In the rush to procure masks in the early days of pandemic, California awarded no-bid contracts worth $1.6 billion to three companies. Each one fell apart. As lawsuits now untangle what when wrong, court filings have revealed the unusual role played by California Controller Betty Yee, who pushed to secure a deal with an untested company founded by Republican political operatives. “Sweet mother of God,” a company leader wrote in an email after calculating their expected profit: $134 million. Then came a fraud warning. L.A. Times

California lawmakers advanced a bill on Thursday that would allow children as young as 12 to get vaccinated, including against the coronavirus, without parental consent. State Sen. Scott Wiener said teenagers should have the right to protect their own health. But the proposal is highly contentious. Dozens of opponents called into a committee hearing for well over an hour. A.P.

In the early 1970, Doug Biggert hosted a radio show twice a week in the Sierra foothills, commuting to the station from his home in San Francisco. He’d pick up hitchhikers for company and ask to take their portraits. This went on for nearly three decades. Biggert’s collection of photos, now curated in a book and gallery show, stands as a visual document of the teens, tourists, and vagabonds of a bygone California. Juxtapoz Magazine published 29 of his pictures.

Bobbi Loeb, 81, recently sold the Point Reyes home where she raised two children to a land trust for half of its $1 million value. Under the deal, Loeb, a retired preschool teacher, will live the rest of her days in the home, after which it will be converted into permanent affordable housing. “This is my community,” said Loeb. “I want to do what I can.” S.F. Chronicle

In a sign of how dire California’s housing crisis has become, a startup in Palo Alto is offering cocoon-like sleeping spaces to squeeze 14 renters into a single-family house. Brownstone Shared Housing offers the “sleeping pods” in a midcentury home for $800 a month, mostly to young people who work at nearby tech companies. The median rent for a one-bedroom in the area: $3,250, up 26% from a year ago. Palo Alto Online

Scientists piloting deep-sea rovers in the Monterey Bay shared new video of two fantastical creatures in recent weeks.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Lettie Teague, a longtime Wall Street Journal wine columnist. In a recent column, she lamented the growing opulence of Napa Valley, where the newest hotel offers a base rate of nearly $1,300 a night. “I can’t help feeling that the region’s main crop is cash, not grapes,” she wrote.

“The lion king of Los Angeles.”

In 2012, an idealistic 29-year-old wildlife biologist named Miguel Ordeñana was reviewing trail camera footage from Los Angeles’ Griffith Park when he saw something extraordinary: a muscular 120-pound cougar. The discovery would make P-22 a celebrity and alter Ordeñana’s life. Here’s a great profile of the Los Angeles-raised Latino scientist who discovered that a young mountain lion had taken up residence in the city’s largest urban park. 👉 High Country News

A San Fernando Valley socialite must stand trial for murder after she fatally struck two brothers, ages 11 and 9, as they walked in a Westlake Village crosswalk in 2020, a judge decided on Thursday. Officials say Rebecca Grossman was traveling more than 70 mph in a 45-mph zone and continued driving after hitting the children. A waitress said she served Grossman margaritas in the hours before the collision. “The defendant acted with deliberate conscious disregard for life,” Judge Shellie Samuels said. L.A. Times | The Acorn

The boys, Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob, 8. 👇

Prosecutors on Thursday declined to file a felony assault charge against Isaiah Lee, the man who tackled Dave Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl, noting that the knife in his possession was retracted. Lee will instead face four separate misdemeanors. Investigators disclosed no new information on a possible motive. Lee has acknowledged that he was intoxicated, and his brother alluded to past psychiatric issues. L.A. Times | A.P.

Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, one of California’s most important homes, just sold for $13 million, a local record. Built in 1946, the midcentury gem became a symbol of desert living, immortalized in the iconic photograph “Poolside Gossip,” which depicted glamorous women lounging by the home’s swimming pool. The buyer was described as “a European businessman” who is passionate about modernist architecture. Architectural Digest

See 10 photos of the restored home. 👉 Dwell

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