Newsletter: Today: DACA Deal or No Deal?
The impasse in Congress over the fate of the “Dreamers” has been going on for decades. Will President Trump and top Democrats’ tentative agreement hold up under fire? Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:
TOP STORIES
DACA Deal or No Deal?
It’s a big “if”: If everything goes the way White House officials and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi see it, legislation to give legal status to nearly 800,000 so-called Dreamers could pass by early October. Of course, this is Washington, where positions change within hours or at the drop of a presidential tweet. Not only that, the tentative agreement between President Trump and the top two Democrats in Congress has many on the right fuming and some on the left worried that things are too cozy with the man they vowed to resist.
More Politics
-- “We are there for you 100%”: President Trump surveyed the hurricane damage in Florida, as officials moved to safeguard the state’s vulnerable elderly and restore power.
-- A week after Mexico’s magnitude 8.1 earthquake, Trump called President Enrique Peña Nieto to send condolences. “Unable to reach for 3 days b/c of his cell phone reception at site,” Trump tweeted.
-- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is finishing a plan to shrink the State Department and revamp American diplomacy in ways that have drawn bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.
True to Form, North Korea Tests Another Missile
Not long after threatening to sink Japan “into the sea” and turn the U.S. into “ashes and darkness,” North Korea test-launched another ballistic missile over Japan. The launch, its 15th missile test this year alone, again ratcheted up tensions. In response, South Korea sent a missile of its own about 150 miles into the sea — the same distance as the base where Pyongyang’s missile originated. The question remains: What does North Korea hope to gain?
Berkeley’s Big Test
The setting: UC Berkeley. The speaker: conservative writer Ben Shapiro. The cost of security: $600,000. As hundreds of protesters and hundreds of law enforcement officers moved around campus, the evening saw nine arrests and no major skirmishes. It was key test for Berkeley, which has recently been the site of some violent protests. Later this month, assuming the details can be worked out: a “Free Speech Week” featuring the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, Mike Cernovich and former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon.
Cassini Goes Out in a Blaze of Glory
One month shy of its 20th anniversary in space, the NASA spacecraft Cassini took the plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere this morning and disintegrated. The end was deliberate, intended to prevent the spacecraft and its plutonium fuel from contaminating one of Saturn’s life-friendly moons. Even its swan song will add to the mass of data and discoveries Cassini delivered to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.
Those Frequent Flier Miles Add Up … for Airlines
Think you’re getting a deal with frequent flier miles? It’s nothing compared with the deal the airlines are getting from these customer loyalty programs, which generated an estimated $9.5 billion in revenue for just the top four U.S. carriers. Passengers haven’t been so lucky; they’ve seen their mileage points count for less and less. As one analyst puts it: “It really looks like the hyper-inflation of Zimbabwe or Venezuela.”
FLASHBACK FRIDAY
The Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo County is the last operating nuclear power plant in California. This week, public hearings were held over a proposal to permanently close the facility by 2025. In September 1981, participants in a human blockade tried to shut it down.
MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the charming documentary “School Life,” set at a boarding school in Ireland.
-- Behind the scenes of this weekend’s big boxing match: Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.
-- A real eye-opener: How to make the Bacon Bloody Mary.
CALIFORNIA
-- Three felony charges against school board President Ref Rodriguez have stunned L.A.’s education world.
-- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that the 60-year-old Whittier Narrows Dam is structurally unsafe and poses a potentially catastrophic risk.
-- A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting two inmates inside a county jail facility, Sheriff Jim McDonnell said.
-- A measure allowing Californians to select a nonbinary gender option on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown.
YOUR WEEKEND
-- How to make granita di caffe, Italian coffee granita, the caffeinated solution to a heat wave.
-- Twenty-nine of our favorite burger recipes, including salmon and vegetarian burgers.
-- Cool canyon trails, glorious ocean views: You need to take this hike (especially after those burgers).
-- A California adventure for every day of the year: Our growing bucket list of travel destinations.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Jennifer Lawrence endures the hell of other people in Darren Aronofsky’s darkly exhilarating “mother!” Film critic Justin Chang reviews.
-- Eric Clapton at the Forum: Was it dullness or was it bliss?
-- Here’s everything you need to know about Sunday night’s Emmy Awards.
NATION-WORLD
-- Police are investigating an explosion at a London train station in the height of rush hour Friday as a terrorist attack.
-- A Utah police chief will decide the punishment for a detective caught on video dragging a nurse from a hospital and handcuffing her.
-- Because of President Trump, more Mexicans view the U.S. unfavorably than at any other time in the last 15 years, according to a report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
-- The enemies are fake, but Russia’s war games are real. So is the alarm over them.
BUSINESS
-- Equifax’s free credit freeze won’t fully protect you, so here’s what you should do.
-- Some people’s obsession with Bitmoji is now giving Snapchat a quiet edge in augmented reality.
SPORTS
-- That USC-Texas Rose Bowl game in 2006? Columnist Bill Plaschke says it wasn’t all that great.
-- Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood is looking to regain his All-Star form today against the Washington Nationals. Meanwhile, the Angels are three games out of a playoff spot.
OPINION
-- It’s decision time for L.A. Unified’s Ref Rodriguez now that charges have been filed against him.
-- Will humans wreck life on Earth before escaping to Mars and Saturn’s moons? See the David Horsey cartoon.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- ESPN’s Jemele Hill, criticized by the White House for her tweets, and co-host Michael Smith are at the center of a debate over the network’s future. (The Ringer)
-- Enjoy those New Yorker cartoons? This glimpse at the business side of them deserves its own panel. (Paste)
-- At age 87, Ursula K. Le Guin has stopped writing fiction, but she’s blogging up a storm. (New Republic)
ONLY IN L.A.
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James dropped by the prestigious prep school Sherman Oaks Notre Dame earlier this week. The reason? Some immediately leaped to the conclusion that King James is bound for L.A. with kids in tow. He says it’s much simpler than that: After a long day of shooting commercials nearby, he just needed a place to get in his off-season workout.
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