Good morning. It’s Monday, Nov. 7.
- Gov. Gavin Newsom quietly fights state’s progressives.
- Another big storm system barrels into California.
- And Meta plans to begin large-scale layoffs this week.
Statewide
1.
While Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent much of the last year picking fights with red-state governors, back in Sacramento he has regularly clashed with progressives he thinks are pushing California too far left. During negotiations over a ballot proposition enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, Newsom pushed to specifically exclude abortions past the point of fetal viability. He failed. On other fronts — including labor, energy, and drug policy — his efforts to limit progressive goals were more successful. Wall Street Journal
2.
Tuesday is Election Day. Need to cram?
- Here are some general voter guides:
CALmatters | KQED | Official voter guide- Guides to local races:
San Diego | Orange County | Los Angeles | Bay Area | Central Valley | Sacramento | Shasta County | North Coast
- Guides to local races:
- Abortion, sports gambling, a new wealth tax. Here are quick summaries of the seven ballot propositions: CalMatters
- Endorsements by California newspapers:
S.D. Union-Tribune | O.C. Register | L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News | Sacramento Bee - Enter your address here to see what is on your ballot.
- Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find yours here.
- Missed the deadline to register? You can still vote conditionally.
3.
“Here it comes.”
Another big storm is now swirling into the western United States, where it is expected to deliver drenching rain across much of California and up to 4 feet of snow in the Sierra through Wednesday. The National Weather Service shared the satellite animation above late Sunday. The pink flashes are lightning. “The scope of the system is huge,” the service’s Hanford office said. Mercury News | Accuweather
4.
The rate of businesses leaving California more than doubled in 2021, according to a new analysis that warned the state may be risking its economic future. More than 150 companies moved their headquarters to other states in 2021, compared with 75 in 2020 and 46 in 2019, the report by Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution found. The authors blamed the exodus on regulations, taxes, and living costs. “Economics, plain and simple,” they wrote. SFGATE
Northern California
5.
Now it’s Meta’s turn. Days after Twitter shed half its staff, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Facebook parent is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week. The total number of fired employees is expected to be in the “many thousands.” Meta’s stock has fallen more than 70% this year as younger consumers have chosen TikTok over Facebook. Wall Street Journal | Reuters
6.
It’s been a wild few days at Twitter:
- In a tweet, Elon Musk blamed a “massive drop in revenue” on activists pressuring advertisers to flee Twitter. Lou Paskalis, a veteran advertising executive, responded that they care about “BRAND SAFETY/SUITABLITY” — and Musk blocked him. Semafor | Wall Street Journal
- Twitter suspended the accounts of Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, and others after they changed their names and pictures to match Elon Musk’s. Musk then announced a new policy: Anyone who impersonates a public figure without a “parody” label will be banished. Daily Beast | Hollywood Reporter
- These are the men running Elon Musk’s Twitter. 👉 Washington Post
7.
“A U.S. senator circulated the view that ‘none of us will ever know’ what really happened at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home. A senior Republican congressman referred to the attacker as a ‘nudist hippie male prostitute,’ baselessly asserting that the suspect had a personal relationship with Mr. Pelosi. Former President Donald J. Trump questioned whether the attack might have been staged. The world’s richest man helped amplify the stories.”
The New York Times chronicled how Republicans fed a misinformation loop about the Paul Pelosi attack.
● ●
NBC News retracted a story that fed conspiracy theories “like a match on a tinder-dry woodpile.” Washington Post
8.
Video cameras captured a streaking ball of light across the Northern California sky Friday night during the Taurids meteor shower, an annual event known for its brilliant nighttime displays. About the same time, the porch of Dustin Procita’s rural home in Nevada County burst into flames, killing his dog. “I heard a big bang,” he said. It will take some time to investigate the cause of the fire. But Procita and others believe it was the streaking fireball. KCRA
Southern California
9.
Aaron Carter, the singer who became a teen sensation in the early-2000s known for his hit “I Want Candy,” was found dead in a bathtub in his Lancaster home on Saturday, officials said. A cause of death was not disclosed. In 2019, Carter’s older brother Nick Carter, a member of the Backstreet Boys, filed a restraining order against Aaron, describing him as a danger. On Sunday, Nick said his heart was broken. He added: “Addiction and mental illness is the real villain here.” Aaron Carter was 34. N.Y. Times | Hollywood Reporter
10.
On Southern California’s Tuesday contests:
- “Now, I am the quote-unquote conservative, which is bizarre because I’ve been a liberal Democrat almost my whole life.” In West Hollywood, it’s a clash between gay pioneers and younger progressives. L.A. Times
- Yorba Linda had eight robberies last year and hasn’t had a homicide in eight years. Even so, concerns about crime are on voters’ minds in an election that will determine the balance of power in Congress. L.A. Times
- The race for Los Angeles mayor between Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso has narrowed to within the margin of error, a poll showed. It’s a striking turnaround from late summer when Bass held a 21-point lead. L.A. Times | Politico
11.
After decades of battles between real estate developers and conservationists, a gorgeous stretch of coast in Ventura County will become a nature preserve. The nonprofit Trust for Public Land announced that it purchased roughly 2 square miles of untrammeled coastline, known as Deer Creek Beach, for about $25 million with plans to add it to the Santa Monica Mountains recreation area. An environmentalist called it a win for humans and mountain lions. L.A. Times
California archive
12.
☝️ The jazz historian Ted Gioia called this the greatest photo of a saxophonist ever taken.
It shows Big Jay McNeely, the Watts-born tenor saxophonist, playing for an ecstatic crowd at Los Angeles’ Olympic Auditorium in 1951. It was a year earlier that McNeely, who died in 2018, first had the idea to amp up his performance for a listless audience in Clarksville, Tennessee. He got down on his knees, then laid on his back and kicked his feet in the air. Fans went wild. McNeely had introduced showmanship to jazz, a development historians credited with presaging the forthcoming rock ‘n’ roll craze. Some white nightclub owners viewed McNeely with suspicion, fearing that the hysterical teenagers in his audiences would start a riot. He was once arrested in San Diego for disturbing the peace. In 1958, a teenage guitarist saw McNeely play in Seattle and decided to copy his flamboyant moves. His name: Jimi Hendrix. KPCC | Washington Post | University Library of UCLA
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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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