Newsletter: Essential California: O.J. Simpson case back in the news

Good morning. It is Saturday, March 5, 2016, and here’s what’s going on in the Golden State.

TOP STORIES

Southern California’s air quality agency on Friday fired its longtime executive and reaffirmed its support for smog rules sought by oil refineries and other major polluters. The move comes a month after Republicans took control of the panel as part of a campaign to adopt rules that are friendlier to businesses. Los Angeles Times

The O.J. Simpson case took center stage Friday — again. Twenty-two years after the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, a retired police officer has handed over a knife given to him by a construction worker who helped raze Simpson’s mansion in 1998. But there is deep skepticism over whether the knife has any bearing on the murder case. Los Angeles Times

SpaceX successfully blasted a commercial communications satellite into orbit on Friday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellite, SES-9, is to provide services such as broadcasting and video capabilities, maritime connectivity and high-speed broadband for more than 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Los Angeles Times

“Knight of Cups,” the new Terrence Malick film, is in many ways a loving Instagram feed of Los Angeles architecture. Los Angeles Times

Orange County supporters of Donald Trump explain their passion for the presidential candidate. “Our way of life, our middle class and our European civilization hang in the balance,” one says. Orange County Register

The legal dispute that caused the historic names of Yosemite attractions to be removed has longtime visitors upset. “I started to weep,” one told columnist Robin Abcarian. Los Angeles Times

A different view of Rodney King‘s legacy and policing in Los Angeles from Jill Leovy, a Times writer and author of “Ghettoside.” The Marshall Project

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S GREAT READS

For more than 50 years, it was the little cantina that could. Las Palomas in Boyle Heights was a world of Mexican immigrants who drank earnest beers after a hard day of work. It’s demise is seen by many as a sign of Eastside gentification. Los Angeles Times

Rodney King’s difficult legacy through the sober eyes of his daughter. Los Angeles Times

The four-story building at Western and Olympic was meant to pull Korean Americans together as a community. But in recent years it has become a battleground. Lawsuits fly back and forth, and alternating waves of armed guards and locksmiths sneak in to lop off chains and drill through the locks of adversaries. Los Angeles Times

The struggles and the triumphs of life at the bottom of L.A.’s comedy scene. BuzzFeed

The long game of surviving AIDS. They are lucky to be alive but also face incredible struggles — sometimes all alone. San Francisco Chronicle

One thing about Donald Trump: Say his name and you get a reaction. On the Eastside of Los Angeles, as Trump’s star rises, most of those reactions are not simpatico. Los Angeles Times

LOOKING AHEAD

Sunday: The latest CicLAvia will run through Pacoima, Arleta, North Hills East and Panorama City.

Monday: The LAPD holds a memorial for Officer Nicholas C. Lee, who was killed last year in a car accident.

Tuesday: “Topping off” ceremony for what will be L.A.’s tallest skyscraper, the Wilshire Grand Center in downtown.

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.