Good morning. It’s Monday, Aug. 22.
- California poll shows path to presidency for Gavin Newsom.
- The plight of Humboldt County’s legal marijuana growers.
- And divers say they found missing Truckee teen’s body.
Statewide
1.
A new UC Berkeley poll found that just 3 in 10 California voters want President Joe Biden to run again for office in 2024. Nor is there any clamor for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is widely considered to be Biden’s chosen successor to lead the party. More California Democrats prefer Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sen. Bernie Sanders for president over Harris. Politico | L.A. Times
2.
The Washington Post on the plight of Humboldt County’s legal marijuana growers: “The once-mystical heart of the nation’s marijuana industry is dying, fast, strangled not by law enforcement but by the high taxes and baffling regulation that have crushed small farmers since state voters approved legalization almost six years ago.”
3.
“A healing that is long overdue.”
Beginning in the 1880s, boulders were blasted from the Central Coast’s Morro Rock to create a breakwater 15 miles away, a desecration in the eyes of Native Americans who consider the volcanic plug sacred. Now the boulders are being returned. Several dozen people gathered Saturday to celebrate a U.S. Corps of Engineers plan to return some 10,000 tons of the quarried rock to a patch of the Pacific just west of Morro Rock. It’s expected to take weeks. The Tribune
4.
“I am not here to tell people what it all means. You can figure it out for yourself.”
The artist Michael Heizer is known for his monumental artworks, such as the 340-ton chunk of granite he parked outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Heizer, born and raised in Berkeley, has now unveiled his magnum opus: an astonishing megasculpture of dirt mounds, buttes, and other forms that evoke an ancient city in the high Nevada desert — 50 years in the making. Critics are calling it a masterpiece. N.Y. Times
Northern California
5.
When Mark, a stay-at-home dad in San Francisco, noticed that his toddler’s penis was swollen he took photos so he could track its progression. The family sent the images to a doctor, who prescribed antibiotics, which quickly cleared up the problem. But Mark’s problems were just beginning. Google flagged him for abusive images of children, disabled his account, and got the police involved. The company has stood by its decision. N.Y. Times
6.
After a sprawling two-week search effort, volunteer divers found a body they believed to be that of the missing 16-year-old girl Kiely Rodni. The body was found in a vehicle submerged upside down in a reservoir about 5 miles north of Truckee, near where Rodni was last seen. The teenager vanished on Aug. 6 after going to a party attended by hundreds of young people at a campground in Truckee, prompting fears of a possible abduction. KCRA | S.F. Chronicle
7.
“We’ll be sleeping on the freeway. We’ll have no other choice.”
After a deadly fire at a trailer park in Fresno last year, a judge appointed a receiver to bring the area up to code. Residents are now bracing for what comes next: the potential sale of one of Fresno’s few affordable communities to a corporate landlord with a history of imposing steep rent increases. Here’s a nicely done short film on the battle over Trails End. 👉 Vice (~16 mins)
Southern California
8.
In 2017, USC banned the fall fraternity “rush” for first-year students, citing reports of hazing. Yet a large crowd of freshmen showed up for the recruitment event on Friday as eight rogue fraternities defied the ban. The move by the Greek organizations followed a decision earlier this month to disaffiliate from USC in a mutiny against what they said were unfairly punitive party rules. L.A. Times
9.
Dan Price, the Seattle CEO who became a champion for living wages, was investigated for a suspected rape in Palm Springs last year and prosecutors are considering charges. Price resigned as CEO of his company, Gravity Payments, last Wednesday as the N.Y. Times prepared to publish accusations from more than a dozen women about predatory encounters with Price, including the Palm Springs case. Police recommended that he be charged with rape of a drugged victim. Desert Sun | N.Y. Times
10.
On summer days, dark asphalt soaks up the sun, taking the form of a secondary heater under our feet. So the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacoima is turning the pavement a different color. Crews are painting roughly 1 million square feet of roads, playgrounds, and parking lots in light shades of gray. Research has shown that the temperature of the lighter surface drops by about 10 degrees. Fast Company | Bloomberg
11.
Six Flags Magic Mountain is planning to raise ticket prices, upgrade its food, and eliminate promotional deals. The goal: to discourage teenagers from coming to the park. In an August earnings report, the Six Flags Chief Executive Selim Bassoul said the amusement parks had become “a cheap day-care center for teenagers.” It’s a problem also cited by Knott’s Berry Farm, which adopted a chaperone policy after brawls among teenagers at the park in July. L.A. Times
California the beautiful
12.
San Diego’s downtown library is stunning.
In a city with relatively few civic buildings, San Diego’s donor class rallied behind a vision for a library that would rival those of other world-class cities. The result, opened in 2013, was an ultramodern structure that aimed to be at once stately and laid back. It has a three-story brutalist atrium, a glass-enclosed eighth floor reading room with views of San Diego Bay, and a signature dome designed to look intentionally incomplete, a metaphor for learning. A few pictures. 👇
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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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