Good morning. It’s Thursday, July 6.
- Missing Yosemite hiker said to have fallen into rapids.
- Holiday revelers leave tons of trash along Lake Tahoe.
- And wealthy Angelenos find ways to avoid mansion tax.
Please note: The newsletter will pause Friday and Monday. Back in your inbox Tuesday.
Statewide
1.
“It pays to be censured.”
Rep. Adam Schiff said Wednesday that he had raised $8.1 million for his Senate campaign over the last three months, a period that included his censure in the Republican-led House. The sum is far more than some swing-state senators brought in. Schiff’s campaign now has nearly $30 million on hand, a striking figure given that the race for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat in deep-blue California will almost certainly have no bearing on which party holds the Senate. Politico | Axios
2.
Fire authorities swear by fire retardant, calling the neon-colored goo dropped from the sky indispensable. But critics hate the chemical substance, which washes into waterways and harms steelhead trout and Chinook salmon. “Fire retardant has more adverse effects on endangered species than any other thing the federal government does, and there’s not even a close second,” said Andy Stahl, a forester and environmental advocate. The debate is heating up as retardant is now being marketed for private lawns and roadsides. L.A. Times
3.
In a sharp analysis, Jay Caspian Kang lamented how commentators emphasize “service resistant” individuals who make up a small subset of California’s homeless population.
“The average homeowner or renter in San Francisco or Los Angeles doesn’t really care who might be staying in the shelter system, nor does he care all that much if a family has decided to crash for a few nights in a car (as long as it’s not parked on his block). He cares when he walks down the street to his office and has to pass through encampments, or when someone walks onto a bus and starts to act erratically. He doesn’t see how building housing for mostly stable people who are quietly living in cars actually addresses the problem.” New Yorker
Northern California
4.
The parents of a backpacker who was last seen near Yosemite’s Upper Chilnualna Falls on Sunday said their son had bent down to “get his face wet” when he fell into rapids that carried him down a waterfall. Hayden Klemenok, 24, of Petaluma, was on a trip with friends after graduating from San Diego State University. His father, Kevin Klemenok, arrived in Yosemite expecting to find his son banged up. “My son is five miles up in a canyon waterfall right now, and I’m leaving here with his three siblings, his mother, and an aunt, and we don’t have him,” he said. “It’s horrible … and it’s going to stretch on for every day that I’m alive.” S.F. Chronicle | NBC7
5.
After months of speculation, Meta on Wednesday unveiled Threads, a microblogging app that aims to dethrone Twitter by leveraging Instagram’s existing base of billions of users. After the launch, Mark Zuckerberg said the app gained 5 million sign-ups in the first four hours. Twitter CEO Elon Musk scoffed. “It is infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, than indulge in the false happiness of hide-the-pain Instagram,” he wrote. Here’s what to know about Threads. 👉 N.Y. Times | Washington Post
6.
Apple is the world’s first $3 trillion company. The Cupertino company touched that threshold during intraday trading back in January 2022. But last Friday, a stock rally pushed Apple’s market capitalization above $3 trillion at the close of trading, a level it has maintained. Just four other U.S. companies are worth more than $1 trillion: Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Nvidia. Exxon Mobil, once the world’s most valuable company, is worth roughly $430 billion. Wall Street Journal | The Verge
How big is a trillion?
- A million seconds is 12 days. A trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
- A million inches is 16 miles. A trillion inches is 15,782,828 miles, or nearly six trips around the sun.
- A million ants would weigh about 6 pounds. A trillion ants would weigh more than 3,000 tons, or the equivalent of roughly two acres of coast redwoods.
7.
Someone sneaked into a National Guard armory in Santa Rosa, hopped in a Humvee, then made a getaway by crashing though the gate late Monday, authorities said. There have been at least three sightings of the Humvee driving recklessly around Sonoma County after dark with its lights off, yet it remained missing as of Wednesday. CHP Officer Marcus Hawkins speculated that the thief must have a military background. “If you are not in the military, I can only imagine what it takes to start a Humvee,” he said. KGO | CNN
8.
Revelers trashed the shore of Lake Tahoe during the July Fourth holiday, leaving it strewn with bottles, cans, boxes, socks, and vape pens. An environmental nonprofit said Wednesday that it picked up more than 4 tons of trash from Zephyr Cove on the lake’s eastern shore. “It was destroyed,” said Colin West, founder of Clean Up The Lake. “I thought I’d come out and use a trash grabber, but I was bending over scooping with my hands, and we even went to get rakes.” KRNV | S.F. Chronicle
- See video of the mess. 👉 @cleanupthelake
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9.
Surrounded by a sea of checkered farmland in the Sacramento Valley stands a tiny stucco library flanked by a U.S. flag and red rose bushes. The area is so rural that the roads are named letters or numbers. Bayliss Library, opened in 1917 at the corner of roads W and 39, was among thousands established with grants from the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Of California’s 142 Carnegie libraries, just 36 still operate as libraries. While the town of Bayliss has largely vanished over time — losing its school, hotel, and store — residents just couldn’t let go of the old library. ABC10
Southern California
10.
“This is rich people going on strike against the poor.”
Los Angeles hasn’t pulled in nearly as much revenue as hoped from a new tax on mansion sales that was intended to raise millions to fight homelessness. That’s because wealthy Angelenos have either halted sales or resorted to tricks to avoid the tax, which took effect April 1. Some sellers are listing homes at just below the $5 million threshold; others are dividing properties into lots; and still others are splitting properties between two spouses as “tenants in common” who can then sell their shares separately. Washington Post
11.
“Bernard Robins says he saw three Los Angeles police officers eyeing him suspiciously from their department cruiser. He knew what to do in these situations. Arms in the air. No sudden movements. And, taking the bass out of his voice, he announced that he was one of their own, a cop.”
Bernard Robins joined the Los Angeles Police Department with hopes of making a difference. But after he was detained outside his parents’ home, he quit in disgust and sued, accusing the officers of racial profiling. L.A. Times
- The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation after video showed a deputy violently tackling a woman who was filming an arrest. L.A. Times | A.P.
12.
☝️ Stephen Henry bought his house in Los Angeles’ hip Silver Lake neighborhood in 1996, when it had a large gay community. “I get mail from real estate agents asking if I would like to know the value of my house, because they have a buyer. I’m not in need,” he said. Henry is featured in a new photo book by Sally Davies on California’s quirkiest homes. The Guardian
- More of Davies’ California work. 👉 SallyDaviesphoto.com
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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