Newsletter: Essential California: California debates classifying extremists as street gang members

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Monday, Sept. 4, Labor Day, and here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

Are they gangs?

As forces on the extremes of the nation’s ever-widening political divide continue to battle with fists and weapons on the streets of California, law enforcement officials and politicians have started debating whether these extremist groups should be classified as street gangs. Such a designation could give law enforcement new tools to combat the groups. Numerous laws on the books give authorities the power to restrict the movements of gang members and enhance criminal charges against them. “There are violent extremists on both sides, and we need to look at a variety of legal and law enforcement strategies to deal with these groups,” said Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin. Los Angeles Times

Getting rid of a relic

In Los Angeles County, signing up for Medi-Cal is often followed by a phone book-size directory landing on your doorstep. The 2017 directory for L.A. Care, a local Medi-Cal health plan, is 2,546 pages of doctors’ names listed by city, by specialty — anesthesiologists, gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists. It includes hours, addresses, phone numbers and languages spoken for each of the thousands of physicians. Now Medi-Cal is asking for the state to stop printing these behemoths, arguing that they aren’t useful and consumers would be better served with an online directory. Los Angeles Times

Fire in the Verdugos

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County as firefighters continue to battle a 7,003-acre brush fire in the Verdugo Mountains north of downtown Los Angeles that destroyed three homes and shut down a stretch of the 210 Freeway. It came at the urging of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the fire is the largest in the city’s history in terms of sheer acreage. The good news: Authorities have lifted evacuation orders and reopened the 210. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

It’s not a movie: Chinatown was jolted in January when Tony Young was stabbed to death while playing mah-jongg at Hop Sing Tong, the 141-year-old local social club. In the neighborhood, he was an elder statesman. To the FBI, he was the boss of a notorious gang. “He was a very cunning person. He knew how to show respect,” said Ben Lee, a retired LAPD detective who worked the Chinatown beat. “He would never be disrespectful to a police officer.” Los Angeles Times

Over in Westminster: Tibetan and Vietnamese figures say basic human rights and freedom continue to be denied to 6 million Tibetans inside their homeland and to 95 million in Vietnam, resulting in beatings, deaths, imprisonment without trials and self-immolations. In a gathering in Westminster to highlight human rights abuses, activists from both countries explained how they struggled under communist brutality but refuse to give up fighting for freedom. Los Angeles Times

‘This is bigger than us’: Jake Olson is legally blind and will never behold his perfect snap, the wondrous kick, that glorious final point of USC’s opening-day football victory. Still, as the team’s long snapper, he was essential in the Trojans’ prevailing on Saturday. Los Angeles Times

What a comeback: With two minutes left in the third quarter of the season opener at a boo-filled Rose Bowl on Sunday night, UCLA trailed Texas A&M by 34 points. Then came the biggest comeback in UCLA football history. Los Angeles Times

IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

Policy gets personal: President Trump’s decision on the “Dreamers” is personal for some members of the California delegation to Congress. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Hepatitis outbreak: San Diego County declared a health emergency Friday night, adding a new level of urgency to a hepatitis A outbreak that has hit hardest among the homeless population, killing 15 people and hospitalizing hundreds. Los Angeles Times

The senior senator: Maybe civility, tact and graciousness have become so untrendy in politics that when Sen. Dianne Feinstein plays nice to an American president she just naturally gets booed, columnist George Skelton writes. Los Angeles Times

Weighing in: “Gov. Jerry Brown, state schools Supt. Tom Torlakson and the state Board of Education have indicated by word and deed that they want soft oversight of how local schools are performing,” writes Dan Walters. Cal Matters

CRIME AND COURTS

Big trial ends: Two San Bernardino County officials and a Rancho Cucamonga developer were acquitted by a jury after an eight-month trial in which prosecutors accused them of scheming to secure a $102-million payout from a land dispute. Los Angeles Times

Was it a bribe? Two Northern California marijuana farmers have been charged with offering a sheriff $1 million to turn a blind eye to their pot-growing operations. Associated Press

A helping hand: Arizona officials are turning to the public to help locate a woman kidnapped in Solvang, Calif. She was last seen in Goodyear, Ariz. ABC 15

Suspect dies: A Castro Valley man suspected of killing a sheriff’s deputy and wounding two others in a gun battle has died of gunshot wounds, the Sacramento County coroner’s office said Saturday. The Mercury News

THE ENVIRONMENT

Fire, fire everywhere: Firefighters over the weekend battled a brush fire that burned at least 3,800 acres in Riverside County and forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

The fight is real: Though a new generation of women of color —Tinashe, Kehlani, Sevyn Streeter, Jhene Aiko, H.E.R. and SZA, among others — are making waves with wildly different takes on R&B, and producing some of the genre’s most exciting work, they often find themselves departmentalized into racialized genres. And without a song that crosses over onto pop radio, they risk being ignored. Los Angeles Times

The new head honcho: Charles Rivkin is no stranger to the film industry. After serving as President Obama’s ambassador to France, he’s back as the head of the Motion Picture Assn. of America and aiming to be a diplomat for Hollywood at an uncertain time. Los Angeles Times

An icon passes: Louise Hay, an early force in self-help publishing who built an empire that attracted millions of devotees with its messages about the power of thought and attitude, died Wednesday at her home in San Diego. New York Times

Going home: An NPR reporter returned to his home in Richmond, a blue-collar city east of San Francisco, seeing an exodus of African Americans and the emergence of a new Latino community. NPR

What to watch: Feel like staying at home and binge-watching something on Labor Day? Here are some suggestions. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: sunny Monday and Tuesday. San Diego and San Francisco area: partly cloudy Monday and Tuesday. Sacramento: partly cloudy Monday, sunny Tuesday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

This week’s birthdays for those who made a mark in California: attorney Robert Shapiro, (Sept. 2, 1941) and actor Charlie Sheen (Sept. 3, 1965).

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.