Newsletter: Today: Battle for the Golden State. Don’t Let the Banana Trip You Up.

I’m Davan Maharaj, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines I don’t want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

The Battle for the Golden State

When three presidential candidates hit Southern California for a day of campaigning, you know there will be fireworks. Fortunately, they were mostly of the rhetorical kind. Donald Trump hit immigration hard in his stop at Anaheim, while the demonstration outside was rowdy but mostly nonviolent. In Buena Park, Hillary Clinton hammered Trump’s foreign policy. And in Cathedral City, Bernie Sanders took on the “rigged economy” and urged his followers to have faith that change will come.

Those ‘Damn Emails’

By now, Clinton had hoped to set aside the controversy over her use of private email for government business when she was secretary of State. As an FBI investigation continues, the State Department’s inspector general found she clearly broke department rules. It also found a Republican predecessor, Colin Powell, to have committed similar violations.

More From the Campaign Trail

-- Is Sanders a socialist? Some on the far left say “sellout” is more like it.

-- A new poll shows Clinton and Sanders neck and neck in California.

-- Those polls showing Trump catching up with Clinton: Really?

-- George Skelton: Why Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t endorsed a presidential candidate.

The Quiet Research on Hiroshima

President Obama’s planned visit to Hiroshima on Friday is putting a renewed focus on the legacy of the atomic bomb. Unbeknownst to many, a group of U.S. scientists has been quietly working there for decades with Japanese researchers to study the effects. They’ve collected and analyzed data from hundreds of thousands of survivors and their children. Their work has become the basis for radiation-exposure guidelines for X-ray technicians, airline pilots and more.

SoCal’s New Dusty Trail

It’s been a long and winding path to making the Backbone Trail an uninterrupted stretch running 67 miles through the Santa Monica Mountains. After more than five decades, the final pieces of the puzzle are coming into place. Escrow just closed on a donation of 40 acres by Arnold Schwarzenegger and fitness pioneer Betty Weider, and two remaining parcels should be transferred to the National Park Service within a week and a half. Here’s how the Backbone Trail was blazed.

Don’t Let the Banana Trip You Up

Reporter Matt Pearce was on assignment in Minneapolis when he visited the Maashaa’allah Restaurant for his first traditional Somali meal. His $14 rice and lamb plate came with what he thought was an appetizer: a banana. But on Twitter, lots of Somalis set him straight. Read on to see the banana’s true place in Somali cuisine.

CALIFORNIA

-- Inglewood’s former budget and accounting manager says the city cooked its books to lure an NFL team. The mayor denies it.

-- The state is relying on the sale of carbon credits to fund the bullet train project, but buyers in the latest auction bought just 2% of them.

-- The teacher tenure battle is being reignited by an appeal to the state Supreme Court and a new bill.

-- A University of Oregon fraternity was suspended after the trashing of a campsite at Shasta Lake in Northern California.

NATION-WORLD

-- President Obama races to cement the big Pacific Rim trade deal that all his potential successors oppose.

-- The LGBT divide grows as 11 states sue the federal government over its directive about school bathrooms and locker rooms.

-- More states in India are banning liquor, though that hasn’t stopped the drinking.

-- The Taliban’s new leader is seen as more of a teacher than a fighter, but don’t expect the attacks to end.

-- Scientists believe half a dozen mysterious structures in a cave in southwestern France were built by Neanderthals 176,000 years ago.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- An electronic dance music festival comes to Cuba, and despite all the obstacles, magic ensues.

-- Video: Actress Tracee Ellis Ross discusses her work on the TV show “black-ish.”

-- Beth Howland, who played the waitress Vera on “Alice,” has died at age 74.

-- Is the “era of blindly following” Mickey Mouse over? A Chinese billionaire planning to build his own theme parks thinks so.

BUSINESS

-- A new wave of natural gas power plants planned for Southern California has stoked a high-stakes debate about how best to keep the lights on.

-- The U.S. Justice Department has joined a lawsuit accusing Prime Healthcare of bilking the Medicare system.

-- How to get the struggling golf business to grow? Think nine holes instead of 18, for starters.

SPORTS

-- Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s trips to Manny Pacquiao’s gym in Hollywood is spurring talk of a rematch.

-- Rams quarterback Case Keenum knows he’s listed as the starter in pencil, after the team drafted “franchise quarterback” Jared Goff.

OPINION

-- Director Oliver Stone and history professor Peter Kuznick write that bombing Hiroshima changed the world, but it didn’t end WWII.

-- Why feminists have an obligation to see the all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters.”

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- “I just want to dispel myths”: The author of a book that documents every day of Adolf Hitler’s life talks about a project that took him 25 years to complete. (Vice)

-- Go inside an etiquette school for bouncers. (Wall Street Journal)

-- The era of “Peak TV” is changing a lot of longstanding conventions for viewers. (Flavorwire)

ONLY IN L.A.

Anarchy in the … L.A. area! Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and South Central Los Angeles have long been home to a vibrant punk rock scene. The documentary “Los Punks: We Are All We Have” examines a new wave of bands with names like Psyk Ward, Rhythmic Asylum, Las Cochinas and Corrupted Youth. Step into the tattooed, pierced and mohawked world of backyard mosh pits here.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.