Newsletter: Essential California: A tax break on inherited property has proven profitable for an elite group

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, Aug. 17, and here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Actors Jeff and Beau Bridges, along with their sister, own a four-bedroom Malibu home that they inherited from their mother. It has access to a semi-private beach and panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, and like other descendants of a generation of California homeowners, the Bridges enjoy a significant perk that keeps their property tax bill low. Part of that is thanks to Proposition 13, which has strictly limited property tax increases since 1978. But they also benefit from an additional tax break, enacted eight years later, that extended those advantages to inherited property — even inherited property that is used for rental income. A Los Angeles Times analysis shows that many of those who inherit property with the tax breaks don’t live in them. Rather, they use the homes as investments while still taking advantage of the generous tax benefits. Los Angeles Times

Background: How we reported the story. Los Angeles Times

What’s up with the heat?

California suffered through its hottest July on record, while August has pushed sea-surface temperatures off the San Diego coast to all-time highs. Are these punishing summer heat waves the consequences of global warming or the result of familiar weather patterns? The answer, scientists say, is both. Climate change is amplifying natural variations in the weather. So when California roasts under a stubborn high-pressure system, the thermometer climbs higher than it would have in the past. “What we’re seeing now is the atmosphere doing what it has always done. But it’s doing it in a warmer world, so the heat waves occurring today are hotter,” said Park Williams, an associate research professor at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “We can expect that to continue.” Los Angeles Times

Plus: Each day on the front lines of California’s largest wildfire, firefighters start their shifts noting their safety zones and escape routes. Flames from the Mendocino Complex fire are still ripping through thousands of acres a day of steep, mountainous terrain packed with dead oak trees — standing and fallen — and littered with leaves and pine needles. Crews are on especially high alert this week after a firefighter who traveled from Draper City, Utah, to help battle the blaze died Monday while working on an active stretch. Here’s why California’s largest fire in history is so difficult to contain. Los Angeles Times

— The National Weather Service has issued a flash-flood watch for Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, including areas recently charred by wildfires. Los Angeles Times

Musk’s latest idea

Elon Musk’s tunneling company on Wednesday announced a proposal to build a 3.6-mile underground tunnel to take fans to Dodger Stadium. Boring Co. said the proposed Dugout Loop would be a “zero-emissions, high-speed, underground public transportation system” that would take fans from one of three Metro Red Line stations to the stadium in less than four minutes. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Here’s why a lot of people think it’s a terrible idea. Curbed LA

And: Is it just a distraction? Los Angeles Times

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Gene Evin Atkins, pictured here at an earlier hearing, appeared in court Thursday for a hearing in which prosecutors announced additional charges against him.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. STORIES

Arraignment postponed: Prosecutors on Thursday announced additional felony charges against a man accused of holding customers hostage inside a Trader Joe’s market last month and engaging in a gun battle with Los Angeles police officers — one of whom mistakenly shot and killed a store manager. Los Angeles Times

RIP: Aretha Franklin, the preacher’s daughter who became the “Queen of Soul” and forged the template of the larger-than-life pop diva with her exuberant, gospel-rooted singing, has died. She was 76. Los Angeles Times

From masthead to maître d’: A longtime magazine editor enters the hospitality industry. “Believe it, darling…. Magazines are over!” New York Times

This bites: The mosquitoes are worse this year. Really. LAist

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

New guy in town: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has selected criminal defense attorney Ricardo Garcia as the county’s new public defender. Los Angeles Times

Backyard battle: Read about a man who is in a fight with the city of Imperial Beach over whether he can let his friends sleep in his junk-filled backyard. San Diego Union-Tribune

Oops? “Republican gubernatorial candidate and businessman John Cox told a story during a California DMV visit on Wednesday that compared the much-criticized long lines and waits to surviving concentration camps during the Holocaust.” Capitol Public Radio

CRIME AND COURTS

Big news out of Sacramento: An effort to make some internal law enforcement investigations open to the public cleared a key hurdle in the Legislature on Thursday, marking the first time in four decades that lawmakers could vote to meaningfully increase transparency surrounding police misconduct. Los Angeles Times

More women come forward: An additional 30 women sued USC on Wednesday, claiming that the university failed to protect them from abuse and mistreatment by the longtime campus gynecologist, Dr. George Tyndall. Los Angeles Times

Deadly crash: One person was killed and three others were injured early Thursday when a police pursuit in Culver City ended in a collision, authorities said. Los Angeles Times

THE ENVIRONMENT

That’s far, Part 1: Smoke from California’s wildfires is reaching Washington and Baltimore. Washington Post

That’s far, Part 2: “Twenty-one firefighters from American Samoa and Hawaii were welcomed with prayer, food, drumming, dancing and singing by North State Native Americans in an historic gathering on Tuesday night in Redding.” Record Searchlight

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

The goat herder: A physicist-turned-farmer left L.A. for a mountain getaway. You can visit for goat cheese and cajeta.Los Angeles Times

Artist dies: Dave Dave, an artist disfigured since childhood after his father set him afire at a Buena Park motel, has died at 42. The Clark County coroner’s office said the former David Rothenberg passed away July 15 at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. Los Angeles Times

Feeling the heat: “Securities regulators last year subpoenaed a parts supplier for Tesla Inc. as they looked at whether the automaker misled investors about Model 3 car production problems, indicating the company was under investigation before Elon Musk tweeted he might take the company private, according to a person familiar with the matter.” Wall Street Journal

Food critic woes: San Francisco and Los Angeles are both grappling with the loss of fixtures in their culinary critic scene. What will happen next is anyone’s guess. Washington Post

Times, they a changing: “Is this the end of Venice Beach as we know it?” Los Angeles Magazine

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: sunny, 80, Friday; sunny, 78, Saturday. San Diego: partly cloudy, 81, Friday; partly cloudy, 82, Saturday. San Francisco area: partly cloudy, 65, Friday; partly cloudy, 67, Saturday. San Jose: sunny, 85, Friday; sunny, 89, Saturday. Sacramento: partly cloudy, 96, Friday; sunny, 99, Saturday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Ron Thomson:

“I remember walking in the area of San Diego just down from what is now Interstate 5, before it had any cars on it. Balboa Stadium then was the place where San Diego High School played football, and where Marcus Allen from Lincoln High School scored five touchdowns in winning the championship. It’s just down the way from Balboa Park and the Navy hospital where I was born.”

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 Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.