Newsletter: Today: The Bad Guy With a Gun Versus the Good Guy With a Gun
Investigators in Texas are sorting through clues in the Sutherland Springs church shooting, as new details fuel a debate on gun control.
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The Bad Guy With a Gun Versus the Good Guy With a Gun
The killer in Sutherland Springs had been court-martialed in 2012 for cracking his young stepson’s skull and assaulting his wife. That should have stopped him from owning guns, if not for a bureaucratic error by the Air Force. On Sunday, he wore a bulletproof vest as he killed 26 people ranging in age from 18 months to 77 years and wounded 20 others. His adversary, a former National Rifle Assn. instructor, was barefoot but also armed — and chased him out of town. As the victims were mourned and the first eyewitness accounts of what happened inside the First Baptist Church emerged, this latest mass shooting is giving both sides of the gun control issue plenty to debate.
A Split Decision for Protected Immigrants
As President Trump’s administration tries to clamp down on illegal immigration by stepping up deportations and, perhaps someday, building that much-discussed wall along the southern border, it’s also been focused on restricting legal immigration. The latest: It’s ending a special program that has protected more than 5,000 Nicaraguans against deportation for years, but it stopped short of removing similar protections for immigrants from Honduras or other troubled countries. That’s not as severe as some immigration advocates had feared, but it’s one more area of uncertainty for those seeking refuge from strife in their countries of origin.
Carter Page: What Russian Officials? Oh, Those Russian Officials
Oops, they did it again. Former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page is the latest to belatedly acknowledge direct contact with senior officials in President Vladimir Putin’s government during the campaign or after the election. Page had repeatedly denied to reporters that he met with Russian government officials in Moscow on a campaign-approved trip in July 2016. But according to a House Intelligence Committee transcript of his testimony, he acknowledged doing so and had even emailed other campaign officials about the “incredible insights and outreach” he got from Russia’s deputy prime minister and several legislators.
With Trump, Flattery May Get You … Somewhere
Trump has arrived in South Korea, the second stop on his five-nation tour of Asian countries after visiting Japan. So far, he’s received nothing but the red-carpet treatment, even though his poll numbers are near rock-bottom at home and abroad. What’s going on? Trump sees himself “going in with tremendous strength.” Foreign governments may have something else in mind.
More Politics
-- Today is election day in several places across the U.S. With Washington’s statehouse at stake, Democrats are looking to build a West Coast wall of Trump resistance.
-- A federal judge said Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and senior campaign aide Richard W. Gates III posed “significant flight risks” a week after they were indicted.
-- Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump made a stop in Newport Beach to pitch the Republicans’ tax overhaul plan.
The Bermuda Triangulation
Island tax havens. Secretive shell companies. Obscure financial dealings. The so-called Paradise Papers, a trove of leaked documents and corporate records primarily from a Bermuda-based law firm, are shedding light on the world’s 1%. The revelations have involved Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who’s been criticized for holding investments in Russian companies tied to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, as well as Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who invested in Facebook, Twitter and other Silicon Valley start-ups with the help of Kremlin-controlled entities. Even the tax strategies of Apple and other companies are coming under scrutiny as a result of the leaked documents, just as the GOP tries to overhaul the tax code.
MUST-WATCH VIDEO
-- Pickup driver Johnnie Langendorff talks about going after the Texas church attacker.
-- The late tejano singer Selena Quintanilla finally gets her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
-- After nearly 30 years patrolling together, these two LAPD officers end an epic partnership.
CALIFORNIA
-- Authorities say a wildfire that burned dozens of structures in Orange County last month was sparked by an ember from a fire that had erupted days earlier in roughly the same area.
-- Orange County is moving to evict a homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River that has become a source of much concern in the area.
-- Leaders of a group of charter schools and LAUSD officials were working up to the last minute to avert a public fight at Tuesday’s school board meeting over district rules that the charters find onerous.
-- It’s still in the early stages, but California homeowners could get a tax break to capture rainwater in their backyards.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS
-- Rose McGowan, an actress who has been among those leading the charge against sexual harassment and assault in the film industry, will release a memoir in January.
-- The Television Academy has voted to expel disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein for life.
-- The Anti-Defamation League is among those decrying Larry David’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue that included concentration camp jokes.
-- With the samurai drama “Blade of the Immortal,” Takashi Miike — a Japanese director known for his ultra-violent fare — delivers his 100th film.
CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD
This week in 1956, “The Nat King Cole Show” premiered on NBC. The musical-variety program drew strong ratings and reviews over its 64 weeks on the air, but the singer pulled the plug on it in 1957. The reason? Cole said it was because national advertisers would not back a black man.
NATION-WORLD
-- A death row inmate in Nevada says he wants to die, but there are concerns about the use of a paralytic drug during the lethal injection.
-- The bodies of the five Argentine victims of the New York terrorist attack have returned home.
-- A growing sexual harassment scandal in Britain has engulfed some of the country’s top politicians.
-- Saudi Arabia’s game of thrones: Who got caught in the widening corruption crackdown?
-- If you enjoy sleeping at night instead of the day, scientists say you can thank the dinosaurs for going extinct.
BUSINESS
-- Sources say Walt Disney Co. held talks to buy significant parts of 21st Century Fox, including its movie and television production studios and a handful of TV channels.
-- Meanwhile, Britain’s media watchdog says two Fox News programs — “Hannity” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight” — violated Great Britain’s broadcast standards by providing biased views.
-- Consumer columnist David Lazarus says the Trump administration is now aiming to reverse an Obama-era rule on restaurant tips.
SPORTS
-- Lonzo Ball and other Lakers rookies are about to get a taste of life on the road.
-- Ronald Jones II is a rare specimen: an underrated USC running back.
OPINION
-- Author Reza Aslan looks at the dangerous cult of Donald Trump.
-- L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez’s legal woes are affecting how the board does its job, especially when it comes to charter schools. He should step aside or, if necessary, resign.
WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING
-- Harvey Weinstein and the private investigators he used to track actresses and journalists. (The New Yorker)
-- Meet the 50-year-old marketing executive who flipped off the president and lost her job. (Washington Post)
-- Could virtual reality finally rid us of the daily commute to work? (CityLab)
ONLY IN L.A.
Young-il Ahn’s studio is a converted furniture factory near the 10 Freeway. His art of late is inspired by the Pacific Ocean. And for half a century, he has worked in relative obscurity in his adopted home of L.A. Now the 83-year-old native of Seoul is getting the spotlight with two exhibitions: a 35-year retrospective at the Long Beach Museum of Art and a showcase of his “Water Series” paintings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It’s LACMA’s first solo exhibition of works by a Korean American artist. His life has not all been smooth sailing.
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