“Insane.”

“Tragic.”

“Infuriating.”

UC Berkeley must accept at least 3,000 fewer students than planned for its fall class after the California Supreme Court on Thursday declined to pause a lower court order that froze enrollment. Welcoming the decision, the neighborhood group that brought the lawsuit said the university had made pawns of students as it increased enrollment despite a housing shortage. But the battle isn’t over yet: State lawmakers said they were exploring legislative options. Berkeleyside | EdSource

Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposal Thursday that would make it easier to force people with severe psychiatric disorders into treatment. Some mental health advocates have fought involuntary care on civil rights grounds, even as many troubled Californians pinball between jails, hospitals, and the streets. Newsom characterized such objections as a failure of compassion. “We could hold hands, have a candlelight vigil, talk about the way the world should be, or we could take some damn responsibility to implement our ideals,” he said, “and that’s what we’re doing differently here.” A.P. | S.F. Chronicle

One mother was so desperate to help her son that she considered trying to lure him into physically attacking her to trigger a mental health hold. L.A. Times

You’ve heard of California’s marquee John Muir and Pacific Crest trails. National Geographic is now asking whether a little-known route along the Central Coast could become the next great thru-hike — or a long-distance trail completed in a single go. The Condor Trail winds 400 miles from a lake near Santa Clarita to a terminus just south of Carmel. In 2015, a San Diegan named Brittany Nielsen became the first to walk it, a solo journey with views of towering peaks, dense redwood stands, and at one glorious moment, a single condor flying overhead.

In 2016, a Redding woman named Sherri Papini vanished while jogging, setting off a frantic search. She turned up 22 days later on the side of the interstate with bindings on her feet and a swollen nose, saying she had been abducted by two Spanish-speaking women. Investigators were baffled by the case. On Thursday, they finally named a suspect: Papini, who prosecutors now accuse of making the whole thing up. “In truth, Papini had been voluntarily staying with a former boyfriend in Costa Mesa and had harmed herself to support her false statements,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. Sacramento Bee | Record Searchlight

Two children were in intensive care on Thursday after a sport utility vehicle plowed into a day care center in Shasta County, sending 19 children and one employee to the hospital. The authorities said the driver of the SUV, which ended up completely inside the building, was cooperative and showed no sign of drug or alcohol impairment. It was unclear what led to the crash. Record Searchlight | Action News Now

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Frances Dinkelspiel, a founder of the news organization Berkeleyside. She talked about the crucial role local news sites play as an antidote to voter apathy and political corruption. Sadly, however, many California communities have none. “In an ideal world,” Dinkelspiel said, “local sites would sprout everywhere.”

With the rise of route-tracking apps over the last decade, GPS art has become a full-fledged hobby in the running world. But Lenny Maughan, a marathoner and artist in San Francisco, takes it to a new level. He’s regularly posted running route artwork to his Instagram feed since 2015. A few favorites. 👇

In a rare move, prosecutors on Wednesday charged a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy with voluntary manslaughter for the 2019 killing of an unarmed man. Ryan Twyman, 24, was sitting in a parked car when two deputies, Andrew Lyons and Christopher Muse, approached with guns drawn. Twyman backed up and the deputies responded by firing at least 34 rounds into the car, killing him. The criminal charges against Lyons were largely the result of surveillance footage that clearly captured the shooting. In a statement Thursday, the Twyman family’s lawyer said they were “surprised and overjoyed.” L.A. Times | CBSLA

In an analysis of where California home values rose the sharpest during the pandemic, San Bernardino County dominated the rankings. Of the top 10 ZIP codes with the biggest price jumps between January 2020 and January 2022, seven were in the high desert region northeast of Los Angeles. Landers, a tiny community near Joshua Tree National Park, took the top spot, with an 84% jump in home values. A typical residence now goes for about $295,000. S.F. Chronicle | Victorville Daily Press

Landers is home to the fabled Giant Rock, purported to be the largest free-standing boulder in the world. Atlas Obscura

As Los Angeles moves to end oil drilling within its borders, the New Yorker asked whether it’s merely NIMBYism:

“Despite California’s mild climate, it is, among the fifty states, the second-largest consumer of petroleum products. The vast majority of this oil comes from elsewhere, and the practices in those places have the same harmful consequences, locally and globally, as extraction in Los Angeles does.”

Los Angeles’ most extravagant mansion, known as “The One,” sold for just $126 million at a bankruptcy auction on Thursday, less than half its list price. That makes it the third most expensive home ever sold in Los Angeles. Even so, it was a dismal result for a property once predicted to become America’s priciest home. Spread over about 4 acres, it has 20 bedrooms, a 30-car garage, five swimming pools, and a bowling alley. L.A. Times | CNBC

Five items that got big views over the past week: