Newsletter: D.A.’s office will give campaign donations a closer look

Good morning. It is Tuesday, Nov. 1. In the San Gabriel Valley, this giant dumpling comes with a straw. Here’s what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

A closer look

The office of L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey will review campaign contributions made by donors with ties to a developer who secured approval for a $72-million apartment complex. A Times investigation found the responses from some donors “raise the prospect that an array of donors may not have been the true source of the contributions.” That would be a violation of campaign finance laws. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Steve Lopez asks if this scandal is just the top of a much bigger iceberg at City Hall. “You can take them at their word if you’re so inclined. But if donations are flying in from people you don’t know, many of whom don’t live in your district, shouldn’t you be a little suspicious?” Los Angeles Times

L.A.’s future on the line

With voters about to decide the future of transportation policy in Los Angeles County, it’s become clear that there will have to be more than one answer. Yes, Measure M would fund massive new rail projects. But experts say Uber, Lyft, bikes and large amounts of new dense developments along transit corridors are also key. So is the car. Los Angeles Times

Where are they now?

The California National Guard cannot find 4,000 soldiers who it said received improper enlistment bonuses or other incentives during the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “The supposedly missing soldiers … are likely to have retired, changed addresses, moved to Guard units in other states or transferred to the active-duty Army, officials said.” Los Angeles Times

L.A. AT LARGE

In need of help: A visit with the sickest and neediest homeless men and women in Hollywood. “It’s a crime for any decent society to have children and the elderly and mentally ill folks living on the street. It’s just a sin,” said Rev. Kathy Cooper Ledesma. Los Angeles Times

Earth movements: Did oil drilling cause the 1933 Long Beach earthquake? “It was kind of more of a Wild West industry back a hundred years ago, and the technology wasn’t as sophisticated,” said Susan Hough, a government scientist who co-wrote a new study on the topic. Los Angeles Times

Beach gang: Efforts to take down a surfer gang on the Palos Verdes Peninsula accused of forcing non-locals out has created some interesting politics around coastal access in the upscale area. Daily Breeze

Parking rates: How hot is Hollywood real estate? The parking garage at the ArcLight theater — not the movie complex itself — reportedly just sold for $50 million. Many now wonder what is coming on the site. Curbed LA

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Well matched: Tobacco companies are spending a record $71 million to defeat Proposition 56, a ballot measure that would add a $2 tax to each packet of cigarettes. But unlike in previous election cycles, supporters of the measure have also raised a substantial amount of money to fight fire with fire. “It’s more of a campaign among equals than in the past,” said Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California. Los Angeles Times

Not always a sure bet: This graphic shows how California has swung back and forth from blue to red to blue again. Let’s begin with the era of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Los Angeles Times

Political moves: There’s a lot of speculation that, should state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris win her bid for the U.S. Senate, Gov. Jerry Brown could nominate his wife to the office. What are Anne Gust Brown’s chances? “My wife is fully employed,” Brown says. Sacramento Bee

CRIME AND COURTS

L.A. connection: To an FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation. There’s this tantalizing nugget from a Wall Street Journal account: “Los Angeles agents had picked up information about the Clinton Foundation from an unrelated public-corruption case and had issued some subpoenas for bank records related to the foundation.” Wall Street Journal

Fair shake: With his criminal trial approaching, former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca on Monday lost bids to have the case moved out of Los Angeles and the lead prosecutor disqualified. Los Angeles Times

Domestic dispute: Authorities say a man was fatally shot by a deputy outside the Chatsworth courthouse. He allegedly had a violent confrontation with his wife. Daily News

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Greenhouse effect: A new report blames the West Coast’s record-low snowpack on high temperatures. “Because of the increasing influence of greenhouse gases, years like this may become commonplace over the next few decades,” said Philip Mote, lead author of the study. Associated Press

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Zen mode: Can the Buddha help Silicon Valley figure out how to feed the world? Wired

Bookworm: How one of L.A.’s last independent bookstores, Skylight Books, is trying to survive. “There’s a kind of magic recipe that creates a successful bookstore.” LAist

New home: A 30-year-old tech billionaire just bought a $21.8-million house in San Francisco. It’s the city’s most expensive home sale so far this year. SFist

Need a ride? Are Uber, Lyft and the ridesharing revolution leaving behind black people? The Atlantic

Party on: Scenes from West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnaval. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

San Francisco will have some clouds and a high of 66 degrees. Sacramento will be partly sunny and 66. In Los Angeles, there will be low clouds and a high of 71 degrees. It will be 68 and partly sunny in Riverside. San Diego will be 70 with low clouds.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California Memory comes from Bob Yourell:

“Growing up in Highland Park, I lived just below an big, ominous-looking old Victorian house on top of a hill, surrounded by trees. One day, all the kids in the area came to watch filmmakers use it as a location. When the crew was leaving, Lon Chaney Jr. told us a story that started with a dark, moonlit night and ended with him yelling something scary that made us all jump back and have a good laugh. I later learned that the movie was ‘Spider Baby,’ a black-and-white horror-comedy flick that had gotten tied up in a legal dispute, only to be released after color movies had emerged, making it an obscure cult film at best. The house did much better — it is now a beauty and my old neighborhood became gentrified.”

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.