All of the must-read news about the Golden State in one place.
Hi, I’m Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times. I survey more than 80 news and social media sites daily, then send you a tightly crafted email with only the most informative and delightful bits.
Each weekday at about 6 a.m., you’ll get an email like this.
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 4.
- State Farm seeks emergency 22% rate hike.
- Bay Area engineers aid Elon Musk’s government blitz.
- And owner creates turmoil at the Los Angeles Times.
Statewide
1.
State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, asked state regulators to approve an emergency 22% rate increase on Monday, saying the company faces “a dire situation” after the Los Angeles wildfires. It predicted the disaster would be the costliest in the company’s history. Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles advocacy group, disputed State Farm’s claim of financial distress, noting that its parent company has “$134 billion in the bank.” “Filling State Farm’s bank accounts shouldn’t fall on the backs of California homeowners recovering from disaster,” it said. L.A. Times | S.F. Chronicle
2.
The California Legislature on Monday approved $50 million to finance court battles against the Trump administration and to support legal services for immigrants facing deportation. “Let me be blunt,” said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. “Right now, Californians are being threatened by an out-of-control administration in Washington. Increasingly, our own residents are being threatened by actions taken by the Trump administration and it’s our duty to rise to the moment.” His remarks were met by sustained applause. L.A. Times | A.P.
- Republicans pushed an amendment to ensure the aid did not support immigrants with criminal records. Democrats rejected the change, calling it unnecessary. Mercury News
3.
A group representing white and Asian college applicants sued the University of California on Monday, accusing the system of secretly giving preference to Black and Hispanic applicants in defiance of antidiscrimination laws. The salvo comes after the university system boasted its most racially diverse class ever in 2024. “More lawsuits are coming,” said Jonathan Mitchell, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “We will keep suing them until they adopt colorblind admissions and rid themselves of every last vestige of these odious and discriminatory practices.” N.Y. Times | Washington Post
4.
“For Tesla, this is a mess.”
Tesla registrations in California fell about 12% in 2024, even as sales of non-Tesla electric vehicles in the state surged, according to newly released figures. Sales of Tesla’s restyled Model 3 plunged a staggering 36% from a year earlier, the data showed. Analysts said distaste for Elon Musk among Californians, Tesla’s largest market, probably played a role in the slide. Bloomberg | Wolf Street
5.
Seven species of abalone once abounded along the California coast, and all seven have since been driven to the brink of extinction by human activity. Scientists are now trying to bring back black abalone by moving members of a remnant population on the Channel Islands to a preserve along the Santa Barbara coast. They carefully pried the snails off rocks with chisels, transported them in tanks, and tucked them into nooks of their new home. A High Country News article on the effort highlighted the painstaking nature of saving one marine snail in a state with hundreds of endangered species.
Northern California
6.
The lieutenants helping Elon Musk wage what the New York Times described as “an unchecked war against the federal bureaucracy” include a half-dozen young engineers with Bay Area connections. All of them are under the age of 24 and none has government experience, according to WIRED magazine. The youngest of the six is Edward Coristine, 19, who recently graduated high school and spent a few months at Neuralink. Musk suggested that naming the men is a crime. S.F. Chronicle | Daily Beast
7.
The Trump administration announced new investigations into allegations of “widespread antisemitic harassment” at UC Berkeley and four other universities on Monday, a sign that the president intends to make good on his promise to target campus antisemitism more aggressively. “This administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses,” said Craig Trainor, an Education Department official. The agency didn’t explain why Berkeley was included. A.P. | CBS News
- In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Berkeley professor Steven Davidoff Solomon condemned Hamas rape denial at the campus. “I invite Washington to make an example of my campus,” he wrote.
8.
Robert Skinner’s obsession with Volkswagen buses began with the 1982 debut of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” in which Jeff Spicoli and his friends topple out of a 1967 Volkswagen bus amid a cloud of smoke. Skinner made a career out of restoring vintage buses in Vacaville. Then in 2014, he got word that the actual “Fast Times” bus was for sale. He made an offer, but it was $40,000 short of a competing bid. He resorted to pleading. “If you sell it to us, we will share it with the world,” he told the seller. And that’s how an original stoner VW became a staple of car shows up and down the state. Wall Street Journal
Southern California
9.
President Trump reached a last-minute deal with Mexico to put his planned 25% tariff on hold, but the threat has left San Diego’s vast industrial industry shaken. The border neighborhood of Otay Mesa is California’s largest commercial land port of entry, with more than $68 billion in trade on an annual basis. Roughly 2,500 businesses there are tied to cross-border imports and exports. “The uncertainty this creates is brutal for investment,” said Alejandra Mier y Teran, head of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “We depend on international trade.” S.D. Union-Tribune | Axios | KPBS
10.
The Los Angeles County prosecutors who recommended that the Menendez brothers be freed from prison said they were demoted by the newly installed district attorney, Nathan Hochman, who campaigned on a pledge to be tougher on crime. The prosecutors, Brock Lunsford and Nancy Theberge, filed notices Monday that they intended to sue Hochman and a deputy for retaliation, defamation, and discrimination. Last year, it seemed like Erik and Lyle Menendez, who killed their parents in their Beverly Hills home in 1989, could be headed for release. Those prospects have dimmed. L.A. Times | Variety
11.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik wrote about the tumultuous leadership of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has increasingly made himself a center of attention with his partisan political commentary. The newsroom saw Soon-Shiong as a savior when he bought the paper in 2018, Folkenflik wrote:
“In recent months he has emerged with strong views that have been seen as a slap in the face by many of those who work for him. He has criticized how journalism works, how his own paper has operated and the media’s coverage of Trump.”
- The Times just opened a new round of voluntary buyouts, Semafor reported. The newsroom now stands at roughly 360 journalists, down from more than 1,200 in the 1990s.
12.
After someone stole his identity, William Woods tried to prove that he was the real William Woods. But no one believed him. In 2019, Los Angeles County prosecutors accused him of being the identity thief. Woods spent 428 days in the county jail and five months in a psychiatric hospital. A California judge called him “crazy.” Eventually vindicated by a DNA test, Woods walked into a courtroom on Friday and watched as the man who stole his name learned his prison sentence. “In that courtroom, everyone knew which man was William Woods,” the N.Y. Times wrote.
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