Newsletter: Flu season hits California

Good morning. It is Saturday, Jan. 21. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Serious situation: Thousands of Californians have been showing up at doctors’ offices and hospitals sick with the flu this month, in what officials say could be a much more severe flu season than the last. Los Angeles Times

Lights and music: Through its first 41 years, the concrete tripod with the rainbow swirl across from Los Angeles City Hall has done nothing so well as inspire clever putdowns. The 60-foot sculpture, christened the Triforium in 1975, was soon mocked as the “Trifoolery” and “Three Wishbones in Search of a Turkey.” But over time, the Triforium has become beloved even as it has fallen into disrepair. Now there is a plan to light the turkey up again. Los Angeles Times

On the road: Fewer teenagers are getting their driver’s licenses in California. Tougher laws are one reason, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Sacramento Bee

Interim leader: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed a longtime deputy in the coroner’s office to the role of acting chief medical examiner-coroner as it grapples with a staffing shortage, case backlog and an anticipated lapse in its professional accreditation. Los Angeles Times

Art of the protest: Shepard Fairey explains political protest art. Los Angeles Times

Moving on up: In another sign of Santa Clarita’s rise in Southern California, the city is getting a major new music venue. Daily News

Culture wars: Creating arts and entertainment in the age of Donald Trump. The New Yorker

Pollution targets: If California wants to hit its goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it has a lot of work to do. That’s the inescapable conclusion from a new report released by the Air Resources Board on Friday, which detailed a range of proposals for new regulations. Los Angeles Times

Sad scene: A man carrying a baby in his arms pleaded with an Anaheim police officer to kill him Thursday, confessing that he had killed his wife. Los Angeles Times

Hot spot: Newly-minted ex-president Obama and the pull to Palm Springs. Obama isn’t the first former president to get away to the vicinity of the historic Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, where he has taken several golf vacations and hosted foreign leaders over the past eight years; President Nixon retreated to Sunnylands after his resignation. Los Angeles Times

THIS WEEK’S MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. Meet the Latinos who voted for Trump. Los Angeles Times

2. Breitbart provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was shouted down at UC Davis but got the last word. Los Angeles Times

3. Mountain lions at a Folsom zoo got a snow day. Sacramento Bee

4. How these Los Angeles-born pink hats became a worldwide symbol of the anti-Trump women’s march. Los Angeles Times

5. If you bought milk, you may be owed some money. SFGate

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S GREAT READS

The modern pot shop: Cannabis entrepreneurs, borrowing from successful retailers such as Apple and Whole Foods, are opening dispensaries with natural light, spacious displays and open-floor plans. With weed now legal for recreational use in California and seven other states, such amenities could attract an anticipated glut of new customers who are less familiar with cannabis and may be put off by the industry’s generally dingy shopping experience. Los Angeles Times

The resistance: As California emerges as the great opposition to Donald Trump’s agenda, here are profiles of the people — many of them Latino political leaders from Los Angeles — who will be guiding the way. “The journalist and historian Carey McWilliams once called California ‘the great exception.’ McWilliams was writing in the 1940s as he tried to make sense of the first 100 years of the state’s turbulent history. But McWilliams’s idea that California is a singular place, a nation-state unto itself, has never felt truer than it does now.” California Sunday

Calling off the jam: The women wearing helmets bearing nicknames like Whorechata, Whoopi Rollberg and DoomsDaisy had been training in an El Sereno warehouse for months for a roller derby bout. Then city of Los Angeles officials forced the L.A. Derby Dolls team to cancel the Jan. 7 match after denying them the special event permit they had given them every month for a year. The rejection came in mid-December, not long after a fire during a concert at the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland killed 36 people. Los Angeles Times

Midlife crisis: How Horton Plaza in downtown San Diego went from an innovative urban shopping center copied across the country (even Ray Bradbury sang its praises) to a troubling cautionary tale. The decline speaks to how cities and shopping are changing. San Diego Union-Tribune

LOOKING AHEAD

Saturday: Big crowds are expected for a women’s march against President Trump in downtown L.A. Here’s what the very soggy protest in L.A. on Friday looked like. Los Angeles Times

Sunday: The strongest in a series of storms hits Southern California, bringing danger of flooding and mudslides.

Thursday: Homeless count planned in Long Beach.

Saturday: Lunar New Year Festival.

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