Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 3.
- Rep. Matt Gaetz takes his shot at Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
- Stanford professor criticizes state’s “math misadventure.”
- And Tejal Rao’s 25 favorite restaurants in Los Angeles.
Statewide
1.
After months of warnings, Rep. Matt Gaetz finally made his move against Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday. The conservative congressman from Florida rose as the House was almost done for the day to file a motion to oust McCarthy from his leadership post, a maneuver only attempted twice — in 1910 and 2015 — and never successfully. That started a process that forces the chamber to decide McCarthy’s fate within 48 hours. “Bring it on,” McCarthy wrote on social media moments later. “Just did,” Gaetz responded. Washington Post | N.Y. Times
2.
California’s new math education framework makes speculative claims based on thin research; embraces trendy buzzwords and false promises of greater equity; and ultimately steers students away from the sort of math competency required for careers in quantitative fields. That’s according to a scathing commentary from Brian Conrad, the director of undergraduate studies in math at Stanford, who read every word of the 1,000-page document. “Sometimes, as I pored over the CMF, I could scarcely believe what I was reading,” he wrote. The Atlantic
3.
Political commentators criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of the appointment of California’s new senator, Laphonza Butler.
- Mark Z. Barabak said Newsom was right to promise an interim appointment who would step aside once voters make their choice. Then he buckled, betraying one of his worst flaws: “a reactive, short-sighted impulse to act in the moment with little heed for longer-term consequences.” L.A. Times
- Emily Hoeven accused the governor of “patronizing box-checking.” His bumbling response, she wrote, “should serve as a cautionary tale for those who see him as the vanguard of the Democratic Party and as a presidential contender.” S.F. Chronicle
4.
California has been losing population for years, with the number of residents leaving surpassing those moving in by nearly 700,000 between 2020 and 2022. Yet a recent Dallas Fed study tells another story: It ranked California fourth among U.S. states in “stickiness,” a measure of the share of people born in each state who still live there. In California, that share is 73%. In low-stickiness states, including North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alaska — the figure is lower than 50%. Analysts said economic opportunity and weather played crucial roles. Axios | O.C. Register
5.
A pair of dispatches on inspiring young Californians:
- Carlos Alfonso Perez, a third generation farmworker, is midway through a master’s program at Sacramento State — and he’s still working in the fields. “We have this saying in Spanish,” he said. “Tener los pies bajo la tierra, having our feet in the dirt, so we remember where we came from.” Sacramento Bee
- Lizbeth Sanchez Olivera was 3 when her parents carried her across the border by foot from Mexico. Now 34, she is a first-year Ph.D. candidate in biomedical and translational research at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. When she told her mother she would be eligible for aid under DACA, they both cried. ABC News
Northern California
6.
Two children drowned after falling into a swimming pool at a residential daycare center in San Jose Monday morning, authorities said. A third child, who also fell in the pool, was expected to survive, they said. Details were scarce on how the tragedy unfolded at the Happy Happy Home Daycare facility. Investigators were examining whether a crime was committed, reports said. Mercury News | KRON
- NBC Bay Area got a drone view of the pool. Kids’ play structures can be seen nearby.
7.
More than 20 years before Silicon Valley heavyweights offered rosy visions of building a new city in Solano County, another suburb was started from scratch 50 miles east of San Francisco. It’s called Mountain House, and when it was first proposed, developers offered assurances that it would blossom into a self-contained place with housing and jobs in holistic harmony. They succeeded in some ways, wrote urban design critic John King. “But jobs are scarce. … the promised town center remains bare land, and a supermarket didn’t open until last year.” S.F. Chronicle
8.
Beverly Willis, a prolific architect who created several destination buildings in San Francisco, died at 95 on Sunday at her home in Branford, Conn. Willis won acclaim for her 1965 conversion of three Victorian homes into a retail and restaurant complex, an early example of what’s now known as adaptive reuse. In 1983, she completed her most recognizable project: the San Francisco Ballet Building, pictured above, known for its elegant proportions and curved glass. As one of the few prominent women in her field, Willis later made it her mission to advocate for the representation of women in architecture. N.Y. Times
9.
☝️ Here’s what it’s like to drive up to Mount Shasta.
The jewel of the southern Cascades is shorter than dozens of American mountains. But when ranked by prominence, a measure of how high a peak rises relative to the surrounding landscape, Shasta is the third tallest in the Lower 48, behind only Mounts Whitney and Rainier. That makes the approach on Highway 97, pictured above, an experience all by itself. The photographer Ryan Thompson got a great drone view. 👉 @rynotime
- Discover Siskiyou suggested a road trip that circumnavigates Shasta.
Southern California
10.
About 20 minutes before a 68-year-old homeless woman was shot while sleeping in a tent in San Diego, the accused attacker, 18-year-old William Innes, sent a text message: “I’m going hobo hunting with a pellet gun.” One of the pellets, which were metal, nicked one of Annette Pershal’s major arteries. She died three days later. Reporter David Hernandez wrote a profile of Pershal, a woman who raised two daughters, embraced a hippie spirit, and was known to people in the neighborhood as “Granny Annie.” S.D. Union-Tribune
11.
Claremont McKenna College announced that it had raised more than $1 billion during a fundraising campaign that began in 2015 and concluded this summer, one of the largest hauls ever among the nation’s liberal arts institutions. The college in Claremont, which educates about 1,300 students on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, plans to double the size of its campus. In its 2024 best colleges report, the Wall Street Journal ranked Claremont McKenna No. 2 in the West, behind only Stanford. L.A. Times
12.
Perfectly made pastas, Thai-inspired tacos, meticulously calibrated French dishes, and “a roaring, pleasure-driven powerhouse of North African and Middle Eastern cooking.”
Tejal Rao, a James Beard award-winning food critic who has been based in California since 2018, shared her 25 favorite restaurants in Los Angeles. N.Y. Times
Correction
An earlier version of this newsletter misspelled the name of a mountain in Washington state. It’s Mount Rainier, not Mount Ranier.
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