Newsletter: Essential California: The dream of single-payer healthcare in California dies, for now

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, June 24. Here’s what you don’t want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

The dream is dead — for now

A high-profile effort to establish a single-payer healthcare system in California sputtered on Friday when Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) decided to shelve the proposal, calling it “woefully incomplete.” The plan captured the imagination of many across the country but also was dogged by questions of costs and operations. Is a ballot measure next? Los Angeles Times

What the Obamacare repeal means for the state

The Affordable Care Act has had a huge impact on California, where roughly 4 million people have gained insurance and the percentage of uninsured residents has dropped more than half. Senate leaders have now released their Obamacare repeal bill, and it would hurt wide swaths of the state’s population. Los Angeles Times

Look what they found

More than 100 firearms, including modified assault rifles, were recovered at the home of the Los Angeles police officer accused of having sex with an underage member of the department’s long-hailed cadet program. Los Angeles Times

Family sues the city

The parents of a gun-wielding 14-year-old whom Los Angeles police shot and killed in Boyle Heights last year have filed suit against the city and an officer, alleging that police violated their son’s civil rights, used excessive force and denied him timely medical care. Los Angeles Times

Some curious stuff: Montebello school district officials discussed ways to “reward” certain companies, notes about contract meeting suggest. The School District raised eyebrows last year when it awarded a $2.5-million painting contract to a firm even though a competitor offered to do the same work for less than half the price. Los Angeles Times

State official steps down: Bill Croyle, who’s been the sometimes controversial public face of the state’s response to the Oroville Dam emergency, announced his retirement Friday as acting director of the Department of Water Resources. The Sacramento Bee

No sting here: Fresno County prosecutors have charged two men in a series of beehive thefts that targeted Central Valley almond orchards. Los Angeles Times

Grab a Metro Card: The Gold Line extension to Claremont will break ground this October based on a plan approved by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority Thursday. KPCC

A new legal challenge: The Justice Department is quietly exploring new legal theories to take on so-called sanctuary cities in court, working to force them to aid the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation effort. The Wall Street Journal

Plus:

-- The strange story behind California’s travel ban. Mercury News

-- Water levels in Lake Tahoe are reaching maximum capacity thanks to all the snow. Sacramento Bee

This week’s most popular stories in Essential California:

1. Carrie Fisher opened up about her demons — and knew she wouldn’t have a Hollywood ending. Los Angeles Times

2. There’s so much solar polar in California that other states are sometimes paid to take it. Los Angeles Times

3. Motorcyclist kicks car and triggers chain-reaction crash in apparent road-rage video. Los Angeles Times

4. Rapes date to 1997 in former Santa Cruz brain surgeon case, assistant DA says. Santa Cruz Sentinel

5. Everyone loves L.A. — and that’s the problem. Los Angeles Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

On June 23, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson arrived at Century City to deliver a speech at a Democratic Party fundraiser. Ten thousand anti-Vietnam War protesters also arrived.

In a June 23, 1997, Los Angeles Times article, staff writer Kenneth Reich reported:

The war at home over Vietnam had yet to explode in mid-1967. Five hundred American soldiers were dying every month, yet 40% of Americans still supported sending more men.

So 30 years ago tonight, when a coalition of 80 antiwar groups staged a march to the Century Plaza Hotel where President Lyndon B. Johnson was being honored, Los Angeles Police Department field commander John A. McAllister expected 1,000 or 2,000 protesters.

“When the mass of humanity came up Avenue of the Stars and over the hill, I was astounded,” he recalled. “Where did all those people come from? I asked myself.”

Read more from the archives here

ICYMI, here are this week’s Great Reads

After all these years: In early 2012 the body of Bree’Anna Guzman was found in the brush of an onramp to State Route 2. For years, her mother, Darlene, wondered what happened and even in her grief, she found a path to peace. “These years have placed me in a spot that I can’t turn back from. I have to keep going forward,” Darlene says. Los Angeles Times

Down by the border: Here’s how a Arizona used rancher’s killing to justify harsh immigration laws even as the truth of the case remains far from clear. The 2010 killing of 58-year-old Rob Krentz, head of one of the oldest ranch families in southeast Arizona, was the impetus less than a month later for the passage of the “show your papers” law. This bill required police to ascertain the immigration status of anybody suspected of being in the U.S. illegally and helped cement Arizona’s reputation as the country’s toughest state on immigration. Los Angeles Times

Go back and read this: A USA Today investigation, which “found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.” USA Today

A man in the news: Los Angeles is a dominant character in the writings and music of Father John Misty. “The indie-rock provocateur says he wants to be ‘authentically bogus rather than bogusly authentic.’” The New Yorker

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: Longtime L.A. Times cartoon Paul Conrad’s “Chain Reaction” peace sculpture rededicated in Santa Monica.

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.