Newsletter: Today: After the Fire, a Heart-Wrenching Search Ensues
A break in the weather has helped firefighters gain an upper hand in Northern California, but the search goes on for those reported missing. Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:
TOP STORIES
After the Fire, a Heart-Wrenching Search Ensues
As Northern California’s wildfires have left at least 41 people dead and more than 100 missing across two counties, members of the Sonoma County Search and Rescue Team are taking on the task of looking for the remains of those unaccounted for. In one Santa Rosa neighborhood that burned to the ground, they used a drone, cadaver dogs and poles to search the rubble for a 91-year-old named Mary who had not been heard from for a week. After two hours, they’d learn her fate. Columnist Robin Abcarian was there.
Trump Says … Well, a Lot
Taxes, Russia, sexual assault allegations, the NFL, Hillary Clinton … the list of topics President Trump covered in his Rose Garden appearance Monday goes on and on. The most significant might have been his discussion of healthcare, in which he backed a “short-term fix” for Obamacare — after earlier in the day having said, “There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore.” The one that generated the most outrage: In defending himself for not calling the families of four U.S. soldiers killed 12 days earlier in Niger, Trump falsely claimed “President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls.”
More Politics
-- Trump said he would try to talk his former top strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, out of backing primary challenges against at least some incumbent Republican senators. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain denounced “spurious nationalism” in a thinly veiled shot at Bannon.
-- A bipartisan group of mayors says many American families would be hurt by the GOP plan to kill the state and local tax deduction.
-- In a key test for prosecutors, a judge has kept alive the bribery case against Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
More Woes for an LAUSD Board Member
Ref Rodriguez stepped down last month as L.A. school board president but remained on the board after prosecutors charged him with three felonies and 25 misdemeanors for alleged money laundering in his campaign. Now the charter school network he co-founded and ran for years has filed a complaint with state regulators alleging that Rodriguez had a conflict of interest when he authorized about $285,000 in payments drawn on its accounts.
Thoughts of Chairman Xi
When Xi Jinping was chosen to lead China five years ago, Communist Party elders thought they could control him. But after purging his rivals, silencing activists, bringing business leaders to heel, and overhauling the military and foreign policy, Xi is now seen as the most authoritarian leader since Mao Tse-tung. As delegates arrive for this week’s party congress, there are murmurs Xi could find a way to stay in power beyond his term limit in 2023.
A Golden (and Platinum) Age for Astronomy
For the first time, astronomers have detected the collision of two neutron stars and confirmed something that was long theorized: that such an event is a source of gold, platinum and other heavy elements in the universe. The bigger takeaway is that scientists say this heralds a new era in astronomy that could unlock some of the cosmos’ deepest secrets.
MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- A U.S. airstrike took her mother and threatened her eyesight. For this 4-year-old, the real struggle is to forget.
-- Film critic Justin Chang reviews the charming French film “Faces Places.”
-- Yasiel Puig does more walking and less talking for the Dodgers.
CALIFORNIA
-- More than 140 women who work in California politics are signing onto a letter calling out a “pervasive” culture of sexual harassment and mistreatment.
-- The developer of a proposed natural gas power plant in Ventura County asked state regulators to suspend review of the plans, effectively ending the project.
-- The federal government has given Cadiz Inc. the go-ahead to lay a pipeline for its proposed desert water project.
-- Police say an SUV crashed into the Discovery Cube children’s museum in Los Angeles after the driver was fatally shot. No one else was injured.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- L.A. billionaire and key Trump supporter Thomas Barrack is providing a cash infusion to the troubled Weinstein Co. Meanwhile, L.A. police are encouraging women who say they were victims of a crime at the hands of Harvey Weinstein to come forward.
-- How Alyssa Milano made the #MeToo campaign a social media phenomenon.
-- A Mississippi school district has pulled “To Kill a Mockingbird” from its curriculum because it “makes people uncomfortable.”
-- A new play captures the sly comic activism of the late Dick Gregory.
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD
On this day in 1968, audiences got their first glimpse of Steve McQueen zipping around the streets of San Francisco as a police lieutenant in “Bullitt.” The 1968 Mustang GT that McQueen drove disappeared shortly after filming, and the actor went on a quest to find it. He never did before his 1980 death. Did it wind up in a Baja California scrapyard?
NATION-WORLD
-- A big mystery in the Las Vegas shooting aftermath: Where in the world is security guard Jesus Campos?
-- Clashes around oil-rich Kirkuk are raising the specter of a new civil war in Iraq, a country that is still battling Islamic State.
-- Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his post in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior-before-the-enemy charges that may put him in prison for life.
-- A New Jersey man was convicted of planting two pressure-cooker bombs on New York City streets last year.
-- A spate of wildfires in Portugal has killed at least 35 people, authorities say.
BUSINESS
-- Tesla has fired several hundred employees, reportedly telling them they were dismissed for subpar performance. Some of the fired workers say they were trying to organize a union.
-- Columnist Michael Hiltzik says that Trump’s attempt to blow up Obamacare could help California and other states, even if the president himself doesn’t know it yet.
SPORTS
-- Vin Scully talks about Justin Turner’s home run and about watching rather than working the playoffs.
-- The protests during the national anthem will take center stage when NFL players and owners meet this week.
OPINION
-- The groveling to win Amazon’s new headquarters has become downright embarrassing.
-- Why does the public hate the news media? More important, what’s the solution?
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- If Trump critics think Vice President Mike Pence would be more appealing to them, they might think again. (The New Yorker)
-- A car bomb has killed the journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption in Malta. (The Guardian)
-- Meet the former high-ranking DEA agent who is blowing the whistle on the drug industry and Congress in relation to the opioid crisis. (60 Minutes)
ONLY IN L.A.
On Sunday evening, lowriders, drift cars and run-of-the-mill SUVs gathered for the ultimate tune-up, but an oil change and 36-point inspection were not involved. Instead, the vehicles were parked on the roof of a downtown garage just east of Walt Disney Concert Hall for a concert led by Japanese visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda, who used their stereo sound systems for a composition called “A [for 100 Cars].” Give it a listen here.
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