Vance Likens LA Event to Haiti

Vice President JD Vance compared an elite Los Angeles party he attended to visiting the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.

Vance said the party featured armed security and sat near Skid Row, the roughly 50-block downtown district that is home to thousands of homeless residents. He described the contrast in blunt terms.

“Crazy wealth and privilege and status on the inside and squalor and misery on the outside,” Vance said, adding that the scene made him feel the area had become “more like a third world country than anything that I thought we’d ever become.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vance, whose wife, Usha, is a San Diego native, said he felt heartbreak over the region.

Salinas Grower Tied to National Outbreak

Federal investigators identified Salinas-based Taylor Farms as the supplier of iceberg lettuce linked to a nationwide cyclospora outbreak that has sickened roughly 4,000 people.

About 100 people have been hospitalized across 34 states, and the FDA traced the parasite to a single lettuce supplier. Taco Bell, which used the lettuce in five states, voluntarily pulled the potentially affected product.

Taylor Farms, which operates 30 processing facilities across North America, did not respond to a request for comment. Cyclospora causes prolonged diarrhea and other intestinal symptoms that can surface one to two weeks after exposure.

California typically records about 40 cyclospora cases a year, according to UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, who said cooking or peeling produce lowers the risk.

SF Mayor Presses State on Waymo

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie urged California regulators Thursday to tighten rules for self-driving cars after two incidents left dozens of Waymo robotaxis blocking traffic.

On July 4, more than 30 Waymos became stuck in the only parking area serving the city’s fireworks show, jamming nearby streets for hours. Last December, a citywide power outage stranded a group of the driverless cars.

“Regulating for typical conditions is no longer enough,” Lurie wrote in a letter to state Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin. The mayor has long championed San Francisco as the birthplace of the robotaxi industry.

A Waymo spokesperson said the company shares the city’s safety goals and has supported major events such as NBA All-Star Weekend and the FIFA World Cup. Local firefighters’ union president Sam Gebler was skeptical, saying of the technology, “I just don’t think this is ready right now.”

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➤ San Francisco: Search crews recovered a second body Thursday from the July 14 capsizing of the Volare, a 49-foot cabin cruiser that overturned near Alcatraz with about 20 people aboard during a memorial outing. Two people remain missing, and the Coast Guard has suspended its active search. (See Details)

➤ Solano County: Defense-technology firm Saronic will build its $3.2 billion shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, rather than at the California Forever site in southeastern Solano County, forgoing about 10,000 jobs. (More)

➤ Nevada County: A state prison inmate who walked away from Washington Ridge Conservation Camp on July 4 is at large again after Mexican authorities recaptured him in Tijuana two days later, then released him, corrections officials said Thursday. (See Details)

➤ San Luis Obispo County: California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday he intends to sue the Trump administration over the U.S. Interior Department’s roughly $111 million buyout canceling a planned offshore wind lease in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. Federal officials canceled the project citing national security. (More)

➤ Tulare County: Growers farming within 2 miles of the Friant-Kern Canal in southern Tulare County should prepare for a state groundwater pumping moratorium as early as April 2027, water managers were told Thursday. Land in the Tule subbasin has sunk 7.7 feet since 2015, the most in California. (See Details)

➤ Bakersfield: Nurses picketed outside Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield on Thursday after CommonSpirit Health, the parent of Dignity Health, told dozens of workers at Bakersfield Memorial and Mercy hospitals their jobs could end by Aug. 3. (See Details)

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➤ Imperial County: A judge dismissed a defamation suit Thursday filed by a data center developer against the nonprofit Comité Cívico del Valle and its director, Luis Olmedo. The group called the suit an attempt to silence critics. (More)

➤ Adelanto: A federal judge ordered the Adelanto ICE Processing Center to give detainees clean water, adequate medical care, and four hours of daily outdoor recreation, finding they were likely to prevail on inhumane-conditions claims. (See Details)

➤ Indio: Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed AB 2324, a bill by Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez of Indio recognizing California’s youth caregivers and expanding their access to Career Technical Education, Gonzalez announced Thursday. He called the measure, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, deeply personal. (More)

➤ Oceanside: The search continued this week for Angelica Brophy, a 44-year-old Oceanside ER nurse and mother of two who was last seen July 6 at Harrah’s Resort in Valley Center. Her car was found at Palomar Mountain State Park, and Oceanside police report no sign of foul play. (See Details)

➤ Draymond Green said he would give up his longtime No. 23 and wear No. 5 if LeBron James signs with the Warriors and wants the number, as Golden State pursues the high-profile free agent. (More)

➤ Major League Baseball released its 2027 schedule, featuring the earliest Opening Day in league history. The Giants will host the Colorado Rockies, the Athletics will visit the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Dodgers will welcome the Atlanta Braves, the Angels will travel to Milwaukee, and the San Diego Padres will host the Arizona Diamondbacks. (More)

➤ Former Giants great Matt Williams will manage the San Francisco Firebells during the inaugural season of the new four-team Women’s Pro Baseball League. (More)

➤ The Los Angeles Lakers face the Golden State Warriors in the Las Vegas Summer League semifinals today. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. (Details)

➤ Yesterday’s Results: The Open | MLB | WNBA

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➤ Two identical twin sisters. Same DNA. Yet one appeared years younger than the other. What Harvard scientists discovered next led them to a little-known “facelift protein” that researchers now believe may play an important role in how our skin ages. See the fascinating discovery here.

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Google, Microsoft, & Meta Partnered With This XR Startup

The world’s leading tech giants have all partnered with Immersed, an XR startup chasing a $250B+ opportunity in remote work. 

Immersed combines the world’s most-used remote work XR software ($127B by 2030)1, AR/VR hardware ($100B+ by 2026)2, and AI productivity tools ($36B)3 into one productive, collaborative virtual office. Its valuation has grown 4,000% to date.

Over 1.5M professionals, including Fortune 500 teams, already use Immersed. The company is now scaling mass production of Visor, a productivity-designed headset with 75,000+ people on the waitlist, representing $71M in projected first-year sales.

Executives from Intel, Meta, and Reddit have invested, and Immersed has already reserved the Nasdaq ticker $IMRS. You can become an early-stage shareholder before the July 30 deadline.

1Source: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ai-productivity-tools-market-23074
2Source: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ai-productivity-tools-market-report
3Source: https://www.giiresearch.com/report/grvi1512062-ai-productivity-tools-market-size-share-trends.html

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➤ A crew of Oakland firefighters from Engine 29 used an oxygen mask to revive a pigeon overcome by smoke at a vehicle fire, and video of the rescue spread widely online. (See Video)

➤ The Bay Area Transit Agency (BART) recorded its highest ridership month since the pandemic in June, up 18.6% from a year earlier and to about 56% of pre-pandemic levels, boosted by the FIFA World Cup. BART plans to restore 10-car trains at peak hours. (More)

➤ James Eastman, a Mendocino High School English teacher bitten on both legs by a shark while surfing at Big River Beach in March, has returned to the same break and started a nonprofit to place bleeding-control kits along the coast. (More)

The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes, straight from the heart of the country. Clicking the link will take you directly to these stories:

➤ The emails draining billions from Americans no longer look fake, and these habits stop nearly all of them. (Hear Tips)

➤ Researchers have found a way to smuggle a drug past the brain’s toughest barrier and into glioblastoma tumors. (Hear Details)

➤ Federal officials have linked lettuce served at this fast food chain’s locations to a multistate parasite outbreak that has hospitalized dozens. (Podcast Available)

Have you ridden in a Waymo?

1. Yes, liked it
2. Yes, didn’t like it
3. No, but I plan to
4. No, don’t plan to
5. What’s a Waymo?

Yesterday’s Results:

Do you believe in Bigfoot?

1. No, it’s a hoax: 40%
2. Maybe, the jury’s still out: 33%
3. Absolutely, he’s out there: 27%

The Rose Parade has drawn crowds to Pasadena nearly every New Year’s Day since 1890. What were its founders originally trying to show off?

Show me the answer