Good morning. It’s Thursday, April 6.
- Gavin Newsom criticizes Ron DeSantis in his own backyard.
- Grief and rage after tech executive’s killing in San Francisco.
- And best-rated California campgrounds according to Yelp.
Statewide
1.
Gov. Gavin Newsom made a surprise visit Wednesday to a liberal arts school in Sarasota that has become a culture war flashpoint. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has moved to transform New College of Florida, which describes itself as “a community of free thinkers,” into a beacon of conservatism. Speaking to students, Newsom accused the Republican of trying to erase decades of progress on human rights: “It’s common with everything he’s doing, bullying and intimidating vulnerable communities. Weakness, Ron DeSantis, weakness masquerading as strength across the board.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune | A.P.
- Dan Walters on Newsom’s campaign against “authoritarians”: “He should look in the mirror.” CalMatters
2.
“I am the speaker of the House. There is no place that China’s going to tell me where I can go and who I can speak to, whether you be foe or whether you be friend.”
That was Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday after holding a meeting with Taiwan’s president that infuriated China. On the same day the meeting unfolded at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, where the leaders reaffirmed their countries’ bond, China deployed an aircraft carrier battle group into Taiwan’s southeastern waters. Bloomberg | Wall Street Journal
3.
After our winter of atmospheric rivers the next threat is expected to arrive in the form of sunny skies, when warm temperatures send torrents of melted mountain snow into the valleys thousands of feet below. A forecast estimated runoff would reach an “absurdly high” 422% of average in the Kern River watershed between April and July, a state water official said. The snowmelt poses two key dangers: flooding in the Central Valley and fast frigid rivers, where one slip or unmonitored child can turn to tragedy. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
4.
A glamping resort on a forest bluff in Mendocino County, the home of one of California’s most magnificent waterfalls, and an alpine getaway with views reaching to Catalina Island.
Yelp released a ranking of its all-time best-rated campgrounds across the country. California appeared in three of the top 10. Yelp | Sacramento Bee
Northern California
5.
The killing of tech executive Bob Lee in San Francisco reverberated nationally on Wednesday, prompting an outpouring of grief and enflaming debate over public safety in the city. Lee, a 43-year-old father of two who created the mobile payment service Cash App, was stabbed in the chest as he walked in the normally quiet Rincon Hill neighborhood at about 2:35 a.m. Tuesday, police said. As of late Wednesday, no suspect had been arrested. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
- Surveillance video reviewed by reporters showed Lee walking up a street gripping his side. “Help!” he screamed into his phone. “Someone stabbed me.” SF Standard
- Business leaders denounced what they portrayed as unchecked violent crime in San Francisco. But the city has a low murder rate relative to other large cities. S.F. Chronicle | KGO
6.
“It’s like Breaking Bad, San Jose Edition.”
Activists, police, and family members are asking how a San Jose police union official ran a opioid and fentanyl distribution network undetected for years, as alleged in federal charges filed last week. According to the complaint, Joanne Segovia, 64, ordered thousands of pills from India and other countries then shipped them throughout the country. Even her husband was oblivious to the scheme, a relative said. Mercury News | New York Post
7.
Elon Musk further indulged his animus for the American press on Wednesday as Twitter placed a “U.S. state-affiliated media” label on NPR’s account, putting it in the same category as propaganda outlets in China and Russia. NPR, which has asserted its editorial independence since its founding in 1970, says it gets less than 1% of its funding from federal sources. Notably, Voice of America, the BBC, and the Stars and Stripes, all substantially funded by government, have no such label. Washington Post
8.
Film commission officials in Humboldt and Del Norte counties have been trying for years to make a Star Wars festival happen amid the redwoods of the North Coast, where George Lucas filmed the Endor home of the Ewoks. Now they have announced the inaugural “Forest Moon Festival,” to be held in June, with outdoor screenings of “Return of the Jedi” and a parade of stormtroopers and rebels. North Coast Journal | Eureka Times-Standard
● ●
“Please report any Ewok sightings to a Redwood Ranger!” Redwood National and State Parks issued an unusual public service announcement. Facebook
Southern California
9.
At Ninety-Fifth Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, 94% of students live in poverty, and many parents suffer from chronic illness. During the first year of the pandemic, loss was acute. “A lot of families lost not just one or two, but four or five, six people,” a school social worker said. Later, the school’s collective psyche shifted from crisis to a quieter grieving. The N.Y. Times Magazine wrote about “the school where the pandemic never ended.”
10.
An Irvine dermatologist caught on video calmly pouring what her husband said was Drano into his tea was indicted on multiple felony charges, authorities said Wednesday. Jack Chen rigged hidden cameras around the couple’s home after suffering from stomach ulcers and growing suspicious of his wife, Yue Yu. He turned samples of the tea Yu handled over to the authorities for testing, which confirmed the presence of drain cleaner, prosecutors said. Yu faces more than eight years in prison if convicted. KABC | L.A. Times
11.
A Labor Department sweep of 50 Los Angeles factories that make garments for brands such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Dillard’s found that 80% were breaking wage and hour laws. One contractor paid workers $1.58 per hour, the investigation found. Los Angeles’ fashion district is the hub of the American garment industry, employing tens of thousands of mostly immigrant women from Mexico and Central America. Critics call the factories sweatshops. L.A. Daily News | Bloomberg
12.
Fun fact: The epitaph on the grave of Mel Blanc — the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Woody Woodpecker, and other classic characters — reads “That’s all folks.” Blanc, who died in 1989, requested the engraving of Porky Pig’s catchphrase in his will. According to Blanc’s son, they were also the last words Blanc ever uttered, “on camera or off-camera.” Atlas Obscura
Blanc is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the resting place for many of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age. An online tour. 👉 Curbed
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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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