WE’RE #1 (UNFORTUNATELY)

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Welcome back to California, where the beaches are golden, the tech is booming, and 7 million people can’t afford basic necessities. In this week’s rundown, we lament our status as the poverty capital of America (tied with Louisiana, naturally), navigate an energy plan that’s equal parts idealism and pragmatism, and watch ICE turn a lawn job into a takedown outside a SoCal IHOP. Also: CA renewables bust records, research funding hits a wall, and Ishi’s story reminds us that history rarely disappears, it just hides.

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Let’s get to it.

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PERSISTENT POVERTY 

Unless you’re talking about a crawfish boil competition, it’s generally a bad sign if you’re tied with Louisiana at the top of a list. Alas, California and the Pelican State have tied for the top spot in poverty, according to a new report released by the California Budget and Policy Center. After plummeting to an historic low of 11% in 2021, the rate of residents struggling to meet basic needs in 2024 has climbed to 17.7%. In absolute terms, the number is staggering: around 7 million people, or more than the entire population of 34 states. Child poverty has more than doubled over the same span, and more than 21% of seniors now live in poverty, thanks to expiring pandemic-era supports and spiraling medical costs. Nearly one in three renters lives in poverty, and Black and Latino Californians face poverty rates roughly 10 points higher than their white counterparts. As federal cuts slash food aid, health care, and housing assistance, the state's most vulnerable are being squeezed hardest. The full report is well-worth your time.

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<READ THE REPORT>

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🔌 🛢️ 💰  - GREEN DREAMS AND CRUDE REALITIES  — Governor Newsom signed off on California’s latest energy remix: a sweeping, all-of-the-above strategy that threads the needle between climate goals and the stark cost realities that have increasingly befallen beleaguered Californians. The package expands drilling oversight, stabilizes wildfire-prone utilities, extends the carbon market, and funds high-speed rail, all while nudging the West toward a unified energy grid. It’s pragmatic, not purist: an energy and climate plan with boots and Birkenstocks. When it came down to it, legislators skipped the typical Sacramento grandstanding in favor of pragmatism. Seems like a decent way to do things, no? — POLITICO

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😟 🇺🇸 🧊  - ICE ARREST SPARKS OUTCRY  — A peaceful Saturday landscaping workday turned into a violent federal takedown when Narciso Barranco — a peaceful 31-year Southern California resident with no criminal record, father to three U.S. Marines, and husband of a U.S. citizen — was pepper-sprayed, beaten, and arrested outside an IHOP. His crime? Mowing lawns and weeding flower beds too close to a Home Depot that had been targeted by ICE. The Trump-era immigration crackdown met a man who paid taxes, pruned Disneyland hedges, raised patriotic sons, and still got treated like a threat. Viral videos sparked outrage; his family rallied. He’s now free on bond, quietly growing tomatoes while waiting on America to decide what justice looks like. — New York Times

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🌬️ ☀️ 🔋  - RENEWABLES SURGE AHEAD — President Trump has been trying to slam the brakes on green energy from the time he first stepped back into the Oval Office, kneecapping wind farms, axing EV incentives, and keeping coal plants on life support. Despite the onslaught, renewables keep smashing records. In California, the clean energy juggernaut hasn’t slowed down at all. In fact, it’s accelerating. On July 30, solar power supplied two-thirds of the state’s electricity at midday, and fed batteries that later powered nearly a third of the grid after dark. If California’s utility-scale solar were one facility, it would be the second-largest power plant in the world, just after the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River. California’s battery storage, solar generation, and grid resilience have hit record highs this year. And with demand from data centers, EVs, and heat waves rising fast, the timing couldn’t be better. “We’re in an entirely new landscape for load growth, so this is none too soon,” said Forest Bradley-Wright, state and utility policy director at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “Every solution available will need to be called on.” — Bloomberg

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: NATIONAL PARK AFTER DARK: ISHI, LAST OF HIS PEOPLE

National Park After Dark isn’t your average campfire chat. Hosts Cassie and Danielle dive into the wild side of the wilderness — think survival stories, true crime, and the occasional ghost with a park pass. This episode follows Ishi, the last of Northern California’s Yahi people, who emerged from hiding after years alone in the woods — only to find himself caught between a vanished world and a society that had already moved on. — National Park After Dark

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🧑🏼‍🔬 💰 🔬  - UCLA’S “MOZART OF MATH” MAKES CASE FOR RESEARCH FUNDING

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UCLA’s Terence Tao, often called the “Mozart of Math” and widely considered the world’s greatest living mathematician, has spent his career exploring pure mathematics, with results that often have implications far beyond the chalkboard — for science, technology and more. In the video above, Tao discusses the importance of robust federal support for basic research and warns that funding cuts to higher education — including the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants at UCLA — could irreparably damage the nation’s scientific ecosystem and drive our top young researchers abroad. — UCLA

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 😬 CA science grants face courtroom cliffhanger. CalMatters
2. 🥑 Guacamole gets weird at San Francisco's annual Guac-Off. Axios
3. 🏥 ER on E: Rural California hospital nears collapse. CalMatters
4. 🧑‍⚖️ Coalition of UC faculty, workers sue White House. SF Examiner

🚢 Surge of imports into Southern California ends. Wall Street Journal