Photo Carol Christ, the U.C. Berkeley chancellor, is taking over at a time of intense debate over free speech principles. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.)

A swirl of problems awaited U.C. Berkeleys new chancellor, Carol Christ, as she assumed the top job at Californias flagship public university this summer.

The campus is contending with a student housing shortage, a budget crunch and the fallout from a series of sexual harassment scandals.

Then there is the issue thats been attracting national attention: Whether conservative speakers have become unwelcome at Berkeley, a university regarded as a birthplace of the free speech movement.

In an interview, Dr. Christ, 73, indicated that she would confront that question head-on.

She announced a free speech year to include, among other events, a series of debates titled Point Counterpoint that would feature speakers with sharply divergent views.

What were trying to do is really give the community as many different kinds of opportunities to think carefully about free speech, she said.

Berkeley has been shadowed by doubts over its commitment to freedom of expression since February, when a planned speech on campus by the far right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled in the wake of violent protests.

In the months that followed, more debates flared over invited speakers including the conservative writers Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro.

Dr. Christ, a scholar of Victorian literature and former president of Smith College, took over for the former Berkeley chancellor, Nicholas B. Dirks, in July.

She said she was looking carefully at how to improve the security around contested events on campus, a concern amplified this month by the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va.

Asked if Mr. Yiannopoulos who has railed against Muslims, immigrants and transgender people was welcome at Berkeley, Dr. Christ cited the Constitution.

Lots of speech that I would find abhorrent, noxious, hateful, bigoted is protected, she said.

Whether Berkeley can guarantee that right without anyone getting hurt may be tested soon.

Mr. Yiannopoulos has said he will hold a four-day free speech event in September on Berkeleys Sproul Plaza.

This time, he vowed in a Facebook post, he will bring an army if I have to.

{{= c_phrase }}

(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)

A Democratic state senator who voted in favor of a gas tax has faced a well-funded recall effort. So his party colleagues are trying to change the election rules. [Sacramento Bee]

The Trump administration is expected to decide this week whether the status of five national monuments in California should be revoked, shrunk or let be. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Its called arrogance. The gate is still padlocked at Martins Beach, despite a judges order that a Silicon Valley billionaire could no longer block public access. [The Mercury News]

Hundreds of homeless people live in makeshift dwellings along the Santa Ana River Trail. Many local residents say the time has come to clear them out. [Orange County Register]

Keak Da Sneak, a well known Bay Area rapper, was critically wounded in a shooting. [East Bay Times]

A Los Angeles jury awarded $417 million in damages to a woman who sued Johnson & Johnson claiming baby powder caused her cancer. [The New York Times]

The top leadership of The Los Angeles Times was ousted in a shake-up that stunned many members of the newsroom. [The New York Times]

My life has been a constant hell. For some Sunnyvale residents, its not easy living next to Apples new $5 billion spaceship campus. [The Mercury News]

Daybeds, scented candles and organic seaweed snacks. Inside the $22 million private terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. [Vanity Fair]

We need more softness and more silence and more pause through the chaos. A conversation with the actress Shailene Woodley. [The New York Times]

The arrival of Apple, Facebook and Google means that the hypercompetitive world of scripted television is going to become even more ferocious. [The New York Times]

What $1,700 rents you in San Francisco right now. [San Francisco Curbed]

The eclipse on Monday delivered the country a welcome, if brief, moment of unity.

Americans across the country paused to peer skyward as the moon cast a shadow that traveled from Oregon to South Carolina.

From California, the show was hit or miss.

Most of the state got a clear view of the crescent-shaped sun. But morning fog along the coast effectively canceled the experience for many people, who resorted instead to online broadcasts.

They can take some solace. Another chance is coming in a mere seven years, when a total solar eclipse will travel along a route from Texas to Maine.

Yesterday we asked you to send us your eclipse photos. Here is a selection:

Want to submit a photo for possible publication? You can do it here.

California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.

The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Los Osos. Follow him on Twitter.

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

More:

California Today: Berkeley's New Chancellor and a 'Free Speech Year' - New York Times