to the FBI after determining Williams was “likely” behind the threat, a city spokesman said. FBI agents raided Williams’ home on Tuesday. City leaders appeared to be dumbstruck by the development. “If I had been asked to come up with a list of 100 people at City Hall who would have done this, he wouldn’t even have been on the list,” one official said. L.A. Times | KABC
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9.
The decision to approve a $16 million settlement in Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against ABC News was handed down by Bob Iger, the chief executive of parent company Disney, on the recommendation of Disney general counsel Horacio Gutierrez, several reports said on Wednesday. Disney was said to be worried in part about harm to its brand litigating against Trump, who sued after anchor George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump was found liable for rape. A jury found him liable for sexual abuse. The ABC News newsroom was said to be appalled that Disney folded. Wall Street Journal | Variety
10.
A Carlsbad man was detained on Wednesday in connection with the Monday shooting at a Christian school in Madison that left three people dead, including the 15-year-old shooter, Natalie Rupnow. Authorities said Alexander Paffendorf, 20, had been “plotting” with Rupnow about carrying out his own deadly attack against a government building. Paffendorf was ordered to surrender any firearms, but it was unclear if he remained in custody late Wednesday. USA Today | CBS 8
11.
Southern California’s Mt. Baldy has become embroiled in a public debate with echoes of the pandemic shutdown protests. After a wildfire, the U.S. Forest Service closed all trails leading to the summit to ensure the area’s recovery. But the trails and summit escaped the blaze largely unscathed. The Los Angeles Times reports:
“On one side are so-called trail Karens, who monitor online web cameras and question why the forest service isn’t ticketing ‘ignorant and selfish’ rule breakers who are hiking the mountain anyway. On the other side: scofflaws who condemn the forest service as another ‘useless’ government agency reflexively shutting things down in the name of ‘safety’ at the expense of freedom.” L.A. Times
12.
In Pasadena, removed from the glitzy museum collections of Los Angeles, there’s an oasis of art that for years has been, in the words of art critic Philip Kennicott, “the delight of connoisseurs.” The Norton Simon Museum houses the works of its namesake, an industrialist credited with assembling one of the country’s finest art collections, including works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Manet, and Monet among others. Critics have been gushing over the Norton Simon’s latest exhibit, on loan from Madrid: a full-length portrait of “Queen Mariana of Austria,” painted by the 17th-century Spanish genius Diego Velázquez. L.A. Times
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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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