Newsletter: Today: Who Has That ‘Presidential Look’? A Bank Scandal Does the Impossible.

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

Who Has That ‘Presidential Look’?

Donald Trump’s defenders say he is an equal-opportunity offender, as likely to go after “low-energy” Jeb Bush or “little” Marco Rubio as “crooked” Hillary Clinton. His critics say, as he might put it, there’s something going on with repeatedly criticizing Clinton for not looking presidential and calling into question her strength and stamina. And there was his primary season comment about playing “the woman’s card.” So what is going on with gender in the campaign?

More Politics

-- Clinton says she is ready for insults from Trump as they head to the first debate.

-- Trump says it’s worse than “ever, ever, ever” for black people in the United States.

-- Donald Trump Jr.’s Skittles tweet used an image taken by a refugee.

‘All the Same Questions’ About Radicalization

A notebook with an entry proclaiming “the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets.” A father who said he contacted the FBI in 2014 with concerns that his son was becoming a terrorist. More details are emerging about the suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings. Given some eerie similarities to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, one lawmaker says the case raises “all the same questions” about when the suspect was radicalized and how much his time outside the U.S. had influenced him.

A Bank Scandal Does the Impossible: Unite a Senate Committee

For nearly five hours, U.S. senators grilled and castigated the CEO and chairman of Wells Fargo & Co. over revelations that the bank’s workers met sales quotas by opening as many as 2 million accounts for customers without their knowledge. “You should resign,” Elizabeth Warren told Wells Fargo’s John Stumpf point-blank, adding that he should be criminally investigated and give back the money. Now regulators are looking at other banks to see if similar abuses have occurred. It all started with a 2013 Times article detailing Wells Fargo’s questionable practices.

L.A.’s Message to Police: If at All Possible, Hold Your Fire

In one case, LAPD officers fatally shot a woman armed with a knife. In another, police killed a man who had thrown a beer bottle at their patrol vehicle. Though Chief Charlie Beck had said the deadly incidents followed department rules, the civilian Police Commission found otherwise — just as it leads a push to reduce police shootings. Meanwhile, the national focus continues on the use of deadly force by officers: Tensions are running high in Tulsa, Okla., and protests erupted overnight in Charlotte, N.C., after police shootings in those cities.

A Road Map for Driverless Cars

For a while, the rapid development of robot cars was beginning to leave government safety regulations in the dust. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation is back in the driver’s seat, with a set of far-reaching yet flexible guidelines. The idea is to encourage innovation in driverless autos by reducing red tape, without losing control of safety considerations. Still, some are worried the rules are too vague.

A New Chapter in the Oldest Story in Hollywood

Two movie stars plan to divorce. It’s the oldest story in Hollywood, and one usually just for the tabloids. Yet a lot of people who could not care less about such things raised an eyebrow when they heard it was splitsville for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the A-listers who haven’t just worked the red carpet, but who have also worked for social causes at home and abroad. Here’s the case for why Brangelina was different.

CALIFORNIA

-- The L.A. Board of Education approved a compromise plan to move the start of school closer to Labor Day.

-- The Hard Day of the Dead rave won’t be held this year. The announcement came after the deaths of three young adults who attended the Hard Summer rave this year.

-- One pilot was killed and another injured when a U-2 spy plane crashed north of Sacramento, according to an Air Force official.

-- Steve Lopez: If coastal commissioners are found guilty of breaking the rules, who should pay the fines?

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Curtis Hanson, the director and Oscar-winning screenwriter whose eclectic body of work included the film noir “L.A. Confidential” and the rap-music drama “8 Mile,” has died at age 71.

-- TV review: “Designated Survivor,” starring Kiefer Sutherland as a low-level Cabinet member who becomes president of the United States, is even better on screen than on paper.

-- Nearly 30 years after hitting theaters as a movie, “Lethal Weapon” is back as a TV show.

-- It was a dismal summer of cinema, but Times film critic Justin Chang has seen the future, and it gives him hope.

-- The book “Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year” takes a real and witty look at the big 6-0.

-- We asked TV stars: If you could put a character from your show on another series, which would it be? See what they told us.

NATION-WORLD

-- Seattle officials are moving forward with a plan for the nation’s first supervised heroin-injection clinics. Will they save lives or enable drug users?

-- The U.N. suspended humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria after an attack killed 21 civilians unloading supplies northwest of Aleppo.

-- In China, more and more people have dogs as pets. But activists are protesting an upcoming dog show, saying it should be canceled unless the government shuts down a dog meat festival.

-- Science students across the U.S. are trying to rewrite the wrongs of Internet science by updating Wikipedia articles as part of their college coursework.

BUSINESS

-- Columnist David Lazarus looks at a sickening statistic: the biggest monthly increase in healthcare costs in 32 years.

-- Research by AAA has found that motorists wasted $2.1 billion last year buying premium gasoline for cars that don’t require it.

SPORTS

-- The Dodgers bobbled it, losing to the Giants by a score of 2-0 on Vin Scully bobblehead night.

-- The U.S. was eliminated from contention at the World Cup of Hockey with a 4-2 loss to Canada.

OPINION

-- The Times endorses Kathryn Barger for L.A. county supervisor.

-- How much is too much to spend on a sick pet?

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- The Washington Post says documents show Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from his charitable foundation to settle lawsuits that involved his for-profit businesses.

-- Does Amazon’s algorithm put customers first? (ProPublica)

-- The origins of the gold toilet at the Guggenheim Museum. (The New Yorker)

ONLY IN L.A.

Who is the so-called Wet Prince of Bel-Air, the homeowner who used 11.8 million gallons of water in a single year? The L.A. Department of Water and Power won’t say. Our columnist Steve Lopez and his drought posse couldn’t solve the mystery. Now, the Center for Investigative Reporting says it’s narrowed down the list to seven likely (and pretty thirsty) princes and princesses.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.