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California Today

What to Know About California’s New Police Use-of-Force Law

Tuesday: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law one of the nation’s toughest standards for the use of deadly force. Also: A stunning turn in the Ghost Ship fire trial.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom held up the police use-of-force measure written by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, left, that he signed. Stevante Clark, right, raised a photo of his brother, Stephon Clark, who was killed by the police in 2018.Credit...Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Good morning.

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On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law one of the nation’s toughest standards for the use of deadly force by the police, ending years of often tense discussion and providing bittersweet relief for families of those killed by officers.

The bill goes to the heart of some of our most sacred principles, in which force should be exercised judiciously, with respect for human life and dignity,” the governor said in a statement.

[Read more about how the fight over how to police the police developed, and how one high-profile shooting added urgency.]

As Laurel Rosenhall, a reporter for CalMatters wrote last month, the bill legislators passed this year represented a compromise.

Though the law requires that the police use deadly force only “when necessary in defense of human life” — a more stringent standard than before — civil rights advocates and law enforcement groups agreed to drop from the bill provisions that would have held officers criminally liable in more cases.

[Read more about how the legislation works from CalMatters and The Times.]

The legislation was spurred by the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed young black man who was gunned down in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento in March 2018 when the police mistook a cellphone he was holding for a gun.

An analysis of police footage by The New York Times found he was killed within 23 seconds. Officers fired 20 times.

When Sacramento prosecutors and Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office both decided not to criminally prosecute the officers, protests roiled the capital.

“This is the Stephon Clark law,” Mr. Clark’s brother, Stevante Clark, said after the bill was signed on Monday, according to The Sacramento Bee. “This is about his legacy.”

[Read more about the Stephon Clark case here.]

(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.)

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The lawyers Tony Serra, left, and Curtis Briggs, center, who represent defendants in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire trial, leaving Alameda County Superior Court on Monday.Credit...Noah Berger/Associated Press
  • Families, defendants and lawyers were waiting for jurors in the Ghost Ship fire trial to return with a verdict early this week. Instead, the judge replaced three jurors with alternates and ordered the panel to restart deliberations.

    The judge didn’t outline what prompted their removal, but said that — thanks to scheduling conflicts and the fact that a single alternate juror remains — it was possible that the four-month proceeding could end in a mistrial. [The East Bay Times]

    Here’s more about the charges in the case. [The New York Times]

    And here’s a long read about one of the defendants, Max Harris. [The New York Times Magazine]

  • A retired Cal State Fullerton administrator who worked on campus as a consultant was stabbed to death in a car on Monday, in a chilling act of violence that the police said was targeted — not random. An incendiary device was found in a backpack under the car, the authorities said, and the suspect fled on foot. [The Orange County Register]

  • Austin James Vincent, a man accused of attacking a woman just outside her condo in San Francisco’s Embarcadero neighborhood, is back in jail after a judge said she released him with an ankle monitor before she saw security footage of the incident. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

    Although The Chronicle reported that it’s not clear whether Mr. Vincent is homeless, a group opposing a planned homeless shelter nearby, Safe Embarcadero for All, used the incident to renew calls for city officials to halt the shelter’s construction. Here’s more about the group and that fight. [The New York Times]

  • China has adopted Russia’s tactics of spreading disinformation using Facebook and Twitter, the two social media companies said on Monday. [The New York Times]

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The Trump administration’s proposal would significantly weaken President Barack Obama’s auto-emissions standards.Credit...Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
  • Mercedes-Benz is preparing to join an agreement between California and four automakers in opposition to the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back regulation of vehicle emissions. President Trump was described as “enraged” by the deal. [The New York Times]

  • California’s rural stretches are facing a worsening doctor shortage. [CalMatters]

  • To power increasingly data-heavy artificial intelligence operations, a start-up built a giant computer chip — literally: It’s the size of a dinner plate, 100 times the size of a typical chip. [The New York Times]

  • K. Connie Kang, who was thought to be the first Korean-American woman to work as a reporter in the United States, died last week at 76. She was hired to cover a community recently besieged by violence for The Los Angeles Times in 1992, then wrote about Asian-Americans for decades with fairness and sensitivity. [The Los Angeles Times]

  • “When I think about Lolo’s history in America — the murder, the war, his thuggery — my biggest question is still whether he was a monster.” A journalist grapples with stories of her immigrant grandfather’s life in California and what they say about America. [NPR]

  • “Today is obviously a historic opportunity for not just Howard but I think all historically black colleges and universities.” Stephen Curry, of basketball fame, also loves golf. He’s sponsoring the sport’s return to Howard University. [The New York Times]

  • A domestic cockatiel does not simply end up in jail. But somehow that’s what happened in Santa Barbara County. [The San Luis Obispo Tribune]

  • The next hot cuisine in the Bay? Georgian food. (And don’t forget the funky Georgian wine to go with it.) [The San Francisco Chronicle]

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Central to Brian Rochefort’s practice are experiments in form, texture and finish. These amorphous, colorful works were inspired by his travels to different craters and reefs.Credit...Dustin Aksland

Monday was a long day with several unexpected turns in California news.

So now, please enjoy some colorful, oozing, volcano-inspired ceramics made in Los Angeles by the artist Brian Rochefort, courtesy of T Magazine.

The artist, whose first institutional show recently opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, is one of the magazine’s 15 new creative talents.


California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

Jill Cowan is the California Today correspondent, keeping tabs on the most important things happening in her home state every day. More about Jill Cowan

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