Newsletter: Today: Biden’s Opening Bid

Joe Biden wastes no time in targeting President Trump after making his candidacy official.

TOP STORIES

Biden’s Opening Bid

When former Vice President Joe Biden entered the 2020 presidential race Thursday, he cut straight to the chase: “We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said in a video. His focus: President Trump, not the vast field of Democratic rivals. And, according to a campaign spokesperson, it is just the first of “three pillars” Biden will build his message upon. Trump’s response: a predictably insulting tweet addressed to “Sleepy Joe.” Will Biden’s third time running for president be the charm? Biden is known for his gaffes in his two previous attempts, but is also known for self-deprecating humor. “I am a gaffe machine,” he once said, “but, my God, what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth.”

More Politics

-- One of Trump’s first acts as president was to pull the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation free-trade deal that President Obama negotiated but left unfinished. Now the White House is scrambling to undo the damage of Trump’s swift withdrawal, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrives in Washington to meet with Trump today.

-- The Trump administration detailed its plan to open more than a million acres of public and private land in California to fracking, raising environmental concerns at a time when opposition to oil and gas drilling in the state is intensifying.

All Aboard the Consulting Train

When California shifted its bullet train plan into high gear in 2008, it had just 10 employees to manage and oversee design of the largest public construction project in state history. Consultants assured the state they could handle the heavy work themselves and save California money. Now, more than a decade later, that decision has proved to be a foundational error in the project’s execution. But Gov. Gavin Newsom recently told The Times that he would soon be taking aim at the consultants.

‘The CEO of Her Own Body’

Alejandra Campoverdi forged a path for herself that some only dream of. But something was looming that had the power to take all of that away. Breast cancer was attacking every woman in her life. While others in her family ignored a lump or let doctors take the lead, Campoverdi says she decided to become “the CEO of her own body” and planned a double mastectomy. This is her story.

They Gotta Be a Macho Man

Is China facing an existential crisis because of men wearing concealer or following the fashion trends of K-pop stars? In Beijing, former schoolteacher Tang Haiyan has founded the Real Man Training Club, which includes shirtless runs in freezing weather, to combat what he and others in China see as a masculinity crisis. Chinese military leaders seem to share the same fears.

Can You Fight City Hall?

For nearly two years, Hollywood resident Lisa Soremekun demanded reimbursement for a $73 parking ticket that was placed on her car — wrongly, she says — and the $239 towing fee that went with it. The actress and filmmaker gathered affidavits from her neighbors, assembled more than a dozen court exhibits and even hired a process server to track down the city worker who caused her 2012 Ford Fiesta to be ticketed. And that was just the beginning.

Sign up to get Today’s Headlines delivered to your inbox. »

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Speaking of City Hall.… On this date in 1928, a three-day public celebration began to dedicate the new 32-story, 454-foot-tall Los Angeles City Hall. It took $9 million and nearly two years to build, with sand for the concrete from each of California’s 58 counties and water from the 21 historical missions. See more photos here.

CALIFORNIA

-- Trying to stop a measles outbreak from spreading, health officials say more than 200 students and staff members at UCLA and Cal State L.A. who have been exposed to the disease are being asked to stay home.

-- Despite a push called Vision Zero to eliminate traffic fatalities, more people are dying on L.A.’s streets.

-- A national oversight panel has moved to revoke the accreditation of the USC medical school’s fellowship in cardiovascular disease, an embarrassing blow to the once-vaunted training program.

-- This super bloom is pretty dangerous: Invasive mustard will be fuel for the next wildfire.

YOUR WEEKEND

-- Restaurant reviews: At Sonoratown, you can worship at the altar of flour tortillas and mesquite-grilled beef, while Ronan makes stellar pizzas and a whole lot more.

-- With these easy pasta dishes, you can get dinner on the table fast.

-- A kid-friendly guide to South Pasadena, if you have four hours to burn.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

-- Court papers show that “Boyz N the Hood” director John Singleton is in a coma at a Los Angeles hospital eight days after suffering a major stroke.

-- Film critic Kenneth Turan calls “The White Crow” a classic look at volcanic dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

-- Maria Bartiromo’s stock has risen as a host on the Fox Business Network and Fox News, thanks largely to a strong work ethic.

NATION-WORLD

-- Sri Lanka has lowered the death toll from the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks to 253. The bombings claimed by Islamic State — still among the deadliest terrorist attacks in recent years — have shattered the country’s fragile recovery from civil war and threaten to harm its tourism industry.

-- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in a summit filled with gifts, pleasantries and champagne but few specifics on how to achieve what both men have said they want — denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

-- The real climate change controversy: Whether to engineer the planet in order to fix it.

BUSINESS

-- What is the future of airplane seating? It could be the Skyrider seat. “Imagine a bicycle seat with a lightly padded, upright piece of plastic to lean against,” writes consumer columnist David Lazarus.

-- Is Facebook’s FTC fine the tip of the iceberg?

SPORTS

-- At the NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals made Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray the first pick, yet hung on to former UCLA standout Josh Rosen, the passer they selected 10th overall a year earlier.

-- The Clippers have shown some restraint after a season-saving win over the Golden State Warriors. The teams will meet for Game 6 of their NBA playoff series tonight.

OPINION

-- For the 2020 Democratic candidates, beating Trump has to be Job One.

-- There’s a bigger Russian threat than meddling. Putin is acting as if he wants war, writes Leon Aron, a resident scholar and director of Russian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- The U.S. reportedly agreed to pay a $2-million “bill” from North Korea for the care of Otto Warmbier, who was returned to the U.S. in a coma and later died. (Washington Post)

-- “How Amazon automatically tracks and fires warehouse workers for ‘productivity.’ ” (The Verge)

-- Is the “Instagram aesthetic” over? Some “influencers” are going out of their way to make their photos look worse. (The Atlantic)

ONLY IN L.A. (AND LONDON)

How do you capture the Los Angeles of yore on film? As two coming movies show, you can either fake it or remake it. “Rocketman” follows the exploits of a young Elton John in the early ’70s — in Laurel Canyon and at Dodger Stadium and the Troubadour in West Hollywood. Yet “Rocketman” was shot entirely in the United Kingdom. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s film set in the summer of 1969, went with a stay-at-home approach: The production took over parts of the real Hollywood and Sunset boulevards with the permission of the building owners and businesses, and built the storefronts just as they looked 50 years ago.

If you like this newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at headlines@latimes.com.