Newsletter: Today: Can Trump Really Deport Millions? Even Death Row Has a Drug Problem.
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
Dozens Dead as Quake Devastates Italy
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked central Italy — including Rome — early Wednesday, collapsing homes on top of residents as they slept. Several dozen are reported dead in three hard-hit towns where rescue crews raced to dig survivors out of the rubble. The toll was expected to rise as crews reached homes in more remote hamlets. “The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice.
Can Trump Really Deport Millions?
Amid all the talk about whether Donald Trump is or isn’t backing off his stance on deporting 11 million people in the U.S. illegally are some practical questions: How would it be accomplished, and how much would it cost? For comparison’s sake, ICE said it deported 235,413 people last year, down from a record high of 409,849 in 2012. To remove 11 million in two years, a right-leaning think tank says, 90,000 agents would have to be hired and 1,250 courts built. And that’s just the start of what it estimates to be costs of $300 billion, as well as a $1-trillion hit on the GDP. Read on for the effects that go beyond the numbers.
McCain’s Toughest Reelection Fight
John McCain — war hero, five-time U.S. senator, former presidential candidate — is facing the most difficult and unhappiest reelection bid of his career, and it’s thanks to Trump. On one side, his Democratic foe Ann Kirkpatrick says McCain is “not the principled leader he used to be” because he has not publicly renounced Trump, despite the latter’s mocking of McCain. On the other side is Republican challenger Kelli Ward, who wholeheartedly supports Trump and accuses McCain of “pandering.” Arizona goes to the primary polls Tuesday.
More Politics
-- Hillary Clinton raised millions of dollars in a star-studded sprint across California.
-- Clinton will highlight Trump’s alleged ties to conservative extremists in a Nevada speech Thursday.
-- Melania Trump threatened to sue several news outlets over reports she worked as an escort.
Even Death Row Has a Drug Problem
California’s death row inmates spend most of their time locked down. They are isolated and heavily guarded. They undergo regular strip searches and checks for signs of life every half-hour. So how is it that they are obtaining illegal narcotics and sometimes overdosing on them, just as inmates throughout the state’s prisons do? From 2010 to 2015, records show six death-row inmates died with detectable levels of methamphetamines, heroin metabolites or other drugs in their system.
Why 93,000 People Left Japan for North Korea
Eiko Kawasaki was 17 years old when she voluntarily departed from Japan for North Korea. For the next 43 years, Kawasaki would be trapped in a country that was painted as heaven but turned out to be hell. She wasn’t alone. More than 93,000 people did so between 1959 and 1984. What happened to them is a mystery, but some, like Kawasaki, got out. What drove them to go in the first place — and why have so few taken up their cause?
How a Former Porn Star Is Helping India to Chill
Sunny Leone is one of India’s most Googled people. That’s what happens when you’re a Bollywood movie celebrity with a porn star past. But Leone has found an unlikely second career in her parents’ native India, where pornography is banned and sex education is nearly nonexistent in schools. Despite a backlash, she’s opened up dialogue as part of India’s sexual revolution — even if, she says, “I’m not here to preach anything at all.”
CALIFORNIA
-- The state’s climate change law cleared a big hurdle after lobbyists cranked up pressure.
-- Stanford bans hard alcohol from undergraduate parties, citing “dangers that arise” from binge drinking.
-- The battle to protect Hearst Castle and its priceless artwork from dangerous wildfire.
-- Steve Lopez visits a professor who gets to play in the sand and surf while studying beach erosion.
NATION-WORLD
-- Backed by the Turkish military, Syrian rebel fighters stormed a Syrian border city held by Islamic State on Wednesday.
-- President Obama toured flood-damaged Louisiana and dismissed criticism that his visit was delayed.
-- Vice President Biden heads to Turkey on a fence-mending trip.
-- With “healing hikes,” activists take African Americans into the great outdoors.
-- There’s just one country other than the Vatican where divorce is illegal, and some want to change that.
-- A study says the long-term risks of childhood head injury may include winding up on welfare and premature death.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- The Comedy Comedy Festival will bring together more than 100 performers of Asian descent.
-- Italy’s most popular TV show, “Gomorrah,” gets imported courtesy of Sundance.
-- Steven Hill, the original D.A. on “Law & Order,” has died at age 94.
-- Jennifer Lawrence tops Forbes’ list of the highest-paid actresses for the second year in a row.
-- Do you love “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” enough to buy author Truman Capote’s ashes?
BUSINESS
-- Cable news host Andrea Tantaros calls Fox News a “sex-fueled Playboy Mansion-like cult” in a lawsuit.
-- Michael Hiltzik says there’s another reason to hate Mylan, which jacked up the price of life-saving EpiPens: It’s a tax dodger.
-- McDonald’s is recalling all Step-It fitness tracker Happy Meal toys over the risk of burns.
SPORTS
-- Dylan Hernandez: The San Francisco Giants’ slump defies explanation.
-- Fighter Ronda Rousey is back in training but isn’t talking much.
OPINION
-- Presidential golf: Scandal for thee, but not for me.
-- An unspoken barrier to getting more black girls in the Olympic pool: the hair factor.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Doctors who have been disciplined are still getting money from drug and medical device companies, an investigation shows. Also, check out the database of doctors who have received payments. (ProPublica)
-- Comparing the Clinton and Trump apps. (Pacific Standard)
-- What are the 100 best films of the 21st century? (BBC)
ONLY IN L.A.
For 38 years, a fleet of Helms Bakery trucks crisscrossed L.A. to deliver jelly doughnuts, cream puffs, breads and cakes to people’s homes. That all ended in 1969, when the Culver City-based business couldn’t compete with modern supermarkets. Now, two bakers in Helms’ hometown have converted a plumbing truck into their very own “loaf mobile.” No home deliveries yet, but it could be at a farmers market near you.
Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.
