Newsletter: Today: The Planning and the Chaos in Las Vegas

Authorities say the Las Vegas shooter “extensively” planned his attack — and they released police body camera footage and other details of the intense hunt to find him as panic ensued around them.

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The Planning and the Chaos in Las Vegas

Authorities haven’t offered a motive for why Stephen Paddock opened fire at a Las Vegas concert, killing nearly five dozen people and injuring more than 500 others. But their investigation has found that he meticulously planned the attack, including installing cameras outside his Mandalay Bay hotel room to watch for approaching officers. From the reports of shots fired at 10:08 p.m. Sunday, it would be 72 chaotic minutes until a SWAT team blew open his door. By then, the gunfire had long since stopped and Paddock was dead. Here is how the mass shooting unfolded, as experienced by police, including the audio of them breaching the hotel room door. Meanwhile, survivors told harrowing stories, some from hospital beds while awaiting or recovering from surgery.

More About the Shooting

-- Sources say Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of the gunman, returned Tuesday night to the United States from the Philippines and was met by federal agents at LAX. Workers at a Nevada Starbucks recounted how Paddock often berated her in public: “I’m paying for your drink, just like I’m paying for you.”

-- Remembering the victims: More portraits of the fallen have emerged.

-- When the bullets started flying on their wedding anniversary, this husband died protecting his wife of 23 years.

-- Steve Lopez: Understanding the minds of mass killers shouldn’t be blocked by politics.

Trump’s Tour of Tragedy

President Trump is headed to Las Vegas today to visit law enforcement, victims and first-responders. On Tuesday, he traveled to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico. Some of his remarks there raised eyebrows, such as saying emergency spending has “thrown our budget a little out of whack” and telling officials they could be “proud” of a death toll of 16 people — later raised to 34 — and contrasted it with Hurricane Katrina. Puerto Ricans were worried whether Trump had received the message of urgent need on the island.

How ‘Dirty John’ Got His Name

When Debra Newell fell head over heels for John Meehan, her grown children sensed something wasn’t right. Then, Newell started learning about her new husband’s history and discovered he had a nickname from his stint in law school: Sometimes it was “Filthy,” but mostly it was “Dirty John.” Part 3 of our weeklong series of stories and podcasts uncovers his past.

Tom Petty: The Final Interview

This wasn’t supposed to be the end for Tom Petty. Five days before his death, the singer-songwriter talked with Times reporter Randy Lewis about a lifetime in music. After having finished a demanding tour, Petty was looking forward to new projects. But “I just have to learn to rest a little bit, like everyone’s telling me,” he said. “It’s hard for me ... If I don’t have a project going. I don’t feel like I’m connected to anything.”

LACMA Gets the Gift of Geffen

For two decades, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has focused on expansion, with the planned capstone being a new building over Wilshire Boulevard. Raising money for it has been a slog at times. But billionaire David Geffen has breathed life into the project with a historic $150-million pledge that brings total fundraising to $450 million. He hopes it will inspire others to donate the last $200 million needed.

The Big Bang Theory and the Pop of Champagne

A breakthrough in understanding the universe had its origins in 1975, when two physicists wound up talking till 4 a.m. in a hotel. Four decades later, that conversation between Kip Thorne of Caltech and Rainer Weiss of MIT would lead to the discovery of gravitational waves, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein but once thought impossible to detect. Now, Thorne, Weiss and colleague Barry Barish of Caltech are celebrating the Nobel Prize in physics. In Pasadena, they popped the Champagne.

MUST-WATCH VIDEO

-- How a semiautomatic rifle can be altered to fire like an automatic weapon.

-- Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells the chief executive of Wells Fargo, “You should be fired,” and he responds.

-- Film critic Kenneth Turan reviews “Our Souls at Night,” starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.

CALIFORNIA

-- L.A. officials are restoring car lanes along two boulevards in Playa del Rey amid an outcry over the “road diet” that took them away.

-- A small Hebrew-immersion charter school found out that there were limits to how far it could push the LAUSD’s new school board majority that is widely regarded as pro-charter.

-- Police say a man shot at his ex-girlfriend, who runs a home daycare in Chula Vista, as children hid in the bathroom.

-- Wendy Carrillo and Luis López will advance to the runoff in the special election to represent Assembly District 51 in L.A.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- “If we can’t gather for a concert without fear for our lives, we are doomed,” writes theater critic Charles McNulty.

-- Jared Leto is set to play Hugh Hefner in a film directed by Brett Ratner, but much of the reaction online was less than enthusiastic.

-- Bob Seger has postponed his remaining tour dates because of a health issue.

CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Susan Sarandon has played Thelma in “Thelma & Louise,” Janet in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Annie in “Bull Durham,” among countless other roles. But the person she was destined to play? That was portraying Bette Davis in the Emmy-nominated limited series “Feud: Bette and Joan.” Sarandon turns 71 today.

NATION-WORLD

-- The State Department ordered 15 Cuban diplomats to leave the United States in the latest response to what U.S. officials call a series of unexplained attacks in Havana.

-- The House passed a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, but the measure is not expected to get through the Senate.

-- For the first time, the Supreme Court seems receptive to putting limits on partisan gerrymandering.

-- Spain’s King Felipe VI accused authorities in the northeast region of Catalonia of disloyalty to the state in what he called their unacceptable push for independence.

-- Three researchers, including one based in the U.S., have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developments in electron microscopy.

BUSINESS

-- There is no better example of the corrosive effect of money on American politics, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes, than the spending of the National Rifle Assn.

-- Yahoo says all 3 billion of its accounts were affected by a 2013 data breach. That’s three times as many as the company first reported.

SPORTS

-- Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen and the team couldn’t wait for October to arrive. Now that it’s here, what will happen?

-- The Washington State University Police Department is investigating a USC player who was captured on video knocking over a Washington State fan.

OPINION

-- The 2nd Amendment is 145 characters. How would you rewrite it?

-- While Trump targets immigrants and refugees, Americans keep killing Americans.

-- Morris Davis explains why he resigned as the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo 10 years ago.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- A look at how gun design has grown ever more deadly. From 2013, but just as relevant today. (KCRW)

-- The IRS will pay Equifax $7.25 million to verify taxpayer identities and help prevent fraud under a no-bid contract. (Politico)

-- Feeling guilty all the time? You’re not alone, and author Devorah Baum has some ideas why. (The Guardian)

ONLY IN L.A.

He teamed with game show host Bob Barker to pen a memoir. He helped singer Natalie Cole write an autobiography. He worked with Teddy Getty Gaston to tell all about her marriage to oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. Digby Diehl didn’t just cover the famous and influential as a journalist, he collaborated with them — all in his trademark bow tie. Digby, who was also the first editor of the L.A. Times Sunday Book Review, has died at age 76.

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