Good morning. It’s Thursday, June 8.
- Report finds Instagram connects pedophile network.
- Racist emails torpedo nascent Los Angeles law firm.
- And the Los Angeles Times lays off 13% of its newsroom.
Statewide
1.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday defended his state’s decision to fly migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border to Sacramento. The Republican said California had “incentivized” illegal immigration with its adoption of sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local authorities and immigration agents. The border should be closed, DeSantis said: “But if there’s a policy to have an open border, then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones that have to bear that.” Newsom reiterated his threat to pursue criminal charges. Politico | Sacramento Bee
- Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today: “The easiest way to prove one’s tribal loyalty in 2020s America is by theatrically hating the other tribe.” N.Y. Times
2.
On California’s happy lakes:
- NASA released satellite images, above, showing the transformation of Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir, since November. As of Wednesday, it’s 98% full. NASA Earth Observatory
- Once-dead Tulare Lake is now sprawling across roads, farms, and homes in the southern San Joaquin Valley. See an animation of its growth since March. 👉 S.F. Chronicle
Northern California
3.
“‘If I hurt you, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘And that’s all I have to say.'”
Ruth Solorzano was 13 when her stepfather first raped her inside their apartment in Citrus Heights, a suburb of Sacramento. Over the next four years, the sexual abuse led her to get six abortions. Years passed. Solorzano left home, attended American River College, tried to move on. But the past kept calling. The S.F. Chronicle told the gut-wrenching story of how Solorzano brought her abuser to justice.
4.
Instagram helps connect a vast network of accounts that openly commission and sell underage-sex content, an investigative report found. The social media site owned by Meta enables people to search hashtags such as #pedowhore and #preteensex and connects them to accounts offering illicit sex material, researchers found. “Menus” include prices for videos of children harming themselves and imagery of the minors performing sex acts with animals. “Instagram doesn’t merely host these activities. Its algorithms promote them,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.
5.
Bay Area tech companies are stepping up efforts to entice their work forces back to the office after many employees grew accustomed to working from home during the pandemic. Over the last year, Google tried offering free food and other perks. But on Wednesday, it changed tack, warning that nonattendance could show up in performance reviews. Salesforce said it would donate $10 a day to local nonprofits every day workers report to an office. Washington Post
6.
Asians now comprise the largest racial group in the Bay Area after overtaking whites, according to newly released U.S. census data. Between 2010 and 2020, white residents fell from 40.3% of the six-county Bay Area’s total population to 32.9%. For Asians, the figure rose from 25.5% to 33.1%. Analysts attributed the shift in part to the tech sector’s recruitment of Chinese and Indian workers. Mercury News | SFist
Southern California
7.
Last month, two partners left their Los Angeles law firm to start a rival practice, taking more than 100 colleagues with them. They then embarked on a press campaign that included disparaging their former employer, Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith. Over the weekend, the firm responded by going nuclear, releasing a tranche of emails in which the former partners traded racist and sexist remarks. A judge was called “Sugar Tits.” “Fag” was deployed as all-purpose insult. Antisemitic tropes flowed freely. By Monday, their nascent company had collapsed. L.A. Times
8.
The southern San Andreas fault has gone more than 300 years without a major earthquake. That’s not good. It means the pent-up energy, when released, could be catastrophic to nearby cities. Scientists, writing in the journal Nature, now think they’ve figured out why the seismic drought has lasted so long: The drying of the Salton Sea reduced the pressure on the crust beneath it and, in effect, stabilized the southern section of the fault. N.Y. Times | Washington Post
9.
The Los Angeles Times informed its newsroom Wednesday that about 13% of the paper’s journalists would be let go, a total of 74 roles, in the first major layoffs since billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the Times in 2018. In an email to staff, Executive Editor Kevin Merida blamed the move on “persistent economic headwinds facing news media across the country.” Reed Johnson, a leader of the Times union, said the layoffs, which come a month after the paper won two Pulitzers, were “outrageous and reckless.” Poynter | A.P.
- “Brutal.” “Bewildered.” “Horrific.” “Devastating.” “Shocked.” “Awful.” Times journalists seethed on Twitter.
10.
Jay Johnston, an actor known for his work in “Arrested Development” and the animated sitcom “Bob’s Burgers,” was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday after being accused of fighting police during the U.S. Capitol riot. He faces charges including civil disorder, a felony. Johnston, who was known to associate with Proud Boy Gavin McInnes, first emerged as a suspect in the weeks after the riot when the FBI tweeted photos of him. Not long after that, he was ousted from his job on “Bob’s Burgers.” A.P. | Hollywood Reporter
11.
In California, the right of public access to the beach is etched in the constitution. But that hasn’t stopped oceanfront property owners from doing whatever they can to block paths between homes. At Escondido Beach in Malibu, that’s taken the form of fences, dumpsters, thick vegetation, and other shenanigans. On Wednesday, however, the public won a major victory as the Coastal Commission voted to approve a deal to restore a long-obscured public access point. Lisa Haage, a commission official, said such wins are so rare, it’s “like flying to the moon or something.” L.A. Times
California archive
12.
More than a century and a quarter before the word glamping earned an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016, a boisterous group of women were camping in style in the wildlands of California. Beginning in the 1880s, as John Muir was captivating the nation with his writings on the “inventions of God,” the Merry Tramps of Oakland set off for Mount Shasta, Yosemite, and the San Gabriels “in beautifully appointed Pullman cars with enormous suitcases, fine liquors, and comfortable bedding,” wrote Dan White his camping history “Under the Stars.” Thankfully, the Tramps included a talented photographer named Frank Rodolph among their ranks (men were also allowed) who took copious pictures. See some favorites from the Rodolph archive below.
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