Newsletter: Essential California: Interest in guns is on the rise

Good morning. It is Wednesday, Dec. 9. I’m Nita Lelyveld, writer of City Beat features, filling in to give Alice Walton and Shelby Grad a break. On this day in 1884, presumably not in our sort of Indian summer, this newspaper offered a health tip: “Sore throats vanish when encircled in a silken kerchief. This is established beyond peradventure.” Here’s what’s happening in our fair state:

TOP STORIES

Gun-store lines

Since the shooting in San Bernardino last week, business at San Bernardino County gun stores has been booming. Rattled residents have been telling gun store owners that they want to be prepared and ready to fight back if they are attacked. Los Angeles Times

Cash loan

Investigators trying to figure out how long the San Bernardino attack had been planned have found another piece in the puzzle. Sources say that Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik obtained a $28,500 cash loan weeks before the deadly shooting. Los Angeles Times

Full coverage

All the latest information on San Bernardino is gathered for you here. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Worldly state: When it comes to climate change, California wants to be an international role model. The state has invested a lot of energy into making the world take notice. Representatives of three dozen countries have visited in the last two years to see California’s policies up close. Los Angeles Times

Emissions mission: Even as it sells its environmental credentials in Paris, California could come up short in meeting its clean-car goals. More people need to move to electric cars, says Gov. Jerry Brown. Change is happening, but not fast enough. Los Angeles Times

L.A. AT LARGE

From bleak to chic: The Sacramento Bee recently used those words as the headline of a travel piece focused on the hipness of downtown L.A. “These days, nothing bolsters a person’s trend-seeking, social-influencing bona fides like hanging in downtown Los Angeles,” says the writer. As for the lines to get into the Broad, she says, they only increase the city core’s cachet. Sacramento Bee

Full speed ahead? On Monday, AT&T announced it was bringing ultra-fast Internet to L.A. A day later came hints that Google Fiber may show up soon too. The service, which starts around $70 a month, includes speeds of 1 gigabit per second. So far you can only get it in three cities — in Utah, Missouri and Texas. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Refugees welcome: A divided Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to express their willingness to welcome Syrian refugees. Los Angeles Times

Union accord: The L.A. City Council approved a salary agreement with its civilian unions Tuesday, which paves the way for thousands of new hires. Los Angeles Times

Bumpy ride: Rock-solid Democratic support in Sacramento for the bullet train is beginning to erode. Assemblywoman Patty Lopez, whose San Fernando Valley district is along the proposed route, now opposes the train. She says that five other Democrats in the Legislature are questioning their positions. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Two L.A. firefighters, including one who starred in the 1993 baseball movie “The Sandlot,” have been charged with an assault that occurred when they were off duty and attending a Halloween party, the D.A.'s office said. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA COMMENTARY

Police props: “If there was any bright spot in the circumstances surrounding last week’s massacre in San Bernardino, it was the performance of law enforcement officers," writes Sandy Banks. They raced to the scene, they searched the area, they stopped the killers, she says. “It was a display of professionalism that we ought to publicly applaud.” Los Angeles Times

Creative costs: With L.A.’s artists increasingly priced out of areas like downtown’s Arts District, L.A. leaders need to do more than talk about how creative their city is, Carolina Miranda writes. They need to come up with policies to help the city’s artists survive here. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Walt’s world: After Walt Disney died in 1966, the contents of his offices at Burbank’s Walt Disney Studio were carefully cataloged and packed away. They stayed in storage for 45 years. Now everything is back in its place in a permanent exhibit, open to Disney employees, cast members and studio visitors. Next year, gold members of Disney’s fan club, D23, also will be welcome to visit. LAist

No kings here: The San Francisco house is tiny — 830 square feet on a 644-square-foot lot. Its two bedrooms, says the San Francisco Chronicle, are so small they can probably only fit double beds. The listing agent says this may be the smallest lot with a single-family home. As for the price tag, it’s not small at all. SFGate

Squirrel scares: If you pine for the rustic beauty of Marin County, Novato’s recent rash of squirrel attacks may give you pause. Last month, a squirrel ran into an elementary school and bit a student and teacher. Squirrels reportedly have leaped out of trees to attack people unprovoked. Squirrels or squirrel? Local experts aren’t sure. They say it could be just one very angry rodent. SFGate

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

San Francisco will be gloomy: 63 degrees and cloudy. San Diego will be partly cloudy and 70 degrees. In Los Angeles, it will be partly cloudy and 76 degrees.

AND FINALLY

Today's California Memory comes from Debbie Fulkerson:

"When I first moved to California in 1988, I found a job at a hotel in Santa Monica near the beach. As I had just moved to the area, I was given a room in the hotel until I could find a home. I remember sitting on the balcony in the evening and listening to the waves crash on the shore. If I was lucky enough to be awake in the wee hours, I would see one of my favorite sights in the world, the moon kissing the ocean."

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 Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.