Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 26.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom warns of “forces of darkness.”
- Fresno police chief resigns after affair allegations.
- And America’s only Black touring rodeo plans Oakland stop.
Statewide
1.
On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a starkly partisan State of the State address that portrayed California as “the antidote to the poisonous populism of the right.” Rather than appear before the State Legislature, Newsom prerecorded a speech tailored to a national audience and posted it on social media. He likened the political moment to the rise of 1930s fascism. “We are presented with a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination,” he said. Politico | CalMatters
- Watch the speech. 👉 YouTube
- Columnist Emily Hoeven: “Californians didn’t elect Newsom to solve the country’s problems. They elected him to solve California’s problems.” S.F. Chronicle
2.
The Energy Department has estimated that the U.S. has enough geothermal energy contained in Earth’s hot interior to power the entire country. The trick is getting it. That quest took a leap forward Tuesday as Southern California Edison agreed to buy 320 megawatts of geothermal power from a company digging 125 wells in southwest Utah, in one of the largest such deal to date. “It’s a clear statement that advanced geothermal is real, and it’s spectacular,” wrote L.A. Times climate columnist Sammy Roth. Bloomberg | A.P.
3.
During the construction of General’s Highway through Sequoia National Park in the 1930s, engineers confronted a massive granite boulder astride the preferred route. Rather than remove it, they blasted away the earth beneath the boulder, creating an attraction that became known as Tunnel Rock. Nearly 90 years later, the rock remains aloft but the roadway has been shifted to avoid it. The park also added little pullout area so people can get out and test their nerves below the boulder. NPS.gov | Roadside America
Northern California
4.
Fresno’s police chief, Paco Balderrama, resigned on Tuesday following accusations that he had an affair with the wife of a police officer in his department. He will get no severance package, officials said. In a statement, Balderrama described called his three-year tenure as chief “the privilege of a lifetime,” while acknowledging that the time had come to step down. City leaders expressed a range of emotions: relief, sadness, disappointment, outrage. “It’s not that he had the affair; that’s bad enough,” said one councilmember. “It’s that it was an officer’s wife.” KFSN | Fresnoland
5.
For all its ambitious climate goals, California is still widening highways. A nearly half-billion-dollar effort is now underway to add toll lanes to the Yolo Causeway, a 17-mile stretch of I-80 between the college town of Davis and Sacramento that is notorious for its gridlock. Environmental groups have sued, arguing that the state failed to properly consider the harm of more cars and pollution along a sensitive wildlife corridor. There’s also another consideration, researchers say: Widening highways doesn’t fix traffic. L.A. Times
6.
While many counties may have occasionally addressed election integrity, Shasta County has pressed the issue in every Board of Supervisors meeting for nearly four years, CalMatters reported. Justin Grimmer, a Stanford political scientist who monitors election conspiracy theorists, said the fixation in Shasta County has few parallels. “Every minute you are spending working on a fake problem you are not working on a real one, and there are real problems in Shasta County,” he said. CalMatters
7.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s chief spokesperson, Francis Zamora, resigned abruptly late Monday, deepening the turmoil surrounding the mayor after the FBI raided her home last Thursday. Zamora did not give a reason for his departure, which came after Thao delivered a fiery speech portraying the investigation as politically motivated. “I thank my colleagues for their professionalism and dedication,” Zamora said. “It was an honor to serve the City of Oakland beside them.” KTVU | Mercury News
- Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has also found herself increasingly embattled. On Tuesday, the county prosecutors’ union voted “overwhelmingly” to support her recall. KQED
8.
A Yuba City nurse named Dee Arata was driving to work early Tuesday when a crop-dusting plane crashed into her pickup truck. Miraculously, both she and the pilot were unhurt. The aircraft entered her peripheral vision seconds before impact, said Arata, 41. “I knew it was a plane, and I said out loud, ‘Oh God, I’m going to get hit.'” After passersby helped extricate Arata from her mangled truck, she walked over and hugged the pilot, who apologized profusely. “I was like, ‘That’s why it’s an accident. Accidents happen,'” she recalled saying. KCRA
9.
America’s only Black touring rodeo will celebrate its 40th anniversary during a stop in Oakland in July. The history of Black cowboys has been largely overlooked, but historians estimate they accounted for as many as one in four riders in the old West cattle drives. The Bay Area photographer Gabriela Hasbun fell in love with the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo after attending an event in 2007. She’s made it the central project of her career to capture the joy, daring, and beauty of the rodeos ever since. See a collection of her photos. 👉 Huck magazine
Southern California
10.
Graffiti made a group of three unfinished Los Angeles towers nationally notorious. But the billion-dollar skyscrapers known as Oceanwide Plaza face a much bigger problem: They are essentially less than worthless, construction experts say. After the distressed Chinese owner froze work on the project in 2019, no other developer has stepped forward to revive it. “Believe me, somebody would have jumped forward with a viable plan if there really was one,” said developer Bill Witte, chief executive of Related California. L.A. Times
11.
Kern County Sheriff’s Office arrested the entire Bakersfield chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle club on Tuesday, the authorities said. The six men arrested, along with a seventh already in custody, face allegations of kidnapping, assault with a firearm, and first-degree robbery, among other counts, officials said. Earlier this month, a judge sentenced three Hells Angels to life in prison for murdering a fellow member of the biker club who they felt was “creating problems,” according to prosecutors. NBC News | L.A. Times
12.
Mayor Karen Bass, outraged by a violent protest outside a Los Angeles synagogue on Sunday, is urging the city explore a ban on masks worn by protesters. While she offered no specific proposal, Bass said she would seek clarity from the city attorney over “whether or not people should be masked, and establishing clear lines of demarcation between what is legal and what is not.” L.A.’s police chief said Tuesday that investigators were analyzing photos and video to identify those who committed crimes during Sunday’s melee. City News Service | L.A. Times
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