Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 5.
- Bay Area police department offers $75,000 signing bonus.
- L.A. blasts classical music to drive homeless from subway.
- And a look back at the secret art of Dr. Seuss.
Statewide
1.
Enrollment in California public schools has continued to decline, data released Tuesday showed, dampening hopes of a rebound from two years of major declines during the pandemic. The number of students fell 0.69% during the school year that began in 2022, representing roughly 40,000 fewer children. That’s better than the 2.6% and 1.84% drops of 2020 and 2021, but still steeper than the declines in each of the five years prior to the pandemic. Private and charter school enrollment were both up. EdSource | L.A. Times
2.
The photographer Erin Schaff rode along with NOAA hydrologists on a five-hour flight over the Sierra. She captured fantastic photos and video as their twin turboprop navigated narrow valleys, hugging the ground at 500 feet to gauge the amount of water in the snow below. A scientist on board said she had never seen so much snow in 20 years of making the flights. N.Y. Times
3.
“Just doesn’t want to stop does it?”
Earlier forecasts had called for a return of spring-like warmth. But meteorologists said on Tuesday that models were now showing an increasing likelihood of below-average temperatures along with occasional storms, mainly in Northern California, over the next 10 days. That includes a possible atmospheric river. @RobMayeda | @NWSBayArea | @Weather_West
4.
Some homes worth daydreaming about in the California foothills, desert, and city:
- In 1975, the minimalist architect John Andre Gougeon designed a home for himself at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains with floor-to-ceiling walls of glass and a staircase, pictured above, that has been hailed as a piece of art. Yours for $4.5 million. Pasadena Now | Dirt
- Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sister Magda handpicked the over-the-top features at the Palm Springs midcentury home they occupied for more than 30 years. Covered in bright pink and mirrors, it’s been called a “palace of kitsch.” Price: $3.6 million. Architectural Digest | Dwell
- Rancho Estates, a few miles from the ocean in Long Beach, has become an architectural Mecca for fans of Cliff May, the father of the California ranch house. A specimen with high ceilings and a monochromatic interior just hit the market for 1.6 million. Dwell | Long Beach Post
Northern California
5.
Three UC Davis undergraduates were killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 99 in the Central Valley last Friday, the university said. CHP officials said the crash involved six vehicles: near midnight, a woman suspected to be drunk crashed her Honda Accord into the back of a U-Haul then pulled a U-turn and headed south in the northbound lanes. She collided head-on with the students’ car, killing herself and them. SFGATE | ABC10
6.
The Bay Area is getting the National Women’s Soccer League’s newest expansion team. The announcement followed a three-year campaign that drew supporters such as Brandi Chastain, Sheryl Sandberg, and Rick Welts, the former president of the Golden State Warriors. An investment group behind the venture put up $125 million, the largest single investment in women’s soccer to date. The team, whose name is pending, is expected to kick off in the spring of 2024 and play at San Jose’s PayPal Park. Santa Cruz Sentinel | ESPN
7.
A Bay Area police force just announced what may be the biggest signing bonus in the country: $75,000 for new officers. The incentive from the Alameda Police Department highlights the recruiting struggles of law enforcement agencies across the nation after the unrest of 2020 led to an exodus of disgruntled officers and a decline of new applicants. Critics called the bonuses excessive in a community with a median income of $61,380. CBS Bay Area | KRON
8.
Shasta County’s top elections official warned supervisors last week that a proposal to move to a hand-count voting system would invite more errors and require hiring 1,300 new workers, all of whom would have to fingerprinted and vetted by background checks. The board, in a 3-2 vote, forged ahead anyway. Supervisor Mary Rickert, who opposed the plan, said county leaders had fallen under the spell of the election denial movement. “We are being used as a guinea pig by these people,” she said. The Guardian
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9.
A wolf pack has killed more than 20 cows across Siskiyou County since September, the highest concentration of such attacks since wolves returned to California in 2011. In most states, wolves that attack livestock can be legally hunted, but they are fully protected in California. Instead, wildlife officials have embraced an elaborate strategy that has involved helicopter trappers, satellite monitoring, text alerts, and — when all else fails — payments to ranchers for their losses. SFGATE
Southern California
10.
More than 300 undercover Los Angeles police officers filed legal claims against the city and police department on Tuesday after their names and photographs were released and posted online. The LAPD released the material in response to a public records request but later called the disclosure inadvertent. Matthew McNicholas, an attorney representing the officers, said the leak had already led to threats against officers, forcing some to move. L.A. Times | A.P.
11.
Transit officials in Los Angeles are blaring classical music in a bid to drive homeless people out of the subway. The music, including works by Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Mozart, clocked in at an average of 83 decibels (the equivalent of gas-powered lawnmower) on a handheld decibel meter. Critics called the tactic inhuman, with one visitor likening the mood to Stanley Kubrick’s psychological horror film “A Clockwork Orange.” L.A. Times
Hear for yourself. 👉 @calwatch
12.
When he wasn’t creating some of the most popular children’s books of all time, Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, created otherworldly art for his own pleasure that he never exhibited in public. The works by Geisel, who lived and worked in San Diego, embraced softer tones and darker themes than his children’s books, but with the same wild imagination. Maria Popova published a delightful collection of Dr. Seuss’s “midnight paintings.” The Marginalian
See many more here. 👉 Drseussart.com
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