California Sun

09/12/2023

It was on this day 100 years ago that 3,700 light bulbs first illuminated the Hollywood sign.

Here's a look back at how pranksters have altered the 45-foot white letters over the years. 👉 https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/kevin-mccarthys-extravagant-spending-california-faces-68-billion-deficit

08/12/2023

One year out of USC, reporting fellow Angie Orellana Hernandez showed some mettle for her first big story in the L.A. Times: a profile of Los Angeles' last p**n theater.

In the darkened halls of the Tiki Theater, she met the men who pay $20 for four-hour tickets to see such features as “Tiny & Tight Size Queens 2” and “Stepmom Seductions.”
https://californiasun.co/newsletter/kevin-mccarthys-early-exit-los-angeles-last-p**n-theater/ **n

06/12/2023

Sea Ranch, the utopian community spread out along the Sonoma coast, is celebrated for its oneness with the natural world. A bluff-top home takes the harmony to another level with a portal that amplifies the sounds of the ocean.

Yours for $8 million.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/the-commonality-of-texans-and-californians-three-impressive-properties-up-for-grabs/

06/12/2023

Sacramento once had one of the nation’s most vibrant Japantowns.

Sacramento's old Japantown was born in the latter half of the 19th century, as migrants from Asia responded to California’s need for farm and railroad

05/12/2023

There's a third redwood, first identified in the 1940s. When a Berkeley paleontologist laid eyes on the dawn redwood, he described it as remarkable as finding a living dinosaur.

Most Californians are familiar with California’s two redwoods, the hulking giant sequoias of the Sierra and the soaring coast redwoods that huddle in the

04/12/2023

There are still places in California where the median home value falls below $200,000.

In tiny China Lake Acres, 70 miles east of Bakersfield, the median home is $151,000 and the school system gets a rating of A-. In beautiful Burney, near Mount Shasta, the median rent is $871.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/oakland-teachers-plan-palestine-teach-in-flamingos-of-san-diego-bay/

30/11/2023

In the early 1800s, a mysterious Indian warrior defied a nation in a legendary fight for the Stanislaus River. His statue now stands outside the courthouse in downtown Modesto.

https://www.californiasun.co/an-indian-warriors-legendary-fight-for-the-stanislaus-river/

28/11/2023

Sacramento once had one of the nation’s most vibrant Japantowns. Its shops were leveled for office towers, a condo complex, and bureaucratic buildings.

https://www.californiasun.co/sacramento-once-had-one-of-the-nations-most-vibrant-japantowns/

27/11/2023

Paso Robles, the sunny wine town midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, has become celebrated for its world-class offerings and unpretentious cowboy vibe.

Here are the 12 best wineries in Paso right now.

https://californiasun.co/newsletter/the-cursive-comeback-two-years-with-a-hotshot-fire-crew/

25/11/2023

A maze of granitic boulders, golden-hued arches, and badland gullies made Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills ideal for Hollywood cowboy movies.

It's one of five must-see spots in the Eastern Sierra compiled by travel writer Ann Marie Brown.

https://www.californiasun.co/californias-ultimate-outdoor-bucket-list-wonders/ -sierra

22/11/2023

Here's Wesley May hopping from one plane to another in the first “air to air” refueling, performed over Long Beach on Nov. 12, 1921. Six months later, another stunt killed the young daredevil.

https://www.californiasun.co/the-daredevil-wesley-may-performed-the-first-aerial-refueling-over-long-beach-in-1921-another-stunt-killed-him/

22/11/2023

In the late 1990s, the photographer Keith Schoenheit removed the type from a series of darkly lit photos of billboards around Los Angeles, turning tools of commerce into objects of fine art.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/openai-employees-threaten-exodus-lawmakers-demand-answers-after-chp-shooting/

22/11/2023

There's a third redwood.

It grows in China and it bursts into riotous color in the fall.

https://www.californiasun.co/the-little-known-third-redwood/

21/11/2023

Remember Batkid, who saved San Francisco 10 years ago?

Miles Scott, then 5 and battling cancer, transformed into a superhero as part of a Make-A-Wish event. Now 15, he's cancer free and playing catcher for his high school baseball team in Tulelake.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/addiction-ravages-hoopa-tribe-salt-of-the-earth-getaway-in-wine-country/

20/11/2023

Eight miles north of Healdsburg, the unofficial epicenter of Northern California’s wine country, is a tiny salt-of-the-earth town with charms of its own.

Here's a suggested weekend road trip to Geyserville.
https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/addiction-ravages-hoopa-tribe-salt-of-the-earth-getaway-in-wine-country/

17/11/2023

Cal Poly Humboldt's student newspaper says university President Tom Jackson has refused to speak to its journalists four years. This semester alone, the paper has requested an interview 25 times.

16/11/2023

Since 2005, the number of journalists in California has fallen by 68%.

Executive Summary Introduction Newspapers Digital Public Broadcasting Ethnic Media The Possibilities for Reviving Local News Executive Summary There was both good news and bad news for local journalism this past year. The good news raised the possibility that a range of proposals and programs could....

15/11/2023

One day in 1961, a line of black cats on leashes held by housewives in heels and bouffant hairdos stretched down North Bronson Avenue in Hollywood. It was an open audition for a film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat.”

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/farming-family-uses-huge-share-of-colorado-river-major-storm-to-douse-state/

13/11/2023

In the 1950s, a couple on vacation fell in love with a remote headland at the southern end of Big Sur known as Ragged Point and opened a tiny motel that now has has 39 rooms.

Here's a fantastic two-day road trip from San Luis Obispo to Ragged Point.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/farming-family-uses-huge-share-of-colorado-river-major-storm-to-douse-state/

09/11/2023

In the early 2010s, American Apparel billboards displayed half-naked young women all over Los Angeles.

For the photographer Thomas Alleman, the juxtaposition of urban blight and escapist fantasy raised a lot of questions.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/hollywood-to-get-back-to-work-american-apparel-billboards-of-2010s-los-angeles/

07/11/2023

Matthew Broderick is starring in “Babbitt,” a stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’ 1922 satiric novel of the same name, opening today at the La Jolla Playhouse.

The playwright Joe DiPietro said he wrote the title character specifically for Broderick.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/jewish-man-dies-after-protest-altercation-mark-arax-on-the-rebuilding-of-paradise/

03/11/2023

A modernist home built in the East Bay hills for the jazz great Dave Brubeck hit the market for the first time in decades. Yours for $3 million.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/abrupt-end-to-sam-bankman-fried-saga-dave-brubecks-celebrated-home-hits-market/

02/11/2023

There's a diner in San Francisco that hasn't closed in 50 years, where die-hard regulars know you can get a shot of ouzo served with your doughnuts.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/beginning-of-the-end-for-san-diego-newspaper-most-troubled-corner-in-san-francisco/

01/11/2023

Judi Oyama is 64 years old and just qualified for the World Skate Games in Rome. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, she began skateboarding as a teenager in the 1970s, becoming one of a handful of Asian-American female professional skateboarders.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/state-lawmaker-denounces-antisemitism-on-steroids-tributes-pour-in-for-matthew-perry/

27/10/2023

This summer, the artist Thomas Jackson had a team help him attach colorful puffs of fabric to roughly 800 poles on the edge of San Francisco Bay.

The installation, called “Collaborative Nature,” is like a fire mixed with a superbloom, Jackson says.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/gov-gavin-newsom-meets-with-chinas-xi-jinping-san-franciscos-sluggish-housing-approvals/

26/10/2023

In the early 1900s, miners carved a more than a dozen dwellings in the caliche clay embankments near the subterranean Amargosa River northeast of Barstow.

Dubbed Dublin Gulch, it's today one of California’s most unusual ghost towns.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/writers-guild-addresses-silence-on-hamas-attack-cruise-robotaxis-banned-from-san-francisco-streets/

24/10/2023

Live music, tractor rides, sourdough pizza, lavender honey ice cream, and lavender mojitos: Until the end of this month, a farm at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains is hosting its seasonal Lavender Nights festival.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/off-duty-pilot-accused-of-trying-to-cut-plane-engines-hazards-of-life-in-slab-city/

20/10/2023

The San Diego Architectural Foundation's Orchids & Onions 2023 prizes, announced this week, included an Onion for SDG&E, which thought the best place for a new utility box was directly in the middle of a sidewalk.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/newsom-to-make-surprise-visit-to-israel-l-a-hospitals-soaring-use-of-restraints/

19/10/2023

From a 14-mile trek to Half Dome (permit required at the end) to a more gentle 4-mile walk to Eagle Falls, here are Mary West's essential Gold Country hikes.

https://californiasun.co/californias-ultimate-outdoor-bucket-list-wonders/ -country

18/10/2023

Meet California's new state bat.

The pallid bat has a golden coat — “perfect for the Golden State," according to State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, who introduced the bill to anoint the invaluable agents of pest control.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/california-republicans-back-jim-jordan-huntington-beach-to-review-library-books/

17/10/2023

You can now ride rail bikes through California’s Gold Country, along 4 miles of the historic Amador Central line in the foothills east of Sacramento. The rail bikes come fitted with an electric motor, so pedaling is minimal.
https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/californias-homeschooling-surge-central-coast-resistance-to-wind-farms/

15/10/2023

The Mecca Hills Wilderness, just north of the Salton Sea, is a maze of wrinkled, colorful cliffs and plunging canyons — it’s also BLM land, so you can camp pretty much anywhere you like for free.
https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/californization-of-the-texas-housing-market-modoc-county-prepares-for-eclipse-watchers/

12/10/2023

Castle Crags is a spectacular world of granite spires jutting from the forest just off I-5 in Shasta County. Thousands of motorists zip by everyday unaware of the hidden wonder.

Photo by Nick Rickert

https://unsplash.com/photos/dHXcOy3umtE

12/10/2023

You can stay in an amazing old fire lookout in Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Built in 1931, the Girard Ridge Lookout was restored in the 1990s and opened to public use for $75 a night.

https://californiasun.co/newsletter/governor-breaks-pledge-on-tiny-homes-for-homeless-san-francisco-tickets-stolen-cars/

10/10/2023

In 2017, on a lark, the landscape photographer Reuben Wu tested a long-exposure photograph of an illuminated drone over a nighttime landscape. The result was a revelation, leading Wu to shift how he approaches his craft.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/protesters-respond-to-mideast-carnage-billionaire-who-gave-away-his-fortune-dies/

06/10/2023

This week, the NY Times weighed in on the best restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In LA, here's 25 to choose from: Perfectly made pastas, Thai-inspired tacos, and a "powerhouse of North African and Middle Eastern cooking."

https://californiasun.co/newsletter/matt-gaetz-takes-his-shot-tejal-raos-25-favorite-l-a-restaurants/

And here's another 25 in San Francisco, including including a Korean menu of unusual sophistication and precision, classic Moroccan dishes dressed in seasonal garb, and a standout practitioner of the Mission-style burrito:

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/the-fall-of-kevin-mccarthy-california-school-is-predators-playground/

05/10/2023

Los Olivos was named America’s best small town for food and culture in a travel magazine ranking that relied on polling of a “network of experts.” Nestled in the bucolic Santa Ynez Valley, Los Olivos is only 2.5 square miles but has 27 wineries.

The main drag is lined with open-air tasting rooms, galleries, and Victorian architecture. Fall, when the weather is warm during the day and crisp in the evening, is the best time to visit.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/airbnb-tenant-from-hell-refuses-to-leave-americas-best-small-town-for-food-and-culture/

02/10/2023

Yelp ranked the top 100 taco places in the U.S. based on the volume and ratings of customer reviews, among other factors. One out of every three in the top 50 were in California.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/unyielding-tragedy-in-round-valley-best-taco-places-across-california/

28/09/2023

Fall is beginning to flaunt its colors at higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada. Here are some views from Virginia Lakes, Mammoth Lakes, Convict Lake, and Rock Creek Lake — and our guide to five dazzling fall destinations.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/bipartisan-push-to-clear-homeless-camps-fall-colors-arrive-in-eastern-sierra/

27/09/2023

Richard Oakes became the face of the Red Power movement when he led the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. Three years later, a white man fatally shot Oakes on a remote Sonoma County road. The gunman, Michael Oliver Morgan, claimed self-defense and was acquitted.

Fifty years later, a reexamination of the story showed how Morgan harbored racial animus toward Indigenous people and was goaded by a local sheriff’s deputy toward violence.

https://www.californiasun.co/newsletter/target-closes-three-bay-area-stores-over-theft-three-suicides-at-harvard-westlake/