September 14, 2024   View in browser By Hunter Clauss Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Sept. 14. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend: Officials euthanized the bear known as Victor. Was it justified? Trump said he would withhold California fire aid. Here’s where you can find the most irresistible mooncakes in L.A. this season. And here’s today’s eNewspaper. The controversial story of Victor the bear A hulking, 500-pound bear crashed a wine and steak dinner at a Mammoth Lakes campground last month. What happened next set off a heated, wide-ranging debate that, underneath the surface-level facts, raises much bigger questions with no easy answers. But I’m getting ahead of myself. A 500-pound bear, nicknamed Victor, regularly visited Mammoth Lakes campgrounds. (Kathy Spaulding) This week my colleague Lila Seidman told the story of the black bear at the center of the debate. Nicknamed Victor, the bear was beloved by locals and known to mooch on meals, which you can see for yourself in this video of Victor’s fateful encounter with the campers. “Don’t spill my wine — that’s all we have!” someone calls out in the video as Victor hunches over a picnic table. Campers off camera can be heard making loud banging noises, trying to scare the bear away. Victor then lumbers toward a metal bear box and past a woman standing on a tree trunk. He turns, appearing to notice the woman, and swipes her leg before she flees. The bear doesn’t follow her. “And the people who are videotaping this, who have been … kind of cracking jokes throughout this whole thing, they start gasping because it’s very surprising,” Lila says. State wildlife officials ultimately decided to euthanize Victor, a move that set off an intense public backlash, with the local police department receiving hate messages coming from as far away as England. Victor was a regular at Mammoth lakeshores, where thousands of visitors come to paddle, fish and picnic. Wildlife officers said he became problematically habituated to people over time. (Alina Kope) Was Victor’s death justified? Critics say the campers were irresponsible and essentially baited the bear. Other people have railed against wildlife officials and questioned why they didn’t pursue alternative solutions, like moving Victor to another area. “We are in the home of these wild animals, not the other way around. This community expects better and accountable behavior towards our wildlife and also to the tourist who disrespect them.,” reads a Change.org petitioncalling for “justice” that has more than 70,000 signatures. Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the campers had food out because they were cooking dinner, which isn’t against the law. “It was all perfectly reasonable,” he said. When deciding how to respond to a bear attack, investigators look at whether the bear was provoked into acting aggressively, my colleague Lila reported. Less than two weeks before the video, Victor caused minor injuries to a man who attempted to take a selfie with the bear. Officers determined that Victor was baited and took no further action. The public outrage over Victor’s death didn’t end with his burial. I’ll let you read the story to find out what happens and how the community responds. (I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me teary-eyed.) What are you supposed to do when you see a black bear? It may be hard to watch the video with Victor and not wonder how things could have gone differently for both the bear and the campers. My colleague Jaclyn Cosgrove this week provided five tips on what to do if you run into a bear in the wild. Among the recommendations is carry bear spray, don’t run and let the bear know you’re there. Dangerous bear encounters are rare, Jaclyn writes. But reports of human-bear interactions have been on the rise across the country for decades. About 65,000 black bears are estimated to roam California — almost double from a decade ago. ADVERTISEMENT The week’s biggest stories Donald Trump speaks during a news conference held at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes on Friday. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press) Harris and Trump are in a sprint to the White House after their first — and likely only — debate Trump said he would withhold California fire aid unless Newsom enacts his policy priorities on issues such as taxes. Harris supported the Green New Deal. Now she’s promoting domestic oil drilling. Trump’s Haitian immigrant comments created a storm in Florida. In closely divided Nevada, Harris and Trump battle for economic hearts. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift outswaggers Trump with her Kamala Harris vote, writes pop music critic Mikael Wood. And women know showing emotion at work is risky, but Harris proves otherwise, critic Lorraine Ali writes. Firefighters are gaining control over destructive Southern California wildfires Though conditions have improved, firefighters still face steep, rugged terrain, making it difficult to access areas and build containment lines. Cameras captured the harrowing moment a fire chief saved a woman who was walking within feet of the blazing Airport fire. Meanwhile, the mother of a man charged with starting the Line firedefended her son, saying, “He did not light that fire, I repeat he did not light that fire.” California remains in puzzling ‘earthquake drought’ despite recent shaking There’s now an entire generation of Californians who have grown up without experiencing the damaging earthquakes we saw in the 1980s and 1990s. Experts say the earthquake drought cannot last forever and that now is a good time to prepare. More big stories Here’s a look at how Elon Musk’s decision to move X from San Francisco is stirring mixed emotions. Sleeping with a pillow or blanket outdoors can be a sign of illegal camping in Santa Monica. Six people were injured, including two firefighters, in Chinatown apartment fire. A self-proclaimed Anaheim “incel” was sentenced to four years in prison for hate crimes after pepper-spraying multiple people in 2021. Yosemite’s Wawona Hotel will close indefinitely for “intensive” checkup.