Good morning. It’s Tuesday, April 2.
- Video shows cops killing teen who was feared abducted.
- A journalist makes the case for rebuilding Paradise.
- And some of the coolest Airbnbs in California.
Statewide
1.
Three new state bills aim to push boundaries:
- California would become the first state to give workers the right to ignore calls from employers after hours under a proposed “right to disconnect” law. The bill’s author said he was inspired during a trip to Europe, where such rights are already enshrined. N.Y. Times | Mercury News
- Another measure would implement the nation’s most sweeping assisted dying policies, allowing dementia patients and out-of-state residents to end their lives in California. It faces fierce opposition from religious and disability rights groups. Politico
- A third bill would provide reparations for families displaced from their homes in Los Angeles in the 1950s. The families, mostly Mexican American, were told the land was needed for affordable housing. It instead became the site of Dodger Stadium. NBC News | N.Y. Times
2.
In October 2020, a 28-year-old mother of four died after getting liposuction in a South Los Angeles strip mall. Her doctor was a pediatrician. In California, physicians aren’t required to stick to the fields they were trained in. Over the years, many have ventured into the lucrative world of cosmetic surgery, a specialty commonly misconstrued as easy. “You can do whatever you want until you kill somebody,” said a former president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. L.A. Times
3.
From the obituary pages:
- Barbara Rush, a Hollywood actress known for her elegant beauty in 1950s films like “Magnificent Obsession” and “The Young Lions,” died at her home in Westlake Village on Sunday. “I’m one of those kinds of people who will perform the minute you open the refrigerator door and the light goes on,” Rush once said. She was 97. Washington Post | Hollywood Reporter
- Lou Conter, the last known survivor of the USS Arizona, a battleship that was bombed and sank in Pearl Harbor in 1941, died at his home in Grass Valley on Monday. Though hailed as a hero, he rejected the label. “The 2,403 men that died are the heroes,” he said. Conter was 102. A.P. | Wall Street Journal
- Denny J. Walsh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent 25 years covering courts for the Sacramento Bee, died at his home in a suburb of Sacramento on Friday. A fearless reporter, he was sued 52 times while working for Life magazine. He prevailed in every case. Walsh was 88. Sacramento Bee
4.
A glass-panelled geodesic dome in the Palm Springs desert. An A-frame cabin overlooking Topanga State Park. And a studio with a wraparound deck in L.A.’s hip Silver Lake neighborhood.
GQ magazine created a list of the country’s 28 coolest Airbnbs.
Northern California
5.
Oakland officials floated a proposed name change for the city’s airport: The Metropolitan Oakland International Airport would become the San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. San Francisco officials reacted with what appeared to be unanimous disdain. San Francisco International Airport said it was “deeply concerned” about customer confusion. Supervisor Aaron Peskin said he would introduce a resolution opposing the change. State Senator Scott Wiener wrote, “Oakland is Oakland. It’s not San Francisco.” S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News
6.
The documentary photographer J. Matt wrote a moving piece on the recovery of Paradise five years after the Camp fire killed 85 residents and destroyed the vast majority of the town’s buildings. He challenged the journalist Mark Arax’s recent portrayal of the town as an exercise in human folly. Matt wrote:
“I myself have questioned, in print, our return to the sites of climatically influenced disasters. But we humans, for a while at least, will remain — whether we figure out new ways of living on the earth or not. Where should Paradesians go if not home?” Places Journal
7.
In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle sent a 26-year-old reporter into a high school as an undercover student for a series on how budget cuts were straining public education. Inevitably, the reporter, Shann Nix, formed friendships with students she was deceiving. After just a month, she told her editors she couldn’t stand another day. Culture critic Peter Hartlaub reported on the questionable ethics and emotional fallout of the Chronicle’s 1992 “Undercover Student” series. S.F. Chronicle
8.
Google agreed to delete billions of data records collected from people who used the “incognito” mode in its Chrome browser as part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit that accused the search giant of tracking users without their knowledge. A Google spokesman said the company was pleased: “The plaintiffs originally wanted $5 billion and are receiving zero.” Under the agreement, however, individuals retained the right to sue over the tracking. Lawyers for the plaintiffs estimated that could cost Google billions. Washington Post | N.Y. Times
9.
Stanford professor Andrew Huberman has become the world’s biggest pop neuroscientist by peddling advice on how to live a healthier life. In a meticulously reported feature, journalist Kerry Howley revealed that he did so while simultaneously cheating on at least five girlfriends, who inevitably found each other:
“They realized that on March 21, 2021, a day of admittedly impressive logistical jujitsu, while Sarah was in Berkeley, Andrew had flown Mary from Texas to L.A. to stay with him in Topanga. While Mary was there, visiting from thousands of miles away, he left her with [his dog] Costello. He drove to a coffee shop, where he met Eve. They had a serious talk about their relationship. They thought they were in a good place. He wanted to make it work.
“‘Phone died,’ he texted Mary, who was waiting back at the place in Topanga. And later, to Eve: ‘Thank you … For being so next, next, level gorgeous and sexy.’
“‘Sleep well beautiful,’ he texted Sarah.” New York magazine
Southern California
10.
On Sept. 27, 2022, an Ambert Alert search for a 15-year-old girl feared kidnapped by her father ended in a shootout in the high desert that left both of them dead. In the days that followed, the San Bernardino County sheriff suggested that the girl, 15-year-old Savannah Graziano, shot at deputies. Now video has been released that shows the unarmed girl being shot by deputies as she followed their instructions to move toward them. After Graziano was shot, someone can be heard saying over the radio, “Oh no.” The Guardian | San Bernardino Sun
- See the video. 👉 YouTube
11.
Residents are making the best of Bombay Beach, a weird, broken-down town on the Salton Sea. In a photo essay, Jaime Lowe wrote:
“I’m not sure the community that’s there now started out as intentional, but when fragmented groups of people come together as custodians of an enigmatic space, responsible for protecting it and one another, community is inevitable. Plus, there’s only one place to socialize, one place to gossip, one place to dance out anxiety and only about two-thirds of a square mile to wander. Whether you like it or not, your neighbors are your people — a town in its purest form.” N.Y. Times
12.
In 2016, the British photographer Jane Hilton went along with some colleagues to the LA Gun Club in downtown Los Angeles and found herself grasping an AK-47. “I was completely thrown by the whole thing,” she said. Hilton returned several times to interview the customers, but not to photograph them. Instead, she included their comments as captions alongside photographs of the target posters they chose to shoot — caricatures of Middle Eastern men, “thugs,” and kidnappers. Wallpaper | JaneHilton.com
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