Good morning. It’s Friday, March 21.

• Gov. Gavin Newsom’s LatinX claim fails fact check.
• Meta pirates millions of books to train its AI.
• And Elon Musk’s transgender daughter speaks out.

Please note: The newsletter will be off for spring break next week. It will resume Monday, March 31.

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Statewide

1.

While progressives have been infuriated by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, some Republicans seem to have discovered a new respect for the Democrat. Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, called Newsom a “skilled communicator.” Fergus Cullen, former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, called him “a very talented politician.” Asked if Newsom could give Republicans problems, Steve Bannon said, “Hell, yes.” This week, Megyn Kelly urged Republicans to stop going on his show. “The better he will get, the better he’ll do,” she said. Politico

• During his conversation with Charlie Kirk, Newsom claimed no one in his office had ever used the word LatinX. But a video compilation showed him using the word repeatedly. CNN

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2.

A rock slide late Monday sent boulders the size of cars crashing onto a primary highway into Yosemite National Park, blocking the route indefinitely just as the spring tourist season is beginning. The slide blocked both lanes of scenic Highway 140 along the narrow Merced River canyon. “It’s certainly impassable,” said Caltrans spokesman Brian Hooker. “It’s a few hundred feet long.” Mercury News

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3.

On this week’s California Sun Podcast, host Jeff Schechtman talked with Rep. John Garamendi, a Bay Area Democrat who served two terms as California’s insurance commissioner. He has been sharply critical of the state’s current insurance chief, Ricardo Lara, whom Garamendi accuses of cozying up to industry. “He’s allowed the insurance companies to basically run unregulated across the state of California,” he said.

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4.

The Spanish skateboard company Yow embedded a filmmaker with six skaters on an RV trip across California in search of “the most legendary spots,” including destinations in San Diego, Big Sur, and Santa Rosa. The result is a sort of mashup of Wes Anderson and “The Endless Summer” that showcases the beauty and vibe that has made California, in the words of historian Kevin Starr, a “coast of dreams.” YouTube (~18 mins)

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Northern California

5.

A pair of political scandals involving prominent City Hall figures roiled San Francisco on Thursday:

• Kimberly Ellis, who heads a city agency focused on equitable treatment of women, worked a side job for a progressive political advocacy and steered no-bid contracts to groups with which she is closely connected, reporters found. She was placed on leave. S.F. Chronicle | SFist
• A disgraced former department head, Sheryl Davis, received $19,000 in public funds to pay for her son’s tuition at UCLA, the city attorney’s office revealed. The money was linked to city grants paid to a nonprofit Davis once led, which in turn handed a scholarship to her son. S.F. Chronicle | SFist

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6.

A Thursday decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to uphold California’s ban on large-capacity gun magazines was overshadowed by one justice’s unusual dissent. Judge Lawrence VanDyke included a link to a YouTube video of himself, bespectacled and donned in black robes, handling firearms in his chambers. What appeared to be an AK-style rifle hung on a wall. The court’s majority, VanDyke explained, betrayed “a basic misunderstanding of how firearms work.” Other jurists called the video “wildly improper.” Wall Street Journal | S.F. Chronicle

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7.

When Meta faced the challenge of obtaining high-quality writing to train its artificial intelligence model, Llama 3, employees realized that it would take considerable time to license books and research papers. But they were in a hurry. A question was raised: Should we just pirate it? Eventually, the team downloaded data from LibGen, one of the largest pirated libraries online. According to court documents released on Wednesday, the permission came from “MZ” — an apparent reference to Mark Zuckerberg. The Atlantic

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8.

Not long ago, Silicon Valley nurtured an almost open hostility to Christianity. But believers among the tech crowd are increasingly gathering together and speaking openly about their faith. “After all, there are billionaires among their ranks,” wrote journalist Zoë Bernard. One of them is Peter Thiel. “I guarantee you,” one Christian entrepreneur told Bernard, “there are people that are leveraging Christianity to get closer to Peter Thiel.” Vanity Fair

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Southern California

9.

A flurry of recent cases at U.S. border crossings in which international travelers were detained over seemingly minor issues reflects a sharp break with past practice, lawyers and former immigration officials said. “I can’t remember anything quite that extreme,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a top border official under former President Obama. The moves have come after an order by President Trump to apply “extreme vetting” of visa applicants. British officials took note and issued a new travel warning: Break U.S. entry rules and you may find yourself in shackles. Wall Street Journal

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10.

It’s not only Republicans facing rowdy town halls. Melissa Morgan rose during a packed gathering with Democrat Rep. Gil Cisneros in El Monte Tuesday night. “You seem like such an affable, kind, nice man,” she said. “But I am so angry. I am so scared. I feel our democracy is in danger.” Morgan recited her fears over threats to Social Security, national parks, privacy, and more before concluding: “I just wish that the Democrats would match my anger and my fear.” The room burst into applause. L.A. Times

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11.

Vivian Wilson, the estranged transgender daughter of Elon Musk, opened up in a rare interview with Teen Vogue:

• The 20-year-old Los Angeles native had few kind words for her father, who once said she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” Wilson called Musk a “pathetic man-child.”
• In Wilson’s view, the Nazi-like salute Musk gave during a rally in January “was definitely a Nazi salute.”
• Her politics were shaped in part by seeing the contrast of her family’s lavish wealth and the homelessness on the streets of L.A., she said. “You start to wonder: How is this fair?”

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In case you missed it

12.

Five items that got big views over the past week:

• A home with a giant overhead shark tank was listed in the Coachella Valley. The extravagance of the Palm Desert residence, nestled on a flattened ridge above the valley, is reflected in the asking price: $59 million. The Wall Street Journal has the pictures.
• “I felt like I was going to throw up.” Jasmine Mooney, a former actress from Canada, told her story of being detained at the San Diego border for 12 days, during which she was bound in chains and forced to take a pregnancy test. The Guardian
• Yosemite looked glorious after recent snowfall. The photographer Andrew Cheng needed four-wheel drive and chains to enter the park in stormy conditions last Friday. The following morning he wandered Yosemite at its most serene, blanketed in freshly fallen snow. He posted pictures on Reddit.
• When Alexander Leatham appeared in a Solano County courtroom last month on charges of impaling her landlord, she used the moment to protest. “This is a show trial to coordinate the genocide of transgender people,” she chanted over and over. Open Vallejo investigated how a once brilliant math student “spiraled into Zizian ideology and violence.”
• Walking through Carlsbad’s ranunculus fields has been likened to strolling through a Monet painting. The Flower Fields include some 80 million specimens, arrayed like brushstrokes across a slope overlooking the Pacific. The public is invited to soak in the beauty of the fields between March and May. S.D. Union-Tribune | L.A. Times

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Thanks for reading!

The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.

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