Good morning. It’s Wednesday, April 2.
- State lawmakers reject transgender athlete ban.
- Trump ally is named top federal prosecutor in L.A.
- And homegrown actor Val Kilmer dies at 65.
Statewide
1.
Democratic state lawmakers on Tuesday rejected a pair of bills that would have barred transgender girls from female sports in schools. During an unusual debate, Republicans repeatedly invoked Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent remarks challenging the fairness of transgender athletes competing against those born as girls. “For the first time ever, Gavin Newsom and I agree,” said Karen England, the leader of a conservative group. The governor’s fellow Democrats pointedly avoided uttering his name. N.Y. Times | A.P.
- In a new interview, Newsom said some of his “most loyal friends” were reevaluating their support for him over the trans issue. The experience gave him a deeper understanding of “how judgmental” his party is, he said. L.A. Times
2.
As President Trump readies sweeping tariffs across the globe this week, some California farmers — traditionally a key block of his support — are complaining about being treated as collateral damage in his trade wars. They recalled how Trump’s 2018 trade war with China cost farms billions. “Other countries recognize the value of agriculture, and I sometimes I wish our own government would see that same value,” said Natalie Collins, a wine-grape industry spokeswoman. Fresno Bee
- The Trump administration is said to be considering emergency aid for farmers, who are likely to become targets if trading partners retaliate. N.Y. Times
3.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack just had its most bountiful three-year period in 25 years. According to measurement data collected on April 1, when snow levels traditionally peak, the snowpack was 96% of its historical average. That came after two straight years of larger than average snowpacks, which provide about a third of California’s water supply. Jay Lund, a water expert at UC Davis, noted that the state was also spared major flooding. “It’s been a near-Goldilocks amount,” he said. “Just right.” Santa Cruz Sentinel | KQED
4.
Myanmar’s deadly 7.7-magnitude earthquake last Friday killed more than 2,000 people and could result in economic losses of roughly $67 billion. Experts say the circumstances that precipitated the disaster share much in common with those along San Andreas Fault, which many say is overdue for a major earthquake. “It’s very, very similar in almost every way,” said Eric Lindsey, a geophysicist. “This is certainly an example of what can happen and what certainly will happen at some point.” Washington Post
5.
Spring wildflower prognosticators have warned Californians not to get their hopes up this year. Limited rainfall across the southern half of the state means some of the big-name flower fields won’t deliver the explosion of colors seen during seasons past. Yet beauty abounds, especially across amply soaked landscapes to the north. The photographer George Rose recently found the wildflower hotspot along Santa Margarita’s Shell Creek Road blanketed in California goldfields, pictured above.
See more dazzling scenes from:
- Pine Flat Lake in the Sierra foothills
- the Sutter Buttes in the Sacramento Valley
- Moore Creek Park in Napa County
- North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve near Oroville
6.
A movie palace with Egyptian- and Moorish-styled auditoriums in Oakland.
A theater adorned with pagodas and dragons on Hollywood Boulevard.
And “a beloved temple to cinematic badassery” in Los Angeles.
Variety considered beauty, comfort, programming, and other merits for a ranking of the 21 coolest movie theaters in the world, including four locations across California.
Northern California
7.
California is spending $239 million to turn San Quentin into a Nordic-style prison that features a farmers market, a podcast production studio, and a self-service grocery store, according to a new cost estimate. The transformation of one of the country’s most notorious prisons has been inspired by the Scandinavian approach to incarceration, in which detention centers approximate life outside prison. The Newsom administration has gone so far as to hire a Danish architecture firm to design new buildings. S.F. Chronicle
8.
A San Francisco man boasts the world’s largest collection of taxidermied two-headed calves — totaling 50 if counting by the head. Henry S. Rosenthal, proprietor of the Two-Headed Calf MOOseum, didn’t set out to become a collector of two-headed calves, which result from a rare condition called polycephaly. But after he bought his first from a junk store in Berkeley, a friend called to alert him to another specimen. “The next thing I knew, I had two,” he said. “Then I remembered the law of threes.” Atlas Obscura
Southern California
9.
President Trump on Tuesday named Republican state Assemblyman Bill Essayli to be the next U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. Essayli, a 39-year-old Trump loyalist from Riverside County, helped prosecute the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacks and burnished his profile in the state Legislature with culture-war appeals. The nod from Trump now catapults him from Sacramento’s super minority to the helm of most populous U.S. attorney’s district in the country. In a statement, Essayli said he would seek to “restore trust in our justice system.” L.A. Times | Politico
10.
Val Kilmer died on Tuesday. The charismatic actor with a baritone voice rose to stardom with performances in “Top Gun,” “True Romance,” “The Doors,” and “Tombstone.” Raised in the San Fernando Valley, Kilmer attended the Juilliard School in New York and became known for throwing himself fully into his roles. The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter said. He had a bout with throat cancer in 2014. “I have no regrets,” Kilmer told the A.P. in 2021. “I’ve witness and experienced miracles.” He was 65. N.Y. Times | L.A. Times
11.
After a Venezuelan makeup artist named Andry José Hernández Romero sought asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, an agent took note of the tattoos on his wrists. They depicted crowns with the words “Mom” and “Dad” inked next to them. “Detainee Hernandez ports [sic] tattoos ‘crowns’ that are consistent with those of a Tren de Aragua member,” the agent wrote on a form. Those 16 words appear to have sealed his fate. Hernández Romero, 31, denied belonging to any gang. Yet on March 15, he was sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. New Yorker | The Guardian
12.
An army of gargantuan wooden trolls has been proliferating across America, and one of them just took up residence on the Central Coast. Their creator is a Danish artist named Thomas Dambo, who works exclusively with recycled materials. “I’m the garbage artist,” he said. “That’s what I preach, and that’s what I do.” Until now, all of Dambo’s trolls, which draw inspiration from Scandinavian folklore, have been installed outdoors. His latest creation is crouched inside the California Nature Art Museum in Solvang, fittingly known as the Danish capital of America. Noozhawk | Santa Ynez Valley News
- Explore Dambo’s troll map.
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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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