CA Summer: BYO Fire Extinguisher

California’s apocalypse buffet is open: yank undocumented labor from the economy and watch $275 billion evaporate; cue summer infernos with one spark from BBQ during the approaching tinderbox summer; D.C. nixes carbon pilots while Sacramento chokes on refinery shutdown math. It’s not all bad news though! After all of that, we’re bringing a little bit of levity via a bucolic NorCal police blotter that at times reads like poetry. We’re also serving up a podcast survival guide for the next big LA earthquake, and five rapid-fire curiosities, from missing cosmic matter found by Owens Valley satellite dishes to AI gold-rush salaries. Grab water, sunscreen, and antacids — this week’s news is served up hot.

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Into the fray…

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DE-PORTENTS OF DOOM

California’s economy is a Jenga tower built on immigrant labor, and a bombshell new study by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute warns that mass deportations will likely cause a cataclysmic economic tumble. Boot 1.5 million undocumented workers and you wipe out eight percent of the workforce, vaporize $275 billion in annual wages and business output, and torch $23 billion in public tax revenue. Construction and agriculture — already gasping for hands — would flat-line; small businesses, 40 percent immigrant-owned, would implode. Expect pricier produce, more DIY home-renovation projects, and a housing crunch upgraded from crisis to… whatever comes after crisis. The study’s subtext is simple: comprehensive immigration reform beats the heck out of economic self-immolation.

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<READ THE REPORT>

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🌡️ 😬 🔥 - MORE LIKE, “CALI-FIRE-NIA” — California’s tinderbox summer is gearing up to be a doozy. Early Sierra snowmelt, a bumper grass crop and forecast triple-digit heat promise to prime the state for flash-droughts and more megafires. The northern hills are already flaring, and officials expect above-normal fire activity by September. Meanwhile, federal budget cuts threaten the weather, Forest Service and FEMA crews Cal Fire depends on, meaning fewer engines and aircraft when the sparks fly. Last year’s heat wave blindsided forecasters — this year they see the punch coming. Will advance knowledge be enough to get out in front of an unfolding catastrophe? — NY Times

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🔋 💸 🪫 - CARBON CANCEL CULTURE — President Trump’s Department of Energy just axed $3.7 billion for 24 carbon-cutting pilot projects, including three California flagships, because they allegedly flunked a new “return on investment” sniff test. Gone are a $500 million net-zero cement plant in Lebec, a $270 million CO₂-scrubber for Yuba City’s Sutter gas plant, and a $75 million electric glass furnace in Modesto. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the projects “do not advance the energy needs of the American people.” Democrats erupted: the terminations will “increase energy prices, hamper innovation, and set us backwards as we strive toward a clean energy future,” Senators Schiff and Padilla warned. — LA Times

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⛽ 🤔 💰 - CRUDE AWAKENING — California vows to decarbonize by shuttering refineries — Phillips 66 next year, Valero Benicia in 2026 — erasing about a fifth of the state’s refining capacity and sending gas prices hurtling toward $8 a gallon, according to economists. Long celebrated for its aggressive climate policies that have set the table for a national clean energy revolution, a puzzling split-screen is emerging: even as refineries wind down and low-income Californians struggle with mounting costs, the state is the largest global consumer of Amazonian oil, shipping in more than 50 million barrels of Ecuadorian crude every year. Those imports — in addition to traveling almost 4,000 miles in a ship burning high viscosity bunker fuel — have now drawn the scorn of Indigenous leaders from Ecuador. — Associated Press

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: THE BIG ONE

When The Big One hits it’ll take under two minutes for more than 10 million Southern Californians to lose internet, power, and a sense of security. Host Jacob Margolis and producer Misha Euceph take you on a 10-episode journey to understand what the catastrophic earthquake will mean for Los Angeles, the U.S. and the world. This is what you need to know to survive.— LAist

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🧑‍🍳 💋 🤌 - A+++ SHERIFF’S CALLS

The Point Reyes Light has been bringing local news to the residents of rural western Marin County since 1948. Most of the coverage includes stories of local interest; think land use, farming issues and the comings and goings of local businesses. The plucky little paper has also managed to land a big story from time to time, snagging a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for its intrepid reporting on the nefarious Syanon cult. But for all the good work done by the journalists and contributors to the paper, perhaps nothing is as delightful as its police blotter, a typically prosaic newspaper relic that has mostly faded into obscurity. The Light’s “Sheriff’s Calls” section reads like a cryptic tone poem, with entries drawing the contours of the idyllic community in shades both picayune and enigmatic. Some recent favorites:

• POINT REYES STATION: At 11:54 a.m. a woman said 50 cars had parked by no-parking signs on a field by her house and more were pulling up as she was speaking.
• POINT REYES STATION: At 10:47 a.m. someone passed a barefoot man standing in the highway and staring at the ground.
• STINSON BEACH: At 3:38 p.m. someone called about a certain woman.
• POINT REYES STATION: At 4:03 p.m. someone reported the theft of 20 video games worth $100 each.
• BOLINAS: At 11:45 a.m. a person who drives a minivan with a Make America Healthy Again bumper sticker said the air had been let out of their tires and the word “Nazi” scrawled on the trunk. A San Francisco man later apologized.

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It’s well worth a read. - Point Reyes Light

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 📡 Owens Valley radio dishes pinpoint universe’s missing matter. CNN
2. 👀 A's Fisher still short on Vegas $$, even with sale of Earthquakes. Sports Illustrated
3. 💸 Yes, California is a donor state. You’re welcome, America. LA Times
4. 🤖 Newsom taps AI experts for big report as Trump aims to gut state regs. CA Gov

💰 Bay Area tech job market is going absolutely bonkers for AI engineers. SFGate