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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 Friday, December 20.
- Amazon workers strike during the pre-Christmas rush.
- Prosecutors pledge to make the most of Proposition 36.
- And a couple builds their retirement home in Yosemite.
Please note: The newsletter will be off next week, returning Monday, Dec. 30. Please enjoy your holiday and thank you for a great year.
Statewide
1.
Less than a week before Christmas, an estimated 9,000 Amazon workers went on strike Thursday over the company’s refusal to recognize the Teamsters union and bargain with them. Workers at seven warehouses joined the action, including facilities in San Francisco, Victorville, City of Industry, and Palmdale. “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” said Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien. Amazon accused the Teamsters of pushing a “false narrative” that it represents the employees. L.A. Times | Washington Post
2.
“It’s a new day for the rule of law in San Diego County and California.”
— San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan
“It’s time to have some accountability under the law.”
— Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp
“When arrested, you will be taken to jail.”
— Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho
Six weeks after California voted overwhelmingly to increase penalties for theft and drug crimes, prosecutors across the state pledged to translate Proposition 36 into action as the law took effect on Wednesday. S.D. Union-Tribune | KFSN | KCRA
3.
California added nearly a quarter of a million residents in 2024, bringing the state’s population close to its record high before the pandemic, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday. The state’s population peaked at 39,555,674 in 2020. The new total is 39,341,263, or only about 125,000 short of the all-time high. Jeff Bellisario, who heads the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, noted that California is still growing more slowly than other large states. But, he added, “I do think there is some truth to the narrative of folks coming back to California.” Mercury News
- A surge of immigrants accounted for the majority of the nation’s recent population growth, federal estimates showed. Wall Street Journal
4.
A journey through personal grief in the Mojave Desert.
An unflinching look at the legacy of John Muir.
And the story of the peculiar Los Angeles River.
Podcast host Jeff Schechtman shared his five favorite interviews from 2024. 👉 California Sun Podcast
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Northern California
5.
In the U.S., the likelihood that a freed convict will return to prison within five years is 45.8%. For the graduates of a program known as Guiding Rage Into Power, or GRIP, offered at a handful of California prisons, the rate is 1.7%. During a GRIP session at the state prison in Vacaville in September, inmates talked about traumas such as violent stepfathers, drug-addicted mothers, and sexual abuse. A facilitator likened them to fuel in a barrel, sitting there for years. “What happens if someone throws a match?” he said. Mother Jones explored what makes GRIP work and why it isn’t happening everywhere.
6.
San Francisco hired a fat acceptance activist and author named Virgie Tovar to educate its public health department staff. Tovar, whose book titles include “The Self-Love Revolution” and “You Have the Right to Remain Fat,” has said she is guided by the philosophy “lose hate, not weight.” In an Instagram post celebrating the San Francisco appointment, Tovar said it was her “biggest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.” S.F. Chronicle
7.
A coalition of elected officials and community leaders in Oakland urged Rep. Barbara Lee, who is ending her House career this year, to run for mayor. Oakland needs a leader who can “restore integrity to the office of the mayor” and “unite us in a time of division,” the group wrote in an open letter published Thursday. “That person is Barbara Lee.” Some mayoral candidates have already said they would preemptively concede defeat should Lee, 78, a liberal icon who is widely beloved in Oakland, enter the race. S.F. Chronicle | Oaklandside
8.
As they prepare to enter retirement, Katy and Rick Jacobson have erected a home on a rare piece of real estate — a private lot inside Yosemite National Park. The lot is known as an “inholding,” a private pocket of land that was established before the surrounding area became protected. Their $1.9 million home, with a double-height great room that opens to Yosemite’s natural splendor, was finished in 2022. The Wall Street Journal has pictures.
Southern California
9.
The federal authorities on Thursday arrested a Chinese man on charges of acting as a foreign agent while managing the campaign of an unnamed politician elected to a city council in the Los Angeles area in 2022. According to a criminal complaint, Yaoning Sun, 64, claimed credit for getting a “rising star” elected. Officials said the case reflected China’s “long game approach” of reaching into local elections on hopes that candidates will eventually inhabit more senior political perches. Sources told the Los Angeles Times that the politician is Arcadia City Councilmember Eileen Wang. L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
10.
More than 80 people were sickened by a norovirus outbreak while attending a celebration of the Los Angeles Times’ annual “101 Best Restaurants” list, health officials said. The illnesses appeared to be linked to raw oysters served at the Dec. 3 event. Guests described bouts of relentless vomiting and wrenching stomach pain. Javier Cabral, a food writer who prides himself on having a strong stomach, said it was the most horrible food poisoning he’d ever experienced. “Two little oysters brought me down in a way that made me honestly a little scared,” he said. L.A. Taco | N.Y. Times
11.
Between 1983 and 1987, the photographer Ken Light embedded with U.S. Border Patrol agents as they intercepted migrants trying to sneak across rugged border terrain into Southern California. The images, revisited in the volume “Midnight La Frontera,” focus narrowly on moments of capture — in vehicle trunks, tunnels, and desert scrub — when hope turns abruptly to despair. “It was extremely hard and sad,” Light told an interviewer, “but it was important to document.” Lens Culture | KenLight.com
In case you missed it
12.
Five items that got big views over the past week:
- Few photographers were able to capture Marilyn Monroe in unguarded moments like Eve Arnold, Magnum’s first female photographer, with whom Monroe shared a special rapport. A new collection of Arnold’s work includes several never-before-seen photos. People | Huck magazine
- Almost all of the canine blood used by California veterinaries comes from kennels where captive animals exist as full-time blood suppliers. An effort launched by state lawmakers in 2021 to establish a more humane system failed, leaving California tethered to the kennels for many more years to come, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
- Every fall, thousands of ladybugs descend on an otherwise unremarkable stretch of trail inside a Bay Area park, where they hibernate for the winter. It’s “baffling,” said naturalist Michael Charnofsky. “Why are they doing this? How are there so many of them in one place?” S.F. Chronicle
- Mount Waterman, a small ski resort in San Gabriel Mountains, is so low-key that it doesn’t have a Twitter account. But it has awesome terrain and new owners with big plans, including a snow-making system, an amphitheater, and glamping cabins. N.Y. Times
- Along a stretch of the 101 in Mendocino County, a road splinters off that arrives at a golden arched gate. On the other side is a monastic community called the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Travel writer Silas Valentino described it as a “city that appears to have been dropped into the Northern California foothills from a faraway land.” SFGATE
Thanks for reading!
The California Sun is written by Mike McPhate, a former California correspondent for the New York Times.
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