Newsletter: Essential California: Capturing California’s storms

Good morning. It is Friday, March 11. There is circumstantial evidence that P-22, Griffith Park’s celebrity mountain lion, killed Killarney, a 14-year-old koala at the Los Angeles Zoo. The koala’s disappearance is under investigation. Here’s what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

Capturing the storm

As storms pounded Los Angeles County, a civil engineer in Alhambra was tasked with keeping as much water as possible from running out to the Pacific Ocean. Every year, 163 billion gallons of water escapes out to the ocean with just 65 billion gallons being captured for future use. “With the impacts of climate change already being felt, the snowpack being diminished, we need to be capturing more of our water locally,” said Deborah Bloome, senior director of policy for TreePeople. Los Angeles Times

Looking for support

In the battle between the FBI and Apple, the computer giant is looking for support from Latinos. Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services, told Univision that Latinos should be very concerned about any law that gives the government broad access to personal information. Los Angeles Times

Real legal fight

A bloody brawl between a defense attorney and an investigator from the Orange County district attorney’s office is the latest twist in a scandal involving the use of jail snitches by prosecutors. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Fill ‘em up: Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir, could fill up this month. “The system is rising and we hope to capture as much of this runoff as possible, but it’s hard to know whether it will fill up right now,” said Louis Moore, a deputy public affairs officer with the Bureau of Reclamation. SFGate

Bad math: The Westlands Water District is accused of misleading investors by shifting funds to make it appear the agency could cover debt payments without raising rates. “The undisclosed accounting transactions, which a manager referred to as ‘a little Enron accounting,’ benefited customers but left investors in the dark about Westlands Water District’s true financial condition,” said Andrew J. Ceresney, director of the SEC enforcement division. Los Angeles Times

L.A. AT LARGE

Tree fiasco: Developer Sam Shakib needed to cut down 56 trees before he could build two multimillion-dollar homes in Brentwood. His crews did so but also took down another three that were supposed to be preserved. Now, neighbors want the city of Los Angeles to prevent Shakib and his partner from developing the land. “If ever these laws need to be enforced to protect our trees … this is the case and now is the time,” said an attorney for the Sullivan Canyon Property Owners Assn. Los Angeles Times

Educational split: Malibu and Santa Monica are headed for divorce, metaphorically speaking. Parents in Malibu want their school district to break up with Santa Monica, arguing that their more upscale community has different needs than their neighbor to the south. Such a split would likely mean less money for students in Santa Monica. Los Angeles Times

Get a move on: This 11-year-old wants drivers to slow down and embrace bicycles. “Maybe people are too scared or think it’s going to be too hard, but CicLAvia has taught L.A. how much fun cycling can be,” he writes. Los Angeles Times

Faster to walk: If you think car traffic at LAX is bad now, just wait — it could get worse. That’s because crews are about to start the Landside Access Modernization Program, which is expected to improve traffic through the terminal area in the long term. “Any goodwill we’ve engendered with passengers will quickly go away if [the airport] doesn’t adequately address the traffic and parking problems that its large-scale construction projects are going to create,” said Controller Ron Galperin. Curbed LA

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Law takes effect: California’s new assisted suicide law will take effect on June 9. The law will allow patients with less than six months to live to request that a doctor prescribe life-ending medications. 89.3 KPCC

Center of power: Take a tour of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s office. It’s described as a “sports-themed man cave where he reveals which bobbleheads are Mayor’s Office worthy.” SFGate

Harassment case: The dean of the law school at UC Berkeley resigned Thursday, two days after he was sued for sexual harassment by his former executive assistant. Sujit Choudhry is accused of caressing the woman, kissing her cheeks and giving her bear hugs. Washington Post

CRIME AND COURTS

Inmate death: A San Bernardino County jail inmate died in custody just weeks after giving birth. The family of Angela Monica Zuniga said she was constantly in pain after the birth and an emergency hysterectomy. The Riverside County coroner has not determined a cause of death. “We think her death should have been preventable. This should not happen to any inmates,” said Zuniga’s sister. Los Angeles Times

Abuse allegations: Eighteen current and former students are suing the Torrance Unified School District, alleging that administrators did not act after they were told a wrestling coach was molesting boys. The plaintiffs were students between 1990 and 2015. The coach, Thomas Joseph Snider, was charged last year with 33 felony counts of inappropriately touching children and eight misdemeanor counts of child molestation. Los Angeles Times

In-flight entertainment: On a flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles, two allegedly drunk women started playing music from a boombox. When they were asked to turn down the music, one of the women held the boom box overhead. That’s when a brawl broke out. One officer called it a “mutual combat situation.” Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

True life: The daughter of prosecutor Christopher Darden is one of the viewers tuning into “The People vs. O.J. Simpson.” Jenee Darden was 15 years old during the trial of the century. “When my family wasn’t praying through death threats, we were dealing with the media,” she writes. Los Angeles Times

Coffee break: Stanton city officials want to shut down a bikini coffee shop where customers smoke and waitresses allegedly expose themselves. The coffeehouses, often found in Little Saigon, are particularly popular with Vietnamese American men. Orange County Register

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

San Diego will have showers in the late afternoon as temperatures reach 66 degrees. Riverside is expected to have a thunderstorm and a high of 68. Thunderstorms are expected to hit Los Angeles in the afternoon. Sacramento and San Francisco will have periods of rain and thunderstorms as temperatures reach 58 degrees.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California Memory comes from Kim Robinson:

“One of my earliest memories, period, was riding in a Cliff House Sky Tram car with my parents over a beach and the Sutro Baths in San Francisco. My parents celebrated my sister and my birthdays with ‘adventures’ and my sister picked the Sky Tram ride over the baths to celebrate her big day. Many decades later I still vividly remember looking out of the tram down onto the waves crashing onto the rocks and being scared to death.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Alice Walton or Shelby Grad.