Newsletter: Today: What the Supreme Court Did, and Didn’t Do, for the ‘Dreamers’

The “Dreamer” immigrants won a major reprieve, but their future is still unclear.

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What the Supreme Court Did, and Didn’t Do, for the ‘Dreamers’

The Supreme Court’s decision to keep in place a legal shield for the rest of this year or longer is a mixed blessing for the “Dreamers.” On the one hand, it removes the immediate threat of losing one’s job or being deported. On the other, it will draw out the final resolution of whether they can stay in the U.S. legally. Without a hard deadline, few in Congress will want to press the issue, especially before November’s midterm election. So while the high court’s decision was procedural and not a ruling on substance, it leaves the program in place as long as the legal challenges wend their way through the courts. In that sense, it represents a significant victory for the Dreamers and a defeat for the Trump administration’s hard-liners on immigration.

2nd Amendment, Second-Guessing

Nearly two weeks after the Florida high school shooting, the question remains: Will anything change? President Trump has vowed to end years of political gridlock by getting tough with the National Rifle Assn. and Congress. Yet his critics say he’s making policy on the fly and he’s been promoting proposals the NRA likes, such as arming teachers. During a meeting with the nation’s governors, Trump renewed his criticism of a sheriff’s deputy assigned to guard the Florida school and said, “You don’t know until you’re tested, but I think, I really believe, I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too.” Meanwhile, the deputy’s attorney defended his client, saying the officer believed the gunfire was coming from outside the school.

More Politics

-- California, here he comes: Trump is planning a mid-March visit to see border wall prototypes, according to administration officials. He will also visit Los Angeles to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser.

-- Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will headline an event to debut a new group seeking to reform the California Republican Party.

-- Stacey Dash, the conservative commentator and actress of “Clueless” fame, is running for Congress in Southern California. And far-right radio host and author Michael Savage says that “very important people” have asked him to run for U.S. Senate in California.

Did Oakland’s Mayor Cross the Line?

On Saturday night, Oakland residents received an urgent message from Mayor Libby Schaaf: Immigration agents were thought to be conducting enforcement operations “starting as soon as within the next 24 hours.” She urged those living there illegally to take precautions. But the sweeps didn’t materialize. Then the backlash: from those saying she stoked fear among families, and from others saying that if officials provide specific information about immigration operations, that could lead to charges of obstruction of justice.

Got Milked? The LAUSD Alleges It Did

Sixty-four school cafeterias received an overhaul in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Cafe L.A. project, to the tune of $37 million. But when the district’s auditors looked at the books, they concluded three contractors had overcharged for some things and charged for others that were never purchased. So the LAUSD sued — very quietly. Now, the nearly six years of litigation have come to light, and while the three companies deny wrongdoing, the district has recovered nearly $11 million.

An Enemy in the Homelessness Fight: NIMBYism

Thanks to voters, the money to build housing for the homeless in Los Angeles is coming in. Is the willingness of residents and politicians there? As the latest in a series of Times editorials on the homelessness crisis says, 15 months after Proposition HHH passed, only two projects with funding from it have broken ground. The sticking point is getting people to overcome a “not in my backyard” mentality and getting politicians to stay strong in the face of such resistance.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- Nadia and her children are among the economically homeless — men, women and, often enough, families, who find themselves without a place to live because of some kind of setback or immediate crisis.

-- From a besieged Syrian suburb, tales of love, death and survival.

CALIFORNIA

-- A Los Angeles County investigation into possible corruption in Maywood has set its sights on a broad swath that includes four current and former council members, 13 companies, five current and former city administrators and one activist who dresses up as a clown.

-- Two Los Angeles police officers pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting multiple women. Each officer received a 25-year term in state prison.

-- The state Supreme Court decided that juveniles may not be sentenced to 50 years or longer in prison for kidnapping, rape and sodomy.

-- The Malibu City Council has banned the town’s roughly 65 restaurants and food vendors from offering or selling plastic straws, stirrers and utensils.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Fox Searchlight, Guillermo del Toro and others associated with the Oscar contender “The Shape of Water” are facing a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel.

-- The latest UCLA study on movies and TV says the industry’s lagging on-screen diversity may be hurting it at the box office and in ratings.

-- There’s a lot of new music being played in L.A.’s classical circles these days, but critic Mark Swed says it shouldn’t be confused with “going Hollywood.”

-- Officials say actress Heather Locklear was arrested at her Thousand Oaks home on suspicion of domestic battery and assault of a peace officer.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Elizabeth Taylor made her first appearance on film in “There’s One Born Every Minute” (1942), with Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer of “Our Gang” fame. “It was very strange,” she told The Times in 1996. “I still had an English accent.” That’s because Taylor, who was born on this date in 1932 in London to American parents, spent her early years in Britain. She and her family would return to the U.S. when World War II broke out.

NATION-WORLD

-- The Anti-Defamation League says harassment, threats and vandalism cases targeting Jews in the United States surged to near-record levels in 2017, jumping 57% over the previous year.

-- Panama’s government says it’s formally investigating a complaint that executives for Trump’s family hotel business were illegally occupying a 70-story luxury Trump hotel amid a management dispute.

-- The first World Trade Center bombing, long since overshadowed by 9/11, was remembered on its 25th anniversary in New York.

-- In Chechnya, a glitzy new ski resort can’t overshadow accusations of human rights abuses.

BUSINESS

-- The biggest airlines in the U.S. are buying big stakes in foreign carriers, a move they say gives fliers access to more international destinations. Critics say smaller, lower-cost foreign rivals are getting squeezed out.

-- Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines tried to find a middle ground on gun control, only to discover there isn’t one.

-- Comcast Corp. has launched a $31-billion bid to acquire European pay-TV provider Sky in a move to wrest the service away from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Co.

-- With little fanfare, Spectrum has introduced a cheaper a-la-carte streaming service. But as consumer columnist David Lazarus found out, there’s a catch.

SPORTS

-- An Asian American perspective: Watching the Winter Olympics brought unexpected joy and familiar anger.

-- For the second year in a row, a transgender boy won the Texas girls wrestling championship. State law there requires athletes to compete against others who match the gender on their birth certificates.

OPINION

-- Columnist Michael Hiltzik on the stupidity of Trumpcare: The government will spend $33 billion more a year to cover 8.9 million fewer Americans.

-- Remember when Republicans liked immigration, and Democrats didn’t?

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Scientists say temperatures at the North Pole surged above freezing in the dead of winter. (Washington Post)

-- What role do dictionaries play in the internet age? A closer look at how the Oxford English Dictionary is trying to navigate the past, present and future. (The Guardian)

-- Oh my aching back! Here’s what countries around the world can teach us about using our spines. (NPR)

ONLY IN L.A.

The new Sheraton Los Angeles San Gabriel hotel has 288 rooms, 19,000 square feet of meeting space, Mandarin-speaking concierges to appeal to Chinese tourists — and eight robots that can deliver towels or room service. One, with a painted-on bow tie and tuxedo, even offers directions to guests in English and Chinese.

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