Newsletter: Today: Crisis at the Oroville Dam. If West Wing Walls Could Talk. Adele’s Grammy Hello.
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
Crisis at the Oroville Dam
“This is not a drill,” the National Weather Service warned. “Repeat, this is not a drill.” It came after officials had been working around the clock to control rain- and snow-swollen Lake Oroville in Northern California, home to the nation’s tallest dam. Officials were using an emergency spillway for the first time ever to lower the lake after the main spillway had been damaged. All seemed to be going well when a hole was discovered in the auxiliary spillway. That prompted the evacuations of thousands, as authorities devised a plan to plug the hole. By late Sunday, the water level at the reservoir had dropped, but officials stressed that it’s still a dangerous situation. Here is the latest.
If West Wing Walls Could Talk
After a weekend of discussions with Japan’s prime minister in Florida, President Trump is back in Washington, where he’ll meet the prime minister of Israel later in the week. In the meantime, much of the talk of the town is about national security advisor Michael Flynn and what he said or didn’t say to Russia before Trump took office. On the Sunday talk shows, Trump aide Stephen Miller discussed possible next steps on the travel ban and on unproven allegations of voter fraud, but was mum when asked whether Trump still had confidence in Flynn.
More Politics
-- The travel ban court ruling is the kind of setback that usually prompts presidents to make big changes. Will Trump?
-- Experts say that by testing a missile, North Korea was probably also testing Trump.
-- Hezbollah’s leader says Trump gives him optimism, and he doesn’t mean it as a compliment.
Adele Gets a Big Grammy Hello Again, but Beyoncé Stops the Show
It was a given that the Grammy Awards would have a strong political backbeat to them, but not many anticipated singer Joy Villa hitting the red carpet in a “Make America Great Again” gown. That wasn’t the night’s only surprise: David Bowie posthumously winning his first musical Grammy? Check. Beyoncé’s stunning nine-minute performance medley? Yes, and here’s how she did it. As for the big awards, Adele swept the big three — for the second time in her career.
More Grammys
-- The complete list of the winners and nominees.
-- Cee-Lo Green in a metallic outfit and Girl Crush in a plastic ball dress: the best and worst of Grammys fashion.
Santa Monica Has a Plan to Get Quake-Ready
More than three years ago, the L.A. Times reported how Santa Monica quietly stopped enforcing its earthquake safety regulations. Now, the city is poised to embark on what would be the nation’s most extensive seismic retrofitting effort. On Tuesday, council members will vote on a law to require safety improvements to up 2,000 buildings — an expensive proposition. If you live or work in Santa Monica, or know someone who does, check out the map of properties that would be affected.
The Mysterious Militants Who Shut Down Milo
They wear black masks and clothing, are hunted by police, and scorned by critics on the left and the right. Just who are the black bloc militants? Many are anarchists who say they battle police brutality, corporate greed and the erosion of civil liberties. They disdain the media and liberals who espouse nonviolence. Now they’ve brought their radical tactics to the massive protest movement sparked by Trump’s presidency.
OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND
-- For one Syrian refugee family, an interrupted journey ends with a new life in the U.S.
-- Raids across the U.S. leave immigrant communities and activists on high alert.
-- In case you missed it: How a liberal Santa Monica high school produced Trump aide Stephen Miller.
-- Here’s what the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology thinks of the Trump administration’s early moves.
-- Michael Hiltzik: With billions at stake, a federal judge just nullified the GOP’s most cynical attack on Obamacare.
-- A human rights activist is slain in Cambodia, and the mystery leads all the way to California.
-- Steve Lopez: If you think public schools are failing, you haven’t met these kids.
-- Columnist Chris Erskine and his wife never saw the cancer diagnosis coming. All he can ask is: Why her?
CALIFORNIA
-- An L.A. County judge will decide if there is sufficient evidence to put four social workers on trial for criminal negligence in the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy.
-- “This is the worst I have seen”: The former director of Caltrans says the state’s roads are in dire shape.
-- A key moment from 50 years ago in L.A.’s gay rights movement was reenacted at a Silver Lake tavern over the weekend.
-- George Skelton: The San Joaquin Valley has a big problem with dirty drinking water, something the state’s politicians ought not forget.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Al Jarreau, the legendary jazz artist and seven-time Grammy winner who was nicknamed the “Acrobat of Scat,” has died at age 76.
-- Rosie O’Donnell didn’t show up to play Steve Bannon, but “Saturday Night Live” still targeted Trump big-league.
-- “The Lego Batman Movie” took the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office ahead of “Fifty Shades Darker.”
-- The jokes, the scene and the winners at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards.
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD
Kim Novak got her start as a fashion model and later landed a contract with a refrigerator company to tour the country as Miss Deepfreeze. The actress, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense classic “Vertigo,” among many other films, turns 84 today.
NATION-WORLD
-- Does Trump have the authority to “send in the feds” to Chicago?
-- Thousands of demonstrators waving Mexican flags and signs denouncing Trump marched through Mexico City.
-- A long-serving German foreign minister who once called Trump a “hate preacher” has been elected as the country’s president.
-- In Somalia, famine is looming and families with no food or water are leaving their land.
-- At Standing Rock, the nation’s most famous environmental protest, not just any toilet will do.
BUSINESS
-- FHA home loans were getting cheaper until Trump suspended a rate cut. Here’s what could come next.
-- How much could the Rams and Chargers make in their new Inglewood stadium? We ran the numbers.
SPORTS
-- Matt Shoemaker, an Angels player who had brain surgery after a line drive hit him in the head last year, is on the road to recovery.
-- Tiger Woods is neither playing nor retired when this week’s Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club gets underway. He’ll just be hanging around.
OPINION
-- When a 7-year-old boy was killed in 1994, his family donated the organs and created a new legacy for their son.
-- We may live in a post-truth era, but nature does not.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Can Trump successfully forge a strategic relationship with Vladimir Putin? (The Economist)
-- An in-depth profile of swaggering chef Anthony Bourdain. (The New Yorker)
-- The case of the wig, the bitcoins and the sealed whistleblower complaint. (ABA Journal)
ONLY IN L.A.
Mt. Wilson Observatory was completed 100 years ago and hosted the likes of Hale, Hubble and Einstein. To keep what was once the world’s largest telescope up and running, it takes some close attention to detail. That’s why a small volunteer team of retired space industry electrical engineers heads up into the mountains on the weekends. Watch them work here.
Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends.
