Gavin Newsom sides with Elon Musk in rocket dispute // Dodgers vs. Yankees in World Series

Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 21.

Gavin Newsom sides with Elon Musk in rocket dispute.
Rick Singer plans get back into college admissions.
And Dodgers make a date with Yankees at World Series.

Statewide

1.

In California, prisoners do yard work, cook meals, and clean prison cells, among other jobs. But that work is not voluntary; refuse, and inmates face punishment, including losing any hope of parole. California lawmakers, following the lead of such states as Alabama and Tennessee, put a measure to ban forced labor in prisons on the November ballot with nearly unanimous votes. No group has organized a campaign to oppose it. But to the deep dismay of supporters, polling has shown that voters are leaning against it. CalMatters

2.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is siding with Elon Musk in his dispute with the California Coastal Commission after the panel’s members complained about the billionaire’s political rhetoric before voting to reject more SpaceX rocket launches off the Central Coast. Asked about the clash last Thursday, Newsom responded, “I’m with Elon. I didn’t like that.” Newsom said he is friends with members of the commission who criticized Musk, but added, “you can’t bring up that explicit level of politics.” Politico

As recently as 2017, Elon Musk’s relationship with California’s Democrats was so warm that he hosted a fundraiser for Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “Now he’s gone full anti-California,” Politico wrote.

3.

Vice President Kamala Harris has said she worked at a Bay Area McDonald’s as a college student 41 years ago, while former President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly accused her of inventing the story. To highlight his claim, Trump on Sunday went to a suburban Philadelphia McDonald’s, where he handed bags of food to supporters pretending to be customers. In a story published the same day, the New York Times quoted a friend of Harris’ who recalled the McDonald’s gig. “Birtherism, meet burgerism,” the paper wrote.

4.

Only 1,500 or so people live in Big Sur. The number of annual visitors: at least 4 million. The numbers reflect the drawing power of one of the most beautiful places anywhere, where mountains, redwood forest, and ocean combine to magical effect. But an unrelenting series of disasters over the past decade is forcing locals to confront a harsh truth about Highway 1, the main access carved into the region’s steep cliffsides. “There’s no escaping the fact that the coast is crumbling into the sea,” wrote the New York Times.

Northern California

5.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is fighting for her political life. (Jane Tyska/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

Oakland’s former mayor, Libby Schaaf, announced Friday that she is supporting the recall of her successor and fellow Democrat Mayor Sheng Thao. “Oakland can’t afford another two years of continued damage to our fiscal solvency and our public safety,” she told KQED. Thao, whose home was raided by the FBI on June 20 as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, has made it clear that she’s not going down without a fight. “I’m going beast mode for Oakland right now,” she recently told Politico. KQED | S.F. Chronicle

6.

Robin Moore, a 61-year-old former preschool teacher, volunteered for years with a homelessness charity in Sacramento. A few years ago, she felt God was giving her “an assignment,” she said. So she dipped into her family’s savings to buy four tiny homes and put them in her backyard. Other volunteers helped set up the utilities and donated furnishings, while the city signed off on the permits. The tiny home village has since sheltered 37 families. “Homelessness isn’t us or them, it’s just all of us,” Moore told the Sacramento Bee.

7.

Earlier this month, hackers attacked the Internet Archive, one of the few organizations dedicated to the enormous task of preserving our collective digital history. The nonprofit operates on a shoestring budget out of an old church in San Francisco. Founder Brewster Kahle said he is baffled about why anyone would target the free repository, seemingly without an agenda or ransom demand. “I don’t know,” he said. “Why kick the cat?” Washington Post

8.

The challenge: put a pumpkin on your head, climb atop a milk crate in the town square, and persevere. The last one standing wins $1,000. The 2024 Pumpkinhead challenge, hosted annually by a radio station in downtown Chico since 1996, drew nearly 20 competitors at 8 a.m. on Saturday. A little more than eight hours after they started, there was a shout of “We have a winner!” and Megan Davila, the toughest pumpkinhead of all, was mobbed by loved ones. There were cheers, hugs, and a well-deserved sit. KRCR

Southern California

9.

Rick Singer served 16 months in a federal prison camp. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald, via Getty Images)

Rick Singer, the ringleader of the sprawling Varsity Blues college admissions cheating scandal, is out of prison and preparing his next venture: another college counseling company. Singer has been finishing out his sentence since August at a halfway house in the Los Angeles area. “I am not living in the gray anymore. The gray is over. I was the all-time Mr. Gray,” said Singer, 64. “Now, I’ve made a concerted effort to live in black and white.” Wall Street Journal

10.

Mayor Karen Bass has touted her success cleaning up encampments around Los Angeles, including 741 people who have moved off the streets into a long-term residence. That progress depends on an army of meagerly compensated case managers like Freddy Bauer, 31, who quit a higher paying job at Starbucks a year ago to pursue what he saw as a more meaningful path. The New York Times wrote about the work of fighting homelessness that is incremental, difficult, and largely unseen.

11.

The gambler Archie Karas, who turned $10,000 into a great fortune and then lost it all, died on Sept. 7 in Los Angeles County at age 73. Born in Greece, Karas said he left home at age 15 and eventually made his way to Los Angeles, where he thrived as a pool hustler. In 1992, he went to Las Vegas and went on a tear that became known simply as “The Run,” amassing as much as $40 million. Then came the nosedive. “You’ve got to understand something,” Karas once told Cigar Aficionado. “Money means nothing to me.” Wall Street Journal | Poker News

“It was a rough living. I don’t recommend it to anybody.” See one of the last interviews with Karas. YouTube

12.

Manager Dave Roberts hoisted the NLCS trophy at Dodger Stadium on Sunday. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

The Dodgers are headed to the World Series after dispatching the New York Mets 10-5 at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night, clinching the National League pennant by four games to two. The boys in blue now face their legendary rivals, the Yankees, making it the first Los Angeles/New York World Series since 1981. But they are nemeses, columnist Bill Plaschke wrote, “that have haunted the Dodger franchise for more than a century.” Game 1, at home, arrives Friday. L.A. Times

In case you had any doubt about the popularity of the Dodgers, the lowest prices for home-game World Series tickets, already sold out, were more than $800. L.A. Times | NBC Los Angeles

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