In California: A bear hits the campaign trail, and beware great white sharks!

Plus: Who's got more cash in the recall campaign, progress against COVID-19 and an earthquake alert system expands 

Know someone who cares about the Golden State? Let them know they can sign up for the In California newsletter via this link. I'm Julie Makinen, California editor for the USA Today Network, bringing you Tuesday's key headlines.

Recall updates: The campaign antics have begun

John Cox, a 65-year-old Republican businessman who lost in a landslide to Gavin Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial race and is trying now to unseat the governor, launched a bus tour on Tuesday with a live, 1,000-pound Kodiak bear, Associated Press reported. The stunt was tied into a video Cox released, calling himself “the beast” to the photogenic Newsom’s “beauty.”

Cox promised to bring “beastly” changes to state government. He spent $5 million to air a 30-second version on television statewide, his campaign said, a major amount this early in the campaign and indicative of the need to raise his profile.

In a move everyone could have or should have seen coming, animal rights group PETA and state Sen. Ben Hueso, who authored a state law banning use of most animals in circuses, condemned his use of a bear as a campaign prop. The bear, which Cox said was born in captivity, is trained and has appeared in movies and commercials.

Cox isn't the only one turning up the heat. Caitlyn Jenner, who entered the race to unseat Newsom about 10 days ago, released a video with a more inspirational and patriotic tone. She calls herself a “compassionate disruptor” in the ad that features clips from her Summer Olympics appearance in 1976, when she won the gold medal in the men’s decathlon.

Jenner, now a 71-year-old transgender woman, has held no campaign events since announcing her candidacy, but a televised town hall in her hometown of Malibu is planned for Wednesday. The ad offers her most expansive commentary as a candidate.

“I’m running to be governor for all Californians, to reclaim our true identity, to bring back the gold to the Golden State,” Jenner says in the ad.

For his part, Newsom appeared Tuesday at his first campaign-style event to accept the endorsement of two firefighter unions.

Newsom foes raise more money, but governor has more cash on hand

So far, political fundraisers have set up six campaign committees to spend on either side of the still-unofficial recall election. The pro-recall side came out ahead, with $5.45 million raised, state reports show, while the committees spending in Newsom’s defense brought in $4.56 million, CalMatters reports.

Recall opponents also boasted a higher share of contributions from small-dollar donors, which political strategists sometimes take as a proxy for regular-folks enthusiasm that translates into votes. 

And while Newsom’s opponents have burned through most of their cash, the governor’s defenders have roughly $2.5 million socked away.

Are you ready for the big one? Quake alert system now covers the whole west coast (if you have the right phone or app)

When it comes to earthquakes and California, it's not a matter of if, but when. In a bit of good news, as of Tuesday morning, the U.S. earthquake early warning system is able to issue alerts to cellphone users anywhere on the West Coast of the continental U.S., the Los Angeles Times reports. 

At 8 a.m., Washington finally gained access to the mobile alerts. The alert system for mobile users was launched in Los Angeles in late 2018 and was expanded across the rest of California in late 2019. In March, Oregon mobile phone users began getting access to earthquake early warning system alerts.

The system works because the speed of today’s communications systems is faster than the speed at which shaking waves move through the ground, the Times explained. Google now funnels earthquake early warning alerts directly to Android cellphones in California, Oregon and now Washington. But you're out of luck, Apple users — Apple has not made a deal with the USGS to develop a similar system its devices.

But there's a workaround. Alerts can come through the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which sends text-message alerts similar to an Amber Alert alerting cellphone users of an abducted child. In California and Oregon, smartphone users can download free apps to get alerts. MyShake, developed by UC Berkeley, warns users that a quake has been detected and tells them to take protective action. QuakeAlertUSA, developed by Santa Monica-based Early Warning Labs, offers additional tools: a countdown to when shaking is expected to arrive, and what intensity of shaking to expect.

COVID check-in: SF and LA move into yellow tier.

They took wildly divergent paths, but San Francisco and Los Angeles both arrived at the same coveted place on Tuesday: the yellow tier in California’s reopening blueprint.

As the San Francisco Chronicle recounts, their trajectories were radically different, and the scale of misery is almost impossible to compare between the two counties. As San Francisco largely avoided the worst of the pandemic’s deadly scourge, Los Angeles County was crushed, particularly during the winter surge.

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, vice dean for population health and health equity at UCSF, attributed the counties’ successes mostly to their residents’ willingness to be vaccinated. “The things that have really helped all of California, and you see it in our two big urban centers, is that we have been vaccinating at a really high rate, and there is a high degree of vaccine uptake,” she said.

As of Tuesday, seven of the state’s 58 counties were in the yellow tier. San Francisco and Los Angeles are the only two large counties in yellow — the other five are in rural Northern California and the Sierra.

California keeps millions in child support while parents drown in debt

Half of Stacy Estes’ pay disappears every month before it hits his bank account. Each check is about $500 lighter than it should be, intercepted in the name of child support — which he wouldn’t have a problem with, if it were going to his kids.

Instead, only $225 goes to his children. The rest is garnished to repay government debt he began accruing more than two decades ago when he first got behind on child support payments. 

The 53-year-old man owes about $47,000 in child support debt, most of which is compounded by years of government-imposed interest, according to financial records reviewed by The Salinas Californian and CalMatters. 

Federal data shows California is keeping an unusually high portion of the child support payments — more than 3½  times the national average, paying itself first at the expense of the very children it’s supposed to be looking out for. California is charging families millions of dollars in interest on past-due child support payments while penalizing low-income parents who fall behind, making it nearly impossible for many to land employment, support their children and pay off the debt, according to state records and expert analysis. 

Drones give us a new perspective on great white shark behavior off SoCal coast

Whether you're fascinated by sharks or simply fear them, you won't want to miss this L.A. Times story on Carlos Gauna, who through his YouTube channel, TheMalibuArtist, is part of a cadre of researchers and photographers using drones to study great white shark behavior and present them in a more realistic light than the hyped-up reality shows and horror movies. The images are amazing. Check out his YouTube channel too.

In California is a roundup of news from across USA Today network newsrooms. Also contributing: Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Assoociated Press, CalMatters. Julie Makinen is California editor for the USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @Julie_Makinen