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Newsletter: Essential California: The sheriff’s official whose emails just went public

Tom Angel at Burbank police headquarters in 2015.

Tom Angel at Burbank police headquarters in 2015.

(Raul Roa / Burbank Leader)
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Good morning. It is Thursday, April 28. Three tiger cubs made their public debut at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park this week. Nelson, Cathy and Debbie were born in January, and zookeepers say they’re already showing their own unique personalities. Here’s what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

Derogatory emails

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The chief of staff to L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell forwarded emails that included derogatory jokes about Muslims, blacks, Latinos and women in 2012 and 2013 when he worked for the Burbank Police Department, records show. Tom Angel says he didn’t mean to demean anyone and suggested it was unfortunate that his work emails were available under the state’s public records laws. “I apologize if I offended anybody, but the intent was not for the public to have seen these jokes,” he said. Los Angeles Times

Security gaps

FBI agents won’t tell Apple how they were able to hack into an iPhone used by one of the terrorists responsible for last year’s attack in San Bernardino. One official says the bureau doesn’t actually have the technical details on how a third party was able to break into the phone. Attorneys for Apple say the tech giant isn’t too concerned, as it’s upgrading the encryption on its devices. Los Angeles Times

Museum donations

An ambitious plan to remake LACMA has received some big support. Elaine Wynn, who is one of the world’s top art collectors, has pledged $50 million to the project. At the same time, former Univision chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio has promised $25 million. Combined, it amounts to the largest monetary donation in the museum’s history. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

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Environmental support: A proposed federal bill would allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to partner with other government agencies to help the Salton Sea. The bill would also require the Army Corps to restore the Salton Sea’s ecosystem and report on threats to public health. Desert Sun

L.A. AT LARGE

On skid row: Anne Douglas celebrated her birthday on skid row Wednesday. It’s a tradition she began in 1992 when she helped launch the Los Angeles Mission’s Anne Douglas Center for Women. Since then, she and her husband, actor Kirk Douglas, have donated $21 million to help homeless women. Los Angeles Times

Lawyering up: The leak in Aliso Canyon was stopped in February, but the legal troubles are just beginning for Southern California Gas Co. More than 70 firms are pursuing 131 legal actions against the utility, including 20 class-action lawsuits. At a hearing Wednesday, about 80 lawyers showed up representing plaintiffs. It took 11 minutes for them all to introduce themselves. Los Angeles Times

Changing times: What can you learn about Los Angeles and gentrification from two doughnut shops in Silver Lake? KCRW

EDUCATION

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On leave: UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi was placed on administrative leave Wednesday, and UC President Janet Napolitano ordered an investigation into “serious questions” about Katehi’s conduct. Katehi’s attorney called Napolitano’s action “disappointing, unprecedented and, based on the facts, entirely unjustified.” Los Angeles Times

Not lost in translation: This year’s commencement ceremony at USC will be translated into Spanish and Chinese. It’s said to be the first time a university has translated its ceremony into any language other than American Sign Language. USC Annenberg Media

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

LMU’s wall: Columnist Steve Lopez visited Loyola Marymount University to see the school’s version of a “Trump” wall. It was put up by Diana Delgado Cornejo, a 21-year-old student who is in this country illegally, and it quickly led to offensive graffiti. “Those sentiments must have been contagious, because even before the buzz about the wall defacement had died down, someone had removed signs for gay awareness week — then a heated exchange broke out between a school employee and students trying to put the signs back where they had been,” Lopez writes. Los Angeles Times

CRIME AND COURTS

Chief dies: The first African American to lead the Los Angeles Police Department has died at the age of 72. Willie Williams was named police chief after Daryl Gates and the 1992 riots. Williams was credited with growing the police ranks by 2,000 officers and embracing community policing, though he was often criticized as a weak administrator. Los Angeles Times

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Acting coach sentenced: An actor and acting coach was sentenced to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 2009. Judge Martin Herscovitz found Cameron Thor “groomed” his acting student and took advantage of her vulnerability. Thor has maintained his innocence. Los Angeles Times

Drug arrest: A man described as a skid row drug kingpin was arrested early Wednesday morning along with 15 others. Derrick Turner is accused of supplying heroin and cocaine in downtown L.A. Police also confiscated $600,000 in $1 bills. “The fact it was $1 bills tells you a lot about his business on skid row,” said LAPD Capt. Andrew Neiman. Los Angeles Times

Identity revealed: Police have identified a body that was discovered with 150 stab wounds back in 1969 near the site of the Manson family killings. Reet Jurvetson was a 19-year-old woman from Montreal. “It was personal. It was a maniac ... or love gone wrong,” said LAPD cold case detective Luis Rivera. People

Cause of death: The manager for Chyna, the late wrestler, says he knows how she died: a combination of Ambien and Valium. Meanwhile, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist, plans to examine her brain for evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Los Angeles Times

BUSINESS

Taking flight: Elon Musk’s SpaceX said it will send a spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018. Meanwhile, NASA believes it can get people to the red planet some time in the 2030s. Bloomberg

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Oil boom: Los Angeles was built on oil — and it’s all hiding in plain sight. Vice News

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Removing remains: The removal of a decaying whale on the shores of San Onofre State Beach is about to get messy. Park officials believe they’ll have to cut up the dead animal and remove it piece by piece. “It’s going to be probably upsetting to kids. We highly suggest, or ask, that people stay away once the removal process is in place, because you just don’t know what you’re going to see,” said Kevin Pearsall, a public safety superintendent for California state parks. Los Angeles Times

Old photos: These photographs capture the Salinas Valley in the summer of 1975. New York Times

Goodbye, books: People in Berkeley were not happy last year when librarians pulled 40,000 books off the shelves and got rid of them. The “deaccessioned” texts were discarded because no one was really checking them out, but that didn’t stop the protests. The New Yorker

Who is that? It wasn’t Dumbo flying in the sky above Disneyland (though that’s a pretty good guess). The African elephant was on her way to the Jungle Cruise. Orange County Register

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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

San Francisco will be sunny with a high of 66. Sacramento will be sunny and 79. In San Diego, there will be a thunderstorm as temperatures reach 67 degrees. Riverside is expected to have showers and a high of 71. Los Angeles will have some clouds and a high of 61.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California Memory comes from Paul Jordan:

“Living in Santa Monica, it wasn’t until I was 12 years old (1947) that I first saw the Milky Way. It was in the middle of night, and I was on my way to a Boy Scout Camp in Sequoia National Park — in flatbed truck. Awesome!”

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 Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.

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