Newsletter: Essential California Week in Review: Hollywood writers strike over fair pay

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It is Saturday, May 6.

Here’s a look at the top stories of the last week

Hollywood writers strike over streaming pay after talks fail. A festering dispute over how writers are compensated in the streaming era came to a head Monday night, as leaders of the Writers Guild of America called on their members to stage Hollywood’s first strike in 15 years.

• It won’t end soon: Six major sticking points in the negotiations
• What WGA members can actually work on during the strike
• ‘SNL’ and late-night are among the first shows to be affected — but not the last
• See the cleverest signs from the picket lines

L.A. adopts strategies for bringing 135,000 new homes to downtown and Hollywood. The Los Angeles City Council approved two major zoning plans for downtown and Hollywood that, if successful, would bring as many as 135,000 new homes to those areas over the next 20 years.

A tornado hit the Carson and Compton area with 75-mph winds, causing minor damage. The tornado left behind a concentrated short path that damaged a building, some vehicles and trees, according to the National Weather Service.

A day of school stabbings, crashes and suspected fentanyl overdoses sparks alarm at LAUSD. Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho pledged to work together to confront what feels to many parents like a school-safety crisis.

An ex-UC Davis student was arrested in serial stabbings that have terrorized the city. Police named a young man recently “separated” from UC Davis for academic reasons as the suspect in stabbings that left two men dead and one woman in critical condition in this bucolic college town just west of Sacramento.

The week in photos

An angler casts her line on an ice-free patch of open water at the outlet of Convict Lake.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

See the photos behind this week’s biggest stories: Opening day of trout season has begun in the Eastern Sierra; thousands of fans attended “country music’s biggest party;” and a young man is pursuing his dream to become Uganda’s first Major League Baseball player.

Two USC journalism students covering the NFL draft were arrested in jersey thefts. Video surveillance showed the two students entering areas connected to the NFL draft where they did not have access, according to police.

Amid the population exodus, California saw a housing construction boom during the pandemic. Experts say that although the ramped-up construction has helped, it is not enough — at least yet — to seriously reduce high rents and housing prices.

Instead of a hospital stay, he was given a cellphone with medical staff on speed dial. As part of L.A. General Medical Center’s newly expanded Safer at Home program, patients get “concierge-level” treatment, which has saved about three hospital days per patient compared with the typical stay of around five days.

A ‘full body orgasm’ at the L.A. Phil? Witnesses offer conflicting accounts. “I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she ... had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing, and her partner was smiling and looking at her — like in an effort to not shame her,” one witness said. “It was quite beautiful.”

$55,000 to leave a rent-controlled apartment? Why these tenants say no thanks. Like so many others, Elvira Rincon and her family had one shaky foothold keeping them in a rental market that was otherwise soaring out of reach, and they felt that people with more power than they were trying to shake them off of it.

Beware! These California superblooms are beautiful but treacherous. Experts say these plants can create stark and dramatic changes to the environment, altering soil chemistry and erasing native flora in some areas.

This woman used to be homeless. She’s now a millionaire after winning California Lottery. “I only bought one ticket,” she said in a statement. “I closed my eyes and picked that one, and I won! I first thought I’d won a free ticket, but I checked, and it said I won $5 million!”

Baby koala is out of the pouch; L.A. Zoo welcomes new joey. Visitors to the Los Angeles Zoo can feast their eyes on one of its newest, cutest babies.

ICYMI, here are this week’s great reads

The rent is high. The apartment is a dump. When can I move in? When writer Zoë Bernard first came to L.A., she promised herself two things: She would never live on the Westside, and she would never live in an apartment with vertical blinds. But the housing market humbled her.

Column: Whoever said Angelenos never worry about the weather was lying. “Where once we obsessed about box office, we are all now glued to our weather apps. Is it going to rain again? Is that good or bad? Is it too hot or too cold?” Mary McNamara writes.

‘Love Is Blind’ in real life? What happened when an L.A. speed-dating event required blindfolds. Twelve singles were given only two rules: Don’t take off your blindfold until you’re instructed to do so and don’t ask questions about age or appearance.

Today’s week-in-review newsletter was curated by Kevinisha Walker. Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.