In CA: Not all police will enforce mask order, departments say

California has a new mask mandate, but who will enforce it? And renewed calls to remove a statue of Father Junipero Serra prompt the community to take action. Plus, Black leaders reflect on what Juneteenth means this particular year.

It's Arlene with news to close out the week.

But first, a San Bernardino elected official who didn't want to leave his eighth-floor office to save the city $160,000 had a message for a colleague who offered to help him move: "Go to hell. F__ A-__."

Also, a quick out-of-office note: I'll be on unpaid furlough next week, so please enjoy the work of my talented colleagues who will be filling in, and consider subscribing to your local publication. 🙏🏾

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

'Nothing has changed' when it comes to masks, some police chiefs say

Mask proponents and elected officials breathed a sigh of relief after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday mandated residents wear masks in public places.

It's just, well, not every place plans to enforce it.

"Nothing has changed in regard to COVID-related orders for us here at VPD," said Visalia Police Sgt. Celeste Sanchez, referring to the before and after of Newsom's announcement.

Nearby, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said while he encouraged communities to "take all precautionary measures" mandated by Newsom, he and his team will only encourage compliance.

Boudreaux said his department "simply does not have the resources to conduct mask enforcement" and crime and criminals will be their focus.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said he doesn't believe it's the responsibility of law enforcement to ensure compliance. “It is each person’s responsibility to wear a face covering and follow other recommended safeguards in order to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Hotels for homeless, UC students want police out, golf in Yosemite and a move to block Costco

Hotels have been used to house homeless individuals since early in the pandemic. In Ventura County, the sites could become permanent housing.

Amid calls to shift police spending for social services, some students want police gone from the University of California system, whose 10 campuses collectively spent more than $138 million on policing in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

Yosemite National Park's concessions operator is let go after video surfaces of him teeing off into a protected meadow.

Just when you thought everyone loved Costco (or at least their $1.50 hot dog/soda combo), some residents in Redding are organizing to block one from coming to town.

Calls to remove Junipero Serra statue grow

What I remember most about my fourth-grade Mission project is how bad my last-minute creation turned out. I glued pebbles onto foam but ran out of time, leaving only one of the three walls I finished covered so it looked like a long-fallen castle missing most of its parts.

The project had been a core of California's fourth-grade curriculum but in recent years, an increasing number of schools have done away with it, both because it fails to teach children about the period and because what was taught left out the cruel reality of the Missions.

The state Education Department, as part of an updated framework for teaching history and other subjects, explains: "Missions were sites of conflict, conquest, and forced labor."

As statues depicting people with racist or barbaric pasts begin to topple across the country and California — John Sutter and Christopher Columbus among them — there's a renewed push to get rid of Father Junipero Serra in Ventura.

Serra is credited with bringing Catholicism to the state in the 18th century when it was a Spanish colony. He established missions from San Diego to San Francisco and recently gained sainthood in 2015 when he was canonized by Pope Francis.

He also enslaved Native American people living here which, coupled with diseases, meant most of the existing population died off, historians have written.

Alan Salazar, with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, said the statue should have been taken down a long time ago. "Father Serra destroyed many tribes — their culture. He enslaved us and degraded us as human beings."

Ventura elected, Indigenous and Catholic leaders are working on a plan to get rid of it.

Heat, gardening and fireworks tips

It's going to be a scorcher from Modesto to Redding, the National Weather Service is advising, so keep an eye on children and the elderly.

The pesky weed puncturevine can deposit some painful burrs. Here's how to get rid of it.

Sounds like fireworks season has arrived: Here are ways to keep your pet safe and comfortable.

California Black leaders reflect on Juneteenth

Juneteenth commemorates the day Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas, to inform enslaved Black people they were free and the Civil War had ended. The move came two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

USA TODAY asked several Black leaders to reflect on the significance of Juneteenth, given this moment in history.

Here's Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and founder of Reform L.A. Jails: "...Let’s think about the role that police play in keeping Black people from being free. Let’s think about the role jails play in keeping Black people from being free. Let’s think about how every single moment this country used Black bodies as slave labor. Let’s think about whether this country truly wants Black people to be free. If it doesn’t, how will we become free anyway?"

Here's Kamala Harris, California's first African American attorney general and just the second African African ever elected to the U.S. Senate: "Some are waking up to what many of us in the Black community have been protesting for generations: our country’s failure to fully reckon with historic and systemic racism. The current moment is laying bare the issue of excessive force, but we know the problems of inequity in our country run much deeper than interactions with law enforcement.

Systemic racism shows up as disparities in success indicators like wealth, the criminal justice system, employment, housing, health care, politics and education. But here's what it means and how you can help dismantle it.

Here are 12 charts that show how systemic racism materializes. Black women, for instance, are more three times are more likely than white women to die giving birth, and all but four Fortune 400 CEOs are Black (and they're all men).

That's it from me this week. See you soon.

In California is a roundup of news from across USA TODAY Network newsrooms. Also contributing: Fresno Bee, National Weather Service, CalMatters, Fresno Bee, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Los Angeles Times.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California, Father Serra, masks, Juneteenth, Yosemite: Friday's news