Most say Dianne Feinstein unfit to serve // Kitten killings feature in L.A. chefs' divorce

Good morning. It’s Friday, May 26.

Most Californians say Sen. Dianne Feinstein unfit for office.
Family of six lived in 100 square feet in San Francisco.
And kitten killings feature in Hollywood chefs’ divorce.

Please note: The newsletter will pause Monday and Tuesday. Have a happy Memorial Day and we’ll be back in your inbox Wednesday.

Statewide

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein was reelected with 54% of the vote in 2018. In a new poll by UC Berkeley researchers, 67% of California voters now say Feinstein, who will turn 90 soon, is unfit for office after a bout with shingles sidelined her for nearly three months. Just 20% of voters disagreed. Majorities said she should resign and that sexism had nothing to do with it. Feinstein has remained adamant about finishing her term. L.A. Times | Politico

“Get the orange man!” The Democrats vying to replace Feinstein are embracing the party’s shift to the left. Washington Post

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its weather prediction for summer, and it could be a hot one in California. The agency said warmer-than-normal temperatures were more likely than cooler temperatures across the state in June, July, and August, with even stronger chances of warm weather in the upper part of the state. The precipitation outlook is a toss-up. NOAA

How to read NOAA maps.
Meteorologists expect a strong return of an El Niño, when the eastern equatorial Pacific warms, in 2023. For California, that tilts the odds toward another unusually wet winter. S.F. Chronicle | L.A. Times

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California’s grid has buckled during heat waves in past years. But regulators said this week that the state is unlikely to run out of electricity this summer thanks to increased power storage and copious precipitation that helped restart dormant hydroelectric power plants. “I am relieved to say that we are in a much better position than what we were going into 2022,” said Siva Gunda, a California energy official. A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

Northern California

4.

The Yu family had very little space in one of the country’s costliest cities. (Yu family, via SF Standard)

After immigrating to the U.S. in 2014, Muyi Yu, her husband, and their four children settled into a 100-square-foot unit in San Francisco’s Chinatown. They slept across two bunk beds and the floor. A desk, shelf, and refrigerator occupied pretty much every other space. After nine years of living this way, the Yus just moved into a four-bedroom apartment thanks to long-delayed federal assistance. Yu said they’ve never been happier: “This is beyond my wildest dreams.” SF Standard

“I feel like … I am a failure as a mother.” See a video on how the Yus lived in a tiny room. 👉 YouTube/SF Standard

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In 2010, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to establish a college fund for its public school students, seeding low-income kindergartners’ accounts with $50. It may not seem like much. But the students now graduating high school have, on average, a balance of $1,422 — 28 times the original amount. “I mean, $50? It’s a small amount of money,” said City Treasurer Jose Cisneros. “But if it can get these kids thinking about their futures, that’s immense.” S.F. Chronicle

6.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman chats with Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of WIRED magazine and author of the new book “Excellent Advice For Living.” They talked about the maxim that “90% of everything is crap.” “It’s true, and probably true of this book!” Kelly joked. One secret to creating something great, he added, is having family and friends around you who can tell you when you’re doing it wrong.

Southern California

7.

The suspect in the stabbing of a Los Angeles bus driver. (Los Angeles Police Department)

A 17-old boy was arrested on Thursday in a brutal stabbing of a Los Angeles bus driver, whose injuries were described by police as “beyond life-threatening.” Investigators said the stabbing unfolded after the driver and boy stepped off the bus during an argument over an unpaid fare. The violence was certain to deepen anxiety surrounding the safety of public transit in Los Angeles after other recent attacks on Metro trains. Between February and March, 23 Metro bus drivers were assaulted on the job, according to transit officials. L.A. Times | KTLA

8.

Dave Philipps summarized a new Navy report on a SEAL training course at Naval Base Coronado:

“The notoriously grueling Navy SEAL selection course grew so tough in recent years that to attempt it became dangerous, even deadly. With little oversight, instructors pushed their classes to exhaustion. Students began dropping out in large numbers, or turning to illegal drugs to try to keep up. … And when the graduation rates plummeted, the commander in charge at the time blamed students, saying that the current generation was too soft.” N.Y. Times

9.

The sunshades seemed unlikely to block much sun. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Last Thursday, Los Angeles city officials held a press conference to unveil a new bus stop shade structure called “La Sombrita,” part of a “gender equity action plan” to address the needs of women. The sunshades, perforated and just 2 feet wide, immediately drew mockery and bewilderment. The outrage only intensified when the price tag got out: $10,000 per prototype. Slate | N.Y. Times

Columnist Carolina A. Miranda: The “Sombrita” controversy overlooks an important story about how transit fails women. L.A. Times

10.

“Liz thinks I killed the cat. And so what if I did?”

The married chefs Will Aghajanian and Liz Johnson won national acclaim for their Hollywood restaurant Horses. Now locked in a bitter divorce, they have traded disturbing allegations, notably involving the deaths of kittens. “It was like they’d get a kitten and then like two weeks later that kitten would die,” said a person who worked with the couple. “And then they adopted another kitten two weeks after that. And then that one died. And then after the third cat. We were kind of like, ‘Why are all the cats dying?'” Grub Street

11.

Charles Phoenix, a self-proclaimed “ambassador of Americana,” amassed a vast archive of family slides found at thrift stores, flea markets, and estate sales. “There’s a lot of specialness and magic from our culture in the mid-twentieth century era that’s gone unseen,” he once told BLEEP Magazine. His volume “Southern Californialand” is a nostalgic tour of the region from Santa Barbara to San Diego between the 1940s and 1960s, including the fantastic shot above of Jack in the Box in 1964. Vintage Everyday

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In case you missed it

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