As California’s legislative session closes out, new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas faces a test

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Sept. 12. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas faces the end of the legislative session
• Labor unions keep flexing their muscles
• What happened at L.A.’s exclusive vegan dinner party where everyone is totally nude
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

As California’s legislative session closes out, new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas faces a test

At the end of June, Robert Rivas was sworn in as speaker of the California Assembly, capping a roughly yearlong divisive effort to secure one of the Golden State’s most powerful political seats.

The Democrat represents the state’s largely rural District 29, marking a notable shift after a generation of speakers who represented the L.A. or San Francisco regions. His family’s background as Mexican immigrants who worked on farms in the Central Valley also sets him apart from much of the political establishment in Sacramento.

Speaking with Times Sacramento bureau chief Laurel Rosenhall, former secretary of Defense and California congressman Leon Panetta said it’s important for Rivas “to bring that perspective to Sacramento, which too often basically listens to the loudest voices, and not always the most important needs.”

“So far Rivas has managed to navigate California’s varied political universes largely by playing nice,” Laurel wrote, explaining that his first real test is about to begin as the state Legislature’s 2023 session ends Thursday.

Several controversial bills with major potential impacts on Californians will be decided in the coming days, including ones that seek to:

• provide unemployment benefits for workers on strike
• increase employee sick days
• allow major California cities to test out automated speed cameras
• create new protections for children on social media
• enhance penalties for sex traffickers
• better define the approach to addressing the fentanyl crisis
• make companies more accountable for emissions to address climate change

“Rivas used his small-town charm to build power,” Laurel wrote. “But will he be effective in steering a caucus dominated by big-city liberals?”

Another factor she highlights in her profile of the new speaker: the “unusual mix of ideologies” that form Rivas’ background. His grandfather was part of the farmworker rights movement. He’s been applauded for a progressive record. But he’s also collaborated with moderate Democrats in the state and reached across the aisle on occasion.

His wife was across that aisle, Laurel notes, registered as a Republican for more than a decade, though she switched to a minor party in 2022. Rivas’ brother and cousin also work for Govern for California, a network largely made up of Silicon Valley venture capitalists that opposes interest groups, including public employee unions, that they say “have dominated the halls of the Capitol in Sacramento.”

That fed a narrative by Rivas’ opponents that he had used his brother’s connections to buy political power. The Assembly speaker disputes that.

“I am my own person. I make my own decisions,” he told The Times. “The only people that influence me are, certainly, the people I represent [and] the members that I work with in the Legislature.”

You can read more about Rivas in Laurel Rosenhall’s story.

Today’s top stories

The Disney-Charter fight has ended just as NFL season picks up

• ESPN, ABC and other channels are back on Spectrum TV after Disney and Charter came to an agreement to end the blackout.
• Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football” is back. Will it be better?

Labor unions keep flexing their muscles

• The WGA picketed “The Drew Barrymore Show” after its host said that production would resume during the Hollywood strikes.
• Fast-food workers’ minimum wage will jump to $20 per hour in April after companies reached a complex peace accord with labor unions to resolve the fight over AB 257.

California voters are making life difficult for conservatives

• The five most vulnerable incumbent Republican congress members from California don’t seem to want to discuss impeachment.
• Californians disapprove of the Supreme Court’s work by a 2-1 ratio, a new poll showed.

More big stories

• $750,000 in overtime? Senior LAUSD administrators were among at least 10 who were demoted, were reassigned or left the district after an investigation into improperly approved extra pay.
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s family squabble over the significant wealth left by her late husband, Richard Blum, was on full display in a San Francisco courtroom.
• Playwright and “Moonlight” screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney will lead Geffen Playhouse.
• A climate scientist wanted to start a debate in academia. He set off a bigger firestorm.
• L.A.’s soccer team got a new interim coach. Then came the revival.
• Teens know how social media affects mental health. So they created resources to help.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• Jean Guerrero: I was a teenage tanning addict. Now I worry about people being fooled by anti-sunscreen TikTokers
• Op-ed: It’s time for California schools to quit burning fossil fuels
• Jonah Goldberg: Mike Pence is railing against populism among Republicans. But he’s late to the game
• Mark Z. Barabak: Newsom takes heat for pledging a caretaker in the U.S. Senate. But it’s the right thing to do
• Brian Merchant: Let’s put a stake in the “great man” biography — starting with Isaacson’s “Elon Musk”

Today’s great reads

(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)

Want to go to this exclusive L.A. dinner party? First, get totally naked. “Should I cross my legs? Was I getting my butt dirty?” Times writer Jenn Harris said to herself while at L.A.’s exclusive vegan dinner party where everyone is totally nude.

Other great reads

• “We’re not a cult!” A mysterious L.A. society reinvents itself for modern “truth seekers.”

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your downtime

(Lila Seidman / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🥾 It’s a glorious time to hike the High Sierra, now a paradise of wildflowers and snow.
• 🧀 Craving grilled cheese? This Santa Monica restaurant makes the best in the universe.
• 🏃 Up for a challenge? Try one of L.A.’s 16 hardest staircases.

Staying in

• 📕 The biggest ideas and pettiest rages in Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk biography.
• Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football” is back. Will it be better?
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for Bricia Lopez’s black bean and Oaxacan cheese memelas
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

(Latonya Harris)

Today’s great photo is from Latonya Harris of Antelope, Calif.: The mountains and rugged ocean shore of the Big Sur area. Latonya writes:

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Laura Blasey, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.