It’s Arlene Martínez, with news to wrap up your week.
But first, your dry January is just about up. What will you do with all that money you saved?
In California is a daily roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms and beyond. Click here to get this straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Coronavirus: A quarantine, travel bans and more
The quarantine of an Italian cruise ship has ended after a passenger was diagnosed with flu and not coronavirus. (Photo: Getty)
Delta, American and United suspended flights to mainland China amid pressure from employee unions and as the U.S. State Department warned Americans not to travel to the country because of the coronavirus outbreak.
People who have visited mainland China in the last two weeks won’t be allowed onto roughly 270 cruise ships, those represented by the industry’s largest trade organization said.
195 U.S. passengers who arrived from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began are under quarantine in California while they’re screened for coronavirus. The group, none of whom have symptoms of the virus, is being held at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.
Amid the coronavirus scare, colleges and universities work to ensure students remain healthy and no one gets stigmatized. At one campus with ties to a case of the virus, class is in session.
Two people in Ventura County are being tested for coronavirus, health officials confirmed Friday.
#SaveTheLoneOak in the Pismo Preserve
In the distance of the just-opened Pismo Preserve is a highly photographed coast live oak. (Photo: The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo/Facebook)
Lone Oak, as the coast live oak is called, has called the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean home for hundreds of years. But the tree is learning the term “overexposure.”
The eagerly anticipated Pismo Preserve, a 900-acre area of trails for babies, bikes, horses and dogs, recently opened to an as-expected phenomenal reception. Lone Oak has paid the price.
Five days in, managers of the preserve went public in asking people to step back. “Trampling her roots, leaning on her trunk, and sitting in her branches for the perfect ‘gram’ will guarantee a much shorter life for this amazing tree,” the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo wrote in an Instagram post. “Instead of turning the Lone Oak into our Giving Tree, let’s give her the life she deserves.”
The post asked people to keep a safe distance when photographing the legend. There is no gentle way to sit on Lone Oak, it notes.
And since they brought up The Giving Tree, is it a tale of unconditional love or unhealthy self-sacrifice?
Families call for gender-neutral bathrooms
Caiden Moreno, right, and others say LGBTQ students at Santa Paula High School need unlocked access to safe bathrooms. (Photo: TOM KISKEN/THE STAR)
At Santa Paula High School in Ventura County, the male and female bathrooms are always kept unlocked. But if students want to use a single-person bathroom, they have to ask someone for a key.
That isn’t sitting right with some parents and LGBTQ advocates who say the single-person stalls should be kept unlocked for the safety of everyone. Students fear harassment in gender-specific restrooms, to the point they limit their liquid and food intake so they don’t have to use them, several said during a recent school board meeting.
“We can’t continue to wait,” parent Patty Zavala told Santa Paula’s elected officials. “These students can’t continue to not use the restrooms.”
Zavala said she cautions her 8-year-old son, who is gender non-conforming, to sometimes avoid wearing dresses for fear of his safety or being mocked in the restroom.
Kobe was ‘just getting started’
USA TODAY Sports' Mark Medina interviews Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant on January 17, 2020. The sit-down was Bryant's final interview before he was killed in a helicopter crash on January 26. (Photo: Sandy Hooper)
In Kobe Bryant’s final sit-down interview, USA Today reporter Mark Medina asked a routine question: What’s your next 5, 10 years look like? Kobe’s answer had a lot of parts. Medina said: “He felt like he was just getting started.”
- More on Sunday’s crash: How this helicopter safety device might have saved Kobe Bryant and eight others.
What else we’re talking about
The Virginia attorney representing Tulare County Congressman Devin Nunes in several suits against the media and Twitter has a history of using questionable tactics in litigation. He also refused to leave his residence when served with notice to vacate.
- Here’s an updateon where the six lawsuits Nunes filed in ’19 stand.
Coachella Valley’s casino market is growing. Here’s how it compares to Reno.
Is less traveling a better thing? It is if emissions and climate change are high on your list of concerns.
And while we’re on the subject of travel, I’ll leave you with a suggestion good this weekend and the rest of February:
San Diego: Twice the fun, half the price
A bird's-eye view of Balboa Park. (Photo: Joanne DiBona, SanDiego.org)
Over 40 museums in San Diego are offering 50% off admission the entire month. Art, history, science, nature lovers and people of all ages have options here.
And since dry January will be over, end your outing in America’s Finest City with a cocktail. Suggestions include Raised by Wolves’ Quickly Escalating Shark Situation, which features bitter Amaros, passionfruit and pineapple. Snap.
(Photo: The Food Channel)
In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms. Also contributing: New Republic, San Luis Obispo Tribune, San Diego Eater, McClatchy, New York Times.
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