Good morning.

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It’s Friday and the nation has made it through the first series of Democratic presidential debates.

You can read The Times’s extensive coverage here, including live analysis, transcripts, and snapshots of the policies and priorities of each of the 20(!) candidates who made it to the two debate stages.

Wednesday night was, as my colleagues on the politics team reported, pretty polite.

Thursday night’s debate — which included Senator Kamala Harris and Representative Eric Swalwell, the two Golden State candidates in the race — started out similarly. Then things ramped up.

In the most dramatic moment of the night, Ms. Harris answered any question about who would take on the top-polling Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Referencing remarks Mr. Biden made at a fund-raiser recently that angered some in his party, she said, “It is personal and it was actually very hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country.”

Mr. Biden pressed back, saying that her reading was a mischaracterization.

The two grabbed the most speaking time of any candidates on the stage.

[See how long each candidate spoke here.]

“Harris’ campaign has been defined by booms and plateaus,” my colleague Astead Herndon said in a live analysis. “This is likely to be the biggest boom certainly — but will it be harnessed?”

One crucial place for Ms. Harris to build momentum is her home state, which has a newly prominent place on the primary calendar.

California is a major driver of the national discussion, Kevin Wallsten, a political-science professor at California State University Long Beach, told me. It’s a function of the state’s money and size: 20 percent of the nation’s Democrats live here, he said.

“What happens is the priorities and preferences and the concerns of the Democratic Party start to get skewed in the direction of California,” he said. “They’re going to get skewed through the prism of our demographics.”

And that was reflected on the debate stage both on Wednesday night, when several candidates spoke Spanish — however clunky their accents — and on Thursday, when most candidates said they’d support decriminalizing crossing the border without documents, instead making it a civil offense.

On Thursday, candidates also mentioned devastating wildfires in California as they detailed how they’d confront climate change.

Ms. Harris described seeing firefighters who battled blazes as their own homes burned.

Still, Mr. Wallsten said, it’s not a given that a strong debate showing will translate into votes — and experts have said Ms. Harris’s geographic ties don’t make her a given. He said he’ll be watching how Californians who aren’t on Twitter view Senator Bernie Sanders and Mr. Biden after Thursday.

As for Mr. Swalwell, who spoke the second least (just ahead of Andrew Yang), Mr. Wallsten said, “It’s hard to imagine a situation where he stays in the race for very long.”

He said one of Mr. Swalwell’s refrains will most likely remain “an important idea,” however: Mr. Swalwell, 38, said it’s “time to pass the torch.”

[Read a full recap of the debate here.]

Here’s what else we’re following

(We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.)

• In neighborhoods where lots of immigrants live, like MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, it may not matter that the Supreme Court on Thursday stopped the Census Bureau from asking about citizenship status. Opening the door to be counted poses too great a risk for many. [The New York Times]

• The decision on the census wasn’t the only profoundly important ruling from the Supreme Court on Thursday. The highest court in the land refused to block gerrymandered political maps — or districts drawn to benefit one party. [The New York Times]

• The House passed a Senate version of a bill that would send emergency humanitarian aid to the border, in a big defeat for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The bill didn’t include many of the restrictions the further-left-leaning contingent of House Democrats pushed for, which they said could enable the crisis to continue. [The New York Times]

• Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators reached a deal that would send $275 million to about a dozen of the state’s biggest cities to fight homelessness. The deal would also impose fines of $100,000 a month for cities that refuse to comply with state regulations aimed at speeding up new housing. [The Los Angeles Times]

• In yet another illustration of the depth of the crisis, Salinas officials, businesses and residents are tired of trash piling up at a homeless encampment along railroad tracks. Residents say they have few options and can’t afford trash bags, while local officials are hamstrung because the land is privately owned by Union Pacific. [The Salinas Californian]

• About a third of California’s jail and prison inmates are considered to be severely mentally ill. That means questions about conservatorship law are urgent. [LAist/KPCC]

• “I’ve had friends in China that viewed me as a trusted supplier. They can’t now.” The trade war with China has been damaging to the U.S. computer chip industry — much of which is clustered in California. [The New York Times]

Potpourri

• A pair of rare golden eagle chicks were discovered deep in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s the first time they’ve been spotted in 30 years. [NBC4]

• It’s the last weekend of Pride Month. The residents of Open House, a home and service center for L.G.B.T.Q. seniors in a changing San Francisco, talk about their community in this illustrated piece. [The New York Times]

• The San Francisco Chronicle posted a beautiful, fun-to-browse Top 100 Restaurants guide. (And the Bay is kind of known for its food.) [The San Francisco Chronicle]

And Finally …

We’re well into summer now, so I asked Tejal Rao, The Times’s California restaurant critic, about what’s looking good at the produce market. Here’s what to eat this weekend:

It’s my first summer shopping for produce in L.A. and it’s overwhelming — in a good way. Strawberries, cherries, apricots and so many beautiful varieties of figs. This is a good weekend to load up on figs. Look for fruit that’s plump and soft to the touch, but not weeping with juice.

If it’s really ripe and perfect, might as well eat it raw — just slice the figs in half, arrange on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, and lay over some very thin slices of prosciutto. Done. If you’ve got people coming over this weekend, it’s the perfect no-nonsense thing to assemble and pair with drinks.

And if you’re going somewhere, and you want to take something special with you, I highly recommend baking Melissa Clark’s savory fig tart with caramelized onions and Stilton. It relies on store-bought puff pastry, which means it comes together really quickly. The best part is that it holds well at room temperature so you can cut it up and leave it out for people to snack on.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

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

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