Newsletter: Today’s headlines: Officers shot in Ferguson; Japan’s impossible job?

Hello. I'm Davan Maharaj, the editor of the Los Angeles Times. Here are some story lines you shouldn't miss today.

TOP STORIES

Officers shot in Ferguson

Two St. Louis County police officers were shot outside the Ferguson Police Department during protests late last night. One officer was shot in the face, another in the shoulder. The officers were hospitalized and in serious condition, police said. The shooting came hours after embattled Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned. Jackson is the latest of several officials who have resigned since the release of a scathing Justice Department report accusing city officials of racial bias.

Japan's impossible job?

The black bags tell the story: 5.5 million of them so far, each the size of a hot tub and stuffed with radiation-tainted debris. They line roads and wait stacked in fields to be taken ... somewhere. Four years and $13.5 billion after the Fukushima reactor disaster in Japan, our Asia correspondent, Julie Makinen, looks at the biggest nuclear cleanup ever tried. Some are starting to wonder: Is it worth it?

The secretary of trust

Most Republican politicians will never trust Hillary Clinton. Problem is, her penchant for personal privacy gives the trust issue traction. No surprise, then, that the GOP is reveling in revelations about her use of private email while she was secretary of State. A potent weapon against her campaign for president? A look at how a "trust me" defense might play out.

Inmate F

A jailhouse snitch's testimony was supposed to put a killer on death row. Instead, it might mean life for Scott Dekraai, who murdered his ex-wife and seven others at a Seal Beach beauty salon. Turns out Inmate F, as the snitch is known, is a former Mexican Mafia leader with a dubious history as an informer. Did Orange County jailers and prosecutors go to that well once too often?

Test in Tikrit

Iraqi troops the U.S. has spent billions to train finally seem to be showing some fight. They're said to be wresting the key city of Tikrit back from Islamic State forces. Even if they succeed, the real test is still ahead. Can Iraq's Shiite leaders win the loyalty of a Sunni city that was home to Saddam Hussein? It's a mere warm-up for the big prize: the much larger city of Mosul.  

CALIFORNIA

-- Battery recycler Exide Technologies will permanently close its Vernon plant and avoid criminal charges under an agreement between the company and the U.S. attorney’s office reached Wednesday night, a source involved in the negotiations said.

-- Federal authorities arrest the operators of four L.A.-area trade schools on suspicion of running lucrative immigration scams.

-- L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti hopes to hire the head of Denver's public transport system as Metro's new CEO.

-- Cal State San Bernardino students are on edge after a string of violent attacks and the disappearance of a woman who lives near the campus.

Passings: Richard Glatzer, 63, filmmaker whose works with his partner included "Still Alice."

NATION-WORLD

-- Utah is on the verge of bringing back the firing squad, if the governor signs the bill.

-- He smokes all the pot as he wants, joint after joint, even while driving his car. And he has no fear of arrest. His supplier is the Drug Enforcement Administration. Today's great read.

-- Ebola's lingering pain: Liberians rue the use of cremation, almost unthinkable to many.

BUSINESS

-- The FTC accuses DirecTV of deceptive advertising and seeks "many millions" in refunds.

-- With AEG's downtown NFL stadium plans off the table, focus shifts to a bigger, more profitable convention center.

-- Box office: Global ticket sales soared in 2014, fueled by China.

-- Wall Street firms handed out $28.5 billion in bonuses in 2014, up 3% from the previous year.

SPORTS

-- As UCLA heads into the Pac-12 Conference tournament, forward Kevon Looney is pondering a big question: stay, or NBA?

-- An advisory group picks Mission Valley for a proposed San Diego NFL stadium.

ENTERTAINMENT

-- "Tales of Hoffmann" turns out to be even more enchanting after restoration.

--  In something of a surprise, the San Diego Opera hires a figure in New York avant-garde music, David Bennett, to be its general director.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- "My Saga, Part II": Karl Ove Knausgaard's passage through America.

-- Is it time to end the Holocene epoch and start a new one?

-- "Faces of Iceland": stunning video of Icelandic landscapes taken from a drone.

-- Scientists and a music professor compose music they think cats should love.

ONLY IN L.A.

Don King might have called it the "Jive at the Live."  Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed up at L.A. Live's Nokia Theatre to promote what some already call the "fight of the century." Sports columnist Bill Dwyre says the place was dripping with hype that might not even be necessary. As Mayweather said: "This is one fight that sells itself."

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.