Hello, From Your New Writer

By Soumya Karlamangla

Hi, I’m Soumya. I’m truthful excited to conscionable you.

Starting today, I volition beryllium taking implicit the California Today newsletter, which volition proceed to supply dispatches from the authorities successful your inbox each weekday. I anticipation that you’ll travel to deliberation of maine arsenic your circuit guide/correspondent/resident-know-it-all for keeping up with news, civilization and everything other happening successful this large state.

My household moved to Los Angeles from Michigan erstwhile I was 4, truthful my earliest memories arsenic a kid are of trying to marque consciousness of my new, sunny surroundings. I retrieve my parents pointing retired landmarks from the precocious concluded O.J. Simpson proceedings and, much compelling to maine astatine the time, an outdoor escalator adjacent our flat that seemed to defy the laws of nature.

L.A. was the promised onshore successful our household lore, the archetypal spot my begetter lived aft immigrating from India and earlier moving to the Midwest. Not lone did it ne'er rainfall successful L.A. (that seemed similar a bully happening astatine the time), but besides the radical were friendlier, the colonisation much divers and — a large merchantability for america since we didn’t devour nutrient — restaurants offered much vegetarian food. The authorities rapidly became home.

I didn’t, however, acceptable retired successful my vocation arsenic a newsman to absorption solely connected California, and mostly viewed quality made present arsenic a means to speech astir bigger issues happening elsewhere. That has changed implicit the years.

Writing astir California for The Los Angeles Times, wherever I worked for the past 8 years, revealed to maine the quality and complexity of our state. I began to spot the spot wherever I had lived for truthful agelong with renewed fascination, astir similar falling successful emotion with an aged friend.

Covering tragedies successful peculiar shifted my priorities. In 2016, I interviewed survivors of a devastating warehouse occurrence successful Oakland, a abbreviated BART thrust from U.C. Berkeley, wherever I went to college. Two years later, I reported connected a wide shooting successful Thousand Oaks, the suburb successful Ventura County wherever I grew up.

I’ve seen the mode California breeds a benignant of resilience successful its people. The onshore dries up, wildfires pain year-round and the borderline of the authorities threatens to gaffe into the sea, yet California endures.

Disaster strikes truthful often that Californians are accustomed to fleeing their homes astatine a moment’s notice, ignoring warnings astir utmost drought and breathing successful aerial choked with smoke. But that does small to shingle their dedication to their location state.

The time aft that shooting successful Thousand Oaks, successful November 2018, 2 large wildfires erupted nearby. One of them forced my parents to evacuate their location and walk the nighttime astatine my flat successful L.A. The different tore done neighborhoods successful Malibu and blanketed the Pacific Coast Highway successful ominous, achromatic clouds.

As if that were not nightmarish enough, that aforesaid day, successful Northern California, different occurrence ignited. It leveled the municipality of Paradise and became the deadliest blaze successful California history.

Year aft year, done wildfires, earthquakes, floods and pandemics, Californians rebuild and recommit to surviving here. There’s a yawning spread betwixt our imagination of California and our reality, but we proceed to find ways to span it.

I similar to deliberation that our resoluteness to enactment present is brave, though possibly it’s blind. But arsenic the saying goes, truthful is love.

If you work 1 story, marque it this

Seven Bay Area counties are recently requiring that everyone, careless of vaccination status, wear masks indoors. The mandate is the latest effort to curb the accelerated dispersed of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has led to a crisp uptick successful hospitalizations crossed California.

There are truthful galore caller cosmopolitan masking laws successful California that they present use to much than fractional of the state’s residents. The database of counties that person precocious ordered cosmopolitan indoor masking includes: Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Marin, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sonoma and Yolo.

The remainder of the news

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Pandemic dining: More restaurants successful Los Angeles are requiring that diners amusement impervious of vaccination against Covid, reports The Los Angeles Times.

• Corona shooting: Mourners gathered astatine the Regal Edwards cinema successful Corona connected Saturday to grant victims of a caller shooting there, The Press-Enterprise reports.

• Homeless housing: The Los Angeles Times explores what happened erstwhile astir 200 radical were moved from their Venice Beach encampments to impermanent housing.

• An app for creators: A caller institution based successful Santa Monica is grabbing attraction with an unprintable sanction and a ngo to bring wage transparency to influencers.

Northern California

• Mask mandate: Starting today, each Facebook employees volition beryllium required to deterioration a mask portion moving successful the bureau — careless of vaccination status, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

• Back to school: After holding in-person classes for little than a week, 55 students and 2 unit members astatine 2 Brentwood schoolhouse districts are quarantining aft being exposed to students and peers who person Covid-19, according to The Mercury News.

• Water supply: The statewide drought is imperiling communities successful Northern California, The Mercury News reports, arsenic the water supplies for implicit 130,000 radical person been affected.

• Drug crisis: A caller overdose effect squad with a absorption connected follow-up attraction rolled retired successful San Francisco connected Monday. The San Francisco Chronicle details the team’s mission.

• Museum break-in: A thief broke into the Sacramento History Museum aboriginal Saturday greeting and stole golden artifacts from a show case, The Sacramento Bee reports.

• Bacon shortage: A caller carnal payment instrumentality that volition spell into effect aboriginal adjacent twelvemonth means California could suffer astir of its pork supply, according to The Associated Press.

What we’re eating

At these Los Angeles restaurants, illustration Japanese atom balls inspired by location cooking.

Tell us

Sometimes I’ll beryllium penning from my location successful East Hollywood successful L.A. and different times from acold corners of the state. I privation your assistance figuring retired what I should spot and constitute astir next. Email america astatine CAtoday@nytimes.com with your suggestions.

And earlier you go, immoderate bully news

San Francisco’s iconic cablegram cars are up and moving again aft a 16-month hiatus. And for the remainder of the month, each rides volition beryllium escaped for tourists and locals alike.