Newsletter: Essential California: Is your home at risk in an earthquake?

Good morning. It’s Saturday, April 16, and here’s what’s going on around California:

TOP STORIES

Quake retrofit: Neighborhoods in the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the Westside will feel the biggest effect from Los Angeles’ new law requiring the retrofitting of wood-frame apartment buildings to better withstand a major earthquake, according to a Times data analysis. Los Angeles Times

“The exodus has begun”: California’s minimum wage hitting $15 an hour by 2022 could prove the death knell for what’s left of the local garment industry, which has already fallen on hard times. Los Angeles Times

Don’t text: Trying to lure young people to movie theaters, AMC Entertainment talked about allowing texting. But an outcry has killed those plans. Los Angeles Times

Dirty scopes: The number of potentially deadly infections from contaminated medical scopes is far higher than what federal officials previously estimated, a new congressional investigation shows. As many as 350 patients at 41 medical facilities in the U.S. and worldwide were infected or exposed. Los Angeles Times

Brochella? Once again, Coachella has no female headliners for the shows Friday through Sunday. Only one female-centric act, Björk, has ever stepped on the main stage as a festival headliner, and that was nearly 10 years ago. Los Angeles Times

Don’t look down: Some terrifying views from the very top of Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

Check in: One of Hollywood’s most notoriously tough hotels is going upscale, in a sign of the times. Curbed LA

Neo-noir: Looking at “The Long Goodbye” as a perfect film dissection of Los Angeles. New York Times

Setting the stage: Anaheim is emerging as a more popular filming spot for Hollywood. Orange County Register

THIS WEEK’S MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. Before-and-after photos show the effects of the drought and El Niño in a vivid way. SFGate

2. Every shot Kobe Bryant ever took. All 30,699 of them. Los Angeles Times

3. A Holmby Hills estate lists for $150 million — and it’s not the Playboy Mansion. Wall Street Journal

4. Is La Niña on the way? Discovery News

5. Presidential endorsements, celebrity-style. Los Angeles Times

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S GREAT READS

Hostage situation: A bizarre hostage standoff involving Dustin Hoffman’s cousin in 1971 had aftershocks that lasted decades. Los Angeles Magazine

Flavor master: In a corner of Riverside, more than 1,000 varieties of citrus are collected, cultivated and cross-bred to create that perfect flavor. Los Angeles Times

Gender identity: A story of transgender acceptance in the suburbs of San Diego. San Diego Union-Tribune

Kobe’s farewell: He showed up on this city’s doorstep in the summer of 1996 as a teenage Laker. He became a polarizing figure, but Kobe Bryant did it his way. Los Angeles Times

What happened? How labor backed a deal that ended up paying their members less than non-union counterparts. Los Angeles Times

LOOKING AHEAD

Sunday: A Cambodian Genocide Remembrance Day will be held in Long Beach, home to a large Cambodian American community.

Sunday: The L.A. Rams hold auditions for the Rams cheerleaders.

Monday: San Francisco marks the 110th Anniversary of the great 1906 earthquake.

Wednesday: Festivities get underway for the Newport to Ensenada Yacht International Race.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.