Good morning. It’s Friday, May 19.
- Reports of intrigue in Dianne Feinstein’s inner circle.
- Eureka aims to remake itself as a major wind-energy hub.
- And Disney pulls plug on $1 billion campus in Florida.
Statewide
1.
The University of California regents agreed unanimously on Thursday to find a way to offer employment to students who are in the country illegally. Allowing campuses to hire such workers could reshape the lives of thousands of young people, many of whom have faced precarious lives after being brought to the country as children. The university system would be the first to openly skirt a 1986 federal law that bars the hiring of unauthorized immigrants. Critics said the move would invite lawsuits and jeopardize federal funding. L.A. Times | EdSource
2.
The eldest daughter of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Corinne Prowda, has been a regular presence by Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s side since the ailing senator returned to Washington last week. Reports Thursday highlighted “uncomfortable questions” about the Pelosi family’s role in caring for Feinstein. If she retires early, many believe Gov. Gavin Newsom will name Rep. Barbara Lee as her replacement. But Pelosi, a family confidant said, wants Feinstein to finish her term so the speaker’s protégé, Rep. Adam Schiff, has a chance to win her seat. Politico | S.F. Chronicle
3.
It wasn’t just a simple case of shingles.
During her more than two months away from Congress, Feinstein contracted encephalitis and developed Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a complication of shingles that causes facial paralysis and vision impairment. Doctors said encephalitis, characterized by swelling of the brain, can cause memory loss, which was already as issue for Feinstein, 89. To people at the Capitol, the N.Y. Times wrote, “she was far from ready to return to work when she did, and she is now struggling to function” in her job.
4.
Ross Douthat argued that marijuana legalization is a big mistake:
“Eventually the culture will recognize that under the banner of personal choice, we’re running a general experiment in exploitation — addicting our more vulnerable neighbors to myriad pleasant-seeming vices, handing our children over to the social media dopamine machine and spreading degradation wherever casinos spring up and weed shops flourish.” N.Y. Times
- Nick Gillespie, a libertarian writer, said Douthat missed the point: Legalization was about keeping people out of prison, reducing black-market violence, and treating adults as adults. @nickgillespie
5.
When pioneers seeking a shortcut to California’s gold fields became trapped in a harsh desert, they called it Death Valley. The Timbisha Shoshone people, who had thrived there for thousands of years, were irritated by the name. Where the white people saw danger and desolation, the Timbisha drifted with the seasons and knew where to find water, edible plants, and bighorn sheep. They used a willowlike shrub known as arrowweed to make granaries and arrow shafts. Early park promoters thought it looked like bundled corn left to dry at harvest time. They gave a picturesque field of arrowweed another name that likely bothered the Timbisha: the Devil’s Cornfield, pictured above.
Northern California
6.
“This is where the future of offshore wind is going to be.”
Eureka, once California’s “timber capital,” is reinventing itself as a major wind-energy hub. The city of roughly 26,000 people is ideally suited to become an assembly port for the massive turbines set to be placed off the North Coast after the federal government auctioned off leases in the Pacific last December. Eureka’s port has a deep navigation channel, no bridges to hinder transport, and hundreds of acres of vacant industrial land once used by lumber companies along the shore. Courthouse News
7.
Bruce Miller, a former fullback for the San Francisco 49ers, appeared to threaten the life of Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Bay Area Democrat. In a private Twitter message made public by Swalwell on Wednesday, the user @BruceMillerIII wrote: “Almost time!!! Would you rather Guantanamo or just execution (laughing emojis) fuckin traitor.” Miller, who has a history of arrests in violent incidents, did not respond to queries from reporters. Swalwell notified U.S. Capitol Police. Mercury News | SFGATE
8.
“The city lays itself out beneath us.”
The Salesforce Tower seems to get all the attention as San Francisco’s tallest building. But measured by height above sea level, Sutro Tower soars well above any other structure. A platform near the top of the broadcast tower, at an elevation of 1,595 feet, offers the city’s grandest view. A group of KQED reporters once got the chance to see it. 👉 Vimeo
Southern California
9.
“This major issue has sneaked up on us.”
Over a span of more than a century, oil and gas companies drilled nearly a quarter-million wells in Los Angeles, Kern County, and across the state. A first-of-its-kind study has now estimated what it would cost to clean up many of the sites: up to $21.5 billion. That’s about triple the industry’s projected profits over the remaining course of operations. Taxpayers are expected to have to cover much of the difference. ProPublica
10.
In 2021, when Disney unveiled plans to build a $1 billion corporate campus in Orlando, an executive cited the state’s “business-friendly climate.” Then a feud erupted between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the corporation over controversial legislation. On Thursday, Disney told employees it was scrapping the campus project, attributing the move to “changing business conditions.” Analysts said the timing, a week before DeSantis’s expected jump into the 2024 presidential race, was likely no accident. Wall Street Journal | CNN
11.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman catches up with Richard Rushfield, a longtime Hollywood journalist and founder of The Ankler. He talked about how the Hollywood writing profession came unglued during the streaming wars. Being a writer was never easy, he said. But there used to be a sense that once you established yourself, you could have a stable career. “There’s very little of that except for the people at the very top right now,” he said.
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Jamarcus Purley, a staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, was fired last year after he raised alarms about what he said was the senator’s dementia. In a form of protest, he filmed himself smoking a joint in her office. The press barely noticed. Politico Magazine
- In October 2019, a 19-year-old from Newport Beach disappeared while boating with college friends on a Texas lake. It took years to unravel what happened after his friends hatched a plan to hide the truth from authorities. O.C. Register
- The photographer Linnea Bullion said the secret may be out about the beauty of the Carrizo Plain National Monument. “But the park is huge,” she wrote. “There are more people, but they still only just pepper the landscape in their sun hats.” Field Magazine
- After a 2016 storm destroyed the bluff beneath a neighborhood in Half Moon Bay, residents rushed to reinforce it with a rock wall. But the Coast Commission rejected the proposal, sending what seemed like a message: The homes’ days are numbered. Grist
- In 2022, California added homes at a faster clip than any time since the Great Recession. Over the same period, the state’s population fell. Crunch those numbers and a startling fact emerges: There are now more homes per person in California than in any year since 1991. CalMatters
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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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