Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 26.
- Disability rights groups challenge state’s aid-in-dying law.
- Yosemite Valley plans to close Friday as floods loom.
- And San Francisco repeals boycott of conservative states.
Statewide
1.
Four disability rights groups, including the influential United Spinal Association, sued on Tuesday to overturn California’s aid-in-dying law, which has allowed terminally ill people to take lethal medication since 2016. Plaintiffs said California’s approach harks back to eugenics, steering people with disabilities toward suicide. “It really does create two classes of people,” said Ingrid Tischer, a plaintiff. “One side gets [suicide] prevention, one side gets a [life-ending] prescription.” California Healthline
2.
Some Democrats are pressuring Gov. Gavin Newsom to do something about the Sen. Dianne Feinstein situation. “He’s in a dilemma, but my opinion is he’s got to help her step down because this is going to be a stain on her legacy,” said Susie Tompkins Buell, a donor who knows both Newsom and Feinstein well. “This is a critical moment. It’s not just ‘Time’s up.’ It’s ‘Your time is up, and we have to protect what we have left here.'” New York Magazine
3.
Dispatches from within the path of the Sierra snowmelt:
- “It’s going to be four months of holding our breath.” A reporter and photographer chronicled the anxiety in the farming town of Lemoore, which could be marooned by flooding along the north fork of the Kings River. A.P.
- Yosemite announced that much of the park would close for at least five days starting Friday as forecasts called for the Merced River, which flows through the valley, to rise above flood stage. Mercury News | S.F. Chronicle
Northern California
4.
San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to repeal the city’s boycott of 30 states with laws deemed hostile to LGBTQ rights, voting rights, or abortion access. Passed in 2016, the law was designed to put pressure on other states, but it only made city contracting more cumbersome. “What bothers me about 12X is that it’s really easy to symbolically act as if we’re doing something to move the needle,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, referring to the administrative code. “But in actuality, not only have we not moved that needle, things are getting worse.” SF Standard | S.F. Chronicle
5.
A federal judge tossed out a defamation lawsuit filed by former Central Valley congressman Devin Nunes over a 2018 Esquire Magazine article about how his family farm in Iowa relies on immigrants in the country illegally. U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the lawsuit suffered from a fatal flaw: the story was accurate. “The assertion that NuStar [Farms] knowingly used undocumented labor is substantially, objectively true,” Williams wrote. Politico | Courthouse News
6.
In 1996, a real-life Mr. Plumbean, the children’s book character who paints his house to resemble his dreams, built a home in the Berkeley hills in the shape of two giant, golden saxophones. The interior evokes a luxury cruise ship, including a swirling staircase, treble-clef railings, and a bedroom with a custom circular bed that takes up the entire third floor. Opinion on the Saxophone House, which just went on the market for $2 million, appeared to be mixed. SFGATE
7.
In 2014, the muralist Mona Caron began painting weeds on rooftops in San Francisco, where she lives. Before long, she was getting invited to add the botanical artworks to urban landscapes in Brazil, Sweden, Mumbai, and Taiwan. Caron’s “weeds” project now graces dozens of outdoor walls around around the world, but it’s concentrated mostly in the Bay Area. Colossal | MonaCaron.com
See a few murals below, a more here. 👉 @mona.caron
Southern California
8.
A Lancaster mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday for the torture and murder of 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, whose death exposed galling lapses in the child welfare system. Another child of Heather Barron, 33, spoke during the emotional sentencing hearing. “I am finally free from all the torture and abuse,” said 13-year-old Destiny. “If I would have known this would end with me losing a brother … I would do it all over again with just one difference: that it would be me, not Anthony.” L.A. Times | KABC
9.
In 2016, Christy Camara secured a restraining order that barred her estranged husband from possessing or buying a gun after he threatened to kill their young son and himself. Then one day in early 2020, he followed through on the threat using a Glock pistol he purchased from a nearby gun store in their Central Valley community of Hanford. Camara, paralyzed by grief, sent records requests seeking answers about where the system broke down. The California Department of Justice denied her requests. L.A. Times
10.
California’s higher education system once embraced a lofty idealism, pledging that any resident who worked hard enough would be guaranteed a first-rate university education. Yet this year, more than 10,000 low-income students are declining offers of admission to the University of California in part because of financial constraints. Among them is Jonathan Cornejo. The son of a single immigrant mother, he achieved a 4.0 GPA and won admission to UC San Diego, but he can’t afford it. He’s going to a community college instead. “I cried about it, I will not lie,” he said. L.A. Times
11.
In 2021, Culver City rolled out one of the most ambitious street redesigns in Southern California, removing car lanes in the heart of downtown and replacing them with bike and bus lanes. A year later, bus travel was faster, 18% more people were walking, and 32% more people were biking. Yet on Monday, the city’s new conservative majority voted to roll back the project, siding with business owners who complained about vehicle accessibility. LAist | Spectrum News
12.
Compared to the highest American summits, Southern California’s two tallest peaks, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, are pip-squeaks. But when ranked by topographical prominence, which measures height relative to surroundings, they rocket up to the top 10 in the Lower 48. Tackle the shortest route to the top of Gorgonio — a strenuous 8 miles past waterfalls and pine forests — and you can take in a line of sight that stretches an astounding 190 miles to Mount Whitney. Turn your gaze and you can see Nevada, the Mojave Desert, and the Channel Islands out at sea. Dyrt Magazine
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