Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 2.
- Tensions high as Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan.
- Gavin Newsom declares monkeypox state of emergency.
- And the ultimate western national parks road trip.
Statewide
1.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday despite bellicose warnings from Beijing to stay away, U.S. and Taiwanese officials said. It would be the first visit to the self-ruled island by a U.S. House speaker in 25 years. Tensions were high:
- Zhao Lijian, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said China would take “strong countermeasures,” adding “as for what measures, if she dares to go, then let’s wait and see.”
- The Chinese People’s Liberation Army held mock air combat drills and showed off advanced weaponry in a patriotic video.
- Four U.S. warships took up positions in waters east of Taiwan in what a Navy official described as “routine” deployments. N.Y. Times | Washington Post | Reuters
● ●
Thomas L. Friedman: Pelosi’s Taiwan trip is “utterly reckless.” N.Y. Times
2.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a state of emergency to combat a monkeypox outbreak, saying it would help streamline distribution of vaccines. More than 800 monkeypox infections have been reported in California since May, with gay men accounting for 91.7% of cases. Newsom’s move won’t fix the most pressing problem: the vaccine shortfall. The state has so far received 61,000 doses; it needs at least 600,000. S.F. Chronicle | A.P.
3.
San Francisco and Los Angeles ranked first and second among U.S. cities for outbound moves in the second quarter of 2022, extending a trend that took off during the pandemic. Top out-of-state destinations included Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Seattle. Hari Raghavan and his wife moved from Oakland to Miami after their home was repeatedly burglarized. “We took a long hard look and said, ‘Wait, why are we here again?’” he said. L.A. Times
4.
A route from Yellowstone in Montana to Joshua Tree in Southern California covers 1,270 miles, tags seven national parks, and offers epic adventures along the way. Outdoors writer Graham Averill put together a guide on where to go, stay, and eat on the ultimate western national parks road trip. Outside magazine
Northern California
5.
Two bodies were found on Sunday inside a charred vehicle in the path of the wildfire raging across Siskiyou County, the authorities said. “We think they were trying to evacuate,” said Courtney Kreider, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. Crews battling the McKinley fire for the fourth day on Monday got help from heavy rain as bulldozers ringed the threatened town of Yreka. Record Searchlight | Wall Street Journal
A family of firefighters who did everything they could to fireproof their home learned it was reduced to ash. “It was as safe as we could make it,” said Valerie Linfoot, 55. Mercury News
6.
Five dogs escaped a home in the farming town of Selma in the San Joaquin Valley on Sunday and fatally mauled a man walking by, police said. Richard Barry, 59, had just left his brother’s home nearby. “They got him down and just kept going at him and ripping his flesh,” said his sister-in-law, Teresa Barry. The dogs are in custody and the owner is cooperating, police said. KFSN
7.
Twitter has unleashed a flood of document requests as part of its legal war with Elon Musk, adopting a strategy one magazine described as “ludicrous mode.” On Monday, the social media company sent subpoenas to a who’s who of Silicon Valley elites, including Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, Steve Jurvetson, Marc Andreessen, and others. Adam Badawi, a law professor, said one goal is to find anything that contradicts Musk’s public statements deriding Twitter. Washington Post | New York Magazine
8.
When two naturalists discovered the world’s tallest known tree in Redwood National Park in 2006, they tried to keep even its name, “Hyperion,” a secret. They feared people would try to find it, photograph it, climb it, stomp on its roots. That’s of course exactly what happened. So last week park authorities took the dramatic step of banning people from getting anywhere near the 397-foot redwood. Trespassers face a $5,000 fine and even jailtime. SFGATE | Lost Coast Outpost
Southern California
9.
Pappy & Harriet’s is one of the coolest places in the Mojave Desert. A popular biker cantina in the 1980s, it grew into a renowned music venue, hosting Robert Plant, Rufus Wainwright, and Lana Del Rey. But it has now become embroiled in a bitter ownership dispute, complete with changed locks, claims of deception, and copious litigation. Randall Roberts wrote a gripping account of how a deal forged with high hopes went horribly wrong. L.A. Times
10.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco publicly accused a City Council member of supporting the vandalism of a courthouse during an abortion rights rally over the weekend. “You are lucky we couldn’t arrest you,” he wrote on Facebook. But the lawmaker, Clarissa Cervantes, said she didn’t even participate in the protest. She demanded an apology, saying people were now threatening her. A sheriff’s spokesman said she wouldn’t get one. Press-Enterprise | Desert Sun
11.
“They’re kicking us out with no answers.”
“We are just disposable to them.”
“They’re destroying lives.”
When Smithfield Foods announced that it would close its pork processing plant in an industrial corridor near downtown Los Angeles, company officials blamed the cost of doing business in California. But many of the 1,800 workers, 80% Latino and most older than 50, are directing their ire squarely at the company. N.Y. Times
12.
The One, an extravagant mansion in Bel-Air, was supposed to become America’s priciest home. Instead, the developer, Nile Niami, lost $44 million, “plus 10 years of my life.” In a deeply reported piece, Katherine Clarke told the story of how Niami rose from flipping homes as a side hustle to building increasingly lavish speculative homes. With the 105,000-square-foot The One, however, he got in over his head. Wall Street Journal
Scheduling note:
I’ll be out next week plus the following Monday. That means no newsletter Aug 8-15.
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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