Newsletter: Today: To Live and Build Big Buildings in L.A.

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

To Live and Build Big Buildings in L.A.

Orson Welles called Los Angeles “a bright and guilty place.” (Read the book with that title. It’s a romp.) No wonder developer money and L.A. politics have long gone hand in hand. Though some lawmakers insist the donations don’t influence whether big projects get approved, a new group of City Hall hopefuls is trying to make hay by saying they won’t accept developers’ cash — and they’re pointing in part to an L.A. Times investigation over questionable donations connected to one project.

Los Angeles, City on the Verge

Speaking of the fight over development … L.A. is experiencing its biggest building boom since the Roaring ’20s and is reshaping its public transit system. What better time, then, to have Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne start a weekly column on contemporary architecture? As he writes in his first entry, “L.A. is a city on the verge in a nation that may begin to feel consistently on the brink.”

Latinos for Trump? Really?!!

They’re a minority within America’s largest minority group: the Latinos who voted for Donald Trump. Some have even been called traitors for their support. But in the end, they believe they’ll be proved right and that Trump will get the country going in the right direction. As for the tough talk about immigrants here illegally? Some support it, while others doubt he’ll take things that far.

More Politics

-- How liberal Santa Monica High School produced a top Trump advisor and speechwriter.

-- In California, Democratic politicians’ plans rest on Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s future.

Wall Street’s Guessing Game: Bull, Bear or Lamb?

Trump is set to inherit the second-longest bull run in Wall Street history. How will his policies affect a market valued at a record $26 trillion — and is a big downturn inevitable after such a long stretch up? Tom Petruno offers four scenarios for what will happen in the 2017 market and some tips on how to invest in the age of Trump.

American Apparel, Unmade in USA

You may know American Apparel for its provocative ads and its founder’s alleged misdeeds, but at one point the L.A.-based company was the biggest clothing maker in the U.S. Now, after a trip through bankruptcy court, it’s begun laying off 2,400 workers in Southern California. Its new owner, a Canadian firm with hubs in Central America and the Caribbean, hasn’t decided yet where to start manufacturing the brand.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

-- California’s bullet train is hurtling toward a multibillion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns.

-- Mexican drug cartels have burrowed dozens of tunnels on the border in the last decade. But even after being discovered by authorities, some of the illicit passageways live on.

-- From drought to deluge: How one California river tells the story of a waning drought.

-- Michael Hiltzik: Here are the lies Paul Ryan told about Obamacare during his town hall meeting.

-- A day at the Village: How L.A.’s legendary record studio cleaned up its act and survived in the YouTube age.

-- A husband asks for forgiveness after getting caught on a cheaters’ dating site.

CALIFORNIA

-- A string of increasingly intense storms is expected to hit Los Angeles County this week.

-- Pete King: Historian Kevin Starr’s love of California, with all its complexities and paradoxes, was unending.

-- “This is the safest day to surf here in 35 years”: Lunada Bay, long plagued by the Bay Boys surf gang, hosted a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event.

-- South L.A.’s Kingdom Day Parade celebrated King’s legacy and teachings.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Ringling Bros. officials say that without elephants, the show couldn’t go on. For one man who grew up in the circus, it stirs mixed emotions.

-- There’s a bold new youth movement in the Los Angeles music scene led by the Regrettes and Cherry Glazerr.

-- “Hidden Figures” triumphed at the holiday weekend box office, while offerings from Ben Affleck and Martin Scorsese fizzled.

-- What to make of “Letters to Andy Warhol,” a traveling exhibition touching down in West Hollywood for just 10 days?

NATION-WORLD

-- British Prime Minister Theresa May is signaling a clean break from the European Union.

-- A shootout at an electronic music festival in Mexico left at least five people dead and 15 injured. Police ruled out terrorism as a motive.

-- The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub was arrested near Oakland on suspicion of aiding and abetting terrorism and obstructing investigators.

-- Turkish media say the man suspected of killing 39 people during an attack on a nightclub in Istanbul during New Year’s celebrations has been caught.

BUSINESS

-- After years of record profits, airlines face turbulence in 2017. Could higher airfares follow?

-- Film producer-distributor Harvey Weinstein is the same larger-than-life personality he’s always been. But the company he runs with his brother, Bob, is changing.

SPORTS

-- The Chicago Cubs’ visit to the White House capped a historic run for President Obama, who honored more sports teams than any other modern commander in chief.

-- Behind the Hall of Fame vote on Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, two of the greatest players and biggest pariahs of baseball.

OPINION

-- Trump says he’ll unite the country. Yeah, right.

-- How important is empathy? We may overvalue it.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- Emily Nussbaum on the serious consequences of jokes before and after the election. (The New Yorker)

-- How artificial intelligence can help diagnose health problems such as autism and Alzheimer’s. (Wired)

-- When Gabriel García Márquez and other authors became unwitting CIA operatives. (The Baffler)

ONLY IN L.A.

L.A. just got two football teams. Will it next have two sets of Olympic opening and closing ceremonies? That’s the latest proposal from the people trying to bring the Games back to Southern California for a third time. The unprecedented idea is to split the ceremonies between the Coliseum and the new NFL stadium in Inglewood. Is two really better than one?

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.

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