Good morning. It’s Friday, Oct. 7.
- Lawmakers split on what abortion amendment would do.
- Mourners gather in vigil for slain family in Merced.
- And three high architecture homes now on the market.
Statewide
1.
Californians will soon vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. But lawmakers still disagree on whether the measure merely protects those rights up to 24 weeks, as currently articulated in state law, or expands them to allow abortions at any point, for any reason. Dr. Pratima Gupta said the word “viability” was deliberately avoided in the bill’s language. “Every pregnancy is individual and it’s a continuum,” she said. KQED
2.
Beginning today, about 23 million Californians will start receiving tax refunds to mitigate the costs of inflation. Gov. Gavin Newsom had hoped to get the checks out by summer, but debate among lawmakers over who would get them delayed the $9.5 billion deal. Qualifying residents, regardless of immigration status, will get between $200 and $1,050. Desert Sun | Fortune
Get a refund estimate. 👉 FTB.ca.gov
3.
Three high architecture homes now up for grabs in California:
- Along a steep slope in Sherman Oaks, 17 stilt homes designed by modernist master Richard Neutra hover over a valley below. One of them, pictured above, floated onto the market for $2 million. Realtor.com | Forbes
- In the 1970s, Wilt Chamberlain built a home atop a promontory in Bel Air that captured the flamboyance of the decade. The master bedroom has a fully retractable roof and the pool wraps like a moat around the living room. Asking: $12 million. L.A. Daily News
- After Elvis and Priscilla Presley wed in 1967, they honeymooned in a Palm Springs home that was celebrated in the press as the house of the future. Now a landmark, the house has groovy sunken rooms, rock walls, and a floating fireplace. Yours for $5.7 million. Wall Street Journal
4.
On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talks with Joe Mathews, a longtime California journalist and commentator. Matthews said Gov. Gavin Newsom was making himself unelectable on a national stage with actions such as imposing travel bans against red states and erecting billboards with “a maximalist position on abortion.” If this is a presidential strategy, he said, “it’s a very poor one.”
Northern California
5.
Developments in the killings of four members of a Sikh immigrant family in Merced County:
- Officials said Thursday that the man suspected of killing the family, Jesus Salgado, had worked for their trucking company. A relative of the victims said Salgado nursed a grudge after being fired. A.P. | KTVU
- Hundreds of people gathered for a vigil in Merced Thursday night. They lit candles and placed stuffed animals by a picture of 8-month-old Aroohi Dheri. Mayor Matthew Serratto said, “In so many ways our community is reconfirming who we are.” KSEE | S.F. Chronicle
- The family had emigrated from the Indian state of Punjab, and newspapers there carried news of the tragedy on their front pages. Politicians demanded high-level investigations and mourners thronged the village homes of relatives. Daily Pioneer | Indian Express
6.
Bloomberg Businessweek wrote about what appears to be one of Silicon Valley’s most expensive busts: self-driving cars. Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer of the technology, said it would be hard to find another industry that invested so much and delivered so little. “Forget about profits,” he said. “What’s the combined revenue of all the robo-taxi, robo-truck, robo-whatever companies? Is it a million dollars? Maybe. I think it’s more like zero.”
7.
In 1973, after years of traveling abroad, David Lee Hoffman bought two acres in Marin County and built an eccentric sanctuary to showcase his ideas about sustainable living. But he never got a permit. Now the county government is trying to remove him, destroy his structures, and sell the land to build a single-family home. He’s launched a legal fight over property rights and what should be considered historic. N.Y. Times
8.
“Sometimes we don’t realize what we have on our own doorstep.”
When he’s not working as a cancer biologist, Paddy O’Leary is running the trails of San Francisco. He partnered with the filmmaker Ryan Scura to make a “love letter” to the city. In four minutes, “Urban Oasis” reveals the incredible variety and beauty that exists in just 49 square miles. Vimeo
Southern California
9.
After the George Floyd protests of 2020, San Diego voters approved the formation of a police oversight commission with subpoena powers. After nearly two years, and seemingly endless negotiations, it still hasn’t happened. During a City Council meeting Monday, the police union’s president said the city was embracing a “radical, abolish the police agenda” that had led 55 officers to leave the department since July. KPBS | Voice of San Diego
In Los Angeles County, Sheriff Alex Villanueva also lashed out over independent oversight: He banned the county watchdog from the department’s facilities and databases. L.A. Times
10.
☝️ This was the view in El Centro, near the southern border, on Thursday.
Meteorologists said the dust storm, known as a haboob, was caused by a thunderstorm in Yuma, Arizona, that sent powerful winds west across the Coachella Valley, dragging along dust and debris. A high school football game in the valley was called off mid-game. Coach Matt Ward said everyone looked up and said the same thing: “It looked like we were in a movie out there.” Desert Sun | KESQ
11.
Princess Lang wanted to join a dance team at USC. But as a Black woman, she said she felt none called to her. So she started the Cardinal Divas, a majorette team meant to “create a Black space for Black women anywhere.” When she posted an eight-second video clip of her dancing with the group at the Los Angeles Coliseum, she hoped for a handful of likes. It was a sensation, drawing more than 3 million views and counting. L.A. Times
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- When the Beat poet Diane di Prima died in October 2020, obituaries carried a somber portrait of her that was credited to her estate. The unnamed man behind the camera was James O. Mitchell, a Bay Area photographer and former assistant to Dorothea Lange. The art historian Delphine Sims said it’s time he got his due. Aperture
- Last month, the world got a peek into Elon Musk’s phone as part of the discovery process in his legal battle with Twitter. What is remarkable about the correspondence, wrote journalist Charlie Warzel, is “how unimpressive, unimaginative, and sycophantic the powerful men in Musk’s contacts appear to be.” The Atlantic
- The growers of the Imperial Valley draw more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada combined. NPR visited “the California farmers awash in Colorado River water, even in a drought.”
- A former NFL player was one of two rock climbers who were found dead in a remote area near Idyllwild on Sept. 28. The victims were identified as Gavin Escobar, 31, and Chelsea Walsh, 33, both of Huntington Beach. Escobar was a tight end for San Diego State before joining the Dallas Cowboys in 2013. Desert Sun | S.D. Union-Tribune
- The economics writer Binyamin Appelbaum argued that there’s been a sea change in California: The heartland of the housing crisis, he wrote, “is starting to take power back.” N.Y. Times
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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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