In CA: Mask debate grows vociferous, and the skinny on cloth ones

Mask mandates — they're either widely lobbied for or wildly unpopular. And while unemployment claims are slowing, there was still over a million people who filed one last week alone. Plus: Christopher Columbus is leaving the state Capitol.

It's Arlene bringing you news for Wednesday.

But first, work out in comfort and style (and maskless) inside the comfort of a plastic pod at this Redondo gym.

In California brings you top stories and commentary from across the USA TODAY Network and beyond. Get it free, straight to your inbox.

We're reopening, but 1.3 million more Americans filed for unemployment last week

Despite encouraging signs that the economy is emerging from the deepest recession in U.S. history, massive COVID-19-related layoffs have continued.

The Labor Department on Thursday is expected to report that another 1.3 million Americans filed initial jobless claims last week, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

The projected rise in initial claims would push the total filed over the past 13 weeks to a mind-boggling 45.5 million. But on the bright side, it also would mark the 11th straight weekly decline since first-time claims peaked at 6.9 million at the end of March.

Layoffs have spread from the travel, restaurant and retail industries that have been hit hardest to sectors such as manufacturing and professional services.

►Golden State news, straight to your inbox: Sign up for our California newsletter today.

Beachfront restaurant fined, and the mask debate continues

Carmel-By-The-Sea restaurant The Tuck Box must pay up to $35,000 for violating state and county stay-at-home regulations, the Monterey County district attorney's office announced this week.

The coastal city of Ventura voted to require face masks in businesses, offices and many other public places, even as the county it's located in does not.

Now's a good time to fact check: Do cloth masks protect against COVID-19? Our finding: They're not foolproof but they definitely help.

Labor groups representing hotel, airport and food service workers are asking Orange County leaders to reconsider a face mask requirement, which was in place before it was not. Cases have in recent days been trending up.

S.F. sues DoorDash, a Netflix donation and Kaepernick may join Chargers

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin sues DoorDash for "illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors." AB 5, known as the "gig worker law," went into effect Jan. 1 and required companies to reclassify many workers as employees, allowing them to receive medical benefits and things like sick pay.

Silicon Valley executive and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, donate $120 million to the United Negro College Fund, Spelman College and Morehouse College.

The Los Angeles Chargers are likely to have free agent Colin Kaepernick on its "workout list" of players. Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since the 2016 season after kneeling to raise awareness about police brutality and other social inequities.

A failed NFL bid, a heroin overdose and now, a college graduation

He walked onto UC Berkeley's football team and hoped to play in the NFL. A 2013 heroin overdose derailed plans, but now as a Class of 2020 CSU Northridge graduate, he has big plans and a simple message: "Never give up; keep going."

Langston Jackson, of Ventura County, speaks from experience.

Doctors never thought he'd survive the coma that followed his overdose but on Day 37, he became responsive. His surprising recovery was documented by the BBC in British filmmaker Louis Theroux's "LA Stories" series.

Columbus statue in Sacramento coming down

It doesn't seem that long ago we were learning Christopher Columbus sailed the seas en route to "discovering" America; he was a swashbuckling explorer who epitomized the country's enterprising roots.

His likeness was depicted at sites across the country, including in California, where since 1883 a statue of him has been in the center of the Capitol rotunda. On Tuesday, legislative leaders announced it's on its way out.

The removal of the statue has long been sought by Native American, Latino and other groups because of barbaric methods Columbus used to enslave people and given, legislative leaders said in a statement, "the deadly impact his arrival in this hemisphere had on indigenous populations."

Here are some of the atrocities historical documents show Columbus committed.

A day earlier, Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento removed a statue of John Sutter, a long controversial figure who historians say enslaved Native Americans and played a key role in their genocide. He owned Sutter's Mill, where gold was found and which set off the Gold Rush.

What else we're talking about

23 years after Leo Coleman Jr.'s body was found hanging from a tree in Shasta County, questions have resurfaced for his family, like why a full autopsy was never done. Coleman, who is Black, was 31 at the time of his death in 1997.

• Authorities continue to investigate the hanging deaths of two other Black men in recent weeks; the FBI is involved in one of the cases.

Whether the Joshua Tree should be listed as threatened under the state's Endangered Species Act is pitting some environmental groups against nearby towns whose officials argue would make it too expensive and difficult to add needed housing and other development.

A $250 million sports and entertainment arena planned for downtown Palm Springs is on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, and possibly forever.

Santa Ana's police union last month bankrolled a successful effort to recall a councilwoman who opposed giving its members $25 million in pay raises. Now some residents are calling for budget cuts to the department and elected officials want to form a commission to oversee it.

You're ready to hit the Magic Kingdom on July 17 when it reopens. Here's what to know before you make that reservation (yes, that's now required).

Have questions or concerns about this newsletter? Let me know. I'm eager to make this as relevant to you as possible. It helps to write more than "Grow Up" (thank you, reader) but as they say, all feedback is a gift.

In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Vox, Mission Local, CNN, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times, New York Times.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California, unemployment, cloth masks, Columbus, Sutter: Wed news