Newsletter: Essential California: Pay off your traffic tickets $1 at a time

Good morning. It is Saturday, Nov. 14. Here's what you don't want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Ticket amnesty: A new program is helping Californian drivers get back licenses that were suspended because of unpaid traffic tickets. The amnesty program allows offenders to pay back their debts at a rate of as little as $1 a month. Debt collectors managing the program in L.A. County received 128,000 calls about the program in the first month. "After a 'somewhat chaotic' program launch due to last-minute changes in the law ... officials have done some fine-tuning and plan to begin conducting a public outreach effort in five languages very soon." Los Angeles Times

Not so urgent: Seven weeks ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he would declare a state of emergency on homelessness. It turns out that never happened, despite the national attention the statement drew. The situation remains tangled in legal issues, and now $28 million in federal homelessness funding is in jeopardy. A spokeswoman for the mayor noted that the declaration lay with the City Council and said that the delay was part of the normal legislative process. Los Angeles Times

Attacked in Hollywood: Actress Pauley Perrette was attacked by a homeless man Thursday evening outside her Hollywood home, police said. The "NCIS" star was grabbed and repeatedly punched by a man who told her that he would kill her. After he left, police said, Perrette was able to call a friend and make her own sketch of the assailant. A suspect, David Merck, 45, was arrested a short time later. Los Angeles Times

New lawsuits: The Berkeley balcony that collapsed in June, killing six people, had sustained so much dry rot that there were mushrooms growing inside the structure, according to 13 new lawsuits filed in the case. The lawsuits assert that the balcony was poorly constructed and that officials of the apartment complex knew about those dangers. The defendants named in the suits include builder Segue Construction and its subcontractors. ABC 7

Heavy pour: Once it's completed, the Salesforce Tower will be the tallest building in San Francisco. Right now it's a concrete slab — 14 feet thick and spread across nearly an acre. A time-lapse video captured the 18 hours it took to pour the concrete. Wired

Analyzing a legend: One writer tries to capture what is so magical about Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. "Vin Scully can communicate anything, the ideal combination of Walter Cronkite, Robert Frost and Garrison Keillor. He operates in the seed of a moment and opens it like the most beautiful rose." Dodger Insider/MLB.com

Annual auto show: Hundreds of thousands of car aficionados will head downtown starting next week for the Los Angeles Auto Show at the Convention Center. "Los Angeles debuts in recent years haven't typically been as crazy as the concepts we see in Tokyo, and they lack the glamour that automakers reserve for many of their Geneva and Paris unveilings." Bloomberg

THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. El Niño will probably arrive in January. Here are 10 things you needs to know to get ready. Curbed LA

2. With a new Whole Foods Market in downtown L.A. and another heading to Silver Lake, the store may tell you everything you need to know about wealthy Angelenos. LA Weekly

3. Take a trip down memory lane with this map of the Red Car lines that once crisscrossed Southern California. Curbed LA

4. When the rains came in October, they triggered a 1,000-year flood event in Death Valley. Recovery could take a long time. Los Angeles Times

5. How could a Northern California grocery store use 1,000 gallons of water an hour? SFGate

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEK'S GREAT READS

He knows beans: Like a single-malt Scotch, coffee sourced from a single farm can lead to a more flavorful beverage. That's why one L.A. Times reporter has been roasting his own beans at home. But how would that method translate as he helped friends take the technique to Japan? Los Angeles Times

Mapping disease: At USC, a team of researchers logs every cancer diagnosis in Los Angeles County. The county's registry is the largest in the nation. "A database may not seem like the most formidable opponent, but it's a powerful tool for understanding cancer: to know who's getting it, to calculate survival rates for a population and to track which treatments are and aren't working." Los Angeles Times

LOOKING AHEAD

Tuesday: The State Water Resources Control Board will meet in Sacramento.

Wednesday: The Los Angeles Times' California Conversation will convene in Clovis for a discussion on water issues in the Central Valley. The Times' Peter H. King and Patt Morrison will be joined by California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross and other leading water experts.

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.