Also: Camp Fire deaths; and an art fair.
 | | Carl Butz, the new owner of The Mountain Messenger, and Jill Tahija, The Messenger’s only other employee, working on an edition of the paper.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times |
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My colleague Tim Arango recently wrote about a man who stepped in to save one of the state’s oldest newspapers. The man’s story elicited heartfelt responses — including from Tim himself. |
Here’s his dispatch about how the piece came together: |
A few weeks ago I drove into the Sierra to visit Downieville, an old gold mining town on a fork in the Yuba River, because I had heard a remarkable story: how a local retiree had stepped in to save the town’s newspaper, The Mountain Messenger, just as it was about to shut down, after publishing for 166 years. |
In our piece, we introduced you to Carl Butz, 71, a former labor economist for the state of California, and The Mountain Messenger’s savior, having bought it for a price in the “four figures” plus the assumption of some debts. |
Mr. Butz is a fourth-generation Californian whose great-great-grandfather came to California in 1852 from Ohio, probably with dreams of striking it rich during the Gold Rush. |
Mr. Butz is also awash in grief, having lost his wife, Cecilia Kuhn — who was a drummer in the Bay Area feminist punk band Frightwig — in 2017. And as I spent time watching him put out his first issue of the paper, he told me that while he was happy to be saving something special to the community, the endeavor was also saving him. |
“She would be proud of me,” he said. |
Local newspapers at their best knit together communities and connect generations of families, and that is how longtime residents of Downieville and surrounding Sierra County described The Messenger. Each one expressed great relief and gratitude that Mr. Butz had saved the paper. |
It was intensely familiar to me: My first job after college was editor and publisher of a weekly in Vermont, The Essex Reporter, which, thankfully, is still in business even as nearly 1,800 local papers have closed since 2004, according to a study published by the University of North Carolina. The best advice I received then was quite simple: Get the names of as many kids as possible into each issue, from honor rolls to Little League games to school plays. |
The story touched many readers, who responded with notes to us, or to Mr. Butz directly, with offers to contribute to the paper or asking how they could subscribe. |
One reader who took special notice of our story was Ken Garrett, an entertainment lawyer in Beverly Hills. Hanging from the wall in his office is a front page of The Messenger, dated Dec. 1, 1883. As it turns out, one of his ancestors had been an owner of the paper. |
“I had no idea it was still being published, or that it was California’s oldest weekly newspaper,” Mr. Garrett wrote. |
For a long time, the paper was defiantly analog, without a website or presence on social media. |
But just recently, The Messenger, under Mr. Butz’s editorship, took a first gentle step into the digital age, by setting up a Twitter account, under the paper’s nickname: @TheMountainMess. |
Here’s what else we’re following |
We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can. |
 | | PG&E power lines caused the Camp Fire, California fire officials concluded.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images |
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- Lawyers and medical experts have helped identify at least 50 more deaths linked to the Camp Fire, which, with an official death toll of 85, is already the deadliest in the state’s history. And people are still dying from complications like respiratory issues and mental distress. Counting them as disaster deaths, experts said, is crucial. [Chico Enterprise-Record]
- In low-income neighborhoods across Southern and Central California, thousands of people live in bedbug- and rat-infested apartments connected to the same landlord: A man named Mike Nijjar. His rise illustrates how lucrative the bottom rung of the rental market can be. [KPCC/LAist]
- Three women died after crossing the border and getting lost in a rugged, remote area of San Diego County. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
- On the third day of a graduate student strike at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the police arrested at least 17 people during a tense, hourslong standoff with hundreds of demonstrators. [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
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Graduate student teaching assistants have been pushing for higher pay in part to address sky-high housing costs. If you missed it, read more about why they’re striking. [The New York Times] |
- Hundreds of Berkeley high school students walked out of class to protest what they described as an administration that doesn’t adequately protect students from sexual assault. [Berkeleyside]
- Construction is underway on a section of high-speed rail between Merced and Bakersfield. This week, rail officials tried to make the case for completing that line as an interim step toward connecting the San Joaquin Valley and San Jose. [The Fresno Bee]
- Los Angeles’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, signed an order mapping out the city’s response to the climate crisis. It involves getting people out of their cars. [Curbed Los Angeles]
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- Jeff Bezos bought a famous nine-acre Beverly Hills property with gardens, several guesthouses and a tennis court known as the Warner Estate for $165 million. It’s a record for the L.A. area. [The Wall Street Journal]
- Cruise companies have seen China as a major growth market. Now the $45 billion industry is facing a huge challenge in the coronavirus. [The New York Times]
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 | | The Frieze Los Angeles art fair took place at Paramount Studios in February, on its five-acre New York streetscape on the backlot.Graham Walzer for The New York Times |
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- Frieze Los Angeles, a star-powered art fair, is back for its second year. Some members of the local arts community are worried it’s a harbinger of a less singular scene. Others say a rising tide lifts all boats. [KCRW]
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Read more about what last year’s Frieze in L.A. said about the city’s place in the art world. [The New York Times] |
- “Introducing Van Mission,” a sales brochure says. But will the new neighborhood name stick? [The San Francisco Chronicle]
- The skinny peninsula in Mexico known throughout the world as “Baja” was previously known just as “California.” It was the first place to have that name. And some people who live there want to reclaim it. [The Los Angeles Times]
- Modernism Week is set to kick off this weekend in Palm Springs. Enjoy an exhibition of “Atomic Age Tablescapes,” and mix midcentury classic cocktails. [The Desert Sun]
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 | | Victor Llorente for The New York Times |
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Earlier this week, residents of a town on the Hudson River engaged in a quaint ritual in which they go absolutely bananas over a canine pageant known as the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. |
Thanks to the magic of the internet, we here on the West Coast can also enjoy that coverage, including many, many dog photos, as a treat. |
 | | Siba the standard poodle prevailed over six rivals.Calla Kessler/The New York Times |
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Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan. |
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. |
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