Newsletter: Essential California: For police, catching stoned drivers isn’t so easy

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, March 22, and here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

After the legalization of recreational pot in California, law firms specializing in DUI stepped up warnings to marijuana users about being busted. Signs along freeways also have warned drivers that being high on marijuana can get them arrested. A bill proposed in the state Senate last month calls for a one-year driving suspension for any motorist under 21 caught with marijuana in his or her system. But as a traffic stop by San Diego police officer John Perdue in the waning months of 2017 shows, policing marijuana-induced DUIs isn’t as easy as arresting and prosecuting drunk drivers. Los Angeles Times

Rain, rain, go away

A powerful storm moved into Southern California on Wednesday, drenching fire-ravaged neighborhoods and setting several new rainfall records for the day but so far not causing the damage and destruction that some officials feared. Still, they warned that the heaviest downpour is yet to come on Thursday and urged residents to stay vigilant. Los Angeles Times

Orange County’s homeless

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel on Wednesday withdrew her support for placing a homeless shelter on the site of an abandoned landfill in Huntington Beach, just two days after voting to direct county staff to develop a plan for emergency shelters on county-owned land there and at two other cities. The plan had prompted significant backlash. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Surprise, surprise: Southern California home prices jumped 10.2% in February compared with a year earlier, while sales remained nearly flat as the region and the state grapple with a shortage of homes for sale. Los Angeles Times

Baseball starts soon! As Angels star Mike Trout enters the seventh season of a career that already might be worthy of baseball’s Hall of Fame, it’s difficult to comprehend how talent so extraordinary can exist inside someone so ordinary. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Summer days watching the Dodgers play at Chavez Ravine can be punishingly hot. But if you choose your seat wisely, you can enjoy a michelada in the shade all season long. Los Angeles Times

Teacher is fired: A Pico Rivera teacher whose anti-military rant was caught on video and drew widespread condemnation has been terminated from his post, the school board president said. Los Angeles Times

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

Bucking the trend: Can tiny Los Alamitos take on California’s “sanctuary State” movement? Los Angeles Times

Released: A Mexican woman in the U.S. illegally who was dragged from her daughters by authorities in a widely viewed video was released on her own recognizance Tuesday by an immigration judge in Southern California. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Facebook fallout: Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Wednesday that his company failed to protect user data in the Cambridge Analytica controversy, but said steps already taken and newly unveiled policies would prevent developers from misappropriating such information in the future. Los Angeles Times

A remembrance: Joaquin Avila was a “lion” for voting rights. But did his efforts actually fix ballot box discrimination? Los Angeles Times

Milestone: Toni Atkins achieved on Wednesday a rare feat: taking the oath as president pro tempore of the California Senate two years after serving as speaker of the Assembly. She’s the first legislator to hold both leadership posts since 1871. Atkins, 55, will make history, too, as the first woman and the first openly gay lawmaker to lead the upper house in Sacramento. Los Angeles Times

Going to Iowa: “Los Angeles mayor and expected 2020 candidate Eric Garcetti is making a two-day swing through Iowa April 13-14, with stops in Des Moines, Altoona, Davenport and Waterloo, hitting a union event, a political fundraiser and local tours along the way.” Politico

By the bay: The city of San Francisco tried and failed to get 1,000 homeless people off the streets this winter. San Francisco Chronicle

CRIME AND COURTS

No more gun shows? The city of Del Mar is asking directors of the state-owned fairgrounds to end the popular Crossroads of the West Gun Show that is held there five times a year. Los Angeles Times

Court case: The Los Angeles Times has sued L.A. County, accusing it of repeatedly and routinely flouting laws designed to ensure government transparency. Los Angeles Times

More on the Turpins: In an exclusive interview, Mark Uffer, CEO of the Corona Regional Medical Center, which had cared for the seven adult Turpin siblings since the middle of January, described how the family was “systematically starved and tortured for years [and] subsisted mostly on peanut butter sandwiches — without jelly.” ABC News

THE ENVIRONMENT

Salton Sea update: California’s Natural Resources Agency has struggled to execute a plan to build thousands of acres of wetlands in the Salton Sea. After a year, it’s built less than 50 acres of wetlands. The Desert Sun

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Who will it be? USC’s football team resumed spring practice Tuesday after taking a week off for spring vacation. The break allowed for redshirt freshman Jack Sears and third-year sophomore Matt Fink to study film and digest their first-week performances as they compete to replace quarterback Sam Darnold. Los Angeles Times

Nice: King Tut exhibition has come to L.A., but it’s not the same as you might remember. Los Angeles Times

Checking in: “Three months into the start of California’s recreational marijuana market, industry leaders are voicing concerns that sales are not meeting projections, and that high taxes, complicated regulations and a thriving black market are having deleterious effects.” Sacramento Bee

Welcome to Zucktown: “In Menlo Park, Calif., Facebook is building a real community and testing the proposition: Do people love tech companies so much they will live inside them?” New York Times

Feeling renewed: Galaxy legend Landon Donovan has found a new love for soccer in Mexico. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: showers, 61, Thursday; partly cloudy, 64, Friday. San Diego: showers, 67, Thursday; showers, 63, Friday. San Francisco area: showers, 66, Wednesday; showers, 58, Thursday. Sacramento: thunderstorms, 62, Thursday; partly cloudy, 58, Friday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Corinne Schnur:

“In 1952, when I was 7, I and my family moved to Garden Grove. I walked to school and to Sunday school, and was the youngest member of the church choir. On the Fourth of July, neighborhood kids legally ignited sparklers, glow worms and firecrackers in the street in front of our house. We played jump rope and hopscotch in the street. My favorite haunt was an orange grove behind my friend’s house. I liked to go there for a taste of nature — picking and chewing ‘sour grass,’ and watching and listening to the birds.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.