It's Wednesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law measures including one that makes it easier to force people into mental health and addiction treatment, and vetoed others including a proposed ban on caste discrimination. Plus, a new Senate candidate enters the race. |
 | | Gov. Gavin Newsom, photographed during a television interview last month, had hundreds of bills on his desk and faced a Saturday deadline to sign or reject them.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times |
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It's been an especially busy few days for Gov. Gavin Newsom. |
Though many bills remain pending — of the more than 2,600 bills introduced this legislative session, the most in a decade, roughly 900 of them made it to Newsom's desk — the governor has already cast his final vote on some particularly high-profile and closely watched measures. |
On Tuesday, the governor signed a bill to make it easier to detain people with mental health and addiction issues and force them into treatment. The new law, which critics say infringes on civil liberties, is part of a broader effort to overhaul the state's mental health system and address homelessness in California. |
"The mental health crisis affects us all, and people who need the most help have been too often overlooked," Newsom said in a statement on Tuesday. "We are working to ensure no one falls through the cracks, and that people get the help they need and the respect they deserve." |
Over the holiday weekend, the governor signed a landmark bill requiring major companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a requirement that could have national and global repercussions in the fight against climate change. |
Newsom has also vetoed many measures this year: 143 over the weekend alone, according to CalMatters. Among his particularly consequential rejections: |
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 | | State Senator Steven Bradford, center, created the legislation to have an "Ebony Alert," intended to help find missing Black children.Jason Henry for The New York Times |
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- California will be the first state to have an "Ebony Alert," intended specifically to help find missing Black children, NBC News reports.
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- Steve Garvey, the former first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, announced that he would run as a Republican for the Senate seat left open by Dianne Feinstein's death.
- Baseball, softball, flag football, lacrosse and cricket are among the sports being proposed for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
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- After nearly three years, Vice President Kamala Harris is still struggling to make the case for herself — and feels she shouldn't have to.
- San Francisco wants a case about removal of homeless encampments from city streets transferred to a judge who is overseeing an earlier local dispute over street tents and camps, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- A court ruling allowing noncitizen parents in San Francisco to vote in local school board elections became final when the leader of a conservative nonprofit said he wouldn't appeal it, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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 | | Adam Perez for The New York Times |
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Today's tip comes from Kathleen Kilpatrick, who recommends a road trip through Owens Valley in eastern California: |
"My son and I just took a trip to Owens Valley, east of the Sierra. Once we got out of Bakersfield into the Kern River Canyon, the scenery was fantastic almost everywhere we went. A few roads were closed because of the unusual storm that passed through at the end of August, which a young man in a visitor center referred to as 'our hurricane.' Rabbit brush and wildflowers were blooming, and the high desert was unseasonably green. We traveled Movie Road up to the closed sign, had a very moving visit to Manzanar, ate lunch by a rushing creek. The museum in Independence had been recommended. We found more local history there, and the biggest collection of Native American baskets I'd ever seen. The next day, we wound up to the bristlecone pines, at over 9,000 feet. Did you know they have purple pine cones? There were sweeping views of mountains everywhere we went. After two nights in Bishop, we went home through Yosemite, more spectacular scenery, although more crowded than anywhere else we had been." |
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We'll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter. |
We're looking to feature more of your favorite places to visit in California. Send us suggestions for day trips, scenic outlooks, hikes and more. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
 | | The campus at the University of California, Irvine, which was part of an inaugural program for incarcerated people to pursue bachelor's degrees in prison.Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times, via, Getty Images |
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And before you go, some good news |
Patrick Acuña spent most of the last 30 years in California's state prisons serving a life sentence he received at age 19. Now, a year after his release, Acuña is beginning his final year at the University of California, Irvine, where he will graduate with a degree in social ecology. |
Acuña began taking community college courses decades ago while still in prison and earned two associate degrees. But the glimmer of higher education remained elusive for him until 2022, when the University of California system inaugurated a program for incarcerated people to pursue bachelor's degrees in prison. Acuña became one of just 26 people at his San Diego facility to be admitted to U.C. Irvine. |
In 2018, his case was retried and his sentence commuted, leading to his release last October and an eventual move to Irvine's campus, a first for his program. The change was often difficult but worthwhile, he said, crediting his rehabilitation to education. |
"We engage in education because once we get a taste of it, we understand that it transforms our lives in ways we don't even initially understand," Acuña told EdSource in an interview. "It broadens our perspective." |
Yesterday's newsletter misstated Representative Nancy Pelosi's connection to an all-girls high school in San Francisco, the Convent of the Sacred Heart. Her daughters attended the school, but Ms. Pelosi did not. (She went to high school in Baltimore.) |
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow. — Soumya |
Maia Coleman and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com. |
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