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California Today

California Today: How the Oscars Sent the Wrong Message — Again.

Good morning.

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And the Oscar for shooting itself in the foot goes to … the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Again!

On Wednesday, the elite organization behind the Oscars sent a letter to its roughly 9,200 members. The note outlined — in the vaguest of ways — two major changes to the Academy Awards, each intended “to keep the Oscars and our academy relevant in a changing world.” There will now be a category to honor what the letter called “popular” movies. (“Eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming.”) And the telecast will be cut to three hours from four; statuettes in “certain” categories will be awarded during commercial breaks.

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Dawn Hudson on the red carpet at the Academy Awards in March.Credit...Josh Haner/The New York Times

Left with little information by the academy, which did not make officials available for interviews, news outlets assembled stories with the one ingredient that was plentiful: outrage. “The film business passed away today,” the actor, Rob Lowe, wrote on Twitter, which immediately boiled over with similar comments.

For an organization packed with public relations experts — the P.R. branch has at least 300 members — the academy finds itself in these tempests rather frequently. Its lurching responses to the #OscarsSoWhite uproars of 2015 and 2016 drew criticism. On a smaller scale, the academy has been roughed up over its coming museum; the adoption of a code of conduct; and leaks about an internal sexual harassment investigation.

To be fair, the academy has a hamstrung staff. It is hard to quickly respond to a clamoring news media with a 54-member board looking over your shoulder. Lots of important people have opinions about what to say and what not to. Some academy stalwarts still believe the best way to handle inquiries is to ignore them: We will issue a news release when we are ready.

That technique worked in 1982. Like it or not, this is the age of insta-news.

Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions has Spike Lee’s acclaimed “BlacKkKlansman” arriving in theaters on Friday, predicted that the revamped Oscar telecast would make more sense once the academy provided more details.

“The changes they made are great,” he said, “but the messaging could certainly have been better.”

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

Inside the Mendocino Fire Complex: We drove roughly 50 miles along Highway 20, from the firefighters’ base camp to the town of Clearlake Oaks, while the region was still under a mandatory evacuation order. [The New York Times]

• A man suspected of intentionally setting fire to an Orange County area where he lived will face multiple felony counts involving arson on Thursday. His charges could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. [The New York Times]

• Just how big are the California wildfires? [The Sacramento Bee]

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George Li, second from left, leads a Chinese-American political action committee, The Orange Club. “We just realized if we’re not involved in this process, the political process in America, we would be forgotten,” Mr. Li said.Credit...Rozette Rago for The New York Times

• In Irvine and across the country, Chinese activist groups are influencing policy debates. They have a clear litmus test for any politician seeking their support: opposition to affirmative action.[The New York Times]

• A secret Department of Motor Vehicles office near California Capitol serves lawmakers and their staff. [The Sacramento Bee]

• When the Union City police chief learned about a Sikh man beaten in another part of the Bay Area, he was asked how he could prevent such crimes. Then he learned one of the suspects was his own son. [The New York Times]

• The Environmental Protection Agency must bar a pesticide that is widely used in California and the rest of the country, but is also associated with developmental disabilities in children. The ruling by a federal appeals court is a major blow to an industry that had successfully lobbied the Trump administration to reject the ban. [The New York Times]

• Real estate investors and others opposing ballot measure allowing cities to expand rent control have raised more than $21 million this year. Last week, the AIDS Health Foundation, one of the primary backers of the measure, promised to pour in $10 million to help garner more support. [Curbed Los Angeles]

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The former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner leaving jail in Santa Clara County in 2016, the year he was convicted of sexual assault.Credit...Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group, via Associated Press

• A California appeals upheld the conviction of Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer who was sentenced to six months in jail in 2016 for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. . [The New York Times]

• The Ojai Valley is moving toward joining the “dark sky” movement, extinguishing lights that are not essential in the popular tourist and wellness mecca. [The Ventura County Star]

• Activists protesting gentrification in Boyle Heights have repeatedly demanded that art galleries in an industrial section of the area leave the neighborhood. Now, the gallery owners are doing just that. [The Los Angeles Times]

• Fewer than one in five residents can afford a home in the Bay Area. [The Mercury News]

• An Los Angeles County sheriff deputy faked evidence, but the misconduct was kept secret for years. [The Los Angeles Times]

Lance Bass, a former star of the band NSYNC, appeared furious when he learned his bid for the Brady Bunch house was turned down in favor of a television studio.

“How is this fair or legal?? How can I compete with a billion dollar corporate entity?,” he wrote on Twitter last week.

But Mr. Bass began singing a different song later this week when he learned just who the buyer was: HGTV.

“Aw man. I’d be pretty upset if it were anyone else, but how can you be mad at HGTV??,” he wrote on Twitter. “My television is stuck on that channel. Kudos HGTV, I know you will do the right thing with the house. That was always my biggest worry. I smile again.”

And HGTV seemed to embrace right back. The official account on Twitter wrote: “Consider yourself officially part of the HGTV bunch. Yours truly, HGTV (a.k.a. The Lance Bass Fan Club)”

One of the station’s stars, Jonathan Scott, responded: “Would LOVE to work with you. This is such an iconic home and it really played an important part of my childhood reinforcing strong family values :)”

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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