Good morning. It’s Monday, July 8.
- Heat is said to kill motorcyclist in Death Valley.
- Daredevil skateboarders outwit San Francisco police.
- And a hoarder creates nightmare for neighbors.
Statewide
1.
A motorcyclist died of suspected heat exposure in Death Valley on Saturday, a day when the temperature reached 128 degrees, rangers said. The rider was part of a group of six motorcyclists, another of whom was hospitalized with “severe heat illness,” officials said. “While this is a very exciting time to experience potential world record-setting temperatures in Death Valley, we encourage visitors to choose their activities carefully,” park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times
- At least two all-time heat records fell in California in recent days, as Palm Springs hit 124 degrees on Friday and Redding topped out at 119 on Saturday. Forecasters said the heat would linger through this week. @edwardsanthonyb | NWS
2.
Three wildfires were threatening communities across California over the weekend: one spread across more than 3 square miles near the community of Etna in Northern California’s Klamath Mountains; another sparked by a campfire was burning within 10 miles of Truckee near the Tahoe Basin; and a third ballooned into a massive inferno in rugged terrain near Los Olivos along the Central Coast, blackening nearly 30 square miles. KDRV | KCRA | Noozhawk
- See a live wildfire map.
3.
Dispatches from President Biden’s post-debate crisis:
- Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic Senate candidate, said on Sunday that Biden had failed to quiet concerns over his ability to defeat Trump. Schiff said the president needs to solicit advice from people beyond his inner circle: “He should seek out people with some distance and objectivity.” Politico | S.F. Chronicle
- More Democrats are publicly suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris as the only viable replacement should Biden bow out of the race. In a recent poll, she fared better than Biden in a hypothetical contest against Donald Trump — but she still lost. Wall Street Journal | N.Y. Times
4.
Most Californians, according to an informal poll, think that tacking on opaque service charges at restaurants should be banned. Yet after being lobbied by a powerful political action committee, state lawmakers voted unanimously to let restaurants continue the practice even as they prohibited it for other industries. “The public can and should feel insulted by the fact that lawmakers think they deserve to be led to believe the cost of goods is lower than it is,” wrote the columnist Soleil Ho. S.F. Chronicle
5.
In the 2023 popularity rankings for America’s 63 national parks, California was represented twice in the top 10, with Yosemite and Joshua Tree both drawing more than 3 million visitors. But a new analysis that sought to reward the “best” national parks, using data on factors such as hiking quality and availability of campsites, produced a very different ranking. This time, California fared even better, scoring three spots in the top 10: Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (No. 3), Lassen Volcanic National Park (No. 6), and Death Valley National Park (No. 8). Wall Street Journal
Northern California
6.
San Francisco police got out ahead of this year’s Dolores Park hill bomb, an annual word-of-mouth bacchanalia during which helmetless skateboarders rocket down a steep hill lined by cheering spectators. On Saturday, they deployed dozens of officers and placed barricades across the route. So the skaters shifted to the other side of the park, from Dolores Street to Church Street. As paramedics rolled one injured skater away on a stretcher, the crowd roared. “You can never stop a skater’s pride,” said Mark Urbieta after what he said was his “fourth or fifth time.” SF Standard | KQED
- See video highlights. 👉 @sfstandard | @SFGATE
7.
People are surfing the wakes of container ships in San Francisco Bay. Known as wingfoilers, the wave riders use an underwater hydrofoil that lifts them above the water’s surface as they clutch a “wing” for added propulsion. Risk-takers are increasingly hunting for tanker wakes that cut the choppy waters of the bay, a practice that critics say is going to get someone killed. Ship captains have started using a nickname for wingfoilers: “splats,” like bugs on a windshield. Mercury News
8.
In Chinatown, a neighborhood nearly as old as San Francisco itself, gleaming high-rises crowd around the corridor of exotic-looking buildings decorated with pagodas and curved roofs. Walking around the neighborhood, the photographer Sabino Rodriguez spotted an opportunity for a mind-bending composition, lining up a spire along the edge of a monochromatic skyscraper. The photo, above, was a hit on social media.
- The Google Street View photo is pretty impressive too.
Southern California
9.
Landslide activity on L.A. County’s Palos Verdes peninsula is so severe that some areas are shifting more than a foot per week, causing homes to buckle. It’s also had another unforeseen outcome: a new beach. The land movement has caused the seafloor to bulge upward some 10 feet, creating a new shoreline stretching about 250 feet farther out to sea. Denny Jaconi, a surfer, said the rocky shoreline didn’t exist a few months ago. “There’s three or four of us that have been surfing down here our whole lives, and we’re just blown away,” he said. L.A. Times
10.
A hoarder in the San Fernando Valley transformed 6 acres of green space into an unlicensed dump filled with more than a hundred rusting vehicles, mounds of trash, hypodermic needles, human excrement, and more. It’s been a nightmare for neighbors. Yet even after years of complaints, the local government has failed to address it. A Superior Court commissioner called it “mind-boggling.” “I can’t understand,” he said, “why the city doesn’t intervene.” L.A. Times
- See a satellite view of the problem property on Google Maps.
11.
Kevin Bacon, a household name since the 1980s, revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that he commissioned a prosthetics specialist to make him a disguise so he could see what it’s like to be an ordinary person. He hated it. Walking around an outdoor mall in Los Angeles, “nobody recognized me,” he said. “People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, ‘This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.’” Variety | CNN
12.
In the wild, desert plants grow sparsely, keeping their distance from one another to access limited moisture. At The Huntington in San Marino, more than 2,000 species of agave, cacti, aloe, and other prickly things spill all over each other, creating the appearance of a thick, Seussian forest. The curling walkway through the 10-acre Desert Garden is a visitor favorite at The Huntington, a place that has been called the “grand dame of Southern California botanic gardens.” Membership, priced at $175 a year per household, pays for itself in three visits.
- The photographer Thomas Hawk captured the kaleidoscopic beauty of The Huntington. 👉 Flickr
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the location of a Northern California wildfire. The Royal fire was burning near the Tahoe Basin, not within the Tahoe Basin.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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