Essential California: Our years together, and what’s next

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Friday, April 30, and I’m writing from Los Angeles. And before we get to the actual news, a little personal news...

When I first took over this newsletter two years ago, I had big intentions for my first day. I planned to write some lofty introduction, waxing lyrical on the grand themes of California and setting the tone for all that lay ahead.

Instead, as is often the case in the news business, something terrible happened.

A man brought a semiautomatic rifle into a suburban San Diego synagogue and opened fire, killing one woman and wounding several others. I was sent down to Poway to cover the shooting and found myself in a situation I would be in many times over the next two years, transcribing an interview about the worst day of someone’s life while crying in a Starbucks parking lot.

You never feel entirely prepared or capable of doing justice to the tender, frangible truth of the matter.

You are paid to craft a human story. But it’s also hard not to question whether the act at hand renders you a little less human — descending, invading, extracting, then turning around to put it in the newspaper. To say nothing of imposing narrative structure and occasionally even external meaning on an otherwise unruly set of facts. Mainly, though, you’re just trying to make sure you spelled everyone’s names right.

During a pretty standard first year and a second, largely senseless, pandemic year, it has been a great honor to be tasked with delivering and explaining the news to our hundreds of thousands of Essential California readers.

Over the past 24 months, I’ve reported on one man’s lifelong quest to build his own Chicano library in Stockton, two mothers and a son at the center of a battle over “Straight Pride” in Modesto, Bohemian Grove’s collision with the 21st century, Bakersfield’s controversial plan to fight homelessness, ice cream and Instagram influencers, the uniquely California rise of Marianne Williamson, a folk art trash palace in the shadow of Hearst Castle, the man who built Sacramento’s Black newspaper, the future of the once-liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, facing harassment as a female mayor, the loaded terminology we use to discuss the events of April 1992, awards shows, a bout with the coronavirus, protests, vaccine chasers and access codes, earthquakes, fires, and climate change-induced despair. Among many, many other things.

There is an unlikely intimacy to the newsletter form. I go out reporting or sit alone at my desk all day, turn something in at night, and wake up every morning to half a dozen emails from our reader community. Some are critical and some are complimentary, but they are almost always thoughtful. Even the people writing to say I should be fired usually provide a cogent reason.

I am particularly grateful for how much of your lives you’ve shared with me. I owe a debt to every reader who has taken the time to tell me about something that mattered to them, or how the news was shaping their day-to-day. Thank you.

Even if they weren’t always quoted, your experiences deeply informed my reporting. We may not have met in person, but I feel like I know many of you. Especially those who have become frequent characters in my inbox.

You’ve probably figured out where I’m going with this by now. After two years at the helm of Essential California, this is my last newsletter.

I’ll be moving on to cover the gubernatorial recall election, and a team of my esteemed Metro colleagues will be taking over until your next newsletter writer is announced.

Newsletters at the L.A. Times are very much a team sport, and there are quite a few people to thank before I go. Shelby Grad, the inimitable don of Metro, has shaped the big-picture strategy along with countless individual stories. Tireless newsletter editor Scott Sandell has polished each edition and saved me from making a fool of myself more times than I care to admit. The same goes for our wonderful copy desk, who elevate all corners of the paper with their thoughtful care (and, in the case of this newsletter, often while working late at night). The rest of the multitalented newsletters team — Sam Schulz, Kim Bode and Laura Blasey — have helped mold nearly everything else, with Laura writing most of the Saturday edition. The great Diya Chacko (who sadly for us is no longer at The Times) piloted Saturdays and helmed audience strategy during our first year. And, of course, my Essential California predecessor Ben Oreskes, who, despite thinking he was finally done with this newsletter in April 2019, has patiently continued to answer my questions far beyond any reasonable expiration date.

And one last thing — if you have strong feelings about the recall, I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can reach out to you for future stories in the coming months. You can share them here.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

Appointments for the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine have decreased by about 50% in Los Angeles County, alarming public health officials who call it a worrisome trend that reflects the slowdown in vaccination rates across the state and country. Los Angeles Times

U.S. economic growth surges in the first quarter, foreshadowing a booming recovery from the pandemic: Economists and government policymakers believe there’s more good news to come. The rebound is likely to grow even stronger in the months ahead, restoring millions of jobs and putting the nation on track in 2021 for the fastest growth since the 1980s. Los Angeles Times

Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.

L.A. STORIES

Five arrested in the shooting of Lady Gaga’s dog walker and theft of her bulldogs in L.A. The LAPD said detectives “do not believe the suspects were targeting the victim because of the dogs’ owner,” but instead “knew the great value of the breed of dogs.” Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Police Department has lifted a week-old moratorium on the use of certain hard-foam projectiles at protests after a federal judge revised her recent court order restricting the weapons’ use. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

A Temecula City Council member compared the fight against face mask mandates to Rosa Parks’ bus demonstration for civil rights. The controversy, which festered for weeks and was used as fodder on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night, intensified after the latest council meeting. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Prosecutors say a first date led to a murder, a cover-up and a huge wildfire that killed two people: Authorities say a 2020 Northern California wildfire was deliberately ignited by a man trying to cover up that he had allegedly murdered a woman he met on a dating app. Los Angeles Times

The president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce said he was attacked Thursday afternoon while walking downtown to meet an assault victim. San Francisco Chronicle

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Is it finally safe to get back to normal, pre-COVID-19 life? Here’s what experts say. Los Angeles Times

Much of the Bay Area is now enduring “extreme” drought weather, according to new data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. San Francisco Chronicle

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said it has resumed serving hot meals in county jails, more than a week after a state board told the agency it was violating a regulation by not providing incarcerated individuals with at least one hot meal a day. Daily Pilot

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Inside the search for answers about Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ overdose death: Eric Kay, the Angels’ former communications director, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Skaggs’ death. Los Angeles Times (This story is an L.A. Times subscriber exclusive.)

Angels pitcher Taylor Cole places his hand on the No. 45 on the pitchers’ mound at Angel Stadium, in memory of the late Tyler Skaggs, before a game in July 2019.

(Los Angeles Times)

A literary journey through the Inland Empire: Columnist David Allen muses on the origins and afterlife of “Inlandia,” a 2006 literary anthology focused on the region. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

At Orange County mosques, they come for the halal tacos and stay for the vaccination. Rida Hamida’s #TacoTrucksatEveryMosque initiative has become a pipeline to address a host of social issues affecting marginalized communities in Southern California, from answering the U.S. census and voter registration to accessing the COVID-19 vaccinations. Religion News Service

The death of an Orange County civil rights pioneer: Columnist Gustavo Arellano memorializes Bob Johnson, a longtime board member of the Fair Housing Council of OC and a founder of the Orange County Community Housing Corporation, which builds apartments and homes for low-income people. Los Angeles Times

A poem to start your Friday: “California Hills in August” by Dana Gioia. Poetry Foundation

And for anyone who has enjoyed the morning poems, here’s a master list of all the poems featured in the newsletter over the last two years.

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: mercilessly sunny, 90. San Diego: pleasantly sunny, 79. San Francisco: slightly feral afternoon winds, 61. San Jose: largely cloudy, 75. Fresno: hard to describe, 97. Sacramento: mostly cloudy, 88.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Carol Bartlett:

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (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, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.