In CA: Big tuna, a big loss for Disney, and is COVID going to cancel Christmas?
Plus: That rosy coronavirus data Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday may not be accurate. And something that's definitely not accurate? The way the president pronounces Yosemite.
With a Tuesday trip around the state, I'm Shad Powers, a columnist at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. We've got coronavirus taking aim at Disney and Christmas, but one 92-year-old woman is fighting back.
But first, a reporter from the San Diego Union-Tribune was tired of working at home in her non-air-conditioned apartment. Knowing that her newspaper likely wouldn't let employees back in the newsroom anytime soon, she came up with a creative solution. She leased cheap office space. "It has a door, a printer and a wastebasket. There’s a microwave where I can reheat my coffee. After months of working from home, this feels like an unreasonable luxury." Read her whole office space-leasing saga, and maybe you'll want to find a nearby office for yourself.
In California brings you top Golden State stories and commentary from across the Paste BN Network and beyond. Get it free, straight to your inbox.
Disney down $5 billion thanks to closures
The 'happiest place on Earth' has been rendered sad this summer by coronavirus-forced closures. And Disney execs put a number to that sadness Tuesday. The Walt Disney Company lost nearly $5 billion in April, May and June while its theme parks were shut down due to the pandemic, according to a presentation Disney executives made Tuesday.
It cost the company $3.5 billion just to close the parks during the quarter, on top of the $1 billion it cost to shut them down in the second half of March.
Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Paris both reopened in July; Disneyland in Anaheim backed off its plan to reopen July 17 amid the COVID-19 surge in California and has not announced a new reopening date. Shanghai Disneyland reopened in May. While Hong Kong Disneyland reopened in June, it closed again in July because of a new coronavirus outbreak.
Calif. COVID test result data may be flawed, says top health official
A steep decline in California’s coronavirus infection rate announced by Gov. Gavin Newson on Monday may not be accurate, according to the state’s top public health official who said Tuesday that the state’s data system used to process COVID-19 test results is marred with technical issues.
According to the L.A. Times, the snafus have caused delays in analyzing test results and cast doubt on Newsom’s announcement of a 21.2% decline in the seven-day average rate for positive infections compared to the average from the week before.
Los Angeles County's health department said it learned of new technical issues related to the collection of test results during an emergency meeting Monday night with state officials.
Super-big fish alert!
Rare giant Pacific bluefin tuna have been schooling off of Half Moon Bay, and it has turned the world of fishing upside down. Tuna up to 150 pounds have arrived as close as 3 miles from Pillar Point Harbor.
“We are walking on clouds, what we’re getting to experience,” Doug Laughlin of the Coastside Fishing Club told the San Francisco Chronicle. About 30 to 35 tuna have been caught in the past week, Laughlin said, and far more have been lost as anglers scramble to figure out how to hook, fight and land the giant and elusive prize.
SoCalGas sues state over climate change policy
Southern California Gas Co. is taking its battle with state officials over climate change policy to court, arguing in a new lawsuit that the California Energy Commission has failed to promote natural gas as required by state law. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court, is the latest attempt by SoCalGas to shield itself against efforts to phase out gas, a planet-warming fossil fuel used for heating, cooking and power generation. The company, which maintains its headquarters in Los Angeles and is owned by Sempra Energy of San Diego, took in $4.5 billion in operating revenue last year.
Trump gets Yosemite trending on social media
(Spoiler alert) Not for the right reasons: The event was supposed to be a historic signing ceremony for a conservation bill to provide billions of dollars to national parks — a rare bipartisan effort that White House officials hoped would boost the teetering re-election campaigns of several Republican senators. Instead, it turned into a social media cringe-storm as President Donald Trump mispronounced the word "Yosemite" while reading his message, calling it "Yo-se-MIGHT" then stopping to correct himself and making it worse adding a syllable, calling the park “YO-se-min-NIGHT.” (You can watch and listen here).
Coronavirus already attacking Christmas
COVID-19 hasn't yet canceled Christmas in Visalia, but it kind of feels like it. Organizers of the annual Candy Cane Lane Parade said Tuesday the 75th edition will not be held in December. The parade draws roughly 30,000 people and typically has more than 100 entries, including numerous floats, bands from schools across the Central Valley, and, of course, Santa Claus. C'mon, coronavirus, have a heart!
Diversifying the narrative
Change through literature: In the Conejo Valley Unified School District (Thousand Oaks area), none of the books on the required high school English reading list are written by people of color. Of the 101 books approved for both required and supplemental reading at the high school level, only 13 are written by minorities. Four of those 13 books are written by Black authors. A student-run campaign called Diversify Our Narrative is trying to change that. DON co-founder Katelin Zhou explains that the organization she and a friend began in June hopes to create change by holding school boards accountable for the literary choices they make.
And finally, some good news
Meet Penny Grimes, who proves there's no masking kindness. The 92-year-old Stockton woman has been sewing protective masks for people since February. At first, Grimes would just put them out on a table in front of her house for people in her neighborhood to take, but has since also made some for local hospitals. She has also supplied some to local hospice nurses and patients, even volunteering to help sew gowns and smocks that provide better protection for them during the pandemic.
Way to go, Penny! Thanks for ending today's newsletter on a positive note.
Until tomorrow, have a great day and a Yo-se-min-NIGHT!
In California is a roundup of news from across Paste BN Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle.