Essential California PRESENTED BY* Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Sept. 9, and here’s a look at the week ahead: Monday marks California Admission Day, the 169th anniversary of California’s admission into the Union as the 31st state. On Tuesday, “The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood’s long-awaited sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” will officially be released worldwide after a “retailer error” from Amazon led to a number of U.S. customers receiving their books early. The “error” pitted angry indie bookstoresagainst the giant of online retailing. Also Tuesday: Apple will hold a launch event at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. New versions of the iPhone are expected to be revealed. Thursday will see yet another Democratic primary debate. This one will be hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision, and Sen. Kamala Harris will be the only California candidate of the 10 on stage. (Billionaire California activist Tom Steyer has qualified for the October debate, but will not be on stage this week.) Friday will mark the end of a mad dash in the state Capitol, as Sept. 13 is the last day for the state Legislature to pass bills before the legislative session ends. (Gov. Gavin Newsom then has until Oct. 13 to sign or veto those bills.) Also Friday: Felicity Huffman will be sentenced for her role in the Great College Admissions Scandal of 2019. Letters that Huffman and her husband, William H. Macy, wrote to the judge who will sentence her offer the most detailed explanation to date of how the couple say they got involved in the scandal and how they are grappling with Huffman’s extraordinary fall from grace. Saturday: LA Opera will open its 2019-20 season amid a sexual harassment investigation into its leader, opera star Plácido Domingo.